Episode 4 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...

'It's 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.

Oxford Street.

Coming up...

I think she's spooked.

On the trail of the pickpockets...

Hi, Acting Sgt Bond.

..police crack down.

Cuffs.

There's a flagship store opening...

if they can get it ready on time.

We're all upset about it.

It's going to be open and this guy's not really working.

It's not good enough, Mike. Not good enough at all.

The streets' drains spring a surprise.

-Ooh!

-It really, really, really reeks.

And there's a wedding proposal afoot if the groom can overcome his nerves.

Hopefully, she can say yes!

To make sure Oxford Street stays as one of the safest major

shopping destinations in the world,

the Metropolitan Police have set up a dedicated team just to police it

known as ORB.

Today, two plainclothes members of the team, Acting Sgt Darren Bond

and PC Alex, are out on patrol in an unmarked car

when a call comes through that snaps them into action.

A security guard at a nearby shop has called to say

he's spotted a suspected dipper,

someone who surreptitiously fishes in bags to steal valuables.

He believes he's seen her trying her luck in a customer's handbag

and he's begun to follow her.

The officers are only minutes away but moving far too slowly.

Darren won't let the midday traffic come between him and a thief.

Still on the wrong side of the road,

Alex tries to get to the bottom of what's going on.

Leaving the car on the pavement,

they race towards the last sighting of the suspect.

The officers have to catch up with her without being noticed.

Although they have the security guard's report, they want to see

if she'll try and steal again, so they can catch her in the act.

She's walking up Regent Street, towards Oxford Street.

They begin what they call the follow.

So you really need this to play out, yeah? OK.

The officers don't want her to see them and take every precaution.

Just mix up the appearance a little bit.

They follow for 300 metres,

doing their best to stay at a safe distance.

But the woman is no longer lingering in shops.

She's walking a direct route to the Oxford Circus underground entrance,

and Darren thinks he might be in trouble.

I think she's spooked.

Darren's sure the woman has now worked out she's being followed.

She heads down the steps to the station.

He can't risk losing her,

so Darren makes the call for his colleague to move in.

Cuffs.

The search doesn't turn up anything of interest,

but Darren wasn't expecting her to have any of the victim's property.

In England, if you try to steal and put your hand in somebody's bag,

you try to unzip somebody's handbag, that's an offence.

PC Alex speaks to the security guard who first alerted them

and is now back in his own shop retrieving the CCTV.

And their investigations throw up something else totally unexpected.

Despite being dressed like a wealthy Arab shopper in a headscarf,

the woman is Bulgarian and, police believe, not a Muslim.

She's not dangerous, so they take her back to the station in the same car.

Darren thinks the headscarf is a disguise.

It's very easy for them to dress up with a headscarf

to look like another Arab female.

Allows them to get close to their victims and not be noticed.

Stand against here and look.

It's an aggravating factor to the offence.

Almost like going equipped to steal

from somebody with a foil-lined bag, etc.

She's using that as a disguise

to allow her to facilitate her stealing.

Running her details through the system has thrown up

some interesting results.

She is apparently known in Germany as a member of an organised crime gang

and the address she's given doesn't feel right.

We're going to try and see if that is a good address.

If we're not happy, we're going to ask the custody sergeant

to consider not giving her bail, put her straight in front of the court.

Over 300 notes in the police database for one address rings alarm bells.

They think she might be giving out a common holding address

that's nothing to do with her.

This is something they want to check out.

Sgt Carling decides to take a small team to go and have a look.

Later, the team reach the address,

but it looks like someone's been here before them.

This door has been put in by the police.

Opening a new flagship store on Oxford Street is a big deal.

Soaring rents in such a prime shopping location

mean it's expensive and any new arrival has to be profitable.

And the best way to ensure your new place is a smash hit

is to make as big a splash as possible with the opening.

Which is what trainer chain JD is planning to do

with its brand-new flagship Oxford Street store.

It's a massive undertaking for the chain.

It's the biggest shop that we've ever opened.

