BBC CRIMEWATCH is celebrating 30 years of forcing its way into the homes of ordinary people and giving them nightmares.
“He’s behind you”Since it began in 1984, the late-night show has solved thousands of crimes and disturbed millions of hours of sleep.
Former presenter Nick Ross said: I used to chuckle every time I said Dont have nightmares, because I knew I was sending the audience off to an eight-hour sweat-soaked reverie about masked men at the foot of the bed.
If you watch a show dedicated to exposing how swiftly and irrevocably the lives of ordinary, law-abiding people can be shattered by some sick maniac and sleep peacefully afterwards, you are one of those maniacs.
As early as the second series we were only in it for the nightmares. Solving crimes was a very distant second.
In an anniversary Crimewatch: Where Are They Now? next week, Fiona Bruce will revisit the most disturbing crimes of the last 30 years and remind viewers that the perpetrators are now free to offend again.
Care worker Tom Logan said: Ill always remember the first ever Crimewatch when I was 10 years old, because I revisit it every single night and wake up screaming.
Thankfully Ive never been the victim of a crime, though there are five people who walked too close to my house late at night in shallow graves in my back garden.
