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.
I absolutely agree with this. The problem is that TV production companies, and the BBC is no exception, have an obsession with glitzing up factual programmes in questionable ways to turn them into light entertainment under the naïve assumption that it will attract more viewers. Some programmes are best left alone in their original clean and unfussed format because the beauty of them is their utility.
I don’t remember YTV/Tyne Tees adding any branding to their version of the Crimestoppers title I think YTV then moved to their own version sponsored by a windows company not sure if Tyne Tees also did.
I don’t remember YTV/Tyne Tees adding any branding to their version of the Crimestoppers title I think YTV then moved to their own version sponsored by a windows company not sure if Tyne Tees also did.
Tyne Tees did, using the same sponsorship, but only relatively briefly and IIRC they kept the original music, unlike YTV who changed to an insipid local 'tune'.
Often the Crimestoppers spot cropped up on Tyne Tees in random junctions and normally wasn’t billed in the TV Times (at least not that I remember). Seen a few examples from other regions which all seemed to use the same musical sting and graphics.
For a while in the early 1990s TTT had a half-hour version of Crimestoppers which generally went out one Monday a month instead of the usual second half of the hour-long Northern Life. It was presented by Stuart McNeil, initially from the news studio but later from a slightly unpleasant orange set.
The slots were only semi-random; they often were tacked onto the end of local news bulletins, and each Friday I think it was they'd play both Pontop and Bilsdale versions consecutively (Crimestoppers being a sub-regional thing through most of the '90s) at the end of Northern Life.
It just seems the BBC got bored of Crimewatch. The show is just not worth them continuing with. In Ireland the RTE Crimecall is also not given much worth. Maybe it is the world we live in now, that these programmes are becoming obsolete.
I hadn't realised all the region's went their own way with Crimestoppers, I'd assumed all had changed from the original music to the same later music, but evidently not.
This was the Yorkshire version once the original dramatic music had been dropped, aired in this clip before The Bill
The problem with Crimewatch is that it was "sexed" up. The same thing happened with the Bill and London's burning, obviously completely different categories of show but they suffered the same fate. The original Crimewatch (have seen copies but was not around at the time) was from what I can see, a humble "these are the bad guys, help us catch them". Then they started to play with it, adding music onto the reconstructions was the final straw for me. And lets not even talk about the live reports from the scene of a crime. So it became "lets watch Crimewatch for entertainment". That was wrong of the BBC to do, and I suspect deliberate. To what end, I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if there was no purpose to these changes, other than some stuck up executive who wanted to make a name for themselves. Was the show ever losing viewers at the moment of these changes?
The problem with Crimewatch is that it was "sexed" up. The same thing happened with the Bill and London's burning, obviously completely different categories of show but they suffered the same fate.
The BBC did the same with Tomorrows World in its futile quest to popularise the programme and attract more viewers but it probably ended up turning more seasoned viewers away. I still think that the BBC should have converted Tomorrows World into a programme for older children and younger teenagers rather than axed it. Should they do the same with Crimewatch?