More4, Cleaning Britain’s Greatest Treasures.
The two-part series follows the work of some of Britain’s most passionate and dedicated conservation cleaners who are responsible for looking after our national treasures. At locations ranging from stately homes and museums to historic churches and industrial revolution factories, they show the special tools, techniques and tricks of the trade they use to clean and preserve all sorts of historical artefacts.
As they work, they share their personal insights into the objects, fascinating little-known gems of history and, sometimes, even solve their mysteries.
Each episode follows the cleaners, the “Kim and Aggie” of the art world, at three different locations around the UK. Stories in this series include the mystery behind a Constable masterpiece that may be solved by cleaning it; the extremely delicate cleaning of Queen Victoria’s silk laden 1868 Railway Carriage; finding out how to clean the fragile Portland limestone carvings of a London church and the science of removing century-old tea-stains as well as getting insights into where Beatrix Potter got her ideas, and how to clean a pile of antique sand.
Cleaning Britain’s Greatest Treasures is due to premiere on More4 this year. It was commissioned for More4 by Daytime and Features Commissioning Editor Deborah Dunnett and Head of Specialist Factual Shaminder Nahal, and Executive Produced by Hugh Whitworth for Whitworth Media.
