ambrose... son? you haven't spoken a word in 10 miles. sorry, mammy. my mind's elsewhere. work, is it? i'm after some fellas that are smuggling stuff. you'd want to mind yourself there, son. some of those smugglers are very rough element. very rough, indeed. it's the old mine. i wonder what they're up to. afternoon, sir. can i have a word with you? are you...? what are you d...? don't get in... how dare they? get in the car, mammy. faster, ambrose. faster.

they're headed for town. the brats. oh, if only i had a big stick. [ siren wailing ] [ horn honking ] dammit! excuse me, mammy. no, stay in the car. right. oh, no. [ belching ] once more into the breach. are you sure you don't want another one? no. for christmas? thanks, siobhan. i wouldn't want to be caught drunk in charge of a nativity play. can i have you out of the car, mr. fahey? mmm? come along. get your hands off me. there's children watching.

it's all right, children. santa's just tired. i am not. lay off. i'm arresting you under section 49 of the road traffic act. [ students chanting ] ambrose is arresting santa. it can't be helped, i suppose. they have the flu. oh, i'll have plenty of company for the dinner. don't worry. have you changed your mind? i think i'd better have a black coffee. i'm in worse shape than i imagined. yeah, you too. bye-bye. assumpta? assumpta? can i have a coffee? have you got presents? yeah. have you got one for your dad?

my dad's in prison. you have to put one under the tree to show him you're thinking of him. better hurry, the shops'll be closed tomorrow. come on, you lot. it's christmas eve. this girl has a party to get ready. [ all continue christmas greetings ] we've had a lovely evening. i'm delighted. bye-bye. have a good one. and have the greatest party. 'night, assumpta. happy christmas. happy christmas.

goodnight, men. [ ♪ musical interlude ♪ ]

conn? i know you're there. padraig'd kill you if he knew you were here. kevin, watch out. mind the shaft! aaahhhhh!!! kevin!! kevin? kevin?!

happy christmas, dad. happy christmas. this is better than boring old klosters, isn't it? i was having a terrible dream. i was locked in a lift with imelda. happy christmas, brian. happy christmas, ambrose. where's your mother? at first mass in cilldargan. ambrose left her earlier. i have to go and pick her up in time for the children's mass. she's collecting the set. don't leave me alone with that woman. it's like being nibbled to death by ducks.

kevin! conn! joy to the world, you two! u-up! christmas day! kevin?! kevin? [ knock at door ] yep? father. hey, padraig happy christmas. what can i do for you? it's kevin. i can't find him or conn anywhere. don't worry, i'm sure they'll turn up. could you get ready to do the narration in case they are late?

with the wings? no, in civvies. i'm sure you know the drill by now. yeah, i suppose so. all right, thanks, padraig. father, we're ready. thanks, niamh. we're all set for you, peter. right, then. good morning to you. good morning, father. and a very happy christmas to you all. same to you, father. now, i know that a lot of you will have been given wonderful presents and toys this morning. and probably you can't wait to get out of here and go home and play. but, we have to remember why we've been given these toys, and whose special birthday it is that we're here to celebrate today. and we're very privileged this morning... where have you been? where's kevin? what, in god's name, have you been up to? ... the real christmas message. padraig?

you stay there. don't move, i'll be back in a second. and so it came to pass at that time that caesar augustus ordered a census to be taken. so joseph took his wife, mary, who was with child to bethlehem. any room? any room? and because there was no room at the inn... any room? certainly, there's pucks of room. come on in, and bring mary with you. [ parishioners laugh ]

pucks of room, he says. pucks of room. he wasn't supposed to say that at all. ambrose. ambrose. i've got a problem here. kevin's missing. i noticed he wasn't at the mass. there's something going on. conn turned up then ran off, and they're not up at the house. well... what? there's money missing. how much? 50 quid. right. i'm sorry, i was looking forward to christmas day at home. you know, that fella's more trouble than he's worth. still, you can't leave him out there. i'll be back as soon as i can. i'll go have a look, padraig. i have to run niamh and my mother home. i'll go with you. no, you stay at home in case they show up there. okay? niamh?

