TV Programme : Bargain Hunt 20th Birthday Special

Channel: BBC 1 (Available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days)

Popular BBC Antiques show Bargain Hunt is marking its twentieth anniversary on air with a week of special editions broadcast between 19 and 23 October 2020. Th 4th episode looks back at some of the expert’s most memorable buys – and of course it will feature Pollyanna successfully bidding on a life size gorilla!

The programme features teams of amateur collectors who have an hour at an antiques fair in which to acquire the best bargains possible with £300. Their purchases are then sent to auction, and the team who makes the biggest profit (or more frequently the least loss!) wins.

Antiques expert and auctioneer Charles Hanson is a regular on the programme. In 2016 he contacted Pollyanna to let her know that one of the Bargain Hunt teams was bringing a very special item to one of his auctions – and he just knew she would be the perfect person to give it a home…. A life size gorilla! And of course he was correct – Pollyanna won the competitive bidding to become the proud owner of the gorilla – pictured above with Charles after the filming.

The gorilla has been repainted, and remains in pride of place in Pollyanna’s garden. Visitors to the exhibitions in Pollyanna’s private gallery are always welcome to explore the garden – which is also home to two more gorillas, as well as life size sculptures of rhinos, giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs and an elephant – and much more! The gorilla has of course been renamed Charles…..

Renowned for his flamboyant manner of auctioneering, Charles has auctioned off many memorable items throughout his career – everything from selling cricketer Darren Gough’s winning costume from Strictly Come Dancing through to Chinese Imperial vases and even Queen Victoria’s bloomers! However he told us that this was the very first time that a gorilla has gone under his hammer.