On BBC now - Celebrity Escape to the Country

I've seen a couple of snatches of different 'celebrity' programmes and they just make me feel so out of date. I've mostly never even heard of these people.
Did often watch ETTC and used to really enjoy it on an afternoon with a cuppa. It actually showed a couple of the places DH and I viewed when we first came back to the UK - how deceptive TV can be. One particular house had the worst window frames ever, you could see daylight through nearly every one and there was a dreadful smell of drains in the kitchen, really in a bad state and yet they were all waxing lyrical over the house. We couldn't wait to leave!

I really enjoyed the episode with Linford Christie. What a charming, happy person he appears to be sharing so much laughter with his daughter and Alastair.
He too, is just a person wanting to enjoy the countryside.

We couldn't hear the majority of what was said due to the back ground music.

Allira

I think GN has been overtaken by a load of misery-guts lately.

Why go on a thread just to moan?
Just walk on by.

We like moaning.

I'm actually pleased to say I haven't heard of most celebrities. I couldn't care less about any of them. I hadn't heard of Taylor Swift until her name was mentioned about 100 times a day on news bulletins for some reason which I can't remember. Old and proud to be grumpy.

I prefer to watch ordinary people for things like this. I would like to see ordinary people review holidays too, especially those who wouldn't have the money to do it themselves. It would be far more refreshing than watching a celebrity (even those I like) who can easily afford to pay for those things themselves.

Me too..I am not into this 'celeb culture'

I agree...pointless not knowing if they are successful or not on any of the houses

I do like watching Escape to the Country because I’m interested in houses generaly but the amount people have to spend on them is obscene!
It’s not realistic, some people have no idea how the other half live?!!

sassenach512

They used to tell you if the couple's offer was accepted and they got the house, now they leave you guessing, it's frustrating

I'm guessing that it wasn't accepted, or that the purchase didn't eventually go through.

No, I never watch any "Celebrity" programmes at all, I've often not heard of the person involved and they're often not very interesting.
I love most of the property programmes, but don't enjoy the ones with vast budgets as much, mainly because the extra money often seems to go on things that we wouldn't want such as ultra fancy bathrooms, double height rooms and more bathrooms than bedrooms. The idea of living anywhere very remote without decent transport links is not for me either.
I particularly enjoy some of the "Love it or List it" episodes as the changes made can absolutely transform a house - though I'm not always convinced that some of the costs given are absolutely honest.

The couples who turn their noses up at a beautiful palatial kitchen/living room I could fit my whole house in and say it's too small really bug me 🙄

Think the programme seems to be more for Estate Agents being able to show off some off their more expensive and hard to shift properties.
Funny you should say that, Franbern but you are right. We know a couple whose house was featured- it had been on the market for 3 years with no interest.
Also 2 other houses were featured in our area, both in places no local would choose so, again, difficult to sell. The programme has to be in cahoots with estate agents who try to push these properties.

I do like a bit of house porn😁So ETTC is ideal for me, celebrity or not.
I also like Alistair Appleton

I love looking at houses and have a dreadful RightMove habit.

I've not seen the celebrities version, but I've got no wish to see them.
It's just the properties, for me.

Thanks. Watched the Linford Christie one and catchup is now showing the earlier series. Really enjoying it. I don’t usually like the non celebrity ones as I can never understand, as a Billy no mates, how much entertaining people say they do.

My great aunt (who died 50 + years ago) lived in a lovely little house as a tenant when working as a servant in the “big house” next door..

The property came onto the market recently so I arranged a viewing. I couldn’t resist. The agent showed me around the now much modernised and now grade 2 listed detached tiny one bed house.

It was beautiful and was hugely emotional to experience it once again.

Skydancer

*Think the programme seems to be more for Estate Agents being able to show off some off their more expensive and hard to shift properties.*
Funny you should say that, Franbern but you are right. We know a couple whose house was featured- it had been on the market for 3 years with no interest.
Also 2 other houses were featured in our area, both in places no local would choose so, again, difficult to sell. The programme has to be in cahoots with estate agents who try to push these properties.

Some friends of ours had their home felon the programme, it had just gone on the market and was a beautiful old Mill house in a small village. The buyers seemed to like it, as it fitted the wish list. The buyers made no offers on any of the houses shown above in the programme
They in reality bought a very small cottage in the same area that had none of the wish list attributes and cost a lot less.
I think some people inflate their budgets so they get to look around nice houses and stay in a hotel at the programme’s expense.

Felon? Featured!

Watching the Kay Adams one which is great fun and the houses are lovely.I found the houses in the Linford Christie episode a bit soulless.

Franbern

When ETTC first started I used to really enjoy it. Totally different format back then.
Firstly, far more normal people with normal amounts of money for moving home. Then the presented would select four houses which they would 'view' on line in their own homes, selecting two of them to visit.

I really cannot get my head around the vast sums of money that people reckon they can afford in this programme now, and the constant demand for acres of land by people who are coming up to retirement age.

Always get told about the pub in the nearest village, but never about the bus and/or train services or even how crowded the roads get in rush hour.

Silly elderly people thinking properties with loads of steps both going to and in them, are wonderful!!!! never 'future planning'. Kitchens so large you would need a Segway to use them being written off as 'not big enough'!!!!

Very few of those on this programme seem to go ahead to purchase any they are shown. Think the programme seems to be more for Estate Agents being able to show off some off their more expensive and hard to shift properties.

Oh Franbern, I totally agree about ETTC. Recently a retiree fell in love with a house with a short 3 tier garden, the end of which had fabulous views because it was higher than the roof!

Regarding the celeb editions of any programme, we see people in the media and form an opinion. Seeing them on a quiz show or Strictly, we get a little more insight into whether our previous opinion had any validity. It's a form of people watching, I suppose.

MayBee70

Thanks. Watched the Linford Christie one and catchup is now showing the earlier series. Really enjoying it. I don’t usually like the non celebrity ones as I can never understand, as a Billy no mates, how much entertaining people say they do.

'We're moving 250 miles to Scotland or Cornwall, but need a sitting room or dining room for entertaining.' A friend assured me when they moved to somewhere they'd been on holiday, that friends come and stay only once - so they moved back from whence they came.

I think the ones I like the most, are where the prospective purchaser/s have a fairly limited budget and the programme excels themselves in finding them something exceptional. I'm less interested in those who have say over a million. I particularly remember one such couple, they were coming back from somewhere or other and had a large budget, maybe 1.5 million. One property in the offing was some souless place that resembled the inside of a golf clubhouse.

There was one programme the other day (not a celebrity one) which was supposedly set near here. They kept showing shots of a nearby village which is in the area the couple had chosen and had coffee with them there, saying how lovely it is.
However, none of the properties were really near there at all and none of the properties looked at all suitable for their future needs.

At the end it was announced they had bought a property in an entirely different part of the country.