VOICEOVER (VO): It's the nation's favorite antiques experts... Let's get fancy.

VO: ..behind the wheel of a classic car.

I'm always in turbo.

VO: And a goal - to scour Britain for antiques.

Hot stuff!

VO: The aim - to make the biggest profit at auction.

IZZIE: (GASPS) VO: But it's no mean feat.

There'll be worthy winners... PHIL: Cha-ching.

MARK: Oh, my goodness!

VO: ..and valiant losers.

DAVID: Bonkers!

VO: Will it be the high road to glory... You are my ray of sunshine.

NATASHA: Oh, stop it!

VO: ..or the slow road VO: to disaster?

(GEARS CRUNCH) Sorry!

VO: This is Antiques Road Trip.

Yeah!

Welcome, all, to sumptuous Suffolk.

IRITA (IM): We're very autumnal, aren't we?

MARK (MH): We are very autumnal.

But then again, the leaves are just beginning to turn.

It's that wonderful time of year.

Oranges, umbers, yellows.

VO: And blues!

At least that's the color of the 1967 Triumph Herald Irita Marriott and Mark Hill are driving.

Is that glitter in your hair, by the way?

Oh, yeah.

That's from last night.

VO: Irita's been on the town again, drowning her sorrows, no doubt.

Last time, she splashed the cash.

Oh, hello, you chappy!

VO: While Mark searched for bargains.

I spy antiques.

VO: And it was his thrifty buys that proved a winner at auction.

Yes!

Back in the game!

It was fantastic.

And I'm so pleased you've got money back in your pocket.

Thank you.

But you are still ahead!

VO: Not by much, though.

Mark managed to top his piggy up to £420.62.

Despite some heavy losses, Irita is still sitting on a not inconsiderable £438.28.

But that only puts her £18 ahead of Mark.

IM: New day, new start.

MH: Exactly.

I can't wait to get spending my fortunes.

And we both have twice as much as we started.

MH: We do!

Aren't we good?

IM: Very good.

VO: Yes, let's all give ourselves a pat on the back.

So far on this trip, they've been hopping between the Home Counties.

But this leg will be mostly in East Anglia, before they head to a final auction in Sevenoaks, Kent.

So, do you feel the pressure is on?

No.

But I feel like I'm very much questioning what it is that I'm buying!

VO: Today's shopping spree ends in St Ives, but we begin in Risby.

IM: There it is.

Oh, I think there's two shops, isn't there?

MH: OK.

Which one do you want?

IM: This one.

OK, I'll go into that one.

VO: The Risby Antiques Centre.

This place is positively sprawling and fit to burst with undiscovered treasures, we hope!

Hey, Mark.

Are you OK?

VO: Looks happy to me!

Anyone found anything yet?

This has just caught my eye.

Oh!

That blue color.

You just cannot resist it.

Two different ones.

Why different?

Because they were used as a set for eating strawberries.

So you would use the solid one to scoop the strawberries themselves.

And then you would use this one to sift the sugar on top.

I mean, if that's not posh, I don't know what is.

What are they priced at?

£90?!

Right, I'm gonna pop them down.

(WHISPERS) But I love them.

And I want to take them with me!

I need to be sensible.

VO: First time for everything!

Ha-ha!

Now, elsewhere in the shop, what's the newly flush Mark Hill found?

That looks rather lovely.

So what we're looking at is an oyster picking set, and it dates from the 1920s or 1930s.

So from the art-deco period.

It's made out of silver-plated metal, with this wonderful pressed-glass sauce dish here.

And, of course, it's in opalescent or pearlescent glass, pearls and oysters being highly interconnected.

And what I love about this is that, in order to make the spoons fit in perfectly, they all have to be facing the same way.

And on the top here, we've got this rather marvelous luxury wood, and I think that's it - we all love a little bit of luxe.

And this, for me, is very, very grand.

You could imagine that in a cocktail bar in Manhattan during the crazy Deco period.

I think that's an incredibly smart piece.

And, find me another one.

It's pretty rare, too, especially in this complete condition.

Well, I'm not the only one who likes it.

It's £98.

And in order for that to return me a profit at auction, scarce and delicious as it is, it's going to have to do a lot better for me than that.

I wonder what their best price is.

I am going to take it and find out.

VO: Brace yourself, Joe, Mark's the haggling pro.

I bet your home doesn't have one of these.

No, not at the moment, no!

So it's got £98 on it.

