One of the interesting aspects of filming a hidden-camera show is the opportunity it gives you to become someone else. Every morning I get up and spend three hours in make-up, donning wigs, fake noses, different-coloured eyes, and then get into costume. It gives me a unique insight into how difficult life must be for some people.

Recently I had breakfast at a London branch of the popular Franco-Belgian bakery chain, Le Pain Quotidien. An integral element of the firm's rustic, continental brand image is its insistence on serving hot drinks not in a cup or mug, but in a bowl.

Wiggle, the online cycling retailer, has been acquired by the private equity firm Bridgepoint in a deal worth £180m.

Tom Peck speaks to a financier with a recipe for mending Broken Britain

There are quite a few words that make me want to reach for my revolver. One is "yurt", the Mongolian low-cost housing solution-turned-pop festival status symbol. But this week I am going to focus on another term that has me ranting at strangers at bus stops, and that is "passionate".

The Earl of Sandwich has opened a sandwich shop in London, 250 years after his ancestor, the Fourth Earl, is said to have invented the snack in his quest for something convenient to eat while he gambled.

The chief executive of Pret A Manger, the sandwich and coffee chain, has revealed it is "nervous" about the prospect of a spike in interest rates and UK unemployment but has continued to increase sales this year after a barnstorming performance in 2010.

Orange is set to become the first operator in the UK to allow customers to pay for goods with a swipe of their mobile phone, after signing a strategic deal with Barclays.

You probably have your own nomination for Britain's worst company, BP or Santander perhaps, but my money is on npower. Although most big energy firms combine high prices with poor service, npower has distinguished itself by putting in an outstandingly bad performance over the past few years.

Thieves made off with a £1.2 million antique Stradivarius violin when a classical musician went to buy a sandwich.