Timeshift2002

Narrator:
The idea that organisations improve by admitting their failings is a modern one. For a judiciary rooted firmly in the past, which didn't even have press officers until the 1980s, any form of media intrusion was unwelcome. And it wasn't just the legal establishment that preferred television to keep its nose out. The police, too, had much to hide.

Peter Neyroud - Former Chief Constable, Thames Valley Police:
I joined in 1980 and very early on as a temporary detective I was very, very strongly told "confinement brings confession". In 1980, we pre-prepared confessions - we wrote them out before we actually sat down with the people, and we got them to sign. They weren't *their* words. There was no doubt about the kind of conspiracy between judges, magistrates and cops, and the sort of the nods and the winks that went on in the court.