niamh?! what's happening? conn o'neill is missing. oh, him. and kevin o'kelly. trust padraig to lose the two of them. ambrose has gone off to search for them. what, on his day off? oh, that christmas spirit. don't leave me alone with that woman, all right? promise. cooee. how's the patient this holy morn? niamh!! [ knock at door ] it's the three wise men. kevin and conn are missing. oh. we need to organise search parties and that. we wondered if we could use here as a base? sure. we promise we won't disturb your party. are they in there? don't worry about the party. what can i do? listen, don't worry. i'm sure everything's going to be

fine. thanks, siobhan. uh-oh. are you okay? my 50 quid. i found it. conn? do you wanna get in? conn, stop. it's okay. conn!

let me go! leave me alone! let me go! it's okay, it's okay. slow down. now, take it easy. what's the story? leave me alone it's not my fault! where's kevin? conn, where's kevin? is he okay? conn, is kevin okay? i didn't mean it. i swear. i want my dad. ambrose is here. well? i can't get a word out of him; he's terrified. what about padraig? he definitely doesn't want to talk to padraig.

he says he'll only talk to you. father?.. the priest isn't allowed... to tell anyone what he hears in confession? no one. well, father i think i'm after... killing kevin o'kelly. it's only been ten minutes. then again, it is conn o'neill. could be here till new year. he's up at the old copper mines. i'll get up there. we're gonna need more help. i'm going with you. i told you about that old mine. if he's hurt i'll kill you. hey, padraig! nobody said it was conn's fault. we'll head back to fitzgerald's and organise from there. is he hurt? it's hard to make sense of what i've heard. i think we'd better hurry. michael. i've got the rescue team. they're at least an hour away. what about the ambulance? they'll be here soon. shouldn't we be up there? padraig

and ambrose have gone ahead. kevin's down a shaft, we think. we might not be able to reach him without the mountain rescue team. i do a bit of climbing and potholing. how much? i've never rescued anybody, but i know ropes. well, there's bound to be some ropes up at eamon byrne's. here, take my car. brendan, go with him and show him where it is. i'll meet you at the mine. he's down a really deep shaft! in there! it's very treacherous! we could hear him, poor fella! can i get to him? we couldn't get near him! it's a sheer shaft and the walls are crumbling. you'll need the mountain rescue, or timmy if he can make it. assumpta's just called; they've found kevin. they need blankets. vblankets? did they find him in bed? he's down a shaft. is he all right? i don't know. they're all up there. don't you go. she might be back any minute. gotta go, dad.

ooh! all right, get me a brush, will you? can you hear us? kevin? kevin? god help us. ah, come on. it's all right padraig. he's probably just fallen asleep. exhaustion. kevin! kevin!! he may be unconscious. he was responding earlier. i know; that's what worries me. we don't know the extent of his injuries. he may have gone into shock. i hope these fellas get here fast. yoo-hoo. i'm ba-ack. all the men are gone up to the mine shaft. it was very thrilling, watching them prepare themselves. i wanted to help but the girl in the pub said that the best way to help was by looking after sick people. "you'll help best," she said,

"by looking after brian quigley." i won't forget her for it. i've got some torches. santa specials. i knew somebody'd want them. damn! [ fr. clifford ] okay, lads, over here. now, be careful 'cause the shaft's just there. you, go 'round the other side, that's it. yeah, over there. right. this is a job for two. does anybody here know anything about potholing? good man. can i have the rope, please?

let's get on with it, so. take that. right, here's what we're gonna do. you and me, we're gonna go down there. right. i'm not making sandwiches. huh? well, that's what women are supposed to do, isn't it? while the men do manly things like rescuing people and attacking neighbouring villages and shelling defenceless citizens -- assumpta, what are you on about? this is ballykay. i know, i know. but it's the principle of the thing. men do. women wait. well, i think i'm as much a feminist as the next but ambrose only had a bowl of cornflakes this morning. tea and sandwiches for the men it is, then. but they're not getting jam on it. [ knock at door ] can i come in? brian? any chance of a drink? it's for the pain. you can sit there and wait. we're doing something.

okay, hold on. take it easy. mind his head. that's it, fellas. it's going nicely. that's it, keep it going. that's it. mind his head. all right. come on. is he coming? slow down. okay, nearly there. is he okay? well done, timmy. well, what d'you expect? he is my nephew. well done. in my work as a priest, gard egan, i have occasion to hear certain

things. i know it was conn's fault. it's not that, ambrose. a penitent who shall be nameless, has found a stash of goods which are secreted in these workings. where? in there beyond the hole. you'll need a torch. i gave mine to donal. this one's working. thanks, liam. thanks, father. well done, lads. i think he's got a fracture of the fibula and a broken collar bone. he may have concussion as well. you'll be okay, son. bingo! thank you, conn o'neill. i could make sergeant out of this.