At the moment, we've got an empty shell, and in under a week,

we'll have a brand-new megastore to open for everyone.

So today, we've got 12 18-tonne trucks coming

with all the stock on them.

Shop manager James is in charge of getting

all 216 tonnes of stock into the store.

All right, guys!

Get everyone spread out and then we'll start loading it off.

To cope with such a massive new store,

the company has invested in some cutting-edge tech wizardry.

They've got a brand-new bespoke trainer lift.

It's been designed to get trainers from the stock room shelf

to customers' feet in no more than 30 seconds.

It should be running constantly,

but the experimental technology is having teething problems.

You can see here that somebody has actually

pushed the boxes forward too much.

"Do not push the boxes forward."

And now we have to restart the system.

This should be idiot proof.

No doubt some idiot will find a way of causing a problem

that I'll have to come back and address.

The shop have only got a week to get the lift up and running properly

before they open.

While the shop team work on getting that right, across town,

JD are working on something else

to make sure the opening goes with a bang.

JD's marketing team have set up a nationwide competition

to find a new face for the Oxford Street store.

Thousands of youngsters have attended photo shoots

up and down the UK to try and get chosen.

The winners will be plastered on advertising across the new shop.

It's the brainchild of marketing director Steve White.

It gives a reality to the people that we photograph and use

cos they come from an everyday stable.

The main thing is, I would say, close to the consumer.

Every time I take a photo, I want to see something a bit different, OK?

-A bit different?

-That's great.

And a week later in Manchester, Steve's overseeing the final audition

with the winners of the regional heats.

-Come on, smile. That's it! Cool.

-That's great.

Brooke was selected in London and is one of the first on set.

She's good but needs some coaching.

Just take the tension out of your legs.

So just slightly bring them forward, your knees. Slightly relax them.

It's quite a change for Charlie,

who was preparing to join the Royal Marines.

Getting used to people just jumping in and fixing things.

It's all part of the job, I suppose.

-Just been demonstrating how to model.

-You have? How brilliant.

HE LAUGHS

Have you seen my legs?

Steve's legs might not impress but Ramone,

who came through the Manchester casting, certainly does.

He's got that dead masculine structure to the top of his body,

-hasn't he?

-Fantastic.

It's still early but the photographers

already have some favourites.

-It's really good. I love that.

-Yeah, she's brilliant.

-Good. A good find, then.

-Yeah.

-Great.

If I could be the face of JD Oxford Street, that would just be amazing.

Absolutely loved it, can't wait to come back.

Fingers crossed I will be a winner.

Both Charlie and Brooke, as well as fellow finalist Ramone,

were selected to be the faces of the new Oxford Street store.

-This is mental!

-HE LAUGHS

Later, it's the day before the opening and the boss is in town.

Here he comes.

And the store's teething problems continue.

I haven't got a clue at the moment.

Visitors come to Oxford Street to soak up

the glamour of its high-end stores and luxury products.

What they don't see is the work

that goes on behind the scenes to keep it running.

There's a small army of tradesmen and engineers that operate unseen.

And one of those is Dave Taylor.

He's been a plumber for over 20 years.

Today, he's covering the West End of London.

And at the centre of that patch is Oxford Street.

The West End ain't my favourite place.

I'd rather much be out in the suburbs

on a lovely little cul-de-sac somewhere

having a nice cup of tea and unblocking an old lady's drain.

But it's not always like that.

Today, he's primed for emergency callouts,

and that could mean anything and everything.

Out in the van, it's not long before he gets his first call of the day.

Hello? Yeah, I'll be as quick as I can. I'm in the area.

Place just off the back of Oxford Street.

Old lady seems to be in a bit of a panic. Very bad smells.

Moments later, Dave's at the address.

Nina runs a beauty PR company from the ground floor of her home.

-Nina?

-Yes, hi.

-Dave Taylor.

-Hi, Dave.

-How are you doing?

She's got some kind of plumbing problem in her boardroom,

and it's not very nice.

Yes, this is where all my clients come and it stinks.

-OK.

