Shopper’s champion

MARY PORTAS switches channels for new series Secret Shopper in which she begins a crusade to improve service in Britain’s shops. “In the past, my shows have involved me going in to save failing retail businesses,” she explains.

“This time I’m looking at it from the customers’ point of view. I just think we’ve lost the whole culture of service in this country. We’ve just ended up with sales teams stacking shopfloors as opposed to any type of service.

“We’re probably one of the worst countries in the world for customer service now. You don’t realise how bad it is until you travel. So I’m looking at that, and how we can improve that. And in some circumstances it’s very funny – it’s so bad, it’s funny.”

She attempts to whip famous brands and high street names into shape, but it is not going to be easy. Such companies spend thousands on PR every year, so they are unlikely to willingly admit to bad behaviour.

But woe betide anyone who stands in her way as she delivers ordinary folks’ gripes and grievances to the desks of chief executives across the land in an attempt to make them change their ways.

“I genuinely believe that consumers will see that you’ve put that extra effort in, and will come back,” she says.

But it’s not only retailers who have to change. “It’s a cultural change from two sides. It’s about the top of the business genuinely, genuinely thinking about their consumer, and it’s a cultural change from the shopper, going ‘Do I really need this? Have I really been looked after? Has this been honest and trustworthy?’”

HATTIE JACQUES is best remembered for her matronly roles in the Carry On comedies and as Eric Sykes’ sister in his BBC television series.

Hattie is the latest biopic from the BBC, focussing on her affair with a young driver while married to Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier.

Ruth Jones, co-writer and star of TV comedy Gavin And Stacey, plays Hattie, with Robert Bathurst as Le Mesurier and Being Human vampire Aiden Turner as her young lover.

MELINDA MESSENGER and Dominic Littlewood return for a new series of consumer affairs show Cowboy Builders.

The opener centres on Karen and her husband, Richard. They raised their 12- year-old grandson from birth in their bungalow but, when she was struck by cancer, Karen needed her own quiet bedroom to recuperate from chemotherapy.

They thought a builder they had known for four years would be perfect for the job.

He quoted for an attic conversion, claimed to be a master carpenter, and the family paid him nearly £14,000. Four months later, he walked off the job.

Messenger and her builders are stunned by the fact that their budget falls £10,000 short, which means they can’t complete the work. She has no choice but to beg the local community to lend a hand.

Littlewood reveals that Karen is not the only grandmother the builder has left living in a disaster zone, but he’s stunned when the “cowboy” agrees to meet him for an on-camera interview.