''Road Wars'' is a British police

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programme created by Raw Cut TV for

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

and broadcast on

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

from 2003 to 2010. From Series 1 the show was narrated by actor

Lee Boardman Lee Boardman (born 2 July 1972) is an English actor and narrator. He has appeared in the films ''Jack the Giant Slayer'' and '' Love's Kitchen'', and the television series ''Rome''. Career Boardman played Murray Priestman in '' Drop Dead Gorg ...

. The 2nd half of series 7 was narrated by actress

Claire Goose Claire Goose (born 10 February 1975) is a British actress. She played Tina Seabrook, a nurse in BBC One's ''Casualty'', DS Mel Silver in '' Waking the Dead'', and Sergeant (later Inspector) Rachel Weston in ITV's ''The Bill''. She also narrated ...

. As of 2023, the show has reruns on

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

Sky Replay Sky Replay is a British pay television channel operated by Sky as a sister channel to Sky Max and Sky Witness. The current channel began broadcasting (as Sky One Mix) in December 2002. The 'Sky 2' name and format had earlier been used for a ...

, Pick,

Sky Witness Sky Witness is a British pay television tv channel, channel owned and operated by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel primarily broadcasts drama shows from the United States, aimed at the 18–45 age group. An Italian version ...

and

Sky Crime Sky Crime is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel launched on 1 October 2019, replacing Real Lives. Sky Crime broadcasts crime dramas from Oxygen, HBO, Jupiter Entertainment and Woo ...

Format

Road Wars followed the work of police officers, documenting the changing tactics of criminals and the response of the UK police forces. For six seasons the show followed officers in the

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

, but moved to

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

for the last series in 2009. The programme also features some police videos both in the UK and US. Mancunian

narrated the show until the second half of series 7, employing a light-hearted and pun-intended approach. At the

opening narration Opening may refer to: * Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an * The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron * Backgammon opening * Chess opening * A title sequence or opening credits * , a term from contract bridge * , ...

Boardman says "In Road Wars, the unexpected is always just around the corner". The title music was composed by Nainita Desai and Malcolm Laws. Other music was made by the series' co-creator Bill Rudgard. In series 1 the title card consisted of 'ROAD WARS' in red

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form. A new title card was made for series 3, which was slightly edited with yellow accents for series 6. The first two seasons had six episodes, series 3 and 4 had eight episodes each, and series 5 and 6 had 20 episodes each. For series 7 as the show moved to another police force, a new title card and new music was composed. Boardman left his position as narrator and the last 8 episodes were narrated by

Thames Valley Police

For series 1–6, the programme followed the fourteen members of the

Thames Valley Police Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. It the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales, coverin ...

's roads policing proactive unit (

Road Crime Unit A Road Crime Unit or Pro Active Unit is a police unit derived from traffic policing departments in the United Kingdom. Certain forces have established such units with a mandate to pro-actively target certain crime offences (robbery, burglary etc.) ...

) – 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. The footage from this team is combined with video footage from police forces around the world (though largely UK and US forces).

Officers

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.

Regular teams

Vehicles

The

unit operates high-specification, unmarked 3.2L V6 Vauxhall Omegas (B2 model), replaced in later series by unmarked 2.8L Turbo V6 Police Special

Vauxhall Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate body styles, the Vectra was also sold by the Vauxhall marque i ...

s. The unit 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).

Devon & Cornwall Police

In October 2008 the Thames Valley Police pulled out from the show after concerns on how its officers are depicted. From Series 7, the show moved on to follow the Road Crime Unit and the front line Dog Squad of

Devon and Cornwall Police Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly) in England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of . ...

. The Road Crime Unit operates marked BMW

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along with unmarked 2.5L

Ford Focus The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1998. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The ...

STs.

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 In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

behaviour and two

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specials shown in 2003 and 2004. Three compilation editions entitled "Ultimate Road Wars", featuring action from the first six series, first aired on

on 11 November, 13 November and 1 December 2008.

Special

In a special two part series called ''Road Wars USA'', Andy Samuels and Chris Piggott spent a couple of months attached to a Gang Unit in

Cicero, Illinois Cicero (originally known as Hawthorne) is a suburb of Chicago and an Incorporated town#Illinois, incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was ...

, near Chicago, to note how law enforcement is practised in the United States.

International broadcasts

The Road Wars series has also been sold to these

television networks A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...

and stations: Notes: # Broadcast under the name 'De Politie Op Je Hielen

References

External links

Official site on Sky (Archived 14 May 2007)
* {{Sky1 2000s British reality television series 2003 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings 2010s British reality television series 2000s British crime television series 2010s British crime television series Documentary television series about policing Sky UK original programming English-language television shows