Chichester: clothes, cats and counter-culture in a nostalgic trip back to 1980s

Grandma's Shop will offer clothes, cats and counter-culture in a nostalgic trip back to 1980s Sheffield for this year’s Chichester Fringe.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at First Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Really lovely to speak to Julie Flower about a truly special sounding show which is coming

00:10to the Chichester Fringe, Grandma's Shop, and it's on Friday, June the 13th at Christchurch.

00:17Grandma's Shop, the grandma in question being yours. What was this shop?

00:22Oh, hi Phil, it's lovely to talk to you. This shop was my grandma's second-hand clothes

00:29shop in the centre of Sheffield and she ran it for around 30 odd years from the early

00:3660s to the mid-90s. So quite an interesting time in terms of social change within Sheffield

00:44and within the country.

00:45And you were at the heart of it, you used to help out in that shop. How old would you have

00:51been at the time?

00:51So I, sort of from the mid-80s, so I was kind of, you know, like 10 onwards until the

01:00mid-90s when I left Sheffield to go to university. So it was a really pivotal time for me as well

01:06and helping her out on a Saturday morning and then during the holidays. It was just wonderful

01:10to work with her in this way.

01:12What was she like to be with?

01:14She was a self-styled eccentric. She'd be happy to be called that. She was a very small

01:22woman. She called a spade a spade. She was a northern grandma, but not a very conventional

01:28one. She was a separated woman since the 1950s. She looked after 30 odd stray cats at the back

01:36of the shop. And she, yeah, was just quite an unusual character, a very humorous character.

01:43She loved to have a laugh with customers. And I think she just found people fascinating.

01:50So there was this whole, yeah.

01:53And this is the world that you are recreating in the piece as a one-woman show?

01:58Yes, as a one-woman show. So it will have, and it has multi-character kind of work within

02:03it. So we meet some of those customers coming into the shop. We meet me now, but also in

02:10the past with that kind of childlike exploration of this magical place. And it did often feel

02:15magical, the transformations that the customers had within this place as a result of my grandmother.

02:23And your grandmother too, of course.

02:26Absolutely. We meet her, but we hear about her from everybody else.

02:31Oh, and what would she make of this? She would be chuffed, wouldn't she? Surprised, but chuffed?

02:38Yeah, I hope so. I think she would be very surprised. Like, hang on a minute. I'm a shopkeeper

02:43from Sheffield. Why, why on earth are you doing this? But she'd love the attention. She'd be

02:47straight up there. She'd love it.

02:49Fantastic. Well, good luck with it. It sounds brilliant, especially the cats. Lovely to talk

02:54to you. And have a great time in Chichester.

02:57Thank you, Phil.

02:58Friday, June the 3rd.

02:59Thank you, Phil. Thanks a lot then. Bye-bye.