Have You Had it Long, Madam?

A familiar figure at the Miscellaneous table, Hilary Kay became one of the Antiques Roadshow experts for the second series of the programme that is now a national institution, and Paul Atterbury joined the team in 1991. This year the pair are taking to the road with a theatre show, they talked to 50connect about the venture and the Antiques Roadshow.

The Antiques Roadshow first hit our screens in 1978. The show's popularity was a surprise to everybody, according to Hilary.

"When it was first produced it was a series of six and that was going to be it, but the BBC was knocked for six by the reaction, not only the people who turned up in their thousands but by the viewing figures which were beyond their wildest dreams, so a second series was made, and a third and forth, and blow me down, now we're making our thirtieth."

With the explosion in antiques programmes over recent years, including Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt, surely there can't be many undiscovered antiques left?

"In thirty years we've never done a show where we didn't have too much stuff, so I think there is still plenty out there," says Paul. "The second thing is that tastes and collecting habits as well as prices change. This is a programme that always moves on."

Hilary agrees that despite appearing to be the same old comforting Antiques Roadshow, there have been many changes.

"The BBC has tried to keep the Roadshow current to reflect collecting trends. One can see a lot of material from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, that obviously wouldn't have happened in the 1980s because the things were brand new then. We're looking at objects which weren't even made when the programme started so that's a big shift."

Changing tastes mean there are always new antiques to talk about, as Paul explains further.

"Classic antiques such as 18th century silver, porcelain or furniture have a much more limited market today, it's not as popular as it was twenty years ago. Instead have come in rafts of new things like Rock & Roll memorabilia, football memorabilia, posters, photographs and modern design. If somebody in 1982 had brought a 1960s Scandinavian plastic chair I can guarantee it wouldn't have been filmed - now it would almost certainly be filmed. We have to respond to the fact that our audience changes, there are lots of people watching the programme who were not born in 1978 when it started, so we need to be aware of what they like and buy. We are a show that is forbidden to say, 'Sorry madam/sir we don't deal with that,' it is our job to deal with everything. Working as a team, if I don't know what it is I'll ask a colleague who may well know - between us we can do it."

Paul feels that the Antiques Roadshow is different to other programmes that are price driven in principle.

"It's 'Here's this teacup, we can get £300 for it, is that going to change your life?' We don't do that - our job is to be accurate about what the teacup is worth, but in a sense unless it is worth £10,000 which in itself can be exciting, the value of the object is actually incidental to us. We deal with it because that's what people want to hear and the owner wants to know, but it's not enough just to say gosh, this is jolly valuable, end of story. People will learn much more watching the Roadshow simply because we take time to tell a story properly."

"I used to think that viewers were only interested in the money," says Hilary, "but I think attitudes have changed a lot and now people can see the quality and interest in quite modern items, that may not be worth a lot of money, but they can see the craftsmanship and importance. Equally the audience is perhaps more sophisticated than it used to be and they know that we're not going to find a £20,000 object at every Roadshow but we are hopefully going to find objects with wonderful stories."

For Paul the enjoyment is all about the tales behind the antiques.

"I don't deal with things of staggering value because Miscellaneous is bits and pieces, but I'm much more excited by stories than I am by value. The item is merely the excuse for getting into the story. Saying a jug was made in 1860 and it's worth £80 is the simple bit, it's also the potentially boring bit. Rather than than just saying it's 150 years old, the jug tells so many different thing, if you can then hear a fantastic story about memories, experiences and how people used to live. My memories are all based on meeting extraordinary people or their relatives, and in a way we resurrect and put out into the public domain stories that were hitherto forgotten and private and I think that's very important."

In the current series Paul spoke to an 84 year old woman who had met and known Glenn Miller.

"I'm an enthusiast for big band music, but to meet somebody who talked to Glenn, to me that is magic, because suddenly a whole world comes to life, and it brings her own memories back to life. Often people who have fantastic experiences think nothing of it because it's just part of their life, and she said, oh you don't want to know this stuff, and I said, yes I do! These memories are terrific and they must not be forgotten. She was a star because of what she could tell me about Glenn Miller. Her signed items were certainly of interest and had a value, but had she just come in with a piece of sheet music signed by Glenn Miller bought off ebay, you'd think, well so what, but because she used to go to his dances in 1944, met him and chatted, I'll remember that always."

There are many pleasures of making the Antiques Roadshow, according to Paul.

"We all look forward to the unpredictability, we don't know what's coming next - if we did, it would be very dull indeed. Although we look at hundreds of things which are not particularly interesting, sooner or later a box or bawill open ad omething really exciting will come out. During that day we'll meet huge numbers of people and have very interesting chats with them, and although we won't tell them what they hope to hear, hopefully we'll explore somebody's family and memories, all sorts of things. It's not just about saying this candlestick is worth 52p, next please, it's much more about what does this candlestick mean, why have you got it, where has it come from - we take time to talk to people who queue for a long time to see us."

