The lion's share of the wardrobe business! (From Tewkesbury Admag)

The lion's share of the wardrobe business!

A NORTH Cotswold furniture seller who has seen a dramatic upswing in sales believes it might all be down to a seasonal blockbuster movie.

Richard Wood, who with his wife Zoe runs Pine & Things, an antique pine business at Portobello Farm just outside Shipston, normally feels lucky to sell one wardrobe every three weeks.

But following the release of the film version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe earlier this month, Richard's business has been booming.

"I was chatting to my brother David, who'd seen the film, and he joked that I would see a big increase in wardrobe sales. I laughed but it's been quite amazing. We sold six wardrobes in the week following the film's release," said Richard, whose Victorian pine wardrobes sell for around £600.

"It seems too much of a coincidence that this should happen in the week the movie came out. It's quite bizarre," said the delighted retailer.

"Springtime is usually the time we sell most wardrobes. Even then we only sell about two a week," he added.

He joked that he is looking forward to the release of the rest of the movies based on CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia - especially the sixth book in the series, The Silver Chair!