-Keep getting a really horrible smell in here.

-OK.

Nina needs the problem sorted.

She has to be able to meet with clients here.

Everything here is about beautiful smells and lovely products.

It's slightly embarrassing, to say the least,

that they come to this prestigious PR consultancy

to just smell this rank smell of drains, actually.

Drains, sewage.

Dave moves outside to have a look under the manhole by the front door.

Ooh, there's your problem!

Ooh! Wow!

HE COUGHS

That is pretty straightforward,

to tell you where the smell's coming from.

I would say that's been blocked for quite a while because...

..that is extra thick compacted sewage.

You shouldn't be able to stand screwdrivers up

in the middle of the chamber.

That...

is not good.

Dave's seen a lot of drains, and it takes a lot of sewage to impress him.

But he can't resist sharing the experience.

-Hi, Nina?

-Coming down.

-Have you got a second, sweetheart?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, no!

-Look.

-Oh, I can't bear it. That...

It shouldn't be there, it should be down below the ground.

-It should be gone.

-Grace? Gracie!

Nina can hardly believe it.

-That's the whole street's.

-No, that's you.

SHE LAUGHS

It's disgusting.

I've never seen anything like that.

Yeah, not very nice. Not very nice.

Dave's found the problem,

but now he has to work out how to deal with it.

I need to get it clear to see if there could be something

stuck in the trap at the bottom.

It could be collapsed.

He's got a high-pressure hose in his van

and he taps into the mains water supply down the street.

Until he can clean out the drain, he won't know if it's a simple fix.

If he can't get it running,

Nina might have to put up with the smell for a while.

What I'm trying to do here -

it's probably going to smell a bit worse now -

I'm going to try and break this up a bit on the top,

this crust.

Later, we'll see if Dave can get Nina's pipes flowing again.

It's pretty nasty.

Back at the new JD store on Oxford Street,

it's 24 hours until opening, and there's still much to do.

Oh, no, not like that!

No!

The last-minute preparations continue.

Downstairs, Steve is waiting for chairman Peter Cowgill

to show off his team's work.

Where is he now? I'm getting anxious.

Has he got lost? Here he comes!

-Welcome to the new store, chairman.

-Thank you.

Immediately, Peter spots something he doesn't like.

We don't need the G.

The problem with the G is, obviously,

I think there are very few people who don't understand

that they're on the ground floor

when they've just walked in off the pavement,

so I don't really think we need to tell 'em that, G for ground.

Steve here will have that done for Monday.

Certainly, chairman. Certainly.

Aside from some minor design quibbles,

Peter's pleased with the shop.

I mean, it's on the prime street in Europe, top of the tree.

Um, and I've not seen anything that competes with it.

The marketing team are also in town.

Last time, we saw them pick three faces of JD -

Brooke, Charlie and Ramone.

And it's Ramone they've brought with them to film a special video

to showcase some more of the store's new technology.

And he's been working on a new look for the occasion.

I think they quite like it when I look stern.

Um, so I've nicknamed that one Black Steel,

because I use it quite regularly now.

Then give us the Black Steel.

Looking cool. Cool as you like, innit?

HE LAUGHS

He nails it every time!

After months of planning, the new store is ready.

The doors will open at 9am tomorrow morning.

Regional manager Kevin is a happy man.

Just wanted to thank everyone, it's been fantastic.

Thanks very much and well done.

But the store has one final challenge to throw at them,

the escalator to the first floor has broken.

Manager Moz has tried turning it off and on again, but that hasn't worked.

It's not happening, mate.

An engineer is called.

If it can't be fixed, staff will have to direct customers

to the upper floors through the shop via the stairs or lift.

All right. So, boys, I'll see you in the morning, yeah?

HE LAUGHS

Finally, at 11.30pm, the engineer arrives.

But it's immediately apparent this might not be a simple fix.

I haven't got a clue at the moment.

Is it a case of one of the belts going?

I just don't know, there's something not right there.

The reset button feels a bit moody and all.

The engineer isn't the escalator's original installer.

