With reboots being the in-thing in Hollywood at the moment, Channel 4 is hoping to reboot the antique genre.
The new primetime show Four Rooms will feature four antique dealers offering their own cash for items brought in by members of the public (in a manner completely different from Dickinson’s Real Deal).
Each seller will see each of the dealers in turn, but will only progress to the next dealer if they refuse the offer for their antique. The seller will be unable go back if subsequent bids are lower.
Tanya Shaw, commissioning editor at Channel 4 revealed: “It feels like a closed world where I have no understanding of what things are worth and why they’re worth it. So that was the starting point – can we find a format that lifts a lid on that world, and that also makes it feel like a Channel 4 show by the dealers we have, and by the objects, which are the kind of objects you don’t see on other shows.”
The dealers are Emma Hawkins, owner of Hawkins & Hawkins Antique Curiosities and Taxidermy; Andrew Lamberty who owns Lamberty, Pimlico Road; Gordon Watson, owner of Gordon Watson, Pimlico Road, and Jeff Salmon, owner of Decoratum.
Salmon, who was swayed by the objects on offer and the hope of invigorating a young audience about art, revealed: “When I was first approached I said it sounds a fabulous idea but you won’t want me if this is just going to be another middle England show, if you’re looking for another dealer with a tweed suit and a plum in his mouth.”
