Road Wars (TV series)

For the book, see Road Wars (novel).
Road Wars
Created by Bill Rudgard
Steve Warr
Narrated by Lee Boardman
Claire Goose (Stand-in)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 7
No. of episodes 88
Production
Producer(s) Raw Cut TV
Running time 50-60 mins including adverts mins approx.
Broadcast
Original channel Sky One
Picture format PAL (576i), HD (1080i)
Audio format Stereo, Dolby Digital
Original run 26 July 2003 – 24 January 2010
Chronology
Related shows Street Wars
Police Interceptors
External links
Website

Road Wars is a reality television programme created by Raw Cut TV for British Sky Broadcasting and broadcast on Sky1, and also worldwide. Since Series 1 the show was narrated by Lee Boardman[1] who played villain Jez Quigley in ITV soap Coronation Street. The 2nd half of series 7 was narrated by Claire Goose who played Inspector Rachel Weston in ITV1 police drama The Bill.

Road Wars is unlike other previous police programmes on Sky in that it followed the work of officers rather than simply playing police video clips. The programme has documented the changing tactics of criminals, perhaps most importantly their increasing violence and recklessness , and the response of the UK police forces. The programme also features some police videos from America, Australia and occasionally Ireland.

Thames Valley Police

For series 1-6, the programme followed the fourteen members of the Thames Valley Police's roads policing proactive unit (Road Crime Unit) - known as "Tango Victor". They are also said to be known to fellow officers as "Tango Vulture", taken from their callsign prefix TV (Tango Victor) and the joke that they swoop to steal arrests from other officers while they carried out their duties.

Some of the officers involved in Road Wars are listed below. As a specialist unit, officers tended to appear in a couple of series, or just for one series, as either the camera just didn't happen to follow them during the time they were filming for the series, or that the officer's tenure had come up (which is after 3 years of being in the team, as it is a specialised unit) and they had left the team.

Vehicles

The Thames Valley Police unit operates high-specification, unmarked 3.2L V6 Vauxhall Omegas (now being replaced by unmarked 2.8L Turbo V6 Police Special Vauxhall Vectras) and is tasked with taking a proactive role in fighting crime especially targeted towards street robbers and burglars, but also undertaking general traffic policing (the officers are drawn from normal Roads Policing teams). The footage from this team is combined with video footage from police forces around the world (though largely UK and United States forces).

Devon & Cornwall Police

From Series 7, the series moved on to follow the Road Crime Unit and the front line Dog Squad of Devon and Cornwall Police. The Road Crime Unit operates marked BMW 3 Series along with unmarked 2.5L Ford Focus ST.

Transmissions

There have been eight series of Road Wars. Four special episodes have been shown including two American episodes (known as Road Wars USA), which aired in 2005, where British police from the series travel to the U.S. to see the difference in police and criminal behaviour and two Christmas specials shown in 2003 and 2004. Three compilation editions entitled "Ultimate Road Wars", featuring action from the first six series, first aired on Sky1 on 11 November, 13 November and 1 December 2008.

Special

In a special two part series called Road Wars USA, Andy Samuels[2] and Chris Piggott spent a couple of months attached to a Gang Unit in Cicero, Illinois, near Chicago, to note how law enforcement is practised in the United States.

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Road Wars: Lee Boardman". Sky One. Sky One. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.road-wars.co.uk/interviews/TVP/interviewandy1.html