margaret needs understanding, emma. welcome to the inaugural meeting of capolca, the candleford post office letter carriers' association, and what an auspicious day this is. it is beholden upon me to open the proceedings by inviting the association to nominate a leader. every public body needs someone at the helm who is lion-hearted, inspirational, and steadfast to champion its cause. yes, i believe the procedure is that someone from the floor must propose a candidate, and then we vote. so... anyone would like to propose? anyone? i'm not sure i should suggest anyone, as i don't really want to join an association. ( footsteps )

miss lane, forgive me, this is a private meeting of capolca, open only to members. oh, i would like to become a member. i work here in the post office, and i feel rather left out. i propose miss lane for our leader, as she is already our leader, and if she weren't to be our other leader, then she might be upset. miss lane is our employer, minnie, and therefore cannot be a representative in matters which relate to dealing with our employer. if i were a member, i would propose thomas brown. he has all of the qualities required-- tenacity, integrity, fair-mindedness, intelligence, and humility. i propose laura, as everybody likes laura. the older of farmer morris's boy said only today, "where is that fine young woman?" did he? i prefer the youngest morris boy, as he's more handsome and gentle, and has such attractive teeth. ladies, please! we have before us the considerable matter

of anointing-- appointing our leader. someone must propose one of us. well, since you seem to know best on these matters, thomas-- yes. and since you are the one that gathered us here-- yes. who would you propose? i propose thomas brown. well... then let us put it to the vote. all those in favor of thomas brown, raise your hand. miss lane, i am afraid you are not qualified to vote. oh. then since you have no opponent and since you have a landslide victory, am i qualified to offer a piece of cake in celebration of your consecration? excuse me. your appointment.

miss lane, cake in the post office is not the same as the rights of man. but it is lemon gingerbread! let us put an abundance of flowers in. we want radiance! girls, we must do everything we can to show those boys that it is not extravagance that wins the day, but beauty. which boy would like to present the horse? me, miss. miss, miss, me! james, you can be the horse. and who would like to be the doctor? me! me! miss, miss, miss! lawrence, you be the doctor. ( shatters ) oh, lizzy. it's all right. we can mend it. oh, don't look so fearful. but you said we must win, mrs. brown. we will, girls. i have every faith in you.

oh, but those marionettes are quite magnificent, aren't they? ah, there. i've never known you to leave mail unsorted. we have reached the hour at which my hired labor has ended. i will sort them myself. our neighbors will be waiting for their post from their loved ones. first thing tomorrow. i'll help you, ma'am. laura, think hard. capitalism will sometimes cajole us with a lash and at other times with charm and a call to our sympathetic nature. thomas, i am tired of being presented as the evil slave driver. i am the same dorcas lane i have been all of these years. what on earth is the matter with you? you seem to have left all trace of your charitable disposition in oxford. you appear to have lost all sense of joy in your work.

mine eyes have been opened, miss lane, that is all. during my meal break today-- most certainly not on your time-- i happened to browse through the book of post office regulations. the clock has struck. it tells me that for the last two minutes i have been my own man. i am no longer your chattel, miss lane. ( honking ) thomas. i fear this battle between you and miss lane will get worse unless you-- thomas, you look so sad. what is it? ( girls chattering, laughing ) laura, this town will grow. stores will multiply.

we already have an hotel and a town clock. the post office will doubtless expand. what are we to pass on to future generations, those who come after us? we will give them... capolca! "i don't want her to be our teacher. i want her to be our ma." it ain't them resisting. it's you. i've seen it coming. you want me here, in the home, baking, washing, a wife and no more. i am telling you what our children told me. does that not matter to you? frank thinks you are favoring other boys over him, and it hurts him. can't you see that that matters? it is an awkward situation, you being in the school.

only because it is new! that kind of mishap-- i will get better at it, that's all. em, you can't imagine being the teacher. you are a mother. you have chosen this life. did i? no one imprisoned you. i did not know i had a choice! i am a poor girl from a hamlet family. our laura is allowed to fly, but not me. in my time i was a maid, a nurse to other people's children. i followed it all like clockwork, but i knew i was capable of more. i did not know there was some other life. if you follow this, it will torment you. all you will see is what you are denied. why should i be denied? you are not qualified for the post! and margaret brown is? i have seen her with the children-- they mock her and play upon her weakness,

and yet they hang on every word i say. how can that be right! em. no. em, the times in which we live... the circumstances under which we are born, we have to struggle against them. nobody knows that more than i. our children will not vanish because you suddenly feel like spreading your wings. last week, your face was full of joy until this thing at the school came along. where's it gone? yes, let us advance ourselves, but not like this. not recklessly. when a man wants to take on the world, it is called self-respect. when a woman tries, it is reckless.

