Antiques Roadshow

Paul Atterbury examines an antique cricket bat

The programme began as a 1977 BBC documentary about a London auction house doing a tour of the West Country in England. The pilot roadshow was recorded in Hereford on 17 May 1977 and presented by contributor Bruce Parker, a presenter of news/current affairs programme Nationwide and antiques expert Arthur Negus, who had previously worked on a similarly-themed show, Going for a Song. The pilot was so successful that it was transmitted and the format has remained almost unchanged ever since. Negus appeared on Antiques Roadshow until 1983. In the original BBC programme, various towns or famous places are advertised as venues. The show has since visited a number of other countries (including Canada in 2001 and Australia in 2005) and has been imitated by other TV production companies around the world.

In the United Kingdom, annual children's Christmas specials aired from 1991 until 2006, under the title Antiques Roadshow: The Next Generation (except for the 1991 edition, which was titled Antiques Roadshow Going Live) and used a specially reworked version of the regular theme music. However, there was no children's special in 2007; instead an edition was devoted to "antiques of the future" dating from the 1950s to the present day. Since then individually-themed specials have been aired, though not every year.

A spin-off programme, 20th Century Roadshow, focusing on modern collectibles, aired between April and June 2005. It was hosted by Alan Titchmarsh. Two other spin-off programmes, Antiques Roadshow Gems (1991) and Priceless Antiques Roadshow (2009–10), revisited items from the show's history and provided background information on the making of the show and interviews with the programme's experts.

In the 1980s, a girl wrote in to Jim'll Fix It to ask if Jimmy Savile would "fix it" for her to "accidentally" drop and smash a seemingly-valuable vase in an episode of the show. This was broadcast as part of a regular edition, as well as in the Jim'll Fix It episode, with many of the Roadshow spectators looking on in astonishment, until antiques expert David Battie explained the ruse.

The most valuable item to ever appear on the show featured on 16 November 2008. This was an original 1990s maquette of the Angel of the North sculpture by Antony Gormley, owned by Gateshead Council, which was valued at £1,000,000 by Philip Mould.[3] Glassware expert Andy McConnell later valued a collection of chandeliers at seven million pounds (their actual insurance value), noting as he did so that this beat Mould's record; however these were fixtures of the building in which the show was being filmed (Bath Assembly Rooms) rather than an item that had been brought in. In reality, the two most expensive objects to be sold as a result of being discovered on the show are the 1932[4] camera found by Marc Allum, which realised over $600,000 (US) in 2013 and the Christofle et Cie Japonisme jardiniere filmed by Eric Knowles, which sold for £668,450 (including buyers premium).

Conversely, many items brought before the experts are without commercial value, if not outright counterfeits. They are seldom shown in the broadcast episodes, to spare embarrassment for the individuals involved,[5] although counterfeit objects are sometimes included, to give experts an opportunity to explain the difference between real and fake items. Value is not the only criterion for inclusion; items with an interesting story attached, or of a provenance relevant to the show's location, will often be featured regardless of value. An episode commemorating the end of the First World War and featuring personal mementoes, included no valuations. All items are appraised, although most appraisals take place off-camera, with only the most promising items (around 50 on an average day) being filmed, of which about 20 appear in the final programme.

The Artist's Halt in the Desert by Moonlight, watercolour, by Richard Dadd

Some significant items have been acquired by museums after being sold once their owners were appraised of their true value. An example is the watercolour painting The Artist's Halt in the Desert by Richard Dadd, discovered and shown by Peter Nahum in 1986 and purchased the next year by the British Museum[6] for £100,000.[7] Another such item, later dubbed "Ozzy the Owl", is a Staffordshire slipware jug, valued by Henry Sandon on a 1990 show at £20,000 to £30,000,[7] and subsequently acquired by Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.[8]

The original theme music was Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (for several years in a Moog synthesiser version by Wendy Carlos), but was changed in the early 1990s to an original piece. This theme was written by Paul Reade and Tim Gibson and published by Air Edel.[9]

Visitors (predominantly from the local area) bring along their possessions to be evaluated for authenticity and interest (especially related to the venue) and an approximate valuation is given. The production team selects the items whose appraisal is to be televised. Often, the professional evaluators give a rather in-depth historical, craft, or artistic context to the item, adding a very strong cultural element to the show. This increases the show's appeal to people interested in the study of the past or some particular crafts, or certain arts, regardless of the monetary value of the objects. At the core though, the focus of the production is on the interplay between the owner and the evaluator.

Antiques Roadshow has been hosted by:

Antiques Roadshow has a team of experts numbering over 60. Many have areas of speciality, some of them are long tenuring experts on the programme.[11]

Arms and Militaria

Books and Manuscripts

Ceramics and Glass

Clocks and Watches

Furniture

Jewellery

Miscellaneous

Pictures and Prints

Silver

• Antiques Roadshow: The First Ten Years (20 December 1987)
• Antiques Roadshow: Going Live! (26 December 1991)
• Antiques Roadshow: The Next Generation (12 editions, broadcast 1 January 1992 – 29 December 2006)
• Antiques Roadshow: Fifteen Priceless Years (28 March 1993)
• Antiques Roadshow: Junior Roadshow (13 August 1993)
• Antiques Roadshow: Priceless Gems (6 editions, broadcast 1 October 1996 – 11 April 2001)
• Antiques Roadshow: Unwrapped – 21st Anniversary (20 December 1998)
• Antiques Roadshow: 25 Years On! (1 September 2002)
• Antiques Roadshow: Greatest Finds (3 editions, broadcast 3–17 September 2006)
• Antiques Roadshow: Farewell to Michael Aspel (30 March 2008)
• Priceless Antiques Roadshow Series 1 (15 editions, broadcast 9–27 March 2009)
• Priceless Antiques Roadshow Series 2 (20 editions, broadcast 1–26 February 2010)
• Restoration Roadshow (20 editions, broadcast 9 August – 3 September 2010; presented by Eric Knowles)
• Shakespeare Special (29 April 2012)
• Diamond Jubilee Special (10 June 2012)
• Antiques Roadshow Detectives (15 editions, broadcast 6–24 April 2015) - a series of programmes looking at some of the stories behind featured objects in more detail
• Balmoral Royal Special (30 September 2015)
• Golden Age of Travel Special (30 October 2016) - a look at items from the golden age of rail, air and sea including the world's most famous steam locomotive: 60103 Flying Scotsman
• Highlights of 2016 (28 December 2016)
• Holocaust Memorial (15 January 2017)
• Pioneering Women Special (10 June 2018)
• World War I Special (4 November 2018)
• Compilation 1 (31 December 2018)
• Compilation 2 (23 June 2019)
• Second World War Special (8 September 2019)
• What Happened Next (29 December 2019)
• VE Day Special (10 May 2020)

Hugh Scully hosted a Beaulieu based show on 3 January 1993,[22] a Jamaican based show on 14 February 1993,[23] a Cork based show on 13 February 1994[24] and a Brussels based show on 16 April 1995,[25] all on the BBC.

Fiona Bruce together with individual Antiques Roadshow appraisers investigate the history of significant items, uncovering the stories that form the history of family heirlooms and finding out about their origin and authenticity.[26]

• Antiques Roadshow at BBC Programmes
• Antiques Roadshow on IMDb