Robert Peston Goes Shopping

Episode two
Robert Peston still sounds like a malfunctioning Dalek – a presentational quirk that continues to make his programmes harder to watch than they should be. Still, the second part of this documentary series – examining the boom years of the late ’90s and early noughties – does contain some interesting nuggets, even while occasionally feeling like history as written by the winners.

Tesco are launching clubcards, M&S are pulling the rug from underneath British manufacturing and Ikea are encouraging us to ‘chuck out our chintz’ after opening their first store in Warrington, of all places. It all breezes by in a haze of faddish two-week sensations and Britpop bangers and Peston only really pays lip service to issues surrounding the exploitation inherent in ‘disposable fashion’. But things will surely get more interesting next week as the economic crisis leaves the nation’s frantic consumers nursing a severe financial hangover.