Hilary Kay has just returned from the Antiques Roadshow in Dumfries, Scotland, where she said their skins are waterproof.

But then among the damp bystanders and coronation tea sets Hilary found an antique toy which made her day.

This may be one of the many anecdotes she tells at The Playhouse on Wednesday during her show Have You Had It Long, Madam?, in which she gives a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at this much loved, Sunday evening TV favourite, alongside fellow presenter Paul Atterbury.

Hilary lives locally in Faringdon and says she is happy to be stopped in the street and asked questions and only gets irritated when her work and home life clash.

"My plumber noticed who I was and said he'd bring his ceramics in for me to look at. I said that was fine and wouldn't charge him, if he didn't charge me for the plumbing work, which he took great offence to," Hilary laughs.

"But people don't realise this is my living. I am a valuer," she says.

"But at least I don't value jewellery. That's the worst because people have always got it on," she laughs, "but they are hardly going to pull out a microscope from under their jumper in Waitrose."

Hilary is the 'miscellaneous' expert on the show and has been with the programme from the start 31 years ago, so there's not much she hasn't seen or done.

"Well, Antiques Roadshow is the first and best reality TV show," she says, "because we show people warts and all, whether they are pleased, or horrified, disappointed or shocked. What you see is what you get. And it's an enormous compliment that people are happy to let their guards down for us.

"But part of the job is to bring the owner out of themselves because they are surrounded by cameras and are often petrified.

"And even if you discover something fabulous, if the owner hasn't got anything to say about it, it doesn't make great TV."

Yet people and their treasures still surprise her. And to be fair, she must love the job because as many as 2,500 people queue to show their goods on any given day.

"We took the Roadshow to Canada recently and the organisers made the mistake of allowing people to bring as many things as they wanted. At 3.30pm, when the queues normally start subsiding the tannoy went on and they asked the experts to allocate less time per person because the queue was still 1km long," she remembers laughing. "I've never seen so many suitcases and my heart did sink a little.

"But on average you will always have at least 100 people waiting from 9am to 6pm and you do need to be part priest and part doctor because you need to take more time and trouble over the things that aren't worth anything.

"But no, we rarely reduce people to tears unless the goods have a huge value and they're in shock. And even if something doesn't have any value, in terms of poignancy or world and social history, the object can still be extraordinary. And I'm hugely comforted by the fact that people aren't always in it for the money."

So it's the anticipation of the unknown that keeps her going then?

"It's sad isn't it how we get our kicks," Hilary laughs. "Sad but harmless. Because you never know what you are going to get on the day. Take Scotland for example. That was the best toy I have ever seen and that's what keeps us going."

So how was the recent Antiques Roadshow at Hertford College in Oxford?

"Oh, we discovered a sensational painting which I can't say too much about but it was a real cracker and of course it was at Fiona Bruce, our new presenter's college, so it was fabulous."

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