Gold Coast Cops: Narrator Samuel Johnson tells what the show is like

NARRATING Gold Coast Cops gave actor Samuel Johnson a glimpse into the workings of the police – and this is why he’s addicted to it.

SAMUEL Johnson — actor, breast cancer campaigner and now narrator of Gold Coast Cops, tells us what it is like filming the new reality TV crime show.

“IT’S six months since I finished unicyling around Australia (raising $1.5 million for breast cancer and setting a world record for longest distance travelled on a unicycle) and I’m probably busier now with ambassador work, voice work — there’s a whole bunch of work on the go.

I took my sister (Connie, who has breast cancer, and was impetus for the fundraising ride) away for ten days, and then it was back into it.

Narrating Gold Coast Cops gives me a glimpse into the workings of the RAP (Rapid Action and Patrols Group, the force created to take control of crime on the Gold Coast).

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Addicted to crime drama ... Samuel Johnson will be the host of Channel 10's new Gold Coast Cops show. Picture: Jerad Williams

I got to meet quite a few members of the RAP Unit and did a ride-along with them.

We didn’t bust anyone that day but organised crime, theft, domestic violence, bikie related crime … basically I’ve discovered there’s nothing they don’t do and they are at the coalface.

They are an elite unit and they are first responders. They are proactive.

So they don’t necessarily respond to a crime after it’s happened, they can be there as it’s happening. Or before it happens.

This unit, they don’t have desks. They are not stuck in an office getting bogged down in paperwork half the week.

They are out and about all the time and they are really mobile.

New TV force ... host Samuel Johnson and cops Jim Keogh and Shane Holmes.

I’m fit, but I couldn’t outrun these cops … although maybe on a unicycle …

The RAP Unit is a fascinating echelon of the force in the sense that it’s a little unconventional.

I love this factual reality format. I’ve been a fan of the genre since I was a little bloke watching the US version of Cops.

It gives us an insight into a world that’s generally foreign to us, it’s fly-on-the-wall foreign territory where completely different behaviours and rules dominate.

On the beat ... Gold Coast Cops: The cast with car Heat 3.

I don’t know why crime fascinates us so much — but certainly I’m addicted to it.

The idea of seeing an elite group of cops doing what they do on the Gold Coast — one of the most colourful places on the planet, is a winner for me.

It has been a roller-coaster few years for the people around me, and while there is sadness, I’m in a happy place.

Gold Coast Cops: Senior Constable Kristee "K Rock' La Rocca.

Gold Coast Cops: Senior Constable Matt Bloomfield.

The unicycle ride — the motivation behind it with Connie being so sick — was very much about trying to find some meaning and purpose in what was essentially a senseless situation.

The fact is, Connie is still dying, you know.

To save ourselves from drowning in it all, we decided to focus on things we could change of affect.

Because so much or if was out of our control, so it’s been so great to find some meaning and purpose through the madness.

I think I have a great life.

I have had some pretty unlucky people around me, but I am not one of them.

I feel very lucky. There has been sadness, but I generally feel very lucky.”

GOLD COAST COPS

MONDAY, 7.30PM, TEN

— With Debbie Schipp

Originally published as Gold Coast Cops: Narrator Samuel Johnson tells what the show is like