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The Best...second-hand show

Tim Wonnacott in Bargain Hunt
  • Posted at 5:13am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 5 comments

One man's tat is another man's treasure.

If you're lucky enough to have a day off work - or unlucky enough to have a stinking cold - and you're slumped in front of the TV with a tepid mug of tea in one hand and the remote control in the other, you'll find yourself overwhelmed with an array of other people's stuff. Napkin rings, vulcanite vestas and carriage clocks are in abundance, appearing on a procession of programmes dedicated to antiques and collectables.

Twenty years ago, our only real chance to see the contents of the attics of the great British public was on the much-loved Antiques Roadshow. Michael Aspel might not like to admit it, but the key moment of that show isn't to do with hand-me-down history or hallmarks, it's finding out how much the blimmin' thing is worth. And this critical TV moment has now been expanded to fill entire daytime schedules - Cash in the Attic, Flog It!, Car Booty, Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, Bootsale Treasure Hunt - and, of course, Bargain Hunt.

Renowned sun worshipper David Dickinson was a hard act to follow, but former Sotheby's auctioneer Tim Wonnacott has managed it admirably. Frankly, you can try and tart up antiques shows with youthful, sleek-limbed presenters, but what you really want is an eccentric middle-aged bloke in a hat, bow tie and amusingly coloured glasses on a chain.

Wonnacott can be relied upon to bring along all of these things, along with the air of a slightly tipsy headmaster. This, combined with the ludicrously pointless premise of Bargain Hunt itself, is what makes it such wonderfully relaxing daytime viewing.

Wonnacott doesn't ransack people's houses, looking under beds and above cupboards for dusty decanters. The contestants aren't dependent on a long, hard day selling off family heirlooms at a car boot sale in order to ward off the bailiffs. We don't see depressing shots of antique-crazed women gazing into the camera and saying "thing is, I get rid of all my stuff, and then?well, I just start collecting again?."

Wonnacott simply gives two teams 600 quid to spend on tradeable treasure from antique shops, before we see the items sold off at auction - usually at a huge loss, and probably to the same antique dealers who sold them to the contestants in the first place.

I've seen winning teams congratulated by Wonnacott for only managing to lose £120 as they shamefacedly shrug in disappointed triumph. How fantastically, marvellously British. You see, secretly, we don't want to watch television feeling jealous of the lucky people who've found a collectable Jasperware cloche under the stairs. Bargain Hunt, by adding a healthy streak of honest failure, somehow manages to make the world of antiques truly accessible.

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Comments

  • Posted on 28 September 2009
  • at 1:17pm
  • by Dave T

Does anyone know how Tim W manages to match his specs to clothing so accurately? Are the specs readily available off the shelf? I presume they have a removable clear panel that can then have fabric inserted?

Either that or he pays a fortune to a trendy fashion house that makes everything bespoke for him.

  • Posted on 23 December 2008
  • at 12:23pm
  • by masterrob

The only problem with Bargain Hunt is the "experts"! Some of them have an uncanny ability to get their "expert" antiques facts completely wrong and, nearly 50% of the time, it is the experts' purchases that lose the most money for the teams!

In the past week alone, three of the teams would have come out with an overall profit if they HAD NOT agreed to buy the items recommended by their "experts" and/or had NOT chosen to go with the experts' bonus buys.

Not only that, but Tim Wonnacott always blames the teams for all losses, even when the only items that lost money were those chosen by the experts, who were 100% responsible for buying the rubbish in the first place.

The excellent, reliable and stalwart experts are almost always David Barbey, David Harper and Paul Laidlaw, they at least seem to know what they're talking about - David Barbey frequently comes up with a huge profit winner for the teams.

It is beginning to seem that most of the teams would be much better off without any experts to help them at all - that way we'd have genuine amateur antiques hunting teams and the Beeb would save the £100,000 per year that they pay each of the experts on the show and thus reduce out TV License fees.

  • Posted on 18 December 2008
  • at 11:20am
  • by Henry

Good review. I came across this program as a break from filling in job applications. It is the best of the bunch, by a long way. Does anyone know why the programme was compressed into a shorter slot recently? I saw one of the new formats and the producers appeared to have cut out thesections with the auctioneer's opinion of the antiques (frequently hilarious, one of the best bits of the show) and Tim W's opinion of items in the auction house - informative and ultimately must more interesting than rival programmes' interminable sections of small-talk with dull members of participating public. And my biggest gripe about many programmes in this genre: why do they have to keep repeating the (miniscule) content so often? Do the majority of viewers have the attention span of goldfish?

  • Posted on 01 October 2008
  • at 3:34pm
  • by James Barnett

This show,in my oppinion is the best programe of the day and I hope it will contiue for a long time to come.Thank you Mr Wonnacott. e. For me this spoils an interesting program.

  • Posted on 01 October 2008
  • at 10:26am
  • by Alf

Bargain hunt could be best if it wasn't for music sorry noise. For me this spoils an interesting program.

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