What time is Fake or Fortune on TV?

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The new series is on 9pm Sunday, BBC1

Who are the presenters?

The art-history detective show is fronted by Fiona Bruce and art dealer Philip Mould.

What happens in the first episode?

A woman who bought a charming still life by revered British painter William Nicholson is horrified that it has been left out of the artist’s catalogue raisonnée – the official list of his works. The implication is that her painting – for which she paid a non-trivial £165,000 – is a fake.

The considerable forces of the series are mobilised behind erasing the stain on the picture’s character. In one typically eye-opening scene Fiona Bruce is visiting the artist’s grandson, when he opens an old chest to reveal items that belonged to Nicholson – props used in his work, a well-worn smock, palettes spattered with paint, a box of his pigments. They’re both lovely to see and useful clues in solving the mystery, along with 1930s railway timetables and X-rays. “This is becoming a lot more Agatha Christie than we’re used to,” mutters Philip Mould.

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Review by David Butcher

Authors

Radio Times Staff
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