COVENTRY shoppers will feature in an experiment on tonight’s episode of the BBC’s The One Show.
West Orchards shopping centre will make an appearance in a segment which seeks to understand how alert we are to suspicious objects left in public places.
Filmed last week, the experiment placed secret camera around the shopping centre to see how many shoppers noticed and reported a large, unattended black suitcase.
Director and producer Mark Rainsforth said he chose West Orchards because it is a ‘typical shopping centre’ in a city other than London.
He explained: “Following the bombs which exploded in New York last month, it got us thinking about how alert we are in this county to unattended items.
“It’s obviously a horrible thing to happen and wanted to see how vigilant people were
“Therefore we came up with the idea to ‘accidentally’ leave the bag in a shopping centre and see how many people notice it and act on it.”
MI5’s current threat level for international terrorism in the UK is severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.
But Mr Rainsforth said the experiment is not meant to scare people, but to encourage people to remain alert.
“We want to encourage people not to be British about this – not to assume that telling alerting someone is ‘making a fuss’ or more importantly that someone else will deal with it.
“There is no harm in reporting things like this.”
Tune in to The One Show on BBC One at 7pm tonight to see how Coventry shoppers fared in the experiment.
