Flog It! star returns…for another BBC antiques show

AS a daytime TV show format, it’s almost as old as the treasures it features.

But the BBC is launching yet another antiques show – three years after the Government urged the Corporation to stop relying on ‘collectables’ programmes.

The broadcaster has drafted in Flog It! host Paul Martin to front Curiosity – a show which sees two teams value and date items in the presenter’s fictional shop against the clock. The 15-part series, expected to start later this year, has been described by the BBC as a ‘new competitive format’, but viewers may draw parallels with other BBC offerings such as Make Me A Dealer, which sees amateur dealers invest their own cash to buy items at auction before trying to sell them for profit. Bargain Hunt, meanwhile, focuses on two teams competing at an antiques fair to buy the most profitable items.

The broadcaster also airs Antiques Roadshow on Sunday evenings. It axed weekday afternoon series Flog It! in October.

In a 2016 white paper, the Government hit out at its reliance on ‘property and collectables’ shows. A BBC spokesman called Curiosity ‘a unique, new competitive format set in a studio that puts contestants’ knowledge of collectables to the test’.