Hoarding objects a soothing escape

THIS is almost the last episode of this modest but usually enthralling series.

Collectors

THIS is almost the last episode of this modest but usually enthralling series.

I ignored it for years but once I discovered it I was hooked. It's one of those modest programs that not only represents its time but dissects, dismantles and deconstructs the period in which it is broadcast. It's a highly entertaining hybrid format of travelogue, panel talk show and lateral history program; each collector's treasure a kind of snapshot that captures the essence of the time in which it was created.

Collectors and their prizes front an expert panel in the studio of three specialist presenters, hosted by fashion designer Claudia Chan Shaw, antiques dealer Gordon Brown and sociologist and collector Adrian Franklin, each of them engaging, chatty and amiable.

It was always surprising to watch; the sort of show you would see only on the ABC. Expertly produced from the ABC's Hobart unit and stylishly directed, the series in its rather cool way touched on many ideas to do with the psychology of collecting and the politics of taste. The show is popular because it's a gorgeously presented expression of the human capacity to categorise objects. So many of us do it and Collectors offers reassurance that while hoarding objects can be a soothing and reassuring escape from anxieties, it's not necessarily an escape from life.

Our own Phillip Adams appeared recently, gliding into the Hobart studio to discuss with the panel his fascination with ancient civilisations and why he just can't stop collecting bits of them. He jokingly suggested that he believed collecting to be a serious illness but he was probably right that it was a deep-seated evolutionary impulse.

To judge from the people who have appeared on the show, serious collecting is obviously a highly rewarding way of apprehending a bewildering world and finding one's place in it. I just hope someone at the ABC collects this series.

Collectors, 8pm, ABC1