i'll kill you, liam. i hear you were brilliant. ah, it was nothing. the shaft wasn't that deep but it was treacherous enough. look, i've got sandwiches if you're hungry. the chicken, i left it in the oven. i've gotta go, assumpta. well, you can have some of mine, if you like? ambrose! i thought you'd left with the others. well done, pet. d'you want a sandwich? no, thanks. look what i found. wow! loads more of it inside. wow. hit my head though. oh, did you? maybe... peter took it. no, i've got his keys.

i could have sworn i left it here, you know. uh-oh. timmy. sweet suffering jesus. what am i gonna tell peter? ah, brian. forgot you were here. is he all right? yeah, he's fine. you've gotta go home. no, i do not. you can't stay here. i'll be no trouble. a leg'd be good. bit of stuffing. i basted the turkey. it's doing nicely. [ knock at door ] don't let imelda egan in under any circumstances. ah, assumpta, we've burnt the turkey.

[ siobhan ] to a frazzle. and we just brought these party hats and wondered if... oh... come in. oh, would you look who's here. how's the young fella? he'll be fine. which is more than can be said for this. well, that's good news. listen, peter, there's something i need to tell you. it's a good job it's too late for you, old friend. d'you think assumpta would let us in? she might. we'll walk. it's too close to use the car. well... that's what i needed to talk to you about, father. [ knock at door ] ah, would you look who it is. it's the priest and the priest-to-be.

happy christmas. you all right? you look as if you just lost your best friend. ask him. i just killed his car. the javelin? fell over the cliff. total write-off. i loved that car. i think a stiff drink's allowed, eh? niamh's bringing over her turkey as well so there's crackers and all sorts. hold the door! kevin's sleeping so i thought i might... [ cheers and applause ] come in. here, happy christmas. happy christmas, assumpta. you kept your life as a climber fairly schtum, donal. well, to tell you the truth, father, i didn't know what potholing was.

i thought it was, like filling in holes in the road. ah. but it's like any job. once you get started it's easy enough. you know yourself. you have to keep your ear to the ground to pick up bargains like these. now, these are dirt cheap. fire damaged, but they're just as good as ones 4 or 5 times the price.. here, go on, pull. hard now. go on. so, what happened to your party? ah... it disappeared. a bit like your car. oh, sorry. ah, what the heck. it's christmas. so? see, when i found the cave it was like buried treasure. i wanted to pay you back for looking after me. and how did kevin fall? he chased me into the mine. you have to get 'round the hole to get to the treasure. i knew it was there. i shouted. but he couldn't see me in the dark.

i'm sorry now i ran away. but i was sure he was dead. it's cool. he's not dead. [ cheers and applause ] i think what impressed me most, garda egan, is that you tracked down those goods while off duty. a good garda is never off duty, superintendent. duly noted garda egan. well, here we are. oh, lord. um... they must have been watching me putting it in the boot. [ chuckles ] what the heck. it's christmas. [ ♪ folk music playing ♪ ]

ho, ho, ho, ho. merry christmas! happy christmas. hungry? merry christmas, assumpta. merry christmas, mr. quigley. happy? i'm as happy as a turkey on boxing day. captions by: midwest captioning des moines, iowa

the inspiration for britain's most famous seaside landmark came from the great paris exhibition of 1889 when the mayor of blackpool decided that mr. eiffel had had really a rather good idea. so welcome to a second helping of the roadshow from blackpool tower. 2,500 tons of steel, five million bricks,

and a cost in today's money of £21 million. that's what it took to build the blackpool tower back in 1894. it was considered to be the greatest single piece of british engineering at the time. and just in case of disaster the manchester architects of tuke and maxwell thoughtfully designed it to topple into the irish sea. it does get windy. the plan was to build towers as tourists attractions up and down the country. it failed in places like morecambe and the isle of man, making blackpool tower all the more desirable. when the public were first admitted to this victorian entertainment complex, the riffraff were kept at bay by a small but significant charge of six pence for the privilege. and what was on offer besides a trip up the tower? tea dances to tunes from the mighty wurlitzer organ.

