That explains the arrival of the younger blood in the dying days of the channel. The films guy, the ice guy, young Hayley, that ex-model cleaner woman, the Welsh girl - any others were instantly forgettable. The ice skater (Evers, is it) was like a rabbit in the headlights, and simply couldn’t communicate in an ad-lib sense - although he did improve as he went along. The other guy, Craig, I think believed his personality and humour could do the selling alone. Presumably, they didn’t. You felt at the time there was some active direction in moving to younger presenters, in some feeble, misguided attempt to try and capture an audience that simply isn’t there.
Eric Knowles was unspeakably unsuitable for the role put in front of him. He is a good friendly link-man type presenter of a pre-recorded type show. One that sticks to his area of expertise-antiques in general. What he isn’t, is somebody to host and drive a live selling show, dealing with cheap watches he knows nothing about. Put with a Mason, a Simon, as ‘the guest expert’ it could have been entertaining; but sticking him with another guest ‘expert’ with no personality and with no clue how help him to present this type of programme was a disaster waiting to happen. Has Knowles, ever done live talkback before? I doubt it given how terrible he was.
Well all laugh at and sometimes ridicule the senior shopping television presenters who have been doing the job for years. But in truth, doing it well is a very skilled and difficult task, and a terribly easy one to do appallingly.