Sunder and Pam Sandher, who own an award winning Londis store in Leamington Spa, are to feature in a new six-part series, being screened on BBC One called ‘Turn Back Time’. The series brings the story of the British High Street to life as it transports four empty shops and a group of contemporary shop-keeping families back to the High Street’s heyday in the 1870s, before propelling them through a century of change right up to the seventies.
The couple, who are joined by their children Karina (16) and Josh (12), will be featured in episode six on 7 December as convenience store owners in the seventies.
Sunder and Pam were ideal for the part as they had helped their first generation immigrant families at work and in the home in the seventies. They wanted to take their children back to that decade to see how they coped without modern technology and to show them the difficulties faced by their forebears when they arrived in Britain for the first time.
Says Sunder: “The High Street is an essential part of the community. Being part of this series was a great experience for us all. Along with the usual pressures of running a business, during the filming we experienced the problems of dealing with pounds, shillings and pence; powercuts; no EPoS or mobiles. Throughout the filming we truly lived as if we were in the seventies, from our clothing and food, through to the flat we were living in and the car we drove. It was tough, but when it was all over we were really sad to leave.”
The series is set in the picturesque market town in Shepton Mallet, Somerset and overseen by Turn Back Time’s own unique chamber of commerce (Gregg Wallace, Tom Herbert and Juliet Gardiner) that sets the challenges for each era.
