TELEVISION star Charlie Brooker returned to his home village to open its new community shop.

Accompanied by his wife, former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, the satirist cut the ribbon to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell’s store — 37 years after his grandparents last ran the village sweet shop.

When Brightwell’s previous shop closed eight years ago, villagers started a long campaign to set up a community-run store.

They raised £100,000 of the £225,000 start-up costs themselves, with 212 people making private donations, and obtained grants from charities, trusts and South Oxfordshire District Council. The shop, housed in a purpose-built, eco-friendly extension to the village hall and staffed by 70 volunteers, started trading in August.

Hundreds of villagers turned up for the official opening of The Village Stores on Saturday.

Mr Brooker grew up in Church Lane and his parents, Anne and Derek, still live in the village. His grandparents Joseph and Elsie Brooker ran the sweet shop.

Mr Brooker, well known for barbed comments about broadcasting in shows including Screenwipe, said: “There used to be three shops in the village, and my grandparents used to run one of them. It closed when I was two, so my memories are sketchy at best.

“When I come back, it is generally for short visits or at Christmas, so I don’t think I’ve seen this many people here since I was at the village fete aged 12.

“People are generally surprised to find out I had any upbringing at all, they think I hatched in some sort of lab.

“It is weird to be back and an honour to be asked to open the shop. You cannot refuse when it is your own village.”

He said the store was “the most impressive shop there has ever been in the village by miles”. He jokingly warned Brightwell residents: “If you don’t come and use it, it is a small enough village that everyone will know where you live and who you are.”

Sharing the ribbon-cutting duties was 90-year-old villager Ron Cook, Mr Brooker’s former schoolmaster, whose sister used to run Brightwell’s general stores.

Presenter Miss Huq, who wed Mr Brooker in Las Vegas in July, said: “It is good to see all the local produce, and the whole community coming together after so many years without a shop.”

Villagers hailed the community’s efforts to open the shop.

Shop chairman Celia Collett said: “If politicians want to know how to get the Big Society to work, they should come to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

“Lots of things in the village, from the shop to new affordable housing, have been achieved by people coming together.”

And management committee chairman Jim Sanger said: “This is a new social meeting place for the village. One person told me they had met more people in the village over the last eight weeks since the shop opened than they had in the last ten years.”