Bargain Hunt presenter 'fell over' moments before going live in disastrous first episode

One beloved star "fell over" moments before going live on air in a disastrous first episode. presenter Irita Marriott has become a regular host and antiques expert on and .

The TV personality is regularly seen appraising and selling items for a profit at auction as well as appraising guests family heirlooms that have been collecting dust in people's attics. Now, the Latvian dealer is returning to our screens with a bang with a second series of her REALLY daytime show which is set to hit the airwaves on May 5. In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, the 40-year-old broadcaster has lifted the lid on her first experience on the long-running show as an antiques dealer.

She told us: "I was in about four different Bargain Hunts before I went on as a presenter. I remember a funny story with one, I was pregnant with my first son and I was in a Peterborough antiques fair and I could see Philip Serrel coming towards me with the cameras and the contestants.

"And I'd knelt down to pick up something from the floor and I was eight and a half months pregnant at the time, and I couldn't get up off the floor. There was no one around to help me get up so I was on my knees trying to figure out what I'm going to do because the cameras are coming towards me.

"So, I had to roll on my back on the tarmac and roll sideways to get on all fours and then get myself up from the floor. That was one of the first times that I got filmed. Luckily, they didn't catch that bit. But thinking back, being a seller on there, it's like a full circle moment isn't it."

Irita went on to reveal that despite never being headhunted to be a presenter on the show, she beat 19 other candidates to the role through sheer determination.

She told us: "They never headhunted me on the fairs. For Road Trip and Bargain Hunt, everybody's headhunted, so they have production teams who find people to be the next presenter.

"And from day dot of me starting in antiques, I got obsessed with Antiques Road Trip. I thought, 'One day, I'll do good enought to be like the experts on Road Trip'.

"So the Road Trip was the obsession with me and then my eldest son was about four I thought, 'Right, I feel like I know enought that I should just give it a go'.

"SO I actually got hold of the producers phone number and rang him myself and I said, 'Hi, my name's Irita Marriott and I want this job. What do I do? I'm this crazy red-headed Latvian.

"Now, thinking back to it, I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm surprised he didn't hang up'. But he listened to me and he met me and I think there were 19 people up for that role that year and I got the job and I was the only one who applied herself.

"Bizarrely, the executive producer on Road Trip then is actually my executive producer on The Derbyshire Auction House and all these years later he still believes in me. I think there were moments where he saw more in me and believed in me more than I did myself.

The Derbyshire Auction House S2, Mondays from 5 May at 9pm on REALLY and available to stream on discovery+.