ANTIQUES, cricket and the history of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion all featured in a BBC television show on Thursday night.

Comedian Shappi Korsandi and TV presenter Konnie Huq toured Sussex in vintage cars in the Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip.

The show follows two celebrities and two antiques experts as they travel around a region to find treasures to auction and to learn more about the area’s history.

Shappi and Konnie, who both went to the same primary school, were paired up with antiques experts Charles Hanson and Tim Medhurst and tasked with finding the most valuable object to sell at auction.

Both pairs delved into the Emporium Antiques Centre in Lewes to look for collectable items and haggle for a bargain.

Shappi and Charles snapped up a silver Tiffany pen holder and an ornamental jug, while Konnie and Tim purchased a silver Art Nouveau bracelet and a snuff box.

Shappi visited the Royal Pavilion to learn more about the former palace’s history as King George IV’s lavish party venue and later as a hospital for Indian soldiers in the First World War.

One of the curators at the Royal Pavilion, Kevin Bacon, told Shappi: “The Royal Pavilion was originally just a lodging house King George rented during his early visits to Brighton, but it gradually evolved to a fairly modest villa called the Marina Pavilion.

“Then finally from 1815 it was turned into the building that we see today, which was completed in 1823.

“It reflects Britain’s status in the world at that time with an emerging empire and it has this very distinctive Indian-inspired exterior, which is familiar to many people who visit Brighton every year.

“It looks tremendously exciting and exotic and particularly for someone like George, who really wanted this palace to be his place of escape.

“It’s a place of fantasy.”

Shappi also heard from Davinder Dhillon, chairman of the Chattri Memorial Group, which honours the Indian soldiers who served in the British Army in the First World War.

He told her: “It took them two weeks to turn the Royal Pavilion into a hospital, and they had about 600 beds.

“There were Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, maybe a few Buddhists – they were all there.”

Soldiers from across the empire came to fight in support of the British cause and fight in Belgium and France on the Western Front.

By the end of 1914 a third of the British Army was Indian.

Davinder said: “They converted the kitchen into two operating theatres.

“There’s a fantastic story about one of the soldiers who arrived here unconscious.

“He woke up inside the Pavilion and looked up at the ceiling and said ‘I’m in heaven’.

“He thought he had died and gone to heaven.”

Meanwhile former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq visited Sussex County Cricket Club in Hove to learn more about one of the world’s most popular sports.

The club librarian, Rob Boddie, told her: “Cricket started hundreds of years ago.

“It originated down in this part of the world – if you’re from Sussex you say it started here.”

Sussex Country Cricket Club was the first to be a first class county cricket club.

Rob said: “Surrey and Kent were a little behind us.

“We were founded in 1839 and it grew with the advent of the railways in the 19th century, the sport got even more popular, with fans from all social classes.”

Konnie and Shappi also visited antiques shops in Steyning and Burgess Hill to pick up some deals, including a smoking stand and an Arts and Craft chair.

Konnie said: “It’s been such fun.

“It’s like a road trip, an adventure and an education all in one.