8:18pm Wednesday 19th May 2010
By Peter Magill
ERIC Knowles felt like he had ‘come home’ during the filming in Burnley of a new BBC2 antiques show.
Producers picked Grade I listed Towneley Hall as the backdrop for Antiques Master, a fledgling programme hosted by Sandi Toksvig with Eric as the resident expert.
And the boy who grew up down the road in Nelson the setting could not have been more apt.
Antiques Roadshow veteran Eric said: “I have been coming here since I was six years old. Every time I come here it feels like home.
“We have managed to capture the ambience of Towneley, which we could never have done in a television studio.
"It is just so obvious that we are in a great house, beautifully furnished.”
Antiques Master aims to find Britain’s antiques ‘mastermind’, and in a marked departure from the current glut of attic sale shows, it showcases the technical aspects of the trade.
“It has been fascinating meeting the contestants, because antique people quite like meeting other antique people.”
He hopes that the series has echoes of the much-missed Going For A Song, in which he also appeared and ran until 1977: “We celebrate the objects rather than the value. People have got to know their chronology and recognise different styles.”
Series producer Darrell Olsen said: “It is a cross between Mastermind and Masterchef.”
The producers also paid tribute to the assistance given by Towneley staff during their 10 days of filming.
“What we didn’t want to do was to come here and make it look like a television set.
"We wanted it to still look like Towneley.
"Everyone in Burnley knows about Towneley but it is still a well-kept secret elsewhere.”
No transmission date has yet been set for the show but it is expected to form part of the summer and autumn TV schedules.
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