but there were rules. gentlemen may not dance unless with a lady. disorderly conduct means immediate expulsion. and on sundays please remain seated. there's no dancing allowed. our palatial venue for the day hosted many a fine tea dance and artistes so today we're hoping for a few more neat steps and performances from our specialists. let's see what they have to offer. have you said your prayers? sorry? have you said your prayers? why? what do you mean? because you brought a prayer machine. oh, right. okay. this is for saying prayers. it's an incense burner and you'll find that throughout the world all religious communities at some stage burn incense and the incense goes up to heaven. and that's the idea of this thing. really? okay. it's called a koro which is the japanese term for an incense burner, so that clarifies where it's from, but how did it get from japan to here? my nan had a friend that was-- who worked out in malaysia.

he was a banker out there, and he gave her this piece. i think it's from about the 1950s. i remember when i was growing up she was keeping hold of it just as knack. were they buddhists? no. no, i don't think so. so it's never been used? i don't think so. in your house. not as far as i know, no. well, what you do is you take the lid off, and it's a pretty chunky old lid. let's just move that off. my goodness, it's heavy. and you put the incense inside here, and the incense is an offering. but by putting this on the incense has to escape through the vent holes here. the vent is cast with this extraordinary frieze. now, to western eyes they look like swastikas. well, they are swastikas. they're buddhistic swastikas. the swastika in oriental art means the heart of buddha. so by allowing your prayers to waft through this symbol, you're getting into the heart of buddha.

and on top, he's called a karashishi and he is a guardian a buddhistic guardian dog. and you can see he's looking quite friendly, really. he's playing with this lovely brocade ball, which spins around. but it's a wonderful piece of workmanship. and it would be easy to overlook something that is really quite subtle. this bronze, smooth bronze, actually contains this beautiful design and then in the center here do you know what that is? no idea. no. well, it's a badge. we would call it a crest. it's armorial. it is actually the crest of the tokugawa clan so the ruling clan of the 19th century. this piece was made probably at about the same time as this ballroom. japanese works of art were finding their way into europe in huge quantities at that time. there was enormous interest in european things japanese. in fact, if you look up at the ceiling you'll see one japanese character. i spotted him just before. he's come straight down from the cadre. but there was this interest in japanese

works of art which brought these things to europe. i guess this was made almost certainly in kyoto where i've actually seen them. still, even to this day they do this inlay work. by hand. by hand? tapping in. so it's a jolly nice object. so back to saying prayers. how much do you think it might fetch? i've got no idea. no idea. it's very difficult to say, actually because this market goes up and down up and down, and with financial uncertainty, and with japan being in quite a bad state i reckon that today this is probably worth somewhere in the region, let's say, between £3,000 and 4,000. really? oh, my word. i'll get a holiday booked. so get the logistics. that's fantastic. thank you very much. i can't tell you a lot about them. they actually belong to my mother-in-law. when i first looked at them, i didn't even realize they were mosaics. so it was only because somebody had

a magnifying glass that we were realized they were the mosaics that she kept referring to. and there are one or two that are quite pretty, but i have to say that this one in particular-- you hate it? i don't like it. i don't like it at all. you would never wear it? no. absolutely not. no? what exactly do you dislike about this? it's so glittery. it is glittery isn't it? very glittery and shiny and sparkly, and i don't really like sparkly. no, no. i suppose it is very sparkly. it's sparkly for a reason, actually because there are little copper filings that are imprisoned in a glass background. but they've come an enormously long way to your mother-in-law, in the main from italy. and they're the grandest tourist objects that you could ever think of. they are souvenirs. if you came to blackpool you might take away a little, you know paste brooch with the tower on it. if you went to rome or to florence you'd come back with a micro mosaic. because everywhere you went on the grand tour you'd be shown miraculous mosaics in the ceilings of santa maria majiore in rome or perhaps in pompeii. i don't know what else. and you wanted a bit of that to bring back to smokey, smoggy old london.