you were born before your time. that's all. ( sighs ) that's all. i shall not give in. i shall try. the school bazaar will show them i am capable. that do take a lot of cooking, ma'am. calves' foot jelly, millie, has been a favorite of this post office for more years than i have been alive. thomas loves this dish more than any other. ah! ( sniffs ) thomas! your apron is here. i know how much you relish it when the moment arrives for you to pour out the juice. oh... but how would it fit with those rules and regulations for a senior postman to put on a apron and take up cooking chores?

i'm not sure capolca would approve. do you think you ought to consult your brethren in oxford? in fact, you may not even be allowed to eat it when it is ready! i would not care to compromise your rights with a savory jelly. poor girl wept in my arms. a mother in prison, a father away at sea. she has suffered the loss of her brother, and the family is held together by alf. thomas, i realized why it matters so much to me, being in the school. because... it feels as if, since we married, i have been holding my breath, waiting.

the teaching has helped me to breathe again. thomas, perhaps the time has come for us to let go, to accept. i don't understand. what are you saying? my dear, i have been composing a letter to the governors of the school, an application to teach. so you have decided alone... to abandon our life. this is our life. this. you and i. this can be enough if there are children out there-- i see those children,

happy ones, suffering ones, those mistreated. i cannot accept that it is not intended for us. we... well, i mean, people, couples, have no god-given right to have children. perhaps our calling is to reach out to those children who might need-- you comfort an arless child... suddenly our hopes are to be deserted? ( book thuds ) i have kept these since i was a boy. and what am i to do with them now, if we follow your latest fancy? shall i throw them away? ( clatters ) if we continue as we are,

month after month i have to bring you the bad news. it will come between us. how long, thomas? when we married... your greatest wish, regularly expressed, was to bring our child into this world. my calling was to overcome my feelings of hesitance in order to oblige, so i have given myself to this hope, for us, with all of my heart. and now you ask me to imagine my life denied? that it cannot be possible, never, to look into the eyes of my own child? i will not accept that. i cannot bear to deny you... but when the school governors come to the bazaar,

it is my opportunity. i want them to see that i am willing and able to take on the post. thank you. miss lane. robert. i wonder if i might trouble you for some advice on a rather sensitive matter. i seem to be everybody's wise uncle at the moment. well, almost everyone. i am in such a tangled dispute with thomas brown, and i am behaving like a naughty schoolgirl towards him. i bait him. i tease him. he only wants me to accommodate some concerns he has about his working conditions, yet i cannot seem to take it seriously. perhaps that tells you something about what this means to you. yes! i do not want to formalize

our relationship. i cannot bear the thought. but he wants you to respect his position. and i want him to see that there are benefits in the way we operate. i am sure you are a fair employer, but you are an employer, and you have to take on that responsibility. forgive me if i tread too hard, but you are happy to dish out your commands, dorcas, and now that someone is making a few demands on you... how will you meet that challenge? you are a man who champions modern working conditions, and you have, at times, taken on apprentices. perhaps you could see both sides, a third voice in this. then thomas might see that it is not me he is beholden to, but reason. arbitrate? would you? yes.

but if i do and i find that thomas has a case and you must adapt, will you agree to be bound by that? i will try. that is not good enough. then i will. my puppet! it's gone. can't find it, miss. it's gone. the puppets are gone. they will be here somewhere, emma. i will help you look. come on, girls. they can't just vanish. they have been taken. taken? but why? in order that the pin-a-sight might win the honor cup. oh, but surely--! emma, you cannot believe that i would instigate-- i ain't saying that. or condone or-- or wish to benefit. but you will benefit. ( footsteps )

my sisters wish to return these. they will tell you why they took them, and they will offer their apologies. well? i'm really sorry. really sorry. i am the one who must apologize. i pressed the girls. "we must win, we must triumph." i am sorry, girls. perhaps it is best if we abandon the competition. but the children have worked so hard, made such beautiful things. then if we were to enter into this with mutual respect and support-- yes.

