Shepton Mallet is BBC star (From Wiltshire Business Online)

Shepton Mallet is BBC star

11:00am Thursday 4th March 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share

A Mendip town will become the big star of the small screen later this year as part of a new prime-time BBC series.

Shepton Mallet’s Market Place will leap back in time to the 1870s as a new series dubbed ‘High Street Dreams’ (working title) takes an in-depth look at shopping over the past 140 years.

For weeks, Mendip District Council has been working closely with programme producers to ensure the project came to Shepton Mallet.

Shops will be transformed into traditional butchers, bakers, grocers and dressmakers; all selling goods from six different decades to give customers a chance to experience shopping through the ages.

Dominique Swain from the council’s economic regeneration team, who has been working closely with the programme producers, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for Shepton Mallet. We hope the exposure will benefit the town.

“We’re going to see empty shops transformed and filled with goods and services from different eras. What started off as a simple phone call to the council from the production company, has now become Shepton’s chance to become a major part of an exciting living history experiment.” Filming for the BBC ONE series, which is expected to be shown in the Autumn, is planned to begin in the summer and there will be opportunities for local people to get involved.

Produced by television company Wall to Wall a Shed Media Group Company, which makes the hugely popular Who Do You Think You Are? series and the drama series New Tricks, the programmes will delve into the history of shopping - looking at how our habits have changed through the decades since the late 1800s.

• Print
• Email
• Share