The Auction House
Need a cut-price Old Master, some Chinese ceramic rabbits or possibly a table graffitied with the legend ‘Everything can be art. Nothing can be everything’? Then I’ve just the place for you. Lots Road Auctions, between Chelsea Harbour and the King’s Road, has catered to west London curio-seekers for 35 years. Antiques and oddities jostle for space on the rambling floors before going under the hammer. The place is also crammed with marvellous characters – rich pickings for The Auction House (Channel 4, Tuesday, 9pm), a new three-part series. Those bunnies are being sold by flamboyant bachelors Michael and Craig to fund the latter’s much-needed dental work, while the table is picked up by a blonde who would fit right in among the clients at Harry Enfield’s fictitious Notting Hill shop, I Saw You Coming.
Lots’ singularly undiplomatic owner, Roger Ross, is ‘dictatorial’, ‘offensive’ and ‘insensitive’ – that’s in his own words. ‘You’re working for a very difficult person,’ he warns one employee. Changing tastes have sent sales figures into a decline, but they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and Ross can look forward to viewers popping down to the auction rooms for a spot of retail rubber-necking – and then perhaps being irresistibly drawn to bid for a lot they suddenly realise is absolutely essential to their future happiness and wellbeing. There might even be a taker for an as yet unsold gigantic gold adult-rated sculpture. You have been warned.
NOT TO BE MISSED
Tigers About The House, BBC2, Monday, 8pmIt’ll take more than some tins of Whiskas to rear a pair of Sumatran tiger cubs, but that’s Giles Clark’s challenge as he brings Spot and Stripe back home.
Royal Ascot: Channel 4 Racing, C4, Tues, 1.40pm
While some chaps are hoofing a ball about in Rio, a feast of the finest flat racing starts here.
Fostering & Me With Lorraine Pascale, BB C2, Thurs, 9pm
The TV chef on her turbulent childhood and succession of foster families. She looks at how the system is caring for children today.