TELEVISION: Antiques Roadshow uncovers some treasures

Veteran presenter Michael Aspel tells Grant Smithies how Antiques Roadshow team routinely uncovers some genuine British treasures. Their antiques are quite interesting too.

The first time I watched Antiques Roadshow, I was smitten. So calm, so gentle, so very British in its sense of composure and restraint, it seemed the perfect antidote to the fast-edit mayhem of most American TV shows.

Every episode meandered along like it had nowhere much to go and all day to get there. I liked that. I started watching it every week.

The format never varied. First, that frilly theme tune, followed by a wide shot of some quaint British village with an excellent name such as Shepton Mallet or Chipping Sodbury. Next, a close-up of host Michael Aspel, a likeable grey-haired toff with enunciation sharp enough to draw blood. After Aspel gives a pun-heavy potted history of the local area, the camera pulls away to reveal a queue of hopeful villagers clutching family treasures they've brought along for the Roadshow's travelling experts to evaluate.

There's Roger from Yorkshire, an ex-military man with a handlebar moustache. He hauls the world's ugliest ceramic vase out of a supermarket bag, beaming with pride. Family heirloom, that. Sat on the sideboard when gran were alive. No chips. Perfect nick. The assessor smiles an enigmatic smile. It transpires that this heinous looking object is a fine example of early regional pottery.

"You should insure that," he says, pausing for effect, "for around 1500." Roger lights up like a lamp. Antiques Roadshow just made his day.

But then along comes Donna, a hard-faced working-class woman from the nearby council estate. She had brought along a lacquered Oriental trunk that has lent an exotic Far East flavour to her tiny living room for the last 10 years. Her first husband paid 90 for it at a car-boot sale, and friends have surmised that it's probably worth thousands of pounds. It isn't. The assessor wrinkles his nose, as if the item emits a bad smell, then tells her it's a mass-produced factory piece, "nearly worthless, 20 at a push". Donna's face barely moves she's had far worse news than this in her turbulent life but her eyes glaze as she adds yet another disappointment to her long list.

"It's a brilliant show, really, isn't it?" says Aspel from his home in Weybridge, Surrey. He's on the line to promote the latest series, which starts tonight on Prime. "Antiques Roadshow works on so many levels. It's a history lesson, obviously, and a detective story, as our experts uncover each object's past. It's full of wonderful human interest stories as people talk about the object's place in their lives, and it's also something of a game show when it comes to value. It's sometimes a comedy, too, especially when one of our experts has to point out very gently that something that says `Dishwasher Proof' on the underside was probably not made in the 17th century. It all adds up to a nice package."

Indeed. This is my kind of reality show. It's unscripted, unhurried, and full of genuinely eccentric people. Better still, it doesn't leave you feeling braindead. The thing brims with understated humour, and the producers credit you with a civilised interest in humanity's age-old compulsion to churn out decorative objects ranging from the breathtakingly beautiful to the truly hideous.

The original BBC version has been on British telly since 1979 and rates in the top 10 shows each year in Britain, with an audience of between 12 and 13 million per episode. It has been syndicated all over the world and there are now inferior knock-off versions in many other countries.

"All imitation is flattering, but there's only one original Roadshow, and the others all tug their forelock to it, really," Aspel says. "The British version really gets the balance right, I think. For a show like this to succeed you need a mixture of stuff with no intrinsic value but a great story and stuff with a great story that's worth quarter of a million pounds. Amazingly, we keep finding that mix."

To ensure a good turn-out when filming the series, the BBC advertises in local newspapers in each area for weeks beforehand, and on the day sends moving vans to pick up heavier items such as suits of armour or four-poster beds. Between 3000 and 5000 people typically show up for each day's filming, and on a busy day the Roadshow experts will appraise up to 20,000 objects.

"Even after all these years, people still keep coming in with things they found in their attic that turn out to be worth thousands. In fact, a painting turns up in the first show of this series [screening here tonight] that's the most valuable thing we've ever uncovered on the Roadshow. People often find that serious treasure has been right under their nose the whole time. One old girl came in with a teapot she'd had forever and always hated and, well, let's just say that she bought her new council house with the proceeds."

At 74, Aspel is something of an antique himself. He was born in 1933 in Battersea, and after an early career as a press journalist, joined the BBC as a news presenter. He became one of the most familiar television personalities in Britain during the 60s and 70s and has since hosted a variety of children's programmes, talk shows and "light ent" specials before being hired to front Antiques Roadshow in 2000.

This new series is his last before he retires.

"I've done it for eight series now and have spent 50 years in television, so it's time to leave the hosting role and just become a viewer like everybody else. Fortunately, I really enjoy watching this show, and that's unlikely to change. I particularly love the cutaway shots of the queues, you know, looking at people's clothes and their expressions, some looking dour, some looking cheerful and so on.

"I daresay one of the strengths of Antiques Roadshow is that it celebrates the British love of the queue. After all, this is a country where people will join a queue without even knowing what's on the end of it. For filming days, people turn up and start queuing before dawn. Even in winter! We've had occasions where we've had to cover up these poor old ladies in silver foil to keep them alive long enough to see our experts."

The latest series of Antiques Roadshow begins tonight at 7.30pm on Prime.

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