A husband surprised his wife by sneakily applying to appear on BBC show Bargain Hunt without her knowledge.
Luke Samuels confesses that he has been a longtime Bargain Hunt fan having watched the show since he was a young boy.
The residential care officer said that he was viewing an episode earlier this year when he saw an advertisement for people to apply.
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So the 38-year-old decided that he would fill in the relevant forms and cross his fingers for a spot on his beloved show.
Unbelievably he received the news that he and his wife, Morgan Samuels 33, had been successful and that they would move onto the next stage of the process.
Luke told his social media specialist and New Zealand native partner, who had only watched the show a couple of times, that they would be moving on to have an interview about appearing - something she was at first nervous about but quickly came round to.
The couple reupholster items together and sell them online whilst Luke also works on repairing antique hand made rugs.
The perfect candidates were then told - after a mountain of paperwork - that they would be heading to Doune to see if they could beat the rival red pairing in hunting out the best antique bargains.
“I have always been a fan of Bargain Hunt and have watched it since I was young,” Luke said.
“I applied without my wife knowing, she had no idea. I got an email back saying you have been successful and that we would be moved onto the next stage which was a virtual interview that lasted around an hour.
“She was totally surprised when she found out we got to the first round but was a bit unsure to begin with.
“It was like an audition where they asked us the reasons for why we wanted to go on the show. We said it is a really easy watch and we both find it entertaining.
“They then asked what we could bring to the show and if we were good at working as a team or not before we had to tell them a bit about ourselves.
“We had to spend two days on set that were spread over about a week and a half. The first recording took place in an antique showroom in Doune, it was quite a long day but there were lots of teas and coffees on site.”
The married couple were set a task of trying to buy three items with £300, they were given sixty minutes to complete their task and were also challenged by the presenter Natasha Raskin to get something that was over £75 and another item that contained a fabric.
Whatever was left in the pot could be used by their assigned expert Danny Sebastian to grab a bonus buy that they would have an option of using to improve their score after their three items were auctioned.
They opted for salt and pepper shakers £38, a spinning chair for £92 and a stool for £50 - whilst expert Danny bought an Italian glass mirror for £45.
“We went with our tastes rather than what we thought would sell more,” Luke continued.
“We never had any expectations but we both really enjoyed it and it was great as a couple to have that experience and share some funny moments.
“We had a good back and forth and the presenter was really witty and funny.
“I’ve done some things on TV before with the BBC such as talking on documentaries and have also appeared live on Jamaican TV for my curling but this was my wife’s first time, she was a natural, I could not get a word in.”
The second filming day involved the couple travelling to an auction house in Glasgow where they would see how much their items sold for.
At the end of the show the rival red team went first and they saw their items sold for a £47 loss.
Luke and Morgan were up next, with their blue team haul going as follows, a £2 profit from the salt and pepper shakers, a £52 loss for the spinning chair and £20 profit for the foot stool whilst Danny’s mirror fetched a £5 loss - meaning they achieved a winning score of minus £35.
“We did win in the end even though we thought we were going to lose. I remember thinking ‘oh well, at least it was a good experience’ but we were amazed when we found out the red team had a lower score,” Luke continued.
“It was mad because you had bidders in the room as well as online whilst the woman orchestrating it all was trying to push your items as much as possible.
“We had a couple of online bids and when a bid came in at the last minute it was so exciting and tense.
“We really wanted to be team blue from the offset to represent Scotland and the best thing for me was being assigned to Danny due to our shared Caribbean heritage and love of hats.
“They said to me in the interview which expert I wanted and I said Danny but they then told me he wouldn’t be there.
“When he showed up on the day I was jumping up and down and hugging him. I’ve stayed in touch with and we sometimes have a chat about rum - he was such a lovely guy, both him Roo and the presenter were all down to earth.
“You don’t see many younger people on the show and it was amazing to represent Edinburgh.
“A few people have said to us that they want to apply having watched the episode.”
The episode first aired on May 15 12.15pm, it is available for the next 11 months on BBC iPlayer here.
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