Party Vibe

until mid 1990s it was the Sweeney, the Professionals etc (OK these are way old but were widely repeated in the 1980s and 1990s on cable/satellite channels in mainland UK; although even their former producing networks stayed clear of repeating some episodes as there was this ongoing argument that these “macho” programmes actually encouraged young lads both criminals and cops alike to be more violent, sexist and drive like twats.

Was never that much into American ones other than Miami Vice during its time but they always came across as “foreign”; more so even than European police who were “like ours but carried guns always”.

maybe its a generation thing as UK and European cops never wore “American” uniform back then.

By the late 1990s the ITV channels especially Carlton and Granada (based around London, Midlands and NW England put on loads of “true crime/reality TV documentaries about the Police”; which my generation watched avidly as radio scanners also still worked then and by comparing the “real” stuff with things “from telly” they actually gave away a shit ton of all their operational tactics on them.

They all had different names but one was actually called “Crimes, Fires and Accidents”. And of course Crimewatch; often it was indeed to see if “anyone I knew was on it”. Happened about 2-3 times in the space of 10 years (wasn’t for anything really bad like murder or violence; mostly planned thieving against high value targets. Still crime of course; but not as bad as these folk could have got interested in.

I wonder if its a gender thing to some extent; I’ve know loads of young women who watch these American TV-shows but are unnerved and creeped out by even TV news reporting of crimes which is heavily managed/censored in the UK compared to other countries (I’ve seen footage of riots and strong Police responses from the national TV of DK and NL which has genuinely shook me up a bit)

in previous decades it seemed more like you watched the Sweeney/Professionals because your Dad liked them but there was other ones aimed at your mum or other female viewers with less violence and more intellectual plots; by the 1980s there were well written dramas about the struggles of female officers in the UK Police (such as The Gentle Touch and Juilet Bravo) – these often covered similar subject matter to the modern American series but from a British perspective.

I had nearly forgotten “The Bill” although that varied wildly in quality; towards its end coming across in some episodes like Metpol had part funded it as a PR exercise but others putting across a nihilistic view of not just cops but the whole of London society – at least the 1970s/80s ones usually had the plotlines that no one (cops nor criminals) were to be trusted…

@cozmic 974127 wrote:

Road Wars

used to listen to the “Tango Victor” units (Thames Valley covert traffic) on the scanner loads in the late 90s/early 2000s, one of them also turned up at a rave me and my mates did (as they sent his traffic vehicle to try and film the location with the internal camera). He actually said that he didn’t want to use the traffic car for this as we weren’t causing much trouble and there was worse things happening on the roads and until he got called away to an RTC elsewhere actually had a friendly discussion with folk about road safety :laugh_at: