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| Police Camera Action! | |
|---|---|
| File:Pca1.jpg | |
| Starring | Alastair Stewart (Presenter and Narrator) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Optomen Television and ITV Productions |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV1 |
| Release | 1994 – 2002 |
Police Camera Action! is a police video programme presented by Alastair Stewart and made by Optomen Television between 1994 and 2002 for Carlton Television which is broadcast on ITV1. Each episode had a subtitle relating to the type of police video footage such as "Safety Last" or "Driven to Distraction". It typically features police footage and occasional media footage relating to bad driving and road crime.
However, this has not always been so, with special episodes The Liver Run (featuring the Metropolitan Police) and The Man Who Shot OJ, focusing on the work of helicopter cameraman and pilot Bob Tur in Los Angeles. This episode also looked at the controversies behind the O.J. Simpson trial. In later seasons of the show, footage from Bob Tur and the Los Angeles News Service would feature more prominently in certain episodes.
In 2002 the presenter Alastair Stewart's contract to present Police Camera Action! was ended due to a drink driving conviction in Winchester, Hampshire and this delayed transmission of some unaired episodes until January 17, 2006.
Currently rescreenings of Police Camera Action! are made on ITV4, 9.00pm-10.00pm Wednesday and Thursday (UK time).
The rescreenings are of:
- Season 1 (1994-1995)
- Season 2 (1996-1998)
- Season 3 (1998-2000)
- Season 4 (2000-2001)
Season 5, from 2002, has only aired on ITV1.
- The first episode broadcast in 1994 was known as Police Stop!, which was also the name of a similar police programme available initially on VHS video and later on Sky One. In recent rescreenings of this episode on Men & Motors it is renamed Police Camera Action! with the subtitle of "Danger! Drivers Ahead" in line with the other episodes of this series.
- A spin off book of the series was released in 1996 by Ebury Press which was written by Peter Gillbe with a foreword by Alastair Stewart and which featured police footage of bad driving. Currently the book is out of print.
- Many of the video clips shown on Police Camera Action! never had an accompanying sound-track, and were dubbed with standard recordings of traffic noise more reminiscent of American cities than British motorways. When the same clip was used in the Police Stop! videos, background music was played in conjunction with a commentary.
International syndication
Optomen Television had set of masters of the programme made up(48x26m) The episodes are different from the UK series.
- New Zealand - TV 2
- Sweden - TV4 AB (1998-2003)
- United States of America - TLC
- Ireland - TG4
The Irish version was shown on an Irish language television station, so it was dubbed in to Irish, had replaced presenter inserts, some (very small) amount of footage from Irish police chases spliced in, and was renamed to "Garda, Camera, Gafa".
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