At Chatham Historic Dockyard, a visitor opened a wooden presentation box and showed expert Geoffrey Munn three small blue enamel eggs on a necklace. Her friend’s aunt had thought it Russian. Munn read the name on the lid satin and told her it was Fabergé, and then valued it at £12,000. The friend, it turned out, had lately lost much of her home to a fire, and the necklace was one of the things that survived. Edinburgh Live reported the exchange in July 2025.
That small drama is the whole formula of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Appraisers travel to regions of the United Kingdom, and occasionally abroad, to look at what locals bring in. The show has run since 1979 and in 2026 reached its 49th series, hosted by Fiona Bruce.
From a West Country tour to a national habit
It began as a BBC documentary in 1977 about a London auction house touring the West Country. The pilot was recorded in Hereford on 17 May 1977, with Bruce Parker of Nationwide presenting alongside the antiques expert Arthur Negus. It was so successful that the BBC broadcast it.
Today the team of experts numbers more than sixty, many with a specialty and some with decades on the programme. Theo Burrell, who joined in 2018 as a ceramics and decorative arts specialist, was one of them; she died in July 2026. Episodes are usually filmed in spring and summer and broadcast the following autumn and winter.
Value is not the only test for what reaches the screen. A good story or a link to the filming location can be enough, and many items turn out to be worth nothing. An FA Cup trophy valued at more than £1 million is among the most valuable ever to appear. So are a 1990s maquette of Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, valued by Philip Mould, and a Fabergé ornament belonging to an army unit, valued by Geoffrey Munn. A vase bought at a car boot sale for £1 was identified as Lalique in 2008 and sold at auction for £32,450.
A format that crossed borders
The wider picture is a format that travelled well across Europe. The Dutch Tussen Kunst & Kitsch has run since 1984, and in 2011 it turned up a painting of a lacemaker by Joost van Geel, estimated at 250,000 euros. In Germany the Bavarian broadcaster’s Kunst und Krempel has aired since 1985, and several regional channels carry their own versions. Sweden’s Antikrundan premiered in August 1989, and Anne Lundberg is now in her 27th year as host. Flanders ran Rijker dan je denkt? for seven seasons from 2012, and Finland’s version aired on YLE TV1 from 1997 to 2006.
In the United States, PBS launched a version in 1997, produced by WGBH in Boston. Canada had one on CBC from 2005 to 2009.
Sources
- Antiques Roadshow – Wikipedia
- Antiques Roadshow guest gobsmacked by Faberge necklace that survived house fire
