Antiques Roadshow expert reveals heartbreaking family losses that landed him role on show

AN ANTIQUES Roadshow expert has revealed his heartbreaking family losses that initially landed him a role on the show.

Will Farmer is the BBC One show’s resident expert on ceramics and he has been a hit with fans since his debut in 2006.

However in a new interview, the Antiques Roadshow personality has opened up on his love of treasures as he revealed his family were behind his passion

In a new interview with The Express, he paid tribute to his late mother and grandmother, who curated his enthusiasm when they used to take him to the shops.

He revealed: “My late mum, who was my absolute sidekick, my best mate, we used to just go all over the place.

“My gran and my mother just loved antiques. My great-grandfather was actually a timber merchant and he used to basically deal in timber.

“And as a result as a family, we always had furniture around.”

He also said that the love of old collectables also stemmed from his great grandfather who dealt in the furniture trade.

Will admitted: “My great grandfather who I never met, but you know, my mum inherited that passion from him.

“So it then became sort of a thing with my mother and my gran, and because we’re talking in the 70s, before back in the 70s every town every village had at least one antique shop.

“You would drive through and there would be a chair that would be out on the pavement to indicate that they were open.

“My mum and my grandma used to basically hop from village to village or from town to town going into antique shops or auctions and just trying to find something. They used to collect things themselves.”

The star admitted that he was in the auction houses from a young age, and he even purchased his first Clarice Cliff ceramic piece at the tender age of just 13-years-old.

He then studied art at University before he eventually found his way onto TV on Antiques Roadshow.

He said: “I was taken as a child to my first auction at the age of six months old. So from a very, very early age, I started collecting,” the star explained.

“I started collecting at the age of six, I was collecting silver and by the time reached secondary school I was collecting Clarice Cliff pottery and Art Deco ceramics.

“Mrs. Love, my art teacher clearly spotted something in me because all through school I was collecting.

“I bought my first Clarice Cliff bowl at 13 years old and I did my first antique fair when I was 12 years old.”