Yes.

Please, please, please, please.

What would be the very best you could do?

The very best, the death on it, would be £50.

MH: £50?

JOE: Yes.

MH: That's the end?

JOE: Yes.

In that case, sir, I will give you £50.

Thank you.

VO: Well, that was very civilized, and generous.

Thanks, Joe.

There we go.

£50.

I'm going to pop that there.

JOE: Thank you very much.

MH: And I am going to take this.

And I shall now bid you farewell.

MH: Thank you, Joe.

JOE: See you again.

MH: Bye!

JOE: Bye.

CS: That leaves Mark with £370 to go on with.

Back inside, Irita's still on the prowl.

I want to find something quirky.

Something, I don't know, I just don't know what.

I mean, there's glass and silver plate, and silver plate doesn't really sell.

IM: Hold that thought.

VO: What's that, then?

Well, maybe if all silver plate would be like this, maybe then it WOULD sell.

These days, not many places, I have to say, use sugar cubes.

And that is why they're needed - all the sugar used to come in big blocks and it was an actual job to cut the sugar into pieces.

And that's why they ended up with little square kind of pieces, little cubes, and they needed these instead of a spoon, to pick them up, put them in their tea or coffee.

Cute, don't you think?

VO: I think it's time to see Joe, don't you?

IM: Joe?

JOE: Yes?

I saw these in the other barn.

JOE: Yes.

IM: What can those be?

I'll do those for 45.

OK. And I'll throw those in for £5.

VO: That makes £50.

Those are meant to be for 50 quid.

Thank you very much.

No, thank you, Joe.

It's been a fantastic visit.

Love your shop.

See you again.

Fingers crossed.

IM: (CHUCKLES) See you later.

JOE: Bye!

VO: Irita's left with £388.

She'll pair those purchases together as one lot.

Right, then.

VO: Ta-ta for now!

Meanwhile, Mark has traveled to Cambridge and the Institute of Astronomy.

It was here almost 200 years ago that a university student made a remarkable discovery in the night sky.

To tell him all is the departmental librarian of the observatory, Mark Hearn.

Hello, Mark.

That's a nice, easy name for me to remember!

But what a magnificent building.

Yeah, well, this is the Cambridge Observatory.

It was built in 1823 as the first purpose-designed astronomical observatory for Cambridge University.

It's got a lot of really interesting features to it.

But in particular today, I'd like to tell you a little bit about John Couch Adams, one of the astronomers who worked and lived here and had a crucial role in discovering the planet Neptune.

MH: Fantastic!

Lead on.

MARK: OK. VO: John Couch Adams was born in Cornwall in 1819, and from an early age he was intrigued by astronomy.

A mathematics prodigy, in 1839 he attended Cambridge University, and it was here as an undergraduate in 1841 that he first theorized on the existence of Neptune.

So how many planets had been discovered before?

Because we know he discovered Neptune, so what stage had we got to?

Some planets we've known about since the time of the ancients.

And that is Mercury, Venus, obviously the Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

But in 1781, William Herschel was the first person we know about to discover a new planet, and that was the planet Uranus.

And he discovered that famously with a telescope that he'd built himself in his back garden in Bath.

And it's one of the most romantic stories in astronomy.

VO: Soon after Herschel's discovery, astronomers noticed an irregularity in the orbit of Uranus.

Their predictions and calculations weren't working as they expected.

So here we enter John Couch Adams?

Yes, he was intrigued by the problem.

It was a problem that he could apply his really quite major mathematical skills.

Adams came to realize that the perturbations of the orbit of Uranus could only be explained by another planet further out in the solar system.

VO: The race to find the solar system's eighth planet was on, and Couch Adams wasn't the only one searching for it.

In France, mathematician Urbain Le Verrier was also making his own calculations.

While the Frenchman presented his findings to the Academie des sciences in Paris, Couch Adams enlisted the help of James Challis at the Cambridge Observatory.

Wow!

This is absolutely incredible.

So is this the telescope that Challis used to view Neptune?

In the summer of 1846, they started using this telescope to look in the area of sky where Adams had said they should find this as-yet-unseen planet.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Le Verrier had given up on the French astronomers and wrote to the Berlin Observatory with his positions for the planet.

And they discovered it on the very first night.

VO: On the 23rd of September, 1846, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle trained his telescope upon the planet that would be called Neptune, officially pipping the Englishman to the post.

