25/05/2024 General News
Alongside cookery shows and programmes about buying and selling property, antiques is one of the most popular genres on the television, writes Tim Blyth. Antiques Roadshow is now in its 46th season; Bargain Hunt has racked up 68 seasons since it first hit our screens in 2000, and programmes like Flog It! (which ran from 2002 until 2020) and Cash In the Attic (first shown in 2002) all jumped on the trend.
Fans of Antiques TV will be delighted to learn that three of the most popular programmes have recently been recommissioned.
Antiques Road Trip, which sees two antiques experts spend a week criss-crossing the country attempting to turn a profit as they buy in antiques shops and fairs and sell at auction, is back for its 28th season, and its spin-off, Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, has also been recommissioned.
Both these programmes are no strangers to Norfolk, with various retail outlets having featured over the years, and with the cameras regularly visiting us at Keys in Aylsham for the auction segments.
Last year a crew was with us for several days shooting a couple of episodes of Road Trip and one of the celebrity version, with actors Tamzin Outhwaite and Julie Graham trying their luck in the saleroom.
The Road Trip cameras were back with us last weekend, filming at our monthly Antiques, Pictures and Collectables Sale. You will have to wait a few months before that is on screen.
Another programme which has been recommissioned this month for a second series is The Travelling Auctioneers. This one sees well-known antiques expert Christina Trevanion team up with Will Kirk from The Repair Shop, as they travel the country helping families turn unwanted and unloved items into winning lots, restoring them as necessary.
The first series of this show also came to Aylsham, where with Keys’ help they mounted a special auction at the Bure Valley Railway’s base. We are waiting to see if they will be returning to us for the new series.
There is some debate in the antiques trade about how useful such programmes are. It is true that they can raise unrealistic expectations, especially about the amount that traders are willing and able to discount their prices when the cameras are not there.
But there can be no doubt that their huge popularity has contributed to a massive increase in antiques, and a realisation that you don’t have to be a millionaire oligarch to be able to bid on items and start collecting. For every shock £100,000 valuation on Antiques Roadshow, there are many more prosaic appraisals which are much more about the story behind the item and its aesthetic and historical value than simply how much it is worth at auction.
These shows definitely help educate people about the true value of antiques, and perhaps enable them to look at their own possessions in a different light. They have certainly made the antiques world seem more accessible to ordinary people who would never darken the rarified doors of the major London auction houses.
Programme such as Antiques Road Trip do an incredible job in promoting local antiques fairs, shops and, of course, auction houses, in addition to getting more people interested in collecting. They are also showing how much fun it can all be.
That’s why we are always happy to welcome the cameras into our saleroom, because it shows that provincial auction houses such as Keys can compete on the national stage. There is certainly a noticeable frisson in the room when the cameras are present.
You just have to remember that such programmes are mainly about entertainment, and not view them as documentaries.
Keys is currently accepting entries for its three day Summer Fine Sale in July. For more details visit www.keysauctions.co.uk.