Rogue traders and high pressure salesmen operating in Sussex will be exposed over the next five weeks on national television.

ITV's House of Horrors will feature some of Britain's best-known companies as well as smaller traders.

Presenters Jonathan Maitland and Zara Malik spent three months this summer posing as a young, wealthy professional couple living in Sussex for the consumer programme.

Granada TV worked with West Sussex County Council's trading standards department to identify companies they suspected used sharp practice.

The traders were invited to the couple's house in Dorking Road at Kingsford, near Horsham.

They were then filmed by 26 hidden cameras while a production crew next door monitored their progress.

Last night's episode featured a salesman from a Sussex branch of Zenith Windows using scare tactics to pressure the undercover presenter into buying its products.

Miss Malik was alone in the house when the salesman called one evening. He spent four hours trying to persuade her to buy the firm's windows.

When she claimed she could not give an immediate answer and tried to phone her partner, the salesman said: "Well, what if something happened to you? Say I was a rapist or something like that and I could beat you up, rape you, kill you and he wouldn't know anything about it.

"You could be lying here all night but you wouldn't have to worry about it 'cause you'd be dead. He'd have to worry about it when he opened the door and smelt the smell."

Miss Malik told the Argus: "My only saving grace was knowing there was a strong production team next door. He knew I was in a vulnerable position and used that to sell me double glazing."

Mr Maitland said: "Throughout the series, House of Horrors will be exposing salesmen like this, plus some of the worst companies that are duping home owners in Britain."

The programme, which will be shown on Thursdays at 8.30pm, will be exposing Sussex builders, rising damp experts and plumbers during the rest of the six-part series.

A Zenith spokeswoman said it would not be making a comment until it had seen the programme.