Antique Roadshow

Interesting fact:
The theme music was made especially for the BBC's ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. The composers are Paul Reade and Tim Gibson, and the piece is published by Air Edel.

The Lanchester Marionettes were saved with help from the Lottery heritage Fund and A LOT of work by Michael who not only dealt with all the forms and paperwork, but had to get the quotes to authentic their value. Now the issue with getting an evaluation is Michael is the one that does evaluating for puppets for the UK but Christie's Auction House managed to do a quote. Michael then contacted Paul Atterbury from the Antique Roadshow as his mom performed Muffin The Mule (which we 'puppet-sit') and he thought Paul might be able to help, which he was more than willing to write a letter of support.

Fast forward to August 2010 when we were told (via newspaper or someone) that the Antique Roadshow was coming to Blists Hill in Ironbridge which is about 15 minutes from us. We contacted Paul Atterbury and asked if he would like to see the puppets he helped save for the Nation. We don't know what the heck happened next but we only meant for him to come to the National Puppetry Archives and look at the puppets, but next thing we knew, they were asking us to bring the puppets the Blists Hill the night before filming.

Anyone who knows Michael knows he *hates* the limelight. But I convinced him that this was great for the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild and also the National Puppetry Archive. Begrudgingly - and because it was easier than hearing me nag, Michael agreed to be filmed for the show and I'm very glad he did. I'm proud of Michael - he has done a lot for puppetry (not only being Archivist for the Guild, he also created the website/brochures, deals with meetings/phone calls/emails, arranges exhibitions - on top of being a great dad) and not a lot of people realize that it's just a hobby (his full-time job is nothing to do with puppets).

I have more pictures that I took on the day which you can see here.


Edit to add:
I just found it on iplayer -
Antique Roadshow Ironbridge
Michael starts at 14.52. I look incredibly confused at the shots of me - but at least I wasn't shown being chased by the bee.