A CENTURIES-old fishmongers in Cockenzie feature on BBC One Scotland’s Food Fest Scotland programme this evening.

James Dickson & Son is a fourth generation business with a shop on West Harbour Road.

It is featured on the BBC One Scotland TV show, airing at 8.30pm tonight, in a segment about fish and, in particular, mackerel.

Pamela Zenati, business partner at James Dickson & Son, speaks with show presenter Julie Lin on how mackerel is caught.

Pamela told the Courier: “It feels great to be featured on the programme and we’re looking forward to watching it.

“I don’t know how long we’ll actually be on for by the time they cut it down… it might just be 30 seconds!

“But it’s still great to see a local family business being featured on the BBC.”

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She added: “They approached us saying they were filming and were looking for a local fishmonger to talk about mackerel. I was more than happy to talk to them.

“It was quite fun to chat and tell them about the fish and what we sell. Then they filmed some of our customers too which was nice.”

The family roots of the business can be traced back to 1761 where William Dickson was a fish merchant and the trade was passed down through the generations through to James Dickson Senior who opened the fish shop in Cockenzie in 1921.

James passed the business onto his son John, who then passed it on to his son James Dickson Jnr.

The business has now been passed on to his children John, Neil and Pamela.

Pamela said: “We’re one of the few real family-run fishmonger businesses left in East Lothian that have been passed down from generation to generation.

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“A lot of businesses have folded and others have had children want to go on to do other things.

“But we’re still here as a family business and that is something special.

“We’ve got many loyal customers and we always strive to serve with a smile to keep people happy.

“If you can’t be nice as a business then you will get nowhere so we make sure we value our customers.

“Business is steady now. During Covid a lot of businesses struggled but we were actually very busy because we could do home deliveries which kept us going.

“The shop is a little less busy now because of the cost of living crisis but we still have our loyal customers and we get by.”

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Pamela said she hopes as many people can tune in to watch the show tonight as possible.

She said: “I’ll be watching tonight and we’ll have it showing in the shop so hopefully lots of people can give it a watch and see us on the TV.”

Food Fest Scotland will be shown on BBC One Scotland tonight at 8.30pm.

The first five episodes of the show are also available on BBC iPlayer for free.