A QUICK “Hi” is quite common, as is a natter about her projects. Then there’s the chats about underwear – that’s a new one.

“Most people will say ‘Hello’ or ‘Good luck’. It’s nice,” says TV retail expert Mary Portas.

“They also shout, ‘I’ve got your knickers on Mary’.”

That’s a reference to Portas’ underwear range Kinky Knickers, created on her show Mary’s Bottom Line last year, where she attempted to resurrect the UK manufacturing industry by increasing production at home.

Briefs sorted, Portas is moving on. Mary Queen Of The High Street follows in the tradition of her previous programmes in which she dishes out frank advice to resistant retailers in the hope of changing their fortunes.

This time, the cameras will be tracking Portas as she tackles ailing high streets as part of her Portas Pilot scheme. Portas was commissioned by the Government to recommend improvements to our high streets, with towns which successfully apply for the scheme securing a Government grant and support from Portas’ team.

The three-part series will focus on two of the winning towns – Margate, in Kent, and Liskeard, in Cornwall – and another location, Roman Road, in East London, that Portas desperately wanted to help.

“This is a problem everywhere, so I wanted to try to give some hope and inspiration to any town really,”

she says.

“What was interesting about Roman Road was that here was an area of London that had the Olympics and they were too embarrassed to even put it on the map. I just couldn’t believe that it couldn’t have a successful market, so I thought it would be an interesting one.”

Her first TV series was Mary Queen Of Shops, in 2007. The new series arose because she wanted to do a TV programme that was “real”, explaining: “I wanted this documented, I wanted people to look at towns [on the show] and say, ‘You know what, maybe we should try a bit of that’. I wanted people that are down on their heels, including market towns, to go, ‘God, that’s an idea’.

“I cannot tell you the number of people I see that say, ‘I saw your show and I have to tell you I copied your idea’, and ‘I’ve got this business and it really meant a lot to me’, and that’s what this is about.”

Portas wants to empower local shop owners, bring back markets and improve the overall high street experience, so consumers will be lured away from internet shopping.

Most people have welcomed her ideas, but there were a few naysayers along the way.

“You always get a mix. You get 90 per cent of people going, ‘Brilliant, let’s make changes’, and then you get ten per cent who moan and moan and moan – and that’s who the press write about.

“Most people go, ‘Thank God. We live here, this is important to us’. In Liskeard, Cornwall, there’s this beautiful street, just stunning, you could tell if it got painted it would be a lovely place where people would just want to hang.

“So I was like, ‘Let’s get the town out, get everybody involved to clean up’. I got all the businesses from Lloyds TSB, HSBC, the Co-op – everyone came out, the Cubs, the Brownies, the police. It was amazing.

“I remember it was pretty cold, and this woman was sitting outside a coffee shop with a man and I went, ‘Isn’t it a great day?’ And she said, ‘No, you’re in our way!’ And I just went, ‘Oh my God, why did I pick the one nutter.’”

  • Mary Queen Of The High Street: C4, 9pm.