Traffic Cops

This article is about the 2014 BBC documentary. For the UK policing function, see Road policing unit. For various police officers with traffic duties, see traffic officer. For various policing units with traffic duties, see traffic police.
Traffic Cops

Current Traffic Cops and Motorway Cops title cards
Genre Motoring / Police
Directed by Bruce Lippold
Narrated by Jamie Theakston
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 11
No. of episodes 94 (to 25 February 2014) (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s) United Kingdom
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) BBC
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One, BBC One HD
Picture format 16:9
Original run 18 March 2003 – present
Chronology
Related shows Car Wars
External links
Website

Traffic Cops is a British documentary series on BBC One which follows Road Policing Units (traffic officers) from various UK police forces. The current series follows both the Yorkshire&Humber Regional Road Crime Team And West Yorkshire Police. Previous series have followed the Cheshire Constabulary, Hampshire Constabulary, Humberside Police, South Wales Police, South Yorkshire Police, Sussex Police, Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary. There is a separate spin-off series, billed Traffic Cops Specials, entitled Motorway Cops, because the main focus is on police patrolling Britain's Motorways. Traffic Cops has consistently been one of the most watched factual series on UK television. Due to its prime time BBC1 slot, Traffic Cops' viewing figures generally are many times larger than other UK police TV programmes. Both series are made by Folio Productions, a subsidiary of Mentorn Media, who also made a separate BBC One series called Car Wars, which followed police teams who dealt exclusively with car crime rather than traffic offences.

About

Traffic Cops shows what is involved in the day-to-day role of a traffic officer and the incidents they come across. The attraction of the show being the many strange and amusing members of the public the Police encounter in the course of their work. It often touches on genuine drama and serious issues when officers visit accidents where people are seriously or fatally injured. This mix of the serious and informative with the light-hearted probably explains the series' longevity. First aired in 2003, the show has drawn in more than 7 million viewers and has had 11 series produced. The year and episode name is usually shown on the title card following the opening title sequence. Some repeats of the show do not display the year of the episode. Each series has a similar opening title sequence but uses footage relevant to the given series. Also each series follows a different region of police forces in the UK. It is an observational documentary series which occasionally uses police footage. Narration is by Jamie Theakston, and repeats of the show can be seen on Dave, Really and Watch.

A notable episode of the Motorway Cops spin-off featured footage of the 2008 double suicide attempt of Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, which occurred in front of a Motorway Cops production team as they accompanied officers to the scene.

During each episode there are frequently links between incidents, with music accompanying generic video footage. The backing tracks to these links are frequently taken from Pink Floyd albums.

Music

Here is a list of some of the tracks featured in various episodes of Traffic Cops. Although an eclectic variety of music is often used during an episode, the show largely contains excerpts from electronic dance tracks.

Episodes

See also

References

    External links