The High Street: Shops We Loved & Lost: Season 1, Episode 2

1 - 2: Episode 2

In the second show, we travel back to an era when booking a holiday meant a trip to the high street to visit Lunn Poly or Thomas Cook. We celebrate the new giants that revolutionised our shopping habits from Our Price and Toys R Us in the 80s to Athena and Phones 4u in the 90s.

Eamonn Holmes reveals that in the 70s he worked as a trainee manager in the ladies underwear department of Primark in Northern Ireland, Siân Pattenden gets very excited about back-to-school stationery, while Nick Hewer considers how catalogue shopping was a game changer for families where funds were scarce.

Bidisha Mamata revels in Victoria Wood's brilliant take on department store make-up demos. Anne Hegerty and Lesley Joseph bemoan the loss of Debenhams. Penny Smith recalls the threat that if you wore the wrong kind of shoes as a child you'd end up with ‘claws for feet'. Robert Elms spills the beans on his time as a less-than-helpful shop assistant.

And Mark Heyes sees reasons for optimism that the high street as we knew and loved it could still have a future.