Crimewatch UK

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Crimewatch UK is a long-running and high-profile British television programme, produced by the BBC, that reconstructs unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public, in order to help solve major crimes. The show was first broadcast in 1984 and is based on the West German TV show Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst, which translates as File XY... Unsolved. It was regarded as an experiment when it was first shown, partly because of doubts as to whether it would be considered to prejudice a jury. Also, British trials are as yet not televised, though this has become more likely since the programme began.

The programme has been presented since its inception by Nick Ross and is usually broadcast once monthly on BBC One. The regular programme Crimewatch Solved, is broadcast every August. Ross's current co-presenter is Fiona Bruce, who took over after the murder of Jill Dando. Dando's murder was reconstructed and shown on Crimewatch and Barry George was later convicted of killing her. The first co-presenter with Nick Ross was Sue Cook. Several police officers have also featured in the studio.

Crimewatch is one of the largest live factual studio productions, usually involving three or four reconstructions, often followed by interviews with senior detectives. Other appeals use the E-FIT computer system, CCTV or photographs of suspects, and sometimes involve interviews with victims or their families.

Crimewatch has a special status with police and has developed expertise of its own, notably through Nick Ross's long experience with public appeals. Unlike the US equivalent spawned by Crimewatch, America's Most Wanted, Crimewatch itself usually appeals for unsolved cases, inviting viewers to be armchair detectives. About a third of its cases are solved, half of those as a direct result of viewers' calls. Its successes have included some of the most notorious crimes in Britain since the show started in the mid-1980s.