''Pound Shop Wars'' is a British factual television series that was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

from 7 November 2012 until 30 September 2015. Narrated by

Caroline Aherne Caroline Mary Aherne (24 December 1963 – 2 July 2016) was an English actress, comedian, writer and director. She was best known for performing as the acerbic chat show host '' Mrs Merton'', in various roles in '' The Fast Show'', and as Denise ...

, the series shows the competition between rival pound shops, focusing on Poundworld. The second series, comprising eight episodes, began on 12 August 2015.

Episode list

Pilot (2012)

Series 1 (2014)

Series 2 (2015)

Reception

Ratings

The first one-off hour-long special episode had a 19.8% audience share. According to overnight figures, "The Battle of the Bra" had a viewing audience of 5.42 million, with 23.7% watching it. The third and fourth episodes had viewing audiences of 19.4% and 16.7% respectively.

Critical reception

Tim Dowling of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' said the series "was not enhanced by Caroline Aherne's jokey narration, and it had more than its fair share of isn't-he-a-character type characters, but it was saved for me by a surprising discovery: the pound shop business is actually pretty interesting." '' Metro'' Caroline Westbrook said it "certainly didn't disappoint". '' Bath Chronicle'' called the narration "lacklustre" and commented on how boring the series was. Andrew Billen from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' gave the programme three stars out of five. ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' said "Full marks to the makers of this documentary, who find a clever and absorbing way to tell the story of the biggest current trend on Britain's high streets."

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, id=3532766, title=Pound Shop Wars 2012 British television series debuts 2015 British television series endings BBC television documentaries British English-language television shows Television shows set in the United Kingdom Works about retailing