Driving antics of the UK....and beyond (Road Wars)

Member Name: yackers1

Product:	Road Wars
Date:	25/03/09 (435 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great action shots, great chases, enthusiastic narrator

Disadvantages: None that I can think of

For those of you that don't know Road Wars is a series that follows the Roads Policing Proactive Department of the Thames Valley Police.

Road Wars has been going since 2003 and was unique since it was the first series that shadowed the police in their day-to-day duties. Similar programmes, such as "Police, Camera, Action", had only ever used video footage obtained from different police departments. This shadowing method has led to other similar series such as "Street Wars" and "Traffic Cops", although Road Wars is still the best.

If you want to catch an episode of Road Wars then it is aired on Sky 3 many times a week after 9 o'clock.

****My opinion****

Road Wars is a fantastic series and I am hooked. It is a diverse programme that shows general car crime (thefts, robbery, driving un roadworthy vehicles etc) as well as the high-speed chases, which are my personal favourite.

The driving antics of some of the members of the general public never cease to amaze me and I can't decipher whether these people are totally insane or very good drivers. It is not just the speeds the criminals reach during these chases that is frightening, it is the type of road where these speeds are reached. It wouldn't be so bad if the speeding was on large, quiet motorways but to choose busy town centres, where there are numerous innocent drivers, pedestrians, cyclists etc, is beyond belief. Whilst being crazy to carry out this driving behaviour I can't dispute that the drivers have fantastic hand eye co-ordination and great reflexes. I often wonder how good these drivers would be if they were forced in a racing car.

This programme gets better and better with every series. I think this is down to the advancements in technology. Gone are the days where you needed to be able to bench 100kg to carry around a video camera. Cameras are now so small, lightweight and portable that you can clip them to almost an item of clothing. In addition, the recording equipment is much smaller and thanks to memory cards we can now film for many, many hours without having to change tapes.

The police are now armed with smaller cameras and recording equipment so they can film the criminals for concrete evidence and it makes for great viewing. Being so close to the action you can really feel the sense of urgency and the adrenaline rush the officers experience as they are sprinting after a criminal or chasing a joy rider. Whilst a lot of the images are quite frightening, they are amazing at the same time.

The Thames Valley Officers are great and there is a diverse range of personalities. Before I saw programmes like this I had an idea in my head how a policeman 'should' behave and the tone of their language. This was drummed in to me at a young age by my mother. Road Wars destroys this behaviour and shows that policemen are normal people who swear, have a bit of banter and can be quite easy going and lenient.

Whilst the footage is great and the police officers are entertaining to watch the narrator plays a massive part in making this programme a success. The narrator is a Liverpudlian that is comical, sarcastic, energetic and enthusiastic and he really puts this across to the viewers. He does a fantastic job and very entertaining to listen to. I would even go as far as to say he is a joy to listen to. I can't see narrating being an easy job but this bloke is a natural and he is perfectly cast for the role. For ages I thought that the narrator was Craig Charles, although it transpires it is actually Lee Boardman. I have no idea what Mr Boardman looks like because he really is the voice of Road Wars.

Whilst Road Wars mainly focuses on the Thames Valley Police it also shows some international driving antics as well. Most of these are American although there are sometime some footage from Scandinavia and Australia. This footage shows that poor driving and driving related criminal activity is a problem worldwide and not just in the UK. In fact, it looks more rife in America and the crashes in America are huge and this largely down to the higher speeds that Americans seem to reach.

Whilst it is interesting to see what happens overseas there are times when there is just too much footage of Americans, or other Europeans and I find it gets a bit boring. Personally, I am more interested in seeing what happens in the UK.

All of the above leads to a very entertaining programme that is the original and still the best. There are many 'wannabe' programmes that have come out of the success of Road Wars but none of them come close to this.

Summary: A look in to the day to day life of some of Thames Valley Police Force