and as a souvenir, a very grand souvenir, mounted often in gold. well, the miracle of these objects is that they're not made of stone but they're actually made of glass, and glass is an extraordinary material. when it's viscous, you can stretch it and stretch it and stretch it rather like sort of toffee or something like that and then snap it and make tiny, tiny little tesserae, which are a reference to hard stone mosaics, but actually in this case they're made of glass. it may have helped them to achieve this dazzling effect because they could choose the colors, and they could get the grading of the size correct to the subject matter. but they could also heat the tiny tesserae in a furnace and to a sort of viscosity, i think is the right word. that's a good word that, isn't it? viscosity. and then they fused together. when they cool, they sort of grip one another with an atomic bond within the glass. and so they're pretty durable. here are some sort of bucolic scenes, aren't they? there's a goat herd who's stopped and is perhaps sleeping out under the moon or something like that with his dog.

and every nuance of his jacket is represented with a different color of tiny, tiny glass tesserae. those are the doves of pliny from hadrian's villa probably sold to somebody who'd just seen them a roman mosaic in a wall in a town covered with dust from vesuvius, and then revived again. terribly exciting stuff. still is, actually. and some are of gold and some are very sophisticated at the back. but anyway a ballpark figure is, goodness doves of pliny maybe £200, 300, 400. perhaps a more fully blown one £600 to 800. an enormous one of gold with granulation making a reference to ancient techniques, well, somebody once said, and that's really the essence of it, is do they want them these days? i think they do because of their miraculous quality. perhaps not to wear them, but for their collectibility. maybe £1,200. without a mount maybe, again, only £400 to 600. but i love them. i think they're a great statement of the past.

lovely. thanks for bringing them. fabulous. fabulous. do you know, i'm sure that initially as soon as people see this onscreen, they're going to think oh, that's a nice looking telescope. but of course it's not a telescope, is it? no. i've always had a passing interest in cameras and of course, being a blackpool boy, i'm interested in anything that was made in blackpool. and a camera dealer approached me about 15 years ago and said he found a camera that was made in blackpool and was i interested. and this is that camera. i said, yeah. it's a wonderful wonderful little item. everything we need to know about it is really essentially written on the front plate. it's made by the british ferrotype company. now, i know that it was made between around about 1905 and up to about 1915. we've got a number of over 2,000 on here, but i'm not sure exactly how many were made. i have to say, they don't turn up very, very often. what we've got is something that takes a magazine of what we call ferrotype plates. you know what a ferrotype plate is,

i'm sure. it's a small metal disc which has a light sensitive emulsion on it. that is inserted via the back section here into a spring loaded magazine. we can then start to operate the camera. we can have our subject in front of here. we can essentially line them up through a very simply gun sight on top there that you just look through. and the person goes in front here and that's it. once you've lined them up, we basically use a vacuum operated shutter, which you haven't got here. a bulb shutter. we take the photograph and as soon as it's taken, we basically push this. which is jammed. which is jammed, unfortunately. the ferrotype plate drops down into the developing reservoirs in the bottom here and within a minute, within a minute, we have a finished product. amazing. absolutely amazing. now, here's the finished product.

this is a tiny little ferrotype plate portrait of a young boy that may even have been taken on blackpool seaside circa 1905 to 1910. now, of course, you paid for the little ferrotype plates, and i suspect, given your little advertising case here you got to pick the style of the little frame that you can put it in. because i see that we've got a selection there with some enameled flags some painted enamel flags, and different gilt borders. around the time of the first world war the young man would have had his photograph taken and his wife or his girlfriend would put it in a brooch and she would wear it with pride whilst he was away at the war. what a lovely story, and in essence that is a sweetheart brooch, a form of sweetheart brooch, and very poignant as well. now, these don't come up for sale very often. they're not something that turns up that frequently. so putting a value on it is a little bit difficult,

but i think current auction value is going to be around about £700 to 1,000. well, yes. i paid about 200 quid for it. well, i think you all right 15 years ago, didn't you? it's a wonderful object, and again, it epitomizes blackpool in many ways. now, when i first saw this i thought it looked dutch. so i was a bit surprised when on the top of the drawers here i found lancaster. absolutely local. and then on this side it says gillows. so it's a very, very locally made piece. interesting. yeah. so this is something that you've bought or inherited? yes. yeah. i bought it 40 or 50 years ago. and where did you get it from? harringer. on teague fair in harringer. right. and so why did you buy it? because i liked it. that's a good answer. what was it you liked about it? well, it was gillows and gillows to me

