Actor’s eye for antiques let down at the seaside

HENLEY actor Simon Williams’ losing streak on television continues. As I reported last month, he made a brief appearance on the BBC’s Pointless Celebrities when he was knocked out in the first round.

Now he has appeared on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip in which two famous names are paired with an antiques expert to drive around the country and spend up to £400 on antiques which they then resell at auction.

The winner is the one who makes the biggest profit or, in this case, the smallest loss.

Simon’s rival was Dinner Ladies actor Duncan Preston as they trawled antiques shops and salvage yards in Essex and Suffolk looking for bargains to sell at the auction in the holiday resort of Torquay.

All was looking hopeful as the Upstairs Downstairs actor bought a pastel painting, four cast iron brackets, a couple of snuff boxes, a Denbigh vase and a game of mahjong for a total of £197.50. His expert partner James Lewis said he had a “good eye”.

Preston’s purchases included an old pub sign and a brick finial that was actually only a few years old and not antique at all. Even when it came to the auction, Simon appeared to be odds on to win as, one by one, his purchases sold for a small profit…. until that is the Chinese game and vase that he had paid £80 for went for just £55.

Meanwhile, his opponent made a £14 loss on the sign and only made a £15 profit on the finial because the auctioneer bought it for his own garden.

When the totting up was done, it turned out that Simon had made a total loss of £25.30, just two pence worse off than his rival.

The actors laughed it off as they drove off in a red Jaguar E-Type and pondered whether they had in fact performed better than their expert advisers. “We are antiques,” said Simon, “well, you are.....” to which Preston replied: “I don’t know what they’d get for me...”

I look forward to a third TV instalment for our man.