The panel

To add to the realism of the programme. Panorama enlisted the help of eight experts to sit in a "war cabinet" to reveal the extent of emergency plans and resources. The team includes people with first hand knowledge of intelligence, emergency planning, police, fire, government and media management.

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Crispin Black

Crispin Black is an intelligence expert who has served in the British Army and worked for British intelligence.

He was also working as a government intelligence analyst until two years ago and has experience and expertise in how emergency cabinets work, having sat in on the war cabinet meetings after the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Before then he served as a major in the army from 1996 until 1999. He spent the two years before that working as a defence intelligence officer.

He is now a director at the Risk Advisory Group - one of Europe's leading independent investigations and intelligence consultancies.

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David Gilbertson

David Gilbertson was a police officer for 30 years.

He spent most of his career with the Metropolitan Police where he rose through the ranks to serve as Commander from 1996 until 2001.

He has experience of disaster management within the UK, having been on duty and the "Gold commander" who dealt with the aftermath of the Southall Rail disaster.

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Michael Portillo

Michael Portillo has plenty of situation room experience - having served as Defence Secretary from 1995 until 1997.

It was during this time that he was well known for a hardline attitude which was reflected in a gung-ho conference speech in which he invoked the name of the SAS.

He was, however, ousted from his parliamentary seat in Southgate during the historic Labour election win in 1997.

But Michael Portillo is a hard man to keep down and he bounced back to become the MP for Kensington and Chelsea in 1999.

Upon his return, he was made shadow chancellor by William Hague, where he began to articulate a more caring, more socially responsible Conservatism.

He mounted a failed leadership bid after William Hague resigned in 2001, but has decided to step down from parliament at the next election.

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Lance Price

Lance Price is a man who knows about the machinations of government.

Now a Media consultant, he has spent most of the last 15 years working in the field of politics.

Most recently Lance was the director of communications of the Labour Party from 2000 until 2001.

Before that he spent two years working as a special advisor to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The rest of his career in the world of politics came from the other side of the fence. Lance spent almost 10 years working as a political correspondent for the BBC.

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Anne Gallop

Councillor Anne Gallop is leader of the Liberal Democrat group in the London Borough of Sutton.

She is also Deputy Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority - the authority which runs the fire service in London.

She has previously complained that firefighters in the capital were not able to benefit from new equipment which would help in a terrorist attack because of a lack of guaranteed funding from the government.

In January 2003, Anne claimed that despite the heightened risk, firefighters in London were no better protected than they were on September 11, 2001.

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Ian Hoult

Ian Hoult works as an emergency planning officer for Hampshire County Council.

His department is responsible for ensuring that Hampshire is well prepared for a disaster scenario - be it flooding, the previous threat of the Millennium Bug or a terrorist attack.

Ian Hoult has 13 years experience in emergency planning and has helped to give evidence on a Defence Select Committee report.

He says his recent work has focused on responses to terrorist threats, particularly those of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear nature.

As well as checking that all of Hampshire's emergency plans have taken terrorism into account where applicable, he has also helped to draw up new plans specifically aimed at coping with a terrorist attack.

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Professor David Bennett

Professor David Bennett has worked at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south-west London for the past 30 years.

As Professor of Intensive Care at the hospital, he has extensive experience of pressure situations and was involved in the medical response to the Clapham rail disaster in 1988.

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Peter Power

Peter Power is a crisis management expert.

He was the author of the UK Govt. (DTI) issued guidebook 'Preventing Chaos in a Crisis'.

He is also a Fellow of the Business Continuity and Chartered Management Institutes, and Emergency Planning Society.

Peter also regularly runs workshops and coaching sessions on Crisis Management.

Panorama: London under attack will be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, 16 May 2004 at 22:15 GMT