Mastermind behind ITV The Chase opening independent sweet shop in Crystal Palace

One of the masterminds behind the hit game show The Chase is opening her own independent ice cream and sweet shop in South London. Sue Allison has spent more than 25 years in the television industry, making a name for herself as one of the producers behind ITV's hugely popular quiz show The Chase, starring Bradley Walsh.

Yet she's decided to step away from TV and into her own shop, which will offer quintessential British sweets and a variety of English ice creams in an old-school ice cream parlour. There will be a wall of 50 pick and mix sweets to choose from, or 15 different flavours of English Marshfield Ice Cream to pick on a warm summer's day.

The shop, called Sweet Child of Mine, is on Crystal Palace's triangle and will also stock British artisan made small batch fudge, chocolates, and marshmallow, with new treats added weekly. And for the cooler months, the shop will have indoor seating and even 'build your own sundae' parties during the winter.

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Sue says: “I've had a brilliant career but the last couple of years have been really tough for the TV industry in general. The UK used to be a powerhouse of new formats but it seems those days are over with less ambitious commissioning and budgets and schedules so squeezed that it’s not possible to make shows in the same way. It felt like the time was right to go and do something completely different.”

Sue is from Crystal Palace herself, having been a resident for more than 12 years with her husband and son. She had noticed there was a gap in the area for a sweet offering providing a mixture of pick and mix and old school style ice cream parlour.

“I wanted to create an attractive and enchanting place that would put smiles on people's faces - the grown-ups as well as the little children who get transfixed by the rows of jars," Sue said. "After all, we were all once that little kid in the sweet shop and it's wonderful to see those memories come flooding back.

"And having tasted Marshfield's Farm ice cream on holiday, it was a no-brainer to partner with them for this venture. The hardest part of the whole process was choosing the flavours as they have so many exceptional options. They do the popular flavours brilliantly - chocolate, salted caramel, cookie dough, mint choc chip, but their more unusual flavours are amazing too. Their award-winning blackcurrants with clotted cream is heavenly!"

Sweet Child of Mine will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm till 6pm at 16 Church Road, Crystal Palace.

Got a story for us? Email anna.willis@reachplc.com.

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