It is a stretch to imagine any retailer approaching this Christmas with relish. The gritty determination of Rob Templeman, chief executive of Debenhams, and Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia, is probably the nearest you will get to optimism on the high street.

The two hardened shop-owners come at it from different angles, of course. Sir Philip has cash and can choose privacy over publicity if he needs to (though that is emphatically not his style). Mr Templeman has debt – still nearly £1bn at the end of August, despite the group’s best efforts to cut leverage over the year – and chose publicity over privacy when he brought Debenhams back to the market in 2006.