The final episode in the second series of Crimecall went out on Tuesday evening. This is the second series produced by independent production company Coco Television, producing 10 episodes of 52 minutes in each season.
The show is presented live in studio by Brenda Power and Con Murphy, with a series of Gardai representatives. Telephone lines are manned through the show to deal with responses from the watching audiences. Interspersed between interviews are clips from CCTV cameras where crimes have been caught on camera. This is an extremely successful part of the show for the Gardai, as they receive hundreds of calls from a watching audience with a very high hit rate in identifying people caught on CCTV.
Reconstructions of serious crimes (murder, armed robbery, etc) committed around the country in recent months are also a key part of the show, along with features on road safety, fraud warnings and drug hauls). Produced by Catherine Munro, these inserts are directed by a number of very well respected directors (including Cathal Black, Peter Murphy, Hugh Farley, Rachael Moriarty and Daniel O’Hara).
Ratings have been consistently high (over 300,000 per episode, with the Christmas edition reaching 453,000).
The studio director is Simon Gibney, associate producer Catherine Munro, Producer Linda Cullen and Executive Producer Stuart Switzer.
The series returns in the Autumn, and is (generally) broadcast on the last Tuesday of each month.