Rubbernecking is a popular pastime for most. You will find that most delays on a motorway are caused by people slowing down to look at accidents. Not to help you understand, no, just to see if there are body parts strewn over the three lanes and people running around waving their hands while on fire, strangely putting on weight while doing it. For the most part, the job of dealing with such road based drama falls to the police force. They are the ones that actually get their hands dirty and help people, rather than watching and hoping for trauma.
A few years ago, some bright spark in the television industry had the spectacular idea of following the police around with a camera. The people rejoiced and danced around their living rooms as this would now allow rubbernecking on a grand scale. Now you would see the car crashes, you could now bear witness as the police kick someone's door down at six in the morning and collectively tutt as some "idiot" drives too fast in a residential area. Secretly of course, we all love seeing people get into trouble. As long as it isn't us, we dont mind. What is better than getting away with it? Seeing someone else getting in trouble for it.
Last night I spent a night home alone as my wife was out at a posh party. So, I being the mature grown up decided to watch the episode of "Motorway Cops" I had taped from the night before. You may think that as I have spent most of my time pointing out that people enjoy revelling in other people's misery, that I am somehow above all of this. Well I am not. In fact any show with a cop or a camera and I am similarly addicted. While "Cops with cameras" is good, it doesn't have the potential for motor way carnage in the same way that "Motorway Cops" does, not to mention that "Motorway Cops" is BBC and therefore doesn't have adverts and therefore allows more time for crashes and carnage. The latest edition did not disappoint, there were a couple of examples of motor way "prang" aftermath's and a ninety three year old man driving the wrong way on a motorway.
Motorway Cops is important for another reason, it also gives Jamie Theakston much needed voice over work. He seems to be the guy to guy for BBC programmes that feature any kind of camera crews following people around. I must say his voice is reassuring and really helps put you in the shoes of a motorway cop. I dont think Orson Welles could have done any better. I do worry about wearing Theakston out though, he seems very busy, if Richard Burton were still alive, I would love to have heard him do "Nudist Colony Cops" or something like that. What about Alec Guinness doing "Traffic Warden Patrol" or Lawrence Olivier on "Vets in action"? Come on BBC, stop over burdening Theakston and get some real "thesps" involved, we pay a license fee you know. Poor Theakston.
Mind you, he does enjoy pain.
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| Comments about This Article |
| My wife watches all these cop shows when there's "nothing else on". How about letting me watch a DVD eh? Comment By: @johnneyred, 10 Sep 2010, Rating: 5/5  |
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