13/02/2017 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

In the next half an hour, we're undercover at Britain's

biggest supermarket, Tesco, investigating the special

offers which don't go through at the checkout.

Hiya, I've just bought this bag full of shopping.

All those things are on offer, but none of it's come off?

We meet Cumbria's modern good samaritan who changed a life

with a simple act of kindness.

He doesn't need food, he doesn't need a drink,

he doesn't need a sleeping bag.

He needs someone to pick him up and take him somewhere where he's

going to be a lot safer than on the streets.

Never mind the Oscars.

We travel back in time to rediscover Tyneside's silver screen ambitions.

They looked at newsreel events, the opening of the Tyne Bridge,

and then they said, "Hey, why don't we get together

and make a story film?

Let's be a little Hollywood in Newcastle."

I'm Chris Jackson and this is Inside Out.

First tonight, when is a bargain not a bargain?

Jonathan Gibson's been investigating Tescos,

Britain's largest supermarket, where some special offers aren't

always so special after all.

Who's up for a good deal?

I am!

I'm a sucker for a special offer.

Most of us are.

And Tesco knows it, too.

That's why the shelves at Britain's biggest supermarket

are full of special offers.

Money off this, buy two for that.

You get the drift.

And we all take it for granted that the price we see on the shelf

is the price we'll pay at the till, right?

But what if things don't quite add up when you get home

and unpack your shopping?

I've just bought a few bits at Tesco and I'm sure these products

were on special offer.

That's why I've bought two of each.

But according to my receipt...

I've paid full price.

And that's the point!

I've paid 60% more than the deal on the shelf.

That's ?3.30 in hard cash.

At another Tesco store, I spot two for ?2 on ice cream.

But at the till, it's the full price as well.

So what's going on?

Ice cream, Martin?

Martin works for Trading Standards and says the law

on pricing is simple.

They must put a price on goods so you know what you're going to pay

and that price must be accurate so you don't get charged

more than you thought you were going to pay.

Sounds simple enough and with more than 3,500 stores nationwide,

Tesco should be getting it right.

But is it?

That's what I want to find out, so armed with my phone

and some secret cameras, I want to see how many offers

on the shelves don't go through at the till and at this

Tesco Metro store in Newcastle, I'm already finding problems.

And when I show his colleague the labels, I soon find out why.

But it's not the worst example.

That's three weeks ago and that's the problem.

Multi-buy deals are being left on the shelves after the tills have

been told they've ended.

The same thing's happened at a Tesco Express store nearby.

At this shop, only the wine offer is out of date

but at another nearby store there are much bigger problems.

As the shop assistant double checks, another member of staff spots

more out of date offers.

I've started making a list of how many offers are out

of date in how many places.

But is what's happening here in Newcastle also

happening across the country?

Because if it is, it's not just a problem for Tesco,

it's a problem for Tesco customers.

At this Tesco in Liverpool, sauce marked a pound on the shelf

is almost double at the checkout.

And at another store nearby, I'm left completely confused

by the offers on the shelves and what I'm charged

at the checkout.

In fact, there's so much difference between the shelf price

and the receipt price, I'm not even going to bother

to go back and try to get what I'm owed returned.

Completely ridiculous.

If there are just too many offers changing too frequently,

so that store staff can't really be expected to understand them,

comply with all the change, then that is something that Tesco

head office needs to think about.

And there's plenty to think about at another store in Leeds.

Doing now what somebody should have done hours, days, weeks ago.

So it's a serious message, but is everyone taking it

seriously in Gateshead?

And as I head around the country, the same thing keeps happening

time and time again.

So what's going on?

I mean, it doesn't seem a terribly difficult or perhaps that long a job

just to walk around the store assuming everyone knows

what day it is, you know, to go round and tear off anything

that has had its day.

You'd think so, yeah.

Maybe not.

And it's not just shoppers left confused as old and new promotions

end up side by side.

The longer the offer has been wrong, the bigger the failure of diligence

and the more worried I am, frankly.

In that case, he's not going to like what's coming up next.

At this store, the cashier checks the out of date label,

but doesn't remove it.

And when I return the next day, neither does someone else.

So, a week later, I go back and it's still on display.

And when I return a month later, yep, still on the shelf.

The fourth worker finally removes it.

That is very bad.

It's pretty basic that if one customer has shown something wrong

then it's put right to stop other customers being misled.

But at 33 of the 50 stores I went to, the till price was higher

than the shelf price.

That s a whopping 66%.

If customer A has come back and complained and been refunded

that doesn't mean there weren't 20 other customers who didn t spot it

and didn't complain.

So alarm bells would be ringing?

Very much so.

Yes.

But what does Tesco say?

