Doorbell Detectives and Scam Interceptors review: These Big Brother-style shows turn daytime TV into long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror

Which is how I ended up watching Doorbell Detectives (BBC1, Mon, 8.30pm), which inexplicably was given a prime-time slot this week before retreating to a more usual daytime airing in a terrifyingly Big Brother-style anti-crime double bill with Scam Interceptors (BBC1, weekdays, 2.30pm).

Watchdog's Matt Allwright – who has carved himself a niche in these low-budget infotainment shows – hosts Doorbell Detectives, standing uneasily in the middle of a set which is part hay-barn and part GP's waiting room.

What little budget the show has is taken up by a floating screen in the middle of the barn, on which Matt can show us grainy footage from doorbell cameras up and down the country.

Apparently, one-in-five homes comes equipped with these mini CCTV rigs, constantly texting alerts to phones across suburbia, alerting home owners to the delivery man chucking a parcel on the doorstep, next door's cat relieving itself on the azaleas, or little Tommy from No.35 belting down the pavement on his e-scooter.

Matt and his doorbell detectives seem to the think this is a good thing, and brings in Anton, a former police officer with 30 years' experience, to help one Manchester resident previously left severely under-surveilled to fit a camera to her own home.

Anton, who seems to think he is testifying in the witness box rather than offering advice on a semi-serious daytime TV show, offers essential advice such as “make sure the battery is charged”, while brushing off concerns about the invasion of everyone's privacy.

“Some people can get a bit funny about catching what's going in neighbouring properties,” he says, as if the wish to maintain some sort of privacy is the main indicator of a serial killer.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, Matt chats to people who caught would-be burglars in the all-seeing eye of their doorbell camera, and finds out what they did next.

Mainly, it seems, telling everyone else in the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, so they could check their doorbell cameras as well.

That's because “confronting thieves is dangerous”, Matt tells us, before then proving it by talking to homeowner Alison, whose husband was badly beaten up by a fleeing criminal.

Understandably, Alison doesn't want to be identified, so Matt ends up talking to a floating phone lock-screen in the middle Doorbell Detectives' luxo-barn.

It's all very low-rent, and frankly very dull, unlike its partner Scam Interceptors, which is Mission: Impossible compared to Doorbell Detectives’ Hettie Wainthropp Investigates.

Rav Wilding sits in 'Interceptor HQ' in Glasgow, accompanied by a team of black-clad investigators, staring at a bank of screens – all with headsets and flashing lights.

Apparently, they have employed the services of an 'ethical hacker' to get into the computer systems of those scam callers who regularly call to warn you that someone has spend thousands of your hard-earned pounds online.

They can listen into the scammers calling an unsuspecting pensioner and – hopefully – warn them they are being scammed.

Unfortunately, you wonder how they don't get caught in that Spider-Man meme, the one where several Spider-Men are all pointing at each other, each caller claiming the other is the scammer.

Rav is incredibly enthusiastic, the music is pounding and urgent, and the sense of tension is palpable.

Both these shows leave you with the uncomfortable feeling of being observed anonymously, distantly by unknown powers.

But beyond that, the effect they have must be the opposite of the one required.

Far from imparting information that might help keep you safe, far from being an effective crime-busting tool, and very far from giving you a reassuring notion that these criminals are being deterred, these shows can only serve to frighten the viewers at home.

Given these are daytime shows, many of those viewers will be the very frail, vulnerable or elderly people they profess to want to protect.

And leaving them in a state of fear, unwilling to go out, to engage with the world, to enjoy a full life. Only stuck inside watching TV.

Which, as we know, is a problem. Because its summer, and there's nothing on.