mutual respect. thomas, perhaps you would like to spell out your grievances. i work long days, dawn till dusk and beyond. i am on call should a telegram need delivering out of hours. i have no half day's rest as other letter carriers do. those city postmen do not-- miss lane, please. let thomas talk uninterrupted. you will have your turn. i am expected to undertake extra duties. saturday evenings i am required to be here in the post office. there's not a shop in the town, not an employer-- the inn, the constable, the hotel. miss lane, please. thomas, what is it that you want? an eight-hour day;

recognition that i and my fellow workers are not at miss lane's beck and call when she chooses to say we are available and must work. miss lane. would you like to respond to thomas's grievances? i would. for me, the post office is not a job. it is a life. you life, miss lane, into which we must all-- thomas, it is time for you to hold your tongue. we work in such a leisurely fashion that every day is a half day. friends and family visit us here, and we all stop to enjoy their company. it is not hard labor i demand of my staff, but to enjoy each day. yes, thomas is here on saturday evenings, but we enjoy a grand meal and much conviviality. the reason we are here

is to allow the irish laborers the opportunity to send off news and money to their families. they have no other opportunity to do this, as they are expected to work the fields constantly throughout the rest of the week. yes, i can be as stern as a schoolmarm at times... but i also include my staff in my life as true friends. robert: thomas. you want to say anything else before we conclude? i do. when work must be all of a man's life... i feel it is such a great injustice. i cannot accept-- it cannot be possible. perhaps i could have a few minutes to consider.

thomas... i am sorry about the calves' foot jelly. and i regret my clock watching. laura was right. i-- i love my work. i look forward to every day, setting out on my round. i have never seen you so disaffected. what is it that is disturbing you? margaret has decided that we should give up our hopes of-- she said that? give up? "accept" was the word she used.

i wonder if what she means is when couples find themselves in this predicament, they put so much pressure on themselves... you cannot change things by wishing it so, nor by demanding it to be different. i feel that if i accept, then it is done. my life will be only work. but you cannot know what tomorrow holds. perhaps accepting it, just for today... might ease some of your burden. robert: i am ready.

miss lane. you wish to keep relations on an informal understanding. thomas, you would like time with your family. perhaps when you want time off, thomas, you simply ask for it, and expect your employer to be obliging. would you both agree to that? thomas, you have an employer who has an inclination towards... joshing, and, well, cooking. can you accommodate pickled herrings and the occasional dig in the ribs? yes.

now for my most controversial proposal. miss lane, you claim that a relaxed approach is vital, and you, thomas, you want respect. my proposition is that once a week... you take a half day off, dorcas. and that will leave you in charge, senior postman brown. you will see life on the other side of the fence, and you, ma'am, will pay mr. brown the regard he deserves. agreed? agreed. agreed. then we are done. oh. perhaps a drink to seal the settlement? i think capolca might permit such a gesture. mine is a cordial.

of course. ma'am, i shall go to the bazaar, and i shan't hide from alfie. i will tell him i'm here-- there-- to help and comfort. ( baby crying ) coming, my darling. just let me find the lantern. ( clattering ) oop! ow! emma: and so every night at midnight, the lady in white came back to the bridge until the hamlet folk realized that she was searching for her lost child... who fell from the bridge 100 years before. ( laughing ) and so they had to help her. one cold winter night, the doctor, an old man of 80, stopped his dog cart at the inn gate...

alfie, when you look at me, try to think i have only come here to help and comfort-- ( laughing ) alfie, anytime you like i shall take care of patience all day long, and i shall teach her to sleep like a babe. she is a babe. i know. how shall i ever decide? and i have looked upon and made many. the puppet show was a rare treat, and had us all gripped. boys, you have excelled yourselves.

girls, you should be proud of your efforts. i have made up my mind. the winner is... the marionette show. ( cheering ) boys are my one weakness. laura: there were things that could not be mended, not in our time, at least. we won! but they were matters that could be restored. within days, a replacement teacher arrived. miss holmes came to stay.

we had an old saying that we still lived by then. "you can't have everything." he's a charmed man. he's charmed you, same as he's charmed all the girls. did you do this to my daughter? mrs. mullins, i-- answer me. is it your child? ( crying ) dorcas: money? minnie: i saw him give it. it seems we have no choice but to accept that daniel has a charge to answer. i'm asking you to accept that i'm honorable in this, mr. timmins. if you were the father, you would not dare look me in the eye. i'm in such a confusion of feelings. fisher bloom? when? he is on his way.