The company wouldn't provide anyone for interview,

but after reviewing our evidence, told this programme:

But that's just the start.

As a result of our investigation, Britain's biggest supermarket says

it's now double checking the accuracy of every price in every

store ? that s more than 3,500 stores across Britain.

Well, every little helps!

How many times have you walked past a down and out in a doorway

without a second thought?

Phil Webb was that man.

Many people walked by, just one decided to help.

And as actor and director Chris Connel reports,

that act of kindness helped turn Phil's life around.

And now, thanks to Inside Out, he's been reunited

with his good samaritan.

And action!

This is my story and it's true.

Over a year ago, I was sleeping in a doorway.

Thanks to a fellow soldier and the legion, I've

a roof over my head...

Newcastle's Theatre Royal, last December.

Rehearsals of War Stores by Bravo 22 theatre company.

Rehearsals of War Stories by Bravo 22 theatre company.

It's run by the British Legion to help old soldiers

and their families.

That's me, Chris Connel, the director, and that's Phil Webb.

That's really coming along, that.

Phil's experience of being at rock bottom is a big part of the play.

After serving in the Forces, he married, had four kids

and taught sociology, but his marriage fell

apart and he lost his job and started drinking.

Phil came to Carlisle to live with an ex-army friend,

but that didn't work out, and by October 2015,

he was drunk and living on these streets.

It was raining, I remember.

It was cold.

I felt pathetic.

I was pathetic.

Went in the archway, started drinking and just sat

with my head down because I didn't want people to see me.

And I didn't want to see anybody else.

I didn't want to commit suicide, but if I wouldn't have woke up,

I wouldn't have been bothered.

So what was the turning point for Phil?

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a stranger stops to help

an injured man he should consider to be his arch enemy.

In Phil's case, our stranger decided not to walk past a drunk,

but instead offer him a helping hand.

Fella tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Look, mate,

I don't usually homeless people.

I don't usually help homeless people.

But something's told me to help you."

He said, "Come with me.

I'll put you up for the night and talk in the morning."

After a night in a bed and breakfast, Phil's good samaritan

put him a touch with the British Legion.

It was the key to Phil's recovery.

With the help of the British Legion, he got a roof over his head,

got off the drink and got back on his feet.

It was a miracle cos I just thought, "This angel has come to help me."

So I owe it to him, but more so, I owe it

to myself, to stop drinking.

Roll up! Roll up!

Join the army!

And actually do some fighting!

In just over a year, he's gone from being homeless

and drunk to performing in front of a live audience.

When we're under attack and throwing bricks, petrol bombs...

I'm doing a course, an IT course.

I'm also a voluntary worker, helping a men's group.

I'm also teaching social studies.

Life is absolutely brilliant.

So what about that passer-by with the big heart?

Phil's good samaritan gave him a piece of paper

and on it was a name and a number.

We decided to find Phil's helper.

But unfortunately, the number didn't work.

However, we did have a name.

Stephen Finlayson.

And, eventually, we tracked him down.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Time, well done.

And this is Stephen Finlayson - fitness trainer, former

soldier and good samaritan.

Nice to meet you, Chris.

Nice to meet you at last.

This looks like fun.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about you.

Have you?

OK.

Stephen remembers helping Phil like it was yesterday.

Went up and just asked him, I said, "Are you all right?"

He kind of just said, "Yeah, I'm all right."

Left it at that and maybe got, like, 20 metres down

the road and I just thought, "No, I can't just

leave him to lie there."

What made you think you had to do that?

I just think...

Just that look, that very look in his eye,

of just being totally...

scared.

I've seen that look before and that's when you know

someone's at rock bottom.

He doesn't need food, he doesn't need a drink,

he doesn't need a sleeping bag.

He needs someone to pick him up and take him somewhere where he's

going to be a lot safer than on the streets.

Stephen got Phil into the bed and breakfast

with the help of his mam.

Just came in and says, "Mam, Mam.

I've seen this man, he's on the street and he needs

help, he needs help.

He's just sitting there, he's cold, he's freezing."

Is that the kind of thing he would normally do?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah?

Yeah.

So, we drove round and he was still sat there, so we pulled the car up,

went over and spoke to him.

I liked him that much, I would have taken him

home, do you know that?

I would have taken him home.

He was such a nice man.

Like Phil, Stephen is also an old soldier.

He served as a sniper with the RAF regiment.

He's about to find out how important he was to Phil's recovery.

Do you ever wonder what happened to him?

I do.

I used to think about him quite a lot.

I can tell you that Phil sees that moment as the pivotal moment

of his life, where everything turned around and started heading

in the right direction.

Right.

Would you be surprised to find out that Phil

was in a play that I directed?

No way?

Literally, one year, I think it was, from that night that you met him.