They couldn't be reached.

In a bid to try and fix it, he's woken up his boss.

There's a reset button. Doing that, that ain't doing nothing either.

I'm pushing it, I'm holding it down, I've pushed it a few times.

-Doing nothing.

-But he can't help either.

-Fingers crossed.

I don't want to just abandon ship, mate.

This is their flagship store and all that.

The store opens at nine o'clock tomorrow morning.

We have up until then to get this sorted,

so we're working on the next nine hours.

Later, the success of opening day hangs by a shoelace.

-Sweetie, you got a scanner?

-They're all dead.

-They're all dead?

-Yes!

At a property just off Oxford Street, plumber Dave Taylor is battling

a huge back-up of sewage at PR consultant Nina's house.

It's disgusting. I've never seen anything like that.

He thinks the drain's been blocked up for a while.

So you wouldn't drive your car, would you, for three years

without servicing it?

It's a bit like a drain.

People think they can chuck everything down the drain

and it's just all going to go away. Well, actually, it don't.

So they need a bit of service every now and again.

Dave's used to the smell, but Nina is struggling to cope.

It really, really, really, really reeks.

But thank God we've got some candles.

It's probably going to smell worse now

because I've just disturbed it all.

Candles?

Probably won't make any difference at all, but you know...

Luckily as a beauty PR, Nina has a number of different products

to try and cover up the odour.

I've got to say, the smell is so, so bad.

Oh, that nothing is going to do it, nothing's going to do it.

Outside, Dave is still trying to get to the bottom of the sewage problem.

Keeps you fit!

You see, that's what happens, it gets caught in there.

There's a big U-bend there.

Finally, with the blockage removed, it's clear.

After a hose down and some disinfectant, it's all good as new.

-Thank you so much.

-It was my pleasure, you're more than welcome.

Thank you. OK, I'm going to go and do the big flush.

-Yeah, on both toilets, yeah?

-Yeah, OK.

Perfect, that's how they're supposed to work.

It's taken an hour and a half,

but Dave's got everything working again.

Nina, however, has another problem.

Since you've done that, I'm now hearing in my wall by my desk

this scratching. I absolutely promise you, three times.

Scratching on the wall.

If you've got rats, they've come in from somewhere else

and they've got in behind the cavity.

That scratching continues,

-you're probably better off to get pest control in, all right?

-OK.

-Sorry about that.

-No, don't you worry.

-I can sort your drain out but...

-No, no!

HE LAUGHS

And with that, Dave's done.

Another happy customer. And he can get back on the road,

ready for the next Oxford Street flood or blockage.

Oh, God, it's going again, Grace!

Oh, Grace. Please come and listen.

Whether it's the world-famous landmarks,

river views or luxury outlets, every year,

millions of foreign visitors come to London,

hoping to capture a little bit of its romance.

And later this week, one Chinese businessman is hoping

a bit of the capital's magic will rub off on him

and his girlfriend, Natalie.

-Hi!

-OTHERS:

-Hi!

Hello, hi, hi, hi!

Ben first met the love of his life over afternoon tea at a hotel

just off Oxford Street when they were students.

They fell in love and now he plans to propose to her.

But to do it right,

he's hoping to wow her with a bit of old-world British charm.

So he's planning on surprising her on an Oxford Street bus tour

while taking afternoon tea.

I want to have a big surprise in her life,

so I think if we can have an afternoon tea here

and I propose to her, it will be a great, great surprise.

The pressure of making sure it all goes to plan

has fallen on the shoulders of the wedding planner Maggie Lun

and her team.

Nice to meet you.

It's a challenge to get all the things sorted with the videographer,

photographer, us, the wedding planning company.

Um, it's all about teamwork, how we can make it right.

Maggie's planned the proposal with military precision.

We'll try to put decorations on that window.

She's block-booked a double-decker bus tour

run by a Covent Garden bakery which gives you a cream tea as you travel.

And this morning, she's come with Ben and her team

to check on the preparations.

How is it going to be?

