ANTIQUES ROADSHOW EXPERT EMOTIONAL AS SHE DETAILS WWII LETTER SHE 'COULDN'T READ OUT LOUD'

Antiques Roadshow expert Hilary Kay was left fighting back tears as she opened up about the WWII letter she "couldn't read out loud."

The 67-year-old recently appeared on This Morning alongside co-stars Mark Hill and Ronnie Archer-Morgan as they celebrated the show's 45th year of captivating audiences with lessons in history, art, and design.

The trio joined host Ben Shephard and his co-host Cat Deeley on the ITV hit daytime show. Ben started off by saying: “It’s an extraordinary show Hilary, 45 years, a testament to our love of watching you guys looking at these antiques and the extraordinary things that the people coming on the show have at home.”

He asked: “What has it been like for you because you only started the show when you were a wee girl really.”

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Hilary replied: “Yes I started in 1978 so that was the second series and it’s changed hugely because when we started back in the ancient days there was no such thing as the internet. What I would say is, that there were hardly any textbooks either on my areas of expertise.

“So you had this amazing body of experts that became a kind of living encyclopedia and you knew that someone on the team would be able to identify this thing even if you didn’t know what it was. I think that’s changed because we don’t have that knitted knowledge.”

Cat went on to ask Hilary: “So you started in 1978. Over the span of time that you have been doing it, I can only imagine some of the things that you found along the way, but there must be something or other things where you know the person or the item that has been brought in that will always stick in your mind.”

Hilary became emotional as she explained: “Yes you are right, there have been a lot of things and to pick out just a few is tricky but I suppose that some of them of really meaningful things have been linked to the war remembrance programme that we have done.

“One was a letter that I couldn’t read out. It was from someone who had died and it was a letter back to their sweetheart.”

Fighting back tears, she continued: “Another was also from a remembrance special when somebody played a violin that belonged to somebody. He found the violin in an antique shop and he put the piece together and found the granddaughter of the original owner and played the regimental song on it in the middle of the graveyard.

“I mean there was not a dry eye anywhere I mean those are the things I suppose you feel are really memorable but not necessarily valuable.”

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.

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2024-07-05T10:37:32Z dg43tfdfdgfd