Are there killer toys on sale this Christmas in Britain? Dispatches has bought dozens of toys from shops and markets in major British cities and has had their safety tested. The investigation reveals that the same hazards occur again and again: choking, strangulation, poisoning, and hidden sharp edges.

Hard-pressed trading standards officers tell Dispatches that they no longer have the staff or the money to combat the flood of shoddily made and counterfeit toys arriving in the UK. But it’s not just cheap toys which pose a danger. Dispatches reveals that many top-selling toys incorporate a type of magnet; a component that the toy companies now know can kill and seriously injure children who swallow them.

Monday 17 December 2007
9:00pm, Channel 4