After 40 years, why are we still in love with Antiques Roadshow?

Fiona Bruce is wincing as she recalls the first - and last - time she dabbled in reality TV. It’s perhaps no surprise. It was back in 2006 when the broadcaster and presenter ended up in the line-up on the shortlived singing show Just The Two of Us alongside the likes of Nicky Campbell and Gaby Roslin. She was partnered with soul singer Alexander O’Neal and the couple lasted just two performances before they were unceremoniously voted off.

“I never, ever meant to get involved with it and it’s far too long a story to tell you now, but when I thought I was saying ‘no’ it transpired somehow I was actually saying ‘yes’,” she maintains. “I made some very good friends on it - Penny Smith being one, who is still a very dear friend - so for that I am glad of the experience. But it was without a doubt the most miserable TV experience I have ever had.”

While she may have ruled out any further showcase of her vocal talents (“I would bring the ratings crashing through the floor”), has she ever thought about putting herself forward for that holy grail of celebrity reality TV Strictly Come Dancing?

“I’m sure that’s great and people love doing it and I love watching it, but no, it won’t be me,” insists the 53 year old. “It’s a blessing, honestly. If you saw me, you’d realise what a blessing that is.”

Extra-curicular talents aside, however, the truth is that the Beeb veteran already has enough plates to juggle - from her regular slot on the broadcaster’s Six O’Clock News to presenting family favourite, Antiques Roadshow. And with the latter’s 40 anniversary on the horizon, the upcoming series looks set to further cement the show’s reputation, alongside the likes of Mastermind and Country File, as a cornerstone of mainstream viewing.

“I mean, 40 years and 10 years for me personally...” begins Bruce, who took the reins from Michael Aspel in 2008. “It is a landmark year, but it doesn’t feel like it has been anywhere near that long for me.

“It’s still so popular. Very recently it was either, for one or two weeks running, the most watched BBC show of the week, so I feel I am hugely privileged and lucky to be part of such a jewel in the BBC’s crown. I love doing it, I really love doing it.”

Bruce will mark the occasion with an episode filmed at Yorkshire’s impressive Castle Howard in which viewers are invited on a trip down memory lane alongside veteran expert David Battie, who holds the record as the longest serving member of the team; and Bruce Parker, the programme’s first ever presenter.

There will, of course, be plenty of extraordinary finds too. From a pencil sketch bought for a few pounds that could be a lost work by Renoir to a rare letter in which Charles Darwin admits he made a mistake in The Origin Of Species.

They are the kind of discoveries which invite the audience to guess the price and wonder aloud how long it will be before they end up at auction. It’s all part of the show’s charm, but Bruce is clear on the enduring appeal of the show: its people.

“The people we’re watching are people like ourselves, aren’t they?” observes the star, who also co-hosts teatime favourite, Fake or Fortune? “It could be us who’s got something that we inherited from our grandparents or that we found in the house when we moved in.

“I think there’s a ‘what is it worth?’ moment,” she notes. “But there are great stories [and] I’m a journalist, stories are my meat and drink. Every week I am surprised by what comes along, by the fact that these extraordinary finds are still coming out from the woodwork. If you’re professionally nosey, which I am, what a great job.”

But with real-life stories comes feeling, admits Bruce, as she reels off heartfelt anecdotes from past finds and their owners.

“[It’s harder] in news,” she says of keeping her own reactions in check. “Listen, sometimes these things bring me to tears, but the fact is my emotion must never overwhelm either the story or the emotion of the owner, because it is his or her story.

“I’m only human, so of course they move me, but that can never be the dominating feature. That would almost be insulting - it’s their story to tell and their emotion is what counts. Mine doesn’t matter.

“There’s celebration, there’s pathos, there’s laughter, and there are tears, because it is a reflection of ourselves.”

Bruce, who read French and Italian at Oxford, first became a household name when in 1999, as part of a major relaunch of the BBC’s news output, she was named secondary presenter of the BBC Six O’Clock News. She’s been a stalwart of the newsroom ever since and Antiques Roadshow is a welcome change of pace from live presenting.

“I do, I really enjoy it,” she says - her other “job” being mother to her two teenagers with husband Nigel Sharrocks. “I think people are intrinsically interesting and I like to hear what they have to say. I am never bored by that, I am just interested.

“And I like the challenge,” she declares. “It’s very different from the newsroom, but I like the challenge of meeting someone and thinking ‘Oh, I think that’s an interesting story, we can film that’. You just do it there and then on the spot.”

Having been in the industry for the best part of three decades - she started out as a researcher on BBC’s Panorama - Bruce has seen her fair share of changes on the box. But what’s next?

“Oh gosh, where will television be in 40 years?” she contemplates. “I don’t know. I think for women, clearly there are far more women on television than there used to be. And there are far more women behind the scenes and in positions of power than there used to be. That’s definitely changed. It ebbs and flows a bit, but the trend is definitely up.

“And gender pay, you know about,” she states, in reference to the BBC’s recent pay disclosure. Bruce was said to earn between £350,000 and £399,999 - one of the few women to make it into the higher echelons of the pay list. “I think transparency is crucial. The BBC had to do it, so it’s done it, and you’ve seen the response there’s been so we’ll see what happens.

“In terms of how telly itself has changed. I mean the contribution of the viewer to television has transformed it - not only in what they contribute through user-generated content for news, but also we like watching ourselves through Gogglebox, through Love Island, through reality TV. That’s changed massively, hasn’t it?”

“So what’s the next big thing?” she asks, smiling. “If I knew, if we knew, we would be absolutely coining it. Who knows?”

Well perhaps, but the odds are the Antiques Roadshow will continue to be a ratings winner.

Antiques Roadshow at Castle Howard will be shown on BBC1 on Sunday at 8pm.