Episode 5 Oxford Street Revealed

It's the most famous shopping street in the world,

in the heart of Britain's capital city -

a mile and a half long, with 30 million visitors each year,

with some of the world's most famous shops,

biggest stars...

-Kate Moss.

-CHEERING

..and busiest stations.

Sorry, guys, stand back for me!

What does it take to keep it running 24 hours a day...

It's the busiest street in the world, so needs constant attention.

-..seven days a week?

-Oi! Clear off!

You're going to be arrested on suspicion of attempted theft.

Are you ready, London?

A street that never sleeps.

This sort of thing wouldn't happen anywhere else.

Oxford Street.

Coming up, drug dealers give out business cards.

It's an offence just to offer to supply drugs.

Plain-clothes police take them down.

-Oh!

-Stop resisting!

Get on the floor!

They've come from a land down under -

the Australian rugby team visit Oxford Street...

It's so nerve-racking!

I just froze. I should have said something.

..and the fat build-up

that threatens to strangle the West End of London...

You can see it just gets thicker and thicker.

The task of keeping Oxford Street safe falls to its police team,

known as ORB...

..and tonight, their plain-clothes officers

have been asked to take part in Operation Bobcat.

They're cracking down on crime in Soho,

just to the south of Oxford Street.

Full of cafes and bars serving shoppers during the day,

once darkness falls, Soho becomes the centre of London's nightlife...

which brings with it its own brand of problems

for the police to deal with.

Tonight the team will be taking on the area's drug problem head-on.

Keep it nice and tight out there.

I want you in your fours for officer safety issues, if nothing else.

Sergeant Gary Skinner's setting his sights on drug dealers

and, at the moment, the dealers have a new tactic

they're hoping will help them evade arrest.

What some of the drug dealers now are doing,

they're trying to go up in the world,

and rather than just doing it on the street,

they literally deliver their cards. They give you a card

and say "Ring this number if would like some drugs."

One of them was arrested last week and he had 50 of his cards on him.

He went and offered two undercover police officers drugs.

We do like it when they offer us drugs. It does make our night.

Gary's team start patrolling.

They have a good relationship with local businesses,

and after a few minutes, information comes through from door security

at a nightclub that there's a dealer in the area up to some new tricks.

The chap said the fellow that's handing out his number for drugs

has now come back and is giving his cards out to loads of people,

so we've got officers watching him.

Gary plans to intercept anyone given the cards

and get witness statements from them.

If they say they were offered drugs,

he'll arrest the man for offering to supply.

He's giving these cards out like flyers.

He's unbelievably naive. Desperate, naive, stupid - take your pick.

One of Gary's colleagues has overheard the suspect

talking to club-goers.

I overheard him say, "I can sort you with anything you want.

"I specialise in MDMA, though."

And then the IC1's replied to him, "I'm so glad we bumped into you.

"We've been trying to get sorted all night."

-So it's an IC3 chap.

-IC3.

It's an offence just to offer to supply drugs.

But, as they plot their next move,

the team fear they've been spotted by the suspect.

-Has he still got eyes on us?

-Yeah, he's paying attention to us.

We'll fade away then. Fade away, fade away.

Keeping an eye on him in smaller groups,

they watch as he continues handing out cards.

Sergeant Skinner sees him approach someone.

Once the suspect has left,

he moves in to have a chat with the man he approached.

Excuse me, mate.

A black male just spoke to you and gave you a card. Is that correct?

-Who, me?

-Yeah. Gave you a card?

Literally, you can check my cards, anything.

Yeah, that's it. That's the card.

-Do you want it?

-Hang on, hang on.

He said, "Ring me if you need anything."

I don't know what else he needed.

He said the card was given to him with the words,

"If you want anything, give me a call."

So we haven't got sufficient on this one,

so if you can look for other victims, please, and intercept them.

Without a definite reference to drugs,

Gary doesn't think the witness's statement will be strong enough.

Very disappointed.

Again, we're limited, sometimes, by the amount of drink

our victims/ witnesses have had and how willing they are to assist us.

But further down the street,

the suspect was seen talking to a group of girls.

Hello, ladies. Hello, sir. Don't be alarmed.

It's Sergeant Skinner from the police.

-Ladies. Do you speak English?

-Yeah.

The chap that just spoke to you, what did he say to you?

-Would you like the card?

-Yes, please. You've done nothing wrong.

-None of you have done anything wrong.

-I know.

-It's important though. What did he say?

-He mentioned that he has drugs.

He has drugs.

OK, those people terrorise the area.

