Gethin Jones (Police, Camera, Action!) interview
Presenter Gethin Jones takes the helm as an action packed, revamped Police, Camera, Action! returns to ITV1 with four new programmes this summer. Every show tackles head on a different issue currently affecting Britain’s road safety including speeding, distracted driving, young drivers and sleep deprived lorry drivers.
Are you excited to be taking on the role of presenting the brand new series of Police, Camera, Action!? What appealed to you about the programme?
“I did a Police, Camera, Action! drink drive special for ITV in 2008. It was incredibly powerful and more hard-hitting than I thought it would be. This new series of Police Camera Action! is like a mini series of specials and it contains the kind of issues that could affect anyone every day. Each episode features a specific problem, including distracted driving, speeding, young drivers and the dangers of lorry drivers on the motorway, which is a huge problem.
“I like to get involved with a programme and I am definitely not just doing a voiceover here. I’ve never worked like this before. The hours on the programme were so intensive and the people we met were incredible. It was amazing seeing the police on patrol. They have to be so correct all the time and abide by the law but also try and get that extra bit of information out of the drivers they stop. I think the four programmes have actually been a huge success in that respect.
“The new format is totally different and I completely immersed myself in what was going on. I felt very involved in all the stories, from meeting victims’ families, to re-tracing some of the final steps of one of the accidents we cover on the show.
“It was an emotional journey and I will stay friends with the likes of Cerys Edward’s family for a long time to come (Cerys was just a year old when a driver crashed into her family’s car and disabled her for life). I really hope the viewers feel the same and are moved by the stories. And maybe a few people will change their ways on the road.”
Three of the episodes each feature four people who all admit to the driving problem targeted in that episode. Were you shocked by their attitudes towards careful driving and their misplaced confidence that they were still a safe driver in spite of speeding, applying make up, texting or driving with a dog on their lap?
“Well some of them were unbelievable. Where do I even start? I could talk for half an hour about each programme. Despite their behaviour on the road they all kept saying, ‘Don’t be silly, I am totally in control.’ That was the most astounding thing. To learn that they actually thought they weren’t a risk to anyone. One guy said, ‘I can text and drive.’ And then the camera we installed in his car saw him nearly crash, catch his breath and then carry on texting. How could he not realise what could’ve happened?
“It was really difficult from my point of view as the presenter because you don’t want to be preaching. And I’ve got 6 points on my licence, which we look into on the show. I hold my hands up, we all do things wrong on the road. But it’s about learning from our mistakes.”
Who do you think was the worst of the 12 ‘bad drivers’ who featured in the series?
“I think the distracted drivers were really interesting. Their attitude at the start was horrific. They said things like, ‘It’s fine, I can drive with my dog on my lap. I can easily text while I drive.’
“Even after testing them on a driving course with various distractions that could have happened on a real road, some didn’t seem to take on board the seriousness of their actions.
“Finally, we introduced them to Pauline Bradley, whose life has changed completely since she was hit on a pedestrian crossing a few years ago. Her face was smashed in and she can’t work. After seeing the possible consequences of their behaviour I’d say they pretty much changed their views completely. If the same can be replicated with the viewers and the majority of people watching think, “I’m going to slow down or stop getting distracted behind the wheel,’ then as far as I’m concerned, the programme will be a massive success.”
How did you find meeting the families and victims of road accidents, who have to live with the consequences of careless or dangerous driving?
“Before we filmed with each family I asked the production team if I could speak to them first. I explained who I was and the fact that I wasn’t there for my own benefit. I was there because I really cared about the issues. Because of that they were all very warm and very willing to tell their stories because ultimately, they don’t want it to happen to anyone else.
“Some of the things people have been through are just awful. I remember meeting Cerys Edwards for the first time in her adapted house and I had a tear in my eye. She was just a year old when the crash happened. According to the evidence, her mum did everything she could to prevent an accident but what can you do when there’s a car coming towards you at 70 mph?
“The father of a boy who was a passenger in a speeding car, couldn’t get through a sentence without falling apart. I said to him, ‘I can’t ask you to do anymore then what you’re doing. I’m only going to ask you the question. If you’re not happy we’ll turn the camera off. If you are, do your best to answer because ultimately your story is the one that’s going to change people’s attitudes.’
“One woman I had a huge amount of respect for because of her strength was Juliette Greenwood. She had two girls, Alice and Clara. When they crashed, Juliette was badly injured in the car herself. She could only watch Alice dying in the back and wasn’t able to reach her.
“I was in the Greenwood’s home having a cup of tea, talking to them about that. What gets me is that they weren’t doing anything wrong. None of these people were doing anything wrong.”
In the episode ‘Fast & Furious’ you meet a policeman who was able to re-create the accident involving the Edwards family and Antonio Boparan, who caused the accident, using a computer animation video. Were you impressed with the level of detail the police are able to retrieve from the scene of a crash in order to bring a conviction?
“That was quite phenomenal. It was all about a little black box in the Range Rover. That box meant they could work out the speed he was travelling at, the angles of impact, everything. They worked out that he had a minimum speed of 71 mph in a 30 mph zone.
“And from that they were even able to recreate the accident digitally. I was able to watch the sequence of events and when you actually watch it on camera it is shocking. When you see the speed of the Range Rover compared to the other cars on the road it’s just breathtaking.
