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Private Notes
This episode follows Stuart, whose love of all things railway has led to him building a life-size 1950s railway station in his back garden to house his 1,000 piece collection of signs. But his passion doesn't stop there; Stuart has not one, but three huge collections. The railway collection spills into the purpose-built underground station, then there is the 'petroliana' in the garage - signs and equipment from petrol stations - and finally an entire street of Victorian shops in his attic to house his 6,000 items of packaging. But now his life's work is threatening to derail, as his compulsion to buy more and more has left him with a buffet bar full of junk, with piles of signs everywhere ruining his careful curation. Mark and Mel want to convince Stuart to streamline his collection and sell off some items so his beautifully curated settings can breathe, and there is a shock valuation in store for everyone. Collectaholic Nick has spent 38 years amassing an astonishing collection that most people would consider plain old rubbish. Nick has more than 7,000 British beer cans that line the walls like modern art. They are all housed in a carefully controlled setting, with the curtains closed and temperature maintained. Wife Deborah has confined the cans to one room in their house, but with no space left for new ones, can Mark and Mel help Nick and Deborah find a solution to their storage crisis? The collection is also valued. When Nick bought the cans, their value was in their contents. Now they are empty packaging, are they worth anything at all? Finally there is 33-year-old airline steward Ben, whose collection isn't just ruling his home; it has become his home. He has turned his house into a shrine to the 1930s and 40s, with everything from the art deco furniture, to the Bakelite light switches. But he still needs one elusive item, an authentic stove to complete his wartime kitchen and to do that Mark and Mel need to sell some of his unwanted items to help him
Mel and Mark meet Nigel, the animal lover with a penchant for all things stuffed. His boyhood dream of owning animals preserved by taxidermy has now extended to more than 500 pieces, and he has everything from fish and foxes to polar bears and lions. But now he's on the hunt for a very special piece to top off his collection. Much to wife Janice's horror, Nigel wants a giraffe, or at least all 9ft of its head and neck. As well as getting his entire collection valued, Mark and Mel are on a mission to sell off his excess items to raise the funds needed. Opening a stall on Spitalfields market, they're determined to show Nigel how popular taxidermy has become with a younger crowd and there is a surprise when they reveal just what Nigel's life's work is worth. Twice-divorced Bob has had to downsize his life into a three-bedroom caravan, but he's bought with him his extraordinary 1,000+ piece collection of Mason's pottery. Every surface, every ledge and even the ceiling has been utilised to house it all, but he still has boxes and boxes stored under his home. But now Bob's struggling to sell the items that won't fit in his caravan because the Mason's market has crashed in value in the last decade. With the help of Mark and Mel, he's on a mission to start a Mason's revival and find a new market for his beloved treasures. Finally, Mark and Mel visit the house with not one, but two collectors. David and Francis have two competing, and very different collections. Whilst David has an all-consuming love of ceramics, artwork and furniture from the highly regarded Bloomsbury Group all over the house, Francis has a collection of more than 2,000 different salt and pepper shakers that is confined to two cupboards. Can Mark and Mel help bring balance to this household, and what surprises does the valuation have for these two competing collectors?
Mark and Mel meet James, whose lifelong obsession with Star Wars means that his children have to climb over heaps of his 35,000-piece memorabilia collection just to get into their beds. With no room for display, piles of brown boxes have consumed the family home. With wife Sarah at her wits end, Mark and Mel decide to take drastic action. James is confronted by just how out of control his collection is when all 35,000 pieces are removed from his house and laid out in a 2,400 square foot storage facility. James and Sarah meet a collector and his wife who've managed to balance his 22,000-piece die-cast van collection and keep control of the family home. But is there really a solution that gives Sarah and the kids their home back and still leaves James with a collection he can enjoy? Also in this episode, modern print collector Graham has a 350-piece collection. He has had to buy the house next door to find more walls to hang it all on. Mel and Mark take him to visit the Soane Museum to see how Sir John Soane creatred a very clever system to maximise hanging space. Will Graham find the solution to his display crisis - and will a valuation of his entire collection show that he has been purchasing wisely? Finally, 69-year-old grandmother Shirley has filled five rooms of her house with hundreds of antique dolls and more than 70 prams. Shirley is worried about the future of her collection and what will happen to it after she is gone. Her grandchildren have no idea what to do with it beyond putting to auction - Shirley's worst nightmare. To help them make an informed decision the entire collection is valued, but does Shirley realise just how much her life's passion is actually worth?
