Respected BBC expert talks of Medway filth

Would you be insulted by a respected BBC expert who turned up in the locality and went on to talk about Medway filth? That was exactly the dilemma we found ourselves in the other day? So how did we react? Walk away? Contact the BBC to register our complaint? Or laugh?

Antiques Roadshow recently visited Chatham Historic Dockyard. We've never had an attic full of old bits and pieces, so we've never had the opportunity to discover an old master or some other valuable artefact, but over the years we've acquired one or two things we were interested to find out more about. The Roadshow was the perfect opportunity.

Beautiful weather formed the backdrop to what was to turn out to be a morning's entertainment.

Waiting in the queue that snaked around the site, it was fascinating to watch the production crew well under way almost from the moment the gates opened. A camera on a boom swinging high over our heads capturing shots of the crowds while three cameras recorded another expert discussing a couple of watercolours. Visitors, like us, had trolleys and bags with weird and wonderful things poking out, all of us waiting to see what the appropriate expert would say. While we're not regular viewers of the programme, we saw some well known faces offering advice and filming short sequences which will ultimately be edited down to form the two episodes from the day.

We queued to see the "miscellaneous" and "ceramics" experts, the latter providing a valuable insight to the various pieces that we took. And then, with a warning, we made our way to the "glass" expert Andy McConnell.

"Madame, the next time I visit Chatham from my antiques shop in Rye, I'm going to bring something that Medway is clearly lacking." A pregnant pause... "Washing up liquid. Your glassware is covered in Medway filth." Rather than feel insulted, the lady, along with the rest of us gathered around his table fell about laughing. Andy had already dismissed another lady with a comment about her piece of mass-produced glassware. And now it was our turn.

He picked out our bud vase and studied the hard water staining that lined it before holding it to his ear. "This has been used as an ear trumpet," he suggested, "and now it's full of ear wax." His banter continued, a mixture of pure entertainment interspersed with information on how to clean glassware and facts relating to the period the objects where made in, where, and why the demand for similar objects existed.

And did we witness a special Antiques Roadshow moment? We think so. Two ladies described how their father found the glass bottle they were showing in a skip. After Andy explained some of the "behind the scenes procedures" and took the girls away to production crew staff, he returned to say that that was the most valuable glassware object he'd discovered on the programme. Entertainment for the gathered crowd or a genuine statement? We suspect the latter but will only find out when we watch the programme later this year.

A great morning out and wonderful entertainment - well worth the license fee. I've more pictures on Flickr.