From Tuesday 7 March at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview – 5 eps x 60 mins
For more than 100 years the corner shop was an institution for millions of Australians. More than a simple shop, it was the heart of many neighbourhoods. These days you can buy anything with the click of a button, but ask anyone about their childhood corner shop, and they can still describe it in vivid detail - what they bought and how they bought it, the lollies sold, what the shop looked like, the owners that ran the business.
So, in this series of Back In Time For The Corner Shop , Annabel Crabb is on hand to help Carol and Peter Ferrone and their children Julian, Sienna and Olivia navigate the highs and lows of being shopkeepers through 150 years of Australian history. Adding to their ‘time travelling’ challenge, the Ferrone family will go further back in time than they’ve ever been before, starting their adventure in the 1850s.
Back In Time For The Corner Shop was filmed in a close knit suburban community in Botany, Sydney, on a site that was a corner shop for many years up until its closure in 2016. For the first time in the series’ history, filming involved members of the public who were able to shop with the Ferrones and share in the immersive experience.
Special guests joined the family to help them understand the eras they traversed. Many of the guests, including original purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt, John Doyle and Lex Marinos have first-hand experience growing up in a family run store. Ita Buttrose, Linda Burney, Pam Burridge and Craig Foster all helped them understand societal shifts that have shaped our culture and lives.
From the 1850s to the 1990s, Back In Time For The Corner Shop charts the social, economic and historic changes that shape how we shop, live and connect as a community. And we see how the role of the corner shop - otherwise know as the general store, milk bar or mixed business - has shifted, and its status as a community hub has changed.
In 2018, Australia first fell in love with the Ferrone family when they discovered the trials and joys of living through 60 years of Australian history from the 1950s to present day in the hit series Back In Time For Dinner . In Further Back In Time For Dinner the Ferrones lived, cooked and ate their way from Federation to the 1940s.
