An investigation by the Granada Television/ITV investigative journalism series "World in Action" was broadcast on 28 January 1980. Compilation of the programme began in February 1979. It alleged there were illegal share deals involving large cash payments and false documentation, secret cash payments to council and company staff to win contracts for his business, and secret payments by United from a special fund for inducements to sign footballers throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In one case in the early 1960s, it was alleged that a bribe of £5,000 was paid to the parents of Peter Lorimer, a promising young player whom the club had wanted to recruit. The bung was in fact later returned when the player chose Leeds United instead though this was a clear breach of football association rules. The programme explained how Edwards quietly acquired his majority shareholding at Manchester United in the early 1960s and then bolstered his family's holding in the late 1970s in prepaparation for the controversial rights issue.