Tonight

Friday, 27 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Fiona Foster meets the people who have blown their redundancy cheque on ill-judged investments in their bid to start a business or retrain for a new career. And millionaire Dragon James Caan offers up a guide on how best to spend your money and avoid potential scams.

Monday, 23 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

For the past 20 years, Kevin Whately has played television detective Robbie Lewis, who was Inspector Morse’s right-hand man.

But in his latest on-screen appearance, the actor investigates a subject close to his heart – dementia.

Kevin’s mother Mary, now 83, was diagnosed with the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, eight years ago.

Sadly, Mary’s condition is so advanced that her family had to take the difficult decision to admit her to a nursing home.

Kevin says: “Three years ago Mum became really ill and after a stay in hospital, we had to move her to a nursing home because she was no longer able to cope with living on her own. Sadly her condition is now so advanced that she’s not able to take part in this programme. But I feel passionately that more needs to be done to raise awareness about dementia – and to get the right treatments and care for those with this disease, which is going to affect more and more of our aging population.”

Kevin and his brother Frank recall the sad deterioration of their mother’s memory and ability to take care of herself and their feelings of helplessness.

Frank remembers when he and his daughter Becky first noticed that Mary was losing her memory. He says: “We were first worried that there was something wrong and we took her to Ireland at Easter… Becky came into our room crying and she said, ‘There’s something wrong with Gran. There’s something wrong”. And I said, ‘No, no she’s just had a long day’. And we took her off to the pub and she was sitting there with a pint of Guinness inevitably… And she said: ‘Wow – this is good. Isn’t it splendid? But it’s a bit cold for Italy.’”

And the two brothers talk about their painful decision to admit her to a nursing home.

Kevin discusses his concerns about the vast difference in standards of care for patients with dementia in care homes in Britain.

The programme also looks at the need for better diagnosis for dementia, as currently doctors and nurses do not receive mandatory training in diagnosing and dealing with dementia. It is believed that only one third of people with dementia have been diagnosed. In a recent survey, 29 per cent of GPs said they have not had enough training in how to diagnose and manage dementia.

Kevin meets with John Suchet and the Admiral Nurse who has helped him deal with his wife’s dementia.

The programme also looks at whether people with Alzheimer’s should have access to a wider selection of drugs despite the financial implications and it reports on alternative therapies including Nintendo Wii therapy, Singing for the Brain and Reminiscence therapy.

Monday, 16 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Nearly half of all British households have a pet – with the favourite being the loveable pooch.

But if you’re like Tonight presenter Jonathan Maitland, whose dog Monty costs £2000 a year to keep, it may feel like the bills are excessive.

In these touch financial times, animal refuge homes are reporting that pets are being abandoned in record numbers. In the last five years, more than one and half million pets have been put down – because their owners can’t afford them.

One of the biggest costs are vet bills, and in a specially commissioned Tonight survey carried out by K9 Media – 76 per cent of dog owners said the cost of keeping their pet healthy has become too expensive.

In this programme, the Tonight team takes Monty the dog, Rupert the rabbit and Mickey the cat on mystery shopping visits to find out the truth about vet bills.

Tonight exposes how the cost of medical procedures and medications can vary considerably from practice to practice and we discover that some vets are prepared to recommend expensive treatment that is completely unnecessary.

The programme meets one devoted pet owner that has paid £15,000 for treatments for her dog (only £4,000 of which was covered by pet insurance) and we reveal how she is paying a 250 per cent mark-up on medication sold to her by her vet.

And the programme interviews the victims of a vet, and the nurse that testified against him, who was struck off after being found guilty of five charges of disgraceful professional conduct. He attempted the make false insurance claims, charged pet owners for work he never did, and evidence emerged of poor treatment.

But in May last year, the same vet was reinstated and can now practice again.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has the job of regulating vets – and although they can’t dictate what vets charge – they can step in if they consider vet bills to be excessive.

The programme asks whether the Royal College is doing enough with the powers it has and if there should be more regulation in the industry.

