A cup of tea, a sandwich and a lunchtime sit down to watch an episode of Bargain Hunt. Although the programme centres around the contestants making a profit from their bargain hunting the emphasis is all on the two teams pitting their wits against one another. The programme starts with Tim Wonnacott introducing two eager teams, each team is made up of just two members and one team is given red sweatshirts and the other team blue sweatshirts. Each team is then assigned an expert in the world of antiques who will endeavor to help them find something in a local Antique Fair that they will purchase themselves and take to auction in the hope of making a profit.
There are a few experts who regularly appear on Bargain Hunt, Phillip Serrell, who is often seen wearing a Rupert bear scarf ! David Barby, Kate Bliss and James Braxton to name a few. Each team is given £300 and you see them scurrying around the Antiques fair trying to find something that they consider a good enough buy to make them a small profit at auction. I think this must be a real challenge! I have been to many Antique fairs and have always thought how high the prices are. The art of it is in the haggling, if they find a piece of china or silverware that is marked up at £30 then they have to do their level best to try and attain it for less. That would immediately rule me out as being a contestant because haggling is not my strong point!
More often than not the teams are relatives or friends, sometimes even colleagues at work. Some confess to knowing little or nothing about antiques but are just there for the fun of it and other contestants think they have been related to Arthur Negus in a previous life!
Tim Wonnacott hosts Bargain Hunt with panache, he is always suited and booted and quite obviously loves stylish clothes and hats. His attire is different, for want of a better word! and his voice is `plummy`. He loves to dress the dandy and even more so he adores to flirt with his female contestants, his repartee is more often than not spattered with innuendo. Although Tim can come across as being letcherous I think that he does a good job and that his saucy talk is his way of injecting an element of fun into Bargain Hunt.
When the two teams have bought their wares, with the assistance of the expert the next step is to get the auctioneers opinion of their purchases. The auction room will be one that is in close proximity to the antiques fair. Usually the auctioneer can be seen shaking his head in disbelief or just telling Tim that the goods that have been bought to take to auction are either practically worthless or may just break even. On the odd occasion a team has chosen an article that will render a good profit.
Each team takes their turn and their goods are auctioned off often with hilaroius results! For instance a teapot that they had paid £30 may make a loss of £10, but this causes lots of laughter. In rare cases the teams have made a substantial profit, which of course is fabulous. The antiques expert also buys an item at the fair and this is known as the swap item. If the team think that they will make more profit form `swapping` one of their items in exchange for the experts item then they may do so.
Bargain Hunt produces a lot of fun and laughter, amazement and dejection but at the end of the day one of the teams has to win. The team who makes the most profit on their items will be declared the winners and they will be allowed to keep the profit to share between themselves. Often the sum of money involved in tiny! But saying that there have been teams who have made a few hundred in profit to take home with them.
I love the light hearted approach that Bargain Hunt offers, it doesnt solely concentrate on making money which is pretty refreshing! The winning team may take home a tenner at the end of the day but there is still lots of laughter. Make this a lunchtime date and see if you enjoy it!
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I watched this a few times and I never got the appeal. Thankfully I have sky now. My friend went on it and did awfully. Great review though, I reckon you wrote it as a student or when u were unemployed cos its only on in the week.
Gladiator007 09.03.2009 22:47
good review..:)
atytyut2434 08.03.2009 19:23
My brother & sister in law have been on the show as a team, they got beaten! great review ;-)
Advantages: It's presented by the dapper David Dickinson (it would get 3 stars without him). Good fun Disadvantages: It's on during the day (mostly) and teams rarely make a profit.
piffles 17.10.2002 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bargain Hunt
Mar 7th, 2009
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