If you look closely at the TV schedules this week, you’re in for a big surprise. Well, not a big surprise at all actually, but there’s more to telly than election coverage, cookery programmes and Police, Camera, Action. Take Eyewitness, on BBC2, Sunday at 11pm (I know, not an ideal slot, but that’s what iPlayer’s for).

This three-parter first aired last Sunday and lifts the lid on the less-than-perfect human memory through following the accounts of eyewitnesses who have witnessed a series of violent mock crimes. The programme was made in association with Greater Manchester Police (and narrated by Philip Glenister, most famous for his role as bent copper DCI Gene Hunt — is that a good thing?) and as each of the 10 eyewitnesses is interviewed, it’s remarkable how radically different their memories of the ‘crime’ are from each other’s, and the prospect of knowing what ‘really’ happened quickly becomes a pipe dream.

On the programme’s accompanying website there are plenty of tests to try out your powers of recall. I tried one this morning involving an ID parade. I failed.

Our imperfect memories have been responsible for terrible miscarriages of justice. According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the US, playing a role in more than 75 per cent of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

Psychologists and police are working to counter the problems of memory, and becoming aware of our cognitive shortcomings will help us avoid the harmful effects of being completely, absolutely certain we saw what we saw.