was one of the best northern furniture makers we have without any doubt. he and his brother. and name gillows these days will really add value to a piece of furniture. and this is a very handsome piece. it's a demilune shape. wonderful mahogany and good color. and very smart with these boxwood stringage. and i would say this dates to around 1800. that sort of time. and i think gillows only started to stamp their furniture right at the end of the century so is this is perhaps a relatively early piece of stamped gillows furniture. i'm wondering--i do have to wonder about these handles, which don't seem to be absolutely characteristic of gillows. perhaps you can-- what do you think about this? yes, i knew. i think the same. yes. you think the same. but there's also something on the inside which i'm not quite sure about. do you know what happened there? no, i don't. no. it's curious. i wonder if perhaps there was a--

mayhaps something spilled there. something spilled. a little bit of repair in there. but i think it's interesting to see the inside, because it's two very simple shelves. the top shelf, lovely polished mahogany. the bottom shelf is really quite crude. and a small size, which is in fact, a bedside piece. and i like to think of this as the sort of ensuite bathroom of the day, so that at night when you couldn't go into the bathroom or you had to trot down the corridor in freezing cold, you had your potty in the bottom there. it's a potty cupboard, really. it's a potty cupboard. it's a lavatory. and i think a very, very handsome lavatory at that. and a gillows lavatory makes it even more worthwhile. now, i dread to think what you paid for it 40 years ago. well, i think about £600. so it was quite a lot of money then. yes, it was. yeah. i think if you were to sell it now,

you would be looking at around 2,000, 2,500. so that it's gone up since you bought it, but if one looked at inflation and all that kind of thing it may not have gone up hugely. but i hope--do you have this by your bedside? yes, my bedside. dare i ask? do you have a-- no. no, i haven't. ( both laugh ) i love seeing pictures by artists i've never come across before. and i see this is signed bamburn on the bottom here. do you know who he is? yes, i do. he is now dead but i knew him about 30 years ago. and we bought this in the mid-1970s. he lived in cromarty in scotland. what i do know, i have one listing for him living in aberdeen in 1933 and exhibiting one picture. and i also know that he studied in paris, and i think that's what a lot of the artists did in the 20th century, went over to paris because the influence of the impressionists, really and all the studios where they could

go and study and come back. do you know where this was painted? yes. i believe it was painted in about 1950 in the wardrobe of savage row theater in london because mr. bannerman, charles bannerman, lived in islington at that time. it looks fifties and there are little things in here like the light and they put material over the top so it directs light down here so they're not going to strain their eyes sewing on all the sequins. it's a wonderful scene. but what i find interesting is i've never come across his work which makes me think he was either a teacher or an illustrator or did commercial work. do you know actually how he did make his living full time? well, i believe he was a graphic artist, and i believe he designed the original for rice krispies. what, snap crackle, and pop? really? yes. so i believe. well, that's fantastic. well, we have to put a value on this, and i think, you know, really looking at it and, as i said he's an artist that's really never come up for sale before, but that doesn't matter. that's what i really love about this

business because you look at it. so what? the quality's there. and i think it's good enough to make somewhere in the region of £800 to 1,000. that's interesting. good. my scottish geography probably isn't brilliant, but kilmarnock i think is sort of southwest of glasgow. is that right? it is indeed. yes. sounds like you're from that part of the world. i am. originally, yes, i am from there. so does that mean you've known this clock a long time? i have known it all my life. i have, because it was my father's wedding present to my mother in 1939 and i was born in 1941 and grew up with this clock. my father was very musical. he had a lovely, lovely singing voice, and he was very keen that i should learn to play the piano, and he insisted i practice half an hour every night from 6:00 till half past. and i used to practice the piano with one eye on the clock and one eye on the music practicing my piano. as soon as it was half past 6:00

the lid went down on the piano and i said that's it. this thing literally watched over you the whole time. it did. it did. and does it bring any other memories back other than those of it watching over you? well, my mother, she had hidey holes all over the house for money, and one of her hidey holes was inside the clock. down in here? inside. yes. have a look. ( both laugh ) i'll tell you something. i bet there's a good few people out there who would rather have their money in the bottom of this than in offshore banking recently. i would think so. i would think so. yes. yes. so let's talk briefly about the scottish clock making industry. i actually prefer the items from the east coast from aberdeen, montrose, arbroath down to edinburgh and leith. they tend to be very elegant clocks. the long slender trunk doors to make them look really very handsome. we come over to the west coast, they're a little bit chunkier, and this is-- although you've got this lovely tapered

