DID you catch a glimpse of Festival Place on Channel 4 this evening?

Basingstoke’s shopping centre was briefly featured during a gag on Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, in which shoppers were treated to a sneak peek of brand new, state-of-the-art water purification system.

Except, that water purification system was in fact an everyday colander, marketed as the I-Con by Joe’s alter ego, Randy Tarragon.

As the show’s host said himself, “Randy says he’s designed a high-tech, world class, revolution water purification system, but it’s not. In reality, this thing is terrible for purifying water, but great for steaming veg.”

Funnyman Joe devised the skit to put review site TrustPilot through its paces, testing whether or not it was possible to set up a “totally bogus” business with a “totally bogus” product and get it to the top of the site's rankings.

Part of the experiment involved allowing customers to test the I-Con for themselves, and Basingstoke residents were able to just do that at a stall set up in Festival Place, outside Cards Direct and Build-a-Bear in Wesley Walk.

Shoppers remained sceptical as they witnessed Joe – or rather, Randy – pour water through the ‘purification device’, only to see most of it spill out onto the bench.

They were then offered a lollypop if they promised to leave a five-star review of the revolutionary I-Con, which did little to ease that scepticism.

One agreed to give Joe a three-star review, but only because he thought he was a ‘nice guy’.

The segment was filmed before lockdown measures were introduced, as Joe explains at the start of the show.

You can watch it now on catch-up. Go to www.channel4.com and search for ‘Got Your Back’, episode 8.