57mins : 1993

A teleplay written and directed by Johnny Gogan which anticipated major scandals of planning corruption now under investigation in Dublin.

Billy (played by Garrett Keogh) embraces consumer culture by thrashing the back-street antique shop he has just inherited in favour of a shiny bargain basement style enterprise. However, his mentor Jim Kennedy (Brendan Gleeson) has even bigger plans for Billy's shop. He wants to flatten it. Using Billy to route money to a corrupt planning offfical he gets the go-ahead to demolish the shop and the whole neighbourhood in favour of an even greater vision of retail heaven. Packy (Stuart Graham) and his recently arrived fellow shopping assistant Maria (Emer McCourt) must overcome their rivalries to save what is left of the old shop Billy inherited.

With The Bargain Shop Bandit Films became the first Irish company to produce a commisioned drama for German tv. It was to become the first of three such collaborations with German public tv.

The film was produced by Jane Gogan.