A last-ditch attempt to rescue Wilko has failed.

Administrators for the high street chain had been in discussions with Doug Putman, who owns HMV, over a deal to buy around 200 Wilko shops - but these talks have now collapsed.

It comes after Wilko revealed the locations of 52 shops which will close after previously failing to secure a rescue deal for the whole business.

The Great Yarmouth store in the Market Gates Shopping Centre will close on Thursday, September 14 and the Lowestoft store in Gordon Road off London Road North will close on Tuesday, September 12.

In a statement to The Sun newspaper, Mr Putman said: “It is with great disappointment that we can no longer continue in the purchase process for Wilko having worked with administrators and suppliers over several weeks to seek a viable way to rescue it as a going concern.”

The fate of the Wilko stores in Norwich, Thetford, Gorleston, King's Lynn and Dereham has not been revealed.

The chain launched a huge "administration" sale at its Norwich store in August.

Sky News has reported that administrators from PwC are now in talks with Poundland over a potential deal to offload about 100 stores.

Wilko, which employed around 12,500 staff, had already announced a £13 million deal to sell 51 shops to B&M, although the rival discounter has not agreed to take on Wilko workers as part of the deal.

Administrators have already announced more than 1,600 redundancies at Wilko in recent weeks.