However, it is widely accepted that both Adams and Le Verrier deserve equal credit for predicting the planet's location.

Ooh.

Slide in here!

There we go.

So this is the very spot that Challis sat in.

And this is the telescope he looked through?

MARK: That's right.

MH: Can I have a look through?

Well, yes, you're welcome.

My goodness.

It's as light as a feather, in a way.

And wherever you move it, it literally just stays where it was.

MARK: That's right, yeah.

MH: It's incredible.

VO: The genius of Coach Adams continues to inspire a new generation of astronomers today.

And while Mark gazes at the stars, several miles away, our own star in the car is pootling through the countryside.

IM: Isn't Cambridgeshire beautiful?

So calm.

All you can hear is birds.

Or it might be so calm just because there's no fidget next to me!

(CHUCKLES) VO: Irita's joining her fidgety companion in Cambridge, where she's got a spot of shopping to do.

Oh, there it is.

Look at that, perfect spot.

Oh, wait a minute.

Two?

Hey, this is a two-for-one.

Buy one, get one free!

VO: Yes, you can BOGOF into there later!

But first, it's the Cambridge Antique Centre.

Housed in a former brewery, it's been here for over 20 years and is jam-packed with possibilities.

Irita's still blessed with £388 to spend.

Anything leaping out?

This looks like Mark's paradise.

Mid-century everywhere I look.

There's something I instantly know what it is.

That stands out a mile.

Why?

Because it's one of those factories that, when you look at it, you do not need to have the name on the bottom.

You do not need to read what it is.

You know it's Loetz glass.

VO: Loetz was an Austrian glass-maker from the 1930s.

Very collectable.

And the one thing that always gives it away is the green color.

It has that beautiful iridescence.

And if you look at this, all of this dark green kind of glistens when you move it, and it's just so beautiful.

Now, this would date from about 1900s.

It has no price on it.

I think Mark would like it, too.

I'm going to go and see.

Can I swap this for some cash?

VO: Stephen's the man you need to talk to.

He's busy doing his sums, look.

IM: Hello, Stephen.

DEALER: Hello.

Now, I have had a great look around, so many quirky things here, and I spotted this beautiful little glass vase.

Absolutely charming, isn't it?

IM: Do you like it?

DEALER: I do, I love it.

Now, it was on a shelf down there, and I can't see a price.

I think we could do that for £10 for you.

IM: Are you sure?

DEALER: Absolutely.

Because I was actually going to offer you 20.

Mmm, no, I can't take £20 for it.

£10 would be fine.

Well, this has never happened before.

I won't say no!

Well done.

Thank you very much.

I'll have some change!

We'll find you some change.

I can't believe I'm getting change!

VO: It's a bargain, that's for sure.

But is it Loetz?

It leaves Irita with £378.

Well, it wouldn't be right not to go in a shop, an antique shop, when it's next door to the other one.

VO: Absolutely would be rude not to.

This is The Hive.

It wasn't on the itinerary, but we'll let Irita off just this once.

She sure shops with her heart.

This instantly stands out.

Let me have a good look.

It's a snuffbox, and it's rather pretty.

I mean, it's priced...

It's priced at £185.

I'm really trying to spend my money here.

Can you see a pattern going on?

VO: You've got to speculate to accumulate.

1918, Birmingham.

Oh, I love it.

Right, I need to find something else in here so I can make a package deal.

Put that down.

Ooh, what are these?

Are they...?

They're earrings.

They're little tiny doves.

They're not the classic souvenir kind of quality.

They are better.

And they're priced at £33.

I mean, how wrong can you go for that?

VO: 218 for the two finds.

Time to chat with Patty.

Right, Patty, I need your help.

I'd like to take these two with me.

What could the two be together as a package?

Oh, don't give me that look!

It scares me.

Um...

I think she would be happy with 145.

IM: For the two?

DEALER: For the two?

Well, I would be crazy not to give you that for it.

I'm going to pop those down and get you out some money.

VO: So that's 125 on the snuffbox and 20 on the earrings.

Oh!

I love them.

I'm very, very happy with that.

DEALER: Good, good.

IM: Well, have a lovely day.

DEALER: And you.

Thank you.

IM: Thank you, Pat.

VO: That leaves Irita with £233 in the old kitty.

Come on, then, darling.

We've done a good job this morning.

VO: Time to collect Marky boy.

MH: If there was one thing you could find, it would be what?

I just want something that, when I look at it... ..my heart skips a beat.

