Interview with Tim Wonnacott

Tell us about your television history?

 

I've done the Antiques Roadshow for the past ten years, and seventy programmes worth of the Antiques Show. I did the Antiques Inspectors with Jill Dando and Carl Vodaphone (more commonly known as Carol Vorderman), Going Gone, Going for a Song and lots of Great Antiques Hunts. I think of Bargain Hunt as being son of the Great Antiques Hunt really, just jazzier and much more amusing.

How has presenting Bargain Hunt changed your life?

Up till now I've fiddled around the edges of broadcasting, and have slotted this around my full time career as Chairman of Sotheby's. With the offer of Bargain Hunt daytime, I made a decision to give up the day job, as it were, and concentrate all my efforts on presenting, book writing, lecturing?

Have you any juicy stories from the road?

They're far too juicy to reveal! I do find it amazing the physical stamina that's required to make Bargain Hunt. It all looks like a jolly jape and it is a jolly jape, but the days spent out and about in the winter months in the freezing cold in minus 15 degrees is quite something else. I think I'll be investing in lots of silk underwear!

Do you have any trademark catchphrases?

I think constructing any catchphrases is a trap really. I speak in a distinctive way and I have my own style. If some elements of that get picked up by others and get translated as catchphrases then so be it, you just can't force it.

Which three words best describe you?

Energetic, eccentric and effervescent.

Why do you think hunting for bargains is such a popular pastime?

People need to find a home for their money right now because the old fashioned and reliable forms of investment have betrayed a lot of folk out there. There are a lot of people who've maybe decided to take control of their finances and asked themselves whether they'd be better off learning about fridge magnets or McDonalds toys or pieces of Moorcroft.

Any hot tips on what to collect right now?

The problem with this crystal ball gazing is that you either have to do it very early on in the game or wait for a safest moment, once the reference book has been produced, by which time you'll be vying with the fifty odd thousand people who've read the book too. The real trick is to have spotted that Clarice Cliff was an icon of its age, and spotted it before the book was written, and to have filled a shed up with uranium orange crocus-decorated, bizarre jazz like forms early on.

Can we expect to find you down at the carboot sale most weekends hunting for bargains?

I don't go to fairs, I don't go to boot sales - least, I haven't until now and I'm absolutely riveted by it. I had no idea that 600 stall holders stand around in the snow for three days selling their wares with considerable enthusiasm. It's dynamic and real, these are cutting edge entrepreneurs out there. Real people selling and real people buying and that's an exciting atmosphere to be introduced into. And the goods that they sell are largely outside my normal remit. I'd never considered the chicken McNugget gift would be collectable! My eyes have been completely opened.

Finally, any Bargain Hunting words of wisdom?

Education, education and education. If you want to be one jump ahead of the competition, you have to know what you're looking for. The secret to being a successful bargain hunter is to specialise in a particular field or variety of antiques, otherwise the landscape is so vast and you will quickly loose sight. Be focused, otherwise you'll buy rubbish you'll regret and you won't be able to sell on.