on the roadshow; we see some of the most beautiful gardens in the land as well, and we've two of them to share with you, with some unseen gems from two of our most beautifully manicured venues. one of the things i like best about the roadshow is that it's one big guessing game-- thousands of people stagger along,

laden down with mysterious bags and packages, and their first port of call is what we call reception, and that's where we get our first peek at what they've brought, and it's my favorite place on the roadshow. i love trying to fathom out what's inside our visitors' bags, and why they've brought them. but i'm just a beginner at this. people like henry here are the masters of the game. our experts see thousands of objects pass before their eyes at every roadshow, and every now and again, they come across a really exciting find. tonight, we're bringing you rich pickings from two recent shows: from the gardens here at bodnant in north wales, and from our visit to the cornish coast when we dropped anchor at lanhydrock. there it was bunny campione's turn to make an exciting discovery. so, this is known as an automaton, which is a singing bird or mechanical clock automaton, so it's got everything in it. tell me, how long have you had it?

me personally, about 25 years, 'cause that's when i married my husband, and it was his clock, not mine, sort of thing. oh, right. i don't know how long he had it before then. it just came with him! ( laughs ) "marry me, marry my automaton." yes! ( laughs ) it's by the firm of blaise bontems... ( bon-toms ) or bontems ( bon-tems ), as we say in english, in paris, and he founded his workshop in 1849, and they went right through to the 20th century, but they were well-known as mechanical clockmakers. he then patented a singing bird, which he then became famous for. in fact, he had all sorts of birds, including nightingales, and he made a beautiful clock for the czar of russia in 1850, which had a lovely jeweled egg which opened on the half-hour to reveal a singing bird. and this was echoed later in the century by faberge.

the part of it that's the mechanical clock-- its pendulum, if you like-- is the little swinging cherub. yes, yes. it's absolutely wonderful. there's so much to see. yes, there is. i quite agree. some of the coloring has gone, some of the feathers of the birds have seen better days, but that's purely the daylight. it's not even the sunshine. shall we get it going? oh, yes, do. i think i've wound it already. it worked before we came. oh, yes, the waterfall's working. ( birds chirping ) they're very, very high-pitched. yes. i was thrilled when i first had it, sort of thing. like, you know, it was something completely new. ( birds chirping ) ( onlookers laughing happily ) i think here there's a little bit of mirrored glass that he's pecking into to get some water, but it's been moved.

i think probably over the years it's got covered. unless he's after a worm. and the swing is meant to be swinging. i was going to say, the... it's feeling its age. ahh. so, i can-- i can stop it. what more can i say? what do you think it's worth? oh, i don't know. i've no idea, because i... i haven't seen one, actually valued anywhere. if you would go to the right person, place, dealer, say, at an antiques fair, you would have to pay upwards of £10,000. really?! really?! goodness me, i had no idea it was... shall we get it going again? oh, yes, yes, that would be nice. ( chirping ) so you've sniffed out a nice little box for me here. what's inside? yes, this is a scent bottle.

i'm not quite sure of the maker. actually, it's a very nice box. let's just have a look at the box. we don't often get scent bottles in boxes like this, beautifully tooled leather. so, you would expect and you would hope, a quality item inside. what do you think this is? i believe it could be meissen. not 100%. right. okay. well, it certainly has the meissen look. it's very finely modeled, very, very detailed. the painting is good. you've got these flower-encrusted garlands, and it sort of works in the round. it's quite nice. but what we want to see on the bottom is the meissen crossed-swords mark, and instead we have a spray of flowers. and it's really the spray of flowers that gives it away. it's quite thin enameling. so, although it's ve crisp and it's very competent, i'm going to have to say that is not meissen. actually, the little garland is extremely worthy. when you think that all of those flowers are individually handmade, you know, it's still a good factory. and it is actually late 19th century,

in its original box. i would say that in its box, that's a desirable object, somewhere in the region of £400 to 600. lovely. are you impressed by that, hector? "i am." he's probably more impressed by its former contents. let's see whether he can detect the smell of the perfume. yes. he's not a bloodhound, is he? so here we have two fabulous watercolors, one which is signed "f. stuart richardson," the other which is unsigned, but you've also brought in a very beautiful oil by the same artist. yes. which has the artist's initials here, and this is frederick stuart richardson. yes. fascinating group of pictures by him... yes. ..and we hardly ever see works by him. tell me a little bit about them.