A lot of the time, they offer you drugs

and if you did go with them, then they rob you.

If you give evidence, we can stop him hurting someone else

-that may be just like you.

-Did you see his face?

-Yeah.

Kids sell drugs.

Just cos you got a pretty face don't mean you're bad?

I've lived in England for a while...

-No, madam...

-..and I can tell if someone is bad

-or someone is not bad.

-Trust me,

I've been a police officer for a long time.

He's bad, trust me, he's bad. Would you be willing to give a statement?

-I'll do the statement.

-This officer is going to take your statement.

-Thank you very much. You've helped someone tonight.

-OK...

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

-Hello.

-Lovely. Let's go.

Later, Sergeant Skinner catches up with his quarry.

-Police.

-Put it down.

-Put your fag down.

It's autumn on Oxford Street and there's a battle going on.

The Rugby World Cup's in town

and each of the leading teams have tie-ins

with different stores on the street.

Adidas have the All Blacks,

Sports Direct are all over the England team

and Australia and South Africa are linked to their kit makers, ASICS.

To make the most of their sponsorship,

several stores have arranged shirt signings with their teams -

and today, the Australian rugby team,

better known to fans as the Wallabies,

is making a live appearance.

Sports lab manager Andrew is overseeing the event for the shop.

They're coming to the store.

They'll be signing some shirts, and anything for the fans,

as you can see, collecting behind me.

It's starting to get busy now, so there's a good buzz round the store.

Marketing man Gareth has been in charge of publicising the event.

Best result for today is that we get good attendance,

that the players are punctual

and that they're not too tired from their win yesterday.

I think if we can hit around 300,

that would be really good attendance.

The players are due in-store at 5:00.

By 4:30, the queues are growing.

Dylan's got his jumper and my jumper.

We're going to get them signed by whoever's here.

My friends back home, they're like, "You have to do it.

"You have to represent Australia and get photos for us."

And there's one man, in particular, they've all come to see -

rugby superstar Israel Folau.

Israel Folau.

Israel Folau.

Izzy Folau.

Israel Folau is obviously one of the most exciting players at the moment

in world rugby, so it's extremely exciting to have him here with us.

I think a lot of people will be here for Folau.

For Andrew, there's another player he's more concerned about.

Will Skelton is size 18 UK feet.

We're actually quite a big store. We go up to size 14.

16 is the biggest we've had someone coming in to buy,

but unfortunately we were not able to help them.

But size doesn't matter when your team isn't even here.

It's now 5 o'clock and they're nowhere to be seen.

They're travelling down from Birmingham,

having played and won a match there the previous day.

It's Gareth's job to meet and greet the players at a nearby car park.

There's a delay in traffic, so they should be here about 5:15.

Fantastic. Thank you very much.

Then, at 20 past 5, word comes through to Gareth.

-I'll be back in about five minutes.

-I'll get everything ready for you.

I'm a little bit nervous, you know?

You've been planning for such a long time and then it comes to fruition.

Later, the Wallabies arrive...

Awesome. Just great to wish them all the best for Saturday.

..and turn the store into a VIP shopping trip.

It's 8pm and a team from Thames Water

are getting ready for a night out in the West End -

with a difference.

This bit of kit here is our main safety for ourselves.

It reads atmospheres at all times.

It checks for low oxygen, high oxygen levels,

methane gas and hydrosulphides. You don't want to breathe them in

and if the levels do go off, we've got indicators.

Each person who does an entry has to have one.

Tonight, sewer flushers Gary and Tim are on the attack.

They're involved in an ongoing battle with fat

that residents and businesses put into the sewer system

and which threatens to overwhelm it.

We're on Oxford Street now.

It's busy, a lot of pedestrians, a lot of traffic.

We've set up behind us, all ready to go.

The first job is to lay rat bait

and check for fat build-ups in the Northumberland sewer.

Before becoming a flusher, Tim used to work as a grave-digger.

Now I'm going down sewers, not going down graves.

The smell of death and the smell of poo are equally as bad

but I suppose you do it for a living, you get used to it.

Time to get down and dirty with it.

Right.

First up, is to check their existing rat bait stations.

It looks like the rats have nibbled it, so I'm going to replenish it.

Because we've disturbed it,

they won't come here for another seven days,

so that'll sit here for seven days. They'll slowly come back,

fresh bit of bait, they'll smell it.

Bit like peanut bitter. They do love a bit of peanut butter.

And Tim installs some new ones.

Come and get it, boys. Dinner's here.