The groom is going to take some friends with him

to just pretend it's going to be...

-Tourist.

-A tour, like a sightseeing tour.

And then the proposal will be happening on the upper deck.

-Hello. Pleased to meet you.

-Hi.

The success or failure of the surprise proposal

is reliant on groom-to-be Ben getting his lines right.

Ben's here now to get in some practice.

On the day, he's got to sit in the right place

so the proposal can be captured on camera.

So, this is the point.

There will be the camera.

So try not to face your back at me or any other cameras on the day.

-We are the friends, is that right?

-I will be the waitress.

Maggie is not just concerned with where Ben sits.

Proposing on bended knee is a relatively recent phenomena in China.

And Maggie is concerned Ben might not get it quite right.

She thinks he needs a rehearsal.

Let me demonstrate. You stand back, you can take a look, yeah?

When you walk in, yeah? Obviously, you're going to hold her hand.

Please, sit down. Then you can start to do your proposal.

You have your...

And now, open your ring, "Will you marry me?"

I don't know what you're going to say but...

OK, um...

Maggie is not convinced Ben's fully grasped her vision.

-Um, right...yes...

-Don't be shy.

-SHE LAUGHS

-So you just... You can...

-Knees down?

-Yes.

-Probably just here.

Oh, my God! I'm going to cry!

-And then what's going to happen? So...

-What are you going to say?

-Please say yes.

-Um, OK!

-"Please say yes!"

So you need to...

think about your speech.

For the wedding planners, the speech Ben must make before revealing

the ring is of utmost importance.

You have to make her special.

You have to let her know that you really love her.

-You want her to cry, basically.

-OK.

You have to go home and think about your speech.

I will do that, I will do that.

The enormity of the task has dawned on Maggie.

I'm nervous for the groom, really.

He hasn't done anything like this before

and, you know,

we have to push him a little bit to get things right.

Uh...

Um, I'm a little bit nervous.

Very excited.

Uh, hopefully she can say yes.

Later... SHE LAUGHS

Ben's on one knee.

But will Natalie say yes?

The Oxford Street police team have arrested a suspected pickpocket

who was posing as a wealthy Arab shopper.

Stand against here and look.

She's provided them with an address,

and now they're on their way to check it out.

But they have their suspicions about it.

They think it might be a fake holding address.

If they have reason to believe she doesn't live there,

then they won't need to bail her

and can keep her overnight to charge her the next day.

They arrive at the building.

They are looking for someone to corroborate the woman lives here.

But already, her story is beginning to fall apart.

She put 1/4, we've got 8. So we shall try each one in turn.

They're in.

And although they still don't know which door is their target,

one stands out.

My first impression is, at some point,

this door has been put in by the police.

Because that damage and that damage has been caused by a door enforcer.

OK, so this looks a good place to start.

Without confirmation she lives there, they can't enter without a warrant.

There's no sound from inside, so they move on.

-Hello? Sgt Carling, Met Police.

-Yeah?

-We are looking for a...

-Natalia Simionova.

-Do you know who she is? You don't know?

-No.

-No luck here.

-All right, let's keep trying flats.

-Nor here.

-We're looking for...

-This lady.

-I don't know her.

-You don't know, yeah?

I'm still working here.

The neighbours either don't know her or don't want to help the police.

The officer checks the roof

while his colleagues go through the communal post.

Their target's name isn't on anything.

Obviously, because we can't get access into her property,

she didn't have any keys with her for us to access,

no-one else is in the property.

So we're going to have to give up on searching the property.

The police can find nothing to indicate that the woman lives here.

Their suspicion remains that the address is a fake.

The lack of proof that this is her residence means the police

don't have to grant her bail

as there's too much risk she could evade court.

Oh, OK.

As they prepare to return to the station,

Sgt Carling gets a call with more good news.

PC Alex has been talking to the manager of another shop

who thinks the suspect paid them a recent visit, too.

The manager's just looked at the CCTV, seen her face and he says

that she matches the description of someone who did a pickpocket there.

Same venue on the 16th of August.

