I’ve given up telly – except for one show

When my mother was in her mid nineties and on her way out, the one delight in her life was watching – and rewatching – The Sound of Music.

She would sit quite close to her TV screen, nodding happily as Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp children strutted and warbled their stuff across the Salzburg hills for the umpteenth time. In her final year, my mother must have seen that film a thousand times.

I am a little alarmed to report that something Do you know it? It’s been going since 2000, though I discovered it only during lockdown. The premise is simple: two teams of two people (the Reds and the Blues) have an hour at an antiques fair and a budget of £300. Each team is challenged to buy three items which they later sell at auction – hopefully for a profit, more often at a loss.