viewers were left on a cliffhanger after the last episode of Only Essex last night, in which love-rat Mark Wright confessed he was torn between two women.

The cast partied in Faces, Cranbrook Road, Gants Hill, the night before the grand finale - a boxing match between club promoter Kirk Norcross and Mark Wright.

Many the scenes for the five-week show were filmed in Faces, and King William IV pub in High Road, Chigwell.

Despite a peak of 1.6million viewers, the legacy the five-week show has left in Essex has been criticised by some.

Sanjo, an alternative therapy and clairvoyant business in Queens Road, Buckhurst Hill, was asked to stage scenes in which wannabe model Amy Childs, 21, gets her palm read.

“Lime Pictures phoned me to try and arrange a time for us to do a reading,” said shop owner Sandra Seman.

“I explained that having a reading was a very private matter, but they persisted with trying to set up the scene.”

She added: “I told them that if we had the camera crews in while she was filming, messages from all their loved ones would come through and it would be really hard to do my job!”

But Ms Seman said filming scenes for the tongue-in-cheek show would trivialise her trade.

“People come here who have lost children, looking to know how they are – it’s not really the image we want.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Wayne Kirven, who owns Firma, also in Queens Road, which was approached to be in the show.

“They rang me a couple of times, but it’s not the image I want for my shop,” he said.

“Sadly, it’s the image this road has been slapped with since the show has been on and trade has gone down because of it. “