Eisteddfod to feature in TV’s Bargain Hunt today

* The Bargain Hunt team filmed at the Eisteddfod in June.

The Eisteddfod will be featured on BBC One’s Bargain Hunt today (Monday) at 12.15pm. 

Presenter Roo Irvine will be looking into the history of the festival, with assistance from Eisteddfod volunteers Professor Chris Adams and Barrie Potter. 

Following broadcast the programme will be available on BBC iPlayer.

The team from the popular BBC afternoon television programme visited the Eisteddfod in June, just a few days before Canadian legend Bryan Adams performed in the Pavilion. 

Fronted by Roo Irvine, they were recording a programme at the Oswestry Antiques Fair and chose to include a feature on the Eisteddfod and its history.

The main guest in Llangollen was Professor Chris Adams, a long-time student of Eisteddfod history, and the Chair of the Eisteddfod at the time of filming. Barrie Potter, Chair of the Archive Committee, was also on hand to give his insights.

Professor Adams said: “The crew were fascinated by the story of our festival, and the artefacts we have around the offices. They loved the large sheets of embroidery which are displayed on the walls of the Boardroom, with visitor signatures from the 1950s onwards, including Harold and Mary Wilson, and Princess Diana. 

"We discussed the way in the early days how collecting autographs filled the niche now occupied by taking selfies, as a way of getting to meet people. We showed our autograph books and also photographs of autograph hunter in action.

“But what really captured them was the trophy, complete with our shield and motto, how the art and poetry encapsulate our Welsh spirit, and the aims of the Eisteddfod to seek to build better international relations, by bringing ordinary people together through the common love of music and dance. Chris talked about the motto, its bardic origins and its poetry. 

"We showed Bargain Hunt how the trophy, and its message, has travelled the world, even to the garden of the White House in Washington during the Vietnam war. The trophy was Roo’s favourite object.

“It was important to them, too, that the Eisteddfod was so clearly a community initiative, and the Cardiff-based visitors left amazed, not least by the idea that they hadn’t really heard about the Llangollen Eisteddfod or appreciated it before. It’s great to once again share our amazing Eisteddfod story with the wider world.”