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999: What's Your Emergency?

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999: What's Your Emergency?
Series 1 titlecard
GenreDocumentary
Narrated by
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series13
No. of episodes71
Production
Executive producers
  • Ed Coulthard (2012–13)
  • Simon Ford (2012–13)
  • Guy Davies (2013)
Producers
  • Daniel Fromm (2012)
  • Mark Jones (2012)
  • Ally Roberts (2013)
Running time60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companyBlast!
Original release
NetworkChannel 4
Release10 September 2012 (2012-09-10) –
present

999: What's Your Emergency? is a British television documentary. Broadcast on Channel 4, the show provides insight into modern Britain through the eyes of the emergency services, using a mixture of fly-on-the-wall footage taken at incidents and retrospective interviews with the people and staff featured. The show is narrated by Hugo Speer, with the exception of Series 2 which was narrated by Julian Barratt.

Series 1 followed police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and call handlers in Blackpool, Lancashire. Series 2 followed paramedics throughout the UK. Series 3 followed police officers, paramedics, and call handlers in Cheshire. From Series 4 to Series 11, the show followed police officers, paramedics, call handlers, and occasionally firefighters in Wiltshire and Northamptonshire. Series 12 onwards has followed police officers and call handlers in South Yorkshire and Northamptonshire police.

Episodes

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All episode ratings are taken from the BARB website and include Channel 4 and Channel 4+1.

Series Episodes Start date End date Average UK viewers
(millions)
1 10 10 September 2012 19 November 2012 2.80
2 6 7 October 2013 11 November 2013 1.98
3 14 4 July 2016 3 October 2016 2.00
4 6 24 July 2017 4 September 2017 1.79
5 7 30 October 2017 11 December 2017
6 4 19 April 2018 10 May 2018
7 4 24 July 2018 14 August 2018
8 4 29 November 2018 22 April 2019
9 4 3 June 2019 24 June 2019
10 4 20 January 2020 10 February 2020
11 3 5 October 2020 19 October 2020
12 4 11 January 2021 1 February 2021
13 5 8 June 2021 13 July 2021
14 17 January 2022

Series 1 (2012)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 10 September 2012 Drugs 2.90 3
2 17 September 2012 Children & Youth Crime 3.00 4
3 24 September 2012 Relationships & Domestic Abuse 2.95 2
4 8 October 2012 Payday & Bonfire Night 2.76 5
5 15 October 2012 Mental Health 2.96 3
6 22 October 2012 Women 2.91 5
7 29 October 2012 Alcohol 2.88 4
8 5 November 2012 Life or Death & Hoax Calls 3.12 4
9 12 November 2012 Visitors 2.56 5
10 19 November 2012 Highlights & Interviews 1.92 19

Series 2 (2013)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 7 October 2013 Transition to Adulthood 1.71 15
2 14 October 2013 Alcohol 1.78 16
3 21 October 2013 Mental Health 1.94 9
4 28 October 2013 Life or Death 1.94 8
5 4 November 2013 The Elderly 2.19 8
6 11 November 2013 Babies 2.33 6

Series 3 (2016-17)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 4 July 2016 Call Handlers 2.27 2
2 11 July 2016 Legal Highs 2.54 2
3 21 July 2016 Neighbours 2.23 3
4 28 July 2016 Mental Health 1.94 4
5 4 August 2016 Regular Callers & Repeat Offenders 2.20 2
6 11 August 2016 Immigrants & The Language Barrier 1.85 1
7 18 August 2016 Money 1.94 1
8 25 August 2016 Alcohol 2.11 3
9 1 September 2016 Teenagers & Youth Crime 2.05 3
10 5 September 2016 Violent Crime 1.72 7
11 19 September 2016 Roads Policing 1.88 7
12 26 September 2016 Relationships & Domestic Abuse 1.63 9
13 3 October 2016 Death 1.71 10
14 27 February 2017 Custody 1.39 16

