Watchdog At 30, TV review: The BBC show has earned the right to call itself a British institution

The programme consisted of a rundown of the show's greatest hits

Watchdog presenter Anne Robinson (BBC)

Are you staying up late to watch the election coverage? In the age of multi-party politics and extended coalition negotiations, night owls are no longer rewarded with the chance to witness that definitive power-change moment like they once were, so perhaps it's wiser to tune in later today for the highlights.

Those in search of real viewing alternatives last night found them on BBC One, where Watchdog at 30 made the ever so slightly hyperbolic case that this consumer rights programme is the most important people-power innovation since the ballot box.

It consisted of a rundown of the show's greatest hits while past presenters reminisced about their favourite campaigns. Some were ground-breaking (exposing the horrific side-effects of anti-malarial drug Lariam), others less so (how dare Nestle try to steal our last Rolo?), but all were pursued with the same clear-eyed zeal.

Meanwhile, ordinary viewers on sofas drove the point home, Gogglebox-style, by gasping in horror at the exploding kettles, leaky condoms and oversized mobile phones which were once, apparently, accepted features of daily British life. With safety laws as lax as these, it's a wonder anyone survived to see the nineties.

Glasgow-born presenter Lynn Faulds Wood rightly pointed out that the most thrilling part of the show was always the "nuttings". That's TV-people slang for those doorstep confrontations with wrong-doers which Faulds Wood and later Matt Allwright specialised in.

It's when they're shouting questions at crooks, shoving their microphones into slamming doors, and, in one case, getting soaked in a conman's urine, that the Watchdog team most resembles the BBC's answer to Marvel's Avengers. That makes Anne Robinson the Hulk, obviously.