The Wonder of Woolworth TV campaign from the 1970s, and the plunder of the business in 2008
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Royal Marines Band at Exeter In the Seventies Woolworth was revived by a 'wonderful' TV campaign
Brixton Road, London, SW7 It was created by legendary ad-men Peter Marsh and Rod Allen of ABM
Commercial Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire It resonated with shoppers from Ashby-de-la-Zoch to Yeovil...
High Holborn, London ...and from High Holborn in the City of London ...
Midland Road, Bedford ...to Midland Road, Bedford
The strapline The long commercials attracted millions of new shoppers
Parade of stars Britain's first celebrity ads were packed with stars, including popular favourites Nicholas Parsons and Tim Brooke-Taylor
Star struck - Sir Stirling Moss, Pat Coombes, David Jacobs and Ed Stewart The stars were drawn from sports, popular tv shows and particularly BBC Radio.
Seeing stars Jimmy Young, Harry Worth and Georgie Fame were the lead stars of a campaign each. Tony Blackburn was a hit on Radio 1
Star turns Some of the ads ran for over two minutes - a whole ITV commercial break
Winfield Handbags Sir Jimmy Young waxed lyrical about the firm's own brand handbags, which were made by Northern Leathergoods
Spicing things up JY also promoted Old Spice, which went head-to-head with Brut 33 to be the top fragrance of Seventies romeos
Winfield Audition Radios Many Radio 2 listeners didn't know what popular host Jimmy Young looked like until he fronted the commercials
Wonderful Jimmy Young The film crew were amazed at how much the camera loved 'one-take' Jimmy, when he shot this scene in the Luton Arndale Centre
The first Noel This picture should be a banker for popular favourite Noel Edmunds, long before Deal or No Deal
The Nolans The Nolans add a touch of glamour with a glitzy campaign for Winfield fashions
A pasion for fashion The clothing campaign included a song-and-dance routine on Woolworth's traditional personal service counters
Superstar Georgie Fame A surreal store was built and a troupe of profssional dancers were hired for Georgie Fame, who sang all the product names for over two minutes!
Splash it on all over Faberge's Brut 33 engaged superstar boxer and legendary Brit Sir Henry Cooper to fight back against Old Spice fragrances
It's Friday, it's five to five, it's Leslie Crowther Leslie loved playing with his organ, and starred in the first ever Wonder of Woolworth ad alongside Magnus, a reed organ for £169.95
Church Street, Blackburn In the late 1970s Woolworth had over 1,200 stores across the British Isles. The newest looked like this ...
Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol ... while many were smaller and had barely changed since the 1950s
6-7 Hall Street, Carmarthen, Wales ...while few were as small and quaint as this branch in Carmarthen, pictured in 1976
Bridge Street, Peterborough, Northamptonshire ... or as contempoary as the new-look concrete-clad branch in Peterborough
Arndale Centre, Wandsworth During the 1970s a few branches moved to new premises in shopping precincts like the Wandsworth Arndale Centre in South West London
25 Market Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire Many were given a make-over in situ, with over-sized plainly letter fascias
Quality Foods The reality of the displays in-store was a far-cry from the glamorous look on show in the flagship Luton Arndale Centre store where the ads were filmed
Pic'n'mix at Maidstone, Kent The stores stocked a huge range and were famous for their pic'n'mix sweets
Fashions at Guildford, Surrey Despite a big push in the 1970s the fashion range struggled to get established
Brightly coloured plastics Day glow orange buckets and bowls were best sellers
Ten times table As the stores grew new ranges of furniture were introduced
Baggging a bargain The handbags imitated high fashion but at budget prices
Sir Harry Secombe Sir Harry Secombe starred as Aladdin in a surreal 1979 campaign ...
Everybody needs Woolworth, specially at Christmas A huge 'everybody needs' box from the 1979 campaign
Everybody needs - Woolworth fashions The garments didn't match up to the PR...
Nobody needs ... Woolworth fashions Commentators spoofed the adverts, saying 'nobody needs uncomfortable, inferior clothes'
Eastgate, Chester The Tudor-boarded Woolies store in Chester was a jewel in the crown
South Road, Haywards Heath By comparison Haywards Heath, in a former supermarket, was one of the ugliest
Every day's a Woolworth Day Seventies catalogues included a calendar for the year ahead
Would you credit it As the range grew, credit was offered on the more expensive items
Pin-point advertising Press ads complemented the television campaigns
Reeling them in Press ads in women's magazines introduced the "well worth shopping" campaign thirty years before it became the slogan
The strapline Watch straps provided a great execuse for a new strapline
Is this a record? Woolworth built a dominant share of chart music sales in the 1970s after years of only seling cover versions
Chevron Cassettes Cassettes and eight-track cartridges were best sellers in the 1970s, Many played them in the car
Wonder of Woolworth Ford Escort Team Woolworth enjoyed rally success
Woolworth sponsored Silver Jubilee buses With many stores across the capital, the retailer sponsored a new livery London's buses to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee
At the heart of Blackpool The Wonder of Woolworth tram was a popular favourite as it passed the iconic Promenade and Bank Hey Street store
Wonderful Results As well as being fondled remembered, the TV campaign lay behind a revival at Woolies
A wonderland for you and me Value and quality featured strongly in the campaign
Market Place Kingston-upon-Thames (1933) For a while it seemed the former glory of the 1930s
Market Place Kingston-upon-Thames (1978) By 1978 Woolworth had a proud new face and seemed to be on the mend. Yet it changed hands just four years later
Market Place Kingston-upon-Thames (2004) The chain changed hands again in 2002, and the blunders began as it moved up-market
Market Place Kingston-upon-Thames, December 2008 Forty one days after getting into trouble, the entire chain had been plundered
A week before Christmas This was Deloitte's idea of how to 'trade normally' early in the administration
A week after Christmas, Byres Road, Glasgow, Scotland - one of 800 in the total shutdown of the chain 30,000 long-serving staff lost their jobs, despite the secured lenders getting all their money back. The administrator Deloitte enjoyed a £20m payday. That was the plunder of Woolworth.