Watchdog celebrates 40 years of exposing shocking scams
Watchdog has been standing up for viewers' rights for four decades. The show celebrates tonight on The One Show, looking back at all its big wins
Fighting big business bullies, taking down criminal corporations and exposing shocking scams, Watchdog has been standing up for viewers' rights for 40 years. The beloved consumer investigation show, first broadcast on BBC1 on July 14th 1985, has saved people millions of pounds as it has taken to task rogue traders, even uncovering fraudulent activity. After 35 years, with 1,084 episodes aired, Watchdog was sadly discontinued as a standalone series in 2020, but has remained as a crucial segment on BBC 's The One Show ever since.
Hosted by Matt Allwright and Nikki Fox, they will celebrate the anniversary tomorrow (Wednesday 25th June, BBC1, 7pm), looking back at the success stories, including everything from undercover investigations to big business policy changes and mega refunds. Over the years, some of the most astonishing cases include the discovery of poo in ice in frozen drinks at Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero to a fake banking app, counterfeit Royal Mail stamps and non-existent free flights.
Matt says: 'We've had instances of getting tens of £1,000s of pounds back for people. But the ripple effect of that is all those other people who look at that and use it as a negotiating tactic. Whatever we've got back for people, and it's millions of pounds without a shadow of a doubt, you can add a multiplier to that.' He adds: 'I don't like bullies. I don't like people that use the strength of their position to get one over on other people. I think you know that sense of injustice, where you can see somebody who has got your money and doesn't feel the need to do right by you because they're a big company and they'll never see you again. I feel a sense of pride that once a week you get the chance to turn that on its head and say, 'No, you're not always going to win'.'
Nikki says: 'I feel very privileged that I get to be a part of helping solve people's issues that are so frustrating. You can feel like you're hitting your head against a brick wall. When we get a solution, it's joyful. We have an awful lot of scam stories. People who have been scammed always feel so stupid, but they are not. These scams are designed to trick us. There are stories where people get bills from an energy company they're not with, saying they owe thousands of pounds and that is scary. I've been in debt and I've been in a position where I've dreaded every letter that comes through the door. You worry about debt collectors, it's not nice. I think working on the show has made me more aware. I didn't used to check things thoroughly, I wasn't as security conscious.'
Matt became an official Watchdog co-host in 2009, but has had reporting slots on the show dating all the way back to 1997 and presented Weekend Watchdog in 1999. He says: 'I was 27 when I joined, it's been over 28 years now and boy, it shows. When I started people were writing and phoning in and we were really taking calls at the back of the studio. One of my great heroes of all time is the show's first ever host Lynn Faulds Wood, because she campaigned her whole life. When she was on Watchdog, she did amazing things. I could look around this room, that's a moulded plug on the end of a piece of flex. She did that. Before that we had to fit our own plugs. Every biro top has a hole in it for safety in case it's swallowed. Every time you go to your oven and the oven door is cold, so your kid doesn't get burnt, down to Lynn Faulds Wood.'
Matt adds: 'To represent people when they feel powerless and voiceless is as good as it gets. My best advice is - 'Out of the blue not for you'. If you receive something out of the blue, whether it's a text, a phone call, an email or WhatsApp, ask yourself where it's really come from. Who made contact first? If they came looking for you, be very suspicious. The reason that Watchdog is still going after 40 years is that these problems affect everybody, regardless of their age. We're all consumers.'
BIGGEST WATCHDOG SUCCESSES
*In the late 1980s, a Watchdog investigation showed that numerous accidents were caused when electrical plugs on new appliances were incorrectly wired. At the time, all new goods were sold with bare wires and customers were expected to fit them themselves. Many people lacked the knowledge or skill to do this properly. The campaign led to a change in British law requiring all electrical appliances sold in the UK to be supplied with fitted plugs.
*In 1992 and 1993, The Hoover Company introduced a 'free flights' offer for two free flights to New York City if a customer spent over £100. Due to an overwhelming response, many people didn't get their flights. After hundreds of complaints and an investigation by Simon Walton, it became humiliating headline news and Hoover had to give customers the flights, costing them an estimated £40 million, with several execs losing their jobs.
*Television sales channel auctionworld.tv failed to deliver goods or offer refunds to over 27,000 customers in the early 2000s, and were fined £450,000 by Ofcom. Investigations by Watchdog forced refunds and the closure of the channel, and traced the owner, but he refused to answer questions.
*Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero had launched new ranges of frozen drinks back in summer of 2017. A lab report revealed that nearly half of the ice samples came back with significant levels of not just any bacteria, but faecal coliforms that the expert said were a significant risk. Watchdog sparked internal investigations, with Nero promising to take action and Starbucks and Costa updating their ice handling guidelines.
*A man called Arthur, who banked with Natwest had his card stolen and £20,000 taken by scammers in 2018. The bank rejected his claim as fraud and gave him no explanation. But Watchdog got involved and got the money back.
