Youngster with love of shopping gets birthday treat with visit to Peterborough TV shopping channel Ideal World

A youngster with a love of TV shopping saw his dream come true when he was invited along to the Peterborough studios of TV and online shopping channel Ideal World.

Joseph Race celebrated his 12th birthday with a tour of the Ideal studios in Newark Road, where he met staff and presenters.

And the icing on the cake for the youngster was the chance to go behind the scenes while presenters were live on air.

The youngster was invited to the studios after his mum sent managers a video of her son selling toys in an imitation of the company’s regular programmes on ITV.

A company spokesperson said: “We were sent a video of Joseph as a presenter selling one of his toys.

"It was so impressive we invited him to the studios with his mum and Alex Knowles, who is a guest presenter and part of the Spectrum Charity, to give him a tour and make his dream come true.

“Joseph had a tour of the different departments to see how our business works and asked lots of great questions.

"His highlight was to go behind the scenes while we were live on air and go into the production room and to meet his favourite presenters.

She added: “Joseph had an amazing time, and everyone loved meeting him. I am sure we have a future employee in the making.”

Ideal World, which celebrated its 21st anniversary last year, employs 250 people in Peterborough and was bought by entrepreneur Hamish Morjaria earlier this year.