Series 4 (2017)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 24 July 2017 Immigrants & Hate Crime 1.83 5
2 31 July 2017 Young Men 2.22 5
3 7 August 2017 Drugs 1.81 5
4 14 August 2017 Vigilante Justice 1.78 7
5 28 August 2017 Burglary 2.19 5
6 4 September 2017 Children & Parenting 2.40 7

Series 5 (2017)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 30 October 2017 Sex Offences
2 6 November 2017 Squaddies
3 13 November 2017 Homelessness
4 20 November 2017 Mental Health
5 27 November 2017 The Elderly
6 4 December 2017 Workplace Stress
7 11 December 2017 Teenagers & Youth Crime

Series 6 (2018)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 19 April 2018 Dangerous Driving
2 26 April 2018 Mother & Son Relationships
3 3 May 2018 Loneliness
4 10 May 2018 Cannabis

Series 7 (2018)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 24 July 2018 Accidents & Injuries
2 31 July 2018 Ambulance Response Times
3 7 August 2018 Emergency & Non-emergency Calls
4 14 August 2018 Poverty

Series 8 (2018)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 20 November 2018 Violent Crime
2 27 November 2018 Learning Disabilities
3 4 December 2018 Criminal Families
4 22 April 2019 Knife Crime & Murder

Series 9 (2019)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 3 June 2019 Relationships & Domestic Abuse
2 10 June 2019 Increased Demand
3 17 June 2019 Officer Safety
4 24 June 2019 Knife Crime

Series 10 (2020)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 20 January 2020 Roads Policing
2 27 January 2020 Young Men & Fathers
3 3 February 2020 Hate Crime
4 10 February 2020 Women

Series 11 (2020)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 5 October 2020 High Streets & Night-time Economy
2 12 October 2020 Burglary & Theft
3 19 October 2020 Violent Crime & Youth Crime

Series 12 (2021)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 11 January 2021 Fear of Crime
2 18 January 2021 Sex Offences
3 25 January 2021 Violent Crime & Youth Crime
4 1 February 2021 Coronavirus

Series 13 (2021)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 8 June 2021 Revenge & Vigilante Justice
2 15 June 2021 Time Wasters & the Vulnerable
3 22 June 2021 Alcohol & House Parties
4 29 June 2021 Children & Parenting
5 13 July 2021 Housing

Series 14 (2022)

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Episode Broadcast Date Episode Summary Total viewers
(millions)
Channel 4
weekly rank
1 17 January 2022 The Night Shift
2 24 January 2022 Drunk Women
3 31 January 2022 Custody

Controversies

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After Series 1 of the show, residents and councillors from Blackpool expressed their dismay at how their town was portrayed to potential visitors, and were concerned the gritty reality may discourage tourism.[1] In particular, the leader of Blackpool council Simon Blackburn voiced his concerns after watching the show.[2] On 26 July 2013, it was confirmed that Crackit Productions and the BBC were about to commission "Holiday Hospital 999", another show portraying Blackpool, but these plans were shelved. After the effect of "999: What's Your Emergency?" on the town's popularity with tourists, the Blackpool Gazette called this a "bullet dodged".[3]

PC Claire van Deurs Goss was disciplined by Lancashire Constabulary after being shown applying lip gloss at the wheel of a police vehicle in Series 1 Episode 6, an action which prompted over 50 complaints to the force.[4]

Despite praising the overall performance of his staff, Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Kier Pritchard admitted that the expletives used by some of the Wiltshire police officers featured in the show fell below the standards expected of them.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "TV & film news: gossip, pictures & video - Mirror Online". Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  2. ^ "'999:What's Your Emergency' and how we can tackle Blackpool's social problems". Archived from the original on 20 December 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  3. ^ "'Bullet dodged' on 999 TV show follow up". Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  4. ^ "Blackpool PC disciplined over applying lip gloss". BBC News. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Chief constable unimpressed by swearing on 999 What's Your Emergency? (But he's full of praise of his officers)". swindonadvertiser.co.uk. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
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