Crimefighter still on the scent

Despite Graham Bell's hard-nosed TV persona, he's keen on the finer things in life. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Retired copper turned telly presenter Graham Bell is a little reluctant to be labelled a boy racer, even though a quick look at his autobiography clearly shows a devotion to V8 engines and an interest in cruising the main streets of Hamilton in his youth.

In fact, Bell himself points out the photos of his Model A hot rod in his 2008 book Murder, Mayhem and Mischief, and then takes out his cellphone and proudly displays a photo of his latest obsession: a bright-red custom International pick-up truck.

"With a 400-horsepower V8 engine," Bell proudly adds.

It's an interest that seems at odds with the Police Ten 7 presenter's public persona of hard-nosed policing, but then boys will be boys. And he isn't drag-racing on suburban streets, but attending the annual Beach Hop festival and Americarna events with his wife of 42 years, Joyce.

"There's a real nice vibe around hot rods and custom cars and that sort of thing," Bell explains. "It's more nostalgia. Wherever I go in the truck, people come up and admire it and say how their grandfather had one. It's quite nice."

It would be easy to imagine some of the names Bell might come out with to describe actual boy racers creating mayhem on city streets. He is a man who calls a spade a spade, or an idiot an idiot, whether in front of a camera or not. After 33 years in the force, dealing with everything from drunks to rapists to brutal murderers, Bell doesn't have much time for politically correct terminology.

Sipping English breakfast tea in a Mt Eden, Auckland, cafe, he talks candidly about a "sexual dickhead" who attacked three elderly women in their homes, and the "assholes" he had to deal with on a daily basis during his career. He smiles when asked if everyone is happy with the kind of language he uses on Police Ten 7 to describe offenders.

"That's the fun part of the job," he says, laughing. "When I first started [on the show], I was doing it and at one stage I was told to tone it down a bit. But it's not an affectation, I don't do it for TV, that's just me. It wouldn't work if I got up there and used PC media language."

He's probably right, because he is back to talking the way he wants, and Police Ten 7 has worked for nine years, throughout 17 series, and with the 250th episode airing on Thursday. Not only does the show consistently earn high ratings from audience numbers, but it recently won the title of best reality series in the TV Guide's Best on the Box awards, and, amazingly, has contributed to more than 400 arrests.

Aside from Bell's straight-up approach, what is it that continues to fascinate viewers and keep the 0800 information line running hot week after week?

"I've always believed that people, the average New Zealander, is fed up with crime and they want to help," says Bell. "And I think we've proved they do, because our phones run hot every week. Even relatives of crooks will ring up, and say `that's my cousin'. Some of the crimes are so disgusting that even other criminals are upset about it."

The other drawcard is an endless supply of idiotic behaviour caught on tape as police go about their daily business.

"The whole aim of Police Ten 7, as far as the reality part goes, is about people seeing their police at work, but as an ancillary to that, they see people making fools of themselves," he explains.

Prime examples from previous shows include a man attempting to eat a fully feathered chicken, another handcuffed naked after roaming his neighbourhood undressed, and last year's YouTube hit clip featuring an officer warning a prospective car thief to "always blow on the pie" from the service station. (Bell even has the T-shirt, given to him as a gift.)

The hilarity of some clips is an antidote to the callous crimes that often feature in the rest of the show, Bell admits.

"There is a lot of humour in the police, and a lot of black humour, too. As I said in my book, you're lucky to come through it all and be normal, with all the shit you have to deal with."

Is he normal, then? "I think I am," Bell replies, then laughs.

"I think I've got a chip on both shoulders, so I'm well-balanced."

Despite his jokes, Bell is not unrealistic about the problems of crime, but doesn't let it get him down.

"One of the things you learn part of the way through the police is you're never going to win the battle. There is always going to be a percentage of our society that are criminals ... and once you come to grips with that, it's just a matter of cleaning up what's in front of you and moving on to the next thing."

Yet after more than three decades facing that darker side of human nature, Bell wasn't prepared to give it up totally when he reached the official retirement age of 55.

"I didn't feel that I was ready to reach for the pipe and slippers and fishing rod, you know?" he says. "So this opportunity arose and I took it and I've enjoyed it. It keeps me in touch with all my old police colleagues, it keeps me abreast of what's going on in the law-and-order world, and it's something that I'm really interested in."

Being a TV star wasn't something Bell planned on. He shakes his head when asked if he expected to still be fronting the show almost a decade later. "No," he grins, adding the producer told him they'd be lucky to get two or three years out of the series.

His training consisted of being interviewed about murder cases for the television news while still in the force, and a couple of hours in Auckland's Victoria Park with actor/director Sean Duffy and a camera.

He cringes when he watches some of the earlier shows, but thinks he's come a long way; although he reckons some people might not agree.
Acting ability aside, though, the public seem to love Bell. He does regular speaking engagements, his book's original print run sold out, and he gets nothing but smiles on the street.

"Ninety-eight per cent of people who recognise me have a positive response. People give me the thumbs up or come and shake my hand; it's great," he says.

The other two per cent?

"I don't care about them."

So Bell continues on his quest to help arrest thugs, crooks, ratbags and ruffians. He laughs hard at an old phrase he has seen the proof of many a time: "instant asshole - just add alcohol". He keeps calling it like it is, in whatever words he sees fit. And he plans to keep asking the public to help the police solve crimes on Police Ten 7 for as long as the audiences keep watching and people keep calling.

"As long as they want me to front up there, I'll front up," he says with a twinkle in his eye. "You'll see me coming out with a zimmer frame one day."

Police Ten 7's 250th episode plays on TV2 Thursday at 7.30pm.