The day Crimewatch put my pal in the frame

Iis sad to read that the BBC are axing Crimewatch after 33 years. As an impecunious student, I once earned some extra cash by taking part in one of their reconstructions.

My friend Andy and I responded to an advert pinned up on a college noticeboard asking for extras. It was half a day’s filming and sounded like easy money.

My role was to play the best friend of a poor woman attacked in a gloomy underpass.

The victim was played by an actual actress and all I had to do was link arms with her and pretend to be laughing and chatting as we walked.

But Andy was asked if he wouldn’t mind taking on a bigger role. Before he knew what was happening, he had been cast as one of the perpetrators.

“If you could just sit on that fence and look a bit threatening,” the director instructed as a camera tracked across his features. “Don’t worry, we’ll blur your face out in the final edit,” the director added.

The programme aired a week or so later, and a group of us gathered to watch it in the communal TV room.

There I was, laughing and chatting and walking.

And suddenly there was Andy, beamed into the room in full – and sharp-focused – Technicolor, his face distinctly unblurred as the monotone commentary outlined exactly what this dastardly criminal had done to his victim.

To this day, I’ve no idea why Andy’s face was not disguised as promised.

He was, in truth, the nicest of men. But for weeks afterwards, the Crimewatch hotline was inundated with phone calls from pranking students claiming they’d identified the wanted person as Andy.

Thankfully, he was never arrested. And neither of us ever acted again.