Once or twice a year here at Sheffield Auction Gallery we have the pleasure of hosting the television crews for one of the ever popular antiques television programmes. Over the years we have had Flog it!, Bargain Hunt, Dickinson’s Real Deal and Antiques Road Trip and most of the famous TV experts have been to the gallery. They usually spend a couple of days with us preparing and filming the shows. They are really fun and interesting days and I always enjoy chatting with everyone and of course like to see if they make a profit on the items. 

There’s alot of people who work on the shows from the contestants to camera operators, sound technicians, directors, runners and researchers perhaps 30-40 people altogether and around four programmes are made from each visit.

I often get customers who have seen Sheffield Auction Gallery on the television and enjoy seeing our talented auctioneer Rob on the rostrum.

I have worked on several Antiques programmes myself as an off screen valuer although I have had the odd speaking line over the years! So I know most of the television experts really well and lucky enough to call most of them friends - they are all really friendly and great fun to work with.

My favourite show to work on was Flog it!. I worked on the show for around fifteen years helping to find interesting items to go on the programme. I wrote crib sheets so the on-screen experts had all the required information on the pieces. This information might include the date of the item, history of the manufacturer, or the use of the item and of course, the all important potential value of the item at auction. 

These were really busy days with between 500-1000 attending and from which about 50-60 items are chosen to feature on the show. I enjoyed visiting the length and breadth of the UK from Edinburgh and Belfast to Llandudno and Exeter. The programmes were filmed in a variety of different locations from sports halls and public buildings to stately rooms some not usually open to the public. The presenter Paul Martin even featured me in his book about his “Flog it!” travels around Britain!

Anita Manning is a great friend of mine and we were a great team working together on several shows, she always choose me to work with her - a great honour! Our different knowledge sets complimented each other really well. We found some great finds over the years including a bag full of sovereigns, Lalique vases and my biggest success a Chinese cup that fetched a massive £40,000. I always enjoyed our chats about our daily lives in the Auction world, the things we had seen and getting tips from each other on how to improve or change the way we worked. 

It is always really interesting to see how the shows are made so next time we host a television crew do come down and see for yourself.