how have you come across them? well, um, he was my grandfather. they've come down through the family. and do you have other pictures? you must have other pictures. yes, actually, the family have quite a lot because he was very prolific. he never went anywhere without his paints and his easel and so on, ever. i've a couple of photographs here, one which was taken when he was painting in polperro. there he is, yeah. painting. and the other is a couple of years later with him painting on the beach when he was-- that's my grandmother, and this is my father here, as a little baby. it was taken-- must have been taken in 1913. absolutely fascinating. and there he is, painting away, totally ignoring your father and grandmother... absolutely, yes. ... and there also seems to be a huge age difference. tell me about that. there was. well, he was painting before that, in coverack, in cornwall, staying at the hotel, and my grandmother visited

with her older sister and niece. she was 26. she'd just come out of a long engagement to a doctor. she was of upper middle class, very careful not to marry into poverty, but the first days when she visited, he obviously rather liked her because he leant out of the window and said, "leicester are doing rather well in the cricket this season, aren't they?" but they hadn't been introduced, so she didn't follow up the conversation, 'cause it wasn't done. but a few days later, on the beach, she did send the child over to see what he was painting. and he said, "well, if they want to know what i'm painting, they can come and see for themselves, and ask me." and then, at the end of the fortnight, she went home. and her father said, "well, how did your holiday go? you're more cheered up," and so on. and she said, "well, i've got engaged." and he said, "engaged? who to?" and she said, "well, an artist." and he was quite shocked. "an artist? tell me about him." she said, "well, he's 56." and she was 26 at the time. so he said, "well, you can just get unengaged." you know, it would be really frowned upon to marry a quite elderly artist.

yes, absolutely. well, certainly a large age gap, and an artist who perhaps wasn't making a great deal of money. no. very, very interesting. i-i love the one of him also, polperro, which connects to this picture, which is polperro harbor, which is a little bit later on. and this connects him also to harold knight and dame laura knight, because they met at staithes. staithes. he was a member of the staithes group. he traveled a great deal, didn't he? yes. and so we... the mariner's shop, which is beautifully detailed-- lots and lots of objects in here-- this must have been inferenced from his trip to holland, where he must have met the hague school-- joseph israels and artists like that. yes, he did, absolutely. and then, going-- just talking about the oil, which i think is an incredibly moody piece of painting. yes, he was very good at cold, bleak seas. some of his greatestpaintings hn of stormy, bleak seas, not of what i call a chocolate box sea. he very rarely did those.

in terms of value. it doesn't matter. it doesn't matter 'cause they're family objects. and i love them. the little oil. yes. i think it's an absolute stunner. really beautiful. £2,000 to 3,000. oh, wow, help. the mariner's shop, absolutely gorgeous, easily £2,000 to 3,000. and the real stunner, you know, the larger watercolor, beneath polperro... ...certainly £3,000 to £5,000. oh, dear. they're a terrific group, and i love all your history. yes, thank you very much. thank you very much. now, i actually see quite a few horses'- hoof inkstands, which of course is what we've got here. see the area for the ink in there. the glass is missing, but that's neither here nor there. but we've got this engraving on the top, "stockings." now, who was stockings? yes, stockings. stockings was a horse that belonged to tommy robartes. who was he? tommy robartes was the eldest son

to the 6th viscount clifden here at lanhydrock. oh, so, actually, this was a horse here at lanhydrock? oh, yes, yes. stockings spent his life at lanhydrock, and tommy robartes was a very keen horseman, and my great-grandfather, my father's grandfather, william cole, he was coachman and head groom here at lanhydrock for two generations of the family. and what we have with stockings is that we've got a letter from tommy robartes. ah, yes, here we are. so, written from eton college. from eton. tommy was at eton from 1894 to 1899. indeed. and he's writing to "my dear william," and he's writing about entering stockings in the bodmin horse show, which is the local horse show. and he's telling william that, um, you, uh, can enter him in the jumping class at bodmin... i like the way-- i love the way he's underlined that, as well. ...if you think he will take a prize.

