IF you want to get on television with antiques guru David Dickinson go along to the Wessex Auction Rooms, north of Chippenham, on Saturday.

The 80-year-old TV star will be filming four episodes of his hit ITV show Dickinson’s Real Deal at the auction, which will start at 10 am with doors open to the public from 9am.

The Chippenham episodes of the popular daytime show follow a Real Deal day in Weston Super Mare, which was attended by more than 300 people.

Wessex director Martin Hughes said: “Any items deemed ‘telly worthy’ then go in front of the dealers who were there on the day and offer cash for items.

“If the person does not take the cash ‘deal’ then they have pre-agreed that it will come to auction at the Wessex Auction Rooms on Saturday where I will put them under the gavel to see if auction was ‘the real deal’.”

The directors of the antiques emporium at Draycot Cerne, just off junction 17 of the M4, are no strangers to television.

Martin has appeared on ITV's Real Deal before, his business partner Tim Weeks is an expert on BBC Bargain Hunt, and valuer Izzie Balmer is a regular on BBC's Antiques Roadtrip, which features experts and celebrities.“We often have the cameras in, although it is pretty much unheard of to have that many regular TV faces working at one auction house,” said Martin.

The Wessex team is no stranger either to seeing some valuable items turn up and get sold for fortunes, they recently sold a collection of die-cast toy cars for more than £30,000, a rare Sex Pistols record recently went for £16,000 and last month they sold a private collection of Swindon Town football programmes for more than £40,000.

“We always have a busy auction room, but of course since Covid-19 we have only gradually been opening the doors to public again, so it will be a nice bonus for buyers in the saleroom to see David and also get their faces on ITV if they happen to be bidding on any of the Dickinson’s lots,” said Mr Hughes.

“The public will not be aware of which lots those are, although it will become apparent when David is with the owner of the item filming whilst I am auctioneering."

The full catalogue for the auction is online here.