This week, Michael Aspel bows out as the presenter of Antiques Roadshow after eight years, to be replaced by Fiona Bruce.

Aspel, 65, is one of few television presenters whose star has never waned since he first appeared as a news presenter in the early 1960s. Over the years, he has done everything from presenting Crackerjack to dancing with Morecambe and Wise, from presenting his own Parkinson rival chatshow Aspel & Company to hosting Have I Got News for You. As the new face of a British institution, Bruce has a tough act to follow. We hope this little list will help her to prepare for the trial ahead.

1 Antiques Roadshow has been running since 1979, and has been exported to the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Africa, Sweden and the Netherlands. The pilot roadshow was recorded in Hereford on May 17, 1977.

2 The series editor, Simon Shaw, claims that the more middle- class the venue, the less interesting the finds. In a newspaper interview last year, he said that they had always done better in northern industrial towns than in locations such as Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Chester.

3 In 1987 a couple came into the Roadshow in Barnstaple with a painting that had been given to them as a gift. The expert Peter Nahum recognised it as Halt in the Desert by Richard Dadd, a work that had been missing for more than 100 years. It was, unusually, taken away to be authenticated and valued at £100,000. It was purchased by the British Museum.

4 There have been more than 500 episodes of Antiques Roadshow, recorded in 420 venues. The show is aired on the BBC for six months of the year with a season of 26 shows, each one of which sees the experts examining up to 20,000 items between them.

5 Since it began, the programme has rated in the top ten factual shows on British terrestrial television, and has an average audience of more than six million viewers. Hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, a spin-off series, 20th Century Roadshow, focusing on modern collectibles, aired between April and June 2005.

6 Fiona Bruce will be the Antiques Roadshow's sixth presenter. The pilot episode was presented by Bruce Parker and Arthur Negus, who were followed by Hugh Scully, Angela Rippon and Michael Aspel. Scully holds the record for longest running presenter, having presented the show from 1981 until 2000.

7 The most valuable find to date was a collection of Corporation silver brought in by the Mayor at the Arundel Roadshow in 2006, including several maces and a chalice made in the reign of Charles II. Expert Alastair Dickenson valued it at £300,000.

8 The Antiques Roadshow Lecture and Conference Services is the only organisation to hold a licence from the BBC allowing it to provide official themed Roadshow services, such as private roadshows, quizzes and masterclasses. Clients include P&O Ferries and Hilton Hotels.

9 In the 1990s, a new feature was added to the show, where experts visited a local place of interest near the Roadshow's venue and discussed its collections. Audiences complained about the change to the show's format, and the feature was scrapped.

10 On a busy recording day, as many as 5,000 people can turn up to have their possessions inspected. The doors are open from 10am to 4pm, and the Roadshow guarantees that everybody in the queue will be seen by one of its 20 experts. One of these experts, Henry Sandon, whose son John is now also an expert on the show, claims that at a Roadshow in Toronto there was a separate queue for people who wanted to kiss him.

Antiques Roadshow Farewell Michael, Sun, BBC One, 6.30pm

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010