Bargain Hunt star Jonathan Pratt has spoken exclusively to GB News all about his time filming the hit BBC show, what his bond with his co-stars is really like off-camera, and the rather surprising career venture he’s taking on away from the program.
Pratt has been a familiar face on the show for the best past of 16 years and during that time, he’s witnessed firsthand how the show has transformed to keep viewers tuned in.
“Bargain Hunt has changed. Since I started in 2008, Bargain Hunt has become totally transparent in the way that it’s produced, made and directed,” Pratt began.
He continued: “So, the start of the show is filmed at the start, the end of the show is filmed at the end, they only get two minutes, there is a stopwatch, they have a budget, if you don’t buy it, it’s too late… You know, that’s all very true.
“But obviously the limitations are of the price of what you’re buying,” Pratt delved further before admitting the technique results in complaints from some.
“Dealers complain when you speak to them, ‘Oh, you’re buying it at retail, you’re trying to sell it at auction. It’s the wrong way around’. Well, yes, it is.
BBC Bargain Hunt: Jonathan Pratt (right) has been a familiar face on the show for over a decade and a half
BBC
“And that’s why what you need to do is try and identify objects that are out of place in the fair, that aren’t capturing the market at the fair. That’s one of the things you have to do.
“It could be that there are the wrong buyers for it at those places. Then you put it into the auction arena and the auction arena gives you the internet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to go and sail away and make big money.
“The things that make money are the things that have added story to them, and it’s really, really hard to find those.
“My best purchase was a chicken tea cosy, and it’s quite a few years ago, but it was a 1930s or late ’20s plush, velvet tea cosy in the form of a chicken that I bought for £25 or something, and it sold for, I can’t remember, £250. But it was because it’s so unusual and such a rarity and an odd novelty.”
BBC Bargain Hunt: Jonathan Pratt is also managing director as Dawsons Auctions
BBC
So has this change to the way experts have to buy and sell led to him having to leave his biases and traditional methods at the door?
“Totally, yeah, I’m afraid so,” Pratt confirmed. “You walk around, you talk about a really great object, but they’re pricing it at £400-500 or something. You can’t use that in the show.
“And then you’re looking at something which is £10 – I mean, the show is called Bargain Hunt, it’s not called Antiques Hunt, it’s about flipping a profit. Whereas the problem with me is I love all that nostalgia, that history, and I like things to have a substance.
“If you buy something that was 1960s and plastic, I sort of weep as I do it, really. And that’s not to say – there’s a lot of stuff from the 20th century I absolutely love. But there’s a part of our market that is really under-loved still.
“And – can I tell this on the story, if it’s going to get published… I don’t see why not – but I bought an armchair… I bought a Victorian walnut-framed gentleman’s armchair, a good-looking thing.
“I think they wanted £230 for it and I think I might have got it for about £180 or £170 – big money on it! But it used to make £200-300 every day of the week. But it used to.
“I forget now but I think it made £50 or something. And it just disappoints me. I sort of chose to do it because I wanted to prove to two million viewers that you can buy a chair like that for £50.”
However, there may have been another explanation for the chair’s failure in the auction room rather than it merely being an unappealing piece.
BBC Bargain Hunt: Jonathan Pratt (right) often lends his expertise to teams on the show
BBC
Pratt pointed out: “But unfortunately, the reason why it didn’t sell for any more is that at the auction it was sitting in the coin section of a sale.
“So you’re not going to get many furniture buyers sitting around waiting for it, and that’s because the show has to be spread out across an auction, and it doesn’t always sit in the section it’s meant to sit in because of the way that the program runs. So there’s a few challenges that run with it as well.”
Away from the challenges of filming the BBC daytime staple, Pratt also spoke to GB News all about a rather surprising career path he’s embarking on.
Pratt is currently enjoying a stint on-stage as part of the cast of Winchester Musicals and Opera Society’s production of Kiss Me Kate, that runs until November 9.
“It’s funny, really. The thing is, auction is theatre. Being a good auctioneer is understanding how to how to work a room, how to work with people,” he explained when quizzed on the new role.
“You’ve got to entertain. You need to keep attention whilst trying to essentially take money from them for the objects you’re selling. So a good auctioneer is always worth his money. In a live auction, I firmly believe a good auctioneer will take 20 percent more than a bad one for their clients. And there’s lots of little different ways of doing things as an auctioneer.
“But why did I choose this path? Well, I’ve got four kids, and my youngest daughter wants to be an actress. They all went through the village school and then I said to my wife, ‘We know all the parents in the village, but we don’t know anyone else.
“I’d like to meet other people in the village, rather than just the parents of the children’. And Esme wants to be an actress so I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to do some plays’.”
Pratt and his children soon began auditioning for local plays and before he knew it, the roles kept rolling in, resulting in his latest at the Theatre Royal in Winchester.
Tickets for Kiss Me Kate are available to purchase here: https://www.wmos.org.uk/kiss-me-kate.
