ANTIQUE junkies from a wide area of southern England converged on Tidworth on Thursday to take part in the Antiques Roadshow.

The event took place in the main hall of the Tidworth Leisure Centre where crowds soon gathered as opening time approached.

Some who had arrived at 9.30am had to queue for more than 90 minutes to talk to one of the many experts but such is the popularity of the programme that queues are the norm. Although a British programme it's popular in the USA, Canada, Australia and more surprisingly Japan and South America.

One couple from Australia even timed their annual holiday to enable them to visit the show in Tidworth.

For the main host of the show, Michael Aspel, this particular venue brought back some bitter sweet memories.

"In 1950/51 I spent several months in Tidworth before being posted to Germany," said Mr Aspel.

"We were in the Garrison Theatre yesterday and the mention of Assaye Barracks gave me a short thrill of fear although by the time I arrived in Tidworth I had done my basic training and there was little square bashing to be done."

While people waited to see the experts the avuncular Mr Aspel chatted with the queues and signed autographs.

Since it started 25 years ago the show has visited 350 venues and located some valuable items including a painting by Richard Dadd and a Faberge egg.

But there were no such rarities this time although there was the casing of the first shot fired in anger by the British Army in 1939 at the start of the Second World War.

BBC spokeswoman, Olwen Gillespie, said: "Most roadshows attract between 1,200 and 1,500 people and we were very busy this morning so we should reach those figures quite easily."

Interest was such that the fair field near the Community Centre in Wylye Road was commandeered for additional parking and was full by 11.30am.

The programme will be screened in the autumn.