Mary Portas - Television Career

Television Career

Portas' programmes are shown in over 20 international territories, including on Australia's Lifestyle Channel.

• Mary Queen of Shops (2007–2010) was Portas' first series. The format follows Mary helping struggling independent shops by offering retail and business advice. As part of the process, retailers also received a full shop-fit redesign overseen by Portas.
  • Series 1 (4 episodes): 31 May to 21 June 2007 – this series saw Portas visit 4 failing independent fashion boutiques aiming to revitalize their businesses. The BBC published a tie-in book entitled How to Shop with Mary Queen of Shops.
  • Series 2 (6 episodes): 9 June to 14 July 2008
  • Series 3 (6 episodes): 7 June to 12 July 2009 – this series saw Mary broaden her focus from fashion boutiques to saving key shops on the high street. Retailers inluded a local shop, a greengrocer, a baker, an interiors shop, a hairdressers, and a hardware shop. Notably, the first episode in the series featured a Wimbledon based bakery whose owner refused to accept any of Mary's recommendations. The series earned Portas a nomination for the British Academy Television Awards's Best Feature award, which was eventually won by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's series Hugh's Fish Fight.
• Mary Queen of Charity Shops (5 November to 19 November 2009) saw Portas apply the business makeover format to the Orpington branch of Save the Children's network of Charity shops. By the end of the series Mary had successfully turned this worst-performing store into the best.
• Mary Portas: Secret Shopper (19 January to 9 February 2011; 6 episodes)was Portas' first series following her move to Channel 4, and saw her using different disguises and secret filming to reveal bad customer service in UK shops.
• Mary Queen of Frocks (4 October to 18 October 2011; 3 episodes) was a departure from the produced shows that Mary had presented previously, and instead was an observational documentary that followed Mary as she tried to launch her own shop aimed at 40+ women with UK retailer House of Fraser.
• Mary's Bottom Line (March 2012; 3 episodes) shows Portas try to revitalize the UK's manufacturing industry by reopening an underwear factory in Manchester, with a revisit aired in December 2012..
• Mary Queen of the High Streets (February 2013, planned) Is a series due to air on Channel 4 following Portas help rejuvenate Britain's struggling towns.