Friday, 20 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Is tough love the right approach when dealing with troublesome teenagers? Fiona Foster interviews novelist Julie Myerson and her husband Jonathan about their decision to throw their son out of the house for using drugs and publish a book giving their side of the story.

Friday, 13 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

The Masters family from Dunstable love their brands. Everything in their kitchen is top of the range, including their groceries. Elaine and her husband Tom, and their two children, 12-year-old Charlie and 10-year-old Luke, are keen cooks and have discerning palates.

“I do tend to go for Taste the Difference ranges and the slightly better brands, the well known brands. I don’t know whether it’s habit or we’ve been pre-conditioned to buy the things that look prettier,” Elaine admits, adding that her husband will only eat certain brands.

They spend £10,000 a year on food shopping but, with everyone wanting to save money in these tough economic times, mum Elaine is keen to cut back.

Tom, however, thinks that would mean eating lesser quality food and he is not prepared to change their eating habits.

Last year, Tonight reported on Moneysaving expert Martin Lewis’ downshifting concept, which helped families save money on their weekly supermarket shopping by dropping down a cost category.

Supermarket products typically fall into four categories: luxury, brand, own brand and value. And Martin proved that if shoppers chose one level down on every product purchased, in many cases, they wouldn’t taste or feel the difference in quality and still generate big savings.

In this programme, Martin takes it one step further and secretly challenges the Masters family to double downshift, trading their premium tastes for the cheapest ranges. Elaine and her son Charlie are enlisted to carry out the shopping and cook for the other half of the family – Dad Tom and ten-year-old son Luke, who are not told about the “secret double downshift challenge” and believe they are still eating their regular brands.

Will Tom and wannabe chef Luke be able to notice the difference and how much could the Masters family save if they gave up their brand obsession?

The same test is applied to other luxury addicts, such as a woman who spends £300 a month on designer cosmetics and a group of wine and spirits connoisseurs.

Friday, 6 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Fiona Foster investigates why complaints to one consumer group about defective garments and substandard service have increased by 22 per cent in the past year. The programme explores whether retailers are adopting a tougher returns policy because of the credit crunch and looks at how consumer rights are set to change.

Monday, 2 March 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Cornwall resident Johanna Oates Koomen began storing plastic waste such as food trays, yoghurt pots and margarine tubs because her council said they didn’t have the facility to recycle them and she didn’t want to see it end up in landfill.

Seven and a half years later, the plastic has now taken over the household study.

“When we came to live in Cornwall I decided to just put the plastic that is not being recycled I thought I’ll put in a box and one day someone will come up with the idea to recycle that and the box became bigger and bigger,” says Johanna.

“It’s basically that we as human beings are swamped with plastic, where ever you go there is a plastic issue. We talk about it all the time, we see it on television and I feel that we’ve got to swim out of this plastic waste and it can be done because we didn’t live with plastic all the time.”

Britain dumps more household waste in landfill than nearly all the other countries in the EU (only Greece and Portugal dump more).

Six million tonnes of packaging enters the household waste stream in the UK every year of which 4.7 million tonnes is food related packaging.

And although food retailers have been under pressure to reduce the amount of packaging they use, a Local Government Association report found this February that almost 40 per cent of supermarket food packaging cannot be easily recycled. It claimed that excessive food packaging used by supermarkets is undermining householders’ efforts to recycle more and is adding to council tax bills.

In this programme, Tonight takes on the challenge of trying to find a green home for Johanna’s seven years’ worth of plastic.

The programme makers travel the length and breadth of the country with the Tonight wheelie bin in tow in a bid to find someone who can recycle the plastic responsibly – from one of the UK’s biggest plastics recyclers to one of its greenest councils.

When this proves impossible our efforts turn to examining how and why we are generating all of this packaging waste in the first place and seeing if more could be done to cut down on the amounts being generated.

What are the alternatives to people being charged by their councils for the costs of landfilling excess packaging, a lot of which they probably didn’t want in the first place?

Could and should retailers such as the big supermarket chains be doing more?

