Hugh Scully dead: Former Antiques Roadshow presenter dies

He presented the show for 19 years

(BBC)

Former Antiques Roadshow presenter Hugh Scully has died. He was 72.

He passed away while watching television on Thursday afternoon at his home in Cornwall, his son told the BBC.

Scully first joined the BBC in 1965 as a freelance journalist. The public first became familiar with him on a mainstream scale when he presented the current affairs programme Nationwide.

In 1981, he was chosen to present Antiques Roadshow alongside Arthur Negus.

Scully would stay on the show for almost two decades before leaving in 2000.

He then went on to help launch an online antiques business for an auction firm.

Scully left amid concern that his new role would conflict with his position on the popular show, according to the BBC.

When he left he described his position at Antiques Roadshow as a “delight” and “one of the best jobs in broadcasting”.


 Hugh Scully circa 1990
 (Danny Elwes / Evening Standard /REX Shutterstock)

Scully was married to his wife Barbara for 43-years before she died aged 69 in 2009.

He told the Falmouth Packet at the time that she was his "best fried and soulmate".

The pair moved to Mawnan, Cornwall, in 1993 after the presenter found a house in Country Life magazine. They would go on to raised tens of thousands of pounds for the local RNLI and Mawnan Parish Church through an antiques validation day in their garden of their home in Treworgan.

Fellow BBC presenters Lizo Mzimba and David Sillito were among those to pay tribute to Scully.

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