case, it's quite a chunky clock, isn't it? it is. yes, it is. what sort of date? had you thought about a date? well, as i said, my father bought it in 1939, but i think it's a little bit older than that, isn't it? oh, it is indeed. i think we could say 1850, give or take a few years, in all honesty. quite austere. the plain circular white painted dial in this drum head case. as i say the tapering's good, but we've got very heavy moldings and a fairly heavy plinth. so very, very different from the east coast clocks. clocks lower down the range, midrange and lower has actually not done terribly well over the last year and a bit. i hope you're not going to be too disappointed when i tell you if it went to auction, it wouldn't make any more than about £2,500. no, i'm very pleasantly surprised. i really didn't think it would be as much as that. the main thing is, you've got all those memories. yes. and it still works. it does. just keep living with it and loving

it. yes, i do. i love it. i do. thank you very much. you know i've never come across a miniature illuminated manuscript before, and this is what this is. it is absolutely fantastic. it's late 17th early 18th century. and it's red leather and it's got little acorns here in the corner and these wonderful little flowers and garlands, too. it is absolutely delightful. and inside, inter folia fructus est, there is the most wonderful lord's prayer illuminated with a coat of arms. now, do you know anything about this coat of arms? well, i found out that the motto at the bottom, foy four dedvoir is apparently the motto of the duke of somerset. and also, i believe it may be related to the seymour family. part of the coat of arms appears to be--

this is jane seymour. part of it, i believe. yes, it's lovely. and look at this wonderful-- it's all on vellum which is a skin, of course and it looks absolutely fantastic. and if i turn the page it changes again but what this page, i think, shows better than possibly the page in gilt is heavenly father immortal god. how tiny the handwriting is. it is very, very tiny. it's absolutely amazing, isn't it? wonderful, yes. and there are a whole 70 pages of this. it is just absolutely incredible. now, tell me about it. where did it come from? well, it's been in the family for a few years now. it belonged to an elderly relation of my wife's who died about eight or nine years ago. and her father was one canon macintosh, who was sometime vicar at alden, we believe in the 1920s and 1930s. and we can only assume that somehow he had it in his possession. and here he is. and it just came down through the family.

yes. i wonder where he got it from. i wish i knew. i do. because it's much older than he is, obviously. but, i mean, it really is quite incredible. now, what about value? yeah, well i wouldn't have a clue. and i know what you're going to say to me is how would you know how much it's valued? you've never seen one before. that's a good point, isn't it? i can give a guess. that's all i have for you. i wouldn't be surprised if i went to a book fair or something like that i wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't marked £2,500. goodness me. shazam. kapow. those are the words that you normally associate with batman and here he is. now, i have to ask you is he yours? it's my husband's. right. okay. and was your husband a batman fan? i don't think he was really. i think that's why it's in such decent condition. you're absolutely right. he really can't have been a great batman fan. i mean, he's in just such superb condition. he's made out of lithograph tinplate, as you probably know with a celluloid and plastic head. but even his cape on the back,

which normally gets really very badly damaged over time, is normally worn. so no, clearly not a batman fan. no, probably not. he was made by a company called nomura in japan. they released him in 1966 to coincide with the fantastic tv series, which i think is possibly one of the campiest things to air on tv. i used to really love watching those repeated. he's battery powered and he walks. and, as you probably know, his head lights up. lights up. yeah. you have the box as well, which is a really desirable feature. box and model in mint condition like this, he's a little bit worn at the top there from probably sitting in his box. but his condition is fantastic. prices vary widely. in 1997, one sold at auction for £300. in america they go up and down and fluctuate but they've sold for as much as $5,000. oh, gosh. right. so i really--i'm going to be a little more cautious than that and say i think he's worth about £1,500 to 2,000. oh, my god. i'm absolutely stunned. that was his seventh birthday present.