In this episode, we meet Margaret, a lady obsessed with collecting royal-family memorabilia, with one of the biggest collections of its kind in the country. Margaret is addicted to buying anything related to the royals, with one room dedicated Princess Diana. But with space so tight, can Mark and Jasmine convince her that she should buy quality over quantity? Jasmine visits a flat completely taken over by collector Chris's fascinating natural-history collection, from skeletons to fossils, taxidermy to fungi. His specimens have helped him make connections between species and could be useful for scientists in the future. He's lost track of what he has and what it's worth, so he and Jasmine look into making sure that this 50-year-old collection doesn't end up on the scrapheap. And Mark visits the amazing house designed and built around couple Jack and Jan's collection of mid-century design. The house is full of items from the 40s, 50s and 60s, from toys to ceramics, furniture to light fittings, that are now very fashionable again. It's an impressive collection, but they have no idea what it's all worth and could be in for a huge surprise. Show less
In this episode, we meet the man who is fulfilling his childhood dreams. Dave collects toys from the 70s and 80s and loves to restore them and even modify them, usually a no-no in the toy-collecting world. Mark Hill is feeling nostalgic as he looks through the vast collection, but is there any value in his modifications? Brothers Roman and Maz have dedicated their lives to the cuckoo clock, but with no children to leave the collection to, Jasmine helps them decide what their options are as they are desperate to keep it together. Jasmine is speechless when she sees the collection - with 700 clocks, it's widely acknowledged to be the largest collection in the UK, if not the world. They have even taken a lease on an old school just to house them. Artist husband and wife Molly and Rufus collect almost anything and they're the perfect match for each other. Mark and Jasmine visit their 1,000-square-foot studio that houses their extraordinary collections, from vintage clothes and ceramics to the 1950s and musical instruments. But is it all getting out of control? And have these collectors crossed the line and actually become hoarders?
In this episode, Jasmine and Mark meet a man who is crazy for teddy bears. Teddies are a huge part of Jena's life and are like members of the family, and he does not care what anyone thinks about it! He has hundreds of bears, from Steiff antiques to custom-made ones. However, he lives with his mum, who doesn't even like them! Jena has spent a fortune over the years, but he has now had to make the agonising decision to sell some of them as he is relocating to Hong Kong. Next, Mark visits retired professional drummer Alan, who has spent 30 years collecting vintage drums from all over the world, and they are crammed everywhere in his one-bedroom flat. It's an amazing collection, but they are all hidden away, unable to be played. He's realised that he can't keep them for ever, so Mark encourages him to start playing them again before he sells them off. Finally, Jasmine meets a man who had gone to extreme lengths to house his vast collection of CDs. Roy has not only filled his flat, but has bought six adjacent flats and filled them too. Jasmine visits this maze of CDs to try and find out what drives him to collect in this extreme way. Spending £150 a day on CDs, he has four people help curate his collection - but neither he nor they have any idea why he does it!
Eddie is crazy for miniature bottles of booze, but his collection has become an unruly cocktail, so Jasmine goes to visit to see if she can help organise over 3,000 bottles. A family tragedy is what triggered him to start collecting and now he believes he has the largest minibar in the country, but knows very little about them and doesn't even drink spirits... Mark visits 81-year-old Bryan who is dedicated to his collection of Regency to Victorian porcelain. All of his pieces come from H&R Daniel, an obscure factory in Staffordshire and he's on a mission to collect all of the pieces with other enthusiasts. Very beautiful and very expensive in its day, prices for these things are not what they were as they don't fit in with modern homes, but Bryan believes fashions will change. Finally, Jasmine and Mark visit former punk rocker Gary, a collector with a passion for original punk promo posters from iconic bands. He started collecting in the 70s when they weren't thought to be of value but are now considered works of art, such as highly sought-after Sex Pistols posters. They also helped him find his soulmate as be bumped into partner Daisy at punk exhibition, and between them they are fast running out of wall space... Mark and Jasmine are on hand to help him showcase them and find out if they were a good investment.
The team meet James, a man obsessed with popstar Madonna, owning thousands of pieces of memorabilia dedicated to her. James owns everything from magazines and key rings, to outfits worn in Evita and a bracelet from the Material Girl video. His collection is squeezed into his London flat, with shelving units behind shelving units, and items dripping from the ceiling but he's desperate to get it in an exhibition. Can Mark and Jasmine help make his dream come true? The team visit Lego collector Mark who has over 350,000 pieces, all individually sorted into size, colour and purpose. Recently diagnosed with Asperger's, Mark finds the collection helps him deal with his condition, but much of his collection is built and then broken down and repackaged. Can the team help him see his collection in a different light when he gets to put it on display to 60,000 people attending the Lego exhibition, Brick 2014? And Mark and Jasmine visit a man living with hundreds of hangers-on. 52-year-old Peter shares his flat with a staggering array of puppets from one company, that he's been collecting since he was a young boy. He dreams of putting on an exhibition so he can get them out of their boxes and tell the story of a company that first introduced puppets to the toy market. And he's in for a surprise when Mark reveals what his 30 years of collecting is worth.
