Auctioneer Angus Ashworth loves mixing with ordinary people as he helps them sell their family heirlooms.

But it’s even more fun for him when his clients are household names who are taking part in a new television series which goes behind the scenes at an auction house.

Among the people he helps de-clutter are Anthea Turner, Simon Gregson, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Crissy Rock and Frazer Hines. He also meets Jenny Powell, Amanda Barrie, Tim Vincent, Dom Joly and Lizzie Cundy for the Really channel which starts tonight (Nov 13) at 9pm.

“People love the show,” he said. “it’s something everyone has to go through, selling items on after clearing a house for example. And the fact that these are famous names just makes it a little more special.”

He particularly enjoyed visiting designer Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen’s 15th century manor house in the Cotswolds which was “something really special” but for him the best guest was Amanda Barrie. Now 88, the former Coronation Street and Carry On star.

Mr Ashworth said: “She was brilliant and she has a good eye for a sale. She was a bit of a dealer in her younger days. When she was acting in london she would take time out to have a stall in Camden. She certainly knows a tning or two and she made more money than anyone else on the show.”

He says his role in the show is helping famous and well-loved faces clear their homes, hunting through cupboards and closets for forgotten heirlooms, and from showbusiness mementoes. After visiting them in their trendy Manchester townhouses, sumptuous Cotswold’s mansions and rundown Welsh farmhouses, he heads back to HQ in Kirkbymoorside, with his van filled with VIP goodies.

There, the pressure is on him to draw on all his knowledge and experience to keep his star-studded clients happy and make them lots of cash for a range of personal endeavours.

Can he find bidders for Houdini’s magic sack, a mammoth’s tusk, a pricey piece of cobble, from the Coronation Street set, and a doodle that might be from a world-famous artist? And once these and many more wild and wonderful things pass under his gavel, will his celebrity clients leave happy?

Tonight’s show starts with Anthea Turner and another former Coronation Street actor Simon Gregson.

Ms Turner enlists Angus to help her 90-year-old father downsize. Her mother died last year and her father has decided to move from Stoke-on-Trent to be nearer his daughters in London.

However, Ms Turner struggles to let the cherished family heirlooms go. And Coronation Street veteran Simon Gregson – who plays Steve Macdonald – has a home in Cheshire filled with wacky ‘things’, from arcade machines and fossils to vintage alcohol and go karts!

Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House is on the Really channel (Freeview channel 17), tonight at 9pm.

Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House: Auctioneer Angus Ashworth returns with new show taking a look inside celebrity homes