Footage clearly shows the woman entering the shop

and finding a likely victim.

She takes a shirt from a rack to use as a cover

to try and get her hand in the victim's bag.

On the basis of this evidence and that of their earlier security guard,

the custody sergeant agrees with the team.

With no confidence the woman has given her real address,

she isn't bailed.

Instead, she'll be kept in the station cells overnight.

Now we're going to the Crown Prosecution Service

with the evidence that we've got,

and we'll put her through to courts tomorrow, hopefully.

And after we filmed, the woman pleaded guilty

to one count of theft from person and one count of attempted theft.

She was given a 12-week sentence in total for both offences,

a result the team are delighted with.

The lifeblood of London is its buses.

Every year, they carry almost 2.4 billion passengers

into and out of the city.

And Oxford Street is its most important east-west artery.

It means more than 250 buses an hour pass down it at the busiest times.

It makes keeping the buses moving vital.

And in the centre of London, that job falls to Pierre Briscoe.

At the minute, we're just roaming down Oxford Street,

just monitoring the road.

He's a network traffic control officer, known as NTC.

It's his job to deal with any incidents, big or small,

which might disrupt the buses.

We keep the buses moving, we keep the traffic moving. You know?

People take these little things for granted.

But there's always things happening behind the scenes

that you don't see.

I'm behind the scene.

Incidents are phoned in to Pierre

from Transport For London's control centre, CentreCom.

Hi, good morning. Pierre speaking.

He's only been on the road for a few minutes

when he gets called to what could be a major incident.

A call from CentreCom, they believe, from their vantage point,

that there is a building fire of some sort down there.

A fire in nearby Paddington

could snarl up Oxford Street buses for hours.

And on arrival, it's clear to Pierre that fire trucks in the road

are disrupting his bus routes and he may have to deal with a closed road.

He opens negotiations with the fire service.

-My fear was closing the road.

-No, no, that's not going to happen.

-OK, OK.

-We'll just wait for an electrician so about ten minutes...

OK, OK. All right.

There was a fire which was set off behind one of the seats

in the steak house.

They've put the fire out and no-one got injured in the process.

There's no need to close the road. Thank God for that.

This time it all seems OK.

The fire brigade have dealt with the incident,

and thankfully, no-one's been hurt.

The buses are now back moving again and Pierre can get on with his work.

Top of his list today is to get ready for a major diversion.

Thames Water's going to be carrying out essential maintenance overnight.

And nearly half of Oxford Street is going to be closed

until 5am the next morning.

Pierre checks everything's in place for the planned diversion.

Doing a little recce on the diversion routes.

It's a bit congested.

But luckily, the closure of Oxford Street

is going to be night-time works.

But as dawn breaks the next morning,

the work's been started but not finished.

It means Europe's busiest shopping street is facing

a prolonged and unplanned traffic closure.

There's no-one on-site, as we can see.

Uh...there's still a crater in the middle of the road here.

Having an unplanned closure on a street of Oxford Street's importance

is unthinkable.

For Pierre, it means hundreds of his buses

having to be re-routed into smaller, overcrowded roads nearby.

Worse still, no-one from Thames Water is on-site

to discuss what's going on.

Watch out, mate. Go back, go back.

Heavy-goods traffic is turning up and having to be turned away.

Watch out, get back. Go back, go back.

Pierre does his best to help marshal the confused drivers.

But as he waits for Thames Water to return,

other tasks call him away from the crater.

Morning, buddy.

There are other people clogging up his bus lanes.

-Yeah, it's just the parking situation here.

-Yeah?

It's a bit precarious. You're in the cage.

-I don't know how long you're going to be or...

-No, five minutes.

-I'm just from Boots.

-All right, thanks for understanding, yeah?

One problem dealt with.

But he's still got half of the most important street in London

closed to buses.

He heads back to the crater

and the good news is Thames Water workmen have reappeared.

-Right, morning, gents. How are you doing?

-All right, thanks.

I never expected to see you guys. I thought it was a night-time work.

