About us
We're Dave and Em. We run The Lockdown Pub & Kitchen and Bar 20/20 in Runcorn, we have two kids who think a pub is a normal house, and somewhere in the middle of all that we started recording it.
Landlord, Liverpool fan, and firmly convinced he can pick a winner at Aintree. Runs the cellar, the bar and most of the bad ideas. If something in the building is broken, he has already had a go at fixing it.
The boss. Runs the family, the diary and a beauty clinic — usually before Dave has found his keys. Nothing happens without her say-so, and nothing has ever gone wrong when it was done her way.
How we got here
BEFORE
Neither of us had run a pub. We'd both worked in enough of them to think we knew what we were doing, which turned out to be a completely different thing.
THE PUB
A proper local with a kitchen, a function room and a car park. We opened, panicked, and then slowly worked out how a Tuesday is supposed to run.
THE FAMILY
They know the cellar temperature, they've pulled a pint, and they think every family's living room has a glasswasher in it. It's a strange childhood and a brilliant one.
SITE TWO
Boards, leagues and a neon sign. A second site that was meant to be simpler than the first and absolutely was not.
NOW
Enough people had told us the stories were worth hearing. So we set two mics up in the back room at Bar 20/20 and started saying it all out loud.
The studio
Two mics, three lights and a camera pointed at whatever happens next. Nothing is soundproofed, the ice machine is audible in at least four episodes, and we've stopped apologising for it.
What the show actually is
What happened behind the bar this week. The bookings, the breakages, the regulars and the nights that got away from us.
Raising two kids in a building that's also a business. School runs, bedtimes and the bits that don't fit around opening hours.
The honest numbers. What things cost, what we got wrong, and the advice we wish someone had given us before we signed anything.
Runcorn and everyone in it
We want the people who make this town what it is. Landlords, chefs, hairdressers, DJs, boxers, bakers, the bloke who's run the chippy for thirty years. If you've got a story, a turn, or a business worth shouting about — tell us.