right. but you can only enter him if you think he can... so, do you know if he actually won or not? no, i haven't researched that, i have to admit. is this actually stockings? yes, we believe it is... ...grandpa cole with stockings. right. isn't that wonderful? that's right. and of course tommy should have been the heir to the estates here at lanhydrock, but, tragically, was killed in september, 1915, in the first world war. as so many were. yes. but he was a very respected man, a great horseman. sir arthur quiller-couch, the great cornish writer, described tommy as, um, the most reckless horseman in cornwall. but, obviously, he had great respect for stockings, and when stockings died, the hooves were obviously mounted as inkwells. isn't that wonderful? isn't that wonderful? it's super to have that sort of history behind. um... and, in fact, when we look, they were actually made-- or the mounts were put on 1907. right, yes, yes. so, um, that all ties in very nicely with what we've got there.

i suppose today if that came onto the market, it would probably be £500, 600. oh, as much as that? oh, yes. you've brought in quite a little gem. um, this is a japanese piece made of walrus ivory. is it really? it always has this curious granular work running down it, which you can't carve away. lost its signature, but on here, we've got two sages, immortals, one blowing a conch, and this is a... ( japanese term )... which is a pipe case. there we go. and we've even got a pipe in. is it an opium pipe? ah, you've fallen right into the trap! ( both laughing ) no! everybody thinks... we haven't used it! ( laughter ) ...they're opium pipes. the japanese smoke only the most tiny bit of tobacco.

they put it in there like that, and they light it. they smoke it like that. it lasts a few minutes, and then they knock it out and start again. so, it's, uh... it's not an opium pipe. it's an ordinary tobacco pipe, and they've kept them in these objects... very precious. ...which were... ...suspended from their belt by that, which is a... ( japanese term ). that's called a ( japanese term ). and we've got a toad on here. and what sort of age is that, then? it's about 1850, 1880, somewhere round there. and then we've got... an ( japanese term )... and that tightens up the string. and this one is very nicely carved, with animals of all sorts on there. your pipe case... two to three hundred.

your ( japanese term )... two to three hundred. gosh. goodness. your ( japanese term ), four to six hundred. oh, my gosh! ( laughter ) so there's £1,000 there, nearly! my dad would be thrilled to bits! he got these pieces for very little when i was a little girl. wonderful. so, he's up there somewhere... i hope, watching and listening to what you're saying! it was worth coming today. thank you very much indeed. thank you very much. you've come in with loads of manchester united material. where did you get this incredible passion for collecting? well, i've been a collector of man united stuff probably for about, oh, 40-odd years now. went to my first match back in the '70s. got the passion for it and just sort of collected from there. tell me, what's a cornishman doing, so far away from manchester, supporting that club? i think it was george best, back in george best's era, back at that time when they were doing really well.

'cause, you know, i hesitated about doing this, 'cause i'm a sheffield united supporter. yes, i-- don't worry about that. i think we both share a love of george best. i grew up with him. he was a symbol of everything that was good and vigorous about english football. what's the mainstay of the collection, or have you got a bit of everything? i've got a bit of everything, actually, right back to the early '80s and up to modern-day stuff, really. 'cause it's a club that goes back a long time. definitely, yeah. ...1870s. well, this is, um, one of the oldest things i've got. this is when they won their division ii championships back in '35-'36 season. yep. signed by all the players. yeah, here they all are, listed. their positions. their positions, yeah. nice and complete, and torn out of an autograph book. exactly, yes. then it goes on to 1936-'37 season. there's just a few autographs off that. i mean, it's so rare to find the whole team... yeah, yeah, yeah. ...and nice to have the period sort of

autograph album leaves. those are worth five to eight hundred each... yeah, yeah. ...easily, as an auction estimate. maybe they'd make more on the day. what about this one? this is a photograph of sir matt busby. and he joined the club after the war. yeah, from man city, i hazard to say. oh, really? right, right, right. this would be worth maybe two or three hundred, something like that. and of course it was a period that had its fair share of tragedy. yeah, definitely, yeah. then you go on to the busby babes, then, and the munich... air disaster, which... this album here is signed of all... all the munich... right, right. let's have a look. ...team of the busby babes. right, right. duncan edwards, you've got there. where's he? dennis viollet. duncan edwards is here, the big man on the end. the terrible date was february, 1958. exactly, yeah. fifty years. of course, the plane went down in munich, and eight of the lads were lost. exactly, yeah. some survived, including bobby charlton.