*Royal Mail - people were being charged a £5 fee for receiving letters with counterfeit stamps, some of which were bought from the Post Office. Watchdog interviewed one of Royal Mail's bosses, David Gold, who said that stamps bought from the Post Office or a recognised High St retailer should be the real deal - despite what we found. He said that if customers challenged the penalty, Royal Mail would investigate and refund. However, Royal Mail later announced it was temporarily suspending the £5 fee while it developed an app to allow customers to check their own stamps.
PAST PRESENTERS
1980-1984: Before Watchdog became its own standalone show, it was hosted by Hugh Scully a feature as part of Nationwide magazine show and then Sixty Minutes current affairs show
1985: Lynn Faulds Wood and Nick Ross
1986-1993: Lynn with her husband John Stapleton, who replaced Nick
1993-2001: Anne Robinson (with various co-presenters, first Alice Beer and Simon Walton, then Charlotte Hudson)
2001-2005: Nicky Campbell and Kate Gerbeau (with co-presenters Paul Heiney, Ashley Blake and Saima Mohsin)
2005-2008: Nicky Campbell with Julia Bradbury (with Paul)
2008-2009: Nicky with Julia, then later Anita Rani (with Paul)
2009-2015: Anne Robinson returned (with co-hosts Anita, Chris Hollins and Matt Allwright)
2015: Sophie Raworth and Michelle Ackerley (with Chris and Matt)
2016: Sophie with Matt (with co-hosts Michelle, Steph and Nikki Fox)
2017-2019: Matt and Steph (co-host Nikki)
*Watchdog at 40 on The One Show, Wednesday 25th June, BBC1, 7pm.
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North Wales Chronicle
18 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Glastonbury says chants by Bob Vylan ‘crossed the line' as police assess footage
The performer Bobby Vylan led crowds on the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' on Saturday, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans 'start a riot' at his bandmate's forthcoming court appearance. A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury and Emily Eavis said: 'As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. 'We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love. 'With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer's presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs. 'However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. 'Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said chants of 'death' to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Glastonbury were 'appalling' and that the BBC and festival have 'questions to answer'. As police examine videos of their comments, Mr Streeting told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'I thought it's appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens.' He said what people should be talking about in the context of Israel and Gaza is the humanitarian catastrophe and the fact that Israeli settlers attacked a Christian village this week. He added: 'The fact that we saw that chant at a music festival, when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped, and in some cases still held captive, whether it's a Palestinian or an Israeli, whether it's a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, all life is precious. 'All life is sacred. And I find it pretty revolting we've got to a state in this conflict where you're supposed to sort of cheer on one side or the other like it's a football team.' Asked if the BBC should have cut the live feed, he said the broadcaster has questions to answer, but that he did not know what the editorial and operational 'challenges' are of taking such action. Avon and Somerset Police said video evidence would be assessed by officers 'to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation'. On social media, the Israeli Embassy said it was 'deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival'. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the scenes 'grotesque', writing on X: 'Glorifying violence against Jews isn't edgy. The West is playing with fire if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchecked.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it would be formally complaining to the BBC over its 'outrageous decision' to broadcast Bob Vylan. A spokesperson said: 'Our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions.' A BBC spokesperson added: 'Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan's set were deeply offensive. 'During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.' Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan's performance, a Government spokesperson said. Bob Vylan, who formed in Ipswich in 2017, have released four albums with their music addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. Kneecap, who hail from Belfast, have been in the headlines after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence. The group performed after Vylan's set on the West Holts Stage with O hAnnaidh exclaiming 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man' as they took to the stage. In reference to his bandmate's forthcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine'. In the run-up to the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for the group to be removed from the line-up and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said their performance would not be 'appropriate'. During the performance, Caireallain said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.' He also said a 'big thank you to the Eavis family' and said 'they stood strong' amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up.
Spectator
22 minutes ago
- Spectator
Glastonbury has become a sinister festival of anti-Semitism
They're chanting for the death of Jews at Glastonbury. Yesterday a swaying mob of faux-virtuous poseurs blithely howled for 'Death, death to the IDF'. They'll say they were being political. 'It was an anti-war cry, not an anti-Jew cry', they'll insist today, as the hangover lifts and the horror of their noisy clamour for the death of those they hate finally dawns on them. But such thin excuses won't wash, not this time. That's what Glastonbury felt like yesterday: a woke Nuremberg rally It was the punk rap act Bob Vylan that appeared to whip the crowd into a frenzy of Israelophobia. The lead singer first got them chanting 'Free, free Palestine', the mandatory holler of every bourgeois youth who's determined to prove his virtue to his peers. Then he upped the ante. 'Death, death to the IDF', he barked, and the audience went with it. Like a Pavlovian pack, they mimicked the rocker on stage and shrieked for the violent demise of the army of the Jewish nation. Let's speak frankly – our moral crisis is too pressing for pussy-footing. 'Death to the IDF' means the death of Jews. First, because the soldiers of the IDF are predominantly Jewish. But more importantly because this is the force tasked with defending the Jewish homeland from the armies of anti-Semites that surround it. The IDF is the only thing standing between the Jewish State and its genocidal obliteration by the apocalyptic bigots on its borders. The death of the IDF would be the death of the world's only Jewish nation. Untold numbers of Jews would perish in the event of this thing dreamt of by the preening middle classes of Glastonbury. 