Well, I think if you look at me and your heart skips a beat, it's probably skipping a beat out of horror, to be quite honest.

IM: Oh, it's not!

MH: Oh, bless you.

Look at the dapperness.

I mean, come on, I feel underdressed every step of the way.

Well, the hat's staying on, I'm amazed, which is good news.

It's alright, don't worry, I'll speed up in a minute.

MH: Oh, thanks!

(THEY CHUCKLE) VO: Hold on to your hats, people.

There's more shopping tomorrow.

Nighty-night.

Rise and shine!

It's a great day to have the roof down.

Hair everywhere.

IM: Oh!

MH: The window's up, it's fine.

IM: (CHUCKLES) OK, Mr T-Rex.

IM: (CHUCKLES) MH: What?!

Your little arms look like they're T-Rex arms coming out of that cape.

It's called fashion, darling, OK?

The T-Rex arms might not be, but the cape - it's the cape.

VO: Clothes maketh the man, Irita.

Now, yesterday, our caped crusader just bought the one item, a French art deco oyster pick set for £50... Look at that.

VO: ..leaving him with £370.

Meanwhile, Irita embarked on a shopping spree that saw her pick up a pair of mosaic earrings, a spoon set with sugar tongs... and a glass vase.

It's just so beautiful.

VO: And a rather expensive silver snuffbox...

I'm going to really try and spend my money here.

Can you see a pattern going on?

VO: ..depleting her coffers to £233.

IM: The last time, you didn't have a lot of money, so you have to spend as much as you can to catch up.

MH: Every single penny.

IM: Yes.

Now, you have nearly three times what you had last time.

(CHUCKLES) IM: Bring it on.

(THEY CHUCKLE) VO: They're chomping at the bit today, which is just as well, because our shopping shenanigans kick off in Newmarket, the historic home of British horse racing.

Mark has dropped Irita off, parked up and is arriving at his first shop of the day.

Treasures Antiques.

This place is teeming with vintage items, curiosities and collectables.

So, get stuck in, Marky boy.

I do love a good stirrup cup.

So these originated with sort of parting gifts in Scotland.

So as you were leaving a house or some establishment, you'd be on your horse, and somebody would give you a parting gift.

So they'd give you this drink and you would drink it away and, of course, you didn't need to put it back down again, so you would hand it back to your kind host, and then off you'd bolt on your horse.

Oh, now that's nice.

It says Gucci.

Well known, of course, for not just their clothes, but their handbags.

During the 1970s and '80s, they did produce a limited range of homewares, and they're not easy to find.

£129.

VO: Woo!

That's a bit DEER.

(CHUCKLES) Rare it may be, Gucci it is, which is lovely, but for me to make money at auction, I think I'm going to need to get a really good deal on that.

I'm going to leave it there.

But that is a definite maybe.

VO: Jolly good.

One put aside already.

Anything else?

That's bonkers!

The more I look at it, the more different styles I see on here.

So it looks to me to be, yeah, a fire guard.

It's made of wood.

You've got playing card motifs running along the top.

You've got shields, armorial- type shields running here.

There's this secessionist design, almost, here, sort of art deco-cum-art nouveau.

But I think it sort of reminds me of the Austrian secession.

And then you've got this - goodness gracious - very Victorian, ornate scallop shell, but I kind of quite like it.

VO: No accounting for taste.

How much is it?

£42.

Now £42, I don't think I really want to do.

If I need this to make me money at auction, it's got to be way cheaper than that.

I don't know - if I can get this at the right price, that could be a goer.

VO: Excellente.

Are we all done, or is there room for more?

So what we're looking at is a small model of the penny farthing bike.

So the penny farthing was a bicycle that was really popular during the 1870s and 1880s, and it takes its name from the penny and the farthing.

So the penny, of course, was very large, hence the large wheel, and the farthing was very small by comparison, hence the small wheel.

Penny, farthing.

I think this has been repainted.

This green looks a little bit too fresh, and it is quite battered.

What does the label say?

"Unusual scratch built penny farthing model."

So scratch-built implies that it was sort of home-made, if you like.

But whoever made this at home was pretty good at metalworking.

There's a lot of nice detail on this one.

It's £69 and it's broken.

I wonder whether I can ride my way to a deal.

VO: Patrick is the long-haired chap at the till.

"Ring bell."

Oh, dear.

(BELL RINGS) There we are.

That was better.

DEALER: Ah, Mark!