You're kidding?

Totally turned his life around.

How does that make you feel?

Yeah.

I can't really...

Yeah.

I can tell you that you made a huge difference to that man.

Absolutely.

If I was able to get Phil here, would you like to

meet him at some point?

Yeah?

Think of anything you'd like to say to him?

Yeah, I'd love to hear from him and meet him.

Yeah.

24 hours later, Phil is about to meet his good samaritan.

But first, he has a special date.

Flipping heck!

This is Phil.

Hello, nice to see you.

Hiya, love.

I'm glad you made it back.

I did make it.

I did make it, yeah.

I didn't think I was going to make it until Stephen came along, like,

you know what I mean?

Fantastic.

Marvellous.

A lovely son you've got.

He's a wonderful boy.

I'm doing plays and got myself a job, teaching again,

doing what I love to do.

Got on my feet.

I don't think I'd have done it without Stephen.

At last, after meeting Stephen's mum, Phil finally gets

to see his good samaritan.

Stephen, Phil.

Good to see you.

And you, mate.

You're looking well, man.

Doing well.

Look at you!

I just want to tell you what you've done for me.

You've done everything for me.

I was in that doorway, thinking I didn't want to go on anymore.

Were you driving past?

No, I walked.

I walked past you.

Right.

Yeah.

Go on, then.

I asked how you were.

Go on.

I just thought I couldn't get any lower.

I didn't really have any friends.

The loneliness and despair I was feeling.

And then you came along.

And how do you remember it?

I got to the stage where I was talking to myself and arguing

with myself and hating myself.

So I'd have these conversations saying, "You've really done

it this time, Phil."

How bad can you get?

Do you remember coming in here?

No.

This is all new to me.

We sat on that table and chair behind you and sat and had a coffee.

Right.

That's when you told me that you used to serve in the artillery.

Thank you.

I can't thank you enough.

I really, I can't.

You've just changed my life.

I just needed that somebody.

My mother used to have a little plaque in the hallway and it says -

"There's no such thing as strangers.

Only friends we've never met."

And you were my friend that night, you really was.

There you have it.

A helping hand from a complete stranger who has totally transformed

this old soldier's life.

It's amazing what a difference a little bit of kindness can make.

They've obviously got a lot of catching up to do,

so I'm going to leave them to it.

Wouldn't it be great to have a time machine so we could back and see how

the places we love once looked?

Well, thanks to a remarkable group of men and women on Tyneside,

we can do just that.

Newcastle was in at the very start of amateur filmmaking

and it's rare archive is now being preserved for posterity.

It's like a history book with pages you can turn backwards.

I mean, we've got shots of horse drawn trams

going across the high level bridge.

The whole city now has changed but we still have on record how

it looked in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

We learn about how we grew up, how we went to work,

how we spent our leisure time.

It really is a window on to the past.

The first 16mm was only produced in 1923 and Newcastle

was founded in 1927, which makes us 90 years old,

and we think, the oldest club in the country, possibly the world.

Today I've got the easy job.

I'm using the clapperboard so I just have to stand about.

The Newcastle and District Amateur Cinematographers Association

is still making movies.

Take 25.

And having fun.

Listen, I've got a proper storyboard, mate.

Rolling, action.

Things have changed a lot since the old days.

There's the wonderful stage building.

Don't forget about the famous Tynebridge, the old Tynebridge.

-- Tyne Bridge.

Yes, things have changed.

They certainly have.

And these days, I can put it straight on the internet.

The technology has certainly changed for these filmmakers down the years.

But Walter and Sylvia's on-screen chemistry has never wavered.

I can't believe we've been doing this since the swinging sixties.

This dynamic duo starred in a comedy about their hapless attempts

to record everyday sound effects.

INAUDIBLE

No, no, Terry.

This is a private recording you have just ruined.

With time, it's become a piece of social history that has found

a place in the North East Film Archive.

We have got more than 190 films from the Newcastle ACA Cine Club.

Absolutely wonderful films.

They are kept at around ten degrees centigrade with 37 degree humidity

and these films could stay here for the next 100

years, quite safely.

But when the films first arrive at the archive,

they have to be painstakingly inspected frame by frame

to repair any damage.

Here, we've found a perforation that is completely ripped off

in this sequence of film.

The more that you run the film through a projector,

the more damage happens.

So to repair this, we would go back to the trusty splicer and we can

repair this in much the same way as attaching leader.

Newcastle's early amateur filmmakers captured momentous events,

like the city's enthusiastic celebration of George

VI's coronation.

Cameras were expensive and only the rich could take up

the hobby back then.

The leading lights used their upper class connections.

