The Scottish antiques expert has been a staple of the show for many years
BBC One’s Bargain Hunt is back on our screens, with auctioneer Natasha Raskin Sharp at the helm. The Scottish antiques expert has been a mainstay of the show for years, but there are some things fans might not know about her.
One of her most cherished items is a reference letter from none other than former US president Barack Obama. In 2007, she was working in New Hampshire on the Democrat campaign to regain control of the White House.
Natasha had the opportunity to meet Obama and received high praise from him, which she later used to secure other jobs. Speaking to the Sunday Post, she considered herself “so lucky” to be in the right place at the right time.
She said: “I was only there for three months, and he came to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when I happened to be there. I was so lucky, if you think of the number of states in America, and the number of campaign offices across the whole country which Barack Obama would have visited during that campaign.”
“He was asked to sign a letterheaded paper when he was there, and it happened to come through the printer with a very generic reference for me.”
Natasha believes that the former president and his wife Michelle Obama would make “fantastic Bargain Hunt contestants”.
“They’d be hard to beat,” she added. “I don’t know if I’d put them up against the Bidens or go for a Republican opponent. They’d have to be the blue team, of course.”
The auctioneer, who rose from antiques expert to presenter on Bargain Hunt in 2015, is still taken aback by her fame.
“It took me a few years to properly relax,” she shared. “The fact that I even get called a daytime presenter is hilarious to me.”
She expressed her surprise at landing the role, admitting she was “completely astonished” and never thought it would happen.
Besides her television work, she hosts her own late-night music programme on BBC Radio Scotland.
Natasha, aged 38, resides in Glasgow with her spouse Joe Sharp, who produces Celebrity Antiques Road Trip.
Bargain Hunt airs on BBC One on weekdays at 12.15pm