Mark Hill steps back in time as he visits 35-year-old Peter, a collector who has transformed his home back into an early 20th-century working cottage. Every little detail has been thought of from the décor and outdoor toilet to the dinner plates, and even a fully fitted reincarnation of the 1920 grocers shop that used to be there, sitting in what should be his living room. Peter's meticulous attention to detail doesn't come cheap and his next project is to try and recreate the original wallpaper in the bedroom, using only a 10-inch sliver he found in the back of a cupboard. Jasmine Harman is visiting a man who's built four giant warehouses in his back garden to house his collection of more than 1,000 obsolete computers. 55-year-old Jim is a professor of neural computation and has dedicated his life to computers and how they work. He's spent the last 25 years accumulating everything from personal PCs, voting machines and home consoles, to giant super computers that used to run nuclear power stations and take up an entire room, but hold the same amount of power as your watch. Jim was recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's and wants to secure the future of his collection. Can Jasmine help him get recognition for his extraordinary collection? And together Mark and Jasmine visit fossil collector Paddy. Lyme Regis is fertile hunting ground for Paddy, and he's amassed an astonishing collection of fossils that give a unique insight into long extinct creatures. The collection has everything from tiny and iridescent ammonites, to giant stones containing stunning examples of ichthyosaurs. Wife Rikey is keen for him to sell some of his more common pieces to make way for the more special items, so can Mark convince him to do it? And both Paddy and Rikey are in for a surprise when the collection is valued.
Mark Hill visits 81-year-old Dorothy, whose collection of hand carts is so large they have to be housed in a purpose built barn by her home. Dorothy is fascinated with the way of life more than a century ago when hand carts were ubiquitous and is intent on preserving this piece of history for future generations to learn from. She bought her first cart 30 years ago for £1, and over the years has amassed more than 200, many of which she has lovingly restored herself. With no-one to leave it to, she wants to secure its future but will she be able to keep the collection together? Jasmine Harman meets 26-year-old Lisa, who holds the world record for the largest collection of Pokemon memorabilia. Lisa now has more than 25,000 items in her collection. It's so big, her mum has had to give up her bedroom and move into the smallest room in the house. For Lisa, the collection has been the thing that has got her through a difficult time at school when she was severely bullied, and she dreams of moving to Japan, with her collection, to work for Pokemon. But has the collection she's amassed over the last 17 years, got any value? And Mark and Jasmine visit car fanatic Allan, who's spent a lifetime collecting just one make of car - the Humber. He's got some stunning examples of this long-forgotten British make including one thought to have been used by Edward and Wallis Simpson during their affair. But Allan's collection costs a lot to run, and its currently Hull's best-kept secret. Will a visit from the Lord Mayor help get Allan's collection firmly on the map?
The team meet 86-year-old Barbara who has created an entire miniature town in her London home. Barbara has been collecting doll's houses for 40 years and devotes all her free time to her diminutive dwellings, depicting everything from scenes in the NHS, people holidaying in the south of France, a chip shop, and even a brothel! But Barbara's collection is hidden away, and out of bounds from children, particularly surprising as she's dedicated her life to running a stage school. Can Mark Hill and Jasmine Harman convince her to combine her two passions, and get her schoolchildren involved in her collection? Mark and Jasmine visit 52-year-old set designer Simon, who's filled every nook and cranny of his four-storey home with all things weird and wonderful. Having fallen in love with British folklore as a young boy, his house has everything from waxwork heads, puppets, ventriloquist dummies to the downright macabre. Simon has big dreams of one day opening the country's first museum dedicated to British folklore so Mark wants to inspire him to create an all-encompassing experience. And Jasmine visits 42-year-old Andy who has been slowly building up an enormous collection of a forgotten phenomenon which changed the entertainment industry forever - the arcade. Andy has over 300 vintage arcade machines hidden away in a 3000 square foot unit on an industrial estate. With everything from Space Invaders and Pac-Man to Donkey Kong, he'd love nothing more than to share his collection with other enthusiasts. And he's in for a shock when Mark and Jasmine reveal just how much it's all worth.
