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Why I Love...Cash in the Attic

Presenter Lorne Spicer
  • Posted at 10:59am
  • 03 March 2008
  • by DavidWhitehouse-RT
  • 6 comments

Put simply, Cash in the Attic makes me want to go into the attic and find something of worth that I can then swap for loads of lovely cash. This is despite the fact that I don't have an attic. Or anything of worth.

So why does CITA inspire such devotion in me? I have a kitchen, but I don't get upset if I miss an episode of MasterChef. And why does CITA stand head and shoulders above the glut of other antiques shows - of which there are now so many and all so similar that I can't remember whether or not they're real or I'm making up the titles, like Bargain Hunt, Car-boot Challenge and Death by Haggling?

It's because, unlike most of the other shows, CITA is telling us we already have money in our own home. That we don't have to go out and find it, because chances are we're looking at it right now. It's offering us the small glimmer of hope that we're about to become fabulously rich, without so much as lifting a finger, and that, of course, is THE DREAM. I want a train made out of gold, and I want it right now without ever doing another day's work ever again. CITA helps me hold on to that dream. The reality of it, however, is very different indeed.

CITA doesn't bring to the screen stories of ordinary members of the public finding untold wealth. It tells stories of ordinary members of the public selling something they didn't want anyway for about £150. That's about the price of a return train journey from London to Leeds if you book at short notice. And we're not talking a golden train either, we're talking a smelly one with bland sandwiches.

The basic conceit is this. The CITA team (which sounds a bit like a specialist crime scene investigation unit) arrive at a viewer's house. There, they pilfer the contents of the shed, garage or, ideally, attic to find stuff that they then try to sell at auction to raise a certain paltry sum.

Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail (as was the case in one episode I watched, where the cost of the petrol it took to get the item to an auction house must have far exceeded the profit made from the sale and put an elderly couple's planned holiday to Spain back about seven months).

Yet it matters not. As long as CITA exists, we'll carry on believing, hoping and praying that one day we'll find out that the urn with Uncle's ashes in it is well worth washing out and selling. And we all need to dream.

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Comments

  • Posted on 15 November 2009
  • at 1:51pm
  • by Hazel

I think the idea behind Cash in the Attic is great, and I generally enjoy it, but not when Lorne Spicer is on. I find her plastic, patronising and totally charmless. She can't even read the voice-over properly - she puts the emphasis in all the wrong places (e.g. she would say 'Jack AND Jill went up THE hill' instead of 'JACK and JILL went UP the HILL'), and sometimes even uses the wrong words (e.g. today 'stand up to our expectations' rather than 'live up to…'). That might be the writer's fault, in fairness, but anyone with half a brain would have spotted the error while reading. My suspicion is that Lorne Spicer isn't actually a real person at all - SHE IS A ROBOT. Is this part of the BBC's economy drive?

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 7:30pm
  • by bill cameron

has to be the frumpiest presenter on tv. her outfits are deplorable and she has very condescending to people on the auction programme. Get a new presenter with more personality and the viewing figures would leap up

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 1:10pm
  • by dek

lorne spicer is great and so sexy, so leave off

  • Posted on 16 April 2009
  • at 2:06pm
  • by Martin Andrews

Lorne Spicer - revolting woman, her barely concealed contempt for the hapless participants in her 'ego gorge' of a programme is too embarrassing to watch!

  • Posted on 30 January 2009
  • at 4:46pm
  • by malc

Cash in the celebretary attic has finally got it right,Gloria does a great job in presenting,the only critisism is sometimes when they search through the properties and say come and have a look at this or what I have found its obvious its a set piece.But otherwise its great and a good cause its going too.

  • Posted on 19 December 2008
  • at 11:53am
  • by Evie 1

I agree CITA is a great programme apart from some of the presenters. Some times I think it should be renamed the Lorne Spicer Show as she seems to be the main presenter now and she is sooooo irritating! Then horror upon horror that awful Chris Hollins has now begun to present the show too. Bring back Alistair, Angela and even Gloria please, please, please.

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