A spokesperson for BBC said: “We believe the successful Crimewatch Roadshow format in daytime is the best fit for the brand going forward and we will increase the number of episodes to make two series a year.
"We are incredibly proud of Crimewatch and the great work it has done over the years and the work Crimewatch Roadshow will continue to do, and this move will also allow us to create room for new innovative programmes in peak time on BBC One.”
A source told The Sun: “Everyone is really shocked.”
It will certainly be a tough job to defend its axing as Crimewatch is one of the most public service pieces of programming the BBC does. Crimewatch Roadshow only goes out in the daytime and so crimes unsuitable for that slot will go unreported on that programme.
Surely Police forces right around the UK are going to want to continue to have a primetime slot to make appeals, especially its more violent appeals, rather than be shunted to a rather small audience in daytime.
A shocking decision by the BBC but perhaps considering how poorly they treated the show in the last series, it's not an overly unexpected one.
For all the cases the show has solved, it's really quite a shame that in its over 30 year history, the most important appeal its put out regarding the murder of its own presenter still remains unsolved today.
As Nick Ross used to say.... "Don't have nightmares, do sleep well.".
It will certainly be a tough job to defend its axing as Crimewatch is one of the most public service pieces of programming the BBC does. Crimewatch Roadshow only goes out in the daytime and so crimes unsuitable for that slot will go unreported on that programme.
This was my first thought. Sad to see it go, but maybe they'll have a post-watershed version in the small hours
Police use social media heavily these days anyway, so I doubt it is a great loss to them if ratings are declining, as there was only 24 hours to catch up on iPlayer anyway.
Makes you wonder how long Watchdog has left though...
I never would have thought that the BBC would actually axe Crimewatch, a programme that has largely helped police forces around the country and successfully demonstrated its public value for the BBC.
While sad and unexpected, as other posters have mentioned, police have begun to heavily rely on social media, and the new format was not well received.
The biggest problem though, is that by only keeping Roadshow, it turns a blind eye to more serious crimes, including murder, armed robbery and assault.
And apparently, it seems that BBC executives want to spend the extra money freed from Crimewatch on dramas.
It's a sad day. As others have pointed out, Crimewatch epitomised the public service role of the BBC.
I can't help but feel that the rot began to set in when they started to produce the crime reconstruction films as mini dramas / films in themselves, treating them almost as entertainment, complete with cliffhangers and dramatic scores.
Then came the awful weekly relaunch earlier in the year. It almost felt like something out of W1A: "Who can we get to host Crimewatch? I know - Jeremy Vine. He's been a victim of crime."
I personally think that all it would take is a little re-imagination to keep Crimewatch in prime-time, but imagination seems to be sorely lacking at the BBC these days.
Last edited by Custard56 on 17 October 2017 7:51am - 2 times in total
