Bargain Hunt Live shows have always been a huge success with David netting more than 8 million viewers for one live prime time Bargain Hunt. The shows were edgy and exciting
and many profits were made. However none matched
that of the very first live auction in September 2001when a single item
made a whopping £215 profit.
And if you've been wondering just how nerve racking filming at the auction
room live really is join me as I revisit one of the early live shows.
Bargain Hunt Live airs
at 10.00 am, earlier than the normal schedule, and David is at the venue
hours before, rehearsing and planning. I arrived around 9.30 am to see David
out in the sunny courtyard of the Marilyn Swain Auction Rooms at Grantham.
We simply exchange a nod of acknowledgment as I pass him in the doorway,
as he is in deep conversation with an elderly lady, a regular bidder, who
will be interviewed live on the show. David is taking the time to research
for himself what they will chat about and to put the lady at her ease. She
is telling him how much of her life was spent raising adopted children.
'Do you know if any of them made anything of themselves?', I hear him ask
as he takes the opportunity to relate how he himself was adopted.
I register
and take up my numbered paddle as I have so often heard David urge us all
to do and as I enter the auction room I am struck by how small it is. I've
seen it and, the auctioneer, so many times on Bargain Hunt before, I'm quite
giddy to be there in person. The place is already very full and I have to
slink past crew members hauling great heavy cables of wires, and researchers
scurrying around with endless pieces of paper and cards. I am directed to
a chair on the front row. A chair I might add that will the next day be
sat on by Philip Serrell no less and finally sold for £400 plus! Must
have been the provenance! Potential punters and Bargain Hunt fans alike
are now having to stand down the side of the room. Some from the left are
asked to go and stand on the right hand side. Partly to make way for the
camera equipment and partly to make the room look even fuller! They're not
complaining they're now more likely to be seen on TV.
Would you buy a second hand anything from this man?
There's still no sign
of the Director or the teams but David can be seen as a solitary figure
pacing about and rehearsing his opening lines behind his hand. He looks
very serious and quite nervous and it dawns on me what a brave man he is
to undertake a live show, there's no safety net and the timing will have
to be perfect to line upto the items being auctioned or will it?
No call of 'lights,camera,
action' but suddenly we're 'on air' and all the while the real auction is
going on around us. From a small side room, the teams appear, they look
awfully familiar that's because both sides have appeared before, hopefully
insurance that they won't clam up when the cameras roll.
David ad-libs all his
lines, and relies entirely on his patter. The Director holds up a flip chart
with notes about timings and links on and counts David in and out of the
various pieces of VTR, but other than that he's on his own. No prompting
and certainly no idiot boards. He's impressively cool. Three young men,
students, have turned up in T-shirts with David's photo on and the slogan
'cheap as chips'. They are spotted by the crew and directed to stand at
the front of the room and after a few anxious moments David walks over to
them and they're 'on'. It's all totally unrehearsed and raw.
There are other impromptu
moments like this. There's 'a young bargain hunter' and a man wearing a
Rupert bear style scarf is suspected of being a 'Philip Serrell Look alike'.
They're all Bargain Hunt fans and delighted to be part of the show, however
briefly.
Never
work with children or animals they say, but David is safe with this little fella.
His Mum says 'he's a big fan of Bargain Hunt as long as it doesn't clash with
Bob the Builder and just like David he's never shy of the camera.'
It's an exciting experience
witnessing Bargain Hunt Live, David is just as vibrant and animated as you
see him on TV. The pink of his shirt is more shocking, the shine on his
grey shoes is patently higher and his nervous wiggle even sexier when viewed
from behind! He's a fresh talent and an old pro all in one.
There's
'Max' the cameraman following David about. He's easy to spot because David
mentioned in every live show that Max always wears shorts. Another roaming
camera man is taking footage of the bidders and auctioneer to use a filler.
There are also two statics one at the front and one to the side of the room
all feeding back to the big OB vans parked outside. It's a strange feeling
when the video links are playing for the viewers at home and one is watching
the preparation for the next live piece. One almost feels cheated at not
being able to see the whole show! But the atmosphere of the auction is thrilling
and then there's the tangible tension of the live broadcast. It all adds
up to a thoroughly enjoyable experience.We're nearing the time for the teams
pieces to be auctioned, and although they are numbered and appear in the
catalogue, for the live show they may have to be brought forward or delayed
to fit in with the time frame of the show, David gets a cue that the teams
items are up next. A glance around the room and a few BH fans might be tempted
to enter bids just to own a piece that's appeared on the show but the prices
soon rise out of the £30 souvenir bracket and true collector's secure
the items.
And then swifter than David Barby's hammer the show is over and done. And
David, the experts and the teams aren't so much 'going, going' they're gone!
Max
'the Legs'
Off into an ante room,
the hospitality room for the day, where the delightful Mrs Dickinson aka,
Lorne Lesley, is waiting and lunch is served. ( She is immaculately and
elegantly dressed, in a chocolate brown outfit that wouldn't look out of
place at Ascot.)
But we all know lunch is for wimps and David is soon chauffeured away for
filming at another location. It's not just making it look easy that's the
key to his success there really is a lot of hard work too!
