The late time slot will have put many people off watching Britain’s Hidden Hungry (BBC 1, 10.35pm, 30 October), which is a real shame as it was a compelling - if depressing - exposé of a disturbing new reality in the UK: the growing number of everyday folk going without food every day.

David Modell spent six months at The Hope Centre in Coventry, one of 11 foodbanks in the city and nearly 300 countrywide run by Christian charity, the Trussell Trust.

As the title suggests, its visitors were not what you’d expect. Indeed, Sandra, a mother of five, was so well dressed that although she could only afford to send her son to school with a packed lunch of bread and butter, eyebrows were raised every time she turned up. But then, as 21-year old student, Charlotte, a volunteer at the centre who’d been brought up in care and was surviving on one meal a day, put it: “You can’t tell whether people are troubled.”

Unfortunately, neither could well-meaning Gavin, director of the Coventry network, who challenged Sandra on her repeated use of the service, yet failed to question Darren, letting him claim food parcels without a voucher and declaring him “a genuine guy”.

If only. Darren was a conman - who’d lied about everything and taken the centre for everything he could. Gavin was full of remorse on being told and pledged to “reassess what we’re doing”. But the contrasting treatment of Sandra and Darren shows how easy it is to misjudge people - and how difficult it is to help the genuine hidden hungry.