MARY, QUEEN OF SHOPS: CLEALLS OF CORFE
BBC2, 9pm 14TH JUNE & 7pm 19th JUNE
Announcement from the Swanage Railway - dated 15th June 2010
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright unless otherwise noted.
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Retail guru Mary Portas travelling on the Swanage Railway at Corfe Castle en route to her meeting
with Chris and Juliet at Clealls of Corfe.
Photograph courtesy BBC
As part of the new BBC2 series "Mary, Queen of Shops",
Series 3 Episode 2 titled "Clealls", the Corfe Castle village shop Clealls of Corfe
gets the Mary Portas treatment.
The "Clealls" episode, which features introductory footage filmed on and around the Swanage Railway
at Corfe Castle and its picturesque station, was first broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm on Monday 14th June,
and is scheduled to be repeated at 7pm on Saturday 19th June.
The 59 minute episode is also available to view and download from the
BBC's iPlayer website,
and is noted as available until 9:59pm Monday 19th July 2010.
To visit the BBC's iPlayer website, please click
here for the link to the Clealls episode.
Retail guru Mary Portas being filmed whilst travelling on the Swanage Railway
en route to her meeting
with Chris and Juliet at Clealls of Corfe.
Photograph courtesy Martin Payne
The BBC website says:
Retail guru Mary Portas is back and she's just in time.
As the High Street reels from the public's love affair with
the major supermarkets, the nation's independent retailers need her
help more than ever. Stalwart indies such as greengrocers and bakers
are disappearing in their hundreds but not all is lost.
Times may be tougher than ever but Mary believes that small shopkeepers
willing and able to adapt can still thrive.
Retail guru Mary Portas filming on the platform at Corfe Castle
station on the Swanage Railway.
Photograph courtesy Martin Payne
Mary tackles Chris and Juliet, a London couple who are running a beautiful
Dorset village shop into the ground. The couple bought Clealls of Corfe Castle
a year ago, but are haemorrhaging almost 6000 pounds a month and now stand to
lose their savings, their pension and their home. The shop is more mini-mart
than country store, and the locals and tourists are heading for the hills.
Mary must teach the couple about taste, incorporate them into village life and
invent 'country convenience' that can compete with the supermarket delivery vans.
But the shopkeepers don't care about food and hide away from locals, who view them
as outsiders. Unless Mary can turn around the owners, the shop and the village that's
ignoring them, this business will go the same way as the 500 other village shops that
are closing every year.
Retail guru Mary Portas relaxing during a break in filming in the Swanage Railway's Bird's Nest
Buffet.
Photograph courtesy Martin Payne
For more information on Clealls of Corfe, which is located at the end of
Station Road on its junction with East Street in Corfe Castle,
please visit their own website at
http://clealls.co.uk/ here
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