Conran assiduously picked apart the relationships between the private parking companies, the lawyers they use and the trade bodies of which they are members. Needless to say, it stank to high heaven, but you could see why so many people tire and just pay the damn thing. In an unconnected matter, private parking firms made £860m last year.

Conran had to tread what you might call the Martin Lewis tightrope, on the one hand trying to enrage us enough to take action, on the other laying out in leaden detail what form that action should take. To his credit he made the workings of the private parking system just about as interesting as they could possibly be, setting up his own parking company and issuing fines (a doddle), buttonholing the DVLA to find out just how much they charge private parking companies to buy your address (£2.50) and sitting down with a local MP to check something is being done about this in parliament (apparently it is.)

Ultimately, though, this was a worthy, Watchdog-y segment that concluded that future legislation should – should – fix this mess. Watch this space. Because the parking companies are.