The programme began as a BBC documentary that aired in 1977, about a London auction house doing a tour of the West Country in England.

The show has since visited a number of other countries (including Canada in 2001 and Australia in 2005) and has been imitated by other TV production companies around the world.

This was an original 1990s maquette of the Angel of the North sculpture by Antony Gormley, owned by Gateshead Council, which was valued at £1,000,000 by Philip Mould.

They are seldom shown in the broadcast episodes, to spare embarrassment for the individuals involved,[4] although counterfeit objects are sometimes included, to give experts an opportunity to explain the difference between real and fake items.

An example is the watercolour painting The Artist's Halt in the Desert by Richard Dadd, discovered and shown by Peter Nahum in 1986 and purchased the next year by the British Museum[5] for £100,000.

[6] Another such item, later dubbed "Ozzy the Owl", is a Staffordshire slipware jug, valued by Henry Sandon on a 1990 show at £20,000 to £30,000,[6] and subsequently acquired by Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.

[10] Visitors (predominantly from the area being visited by the show) bring along their possessions to be evaluated for authenticity and interest (especially related to the venue) and an approximate valuation is given.

Often, the professional evaluators give a rather in-depth historical, craft, or artistic context to the item, adding a very strong cultural element to the show.

This increases the show's appeal to people interested in the study of the past or some particular crafts, or certain arts, regardless of the monetary value of the objects.

In 2005, part of the BBC team visited Australia and produced six one-hour episodes in conjunction with The LifeStyle Channel (XYZnetworks).

In Germany, various versions are broadcast regularly on the public regional channels of the ARD, the oldest being the BR production Kunst und Krempel (Art and Junk), airing since 1985.

In 2011, a painting of Joost van Geel with the title Het Kantwerkstertje (The Little Lacemaker) was discovered with an estimated value of 250,000 euros, the highest-appraised item on the show.

The Swedish version started out as a co-production between SVT Malmö and the BBC, whose Antiques Roadshow visited Scandinavia for two programmes.

[22] Antikrundan (Antiques Round), its Swedish version, premiered in August 1989 on TV2, and SVT has produced a new season every year since.

[23] The American version of Antiques Roadshow is produced by WGBH, a PBS member station in Boston, Massachusetts.

[29] In Sweden it was shown on SVT in Autumn 2018 under the name of Engelska Antikrundan: Arvegodsens hemligheter ("English Round of Antiques: The Secrets of the Heirlooms").

[citation needed] Ellen E Jones of The Independent called the first episode, about a Cromwellian escutcheon, "a welcome addition to the schedules".