Angela Rippon, 79, pinpoints key change in BBC Antiques Roadshow four decades after presenting gig

The popular BBC series is now on its 46th series and has seen six presenters travel up and down the country with Fiona Bruce currently at the helm of the series since 2008.

Rippon began her career presenting news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One’s Nine O’Clock News as a regular presenter in 1975.

She went on to present a variety of TV shows including Top Gear, the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977 and Channel 4's The Big Breakfast.

More recently, she hosted BBC’s Rip Off Britain alongside Gloria Hunniford and Julia Somerville, as well as BBC's Holiday Hit Squad alongside Helen Skelton and Joe Crowley.

Her stint on the BBC antiques show came in a four-year stint, but the star recently opened up about the one key change she's noticed in the show since she left in 1983.

Speaking to Radio Times, she explained: "People would bring huge pieces of furniture in great lorries, but now you just can’t shift brown furniture, it’s just not valuable.

"The toys have changed too. Back then it was Steiff teddy bears, now it’s Barbie dolls and even technology. I just loved Antiques Roadshow. It was like reaching back into the past, through people’s stories and the objects."

Rippon isn't the only one who noticed a change in the series, with Bruce opening up about the pressures to "modernise" the show but sees how it could "take us to a new level."

Speaking with Jane Garvey in their podcast, Fortunately… Fi and Jane, Bruce was asked: “Are you under any pressure to slightly modernise the categories? I know that sounds bizarre as it's called the Antiques Roadshow, but you know, all of that collectible stuff?”

Garvey pointed out that a pair of rare Nike trainers from the 1980s or 1990s “could get you a couple of grand now" and suggested that it could gain a “brand new audience” that the show had never been targeting before.

Bruce laughed at the suggestion and explained: “That could be the thing that takes us into a new demographic, new level, and the next thing I know it’ll be on BBC Three!”

Dampening her hopes, Garvey joked: “No, they can’t fit you in between a documentary about STDs and something about Stacey Dooley – it’s a remarkable channel.”

During a recent repeat of the BBC series, fans were left annoyed when one guest gave a dampening reaction after finding out that his L.S Lowry painting was valued at £80,000.

When explaining where he got the painting from, the guest said: "I was buying an antique bicycle and I got it for way below what its value was and so I had some cash, I walked around the consequence of that was I found that.

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"I was a teddy boy and it looks like a teddy boy and if he hadn't been a teddy boy then tough. Anyway, I brought it home and my son said, 'How did you get on with your bicycle Daddy?'."

Expert Lawrence Hendra revealed: "Totally unpretentious and that's why I think a lot of people are drawn to his work, he painted pictures of people but they weren't portraits, they weren't studies of character, they were more studies of where his surroundings.

"In terms of value, now, I think if you are painting were to come up at auction I would expect to see it sell for a figure in the region of £60,000 to £80,000."

The guest let out a surprised giggle and replied: "I like the sound of that. Okay, thank you," which infuriated viewers at home.