AN entrepreneur who traded in a high-flying law career in London to set up a cafe in the South Lakes is the subject of a TV documentary.

On Wednesday evening at 7pm the owners of Ulverston's Bici Cafe, Kat Allison and Gwill Baldasarre, will feature in Channel 5's Starting Up Starting Over .

The documentary will be a fly-on-the-wall look at what drew the pair to the town and the numerous trials and tribulations that setting up a new business can bring.

The Mail spoke to Ms Allison, 46, about what compelled her to leave a successful city career behind and start afresh in Cumbria.

She said: "I think I wanted to move away from the kind of all-consuming job in the city. Because it took every waking moment, it takes over your life. You think, 'do I want to do this for the rest of my life.'"

Ms Allison was a partner in a successful law firm in London, "helping to move money around" as she says. There came a point when she realised that was not something she wanted to be a part of anymore.

She left her job in 2009 and spent the next five years doing a mixture of long-distance cycling events and legal consultancy work.

Between 2009-10, Ms Allison cycled tens of thousands of miles through the USA, returning again in 2014 when she rode from Oregon on the west coast, to New York City on the east.

It was the roadside cafes she encountered on her travels that inspired her to merge a fondness for cycling with a passion for food.

Through a university friend who lived in Ulverston, she became acquainted with the town, eventually coming across a location which was perfect for starting up a new business.

She said: "A property came on the market which I thought would be great for the kind of cafe I wanted to set up."

With her partner Gwill (short for Guglielmo), the venture was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her to run her own business, and enabled Mr Baldasarre to develop his considerable pizza-making talent.

It is almost a year since Bici Cafe opened in The Gill. The documentary will follow the cafe team through the painstaking and often emotional task of setting up a business.

Ms Allison said: "Until you do it yourself there are so many things you don't realise about running a business.

"Whatever you are starting up it is unique, there are rules you can follow but you are always doing something that is unique and has its own features."

Although a great success by anyone's standards, Ms Allison remains cautious, saying she is her own harshest critic when it comes to running the cafe.

She said: "I'm one of my harshest critics; you think you can always be doing better but every now and again you see a really nice plate of food go out and the customer takes a photo, it makes you feel really proud."

On the eve of the documentary's airing, Ms Allison is glad it will highlight the work that goes into starting a business, but also the positive light it will shine on Ulverston.

She said: "We thought it would be good for us and good for the town. It has some lovely shots of the town and shows what a nice place it is, that was really positive."

Starting Up Starting Ove will be broadcast on Wednesday August 23, at 7pm on Channel 5

Read more from Ulverston:

Read our food review from when Bici Cafe first opened

A monumental effort saw a dry stone wall on Hoad restored

A charity stalwart of more than 30 years has been nominated for a heart of Ulverston Award