The Miscellaneous table is especially unpredictable, and therefore rewarding, as Hilary explains.

"It does what it says on the tin, you never know what's going to come in. One minute I'll be looking at an 18th century instrument and getting very interested and excited about that, the next I'll be looking at a piece of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia, and almost anything inbetween. I'm sure that the guys on ceramics or silver would say they have just as much fun, but I don't think they do!"

One of Hilary's highlights during the last series was when somebody brought along the gloves of Bill Cody, A.K.A. Buffalo Bill.

"A lady's grandfather had got them from Buffalo Bill, and this was in the wilds of Suffolk, not where you'd expect to see a bit of complex Indian beadwork from the mid-west, but there they were. She was a wonderful woman and we had a huge giggle about the antics of her grandfather and the various zoo animals that he collected. It was an exciting, rare object, very well researched, with an owner who was happy to chat, and then the icing on the cake was that it was actually worth a lot of money too. It's rare to get every single box ticked in an interview but that was one of the exceptional items."

The experts can never tell what they will find where, Paul explains, even though some antiques are associated with particular places, for example pottery produced in Staffordshire.

"If we go to an area where there is a regional speciality the chances are we won't get it! Things that are made in Exeter for example, whatever they may be, were made to be sold elsewhere and therefore they don't stay in Exeter. You could say if there's a regional furniture style, 'Will we get some examples?' We may well, but if it's a product that was manufactured in that town the chances are you need to go somewhere else to find it. We simply cannot be certain - the pattern might go according to what we've done before or it may be completely different."

There are also differences between parts of the country when it comes to undiscovered gems.

"Shows from what you might call well established British cities, for example Bath or Oxford, generally tend not to be that great simply because a lot of people there know what they've got. In places where there was great wealth in the 19th century, let us say the industrial areas around Manchester or Lancashire, there are great things lurking there waiting to be discovered because there is a legacy of a different kind of wealth, things have changed and people may not be aware of what they've got. Travelling round Britain makes you aware that we are a very diverse country and culture, different interests and styles do apply in different areas."

Paul and Hilary are touring Britain visiting several theatres, and taking a break from valuing objects, to share tales from the Antiques Roadshow as they embark on "Have You Had it Long, Madam?" The show sees Hilary and Paul tell their favourite antiques stories, explain how the television favourite is made, and explore some of the most exciting discoveries of the programme's 29 year run.

"It's huge fun," says Hilary. "At the Roadshow we're disappointing most people, but at the show we're giving them exactly what they want. Paul and I lecture a lot and we're always asked what happens when the cameras stop rolling and what the scandals and gossip are, so we thought my goodness, if that's what people want to know, let's put it all together and give it to them! 'Have You Had it Long, Madam?' is all about the stories behind the programme. It exposes the experts, it shows the great British public at their best and sometimes at their worst. We've got some great clips - bloomers, outtakes and so on - it's a sort of multimedia show."

As well as revealing previously unseen clips and disasters, according to Paul the show takes a behind the scenes look at how the Antiques Roadshow actually works, and gives people an experience beyond the programme.

"It's a much more off the wall entertainment. Hilary and I do a two person act, which is unscripted. We talk about how we got started, life on the Roadshow and how our lives are interwoven. We want people to come and listen to our stories and be amused. It's an informal, lighthearted look at an old friend, which might make you see that old friend in a new light, but it's not irreverent because we love what we do therefore we certainly don't want to be unfair to it - we love doing it, that's the main thing."

The show is fresh from a recent tour of Australia and New Zealand, where it packed theatres. The Antiques Roadshow is as popular 'down under' as in the UK. The British experts did a Roadshow there in 2005.

"We made two programmes, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney," recalls Hilary. "It was about the most popular show that had ever been filmed down in Australia. The programme is shown on the main television channel every single night, they're rerunning all the British Roadshows going back to the 1980s, so there they see many more than we do in England."

Being a nation where many of the population arrived only in the last couple of centuries you might not expect Australia to have much in the way of antiques, but the experts were pleasantly surprised.

"We didn't know what to expect but of course what we forget is that people who have emigrated there have taken their family treasures with them, so obviously we saw lots of 20th century stuff, but we also saw a surprising amount of material from before 1800 which people had brought out."

'Have You Had it Long, Madam?' UK Dates 2008

8th April Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate

10th April Ashcroft Theatre, Fairfield Halls, Croydon

16th May Palace Theatre, Newark

30th May Garrick Theatre, Lichfield

13th June Town Hall, Chipping Sodbury

15th September Rye, East Sussex

4th October Eastbourne, East Sussex

Web Links

More information can be found at: www.haveyouhaditlongmadam.com or: www.celebrityproductions.info

Related Links

Antiques Roadshow 2008: Do you own an heirloom you'd like valued? Find out where and when The Antiques Roadshow will be in 2008.

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