Antiques Roadshow managed to fit plenty of innuendos into one small segment (Picture: BBC)
Antiques Roadshow is probably the last programme you’d expect to hear risqué comments on.
However, on Christmas Eve, the BBC show left viewers, quite literally, clutching their pearls.
One guest arrived at Uppark House in West Sussex with a collection of gorgeous purple amethyst jewellery ready for valuation.
But when the lady revealed how she acquired the stunning items, well, audiences at home could hardly contain themselves.
‘We have some lovely amethyst and gold jewellery here, a beautiful bracelet, a lovely pair of earrings and, inside the box, a superb amethyst and pearl necklace. Gorgeous,’ the antiques expert introduced.
Explaining how the jewellery came into her life, the guest did not, in fact, make an NSFW slip-up, even though the name of its original owner, and the place she lived, were rather ‘saucy’.
A guest brought her daughter’s amethyst jewellery to be valued (Picture: BBC)
…including a pearly necklace (Picture: BBC)
‘Well, it was my husband’s great-great-aunt Fanny who lived in Cockermouth. Born in 1850, died in 1951,’ she explained.
Yep. Fanny from Cockermouth. And she owned a pearl necklace.
Naturally, X users began chuckling as they unleashed their playground humour.
‘Antiques Roadshow is on form tonight. Pearl Necklace. Fanny. Cockermouth #InnuendoBingo’, viewer Dave Taylor wrote.
‘Childish I know but…Aunt Fanny lived in Cockermouth…’, wrote Teena Massam, followed by a series of crying laughing emoji.
‘Aunt fanny from cockermouth … you couldn’t write it’, wrote the user GrannyMuff.
Rachael Hare laughed: ‘Aunt Fanny who lives in Cockermouth? Come on guys’.
The items originally belonged to Fanny from Cockermouth (Picture: BBC)
The guest was stunned to learn of the value of the jewels (Picture: BBC)
‘Pearl Necklace? Aunt Fanny? Cockermouth? How many innuendos is this woman trying to fit into one sentence?’, asked Dylan Roberts.
Others giggled at how the ‘jokes write themselves’ with one branding it a ‘saucy episode’.
Ok, back to the antiques.
The late Fanny inherited all the jewellery from her sisters, none of whom had children of their own.
‘So, she passed these on to my mother-in-law and my mother-in-law, in turn, has passed them on to my daughters,’ the guest explained.
‘They’re in the family, but we know little about them.’
Offering her insights the expert said: ‘They’re obviously very good quality, typical of the style of jewellery from the Victorian period.
‘Your bracelet and earrings are slightly earlier than the necklace, these date from around about 1850, 1860, and I love all of this delicate, scrolly floral work all the way around, which is very typical of that earlier Victorian period.
‘And then we go to this beautiful necklace, again in this fitted case, slightly darker amethyst as well, but with these really pretty seed pearls, which was very typical again of this later style of Victorian jewellery from about 1880 up until 1900.
‘Although they’re slightly different in tonality and depth, both of the amethysts probably come from Brazil.
‘With regard to origin of where they were made, they are more than likely British. They’ve got that feel and look to them.’
She added that ‘neither of them, surprisingly, are hallmarked’ as this wasn’t required for jewellery during the Victorian period.
As for how much they could be worth, the valuer was optimistic.
‘Amethysts are gaining popularity in the auction world, we’re getting into wanting more colour in our jewellery again,’ she teased.
‘Bracelet and earrings, probably somewhere between £1,200-£1,500.’
As for the necklace with the case? £2,500-£3,500.
‘Wow, gosh,’ the guest reacted with a stunned expression.
‘You lucky girls, that’s all I can say,’ she told her daughters.
Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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How many innuendos can you fit into one segment?