Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

I really don't make a point of watching them, but whenever I catch one of those property makeover shows the BBC seems to be spending the Licence Payers' money on sending an army of builders, carpenters, gardeners, electricians etc. on a mission to tart-up the properties of some very affluent- looking families who, I would have thought, could afford the improvements (although from what I've seen the places generally looked better before the designers got to work) from their own pockets. It would be a nice change to see the teams getting to work on the dilapidated hovel of some threadbare pauper (like mine, for instance) the unfortunate owner of which has to scrimp and scrape in order to send the BBC its annual tithe. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/s-chainsaw.gif[/img]

tonewheel

They have got themselves good jobs these makeover people,I don't know for the life of me how they managed it. Take Tommy walsh (the one in the silly braces and shorts who pretends to be a builder) he breaks into a sweat just looking at a shovel. Handy Andy's another, his opinion is now saught on all kinds of subjects. Dominic Littlewood were's he sprung from, he started off giving advice on buying a used car, and now he's offering advice on which house to buy.There's loads of em, all experts getting people to spend around 250 quid to bodge their houses in order to sell them for an extra 25 grand. Give me Dixon of Dock Green, Fabian of the Yard, Armchair Theatre, Hancocks Half Hour etc etc etc any day.

Steve Crook

But do they ever follow up on any of the guinea-pigs to see if they did do as advised and if it made any difference to the sale price?

The trouble is that the "experts" would then just claim that the "real people" didn't do it exactly how they were advised.

It's all a load of nonsense.

Steve

Ambrosia

True Steve but we are talking about it and therefore they have achived some form of notariety in the minds of the public, frankly I dont bother with such drivel, life is to short to be worried about other peoples hovels.

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.

Marky B

[ Dominic Littlewood
[/quote]

Is he that baldy headed cockney,with a permanent grin on his boat race. If so.... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rifle.gif[/img] !!!!
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Steve Crook

To (approximately) quote the already much missed Linda Smith when talking about Jeffery Archole "I want to deny him the oxygen of publicity. I'm not too happy about him having the oxygen of oxygen" [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img]

Steve

samkydd

I have seen one or two of this type of programme. I hate DIY at the best of times, although I can put up a shelf, kitchens and install sockets etc but I don't particularly enjoy it.

The idea of painting over kitchen cupboard doors, or to decorate a living room purple is a bit silly. Most normal houses in the UK are quite small and dark purple makes a room look even smaller, and with all the other "designer" clutter they end up resembling a brothel madam's boudoir! Painting over tiles with tile paint gives the impression that whoever did it is a complete prat, and when the house is viewed by prospective buyers they immediately think, "Oh, shit I'm going to have to re-tile the whole bathroom and rip the kitchen out as well as redecorate that bloody awful tart's purple living room!"

The expert designers have carte blanche to experiment with whatever cocaine-fueled ideas they had in a brain-addled haze the night before, so the more outlandish the colour scheme the happier they are, being different for the sake of being controversial. They're taking the piss basically!

If you see their own houses they're probably painted in neutral colours to enhance whatever valuable artwork or ornamentation they have on display, and I doubt they'd ever consider some of the crap ideas they implement on these shows!

The only show of this type that I watch without fail is Grand Designs, and I have been impressed with the creativity and imagination that some people have, not all, but if you can start with a blank canvass and create the house of your dreams, the more unconventional the better, it's amazing what can be achieved (if you have the luxury of plenty of time and money)!

The garden shows like Groundforce I enjoy because to see a humble overgrown plot of weeds and cracked flagstones turn into something beautiful free of charge is quite remarkable. I draw the line at painting fence panels lilac though, I just love the smell of good old creasote!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

sanndevil

I think a point is being missed here. Makeover shows are cheap and filler for daytime schedules when very few people are watching. Before they came along we had endless chatshows and quiz shows; my own opinion is I would prefer a few Homes Under The Hammer type shows if it meant less inane talking head shows.

To give you an idea how cheap they are, go to the BBC commissioning website and hve a look at the tariffs per hour during the day - most daytime shows are allocated between £10k-40k. You can't do much with that, and the BBC have higher figures than Five, C4 or Carlton. So basically, there is very little money swilling around. The question is, with the budgets available, what else could be broadcast? I've come up with a few ideas myself, but so far good old Auntie Beeb has turned every one of 'em down [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

theuofc

Hello, SamK,

Thanks for the most entertaining post. There are always some good laughs in your comments. I like the story told about the couple who sued one of the makeover teams for redoing their living room or was it the bedroom in bright red, velvet curtains, etc. They said it looked like a brothel and wanted it put back the way it was. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Change isn't always progress.

Barbara

Marky B

I don't mind watching Escape To The Country on BBC2,even though at times I think the presenter must feel they are wasting their time as there is always something not quite right,like a fly in the ointment,to put the prospective buyers off.
However,I can't stand Cash In The Attic,Bargain Hunt(particularly with berk,Tim whatshis name),Car Booty and that one where they go over to France,buys stuff and brings them back over to England. Flog It is not bad,but they are all overshadowed by The Antiques Roadshow.
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

bloodworm

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]-->To be quite honest Marky, I cant stand any of these kind of shows, They bore me to tears. I now tend to record good documentaries and watch whilst the above cr*p is on. For example in the week i recorded and watched the following day " The Falling Man " an investigation into the poor victims of 911. Traumatic but very watchable. If there is nothing to watch though there is always the OFF BUTTON !!! and log on here .

C/U The Worm [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

The one that gets away is always the biggest but not always the best !!

djdave

Good point. But couldn't the Beeb start showing some repeats from its back catalogue? And I don't mean the usual suspects, like The Good Life. I mean the stuff that hardly ever - if at all - gets shown.

For example, there was a cracking series from the 80s called Star Cops, which, so far as I'm aware, has never been shown since. Or Private Schultz from 1981?

The residuals the Beeb would need to pay the actors would - presumably - fall within the budget allocated for daytime TV. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ermm.gif[/img]

sanndevil

I believe the Beeb has constraints in its charter regarding the number of repeats it can air; also repeat fees for 'prestige shows' are VERY expensive. I remember reading back in the early 90s the BBC was having a good old moan about the cost of repeating Steptoe and Son - a half hour comedy repeat meant a payment of £10k per episode to Harry H Corbett's widow. Add everyone else's costs and you start to appreciate the figures involved, and that was I reckon 15 years ago. So, with a daytime budget of £10k-£40k it is impossible to repeat anything decent.

I, like probably everyone else on this forum, would like to see more daytime movies. But I think that too would fall foul due to cost and charter restrictions.

djdave

Interesting....I didn't realise that it was so expensive to show repeats.

It's a shame, though, because there must be days' worth of quality programmes just wasting away in the BBC archives. And, to be fair to ITV, in their archives as well.

theuofc

Hi, Sanndevil,

What a dismal future for daytime, not just for viewers but also in terms of the works themselves sitting on shelves gathering dust. By assessing stiff fees for repeats of their material, the people, estates, whomever are strangling it for future generations of viewers. Not all of it will come out on DVD. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/no.gif[/img]

Best,

Barbara