Antiques Roadshow expert Andy McConnell reprimanded by BBC after complaints about 'c**p jokes'

One of the long standing experts on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow says he is worried about the show's future as the BBC bows down to what he called wokes and the PC brigade.

Andy McConnell revealed he has been reprimanded by bosses after viewers complained about his 'c**p jokes' and the way he handled someone's glassware.

In a talk in Somerset titled ‘Banter with Bonkers’, he also claimed some of the specialists - hired because they 'have a limp' - who are now on the TV show are giving 'bad valuations' to treasures people bring in.

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Andy, 72, who has been with the show for 21 years, told the audience: "I know I am not PC any more because that requires a degree of wokeness. I am old, posh, hetero, white and male.

“The new producer said 'As of 2020, 50 per cent of all on-screen presenters will be female, 18.4 percent must have a leg missing and 17 per cent have got to have Dairy Milk for breakfast. I did not conform to what the BBC was aspiring to.

“The fact is I have got a mouth out of which anchors fall. So I am hauled up yet again and you find out you have made some stupid joke and somebody has complained or they didn’t like the way you handled something…. That was the last one. Somebody had objected to the way that you handled somebody else’s gear.

“I said I have been doing the roadshows for 21 years and I have never broken anything so what the f*** are you on about? What exactly is the nature of this complaint? And making c**p jokes… which you cannot make any more. It depends what you want. Do you want the guy who has written books on the subject or tosspots who happen to walk with a limp? Or whatever are their characteristics that are in demand this week.

"Now I can pick holes in recordings and think it’s just chronic, just bad, bad valuations, bad identifications, but accuracy has become subjugated beneath who is saying the words rather than what the words are. Over-valuations, it’s chronic. But I am not what they want. I am on one out of five shows in this series.

“At my zenith…when I was quite frankly the star of Antiques Roadshow I did 11 out of 12 shows. That was me at my absolute peak where my jokes weren’t un-PC and un-woke because that did not exist. Today doing three shows is regarded as a good haul. If you can get three out of five but really my days are numbered. I do feel as if the chop is just awaiting my demise which is just a fact of life.”

Andy is still listed on the Antiques Roadshow website, where it states he joined in 2005 and was “the first expert on the Antiques Roadshow who specialised in glass”.

It also states how Andy started buying and selling antiques at 14-years-old and he is now a specialised glass historian who has written three books on the subject.

The biography on the BBC website also states “he regularly keeps visitors entertained with his unique style, combining his humour and passion and which he regards as a form of ’street theatre’.”

One memorable item on the show for Andy came into the Roadshow at Leeds Town Hall in 2009. It was a large English wine goblet made from lead glass and was an incredible survivor from 1710.

The owners were amazed at Andy’s valuation and it was later sold for £7,500.

Andy does some of his ‘Banter with Bonkers’ talks for charity and said on social media he raised just under £1000 for a talk at the weekend in aid of Bristol-based female community group Womankind.

The BBC said in a statement: "The lineup of experts on Antiques Roadshow have an incredible breadth and diversity of expertise, which reflect the variety of items that are brought to our Roadshows up and down the country."

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