A Critical Examination of Antiques Roadshow and Hard Quiz

Columnist Robert Macklin has recently delved into the world of television escape, focusing on two notably distinct shows. The first, BBC’s long-running “Antiques Roadshow,” features Fiona Bruce, who introduces an array of historical art pieces and antiques for valuation. The show is set against the backdrop of opulent ancestral homes, often with a controversial colonial history.

Macklin notes the irony of these estates, once beneficiaries of colonial wealth and slave labor, now charging the public for tours. “Instead of selling those old masters on the walls and making reparations to the poverty-stricken descendants in the Caribbean,” writes Macklin, “they’re charging a wide-eyed public a substantial fee.”

The columnist draws attention to the crowd of presenters on “Antiques Roadshow” who assess family treasures, many of which owe their origins to colonial acquisitions like the sacking of China’s imperial summer palace. These treasures, ostensibly “in the family,” are often flirted with the idea of auction, much to Macklin’s skepticism.

Meanwhile, Macklin diverts his attention to “Hard Quiz,” hosted by Tom Gleeson, on Australia’s ABC. Although humorous, the show is critiqued for its repetitive format and Gleeson’s sharp, often abrasive humor, which Macklin argues lacks longevity if one follows the adage “be nice to people on the way up.”

Macklin concludes with a nod to the cyclical nature of entertainment, suggesting that while “Hard Quiz” currently enjoys popularity, it too may reach its expiration without a kinder approach from its host.