Hello.

MH: Patrick, hello.

MH: Thank you.

DEALER: How you getting on?

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

DEALER: Oh that's so kind.

MH: It's a treasure trove.

Well, we're called Treasures, so, you know, we're kind of living up to the name.

It's very kind of you to say so.

MH: So I found three treasures.

DEALER: Three?

So I think we've got 139 on the stirrup cup.

OK. We've got 42 on the fire screen.

OK. And we've got 69 on the bicycle.

So you're on about 250 altogether.

Yeah, which is... Nice round number.

I mean, surely that could work for you?

Definitely not, I'm afraid - I need to come down.

So we could do 160.

How does that sound to you?

So if I said 150 for cash, how would you...?

I would feel much better if you said 155 in the middle, in the classic, old-school way of completing a deal.

Do you know what?

I love that.

155, we've got a deal.

I'll take all three.

Thank you.

That's very kind of you, Mark.

Sold.

VO: 90 on the cup, 25 on the fire screen and 40 on the bike.

Thank you so much, Patrick.

It's been a real pleasure.

And the pleasure has been mine, too, Mark.

Thank you for coming today.

I better go and collect my treasures.

MH: See you later.

DEALER: Thank you now.

Bye.

VO: That leaves Mark with £215.

There he goes.

Meanwhile, Irita has made her way to Stretham, a village in the fens of Cambridgeshire.

It's hard to imagine now, but the village and the fields around it were once submerged in water.

Irita is here to meet Nick Sharp at the Stretham Pumphouse to learn how Victorian engineering reclaimed the land nearly 200 years ago.

Morning, Nick.

Hello, Irita.

Now, what an unusual building.

Yeah.

So this is Stretham Old Engine.

It's a steam drainage engine that was originally built in 1831.

Do you want to come and have a look?

Yes, please.

VO: The fens cover much of eastern England, and for many years its rich and fertile land was drowned in water.

So in the 17th century, Charles I commissioned Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain the wetlands.

However, once the water was gone, the problem was keeping it away.

At first, windmills were used to pump the water.

But as the Industrial Revolution gained pace, a more powerful engine was needed.

Oh, wow!

What are these?

So you're in the boiler room.

Who came up with this idea?

You'll see on the boilers there's Butterley, which is the name of the company in Derbyshire that built these boilers, and also the engine next door, which we'll see.

The chief engineer at Butterley was Joseph Glynn, and he had a particular interest in designing steam engines for the drainage of the fens.

VO: By the 19th century, thousands of acres of farmland had been reclaimed.

But every year, they were susceptible to flooding.

As the land levels dropped, more energy was needed for draining.

The Victorians came up with the solution - harnessing the power of steam.

That is so much bigger than I imagined it was going to be.

So this is the engine that drives the scoop wheel.

It's a beam engine, because of that big piece of cast iron above our heads.

IM: Can we see it working?

MARK: Yeah.

VO: The more efficient, steam-powered pump houses allowed the land to be fully exploited, and by the 19th century, the fens had become the breadbasket of England.

It looks even bigger from up here.

Oh, my goodness me!

So how does it work now?

We can't run it under steam, but we have an electric motor that can turn the engine.

You can just press a button.

IM: Can I press it?

MARK: Yeah course you can, yeah.

I'm guessing it's the green one.

The one that says "start".

(THEY LAUGH) IM: Right.

(ENGINE HISSES) VO: Capable back in 1896 of pumping three Olympic-sized swimming pools an hour, more than 100 of these stations were built across Cambridgeshire, at a cost in today's money of more than £52 million.

Where is the actual water part in all of this?

Right.

So that's the scoop wheel, which is through the wall here, and I can show you that now.

VO: Draining the fens took hundreds of years, and it's an ongoing process today.

The landscape still needs to be carefully managed, and is always at risk of flooding.

Now, is this where the actual magic happens, then?

Yeah.

So what you're looking at is the scoop wheel that lifts the water from down at the farmland level up into the river.

How important was all this?

Where it really made a big impact was on the industrialization of the country.

There needed to be a way to mass-produce wheat, and bread-quality wheat, which means that you need to be able to control the level of the water in the ground.

And it's still pumped to this day?

Absolutely.

And it's as crucial as ever, if not more crucial, because the more you pump, the more the land sinks.

So the more vulnerable you are to it being put underwater again, being submerged.

VO: The fens have been pumped dry for nearly 400 years.