bobby, yeah, yeah. of course. it renders these incredibly rare and of course very, very collectible. i mean, i've sold these at auction in the past, but this is lovely. it's complete. i mean, a little bit of brown sellotape, but we'd be looking at £1,500, 2,000 as an auction estimate just for this page. yeah, yeah. there's quite a few pages like that actually, signed. and of course it's the '60s, when i was born, that i remember perhaps the greatest player, george best. yeah, it goes on to george best, yeah. i've got a couple of shirts signed by george here. let's have a look at it. met george a few times. got a few shirts signed by him, in bits and pieces. here we are. "best wishes, george..." does that say "best"? it's not too clear. yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, just. i mean, obviously, poor old george, he's gone, but five hundred, eight hundred, sort of minimum for that. i think even what i've seen here, we must be looking at at least sort of £20,000, 30,000,

if not more. right. this is only a third of what i've got, really. what? you've got more? i thought this was the... i thought this was it! thank you very much. a privilege to see it. thank you. this is a very important part of cornish history, and you are the team rector here at the parish church at lanhydrock. tell me about this. well, this is the casket or reliquary of saint petroc, and it contained the skull of saint petroc, or the bones of saint petroc, and as such is a very important part of cornish history. he's the patron saint of cornwall. well, he's the chief saint of cornwall. the chief saint. that's important to say that, and, um, he came from wales. we think he was of royal heritage, from the royal family in wales in around about 600 a.d. the origin of this casket really goes back to about 1177,

where the bones were stolen by a monk called martin, who had a row, really, with the prior, and ran off with the bones to brittany. oh, dear! ( laughs ) yes! that's not very monk-like behavior, is it? it's not very christian. not at all. and, um, henry ii got involved in all this, and he was instrumental in getting the bones back again, and this casket was chosen as the thing to put them in. this casket is ivory, and you are telling me that underneath, 'cause it's rather bleached here... i-i don't dare lift it. do you dare lift it? i can lift it. yeah, okay. so, let's have a look. and underneath, you'll see some rather... oh, i see! yes! you see, you've still got the colors, whereas the top ones... it's all bleached on the top. and what about...? here, let's put it back. and are the bones still inside? unfortunately not. no? well, let's have a look. let's see. oh! very disappointing. it's polystyrene, really, to keep the whole thing in shape, so it's not distorted. so what happened to the bones?

nobody really knows, but probably at the reformation, it was felt wrong to be venerating bones and so on. goodness me. henry viii's gang probably chucked them somewhere. so it's just a bit of, what, holy dust in there now? holy dust. ah, yes, that's good to hear. i can't begin to tell you the number of pearls that we see on the antiques roadshow, and i see an avalanche of simulated pearls. right. these pearls are natural pearls. completely natural. tell me what you know about the piece. well, the piece of jewelry used to belong to my husband's great-aunt, who lived in naples, in italy, and, um, they were made as a pair of earrings. and my mother-in-law gave them to me when i had my daughter, in 1970.

when they were my husband's great-aunt's earrings, she had a bit of an adventure with them once because she lived in the apartment beneath maria pia of savoia, who was the daughter of the king of italy. right. they socialized together... ...and once when she was at a rather important ball, she saw maria pia in a pair that were very similar, and she rushed up-- well, not to the ladies, but she rushed somewhere and pulled her earrings out because she thought it was not the right thing, to have a pair so similar. if you don't mind me saying so, that's some serious provenance you've got for these. right. um... now, as far as the time when these were made, um, i should think that these were end of the 19th century-- 1885 to '90, that sort of period. when we have a look at the pearls themselves, you see that they are almost like ripe fruit, ready to pluck, aren't they? they're these large, bulbous... they're not round, are they? they're misshaped, really.

slightly misshapen, irregular-shaped drops. yes. look at the caps. they're diamonds set in those little caps. when we see natural pearls, usually you get them in a necklace, and they're sort of, you know, six, seven millimeters. these are big pearls that you've got here, so these were very much for someone of nobility, high social standing, who would have worn them when they went to the right social function-- a ball, a reception, when they would have worn them undoubtedly with their hair worn up. yes, she did wear her hair up. where the pearls would have been worn dingle-dangle... ...against her long, swan-like neck. of course. and i think she would have looked absolutely devastating. i'm sure she did. i can only but imagine. now, let's move on to the question of what they might be worth. i will tell you that the market for natural pearls is universal at the moment. there are so many people who want to buy natural pearls. and, indeed, the market for fine jewelry like this is really firing on all cylinders now anyway.

