Police Camera Action

September 7, 1994-August 10, 2010

September 7, 1994-August 10, 2010

Police Camera Action (also titled with an exclamation mark from the second and third pilots to Series 3, with the first pilot titled Police Stop!, not to be confused with the video series) is a non-fiction police video program produced by Carlton Television (between 1994-2002) and Optomem Television (between 2007-2010), broadcast on ITV1 (re-ran on ITV4), and featured scenes taken from police video camera cars as its primary means of footage, helicopter footage and fixed roadside cameras, to name a few examples. It was also attempted to be brought to the United States on TLC with combined episodes (one of which is "Motoring Mayhem", which features "In the Driving Seat" and "What Drives You Mad?"), but only two combined episodes ever aired (the other is presumably lost on the Internet). The first several series between 1994-2002 were presented by Alastair Stewart (who was convicted for his second drink driving offence after Series 10's production, leaving it unaired until 2006), with ex-Original Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Adrian Simpson joining for Series 11 in 2007. Stewart departed from the program after Series 12 (except for the special programme "Car-Tech Maniacs" in Series 13), and Adrian Simpson remained as the sole presenter for Series 13. The final series, Series 14, adopted a documentary feel of the previous series, and was presented by Welsh presenter Gethin Jones. Most, if not all segments of the show used stock sound effects (see below).

Episode Format

PCA's format differs from episode to episode, and contains police video footage in context of the episode. For example, the show's famous special episode "The Liver Run", depicts a (shortened for runtime) liver transplant delivery from Junction 7 of the M11 to the Cromwell Hospital in south Kensington within 34 minutes, an actual event that took place on May 8th 1987.

Sound Effects Used

This non-fiction program uses actual onboard audio, but since the third pilot episode, "Safety Last", stock sound effects are also used for dramatization or overdubbed in post, mainly using sound effects from The Premiere Edition Volume 1, while effects from other libraries such as the Series 2000 Sound Effects Library are used also.

Image Gallery

Audio Samples