Roaming white vans that'sent shiver up your spine'

Powerful' I V detector vehicles travelled across the country to hunt out non-licence payers - but were they a scare tactic?

- LEE GRIMSDITCH AND DAVID MCLEAN

MANY people will remember the TV adverts warning of a fleet of TV detector vans hunting the city streets looking for licence dodgers.

One sinister 1985 advert depicted stereotypical rows of northern city rooftops with their aerials quivering 'in fear' and then appearing to faint.

Over this, a male voice spoken with an upper-class accent, sternly advised if we're caught watching TV without a licence we could be fined £400 - all the while a jarring orchestral score played in the background.

The plummy voice warned: "There are rather a lot of TV detector vans in this area tonight - new, more powerful vans. If you don't have a licence, they'll know exactly where to look for you."

These warnings of evil-looking white vans had generations of illicit TV viewers glued to their windows as much as their TV sets.

However, some believe the UK's analogue age TV detector vans were little more than an elaborate hoax to scare us into paying our licence fees, Edinburgh Live reports.

If you're of a certain age, you'll remember well the palpable fear that washed over your street as a friend or family member announced that the telly detector van was in the area.

The arrival of the white vans, which were emblazoned with 'TV Licensing' in blue lettering along the sides with an elaborate array of antennae on their roofs, would prompt terrified residents to pick up their phonebooks and dial the number of everyone they knew to warn them to switch off their sets.