It’s a journey that encompasses Britain’s first plastic bag free town, a German supermarket chain where customers can leave all their packaging at the till before taking their shopping home and a Gloucestershire family who are trying to go a whole week without generating any rubbish.

Friday, 27 February 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Fiona Foster investigates why complaints to one consumer group about defective garments and substandard service have increased by 22 per cent in the past year. The programme explores whether retailers are adopting a tougher returns policy because of the credit crunch and looks at how consumer rights are set to change.

Friday, 20 February 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

Estate agents say buyer interest is on the rise for the first time in two and a half years.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett says first time buyers should get on the ladder now to avoid being priced out this year. Her remarks were derided by opposition critics, who pointed out that many experts are predicting further property price falls into next year. With prices now having crashed 20 per cent in the last 18 months, is 2009 bargain time or could it be the year of buying dangerously?

In this programme, Jonathan Maitland reports on astonishing stories of success and disappointment from the frontline of the housing market.

Like Jackie Tomes, who along with her boyfriend, has finally jumped on the property ladder after buying a two-bedroom penthouse flat just outside of London in the Thamesmead area for £135,000 — £35,000 under the asking price. The same flat was worth £300,000 six years ago. And to make the deal even sweeter, Jackie’s mortgage is nearly half of what her rent was. But is it a building in which others would like to live?

Jonathan looks at other areas of the country where the bargains are even better and meets a property buyer whose mortgage payment has dropped to just over £70 a month.

He also travels to the United States where the housing market first crashed and properties are now selling for a $1. But even at those prices – are they worth investing in?

And he finds the equivalent British homes now valued at a pound, but again it may be that is simply all they’re worth.

Monday, 16 February 2009, 8:00PM on ITV1

“At the end of the day, it’s a heavy metal and it’s not something that I want to have in my mouth anymore. It’s been there long enough and I don’t know what it’s been doing to me and I would quite like to get rid of it.”

After feeling lethargic for some time, keen runner Ruth Goodwin began to wonder if the mercury amalgam fillings in her mouth could be contributing to her ill health. She was prepared to pay up to £3000 to have them removed along with a six-month detox. During the process, her dental team needed to wear gas masks to protect themselves from the increase in mercury vapours that could come from the drilling process.

Best-selling author Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease last year, has also paid a small fortune to have his mercury amalgam fillings out. Although there is no conclusive scientific proof, he tells Tonight that he believes they may have contributed to the onset of his disease. The Alzheimer’s disease trust says it would fund any serious research into a link.

He says: “For me it was a no brainer. Having something like mercury in your mouth, no matter what the small print said seemed to me to be a really bad idea, and since I could afford it, I got rid of the stuff.”

Mercury fillings have been used for more than a hundred and fifty years. Two million of them were fitted in the UK last year alone. And the NHS and many dentists say that they are perfectly safe even though controlled studies show that these fillings give off minute amounts of mercury vapour into the mouth which is then retained in the body.

However, increasingly, a highly contentious scientific debate has arisen over whether long-term exposure to these minute vapours could be harming some people’s health – an argument that has prompted both Sweden and Norway to this year take the precautionary measure of banning this kind of filling. According to the European Commission: “The largest source of mercury exposure for most people in developed countries is inhalation of mercury vapour from dental amalgam.” And last summer, the US health regulator changed decades old advice describing mercury amalgam fillings as harmless to say that they may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses. Some experts believe there could be restrictions on their use in the United States by this summer.

But in the UK, because they believe mercury amalgam is perfectly safe, most dentists do not proactively tell a patient about this scientific debate. And a patient must independently approach their dentist and pay for it privately to have them removed.

In this programme, Morland Sanders meets some medical professionals who believe that amalgam fillings should be banned or that patients should at least be informed and given a choice as to what filling material is used. He questions the British Dental Association and the chief dental officer for England on why they have stuck by their position that mercury amalgam fillings are safe. And he meets the patients who believe their health has markedly improved since they’ve banned the metal from their mouth.