Antiques Roadshow is filming at The Piece Hall in Halifax next Sunday.
Ahead of filming presenter Fiona Bruce took time out for a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes with this question and answer session.
The flagship BBC One’s roadshow is visiting palaces, piers and plazas as it tours the UK this spring and summer filming its 41st series.
It will also be Fiona Bruce’s 11th year presenting the show.
WHAT IS IT LIKE WORKING ON ANTIQUES ROADSHOW AND WERE YOU A FAN OF THE ROADSHOW BEFORE YOU BEGAN PRESENTING IT?
I used to watch Antiques Roadshow as a child when I lived at home. I would sit with my parents on Sunday nights and we would watch it together. I came back to it when I had my own home and was a regular viewer before I got the dream job of presenting it.
If you work in television, to find yourself on a programme that the nation has taken to its heart it is a rare privilege.
Antiques Roadshow is a star in the BBC’s firmament and I count myself very lucky to be part of it.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT THE DAY OF THE RECORDING?
I’m not an antiques expert so I don’t value items on the day but what I do know what items make a good story and how to tell it.
So much of what you see on the roadshow is about the story behind the item and the story of the owner - our dream combination is great story, great owner and great value.
We are never short of people who bring along things that may not necessarily have great monetary value but tell a story that can be incredibly poignant, very amusing or reveal something about ourselves or history that we may not have thought of before. I enjoy that part of the Roadshow enormously.
Some of the most moving stories stick in my mind, many I will never forget , such as the man who brought along a set of GI medals from the Second World War. His story began with his finding a cache of love letters written to his mother by an American GI who had had an affair with her while his father was away serving in the Second World War.
The letters revealed that his mother had had a baby with this man and it became apparent to him that he was that child. As you can imagine, it was a huge shock and very distressing.
Everything he had known and believed about his childhood turned out to be based on a lie. As his parents had died recently he couldn’t ask them about it and his aunt told him she was sworn to secrecy. He tracked down the GI’s family in Virginia who welcomed him with open arms and filled in the gaps.
They told him that his father had agreed to forgive the infidelity and bring the baby up as his own - and indeed loved him as such all his life - and the American GI decided reluctantly to stay away so as not to make a delicate situation even more difficult.
The GI’s descendants knew all about the baby being brought up in Britain and were thrilled to meet him at last. It was a very moving experience for all of them.
The man came to the roadshow with his American GI father’s war medals which the family had decided should go to his newly discovered son. As the man told me this story he was moved to tears – and who can blame him?
ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT PEOPLE STILL HAVE TREASURES THAT THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT?
You’d think that after 40 years of Antiques Roadshow that somehow people would run out of things to show us, run out of things to tell us but I’m happy to report that is not the case! Thousands of people come along and we still find the most remarkable objects. We never know what is going to turn up and that is the great joy of the programme and we will see everybody who comes along.
It is amazing that there are wonderful items still out there and that the show, which has been going 40 years, has not unearthed everything there is to unearth is really quite surprising. People still bring along things that are just extraordinary and it’s a great pleasure so see them and hear their story.
THE PROGRAMME’S CHANGED A LOT OVER THE YEARS, MOST OF THE FILMING TAKES PLACE OUTDOORS. WHAT VENUES HAVE STOOD OUT FOR YOU?
I’ve been so lucky to go to some of the most wonderful places in the UK.
Last year for our 40th anniversary series we visited Castle Howard which I’ve always wanted to see and it was just as fabulous as I thought it would be. It had the finest collection of paintings, Old Masters, Chippendale pieces, Roman statues – the top trumps of antiques.
A few years back I also loved going to Bletchley Park where secret code breaking took place during the Second World War using, among other things, the German enigma machine. At the time the buildings were pretty run down, rather unloved and little changed since the war - but it was hugely atmospheric. Since then it’s been given funding and is now open to the public.
YOU’VE BEEN KNOWN TO HELP OUT ON RECEPTION ON THE VALUATION DAYS – WHAT’S THE ODDEST THING THAT YOU’VE SEEN BROUGHT ALONG?
I always help out on reception as it’s great fun. It’s the first chance I get to see what our visitors have brought along and to hear their stories. You never know what will turn up. One year a man brought an attaché case and plonked it down on our reception table. I thought it might contain some exciting documents or letters of historical importance - but no. Inside was his collection of loo chains. When I asked him why on earth he would want to collect them he said he really enjoyed watching the programme, thought he should start a collection of his own, wanted to it to be out of the ordinary - and loo chains were cheap.
WHAT’S BEEN THE HIGHLIGHTS FOR YOU FROM THE LAST DECADE ON THE PROGRAMME?
Seeing a Bible given to Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII with his secret messages to her inside and a Picasso sketch. The then-unrecognised Van Dyck portrait that I spotted (I happened to be making a programme about the artist at the time). Margot Fonteyn’s make-up case brought along to a Roadshow by Darcey Bussell.
Also gold coins sewn into coat buttons by a Jewish mother for her daughter to help her escape the Nazis in Austria.
