Something for nothing

I caught The Antiques Roadshow (BBC1, Sunday) almost by accident the other day. It was one of those moments when you’re too lazy to turn the television off, you flip through the numbers on the remote, and there it is. Comfort viewing for Sunday evenings. It is 28 years old now, almost an antique itself. ‘You can just see where someone has added a new presenter, but it’s an Aspel, so it’s in keeping with the period. And look at the workmanship on those camera angles. You don’t often find quality like that on television these days…’

The programme became iconic 11 years after it began, when the BBC took it off to show Nelson Mandela leaving prison. The switchboard was overwhelmed. Oliver Pritchett wrote a funny piece in the Telegraph (I quote from memory): ‘And we interrupt our coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release to bring you the news that Mrs Ethel Gamage’s 19th-century coal scuttle could be worth as much as £150.’