Antiques Roadshow visit Hexagon Reading in 1984 and reveal Huntley and Palmer fact

The Antiques Roadshow came to the Hexagon, Reading, in its sixth year on television, an exclusive BBC archive has revealed.

Presenter Hugh Scully described the building as the ‘most modern of buildings’ even though it had been operating for eight years.

In his introduction to the programme, he revealed a fact about Reading’s famous business tycoon George Palmer.

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“In one of those bits of useless information that you often pick up when doing the roadshow I gather that George Palmer, of the famous Huntley and Palmer duo, shares with Gladstone a rather unusual distinction," said the host.

“They were the only two Englishman outside of the royal family who ever had statues erected to them during their own lifetime.”

The footage, which can be viewed at BBC Rewind, is just one of more that 30,000 videos uncovered by the BBC dating back to the 1940’s.

The archive shows how Mr Scully would return to Reading in 2002, this time to Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Lower Earley.

Hugh Scully at the Abbey Ruins in Reading, credit: BBC Archive

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He described Reading as a place “which has been transformed from a red-brick Berkshire market town into the home of new technology.”

“History is all around me in Abbey Ruins,” he noted, gesturing to the gatehouse where Jane Austen was educated in 1785, and the prison where Oscar Widle was incarcerated in 1897.

As part of its centenary celebrations the BBC launched ‘BBC Rewind’ across the UK.

This is the largest release of digital archive content in BBC history, categorised by the nations and regions of the UK and containing many emotional and powerful stories, many of which have not been viewed since their original broadcast.

“As we celebrate 100 years of the BBC, we’re opening up our unique and deeply valuable archive, an important part of the nation’s collective memory,” said James Stirling, Executive Editor of BBC 100.

“By breathing new life into stories which have laid dormant for years, audiences will be able to discover recordings which can help us all learn more about who we are and where we’re from.”