The Northumberland sewer is a Victorian original,

built by the engineer Joseph Bazalgette.

At the end of it, they find what they were looking for.

-Signs of fat here, Tim.

-Yeah.

-There's a big lump here, look.

-There's a little mini fatberg here again.

-Yeah.

I'm going to have go and get the shovel and get rid of that.

They get to work.

Large build-ups of fat in sewers

have been nicknamed fatbergs by the press.

Gary wants to make sure this mini fatberg never grows up.

What I'm standing in is the start.

It'll sit there and it'll congeal and solidify into this mucky stuff.

It's not nice, as you can see.

Look, wet wipes in there, tissue, stuff like that.

A lot of people think wet wipes are biodegradable, but they're not.

If you look behind me, that's what it's going to end up like.

We'll shovel that off because if we don't,

that will continue to get bigger and bigger

and, as you can see, the flows are going in this flap.

This is the main exit for this sewer to go into.

Worst-case scenario for Oxford Street, with the fat is,

if it blocks up the sewers here,

they're all pretty fast flowing, it won't take very long

for them to fill up and start coming up out the manhole covers,

so you'd end up with a sewage flood in Oxford Street.

That can cause a blockage. You don't want it getting so big.

Try and break it up into little pieces

cos it can always cause a blockage anywhere else down the line.

That'll end up at Beckton. At Beckton we'll treat the fat.

It's all over the place, so I'm just going to have to keep shovelling it.

It's really sticky and greasy.

Once you get it on your hands and your gloves,

you can't grip anything. It just goes everywhere.

There's no smell like it. It's horrible.

It's like a really sweet, sort of sickly smell.

Fat blockages like this cost Thames Water

around £12 million a year to clear.

Gary's pleased to have got to this fatberg early.

We've only got to shovel because it's little.

If it was major, you wouldn't be able to get in here.

There'd be fat, there'd be too-high flows

and you'd have to use high-pressure equipment

and you're talking major jobs.

Very, very hot, mate. Ooh.

Ooh, dear.

Very glad to be up in the air again.

They've just finished at this sewer,

when a call comes through from across town.

There's an urgent problem at a second sewer nearby,

feeding into Oxford Street.

They get straight on the case.

Later, Gary checks out the second sewer

and can't believe what he finds.

It's a skin of fat. You can see it just gets thicker and thicker.

Let's go.

The Oxford Street police team have been deployed

to neighbouring Soho to help crack down on the area's drug problem.

Just to confirm, chap in the two-tone baseball hat...

Sergeant Gary Skinner and his plain-clothes team

are on the trail of a suspected drug dealer

they've seen handing out business cards to pub and club-goers.

Having secured a witness statement,

Gary decides it's time to move in on their suspect.

-Hello, it's police.

-Police.

-Put it down.

-Put your fag down.

Put that down. All right.

To the rear, to the rear. To the rear.

Say the magic words, one of you, thank you. Which one?

-Stop resisting.

-Oi! Get on the floor!

I'm not resisting.

Behave yourself. Give us your legs.

-Do you understand me? Yes? Do you understand?

-What?

-You're going to be under arrest.

-For what?

-Paddy, you nick him.

You're under arrest for offering to supply a class A substance.

You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

-Are you going to behave now?

-Yes.

-Good.

I'm going to release him gently. Do not kick off.

A search reveals the evidence they were hoping for.

-Business cards, seized 23:49.

-Seized from the right-hand rear pocket.

With a witness statement and the business cards in the bag,

things are not looking good for the suspect -

but he's not giving up easily,

and is keen to explain his possession of the cards.

We've heard it before. Yeah, I know.

It's not a very good system, though, is it? Cos you have no friends.

You're on your own. There you go. Just stand over here.

Your offence is offering to supply drugs.

Even if you had no drugs on you, that is the offence,

is offering to supply.

The van's here.

Yeah, I think I know what you're going to say.

Far from convinced by his story, the team put the suspect in the van

and take him back to the station.

Excellent work, gents. Superb. It's all going well, you know.

I've never had it so good. Operation Bobcat - silly name, great job.

Seriously, that's a potential robber taken off the street.

It might be one suspect off the street, but the team know

that's not going to solve the area's drugs problem on its own.

Later, they bring in a little help.

-This is a drugs dog, OK.

-Yes!

-Have you got anything on you you're not meant to have?

-No!

At a sports store on Oxford Street,

staff are getting ready for their biggest ever event -

the arrival of Australian rugby team, the Wallabies,

for a World Cup signing session.