'We didn't think of that', some will say today, as shame intrudes into the sick joy they derived from praying for the death of other human beings. Well, to borrow a slogan beloved of you people: 'Educate yourselves.' The seriousness of what happened at Glastonbury cannot be overstated. I'm struggling to think of any other recent event in the UK where a mob has called for the death of human beings. Where a crowd has agitated with macabre elation for people to die. I guess there were those small, mad gatherings of Islamists a few years ago, where some held up placards saying: 'Behead those who insult Islam.' But Glasto's roar for the death of the young Jewish men and women of the IDF felt worse. For here we had privileged youths issuing mantras of death. Here we had a festival that's meant to be about peace and love ringing out with a din-like demand for the destruction of human life. Imagine how Glasto's Jewish attendees will have felt. Or Jewish viewers at home – the BBC live-broadcasted the sick death chant. A majority of British Jews identify with the Jewish nation, and yet here were their Gentile compatriots openly fantasising about the death of that nation's youthful protectors. What a sickening sight. The question that hangs darkly over Glastonbury's death dreaming is this: why the IDF? Why not 'Death to the People's Liberaton Army', which visits such horrors on the Uyghur people? Or 'Death to the Rapid Support Forces', the psycho militia that has caused tens of thousands of deaths in Sudan over the past two years? Or, indeed, 'Death to Hamas', that reactionary, racist army that started the war in Gaza with its fascistic pogrom of 7 October 2023? A pogrom that involved mass rape and murder at a music festival not unlike Glastonbury. We all know why. It's because hating the Jewish State is all the rage among the activist classes. Singling out the Jewish nation as the most bloodthirsty nation is what passes for 'politics' on today's left. They damn this tiny country as the greatest menace to humanity, as a Nazi-like entity, as a nation so swimming in sin and blood that it deserves to be erased, 'from the river to the sea'. Tell me there isn't bigotry here. Tell me it doesn't echo the older, darker damnation of the Jews themselves as a bloodlusting people, the poison in the well of humanity. For me, that's what Glastonbury felt like yesterday: a woke Nuremberg rally. With their gleeful cry for the death of Israeli soldiers, for the destruction of the army that defends the Jewish homeland, these people sounded more like the moral heirs of Oswald Mosley than Sylvia Pankhurst. It was a like a gathering of Guardianista versions of Unity Mitford essentially saying, 'F**k the Jewish nation'. Glastonbury has apologised. The festival said it was 'appalled' by what unfolded. But there's no doubt that this felt like a turning point. The mania of Israel-hate stood exposed before the world. The true nature of the bourgeois cult of Palestinianism, with its virulent hostility not only to Israel but to the West itself, was clear for all to see. We glimpsed, briefly, the threat that the delirium of Israelophobia poses to Jewish security, to the values of our own civilisation, and to all that is decent. These people have had the stage for too long – it's time for the good among us to stand up.
Glasgow Times
35 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Glastonbury says chants by Bob Vylan ‘crossed the line' as police assess footage
The performer Bobby Vylan led crowds on the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' on Saturday, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans 'start a riot' at his bandmate's forthcoming court appearance. A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury and Emily Eavis said: 'As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. 'We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love. 'With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer's presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs. 'However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. 'Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said chants of 'death' to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Glastonbury were 'appalling' and that the BBC and festival have 'questions to answer'. As police examine videos of their comments, Mr Streeting told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'I thought it's appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens.' He said what people should be talking about in the context of Israel and Gaza is the humanitarian catastrophe and the fact that Israeli settlers attacked a Christian village this week. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the BBC and the festival have 'questions to answer' (Lucy North/PA) He added: 'The fact that we saw that chant at a music festival, when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped, and in some cases still held captive, whether it's a Palestinian or an Israeli, whether it's a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, all life is precious. 'All life is sacred. And I find it pretty revolting we've got to a state in this conflict where you're supposed to sort of cheer on one side or the other like it's a football team.' Asked if the BBC should have cut the live feed, he said the broadcaster has questions to answer, but that he did not know what the editorial and operational 'challenges' are of taking such action. Avon and Somerset Police said video evidence would be assessed by officers 'to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation'. Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival (Ben Birchall/PA) On social media, the Israeli Embassy said it was 'deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival'. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the scenes 'grotesque', writing on X: 'Glorifying violence against Jews isn't edgy. The West is playing with fire if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchecked.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it would be formally complaining to the BBC over its 'outrageous decision' to broadcast Bob Vylan. A spokesperson said: 'Our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions.' A BBC spokesperson added: 'Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan's set were deeply offensive. 'During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.' Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan's performance, a Government spokesperson said. Bob Vylan, who formed in Ipswich in 2017, have released four albums with their music addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. Kneecap, who hail from Belfast, have been in the headlines after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence. The group performed after Vylan's set on the West Holts Stage with O hAnnaidh exclaiming 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man' as they took to the stage. In reference to his bandmate's forthcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine'. In the run-up to the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for the group to be removed from the line-up and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said their performance would not be 'appropriate'. During the performance, Caireallain said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.' He also said a 'big thank you to the Eavis family' and said 'they stood strong' amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up.