“It just comes at the Edwards family car so fast. I could talk through what happened and it would read like any other car crash story in the papers. But when you see the reconstruction of what actually happened, it’s unbelievably powerful. I’ve been to that road. Seventy miles an hour is insane, you can’t even see where you’re going.”
How did you find the general attitude of drivers on Britain’s roads, who were stopped by the police for various driving offences?
“It varied massively. And we covered a huge spread of the country. The younger drivers were actually more co-operative with the police then the older drivers. I think the older drivers were cross with the police that they’d been stopped. Their attitude was, ‘Why are you stopping me doing 90 mph on a motorway when last week this boy came round and swore at me? You should be on the streets.’ It was an old fashioned attitude that there are more important things in life. They had no understanding of the dangers of doing 20-30 miles an hour over the speed limit.”
Has your involvement in the programme had any effect on your driving and your awareness of safety?
“Absolutely. Like I said earlier, I’ve got 6 points on my licence. Three of those are for quickly using my mobile to call my sister in an emergency. Ultimately I was selfish because I was trying to deal with one of my problems but I could have put someone else at risk because of that. Was the emergency life and death? No it wasn’t. So I was fined accordingly and got three points. I knew it was wrong at the time but I didn’t know how wrong it was.
“I wanted to talk about having points on the show. Then I could openly say to people on the street, ‘I’ve got points on my licence as well, everybody makes mistakes. But do you really understand what’s going on here and how bad the consequences could be?’
“The other thing that really shocked me was speeding. I got done for driving at 58 mph in a 50 mph zone. I was coming home late at night from a job in North Wales and there wasn’t much traffic on the road. And 58 mph in a 50 mph zone doesn’t sound bad does it?
“So in the programme we re-enacted it on a track. A policeman was driving at 50 mph and I was doing 58 mph. There was a cordon set up at the end of the track and we both braked at the same time coming towards it. What I didn’t realise was that the majority of your breaking happens in the last fraction of a second. So when the 50mph car had stopped, I was still doing almost 30 mph and crashed straight into the cordon. That’s the danger and that’s why I could have killed someone.”
In the episode ‘Distracted, Dangerous & Dumb’ we see you undergo tests to examine the danger posed by texting while driving and also being under the influence of alcohol. You seemed shocked to discover that texting was as dangerous as being over the limit?
“Who would have thought? Surely sending a quick text can’t be as bad as being drunk? But we did the same test for both distractions. My reactions when texting were so slow. Ultimately, when I was texting my eyes were off the road more then they were on it. I actually felt more vulnerable driving while texting, rather then when drunk, as I had one hand off the wheel.
“If you’ve had a few drinks, the specialists say that you try to slow down because you know you’re drunk. Your senses are slower so you over compensate by looking out more. Don’t get me wrong, my driving whilst drunk was still very, very poor. But my driving when texting was just as bad which I found shocking.
“Ultimately what the tests proved is that both alcohol and texting can have terrifying results when driving.”
What was the most shocking or terrifying thing you witnessed / discovered during the filming of the series?
“The statistics about lorry drivers doing well over the legal number of hours without a break are unreal. I was absolutely shocked to discover that I was experiencing ‘micro-sleeps’ at the wheel and fell asleep for a total of 18 seconds within a two minute period after being sleep deprived the night before. If asked, I would have said I was tired but at no point was I actually asleep.”
What did you hope to achieve with the series?
“One thing I wanted to do, was make sure that people realised the police were human. I think the police can get a really hard time. They’re not out to catch people. They do stand on the motorway with a speed gun but that’s because people are doing 140 mph and they need to slow down. They are the people who are going to cause an accident and seriously injure or kill someone.
“That’s why the police are there and yet people get really annoyed with them. I asked them, ‘Why are you getting annoyed with a police officer when you’re doing 110 mph?’ And they’d say, ‘Well the speed limit should be increased.’
“They’d be given some facts about how much more likely it is for an accident to happen at faster speeds and the devastation it can cause. The response was often, ‘I don’t care.’
“But what we did was get four of those types of people into most of the programmes and showed them what happens when you speed or are distracted. And on the whole, they’ve changed their views.”
Why should viewers tune into the new series of Police, Camera, Action!?
“People should watch it because it’s different to any other police programme I’ve seen on TV. It’s not just a voiceover show. I really immersed myself in all the challenges, I met all the victims. I came face to face with the people causing the problems. It’s emotional, it’s shocking, there’s incredible archive footage in it. I hope it’s the kind of thing that people will talk about after they’ve watched it because of the issues it brings up. It’s honestly one of the most amazing programmes I’ve been involved with.
“All the tests were done properly. I wasn’t told what I would be doing until I turned up to do them. When I tested my ability to text and drive alongside my ability to drive after a few glasses of wine, hey literally gave me the alcohol and set me off. I tried to do it as honestly as I could. As if I had just been down the pub and had a few glasses of wine before heading home.
“I think that’s important because people need to be able to relate to the programmes. So when watching it they can think, ‘God that could be me, I had a few glasses of wine the other night and drove home.’
“Hopefully the programme will make people think. And as well as all the new elements it still has its traditional values with the incredible archive footage.”
Police, Camera, Action! airs at 9pm on Thursdays from 29th July 2010 on ITV1.
