Around 50 friends and family, stakeholders and producers attended the launch of a new TV show last night (August 7) at the M5 southbound service station.

A Cotswold Farmshop is a new six-part series about Gloucester Services, which premiered on Channel 4 at 8pm yesterday.

The services opened in 2014 as a unique partnership between neighbourhood development charity Gloucestershire Gateway Trust (GGT) and Westmorland Family, the business behind Tebay Services in Cumbria, working together to create sustainable long-term community improvements.

Food was provided for guests at the launch and Mark Gale, CEO of GGT, gave a passionate speech about what it meant to get the project off the ground. He thanked everyone for their contribution and especially the Dunnings, the family behind Westmorland.

Mark Gale also spoke to Punchline-Gloucester.com. He said: "We've been on a 20-year journey from the discussions with local residents in Matson about how we can make regeneration really stick and how we can support communities and food suppliers with partners like Westmorland.

"We set out together to create a new model of business on the motorway network and to support community regeneration. I think we've overachieved in both those aims, but there's still so much more we can do.

"We've employed 500 local people and we're working with some amazing local producers. This is something for us all to be proud of."

Shellene Cliff-Brown was one of the stars of last night's show. She got her job through Gloucester Services' Bridging the Gap pre-employment course. She has worked at Gloucester Services for two years and told Punchline-Gloucester.com editor, Mark Owen, that she was feeling a bit nervous and emotional about the premiere.

She said: "I really appreciate the job. I've had a lot of issues and I didn't think getting a job would be easy. I'm really enjoying it."

The Crump family of farmers and cheesemakers supply Gloucester Services with cheese and appeared on last night's show. Annabelle Crump told Punchline-Gloucester.com that the Channel 4 film crew were unobtrusive and really lovely people.

Punchline-Gloucester.com said: "There is no doubt about the positive impact Gloucester Services had has on the people, the community and the businesses in the local area. But the real winner that came across from the TV last night was the scenery of our beautiful county - just a shame that the programme itself was slightly dull."