-I'll be back in about five minutes.

-I'll get everything ready for you.

Gareth's gone to meet and greet the team at a nearby car park,

but he's just left, when they arrive from another direction.

The team head into the store, largely missed by the fans.

Seconds later, the players, including rugby superstar Israel Folau

and six-foot-eight Will Skelton, take their seats.

I missed them. I went to the wrong car park.

Well, I went to the car park and they decided to...

What are you playing at?

Central London and the traffic the way it was, found another way.

But they're here, that's the main thing.

That's the main thing but we'll have words later on, my friend.

The six players get busy with the fans, to a rapturous reception.

Great buzz going on, as you can hear. Fantastic noise.

The players seem to be really getting behind them.

-Great. The main men were there for you.

-Yeah.

Awesome. It was great to see the players

and say g'day and wish them all the best for Saturday.

It's so nerve-racking.

Because you're watching them on TV and you see them in real life

and you're like, "Oh, my God."

I just froze. I should have said something.

What do you say to them? "Thank you"?

In addition to the signing, the team are using the store,

and Andrew's fitness lab, in particular,

as a base for media commitments.

Matt Toomua is giving an interview with ABC Australia.

I told them to watch out for my equipment. I gave them a lowdown.

I was, like, "That's £30,000, that £10,000. Don't touch."

But, while the meet and greet continues,

the players have another thing on their minds altogether.

They might be top sportsmen, but everyone loves a freebie.

What's probably the easiest thing to do,

is if you see anything here you like, I'll take a note of it

and I'll get it shipped to your hotel in Westminster.

And as the queues begin to die down,

they finally get a chance for their VIP shop.

I take it you know what type of runners,

-whether you're an overpronator or neutral...

-Yeah.

And size 18 Will Skelton is on the hunt for some new socks.

I've got white I can give you right now

but we haven't got any black at the moment.

-Um...

-I'll shoot.

-No worries, man.

Should I get the red ones?

-Red.

-That.

-Red? OK, red.

Might as well.

The kit orders taken and media commitments met,

the team can finally head off -

although dragging them away from the kit is proving hard.

-Thanks, I appreciate it.

-Take it easy.

-You too.

-No worries.

No worries. Take it easy, all right.

As they head down Oxford Street to their hotel,

there's still time for a few photos for the fans with Izzy Folau.

For the staff in store, it's a chance to relax.

Went really well, actually.

So, we obviously had 50 priority shirts sold

and we sold another 45 shirts on the day,

plus a whole heap of accessories.

Altogether, we had about 500 people,

so a really, really good turnout for a midweek.

The customers are happy, the players are happy, staff are happy,

so yeah, it's been a really successful day.

And after we filmed,

the Australians were inspired to beat England, Wales and Scotland

on the way to the final of the Rugby World Cup,

which they lost to archrivals New Zealand.

Thames Water flushers, Gary and Tim,

have been called to an urgent problem at a central London sewer.

It's going to be Gary's mission

to squeeze through the much smaller manhole

to see what's going on down below.

I'm going to hell. I won't be back.

At the bottom,

he's greeted by one of the most epic sights in London's sewers.

A giant fatberg, over 100 metres long and entirely filling the sewer flow.

That little bit we saw at the top of Oxford street,

if we didn't clear that, it would end up like what we're in now.

It is absolutely chock... It's a skin of fat.

That's how thick the fat is

and the flow underneath it is about that thick.

It's constant flow - I can feel it running through my feet -

so at least I know the sewer is still running underneath.

If it wasn't running underneath,

it would cause a major problem for London.

Fatbergs like this are Thames Water's greatest problem.

They restrict the flow of sewage and can cause blockages

and even surface floods.

And as you can see...

I'll pick up some stuff. Toothbrush, lip balm,

a packet of crisps,

a straw from McDonalds, toothpaste,

a bottle, a bit of a wrapper...

Look.

Your worms love it as well.

Come to think of it, I used to fish with worms.

I don't think I'll be using worms again for fishing.

This monster fatberg's become so huge

it's well beyond what Gary can clear with a shovel.

There is no space to move in the sewer, due to the fat.

You can see it just gets thicker and thicker.

All he can do tonight is take pictures to report back.

I'm getting stuck.

I can't wade myself through it, go down and take pictures,

so I'm going to have to sit here and take pictures.

With the fatberg inspected and pictures taken,

Gary calls a halt for tonight.

Location two's done

but it's going to get a bit of a worse problem sooner or later,

so I've took the pictures, I'll report them to my manager today.

