The BBC show has been brutally dispatched and forensic television criticism suggests that several issues combined to end the life of the veteran franchise

Hello, and welcome to this Crimewatch special, in which we investigate the brutal axing, on the morning of Tuesday 17 October 2017, of the BBC series itself. Crimewatch was 33 years old, and leaves a survivor, Crimewatch Roadshow, which will live on in BBC1 daytime. Crimewatch will always be remembered for its catchphrase, “Goodnight, please don’t have nightmares,” coined by presenter Nick Ross to allay concerns about the effect on viewers of the often graphic reconstructions.

In this case, please don’t phone, email or tweet us your suspicions. It is already known that the slaying of Crimewatch was carried out by Charlotte Moore, a 49-year-old BBC director of content from the W1A area. Her motive is interesting. Forensic television criticism suggests that the following issues combined to end the life of the veteran franchise.

Competition

Since Crimewatch UK (as it was then called) launched in 1984, there have been huge changes in coverage of crime. Police and media once had such a terror of “contempt of court” (the potential prejudicing of legal proceedings by publication of evidence) that arrests in major cases would lead to the release of no more information than “a 38-year-old man is helping police with their inquiries”. Similarly, many detectives were initially so wary of Crimewatch that they used it only for seriously stalled inquiries.

Police forces now routinely set up phone lines, Twitter hashtags and websites linked to an investigation. And it is common for journalists, TV current-affairs shows and bloggers to investigate significant mysteries, identifying suspects and new evidence. The case of Corrie McKeague, an RAF airman who vanished in Suffolk last September, has received Crimewatch-style treatment from numerous media outlets.

And, if the expansion of real-life crime reporting has reduced interest in the show, so has the explosion of crime fiction. When Crimewatch UK started, contemporary British police stories were a relatively small element in the schedules, with ITV’s PD James and Ruth Rendell franchises just getting under way and Inspector Morse not appearing until 1987. Now the genre is so popular that a majority of the 9pm drama slots contain murder investigations. Significantly, the BBC has suggested that the removal of Crimewatch from peak time will free up slots and cash for drama.

Format

Crimewatch has a problematic structure, in that the reveal or denouement takes place off-screen, if and when the cops make an arrest. Even Crimewatch Update, screened late on the night of main show, could only report on the volume of responses. If a trial ensues, it may be a year or more before the success can be mentioned and, if the accused is acquitted, the investigation becomes unreportable.

TV viewing has polarised between self-scheduled watching (catchup, box set, streamed) and appointment viewing, in which the audience is gripped over several weekly episodes (Doctor Foster, Liar). But Crimewatch’s problem was that it fitted neither template. It only really made sense if watched live, and a monthly show with a late-night update is tricky to schedule around.

BBC axes Crimewatch after 33 years as trail goes cold for viewers Read more

Clear-up rate

Crimewatch can be seen as the purest kind of public service TV, bringing more benefits to the police and society than to the broadcasters. But increasing doubts have been raised about its efficiency as an investigative tool.

A common exchange on the update programme involved a presenter saying perkily: “Hundreds of calls coming in, DI. You must be thrilled!” and the officer responding: “Yes, well, let’s see what’s in there.”

One detective told me privately that the rise of social media has increased the quantity of responses to Crimewatch, but reduced the quality. In earlier years, a caller had to copy down a long phone number and dial from a landline or (in sensitive cases) phone box. The ease of texting or tweeting means that the show is now more at risk of the pet theories of sofa detectives.

The survival of Crimewatch Roadshow, in which the detectives engage directly with members of the public, can partly be attributed to this format being less vulnerable to amateur Sherlocks.

Some criminal barristers have also raised concerns that crimes featured on the show may face problems when they come to court. If jurors and witnesses have seen a reconstruction using lookalikes, their responses become less pure.

Although the show has undoubtedly solved many crimes (helping to apprehend, it claims, 57 murderers, 53 rapists and 18 paedophiles), it may be seen as symbolic that its most high-profile case – the murder of its own presenter, Jill Dando, in 1999 – remains officially unsolved, after the conviction of a man was overturned.

The cancellation of long-running shows often prompts outrage from viewers. However, Crimewatch’s content is now so replicated elsewhere that its axe-killer, Moore, seems unlikely to suffer too many nightmares over what she has done.