Episode 8 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.

-..and busiest stations.

Sorry, guys, stand back for me.

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

The busiest street in the world, so it 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.

Coming up, it's switch-on time for the Oxford Street Christmas lights.

-The pressure is on.

-But will everything be ready for Kylie?

-Prfff!

-Police are on the trail of bike snatchers and shoplifters.

Why would you need a completely empty bag?

And there's a row going on about mosaics underground.

It's incredible, actually, how dirty it has got.

Oxford Street has its own dedicated police team known as ORB.

Keeping the street a safe shopping destination is their job

and they are known for making the right judgement calls

when it counts.

Tonight, PC Amy Campion and a colleague from the team

are undercover on Oxford Street.

It's coming up to Christmas, when levels of street crime rise because

crowds of extra shoppers provide opportunities for thieves.

People target tourists, people with open bags. They will basically

just pop in there and with a bit of light-fingered magic, have it away.

You will never see it again.

Before long, the officers spot a large group of boys who Amy thinks

are acting suspiciously.

I just... I'd like to just observe them at the moment

and see what happens.

There have recently been a spate of snatch thefts by youths

on bicycles in the West End. One particularly brazen example

was captured by a department store's CCTV.

The cyclist grabs the victim's phone

and vanishes instantly into the traffic.

As a result, officers are paying particular attention to groups

that include cyclists.

That lad seems intent on riding his bike in a busy street.

Amy has spotted one such group but after following them,

she becomes worried she has been spotted herself.

Down here. Yeah, I know.

Down here, round the back...and they might have gone up Oxford Street.

Thinking her cover's blown, Amy and the other officer duck into a side

street to drop back before trying to follow at more of a distance.

They have timed their re-emergence onto Oxford Street perfectly

as the boys are just ahead of them.

Steph, got him.

They follow the group as far as a large shop on Oxford Circus,

which the youths enter.

Amy now thinks they might be out to shoplift.

The youths are all inside. Amy alerts security,

as well as two fellow officers who keep watch on the exit.

This is one of them. I'm just waiting to see what the rest do.

The boy with the bike is waiting right in the shop's doorway.

I believe they put a person outside the store on a bike in order

to take any stolen property they may have had in the store out of it.

There's nothing to do but wait for the youths to make a move.

I love the game. It is my very favourite game.

Suddenly, the group of boys all leave the shop but they split up

and head in different directions.

Luckily, there are now enough officers to follow each of them.

-Amy makes her move.

-Put the phone down, put the phone down.

At the moment you are detained under Section 1 of PACE, all right,

cos I want to search you.

I've been observing you in the store, OK?

I believe your behaviour is suspicious.

I'm going to ask the male officer to search you, OK?

The boy isn't pleased to have been stopped.

-Wait. Can you not record this, please?

-OK. Take your hand down,

don't touch the camera.

-Excuse me, excuse me...

-He can record what he wants.

The search doesn't turn up any stolen goods,

but Amy is still suspicious.

Why would you need a completely empty bag?

Would you just not carry a bag, then?

With nothing in your bag?

With nothing on him, Amy is forced to let this boy go.

But later, she catches up with another of the same group of youths,

who isn't so lucky.

To retain its position as THE place for festive shopping, every year

Oxford Street is illuminated with thousands of Christmas lights.

To make this happen, the road is closed in sections over the course

of a month while the lights are erected.

Once in place, the lights will be lit up by a celebrity as part

of a huge switch-on show.

And this year, the job of pushing the button

will fall to antipodean pop princess Kylie Minogue.

It's 1am on the morning of the big switch-on but before anyone can

push anything, a team led by Dean Parker needs to get the stage

up and ready for Kylie to stand on.

Mark out where the stage is going to go now. Quite crucial to get it

in the right place. It's a bit of a challenge cos we've obviously

got live traffic running next to us

so we've got to make sure we've got a safe area so that they can

build it without getting run over or being accosted by the public.

This year is going to be the street's most ambitious switch-on show ever.

They are shutting most of the street to traffic and erecting

a giant screen so people can watch.

By 6am the stage is built and ready to be dressed and lit.

The job of lighting Kylie and the rest of the stage show

falls to a lighting team led by Paul de Villiers.

My role during the show is to operate the lights

and sort of make sure everything happens on the cues of the show

because CO2 cannons coming out the sides with strobes firing up those.

And yeah, one like the big bang.

HE LAUGHS

I'm very excited, I'm very scared and I hope it all works out well.

The lighting will be controlled by a computer program Paul will operate

from his laptop.

This year he has had a cutting-edge rig of LED lights built

especially for the occasion. It's the first time they've been used.

Concept is lots and lots and lots of lights in a tiny, tiny stage.