-You know?

-Yeah, mate.

-I'm glad you guys have turned up.

We'll be finished now in the next five, ten minutes, mate.

Itching to reopen Oxford Street to buses,

Pierre waits for the work to finish so he can end the diversion.

By two o'clock, the road will be reopened.

And Oxford Street will be reopened for buses and all traffic so...

Win-win for everybody. Excellent stuff.

And as 2pm comes around, Pierre's buses can return to normal,

taking people to Oxford Street.

As dawn breaks on Oxford Street,

it's all hands on deck at trainer store JD.

It's opening day for their brand-new world flagship store.

Manager James is working hard.

-Unfortunately, his main escalator is not.

-It's broken.

My team were here till midnight last night trying to resolve the issue

and the engineer was meant to be in again at 8.15 this morning but...

It's now 8.30 and it's not been resolved, so we'll see what happens.

In a competitive market and paying prime rents,

the shop's got to do well.

And a successful launch is critical.

Regional manager Kevin Dalston

is another whose put months of planning into getting it right.

We got a shop that's going to be open.

And this guy's not going to be working.

-We're all upset about it, Kevin.

-It's not good enough.

Not good enough at all.

While they wait, James has no option but to continue as planned

and give his staff one last encouraging word.

Well, I think what we've achieved over the last

couple of weeks has been amazing.

Obviously, you're all here because you deserve to be, all right?

All right, guys. Good luck today and just enjoy it.

Finally, the engineer has arrived,

20 minutes after they were expecting him

and less than half an hour before they wanted to start trading.

-Is it... Is it sortable?

-It should be, yeah.

While the engineers battle to get the escalator working,

preparations continue around it.

-OTHERS LAUGH

-I love that! Excellent. Wicked.

But as the nine o'clock opening draws near,

Steve and the team are forced to make a big call.

Nine o'clock, couple of minutes now, about 9.07.

We're going to put the opening back to 9.30.

So the shutters will be coming up at 9.30.

All in a day's work.

Ten minutes later, the engineer's job is done

and the escalator finally starts.

You can't explain how happy I am that this is working.

How proud are we now?

We're up and running and in fact, ten minutes earlier than 9.30.

The store bursts into life.

Before long, however,

there are problems with getting shoes to the customers to try on.

Yeah, I've been waiting for about 15 minutes.

It's obviously opening-day, so I'm not expecting it to be quick.

It's not just them waiting. The trainer lift has stopped.

It's just tripping out. It's going to slow us down.

Without the technology the store relies on, it's impossible

for the stock room staff to meet the 30-second trainer delivery target.

You on it? You need to be a little bit quicker. Yeah?

Maybe get two people...

Stock room - Ben to the lift, Ben to the lift.

With the main lift still out of action,

problems emerge with more of the store's new tech.

Floor staff have scanners to read barcodes on the display shoes

to order them from the stock room.

It's only mid-afternoon and all of the scanners have got flat batteries.

-Sweetie, you got a scanner?

-They're all dead.

-They're all dead?

-Yes!

We're trying to order trainers, but all the scanners are dead,

so we're going to use the radios now.

Which no-one has prepared for.

Stock room, stock room, stock room, stock room.

No-one answers.

Sales Assistant Anthony can't get anything for customers to try on.

This is not how JD saw opening-day going.

-That means I can't order trainers.

-Clear your orders.

Clear your orders, please.

Downstairs, with neither the lift

nor the electronic ordering system working, staff are feeling the heat.

You see everyone's having a little party, festival?

We got a little carnival atmosphere up there.

Down here, everyone's sweating. It's all a bit stressed.

Technology is letting us down today. Let's just say that.

But cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Floor manager Moz takes things into his own hands.

First, he finds replacement batteries upstairs,

so his floor staff can get back to full functionality,

before heading downstairs

to single-handedly get things moving again.

Next one, now it's coming.

Superstar childrens.

Got to go 727, size two, please.

Come on, guys! It's 20 seconds now.

Trainers should be out in 30 seconds. You got it?