But with the growing threat of climate change and ever-decreasing land levels, this huge area of eastern England could return to the water once more.

And while Irita has been taking a breather, Mark has motored on to Huntingdon and his final stop of this leg.

With £215 left, what can our man in the hat and cape find in here?

This looks like a most interesting emporium.

I rather like that.

It's a duck or a swan, I guess.

But it was made on the island of Murano, which is world-famous for glass-making, and has been for centuries.

It's 28 quid.

It's not bad.

And sitting next to it... we have another piece of mid-century modern glass, again from the sort of, I guess, 1970s, maybe even the 1980s.

And with this sort of mottling here, the sandy mottling, and this almost deep-sea blue that you get here.

And that's got £20 on it.

They're sought after, but they were also very prolific.

Not the rarest thing in the world again, but I quite like that little duo.

Let me carry on.

Rightio, then.

Elsewhere, Irita has made her way to St Ives.

No, not that one.

She's still in Cambridgeshire.

Our fiery-haired dealer has £233 to spend in Hyperion Home & Antiques Centre.

Anything catching your eye, my dear?

Now, then.

I like things I've never seen before.

And this just ticks that box.

It is stylish - the color, the way it changes with the blues.

I mean, it's just to die for.

Carlton Ware duck.

£22.

That is for nothing.

I cannot leave that duck behind.

Guess what - and if I did leave it behind, I would be QUACKERS.

VO: Dear me!

That's a FOWL joke.

(CHORTLES) Anything else pique your interest?

It's another piece of pot.

Another piece of pot that I know what it is without even looking at the bottom of it.

Made in Hungary by a factory called Zsolnay.

That, on the base, says clearly "made in Hungary".

If you trusted the tag... it says that it's German.

And only because of the mistake... it's £18.

It's a bargain.

I am not leaving this behind.

VO: Well, I suggest you collect your duck and get the BILL.

(CHUCKLES) Oh, finally, I've found you.

IM: Been looking everywhere!

DEALER: Hello, Irita.

And guess what... £22, happy with that.

Yes.

£18, happy with that, too.

I owe you £40.

IM: Here's the money.

DEALER: Thank you very much.

IM: Right, thank you.

DEALER: Thank you.

See you soon.

VO: And with that, Irita's all done.

Meanwhile, over in Huntingdon, has Mark hunted down any more buys?

Aha!

More Mid-century glass.

VO: Mark, I think you have a glass addiction.

This is a really nice, small piece.

Practical, colorful, very, very typical of the period.

It's got £18 on it.

I just got a teeny, tiny seed of an idea that might just germinate into something, particularly when I look at this.

That's a fiver.

But that seed has just sprouted a leaf - or maybe two.

VO: How mysterious.

Is it time for a deal yet?

Uh-oh, more glass.

A paperweight.

What I love about these is that they almost look like sort of miniature planets or solar systems.

It's a tenner.

Same shape as the last piece I saw.

And that's a whole £15, meaning that my little tiny seed that germinated has now grown into a full plant.

I wonder whether I could put all those six pieces together and make a pretty exciting lot of mid-century modern glass.

VO: Right.

Count them, dear viewer.

One, two, three, four, five, six pieces of glass.

I think time for a deal.

MH: Paula, hello.

PAULA: Hiya, how are you doing?

Amazing.

This place is huge.

It's lovely, isn't it?

So much to see.

But from within it all, MH: I found half a dozen bits... PAULA: OK. ..of mid-century modern glass.

And if the price is right, what I'd like to do is kind of combine them into one lot.

PAULA: OK. MH: In my head, I made it £96.

Right.

MH: Help me.

PAULA: Help you.

MH: Help me, please.

PAULA: Erm... We can make it 75, at best.

MH: 75, at best.

PAULA: Yeah.

Would 70 be rude?

No, 70 would be fine.

We have a deal.

Thank you very much indeed.

PAULA: You are welcome.

MH: £70.

Excellent.

VO: Nicely done.

And that's Mark all shopped-up.

Time to pick up your compadre and call it a day.

IM: How was your day?

MH: It was good.

IM: Spent some money?

MH: Oh, yeah.

MH: What did you get?

OO: That would be telling.

Should I be worried, then?

Well, I think you should be worried more than you were last time.

Right, OK. OK, then.

VO: Anything can happen at auction.

Time for some shuteye.

The sun has risen upon another auction day.

MH: Wow!

IM: This really is a wow!

