Shaw Taylor

Eric Stanley TaylorMBE (26 October 1924 – 17 March 2015), known professionally as Shaw Taylor, was a British actor and television presenter, best known for presenting the long-running five-minute crime programme Police 5.

Early life and career

Taylor served in the RAF and trained at RADA. He then acted on stage in the West End and on tour. He was an announcer for Associated TeleVision when the normal announcer was not available. He then had a variety of acting roles in film and television from the 1950s on, and presented various game shows including Password, Tell the Truth, Dotto, This Is Your Chance and The Law Game (BBC Radio 2). In the early sixties he and Muriel Young co-hosted a music programme on Radio Luxembourg called The Friday Spectacular. In 1972 he presented a pilot episode of Whodunnit? on ITV, before the show was taken over by Edward Woodward for the first series (1973) and then Jon Pertwee from series two to series six (1974-78).

Taylor was best known for presenting Police 5, a long-running 5-minute television programme first broadcast in the London area in 1962 that appealed to the public to help solve crimes. He later presented a spin-off show for younger viewers called Junior Police 5, aka JP5. His catchphrase was "Keep 'em peeled!" - asking viewers to be vigilant. This was originally used at the end of every JP5 programme but, according to Taylor himself, "...at the suggestion of a friend I tried it out on the adult Police 5. I thought it sounded a bit naff at first but then the studio crew seemed to get withdrawal symptoms if I didn't say it at the end of the programme and it became a catchphrase that complete strangers still shout at me in the street".