Quote of note:

In return for a package that includes footage from 12 security cameras, a police advice channel and an array of standard cable fare, the residents of Haberdasher Estate are expected to shop any yobs that they catch on camera.

They can alert the council and police through a CCTV hotline and an anonymous e-mail tip-off service. Or they can just watch the world go by.

CCTV channel beamed to your home
By Amy Iggulden
(Filed: 09/05/2006)

Big Brother, the reality television show that attracts up to seven million viewers, is old hat.

In the world of boundary-pushing television, it was surpassed yesterday by a group of Eastenders who have become the first to monitor their own neighbourhood via a home CCTV channel.

Shoreditch TV is an experiment in beaming live footage from the street into people's homes and promises to be every bit as fascinating as the courtship rituals of Celebrity Big Brother contestants Chantelle and Preston.

Viewers can watch the dog walkers on the street below, monitor the appearance of new graffiti and keep an eye on the local pub.

This summer 22,000 Londoners will be tuning in and homes across Britain are getting their own version next year. But despite being a curtain-twitcher's paradise, the channel is about "fighting crime from the sofa", not entertainment.