Really, really is, isn't it?

Here we go.

The auction awaits.

VO: Mark and Irita are in Peterborough this morning.

They've got their tablets ready to view the auction, and have parked up at the 13th-century Cathedral.

IM: I mean, this is mind-blowing.

Hey, this place was made for you.

MH: It really, really is.

IM: With all this glass around.

Absolutely beautiful.

I'm quite awe-inspired, actually.

IM: This is good!

VO: Meanwhile, their purchases have been sent north to Yorkshire, and Halifax Mill Auctioneers.

With bidders in the room, on commission and online, they will all go under the hammer of auctioneer James Watson.

Mark shelled out £275 on five lots.

Any hot tips, James?

So these type of stirrup cups, goblets, as they were, have done so well with us in the past, and with the Gucci emblem tag on it, it's going to be a real strong seller, I'm sure.

Irita spent slightly less - £245 on her six lots.

James?

I can't say this is one of my favorites from the sale, but we had a lot of interest, and it might well be that it will surprise us all.

MH: Feeling confident?

IM: No.

(THEY LAUGH) What about you?

I'm fairly hopeful for a couple of things I've got.

VO: Irita's silver snuffbox will get us going.

MH: This is a lovely piece.

IM: It's a collector's thing.

JAMES: So 60 we have.

IM: Oh, 60's in.

Give me 65.

65.

Hey!

65 now, looking for 70 on this one.

Anybody at 70 for this?

75?

Any more for any more on this?

IM: Come on.

MH: Oh, no.

Final warning to the internet.

Someone got a bargain there.

VO: A bitter pill to swallow, that's for sure.

I'm disappointed.

VO: Let's see if Mark has better luck with his Gucci stirrup cup.

We're in at 24 with this.

So 24, 32, 32.

Looking for 34.

IM: Come on.

JAMES: 32 now.

34 now.

34, 38, 40.

What do you think it's going to make?

Getting traction, 44 now, 46, 48.

Room's quiet for this.

55, 60 now.

IM: It's moving.

JAMES: 65, 90, 95.

MH: Yes!

Profit, excellent.

IM: You've done it.

Looking for 110.

Looking for 110.

IM: Come on.

JAMES: £100.

MH: Just a bit more.

JAMES: 110 now, 120 now.

JAMES: 120, looking for 130.

MH: Fantastic!

120, then.

Final warning.

120.

Honestly, hand on heart, I would not have even glanced at it.

VO: And that's why Mark's the one raking in the early money.

A nice, clear profit of a third on top.

VO: Irita's turn again, hoping for more interest in her mosaic earrings.

Say £20?

Anybody at 20 for this one?

IM: Anybody?

MH: Come on.

JAMES: 20 straight in.

MH: Yeah, there you go.

Looking for 22?

24 with the saleroom.

You're on the go.

26 now.

28, 32, 34.

Well, someone likes them.

JAMES: 36.

MH: Well, you're in big profit.

£40 now.

Looking for 42.

Ha-ha, you are now.

IM: Yes!

MH: (CHUCKLES) JAMES: For 40.

IM: Double bubble.

VO: That's more like it.

VO: A nice double-up there.

MH: Good profit.

VO: I'm sure he'd like to make more than a penny on this.

VO: Mark's hobbyhorse next.

JAMES: There we go, £30.

IM: Oh, you got a bid!

MH: Yes!

In the saleroom, looking for 32.

£30 then.

34 now.

No judgment.

It's slow!

For 34.

(BLOWS RASPBERRY) VO: Only a small loss, in the grand scheme of things.

Hey-ho, you know, it could have done better.

It could have also done worse.

VO: Moving on, it's Irita's silver sugar tongs and strawberry spoons.

Now I'm really worried.

So just £20 to start, I think.

What?

JAMES: So 24 now.

IM: Come on.

Got a long way.

£34.

34.

But you've only got to get to 50.

Saleroom's ducked out on this.

So we're at 34.

MH: No!

JAMES: 36, a room bidder now.

Hey, you've got the room interested.

£36, looking for 38.

£36 though, with the room bidder.

JAMES: 38.

MH: No, please.

JAMES: £40 now.

IM: 40.

So 42, then, to the... IM: Oh, no, no, no.

MH: No, please, it can't.

Selling, then, to the internet for 42.

Would you like my hanky?

I think I need a bucket.

VO: It's only a small loss.

Plenty of time to make it all back.

