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FILTHY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, BBC1 - WINS ITS SLOT
Leopard's new series FILTHY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS for BBC1 won a strong 28.3% audience share at the start of its first season. It confirms the BBC and Leopard's commitment to hard-hitting current affairs and access documentary in difficult subject areas.
Transmitting daily for three weeks, the series highlights the problem of fly-tipping - one of the fastest growing illegal activities plaguing Britain every day.
An estimated £55 million is spent by councils dealing with clearing rubbish each year and the problem is showing no sign of abating. More than 3,000 fly-tipping incidents happen each day and with landfill taxes more than quadrupling in the last decade, the unlawful dumping of rubbish is causing real concern for hundreds of local councils across the UK.
Filthy Rotten Scoundrels goes undercover to investigate the criminals at work, through sting operations and 24 hour surveillance, to catch some of Britain's most notorious fly-tippers. The series, hosted by BBC presenter Dominic Littlewood, follows council enforcement teams as they deal with some shocking confrontations and their ongoing battle to bring the fly-tippers to justice with a number of incredible and astounding stories of blatant fly-tipping captured on the streets of Britain.
The series features a con man who destroyed a swan sanctuary set up in Shepperton, Surrey, by dumping hundreds of lorry loads of waste into the sanctuary. The team also sees the incredible discovery of hundreds of bags of dog mess thrown into trees and bushes by a rogue dog walker in Charnwood, Leicestershire with the borough's senior enforcement officer investigating CCTV footage hoping to catch the culprit in the act. Meanwhile, in the Lancashire town of Darwen, near Blackburn, environment agency and council officers are called upon to deal with thousands of broken ceramic sinks which had been dumped in picturesque countryside surrounding the town.
Dominic Littlewood said: "Fly-tipping is becoming a bigger and bigger issue every day across the UK and it's a problem that requires an extraordinary amount of time and money to deal with. Filthy Rotten Scoundrels gives an insight into what enforcement officers have to put up with on a daily basis and just how bad fly-tipping can get."
Executive Producer for Leopard Films Simon Harries said: "Filthy Rotten Scoundrels is the first show in the UK to shine a light on the murky and fast-growing issue of fly-tipping. The series will both shock and astonish viewers with the audacity of the characters involved."