Antiques Roadshow's Fiona Bruce left stammering over intimate item owened by Queen Victoria

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WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce stammered when she talked about a pair of "crotchless" knickers associated with an iconic Royal figure.
The much-loved BBC daytime show made its way to Norwich, setting the stage at the Sainsbury Centre where treasured items from guests were valued by specialists.
However, things took an intriguing turn when Bruce herself got hands-on with a delicate piece of cloth adorned with the Royal crest.
Bruce joked about a peculiar trend on the programme, saying, "We see an awful lot of Queen Victoria's knickers on the Antiques Roadshow.
"I'm not quite sure why so many people have so much of her underwear, other than to say, she obviously had quite a lot of it.
"But look, she was obviously a lady of some considerable girth towards the end of her reign so they're pretty sizable."
(Image: GETTY)
At 61, Bruce dramatically showed how massive the historic underwear was by tying it around her waist.
Bruce dropped an historical tidbit, mentioning that before Victoria's time, women generally didn't don knickers, adding: "If you think about Jane Austen's time and before then, there wasn't a lot going on under the dresses.
"But towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign, wearing knickers became far more common," noted Bruce before smiiling: "And you may have noticed the obvious design element of them, they are, well - well they're crotchless. I think that's probably the best way to put them!
(Image: BBC)
"And that was for hygiene reasons and also for ease, under that crinoline and all those under garments."
Casting her gaze upon the crowd, Bruce put forth a playful query: "So ladies I just wondered what you thought about the design of Queen Victoria's pants. A good idea?"
It wasn't difficult to read the room; the gathered crowd clearly weren't fans of the open-gusset design, betraying their disdain with wrinkled noses.
Focusing back on the television audience, Bruce concluded with certainty: "No. I don't think this is a fashion that we're going to see again."
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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