The number has changed because 0500 numbers are being phased out. 0500 isn't free to call from a mobile whereas 080x numbers are, and the 08085 range has been reserved for 0500 numbers to be transitioned. 0500 numbers will stop working in June 2017 so it makes sense to change it with the start of a new series. At some point Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live will need to change their on air numbers.
Much time wasting with this new show, get to the point, it's now total entertainment. A real shame, I guess this is what modern generations want, perhaps I should turn off the TV for good, the days when it provided actual basic factual content are nearly gone.
The thing is whenever shows do this the instant feedback overwhelmingly shows it is not the direction people want the show to take. Really don't think Vigilante Vine is giving the revamp any credibility either - he, or at least the press reports of his crimefighting cyclist ways, made the show more about him in the lead up to him hosting his first show than any of the other longstanding presenters ever did.
The number has changed because 0500 numbers are being phased out. 0500 isn't free to call from a mobile whereas 080x numbers are, and the 08085 range has been reserved for 0500 numbers to be transitioned. 0500 numbers will stop working in June 2017 so it makes sense to change it with the start of a new series. At some point Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live will need to change their on air numbers.
0500 numbers go back to the days of Mercury and haven't been issued since the 90s, so it was bound to happen eventually.
It sits very uncomfortably for me that detectives working on unrelated cases must now converge on the scene of an unrelated crime in order to appear on the programme.
Sure, it worked OK this time, but what if the scene of the "headline crime" isn't in a particularly easy part of the UK to travel to? It creates a lot of extra hassle for the detectives on the other cases.
It throws up other questions too. Do all crime scenes conveniently have a large open space available, closed to the general public, to stage the the kind of show put on at RAF Marham? What about when the murder/abduction happened in a terraced street of a large, heavily populated housing estate?
And what about those lead stories (of which there are many) when the actual location of the murder or disappearance is completely unknown?
Perhaps of greatest concern is whether the above issues will influence the selection criteria for that week's lead story, instead of a criteria that was previously based on police liaison and editorial judgement (presumably).
There's also the issue of overall taste. Crimewatch has, over the years, featured some truly shocking cases which have simultaneously been headline news and had the nation gripped. I'm thinking here of some terrible disappearance and murder cases involving children. It doesn't feel "right", if that type of thing should ever happen again, to bring a mobile studio to the location (and the large number of people that go with it) in order to produce a show featuring many crimes that are trivial by comparison.
Talking about cheque fraud at a bank 300 miles away while standing in a park where a 5 year old got dragged into a van? It feels inappropriate. It reminds me of the time Sky's Jeremy Thompson was reading out football news while anchoring the news live from the scene of the Ipswich serial murders.
The number has changed because 0500 numbers are being phased out. 0500 isn't free to call from a mobile whereas 080x numbers are, and the 08085 range has been reserved for 0500 numbers to be transitioned. 0500 numbers will stop working in June 2017 so it makes sense to change it with the start of a new series. At some point Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live will need to change their on air numbers.
Are 0500 numbers being phased out predominantly to free up the range as presumably Ofcom could just mandate them to be free from mobiles?
The number has changed because 0500 numbers are being phased out. 0500 isn't free to call from a mobile whereas 080x numbers are, and the 08085 range has been reserved for 0500 numbers to be transitioned. 0500 numbers will stop working in June 2017 so it makes sense to change it with the start of a new series. At some point Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live will need to change their on air numbers.
Are 0500 numbers being phased out predominantly to free up the range as presumably Ofcom could just mandate them to be free from mobiles?
I doubt the 0500 range will be used for another purpose for a very long time. It's about clarity and grouping calls with the same costs with the same prefixes.