Ref. 27919-39A Blunsdon couple are to mark their 50th anniversary with an appearance on television. Iris and Jim Shewry, of Sutton Park, celebrated their golden wedding on Friday.

Their daughter decided to surprise them and wrote to the makers of ITV1's This Morning, presented by Philip Schofield and Fern Britten, asking if they could be invited on to the show.

The answer was yes, and tomorrow morning the golden couple are to travel to London to appear on the show's Cash or Trash game, in which guests bring an antique and have to choose to either accept a sum of money for it or risk the takings of an auction.

Iris, 69, and Jim, 70, are taking one of their engagement presents, a 120-year-old clock with a brass pendulum. It had been hanging on the couple's wall for 25 years and they decided it was time to give it a new home. I didn't know anything about the TV show and I'm a bit nervous," said Iris.

Iris and Jim met in 1952 and married the following year.

"It doesn't seem like a long time it's flown by," said Iris, who trained as a nurse before becoming a full-time mother. "I've had such a good life and I've got a wonderful husband who thinks the world of me."

The couple have three children, Lin, David and Vanessa, and eight grandchildren. They all live within eight minutes so Iris and Jim, who worked for Swindon Press for 35 years, are rarely alone.

For their 40th anniversary the children arranged for a limousine to pick them up and take them on a trip to London. They promised to top the feat for their parents' golden year.

Daughter Lin Wright, 40, of Vanbrugh Gate in Broome Manor, who set up the television appearance, said: "They are very young at heart and game for anything, which is why I had to mark the occasion with something different."

atate@newswilts.co.uk