So hopefully they look very nice and twinkly for Ms Minogue

but the main key is always to light the performers, which a lot

of people don't sort of remember to do.

The giant screen is another first for the show and Dean is getting

things in place for its erection.

OK, the road is closed now so you can come down and swing straight in.

SFM know that they are expecting you.

It comes as a shock to some drivers.

Disgusting!

With the road closed, the mega-fans begin to queue up.

I arrived at 8.30 this morning to try and get a good place

in the queue, and I am number two.

I am just so looking forward to seeing Kylie cos I'm a massive fan.

I have loved her since 1987. I love all her music.

And got my tattoo done this year. Kylie signed a CD for me.

I've been here since 8 o'clock. I was first to arrive and I'm first

in the queue so I'm really excited.

Really pleased cos I will be right at the front

and I hope to see my beloved Kylie.

They have got their front row seats booked but thousands of fans

won't see anything without the giant screen.

It's the biggest in Europe and is housed in this lorry.

It extends on poles from inside the truck to about the same height

as the 3,000 lights strung across the road.

-Are you concerned about hitting?

-Yeah. Very.

I think if one light goes out, it puts them all out,

it's that kind of system.

The screen comes up from the truck but now needs to be rotated round.

And that's when the team worry it could get a little too close

to the suspended globes.

I'll give him the nod now and he'll spin it.

-Are you ready?

-We are ready to go.

The pressure is on.

Literally millimetres.

It passes clear but just a whisker away.

It was just perfect. Perfect. Not a kiss in sight.

Later, I Should Be So Lucky.

The crowds arrive, the nerves are beginning to show.

If we miss that moment, I probably won't be booked again.

And here comes Kylie.

London's underground network is the oldest of its kind in the world,

having recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Responsible for preserving its history is

Transport for London's Design and Heritage Manager Mike Ashworth.

And this morning he has come to Oxford Street for a very

particular inspection.

Tottenham Court Road station at the east end of the street is

currently undergoing a half a billion pound rebuild.

And right in the middle of it is a major series of public artworks -

a set of mosaics by British pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi.

I'm on an inspection visit today to make sure, in fact, that the plans

that we have involve the restoration and relocation

of over 95% of the mosaics is going according to plan.

Born in Edinburgh, Eduardo Paolozzi

is one of Britain's most famous pop artists whose work sells

for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He designed and installed the Tottenham Court Road mosaics in 1984.

The eye-catching multicoloured murals have always drawn mixed opinions

but love them or hate them, few pass by without noticing them.

They are made just like Romans made mosaics. These are made out of

little tessera.

In fact, a lot of these were actually made in Italy.

And this is the first time really in nearly 30 years we have been

able to see the mosaics with everything stripped off.

And you can see, there's quite a lot of historic damage here.

The murals run throughout the station and experts consider them

one of the most important examples

of British pop art on public display.

In the middle of a huge building site,

the risk of damage to them is real.

The rotunda area contains some of the largest and most famous pieces.

-What do you want pulled off first?

-I think we'll have a look...

Let's have a look at this bottom corner here.

It's incredible, actually, how dirty

it has got during 30 years of service life.

But no, structurally, that looks fine.

I'm more than satisfied, obviously, at this stage in the works,

you know, the mosaics seem in good condition.

You know, there's no obvious sign of damage.

So far, so good down here at Tottenham Court Road.

Mike might be happy with the state of the mosaics but plenty of other

people are not.

As part of the redevelopment,

much of the old station is being demolished.

And news has emerged that that includes some of the murals.

In particular, the famous three-arch scene above the old escalators.

Henrietta Billings, from the Twentieth Century Society,

is fighting to save them.

Just about to have a meeting with TFL and Hawkins Brown,

their architects, to discuss the possibility of either retaining

these two really important parts of the Paolozzi mural -

the arches and the entrance panel - either within the new station

or the possibility of them being relocated to another site.

Hopefully, a museum or somewhere that they can still be seen

on public display.

A petition has been put together to save them,

with over 7,000 signatures.

A lot of it is still in really, really good condition

and the idea that we lose it because it doesn't fit in with

the new plans of the station is a major, major loss for us.

Later, the station's demolished, but what will happen to the mosaics?

Dismantling that part of the building was never going to allow us

to take these out in a meaningful way.

PC Amy Campion has stopped a number of youths seen acting

suspiciously on Oxford Street.

She thinks they might have shoplifted from a major store.

One male she stopped had nothing on him and has been let go.

But across the street, another officer caught up with

a different member of the group.

Some trainers. He tried to take some trainers.

In the shop's back room, one of the youths Amy spotted earlier

is now in handcuffs, having been found with a pair of trainers

that hadn't been paid for.

