The only just finished series of Mary Queen of Charity Shops was a stonking great success. Loads of heart and fun and a the makings of a revitalised world of shopping for charity. Now, we see Mary Portas back on familiar turf in Mary Portas: Save Our Shops (BBC Two, Tuesday, 23 June, 9pm). Now, I don’t really have the same fondness for shops as I do a charitable cause. I mean, of course, I couldn’t do without them… but in terms of a TV show like this, should I really give a hoot about a bunch of retailers? Well, this being Mary Portas, she’s not just injecting some life into an ailing store, but rather, taking on something far bigger… far more ridiculous. That’s to try and save an entire town.
With the recession blighting just about everything in the whole country, shopfronts are weeping into the cracks in the pavement and passers-by refuse look, as if their cold shouldering a homeless person begging for money. Portas has taken on a tough gig trying to rekindle the Brits love-affair with making tills ring.
So, she’ll try her ideas out on the town centre of Tewkesbury. Where’s that? Who cares. That fact that I haven’t heard of it is the whole point surely? If The Queen Of Shops can roll her ideas out successfully across a provincial town, then surely, they can work anywhere, right?
One thought that is nagging away at me though… if this show ends up a success like the Queen of Charity Shops one was, does that mean Mary Portas is within touching distance of running the entire country? Well, if anyone is going to run Britain, she might as well…
Mary Portas for PM!