It's not going to get done if you start looking at it.

Grab the same size for the customer, customer ringing upstairs.

He even finds time to reset the lift.

For the third time today.

I wasn't expecting there to be breakdowns, to be honest.

We've all been told that it's not going to happen.

Boss said it's not going to drop. But actually, it does happen.

But it's fine.

Starting again? Setting up and all.

It's working now, it's going to work.

With the machine back in action and the party still going,

it's down to the staff to try and reach that sales target

in the time left.

You want these, huh? I'll put these at the till.

Connor, Connor!

Now two of the new faces of JD, Charlie and Brooke,

make their appearance and see their pictures for the first time.

-Oh, my God!

-SHE GIGGLES

-That's so crazy.

-We are everywhere.

-This is a mental! Two of me.

-Three, three!

You can't speak, can you?

-Not yet, it's cool.

-Speechless.

-It's so cool.

I think we're all speechless, really.

A new store opening is always a step into the unknown.

Moz has had to do some firefighting.

Everyone's struggling, but you learn from your mistakes, innit?

You learn every single day, that's how I learn.

At 9pm, finally the shutters come down.

All right, listen. I've said it all week.

I want to say thank you and I want to say well done. All right?

OTHERS CLAP

It's been a difficult day,

but the team still manage to beat their sale targets.

It just goes to show the power of a flagship store on Oxford Street.

At a bus garage in South London, wedding planner Maggie Lun

is getting things ready for student Ben's proposal to girlfriend Natalie.

Maggie and her team have got just one hour to decorate

before the bus leaves for the main event.

She's feeling the pressure.

Last week, it's been a lot of work for us. I worry a lot.

Like, every night I've been thinking of, you know,

"Oh, will things go wrong?"

Not least that speech.

Maggie's continued to coach Ben on what to say.

I think the groom is still nervous. We talked to him about the speech.

Make the proposal more touching. That's what we want.

It's an unusual gig for videographer Caitlin, who has to try

and film while staying undercover.

We will be, like, the secret agents.

So, you can't tell them where to stand.

So, that's why today we've put up a lot of cameras.

The bus will pick up Ben and Natalie by the Thames

before heading to Oxford Street for the big moment.

To keep the proposal a secret, Ben has told Natalie that the tour

is being filmed as a promotional video for the tour company.

He's also invited a group of their friends along

to make it look like a normal party.

This is where they met, where they fall in love

and where they live in the future.

So, I think it's going to be a really special moment for them.

So excited.

Ben and girlfriend Natalie arrive, and the tour leaves.

As they tuck into tea and cakes downstairs,

upstairs, Maggie puts the finishing touches to the decorations.

-Hold it.

-Ten minutes left!

-OK.

After a whistle-stop tour of London landmarks,

the bus parks up just off Oxford Street for the big moment.

Ben gets his cue.

Big surprise for the second part of the tour.

If you can go upstairs for a moment.

If that's all right? You can follow me?

-Um, OK.

-Thank you very much. Come over here. This way.

-OK.

Ben and Natalie go upstairs and Caitlin's cameras capture everything.

SHE LAUGHS

What?!

Ben seems to have taken Maggie's advice, as he sits Natalie down

and launches into his speech.

Three minutes later, he's still going.

Downstairs, their friends are nervous. Has something gone wrong?

Maybe she's just a bit shocked.

But upstairs, things are looking good.

OTHERS CHEER

Show us the ring!

Don't tell her, but Ben's put the ring on the wrong finger.

OTHERS WHOOP

It's been a long couple of weeks and Maggie is exhausted

but pleased they pulled it off for Ben.

God, it really is a relief now.

The most important thing is the bride said yes.

That's the most important thing I want to hear.

And I think I did all right, not too bad.

For the newly betrothed, it couldn't have gone better.

-I've planned here for nearly two months for that.

-Really?

-Yeah.

I didn't expect anything and it was just like a dream.

She's still shaking.

So sweet. That's the... Yeah, the best day I've ever had in my life.

I guess, yeah.