Concept and creative process
The title sequence for Series 26 of ‘Antiques Roadshow’ celebrated 25 years of the programme and was a complete departure from previous series. Designer Rob Hifle, of Burrell Durrant Hifle in Bristol, focused on the idea of showing the journeys made by members of the public transporting their precious antiques to the venue where the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ was to be recorded. This gave opportunity for well observed film shots, like the box of wrapped pots on the backseat of the 2CV, which, it transpired, was also transporting a grandfather clock poking out of its open roof. The brief shot of the rectangular patch of unfaded wallpaper over a mantlepiece, left behind by the removal of a painting, was explained in the following shots of a large painting being carried on foot to the show, past a building under restoration and reminiscent of a Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped structure. Then came the fisherman, rowing across a lake with his precious vase nestled in a coil of rope, but there followed more surreal elements - the giant silver coffee pot in the town square, like a Claes Oldenburg public art installation, and the enormous gold necklace draped around the summit of a perfect green hill. These were linked by the even more enigmatic shots of two men carrying an elegant hall table, reminiscent of the surreal premise of Roman Polanski’s short film ‘Two Men and a Wardrobe’. However, we never saw their arrival, as the camera craned up into the sky at the critical moment to discover the 25th anniversary silver 3D ‘Antiques Roadshow‘ logo, rotating into shot.
Director - Rob Hifle (Burrell Durrant Hifle).