Antiques expert Charlie Ross is a popular face on BBC shows like Bargain Hunt, Flog It! and Antiques Road Trip, but insists he will never join the Antiques Roadshow team for a very specific reason.

With Charlie’s vast expertise and likeable personality, he was approached to appear on Antiques Roadshow a few years ago and jumped at the chance, given the show’s high viewing figures and lasting popularity.

Charlie, 74, quickly began to realise that this was a “mistake” and rebuffed the offer soon after filming began.

He recalled: “The BBC and I made a mistake. Theirs was to ask me if I would like to join the Antiques Roadshow team, mine was to say yes.

“Both were understandable. On Flog It!, after learning on the hoof from countless auctions over many years, I showed some knowledge of the value of things. I also came across as a genial sort of chap whom audiences appeared to like.

“For my part, the chance to appear on one of the BBC’s flagship evening programmes was too exciting to turn down.”

He went to meet the team for dinner the evening before filming, but “the vibes were not good from the start”.

Charlie continued in his autobiography, Sold!: “Several of them, notably Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Tim Wonnacott and Henry Sandham, were friendly and welcoming. I found the others harder work.”