From the sitcom Are You Being Served? to the drama A Woman of Substance, department stores have long provided rich material for TV.

From the sitcom Are You Being Served? to the drama A Woman of Substance, department stores have long provided rich material for TV.

These emporia are like small towns in their own right with large, varied workforces, many of whom are young people with hectic social lives. A live theatre is thus formed by the architecture of the building and its interior, with the store’s staff and customers as the actors.

Selfridges appeared on TV in the late 1990s, when the BBC approached us to make a programme about a business going through change. The Master Plan project, which had been started in 1993 by the then-managing director, Tim Daniels, and continued by his successor, Vittorio Radice, was transforming the Oxford Street store from Grace Brothers to a world-leading retailer.

New escalators, atria, shop fittings; greater emphasis on fashion, including both luxury and high street brands; replacement of all core IT systems; and a significant change in people and culture all combined to create an era of change that has had the biggest impact on the business since its inception.

However, what emerged was not the measured documentary we had hoped for, but a very typical fly-on-the-wall series - a format which was much in vogue at that time.

Inevitably, the BBC found two sales associates in men’s shirts and ties; one of them was colour-blind and the other stated on prime-time TV, “I don’t like serving customers”.

In another scene, the viewing public were treated to the sight of a rather overweight store detective chasing a much more svelte shoplifter, shouting “you’re nicked” as an ever-increasing distance developed between them.

Selfridges was being demerged from Sears and becoming a public company in its own right around the time the BBC show was broadcast, and there was a desire to convey to the financial markets that it was a well-managed business. I watched the entire series from behind the sofa.

And so to Mr Selfridge. As a drama series, it inevitably focuses on the people within the store and their relationships, with the shop itself as a backdrop. However, as a customer or employee, what you actually notice is the physicality of the store, with the people as the backdrop.

Although the characters outside Gordon Selfridge’s family are fictional, the events are mainly true. Selfridges did exhibit Blériot’s aeroplane in the store, it hosted the first public TV transmission, and played a big role in the shopping revolution for women.

However, what the TV series doesn’t convey, with its limited mock-up of a small section of the store, is the building’s enormity. The vision that Gordon Selfridge had in constructing the store in three stages between 1909 and 1925, with its grand space and generous floor-to-ceiling heights, provided us with one of the best retail spaces in the world.

So enjoy the drama as it unfolds, but try to remember Mr Selfridge as the man who left such a wonderful building to posterity.

  • Peter Williams is a non-executive director of Asos and a former chief executive of Selfridges