this looks exactly the type of box that i would expect to find a nice bit of antique silver in. now, you can imagine my surprise when i opened it and found a farmyard scene. ( laughs ) do you use this? not recently. we have used it. and what do you use it for? it's salt, pepper, and mustard. and any particular occasion you might get it out for? christmas. quail's eggs? not done that yet. that's a good idea. we might do that one. i was trying to work out what kind of birds they were. these i've seen before. the little chicks i think are hens, normal farmyard hens. your mustard pot on the other hand, appears to me to be a quail or perhaps a partridge. i'm no ornithologist but it's certainly not a hen and it looks like it might be quite good to eat. you obviously know that that's a mustard pot. inside there you've got a little spoon a glass liner, which holds the mustard, which i think is probably the one that's been with it all its life. that is the original.

that's the original one. and inside the whole of the body, it's been gilded so that if any mustard should get stuck down the side, it won't do the silver any harm. it won't corrode the silver, because mustard's ferociously evil with silver. it eats it away. this is all made by the same man. the quail is, in fact, marked on the based for london, 1897 and the maker's sampson morden. he was probably the best of what we call the novelty silver makers. making animal forms and little snuff boxes investor cases though i have to admit i've never seen this mustard pot before. it's a very scarce model. the pepper pots and salt shakers in the form of chicks are not uncommon. this is very uncommon. i suspect that this was a set that was put together with which to eat quails eggs. now, the interesting thing about this you might want to know is that because it's so unusual and because there are collectors for mustard pots

who would give their right arm for this quail if we can call it a quail, i think the whole set together if you went into a retail shop and tried to buy it, would cost you somewhere in the order of £4,500. wow. that's a lot of money. whoa. oh, yes. ( clears throat ) that is astonishing. paul, you've been busy looking at other people's items today and giving evaluations. very unusually, you brought along something of your own. tell me about this. i grew up in the 1950s with watch with mother, and of course this is teddy from andy pandy. this is teddy from andy pandy? i used to watch andy pandy. so how did you come to own ted? how do i come to have teddy? my mother was a puppeteer who worked for the bbc in the 1950s for the watch with mother series. she did andy pandy she did bill and ben the flowerpot men, woodentops. that was her life. it was also, of course my early life, because it started in 1950 when i was five. and there's always been this story

that i was the model for andy pandy. you've brought some photographs here. let's have a look. so this-- that's the group. i mean, that's the famous characters. yeah, i would say andy pandy, bill and ben wheat, looby loo and of course teddy, and here he is. there was obviously more than one of each puppet. they had to for all sorts of purposes. so teddy had a couple of stunt doubles, did he? or maybe he's the stunt double. he's the stunt double. the point is all the others from that sequence are in museums. this is the only one that ever escaped, and it was given to my mother when the program ended by the producer. and this is your mother here. this is my mother here operating. now, in fact, she always operated andy pandy. her friend, who isn't in the picture molly gibson operated teddy. but i think it was a spare teddy or a teddy that wasn't going anywhere else and came to her. it must have been so exciting to you. you were, what, five? it was very exciting because it was television. television was so new, and sometimes i went to alexandra palace with her.

it was filmed live in those days, so it was actually happening in front of you. and it was just part of my life, you know the way these things are. and can you work him? i'm not the world's greatest puppeteer i have to say, but you know, he does walk. oh, look. he's so sweet. he had a very special way of saying goodbye at the end of the program, didn't he? yes. you must forgive my terrible voice, but the program used to end with, ♪ andy is saying goodbye ♪ and they all sat there and waved. bye, bear. bye, bear. ♪ andy is waving goodbye ♪ ♪ goodbye ♪ ♪ goodbye ♪ for me a painted portrait is not just about conveying information. a photograph can do that. but it's about memorializing a time in life and i find myself deeply drawn to this. i mean i suppose we need to start with who is he?

yes, actually my uncle called michael snowden who sadly died six weeks ago. we think it was-- well, we know it was painted by a friend of his who lived in stanberry. and it's signed in the bottom right-hand corner. yes. yeah. and we think he used it as, you know the new look. so this in a sense is the remnant of a life. a life that is obviously quite close to you. oh, yes. yeah, yeah. me and seth are cousins and michael is our uncle. and he actually-- when he died he was 67. we don't know how long ago this painting was painted, but we think it's probably about 50 years ago. rather like elizabethan portraiture. i always think one of the great tests of a very good image is how you can read extra dimensions in it and of course, in this instance it's a gift, is it not because we have behind him all of this porcelain