can i just point out one little problem? if i turn it over... like that... we see that one of the pearls has a little black hole. i had noticed that as well. it's a little defect in the back of the pearl, and that does impact a little on the price. value: how much you think? i will say... up to £2,000. well... i would say up to £2,000 myself if it wasn't for the fact that they are so extraordinarily large and commercial. i think they're worth £10,000. good gracious, me! yes. that's fantastic! so you're telling me that these are cornish surfers? well, that's what we refer them to, because we don't know-- they look a bit like it, yes. and that's the surfboard? yes. okay, so that would make this a cornish flagon.

oh, i wouldn't say that! what would you say? tell me how you got it. well, it's my aunt's. uh... she's had it in her house, and we've looked at it and admired it lots of times. yes. she tells us she acquired it in 19... late 1940s, when she opened a restaurant and she was looking for things to dress the restaurant. with a sort of cornish style with these surfing gentlemen? well, yes. ( indistinct comment ) you see, that's our explanation, but yes. i'm going to take you a little bit further afield than cornwall. first of all, this painting style is absolutely typically dutch. right. okay. but we have to go even further afield than holland, because the people who painted this were actually living in japan, and the dutch were trading with japan in the, let's say, the 1660s, 1680s, and sending out to japan dutch imitations of chinese landscapes. right. so this was actually made in japan

in the late 17th century, copying a dutch idea of chinese people in the late 17th century. it's a rare object, probably worth between £1,000 and 2,000. that?! it's worth a thousand, two thousand pounds? bah! well, my aunt's going to be delighted, isn't she? she's not going to believe that. i shall have to have that in writing before she'll believe it! now, we're sitting here making a television program, which is... everybody knows that. but what interests me is that, while you and i know what we're doing here, we're suddenly taken into a very important part of television history. these are pictures of the christmas broadcast, sandringham, 1957. now, that was the first time the queen did it on television.

that's right, yes. the christmas broadcast hitherto had a long tradition... ...of being on the radio. that's right. suddenly, there it is, and, of course, in the technology at the time, it was live. she had to do it... almost as you and i are doing it here. so, what are these to you? well, it's part of the history of my father. he was the superintendent of lighting of outside broadcasting of the bbc during the '50s and the early '60s. so, a ry important person. yes, he was, yes. i think he was a specialist in the art of television lighting, and there were very few people with that sort of skill around at the time. outside broadcasting was... was live. but it was always live. and always live, yes. so he was there. these were his sets, so to speak. he actually chose the queen's dress as well, and set the set-up so that it would appear proper when you actually watched it on the television. television was in black and white in those days. today, we see it in color, but in those days, it was about tones rather than colors, and dresses that might be just the right color might be just the wrong tone for black-and-white television.

so he said, "i'm sorry, ma'am, you can't wear that." he did, he did. a very tough man, obviously. yes, yes. and then, who took the photographs? the ones of prince charles and princess anne were taken by my father, and other members of the crew would have taken some of the background pictures. but it was my father that took all of these pictures here. but he was the cameraman in the sense of recording the scene? he was, yes. so, there we have the queen on that occasion, 1957, wearing the dress that he chose, and so he was there snapping away without any sort of... without any prohibition at all. a very lucky person. no royal protocol? no. so... that's obviously that. so, is this him? that's him, taken just after the war. so, what was he like? um... he was a very talented person, a lot of personality. quite a grumpy old man in many respects. and on the set here, the queen didn't actually know his name, and one of the assistants, when asked his name, was told, "oh, that's mr. grumps."

and we actually had a christmas card from the queen to "mr. grumps." ( chuckles ) but what actually was his name? harold mayhew. here we have princess anne and prince charles learning to be cameramen. yes, but they didn't take the trade up. but what a pity! they might have had a new profession. you never know. so, then, this is... ...different dress. that would be the 1958 broadcast. i think it was a very impressive, exciting part of television history, and these very much bring it to life. it's obviously very personal to you. have any of these ever been published? no, they haven't. so we are seeing them for the first time. for the first time anywhere. so the royal family doesn't know about them? i have a feeling that the royal family has a set of these pictures here. my father did present them to them, yes. so, buried in the royal archives. but otherwise, they are unknown images. unknown, yes. we've got lots of things here. we've got television history, we've got... royal family in a very intimate and informal way, we've got wonderful records