Antiques Roadshow
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Antiques Roadshow is a human interest television show in which antique appraisers travel across the country.
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History
The origin of the series was a 1977 BBC documentary about a London auction house doing a tour of the West Country in England. The show has visited a number of other countries and has been imitated by other TV production companies around the world. In the original BBC series, various towns or famous places are advertised as venues.
In the United Kingdom, an annual children's Christmas special has become a TV tradition. These specials air under the title Antiques Roadshow: The Next Generation and use a specially reworked version of the regular theme music.
The list of professional evaluators who have participated in Antiques Roadshow and its various versions reads like a "Who's Who" of experts of the antiques business in the UK and North America.
Format
Local people bring along their possessions that are evaluated for authenticity, interest (especially related to the venue) and an approximate valuation is given. Often, the professional evaluators give a rather in-depth historical, craft, or artistic context to the antique, adding a very strong cultural element to the show. This increases the show’s appeal to persons interested in the study of the past or some particular crafts, or certain arts, regardless of the monetary value of the objects. At the core though the focus of the production is on the interplay between the owner and the evaluator.
Hosts
The BBC version has been hosted by Bruce Parker, Angela Rippon, Hugh Scully and Michael Aspel, Scully being the longest-serving presenter and the one most closely associated with the show.
International versions
American public broadcaster PBS has created a similar show. (PBS has renamed the original BBC series Antiques Roadshow UK to differentiate it from its own version). The American version of Antiques Roadshow is produced by WGBH, a broadcast station in Boston, Massachusetts.
A Canadian version — called Canadian Antiques Roadshow — debuted in January 2005 on the CBC's main television network and CBC Newsworld. It is hosted by Valerie Pringle.
A version of the show can also be seen in the Netherlands, under the name Tussen Kunst & Kitsch, (in English: Between Art & Kitsch). Also shown on the public broadcaster, the programme is usually set in a museum in the Netherlands or sometimes in Belgium and Germany. It has become so popular through the years that even specials have been made. The experts take the viewers on a "cultural-art-trip" to places of great importance in the history of art.
External links
Official sites
- BBC Antiques Roadshow (http://www.bbc.co.uk/antiques/)
- PBS Antiques Roadshow (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/)
- PBS Antiques Roadshow UK (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/antiquesuk/)
- Canadian Antiques Roadshow (http://www.canadianantiquesroadshow.com/)