I don’t watch Crimewatch, which must one of the UK’s longest running reality TV series, so I don’t know if they still tell you not to have nightmares at the end.

But for much of last week you couldn’t get away from local news repeats of the reconstruction of an armed robbery in Bolton. It all looked jolly exciting on TV as this actor levelled his shotgun at a policeman and fired. But I reckon that if I were there, I’d have been scared witless and in no need of having my memory jogged.

So who responds to these appeals? Are there really people out there who telephone in and say: ‘Hey! I remember now. I was just walking down the street when a police van rode up on the pavement – he could’ve run someone down – he was all over the place. Then I saw these hoodies running around letting off shotguns. I thought nothing of it at the time… do you really think I saw the bank robbers getting away?’

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