Fiona Bruce addresses demand to ‘modernise’ BBC Antiques Roadshow despite 'red flag' fears

Fiona Bruce shared her thoughts about diversifying the viewership of Antiques Roadshow as she and radio co-star Jane Garvey joked it would cause a "kerfuffle". The 59-year-old - once the first ever female newsreader on BBC News At Ten - told all in an unearthed podcast interview.

Jane quzzed: "Are you under any pressure to slightly modernise the categories? "I know that sounds bizarre as its called the Antiques Roadshow, but you know, all of that collectible stuff?"

She went on to point out that a pair of rare Nike trainers from the 1980s or 1990s "could get you a couple of grand now". Jane also suggested that it could gain a "brand new audience" that the show had never been targeted at before.

"That could be the thing that takes us into a new demographic and the next thing I know it'll be on BBC Three!" Fiona mused. "No, they can't fit you in between a documentary about STDs and something about Stacey Dooley - it's a remarkable channel!" Jane joked.

However, warming to her subject, she then continued to tease the uproar that could be caused if the show was transformed into one about trainers and leisurewear. Mischievously suggesting that it would cause "a kerfuffle", she insisted: "It would be worth it!"

Fiona explained that she'd previously featured trainers on the show, but that she still found it surprising when collectors felt compelled to purchase in the wrong size, without intending either to wear them or sell them on.

"To buy a pair that you can't fit your feet onto strikes me as total bonkers!" she exclaimed.

"The fact that [trainers are] a currency in their own right, I find that amazing."

Though she laughed off the modernisation suggestion on the Fortunately... with Fi and Jane podcast, it looked as if Fiona might have taken the advice with a further trainers feature on the show just a couple of years later.

During the summer of 2023, a show guest introduced one of the oldest pairs in his vast trainers collection - a 1992 pair of Reeboks, which had been developed in collaboration with McLaren and worn in the champions races.

Meanwhile, his decades-old vintage Nike Air Jordans were believed to be worth around £850 - more than seven times the original purchase price.

Fiona quizzed: "Do you think they are the antiques of the future?”

"Absolutely, and they very rarely come down in price," the reseller shot back, insisting that one group "would go for around £3-4K".

However, viewers were less convinced, taking to Twitter to describe the presence of trainers on the show as a "red flag" and quipping: "What next? An old Dominos Pizza box?!"

In other Antiques Roadshow news, one lucky collector saved a lucrative and collectible set of baseball cards in the nick of time before a tornado destroyed her home.

And a "terrible" Spiderman comic was valued at an astonishing pricetag of tens of thousands of pounds.