A FURNESS cafe-pizzeria was due to feature on a new Channel 5 show called Starting Up, Starting Over on Wednesday night.

The show focuses on families who are leaving behind their old lives and careers to move to beautiful areas of the country to start afresh.

Cameras visited Ulverston's Bici Café in The Gill to tell the story of successful London lawyer Katrina Allison who decided to invest all of her money and convert a 300-year-old bicycle shop into a contemporary café-pizzeria, as well as building a flat above.

She runs the cafe with the help of Italian chef Gwill Baldassarre whom she met and fell in love with. He now provides the restaurant expertise and in the programme he is seen attempting to build the showpiece wood-fired pizza oven.

It also showed the tired couple struggle through opening night. Orders got muddled and customers faced huge delays in getting their pizzas. But despite the chaotic service, the night was a financial success and the feedback about the food, restaurant design and atmosphere was positive.

“There were a lot more problems than appear on the show, so they were fair to us," said Katrina. “At first it was difficult to work around the film crew, but they were nice guys and did their best not to get in the way, so after a while we felt more relaxed and got used to the camera being there.

“It could be a bit tricky most of the time, but they were very professional,” she said.

Explaining why she moved to Furness, Katrina said: “I was travelling a lot anyway, and I decided that I wanted to move where there was a bit more countryside, where I could go cycling.

"I’d been up to visit a few times, and one day I thought it was time to move.”

Katrina was approached about being in the show in June of last year, just before Bici Café opened to the public.

“Starting up a new business from scratch, I thought it would be good publicity for the business, and for the town,” she said. “There are a number of cafes and restaurants expanding so it’s quite fortunate if it can bring some publicity.”