Police Camera Action!

*Police Camera Action!*
Police Camera Action!
	File:Pca-logo9798.jpg Logo from 1997/1998 series
Presented by	Alastair Stewart (1994 - );; Adrian Simpson (2007 - )
No. of series	5
Production
Producers	Optomen Television,; ITV Productions
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	1994 –; 2007

Police Camera Action! is a police video programme presented by Alastair Stewart and Adrian Simpson made by Optomen Television for Carlton Television which is broadcast on ITV. Each episode has 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 2003 the presenter Alastair Stewart's contract to present Police Camera Action! was ended due to a drink-driving conviction in Winchester, Hampshire. This delayed transmission of some unaired episodes until January 17, 2006 [1]. However, Alastair returned to introduce the series from a studio on Monday September 24, 2007, joined by Adrian Simpson, who reported from location and provided voice-overs to the clips. A week before the new series began, there was a special 'Best of Police Camera Action!' edition, presented by Stewart himself. The show looked back at the best bits of the show's 13 year history.

Currently rescreenings of Police Camera Action! are made on ITV4. The rescreenings are of:

Season 1 (1994-1996)
Season 2 (1997-1998)
Season 3 (1999-2000)
Season 4 (2001-2002)

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 the 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.

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 as can be seen regularly as both series are currently being shown.^{[citation needed]}

Episode guide

List of episodes courtesy of production company Optomen Television.

Programmes are 30 minutes long (including advertisements) except where stated.

Series 1

POLICE STOP

DANGER DRIVERS AHEAD

POLICE, CAMERA, ACTION!

POLICE, CAMERA, ACTION! 95

SAFETY LAST

HELICOPS

INTERNATIONAL

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED

THE LIVER RUN

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

INTERNATIONAL PATROL

UNFIT TO DRIVE

EUROCOPS

ROAD TO NOWHERE

THE MAN WHO SHOT OJ PROGRAMME 1

THE MAN WHO SHOT OJ PROGRAMME 2

Series 2

ON YOUR BIKE

OUT OF CONTROL

ENOUGH’S ENOUGH

THE WILD SIDE

A LORRY LOAD OF TROUBLE

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER

WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR MOTOR?

COAT HANGER MAN

RUST BUCKETS

CAPTURED

THE UNPROTECTED

SPEED

ON THE BUSES

LEARNING THE HARD WAY

Series 3

WHAT DRIVES YOU MAD

IN THE DRIVING SEAT

BACK TO BASICS

STAYING SAFE

NOWHERE TO HIDE

MONSTER DRIVERS

BRAT PACK

ON THE EDGE

CRASH TEST RACERS

HIGHWAY OF TOMORROW

ROUND THE BEND

DANGER AHEAD

ROGUES ROADSHOW

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

FAIR COP

SMASH & GRAB

THE FORDS / FORD

GETTING THEIR MAN

RACE

Series 4

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

MOTORWAY MANNERS

DIVERSION AHEAD!

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

CITY LIMITS

NICKED!

Series 5

SPEED DATING

International syndication

Optomen Television had set of masters of the programme made up(48x26 m) The episodes are different from the UK series in order to remove references to UK law and terminology.

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".