THE queues are long but spirits are high. One woman has brought a sword she thinks could be Jacobite, another has brought her childhood teddy, all ragged and torn. Someone else has managed to lug a massive grandfather clock all the way down the hill from the carpark. It’s the start of a day’s recording on The Antiques Roadshow.

Today, the programme – which is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary – has come to the former mill village at New Lanark and around 2000 people have turned up. The day starts with one long queue for the reception desk where the experts can take a look at the objects and point people to the right specialist. The objects are then sifted down and down during the day, leaving around 30 of the best to go before the cameras.

Only about five per cent of the people who turn up will end up on screen, but all the experts say that’s not the point - everyone will get a valuation and most people have come along today for the buzz and the atmosphere.

The very first person in the queue is 30-year-old Sonya Hinchcliffe from Yorkshire who was here at 6.30am. She has been coming regularly to the Antiques Roadshow for a number of years and this year has brought a Victorian toy shaped liked a bee which at one point was almost thrown away.

“There was an old lady in her 90s,” she says, “and when she went into a home the family were throwing things in the skip and this was one of the items thrown away. My dad asked if he could have it and he then gave it to me. Now I want to know more about it.” She shows me the original label: S & L Manu of London. “It was my treasured toy as child and I called him Buzz Bee,” she says.

Further on down the queue, another visitor, Gay Davidson from Forfar, has also brought one of her childhood toys: a miniature Silver Cross pram which she was given as a Christmas present in the 1960s, and, like Sonya and the bee, there’s an emotional reason for loving it.

“My sister and I were given this together as a present at Christmas but she died quite young so I think it was put away and never taken out again,” she says.

Fiona Bruce, the presenter of the show, says this kind of story is typical of The Antiques Roadshow. Of course, some people who come to the recording are only interested in the money and there is a realistic chance of a fantastic valuation. Four years ago, a vicar turned up with a painting he bought for a few hundred pounds - it turned out to be a Van Dyck and was sold for £400,000. In 2001, there was also a Leica camera valued at £385,000.

However, Fiona Bruce says the real currency of The Antiques Roadshow isn’t money – it’s emotion. “It’s very much about the emotions. Of course it’s about the money a bit, and sometimes for people a lot, but when people bring things along, there are all sorts of emotions wrapped up in them – some people have bought things in car boot sales and they want to know what it’s worth but more often people have a family connection with the object.” She tells me about one woman who was in tears this morning as she handed over a picture that was owned by her late father.

Bruce, who has been presenting the show since 2007, has a personal reason for knowing the emotional power that objects can have. During her first year on the show, she brought along a small porcelain figure to have it valued and the experts told her it was worth ten quid. But the low valuation didn’t matter because the figurine had been a present from her parents. She still has it, and it’s still precious.

The experts on the show also believe they are offering a real service to people in an uncertain time. “There are a lot of inaccurate sources out there,” says the executive producer Simon Shaw, “and you can get lost on the internet with conflicting advice so coming to see leading art experts and get their views allows people to, finally, get an answer on their family treasure.”

Around 2000 people did that at New Lanark on Thursday and the promise from the producers is that everyone who is in the queue by 4.30pm will get a valuation. The programme will go out later this year.