Show emotion like Americans, Fiona urges Roadshow crowds
FIONA Bruce has told of her frustration at the great British reserve of people on Antiques Roadshow – lamenting their lack of American exuberance.
In an interview with this week’s Radio Times, the BBC presenter, who is on her 13th series as the face of the show, said she wished people would let their emotions show more.
She pointed to last Sunday’s episode when a musician turned up without fanfare carrying a guitar – that had been gifted to him by Beatle George Harrison.
Fiona said: “The Roadshow has been going for 41 years, so how come George Harrison’s guitar turns up now? We valued it at around £400,000. He didn’t pay a bean for it.”
On the famous British reserve, she said: “Generally we British don’t like talking about money.
“When someone is given an absolutely stonking value they tend to say, ‘Hmmm’.Whereas in the American version, people actually faint to the ground. It is a tiny bit frustrating.”
Fiona, 55, who also presents Question Time as well as reading the news, said she enjoyed juggling all her media roles.
But on Antiques Roadshow, she said: “I just love it. I turn up for a day’s work in a beautiful place, maybe a stately home or even somewhere intensely urban, and everyone who comes along is excited to be there.
“So suddenly to be in this place of great enthusiasm is an unmitigated pleasure.”
She said her view of the great British public was not only formed via the roadshow, but also from the more angry audiences on Question Time.
But Fiona said: “Well, it’s a lot calmer than last year.There was a level of anger and toxicity that this year, so far, is absent.”