I'll send an e-mail with the pictures of what's happening.

It needs to be looked into ASAP

cos I don't want it to cause no blockages, no problems,

no floodings or no sewage to the Thames.

That's the last thing that Thames Water needs.

It's got to be cleaned out, there's no two ways about it,

otherwise it will be coming up the shaft.

-I'm going to get changed.

-No problem.

-Cos I stink of fat.

Eventually, a team will have to visit with chemicals

and industrial jetters to remove this,

but until that happens,

this fatberg will continue to sit underneath London,

getting a little bit fatter every day.

The Oxford Street police team are working south of the street

in the ongoing battle against the drugs problem

in the adjoining Soho area...

and tonight, a uniformed team have decided to bring in a little help.

So, Alfie is a three-year-old Labrador.

He's a Met Police-trained passive detection dog.

Dogs are brilliant. They'll really help us,

really add an extra dimension

to where we're going to be dealing with this.

We're under no illusions as to who's the intelligent one of the outfit.

If they could drive, we'd be out of a job, and that's the way it is.

The team arrive in Soho at 10:30.

Alfie is one of two dogs on duty tonight

and he and Nancy immediately get to work.

They know the scent of all the most frequently found street drugs

and are trained to follow them

and then indicate the source to their handlers.

He's scanning the pocket of air around people as they come along.

Little stroke? Yeah, stroke. Course you can.

But he's never distracted from his job.

-Just come here for me, madam.

-Oh.

-This is a drugs dog, OK.

-Yes!

-Have you got anything on you you're not meant to have?

-No!

-Have you smoked some cannabis today?

-Yes.

-OK.

An officer goes through the woman's pockets

but she doesn't have anything on her.

There you go.

You can stroke him now. Sorry about that.

-Do you look after him at home as well?

-Yes, yeah.

-Ahh.

Yeah, good boy.

Alfie's got his tennis ball and it's about having fun for him,

so we're having a play while we're waiting.

John and Alfie get back to business.

It doesn't take Alfie long to catch the scent again.

-My colleague's going to search your pockets now.

-Oh, yeah, please.

This time, the officers do find illegal drugs.

Just a little bit more of the funky stuff.

It isn't much, but they confiscate it.

It's still a class B drug. People often don't know that

and as such, we've been able to give this gentleman

a cannabis warning form.

It's like an official police warning, if you like.

Cannabis warnings are not cautions or convictions

but they allow police to avoid having to arrest

and process low-level offenders.

You get caught with it again, you're going to get a PND,

so you'll get a ticket, a big fine.

Catch you again after that and you'll get arrested and go to court.

It's unfortunate you've walked past a drugs dog, or I wouldn't know.

Further up the road, PC Sarah-Jane Morrison

and dog Nancy have stopped someone else.

We were walking down Dean Street

and Nancy has pointed out this individual.

We've seen him drop an item on the floor.

When we've been through the item,

it's a wrapped-up powder inside a lottery ticket.

He's admitted to it being drugs so he's getting a caution.

The man is arrested.

The cocaine trade operates hand-in-hand with violent crime

and possession can't be dealt with using just a warning form.

Alfie, come on.

Up the road, John and Alfie have kept going

and they've stopped two more men.

Hello, mate. This is a drugs dog.

Alfie, come on. Good boy.

A search turns up nothing.

John's happy to give one of the men the benefit of the doubt this time.

He's saying he hasn't got anything on him but he's come from a bar,

so it may well be that someone's been smoking it near him,

his clothes are contaminated, I'm not sure.

The other man does have some drug paraphernalia in his bag.

It certainly looks like cannabis to me.

Constable Tom May has found a herb grinder

with a very small amount of what smells like cannabis.

It shows how little it takes for Alfie to pick up the scent.

Yeah.

Because there's trace amounts of cannabis in it,

we'll be seizing this as evidence.

He, too, gets a warning form.

Like humans, dogs get tired and can quickly get bored.

Alfie's most effective in short bursts and after three hours,

-his shift is over.

-He's worked really well.

It's always nice when he comes out and does something and finds drugs.

A fairly successful evening for the guys, really.

Eight people dealt with for cocaine, cannabis.

One male was arrested for kicking out at the dog.

He was intoxicated, so he was arrested for drunk and disorderly,

So, so all in all, it had a real good impact on Soho tonight.

THEY ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

It's been an eventful but successful evening

and there are plans to have Alfie patrol with the team again.

Since we filmed, the man arrested with business cards has been charged

with offering to supply class A and class B drugs

and bailed to appear in court.