Antiques Roadshow

Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow opening title card
Starring	Bruce Parker (1979) Angela Rippon (1979) Arthur Negus (1979–83) Hugh Scully (1981–2000) Michael Aspel (2000–08) Fiona Bruce (2008–present)
Theme music composer	Paul Reade and Tim Gibson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	39
No. of episodes	748 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	BBC
Running time	60 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	18 February 1979 (1979-02-18) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Bargain Hunt (2000–present) Cash in the Attic (2002–2012) Flog It! (2002–present) Dickinson's Real Deal (2006–present)

Antiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979, based on a 1977 documentary series. The series has spawned versions in other countries with the same TV format, including Canada and the United States. As of 2017^[update] it is presented by Fiona Bruce and is in its 39th series.

The series began as a 1977 BBC documentary about a London auction house doing a tour of the West Country in England. The pilot roadshow was recorded in Hereford on 17 May 1977 presented by contributor Bruce Parker, a presenter of news/current affairs programme Nationwide and antiques expert Arthur Negus, who had previously worked on a similarly-themed show, Going for a Song. The pilot was so successful that it was transmitted and the format has remained almost unchanged ever since. Negus appeared on Antiques Roadshow until 1983. In the original BBC series, various towns or famous places are advertised as venues. The original theme music was Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 3 (for several years in a Moog synthesiser version by Walter Carlos), but was changed in the early 1990s to an original piece, by Paul Reade and Tim Gibson, which has been used ever since. The show has since visited a number of other countries (including Canada in 2001 and Australia in 2005) and has been imitated by other TV production companies around the world.

In the United Kingdom, annual children's Christmas specials aired from 1991 until 2006. These specials aired under the title Antiques Roadshow: The Next Generation (except for the 1991 edition, which was titled Antiques Roadshow Going Live) and used a specially reworked version of the regular theme music. However, there was no children's special in 2007; instead an edition was devoted to "antiques of the future" dating from the 1950s to the present day.