The boy, who has admitted shoplifting, is visibly upset.

I know, I understand.

It emerges the boy is only 13. None of the others who were stopped

were found to have any stolen goods on them.

After discussions with the shop manager, Amy decides not to take

the boy back to custody where he would be charged with shoplifting.

Instead, the store agree that on this occasion,

he should be returned home to face the wrath of his parents.

On this occasion, the boy wasn't charged

and won't get a criminal record.

But his details will be noted and any further brushes with the law

will be taken more seriously.

Dealing with such a young boy means

difficult judgement calls for the ORB team.

No joy in arresting a 13-year-old.

I think everyone deserves to be treated reasonably

and proportionately.

And is it proportionate to drag into custody a crying 13-year-old?

Is it really?

It's not being soft, it's being fair and that's what you've got to be,

you've got to be fair.

Sometimes the officers capture hardened professional criminals

but today Amy is happy the boy has seen the error of his ways.

He was very upset. He said he was sorry on numerous occasions.

We took him home and his family were very concerned,

especially his mum and his sister.

For Amy, it's vindication for her instinctive feeling that something

wasn't right about the group.

And a few days later, out on plain-clothes patrol is another

officer known for his instinct for spotting criminality -

PC Paul Penrose.

As part of the ORB team, it's the undercover officer's job to

keep the West End safe for shoppers.

At Oxford Circus, one man hanging around outside a shop immediately

captures Paul's attention.

The man seems to be watching people around him.

It's only because Paul is primed to spot this sort of behaviour

after years of experience that he notices at all.

Many criminals carry cheap pay-as-you-go phones rather than

smartphones so they can dispose of them easily.

And on closer inspection,

the cheap one that man is using matches this profile.

It's the slightest clue but Paul thinks it is enough to make it

worthwhile following when the man heads south.

There he is.

Moments later, he does just that.

He is now headed back up Regent Street.

He's having a good look around.

The double-back manoeuvre makes Paul doubt the man is a regular shopper.

Paul has observed suspicious movements but nothing illegal.

With the man about to leave on a bus,

he's got to make a big judgement call.

With only a second to make the decision, he moves in.

Later, Paul gets his man and more than he bargained for.

Where is your visa?

Earlier, we saw the battle going on to preserve Eduardo Paolozzi's

love-them-or-hate-them mosaics deep under Oxford Street.

The platform murals will be preserved in situ

but after we filmed,

the mosaic arches above the escalators were dismantled.

However, Transport For London

decided to preserve the removed sections

and they have now arranged for them to be restored.

Eventually, they will go on display

in Paolozzi's home town of Edinburgh.

And on a crisp morning, Neil Lebeter,

curator at Edinburgh University's Art Collection

is ready to greet them.

Today we have the arrival of the Eduardo Paolozzi murals

from Tottenham Court Road Station. This is amazing.

Like, stuff like this does not come around very often.

This is a unique project.

The team get to work unloading the mosaics,

which had sat for over 30 years deep under Oxford Street.

Not only was Paolozzi born in Edinburgh, but he studied and taught

at this very art school.

Neil gets his first look at the mosaics.

So this is one of the kind of medium...medium sections.

You can see that the actual tiles themselves are mostly intact.

This is the type of size and material that

we are going to be working with.

It's looking not too bad, considering, you know, it has been

removed from a building having spent 30 years in a very busy

underground station where, you know...

You can just tell by my hands

just how much dust has built up over that time.

The team will spend the next few weeks cleaning and cataloguing

the individual fragments.

I have no idea which part this was on so it's going to be quite

a challenge, I think, to puzzle these all back together and see

how it all works.

Once catalogued, the pieces will be photographed and a computer program

will virtually reassemble them in the right places.

Some new individual tesserae will be ordered from the same Italian

suppliers that Paolozzi originally used.

This project is going to take so long!

Because it's essentially a massive jigsaw.

The final result is to physically rebuild this in a publicly

accessible space where everyone can see it.

It's going to be a challenge.

But that day for now is some years away.

Meanwhile, deep under Oxford Street,

the mosaics that remain have been preserved.

They have been given a clean and a buff up

ahead of being reopened to the public.

Undercover PC Paul Penrose has been trailing a suspect onto a bus.

He has made the decision to stop and search him.

He has not seen him commit an offence,

but Paul's instinct tells him

something about the man's behaviour isn't right.

Mate, police officer.

I just need to take someone off the bus a second.

Sir, police officer. Can I just have a quick chat?

Can you just come and stand over here?

-Where are you from?

-Albania.

-Albania, yeah?

We're just wondering what you're doing in the area,

why you were waiting around up there

and then coming all the way down to catch a bus here?

