How staged is tonight’s Antiques Roadshow? i think the producers must have been out and got as many Asian and black people as possible to wander around in the background. I am not being funny but never in all the years of watching this programme have I seen so many people of colour on the programme. I know it’s Birmingham but they have been to equally diverse cities before and this has never happened. They also have a West Indian poet and a Sikh valuer. It is just so obvious that they are trying to tick all the right boxes.
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Could it not be that they were recording the show in a predominantly black area? Some of the denizens of this forum are often complaining about immigrants taking over areas of Britain.
It happens here too, but without the whinging, for example if the show were recorded in Hurstville the audience would have a very large proportion of Chinese
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Never watched it so, under the present circumstances refuse to second guess.
My BH likes it.I saw one from Cardiff and never recognized one person.I thought that was suspicious.
I tried entering Sue as an antique but they said i had to wait a few more years
The ethnic makeup of the area drastically changed in the 1950s and 1960s with immigration from the Commonwealth. Most of the immigrants were from the Indian subcontinent, though a significant number were from the Caribbean.
31.7% of residents in Aston have no qualifications, higher than the Birmingham average of 20.8%. Moreover, 15.6% do not speak English as their main language and cannot speak it well, well above the national average of 1.9%.
Aston has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the city, with 57.8% of residents classed as economically active compared to the city average of 69.3% and national average of 77%. It is the 11th most deprived ward in the city.
The majority of employed residents (56%) work in lower skilled occupations, such as caring, leisure and sales. The average income in Aston (£12,033) is 35% less than the average income (£18,788) in England as a whole.
So, not surprising that “people of colour” appeared in large numbers.
ETA I’ve just watched the program and most of the participants are white and middle class … 
The West Indian poet is a very well respected Birmingham borne and bred poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
Raj Bisram is a British borne and bred antiques expert and auctioneer. He co-founded Bentley’s Fine Art and Antiques Auction House in Cranbrook, Kent. He’s also served in the British army and is a dab hand at table-top magic. He’s often on TV programmes like Antiques Road Trip and Bargain Hunt.
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His name appears several times on my shelves. Ben puts a good slant on most things 