So whilst Pathe news recorded the opening of the Tyne Bridge

from a polite distance, Newcastle ACA had access all areas

to be at the heart of the action.

Then they looked at newsreel events - the opening of the Tyne Bridge -

and then they also said, "Hey, why don't we get

together and make a story?

Let's be a little Hollywood in Newcastle."

And we suddenly find them doing classic dramas,

some of which did extremely well.

In this espionage drama, they once again used their high

society connections to purloin a plane for the female spy's escape.

The BBC caught up with the villainess some 50 years later.

Doris, you starred in a number of films.

In fact, you became quite a filmstar in a small way,

is that why you joined?

Yes!

I was always interested in acting, amateur acting,

so when I got the chance, I quite enjoyed it.

But I'm afraid I was not the romantic type at all.

Health and safety might not have been a concern for the Newcastle

ACA but equality was.

The ladies in your club play quite an active part.

Oh, yes, an equal part, quite an equal part.

We did camera work, we produced and we acted just

the same as the men.

In Bonadventure, we had a lady cameraman.

As cameras became more affordable, the club membership expanded

and by the 60s, they made a multi-camera epic to document

the centenary of the Blaydon races.

We put out, it was something like 8 x 16mm camera units to cover every

aspect of the celebrations, which ran for over a week

and there was everything going - motor rallies, races, the lot.

It was a really superb set up.

NEWSREEL: This is the chain bridge.

It was once suspended from chains and once over

here they are on the last lap, with Blaydon close ahead.

We were shooting in colour - 16mm Kodachrome colour -

whereas BBC and ITV locally were still in black and white.

So when eventually the two channels transferred to colour,

all of a sudden all the material we had shot was in big demand

and it was a nice little earner.

These amateurs were ahead of the professionals.

We have over 30,000 films in our vaults, but this

collection stands out as an amateur collection.

People have this perception that if it's amateur, it's not very good

not very professional.

Actually, if you think

about the original meaning of the word amateur -

a love or passion for - what these filmmakers had is a love

of the medium of film and a love and passion

for their local community, and the world around them.

To digitise one film can be anything from ?500 to ?1,000,

so there is a huge investment in this collection,

both in time and money.

The beauty of this film is nice colour in the middle of the war,

which was very strange, nobody could buy any film in 1944.

So it's brilliant.

Some research and local knowledge means we can trace this Red Cross

training camp back to the exact field above Rothbury

in Northumberland.

Other films tell you everything you need to know.

Any resident of Whitely Bay will sit and be gobsmacked

and say "I haven't seen

that view since my childhood."

An audience, 50 years later, they may go, "Wow!

Is that what rollercoasters look like then?"

And they will be looking at it as a historical document.

Dating it, I just think it's late 50s.

I was just looking at the cars.

Oh, right!

That's what went on anywhere when you went to the seaside.

There was always fellas who were in suits on the beach.

There's something satisfying about being sat in Whitley Bays

community cinema - the Jam Jar - watching scenes

of just outside the front door from a bygone age.

And digitising the club's archive has made it possible.

They've been packed out just in ordinary church halls

or minsters or what have you.

Audiences of 200, 300 and they've had to repeat the shows just

because it is their local town.

And it's great.

And club members aren't averse to indulging

in their own bit nostalgia.

This was my last ever film camera.

At first glance, you would look at this camera and say,

"That's a lady's camera."

This is the Swiss made Bolex 816.

This was my firstt videocamera.

Beautiful little camera.

Goes in your pocket. I don't have a handbag.

But they're not stuck in the past and embrace

new technology and styles.

But is the club still relevant to today's smartphone generation?

We've had trouble getting members and I think we've got to recognise

this and things will change within the club.

We won't go on as we have done for the past 90 years

in the next 90 years.

The club won't fold but it will be different.

One thing never changes - whatever you shoot today,

it won't take long for it to look like yesteryear.

If you want some information on where you can see some of those

amazing archive films online, I'll be posting details

on Twitter and Facebook.

That's it for tonight and we're not here next Monday,

but we are back the following week.

When we'll hear why a groundbreaking Cumbrian copper has

brought Sir Lenny to town.

We'll see you then, but for now from Whitley Bay, goodnight.

Hello, I'm Alex Bushill with your 90 second update.

Drug abuse, violence and faulty alarms.

Just some of the major security failings

a BBC investigation has uncovered at a Northumberland prison.

Stay tuned for Panorama after Eastenders.

Work pays, right?

Well, new research shows pensioner households are, on average,

?20 a week better off than those of working age.

They say more older people are homeowners

with generous private pensions.

Almost 200,000 people living near America's tallest dam

have been told to flee.

Engineers are working to stop part of the Oroville

in California collapsing.

Heavy rain damaged it.

It seems plastic's not so fantastic.