One day I hope it will be possible to obtain a clip from one of my BBC 'Antiques Roadshow' recordings to show here.

The 2005 recording season is about to commence. In the meantime 2004 was a busy year for the experts and production team battling with the English weather in an increasing number of shows filmed in the open air. I have been relatively lucky in only having a damp and dismal day weather-wise once, at the National Trust house Tyntesfield near Bristol. A week earlier at nearby Wilton the team were drenched all day! In contrast I filmed the hottest day of the year so far at Kings College at Cambridge University. It was a glorious day wearing a Panama hat with punts gliding along the river Cam. To be in such celebral surroundings was a real treat, sneaking in a visit to the Pepys library at nearby Magdalen College and a tour of the roof vaults above Kings College Chapel - standing high up in the air on some 1800 tons of beautifully engineered stone cut and fitted in the 15th century!

A lady at Kings was too shy to let me record her very rare walnut necessaire, probably made in Prague in the 1820s Vienna style - what a gem! My favourite however was a little writing desk at Tyntesfield made in Australia by the Melbourne makers Goldman who have a piece in the local museum. Made circa 1910, it was stamped 'European Labour Only' - to promote goods made by the more established workers from the old country who were facing stiff competition by the new immigrants from Asia.

The last programme I recorded last year, the programmes' twenty-sixth season, was at the Victoria Swimming Baths in Manchester on September 26th, 2004. To my delight I filmed a lady who had unearthed a Linke pedestal found in the basement of a house she had bought. A variation of Linke Index Number 82, I later recorded an interview for the B.B.C. explaining the significance of the Linke registres or Day Books. The Victoria Baths won the main prize in the first series of the BBC's 'Restoration' programme and will be restored to their former glory in due course.