FAMOUS for his colourful trousers, TV antiques expert David Harper is swapping the TV camera for the stage as he takes his one-man theatre show on tour.

David, who is based in Teesdale, County Durham, has been a regular on BBC programmes such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip for more than a decade and has lined up 24.

Dubbed Unexpected Tales, David will treat audiences to the funny behind-the-scenes gossip from some of the BBC's most popular daytime and early evening shows, including his encounters with the famous for celebrity specials.

He said: “You cannot believe what goes on in the world of art, antiques and in the making of television shows. You will not be expecting what you will hear.”

David added that the unscripted nature of his theatre shows make each one a unique experience.

““I have some ideas of what I want to talk about, but I often throw the topics open to the audience. It's real seat of your pants stuff.”

Unexpected Tales is David's first major theatre tour and follows the success of his first foray into stage work in his native North-East.

“For many years, I’ve been giving talks for business groups, after dinner events and other presentations and I always enjoy them, so the next stage was to take what I do on tour through theatres.’’

“I bit the bullet and did a few live theatre shows to try it out to a different kind of audience, rather than organised groups. I absolutely loved it and the theatre atmosphere is fantastic.’’

David said that those first showsproved extremely popular with audiences and that had spurred him on to develop Unexpected Tales.

“People were interested in how things were put together, making the TV shows, how things could go wrong and the celebrities I had worked with. People also like to hear stories of the TV disasters, the antiques profits, the bigger losses, the fakes and the fabulous.’’

He will be performing in the region on August 17 at Bishop Auckland Town Hall; on September 20 at Darlington Hippodrome; on October 26 at Helmsley Arts Centre; on November 10 at Settle Victoria Hall; and on December 8 at The Forum, Northallerton.

For more information, go to www.david-harper.co.uk; Twitter @davidharpertv or Facebook @davidharperantiques.