Poor old you, m'dear.

VO: More spoons next.

Mark's art deco oyster set.

Can we get going at £30?

IM: And more.

JAMES: Anybody 30 for this one?

JAMES: So just 20, £20?

MH: No.

IM: He's going down.

JAMES: £10 to start.

MH: Oh, my goodness gracious me!

JAMES: Anybody at 10?

£10 we have, straight in.

MH: £10?

JAMES: Maiden bid, £10.

IM: No!

JAMES: It's just £10, so final warning.

And that's selling... IM: Come on, one more.

JAMES: ..for £10.

Well, that made a tenth of what I wanted it to make.

VO: It's clearly not a day for cutlery.

In my eyes, it was worth a lot more than that.

VO: Irita's cheapest buy, the glass vase, is up next.

So we're at £30.

IM: Yes!

MH: Wahey!

32 now.

34.

£34.

34 is where we are.

IM: Come on.

JAMES: 36 now.

36.

Looking for 38.

36.

IM: Someone else likes... MH: Well done!

40 for this one.

42.

42.

This is fantastic.

JAMES: £50 now.

MH: £50!

So £50.

And 55 at the back of the room.

IM: No!

MH: It's those last-minute bids that always work.

JAMES: £60.

MH: 60?

65 now.

70?

So 65 is where we are.

Congratulations.

Just in the nick of time.

JAMES: £70 then.

IM: No!

MH: Oh!

..for 70.

IM: (CHUCKLES) MH: Well done.

Absolutely amazing deal.

VO: That profit puts Irita into the lead.

I am over the moon with that.

VO: Can Mark's fire guard get him back into the game?

£50 on this one.

IM: He likes it.

MH: He does.

He'll work hard for this.

32 with us.

34 now.

JAMES: 36.

MH: Well, I'm in profit.

JAMES: 36.

36.

IM: And it's moving.

Looking for 40.

JAMES: Gathering speed.

IM: A bit more.

It's moving slowly.

Two people have really got into it, haven't they?

48 now.

50 now.

£50.

£50.

IM: Come on, one more.

MH: I'm happy with that.

MH: Any more is good.

JAMES: 50.

Well, you see what sold that was the fact that he loved it.

VO: That will certainly help Mark's coffers.

MH: I'm pleased with that.

IM: Well done.

VO: Some porcelain now.

Irita's Zsolnay Hungarian pierced planter.

And straight in at 70.

(THEY CHEER) So £70, looking for 75.

MH: Well done.

JAMES: Any more on this?

The room's quiet for this one.

But you still made 70 quid.

Just £70.

VO: Another delicious profit for Irita.

Well, that was short and sweet, IM: wasn't it?

MH: Well done, m'dear.

VO: Mark's specialty next.

His mixed lot of mid-century glassware.

I think there's a really big profit to make in this.

Let's start off around 40, see where we get to.

MH: Please.

JAMES: Nobody at 40?

Just 30, then.

£30.

He's keen in the room.

There we go.

Room bidder at 20.

Thank you.

£20, £20, 22 now.

Internet's got involved.

MH: Hurrah!

IM: It's going up, going up.

24.

Looking for 26.

Final warning and selling... No, no, no, no, no, no.

Trumped you.

30.

Right, internet's got this one, then.

So £30.

Final warning, selling to the internet for 30.

Can I just go and hide behind there and have a sob?

MH: Ouch!

That is disappointing.

I thought it really deserved more.

Our final lot of the day - Irita's Carlton Ware duck.

Initial bid at 55.

Yay!

You're doing so well today.

60 now, £60.

£60!

But rarity counts.

It's such a scarce thing.

Final warning on this, and we're selling the Carlton Ware piece for 60.

That duck swam to success.

IM: I'm happy with that.

MH: I would be.

VO: She started badly, but ended well.

A good auction for Irita.

I don't really know where we stand.

I definitely know where we stand.

You are definitely in the lead.

VO: Let's find out, shall we?

Mark started this leg with £420.62, and after saleroom fees have been deducted, he finishes with slightly less, at £345.70.

While Irita has come out top again.

She began with £438.28, and after auction costs, she's made a modest profit, leaving her on £486.02, heading for the next leg.

But you never know, I might have a last-minute spurt.

(GASPS) Are you good at sprinting?

Look at these legs.

What do you think?

I don't want to see them in action.

VO: Nor me!

(CHUCKLES) Toodle-pip, chaps.

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