Caught in the Act
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(I make it twelve episodes that were made, all airing on Fridays at 8:30pm. Unless two never made it to air for whatever reason?) |
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== Broadcast == | == Broadcast == | ||
| - | Action Time for BBC1, 10 January to 27 March 1992 ( | + | Action Time for BBC1, 10 January to 27 March 1992 (12 episodes in 1 series) |
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THE DEPARTURE: There was no departure on this show, or any rescheduling, because unlike every other show we've detailed so far in this feature – er, apart from the Big Night, if Brucie's looking in – it was actually a huge hit. The first show pulled in thirteen million viewers, and throughout the run never dropped below ten million, which illustrates how much people wanted to see this sort of thing. But if the ratings were huge, the critical acclaim certainly wasn't, with the world and his wife appalled by its vulgar presentation, crappy format and shameless plagiarism of an ITV concept. | THE DEPARTURE: There was no departure on this show, or any rescheduling, because unlike every other show we've detailed so far in this feature – er, apart from the Big Night, if Brucie's looking in – it was actually a huge hit. The first show pulled in thirteen million viewers, and throughout the run never dropped below ten million, which illustrates how much people wanted to see this sort of thing. But if the ratings were huge, the critical acclaim certainly wasn't, with the world and his wife appalled by its vulgar presentation, crappy format and shameless plagiarism of an ITV concept. | ||
| - | THE END: It all meant that, come the | + | THE END: It all meant that, come the twelfth and final show, while the ratings would have justified another series, all the papers were pondering whether the Beeb would actually have the balls to recommission this derivative rubbish. It just didn't seem the sort of show the BBC should be making, especially because it was all being done on other channels anyway. Eventually, they decided not to give the go-ahead to a second series and simply hoped everyone would forget about it – deciding the ratings boost was less important than the loss of credibility. |
THE POST-MORTEM: Of course, the pitch for Caught In The Act could be summed up in two sentences – "You've Been Framed is popular. Let's just rip that off." Sadly they did so with as little effort as possible, and indeed many critics were amazed to see that a series fronted by Jeremy Beadle was actually the quality option. It wasn't just Richie's rather overbearing presentation that did for it, though, it was the dodgy format that interspersed the clips with endless tedious chat, and the crappy sound effects were the icing on a shit-tasting cake. | THE POST-MORTEM: Of course, the pitch for Caught In The Act could be summed up in two sentences – "You've Been Framed is popular. Let's just rip that off." Sadly they did so with as little effort as possible, and indeed many critics were amazed to see that a series fronted by Jeremy Beadle was actually the quality option. It wasn't just Richie's rather overbearing presentation that did for it, though, it was the dodgy format that interspersed the clips with endless tedious chat, and the crappy sound effects were the icing on a shit-tasting cake. | ||
Revision as of 00:21, 10 March 2025
Synopsis
The BBC's "me-too!" answer to ITV's vastly successful You've Been Framed!, this never really took off.
People sent in their home videos, people representing nine of the videos faced off in three semi-finals of sorts with the audience voting on their favourite. They then, we think, voted on an ultimate winner from the three heats with a prize going to the winner.
Particularly noted for its highly irritating use of comedy sound effects.
Inventor
Names have been removed to protect the guilty.
Videos
Here's a full episode that you'd rather forget than remember.
