Millions of people watched Welshpool on The One Show on Tuesday night as part of a segment on The Great British High Street Awards 2018, which the town has entered.

A crowd of local residents were shown outside Welshpool Town Hall, with Town Clerk Robert Robinson, speaking to presenters Alex Jones and Matt Baker in the studio.

The short broadcast began with a shot of The Oak Furniture Shop on the High Street and then moved across the road to the outside of the town hall, where a crowd had gathered.

While this happened Alex and Matt were providing commentary, with Matt first stating that Welshpool was Alex’s “neck of the woods” and her agreeing, despite her being from Ammanford in Carmarthenshire, which is 85 miles away.

The pair then made a joke about there being plenty of parking before the camera reached Mr Robinson and Welshpool Mayor Stephen Kaye, with the crowd of townsfolk behind them.

Mr Robinson said: “The reason why Welshpool should be a winner is because first of all it has a tremendous variety of shops including chain shops and loads of independents on the main streets and side streets, from gifts to books to music shops and an indoor market.

“In addition, it has 1,650 car parking spaces and free public toilets, a tourist information centre, clean streets with places to sit down, and also it is a dementia friendly town with a lot of disabled access.”

BBC One presenter Matt then asked Mr Robinson a light-hearted question about the ceremonial wig and gown work by the Town Clerk for the broadcast.

Mr Robinson said: “This is ceremonial regalia. The mayor is to my right in the red and when he wears his outfit the town clerk of the town wears the legal outfit which is what I’m wearing now.”

Back in the studio, the two presenters were also joined by well-known actor Matthew Macfadyen, who was a big fan of Welshpool’s multicoloured bunting.

He said: “Bunting is very important... I like a bit of bunting.”

The topic of bunting came up again after the programme went live to Totnes in Devon, and Matthew Macfadyen was asked to decide which town out of the two he preferred.

He initially said that he liked Totnes the most, but then said: “I did like the bunting too though in Welshpool, so I’m sort of torn.”

Presenter Matt then threw in his support for Welshpool too: “And as Robert said, a lot of parking as well, which is really important. There’s nothing worse than trying to find a parking space.”

The Great British High Street Awards is a competition set up by the government with the aim to recognise and celebrate local achievements on high streets and supporting the communities they serve.

The awards are run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the winner will receive a cash prize of £25,000 as well as dedicated support and mentoring from industry experts.