The BBC documentary Blood On The Carpet usually unmasks boardroom backlashes and hostile takeovers.

But tonight it focuses on banger backstabbing as the Sussex sausage king reveals all about his turbulent business history.

Bill O'Hagan's love of sausages was so great he gave up a successful career as a journalist to chase his dream.

As a South African, he expected the home of the great British banger to be stuffed with strings of prime sausages but was disappointed by "gristly old rubbish".

So he started making his own varieties, devising unique combinations of pork, watercress, gin or vodka.

Mr O'Hagan saw himself as the Anita Roddick of the sausage business, making it his mission to rescue them from obscurity.

He even set up Save Our Sausages, an organisation dedicated to improving the reputation and quality of the British banger.

His first shop in Greenwich did a roaring trade and soon he was branching out to open shops in Lewes, Chichester and Bosham.

By 1991, he was making two million sausages a year and struggling to keep pace with demand.

But Mr O'Hagan says he was too trusting.

The sausage king was never a natural businessman and claims he was betrayed by colleagues who destroyed his meaty empire.

But he fought to save it and last week a businessman stepped forward with a financial and management strategy that promised to keep him afloat.