Unmissable show?
I absolutely love Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. It’s just two celebs and two antiques experts driving through Staffordshire or Lincolnshire or somesuch and trying to make more money than the other pair; it’s a lovely slice of Britain. Cutting-edge TV is all very well but I love watching James Bolam and his wife buying lamps, I really do. I will watch any TV programme that has an auction in it. Literally anything. If someone buys a little tin box for £5, I will watch until the end of the hour to see if they sell it for seven.
Earliest TV memory?
I remember the first programme I absolutely adored was The Dukes Of Hazzard, which we used to watch as a family on Saturday night. I just thought that was the greatest work of fiction anyone’s ever created. I’m not sure if I’ve changed my mind since, actually.
TV turn off?
You know Dave Lamb who does the voiceover on Come Dine With Me: that sarcastic, funny voiceover? Well there’s been almost five years’ worth of programmes on daytime TV now where someone’s clearly said: can we do a Dave Lamb-style voiceover, and tried to do a funny voiceover. And you know what? There’s only one Dave Lamb; it’s really, really hard to do. So sub-Dave Lamb voiceovers would be my turn-off.
Gameshow have-a-go?
University Challenge had a short break in its 50-year history, and those were the years I was at university. I’m like the missing generation of University Challenge, in the interregnum between Bamber Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman. I was always a bit gutted about that; I’m not sure I would have got on, but I would have certainly had a crack.
Mastermind specialist subject?
The life and times of Bradley Walsh. Pointless and The Chase are painted as rivals because we’re on at the same time, but I’m a huge fan of The Chase. I’m encyclopedic in my knowledge about Bradley.
Two Tribes airs weekdays, 6pm, BBC2
