Martin Lewis laments BBC’s lack of consumer rights show
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Martin Lewis has criticised the BBC for relegating the consumer show Watchdog to a short feature on the One Show.
Mr Lewis, who created The Money Saving Expert website, called the decision a “tragedy” and said it was a “disgrace” that the BBC no longer has a primetime mainstream consumer programme.
Watchdog was discontinued as a standalone programme on BBC One in 2019 after 35 years and more than 1,000 episodes.
The decision to move the programme to a weekly fixture on The One Show was announced in February 2020, shortly after the corporation scrapped Victoria Derbyshire’s daily current affairs BBC Two programme because of cuts.
Mr Lewis, in an interview on the High Performance podcast with broadcaster Jake Humphreys, said he would welcome competition from the BBC for his own ITV1 programme, The Martin Lewis Money Show.
He said: “You had programmes like That’s Life!, which were [about] consumer empowerment. You had Watchdog, which I was a big fan of, and I think it’s an absolute tragedy that the BBC, our public service broadcaster, has reduced that to a concession on The One Show.
“I think it’s a disgrace during the cost of living crisis that there is now no mainstream consumer programme that is on primetime BBC.
“There is on ITV1, but there isn’t on BBC, and I would love the competition.
“It always did something different, Watchdog’s curative, it looks at people who’ve had problems.
“I’m preventative. My whole aim is to try and prevent problems in the first place or get redress when they have happened.”
The BBC has been approached for comment.
Hugh Scully
Watchdog, which began as a 15-minute weekly slot on BBC One’s Nationwide magazine in 1980, first came to public attention when presenter Hugh Scully challenged MFI, the furniture chain, over its misleading pricing for “£600” kitchens.
When Scully turned up at a store with £600 demanding everything featured in the advert, he and his camera crew were forcibly ejected.
In 2004, the TV shopping channel Auction World was forced into administration after a Watchdog-inspired Ofcom report fined it £450,000 for exaggerating product values and failing to address customer complaints.
Four years later, the show revealed how thousands of people had suffered agonising skin reactions after buying leather sofas imported from China.
Watchdog was also first to reveal the cause: sachets of a toxic chemical, dimethyl fumarate or DMF, put in the sofas in China to inhibit mould growing in storage.
As a result the European Commission passed legislation in May banning products containing DMF.
Lewis, who has previously admitted the responsibility of his campaigning has taken a heavy toll on his mental health, disclosed during the podcast how he also felt guilty about dispensing advice to people who were struggling after he had made £87m selling his Money Saving Expert website.
He said: “Because I’m steeped with dealing with people’s financial issues, and I don’t have them myself, I think that drives some of the guilt that comes from it.”
