Nick Ross to leave Crimewatch

After 23 years, Nick Ross is to leave Crimewatch to pursue other ventures.

Nick will remain one of the BBC’s family of presenters and we are talking to him about other potential projects. He leaves Crimewatch at a time when the programme’s conviction rate is at its highest, solving one in five cases featured on the programme.

Nick’s last programme will be on Monday 2 July and will include an item celebrating his contribution to Crimewatch and some of the major crimes that have been solved while he has been presenting the programme.

Peter Fincham, Controller, BBC One, says: “Nick has made a gigantic contribution to Crimewatch which for 23 years has been a uniquely important BBC One programme. The BBC is in his debt, as are the countless victims of crime whose cases Crimewatch has taken up and, on many occasions, helped to solve. It’s no exaggeration to say that, without Nick, there would have been no Crimewatch. We wish him well for the future and I am hoping that he will be back on BBC One soon.”

Nick Ross says: “After more than 23 years at the helm of Crimewatch I shall greatly miss the programme, and I am grateful to the BBC for the privilege of presenting this flagship show. Together we have created something of a national institution which continues to be a phenomenal success in solving crime, winning ratings and maintaining high standards of public service.

“As a direct result of Crimewatch dozens of murders have been solved and undoubtedly many very serious crimes have been averted. All terrestrial audiences have declined in the multichannel era but our last show, as so often, beat all the competition and won some of the highest audience approval ratings on TV.

“I have watched police professionalism grow over more than two decades, and it has often been a humbling experience to work with victims on appeals. I have no bad memories other than of April 1999 and the death of my colleague Jill Dando.

“I shall continue to do all I can to support the Jill Dando Institute at University College London which, with huge public support, we created in her memory. I shall also stay working with the police on crime prevention and other initiatives, and retain my role with Crimestoppers and as an adviser to Victim Support.”