Thousands head for Antiques Roadshow at Gregynog Hall
More than 3,000 people were today hoping for the chance to be featured on BBC TV's Antiques Roadshow as it came to Mid Wales.
Staff at Gregynog Hall in Tregynon, near Newtown, said people were coming from as far away as Birmingham and Cardiff to attend the filming of two episodes of the hit series.
Presenter Fiona Bruce spent last night in the village ready for the day's filming and Annette Dowling, hall spokeswoman, said she was looking forward to a busy day, with 40 new volunteers drafted in to help.
She said: "Today has been two-and-a-half years in the making since I first sent an e-mail to the show's makers asking them to consider us and we are absolutely thrilled.
"We have taken on a lot of volunteers for the day to help things run smoothly, nearby roadworks have been cancelled to help traffic flow and two of our tenant farmers have given up their fields so we can turn them into car parks for the day.
"The show's makers tell me they have been inundated with people coming forward with large items they want valued and a shortlist has been drawn up for items to be filmed on the day."
Crews began setting up for the show yesterday with delivery vans set to bring larger items into the hall's music room.
People who bring items in in the morning will have their items looked at before the most interesting ones are put through to the afternoon session which have a better chance of featuring on the shows.
The filming will see Fiona Bruce and art expert Philip Mould reunite at the hall after their BBC One series "Fake or Fortune", which focussed on a painting owned by the late sisters Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, who lived at the hall.
The sisters amassed the largest collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works in Britain, now in Cardiff's National Museum of Wales.
