I was on Bargain Hunt & a lot more goes on behind the scenes – we got VERY drunk… it helped me quit job for dream career
MOST Bargain Hunt winners walk away with bragging rights and, if they're lucky, a small profit from their items sold at auction.
But Emma Tighe, 44, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, says appearing on the BBC show in 2019 “changed her life forever”.
It led the former autism specialist to open her own antiques shop, , which now boasts celebrity and TV studio clients.
Emma says one of the most memorable moments from her Bargain Hunt experience was getting "very drunk" with one of the presenters and crew the night before their auction.
Speaking to The Sun, she recalls: “It was the most strange and unreal scenario, we unknowingly booked into the same hotel as Eric Knowles and the production team.
“But there had been power cuts all day so we couldn’t get into our rooms until 1am and so the only thing we could do was sit in the bar and get very drunk.
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“Even after we eventually got to bed, we had to be evacuated quite a few times in the night because the fire alarms kept going off.”
Before going on Bargain Hunt the couple already had a keen interest in antiques - they even went to an auction house on their first date.
It was Stuart who applied, and Emma - who used to run a vintage stall at the Black Country Living Museum - says it was a "long-winded process”.
They had to fill out a “lengthy” application form and do an audition where they were put through multiple tests.
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'Hidden talents'
Emma says: “For one of them they take you into a green room where they have a stall set up.
"You then have to describe the item on the table to camera and then haggle with the ‘seller’.”
She believes the producers were also on the lookout for ‘hidden talents’ among Bargain Hunt hopefuls to make the show more engaging.
“One thing that has always stuck in my mind was them asking, ‘Do any of you have any hobbies?’” Emma recalls.
“My husband and I had taken dance lessons – because I refused to marry him unless he could dance properly – and they asked us to show it to everyone.
“So we had to get up in front of more than 150 people in the room and do the cha-cha-cha without any music or anything.
“For me, it was really embarrassing and I just wanted a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me, but my husband is a bit of a showman and was happy to do it.”
Added challenge
Weeks later the couple found out they'd got through and filmed their episode in 2018 at Lincolnshire Showground.
Emma recalls: “It was a scorching day and we were held in a green room for hours because they were filming multiple episodes on the same day.
“It was tough not being able to go around the stalls, it felt like being a kid in a sweet shop who had been told they weren’t allowed any sweets.”
Emma and Stuart were in the last episode to be filmed that day and she says that presented an additional challenge.
She recalls: “We had been there since 9am but didn’t go out looking for antiques until 1.30pm. Most of these events close by 2pm so a lot of the stalls were already packing away.
“There were also a lot of foreign sellers who had closed early because they had to leave so that they didn’t miss their ferries.
“If we were filming first thing in the morning there would have been a much bigger range and more choices - despite that, we still didn’t do too badly.”
Record-breaking
Contestants have £300 spending money and one hour to find three items they believe will sell at auction for a profit.
Emma says the show is “exactly how it appears on TV” except for one thing while on the hunt for antiques.
She told us: “You are on a timer but they have to pause each time you go to a vendor so that the filming crew can ask permission for them to be filmed.
“Some say yes, but others don’t want to be on camera, so that’s the only problem with it. We had one lady who didn’t want to appear on TV but was happy for her voice to be used.”
While they were free to choose whatever items they wanted, Emma says her assigned expert Jonathan Pratt dropped a hint not to buy one item.
She explains: “We saw an item from a distance but when we got close it was hideous. I remember our expert pulled the most hilarious face.
“He was giving us a look that was like, ‘What on earth?’ which set me off giggling, but I also knew then definitely not to buy it.”
Remarkably Emma and Stuart managed to find all three items in just 13 minutes – which she claims was Bargain Hunt’s fastest time - meaning they had 47 minutes to spare.
Their items included a Danish chair and a cast iron cross from a Belgium vineyard - as well as a vintage stuffed toy dog.
A month later Emma and Stuart had to travel to Sheffield to film the auction, and enjoyed their boozy night with Eric and the crew.
Expert snub
Before their items went under the hammer, Emma says their auctioneer was quite sceptical about their choices.
She recalls: “We bought unusual items because we thought it would bring a bit of variety from the generic choice of jewellery.
“While the auctioneer was being interviewed, he said he took his hat off to us for what we had found but he didn’t predict our items were going to do very well.
“I remember thinking, ‘We’ll show him!’ but I was also crossing my fingers and hoping it all went well.”
It did go well - all but one of Emma and Stuart’s items sold for more than they bought it for and the couple won with an impressive £133 profit.
The £170 Danish chair sold for £220, the £80 cross sold for £125, the £29 cuddly dog sold for £25 and the expert’s £1 bowl sold for £43.
When the show aired in February 2019, Emma says she was inundated with messages - and still gets them now, four years on, when it's repeated.
“We were featured in the greatest moments of Bargain Hunt so it has been on TV many times now," she explains.
“I think it’s because we were the quickest team they ever had, bought really good items, and left our expert with just £1 to spend on his item.”
Emma says the experience was “absolutely brilliant" and ";hilarious", but she cringes at one moment that made it through the edit.
"You forget your microphone is on, so there was this funny clip of us arguing," she says. "And in another section, you hear me talking about wanting to buy a taxidermy ostrich.”
Life-changing
Emma says winning Bargain Hunt gave her the confidence she needed to start her own antiques business.
Her items have been used in Channel 4 programmes including Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions, and will feature in the upcoming ITV drama Joan, starring Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner.
Emma admits: “I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do this before Bargain Hunt, it made me realise how much I love doing this and was good at it, too. It was a real wake-up call.
“It’s wonderful, we have a few celebrity customers on our books - one of them is from the BBC show The Bidding Room.
“Things from the shop appear in magazines and on TV a lot too. In a show with Richard Hammond, they were interviewing people on these big comfy chairs - they bought them from us.
“And literally last week, a guy from ITV bought loads of vintage clothing for their new show, it will be exciting to see it onscreen.
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“It’s really exciting because you never know what you’re going to find and it makes me very happy knowing these items are being loved all over again.”
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