Meet Jane the PI
James the private investigator returned with a colleague.
Because her real identity needed protecting, Scott and Chris called her “Jane the PI”.
Jane had previously worked as a bailiff before moving into private investigation. She met James through mutual contacts and he trained her for undercover work.
Her presence immediately widened the kind of jobs James could explain, because there were situations where a woman could get closer to a target than he could.
The first story involved both of them.
The charity ball was not what the husband claimed
A woman had hired the investigators because her husband said he was attending a work-related charity masquerade ball.
She did not believe that was the full story.
James and Jane dressed for the occasion, he in formalwear and she in a ball gown, then went to the venue without tickets.
Their first challenge was simply getting inside.
Jane used charm and conversation at the entrance, complimenting staff and suggesting they could “make some kind of deal”. Eventually they were allowed in.
Once inside, it became clear why the wife had been suspicious.
This did not resemble an ordinary charity event. People were moving around with people other than the partners they had arrived with, different rooms were being used and the atmosphere was much closer to an adults-only party.
Scott and Chris carefully worked out what kind of gathering James was describing without needing every detail spelled out.
Phones were taken away and guests were searched.
The investigators still managed to get a hidden button camera through.
James and Jane then had to behave convincingly as a couple while watching the husband. They admitted that the job had occasionally required a professional kiss to maintain cover, something Scott immediately wanted explained in unnecessary detail.
The camera captured the evidence the client needed.
James would not name any other recognisable people who may have been present.
The only part that mattered to the case was that the wife’s husband had not been attending the innocent work charity event he had described.
Alice Levine found 99+ hidden Instagram requests
The show then turned to a very different kind of investigation when Alice Levine discovered Instagram’s message-request folder.
Scott had jokingly introduced Alice as “Barbara Windsor”, a recurring gag, before showing her that messages from people she did not follow had been piling up unseen.
There were more than 99 requests.
One came from Stuart Fenwick, 28, from Edinburgh.
Stuart had a list of things he wanted to do before turning 30, and one of them was meeting Alice.
His message was unusually formal. He said he had first discovered her “vocally” on Radio 1, praised her sense of humour and even attached what amounted to a small CV with smart and casual photographs.
Scott put Stuart on the phone.
He explained the list, which included physical challenges such as a triathlon, and admitted that meeting Alice had become one of the more unusual entries.
By speaking to her live on Radio 1, the programme decided he could at least partially tick it off.
After a day of hidden cameras and hidden Instagram messages, both investigations had found what they were looking for.
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