Episode description

Advanced CCTV, security cordons and an £80 million pound electric fence: The security impact of the Olympics is already being felt in the London Borough of Newham. Security procedures are some of the most intense and developed in the world, designed to protect not only Olympic visitors but also future residents of the 40,000 new homes due to be completed by the end of the decade. Newham is one of the most impoverished areas in the country and the condition of its current residents stands in sharp contrast to the lives of people flooding into the borough for the Olympics. Laurie Taylor talks to Gary Armstrong about a large scale study of security, policing and the impact of the 'Regeneration Olympics' on the lives of the residents of Newham. Also on the programme, Laurie speaks to Jonathan Grix about 'sport under communism' and why East Germany was, for two decades, one of the most successful nations in the Summer and Winter Olympics. Producer: Jayne Egerton.