Paul's colleague catches up and calls base

to check out the man's ID.

I've got a male stopped. Could you run him through the box, please?

A quick search reveals no suspicious items,

but it looks like Paul's instinct was correct -

the man's documents are not in order.

They take cover from the rain to investigate further.

All right, where's your visa?

Where is your visa?

You've got no visa. Have you entered the country illegally?

Hello, Immigration. They are saying he hasn't got a visa.

While they wait for confirmation of the man's status,

Sergeant Skinner, who was patrolling separately,

arrives and gets out the handcuffs.

We don't want you to go for a run until we work out this.

I suspect at this moment in time you are in the country illegally,

do you understand that?

It was a gut feeling that prompted

Paul to follow the man in the first place and his decision

to stop the bus to remove him has been vindicated.

Transport arrives and the man is taken back

to Charing Cross Police Station.

As an Albanian national without a visa,

he has no legal right to be in the UK.

Although ORB officers aren't specifically looking for

immigration offenders, they find that those who are in the country

illegally sometimes turn to crime.

In this case, it is a successful result.

The man will be passed to immigration authorities with

the likelihood that he will be deported.

At the switch-on of the Oxford Street lights,

the teams behind the scenes are getting ready to make sure

that the biggest event in the street's year goes without a hitch.

Already, they have built a stage from scratch, rigged it with lights

and installed Europe's biggest TV screen.

But if everything is going to work out, they have got to be sure

that when pop princess Kylie presses this button...

Don't tell anybody this is the button.

..the 3,000 illuminated balls

that stretch the length of the street will light up.

Nick Maclaren is responsible for them and opts for a trial run.

I'm here to switch on this block just beside around the switch-on is

just to make sure we are not going to have any issues.

Whoo.

Lights checked, road closed and stage set,

the crowds are allowed in.

Backstage, Del Brown is overseeing the filming of the event.

TV news shows and other networks all want a feed of Kylie's big moment.

And everything the crowd sees on those giant screens will be

controlled by him.

I'm a little bit nervous.

They've given me... I think it's five cameras, including a jib.

And they've basically said, "Cover the event."

So between me and the camera operators,

we are going to be trying to get the best angles.

And I have got the responsibility of making sure that when all

of the broadcasters take that shot of Kylie pressing the button,

I've got to make sure we've got Kylie, everyone on stage and all

of the sponsors' logos all in the same shot.

Cos if we miss that moment, I probably won't be booked again.

So, Ross, shall we just rehearse your move?

So if we go from there into the stage.

And, Nick, you will be on a 2 shot.

On the other side of the crowd,

Paul is waiting nervously with his lights.

Oh, if you don't get nervous, you are not doing it right.

This is the running order.

Otherwise known as the book of lies.

Finally, at 5.50...

Yes, everyone well to record? Thank you.

CROWD CHEERS

Presenters Lisa Snowdon and Dave Berry take to the stage.

-Dave Berry.

-Hello.

Welcome to one of the best things

that's ever going to happen in our lives.

1 to 1 next. Cut 1.

And Kylie is here, everybody.

And Del swings into action.

Pull back out, jib, high and wide. Come 3 next and 3 for a cutaway.

Come to jib next. And jib.

Oh, well. Face is covered up by the mic, brilliant.

But once the Lord Mayor of Westminster is out of the way,

it's time for the moment the crowd has been waiting for all day.

Kylie is here, everyone!

CROWD CHEERS

Hi, Kylie!

-You look so good.

-How are you?

Hello, puppet. Hello, everyone!

2. Have a squeeze in 2.

How are you feeling?

For everyone involved, and particularly Del and Paul,

everything rests on the next few seconds.

OK. So, everybody, you know what you have to do.

Let's count down now.

Ten, nine...

2 next. 2, come to 1.

..eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two...

-Holding on this shot cos they want it.

-..one. Do it, Kylie!

Come to Ross. Ross stands up. Ross, it's all yours. Up on the wide.

I think that's it.

-'Ladies and gentlemen...'

-Yeah, that's it.

-'..the show is now over.'

-Oh, the show's over.

'Please get home safely.'

Ah! Thank God that's over!

-Pfrrr!

-The lights went on, everything worked.

-I need a cup of tea now.

-We'll see how it looks to the papers.

So I just saw Kylie Minogue. It was so good.

-We queued up for a good couple of hours and it was worth it.

-Yeah.

-It was absolutely amazing!

-Yeah.

And with that, the 45-minute show is over

and the 17.5-hour stage preparation comes to an end.

Get it all broken down and go home.

With a bit of luck, we will be out by 10 o'clock. Maybe 11.

Time to de-rig and reopen the street

for people to do their Christmas shopping.