A more Humble lifestyle
CHANNEL 5 has come up with rather a clever title for their new series kicking off tonight. It’s called A COUNTRY LIFE FOR HALF THE PRICE Snappy, eh? I just hope they remember to keep that “A” firmly locked in place at the start, or else millions will be tuning in expecting a bargain deal on butter.
This programme’s format, to the best of my knowledge, is a first for British television in that it features city dwellers who have decided to up sticks and move to somewhere altogether more remote, lured there by the prospect of a total
(9pm).
change of pace. Oh, sorry, did I say a “first”? I meant a 281st.
To be fair, the show does differ in one significant respect from the sort of show that is normally fronted by Ben Fogle.
Specifically, it differs in that it’s not fronted by Ben Fogle. It’s fronted by Kate Humble.
Kate, mind you, is even better than Ben to this kind of role because she’s actually done precisely what the people in the programme have chosen to do. Or precisely-ish.
In 2007 she and her husband decided they’d had their fill of grimy urban life – well, all right, Chiswick – and relocated to a smallholding in Wales.
Four years later, they established their own rural skills school, Humble By Nature, in the Wye Valley.
Why the Wye Valley? Why, because that way they could truly immerse themselves in the farming way of life.
So will the people who are going to feature in this series have equally happy stories to tell?
First up, we meet the Cook family, living in Exeter, who have decided they’d rather be the Cook family living in Shetland, 700 miles away.
Elsewhere, still on the theme of domestic dreams, we have the return of YOUR HOME MADE PERFECT (BBC2, 8pm), hosted by Angela Scanlon. This, you may recall, although I wouldn’t worry too much if you don’t, is the makeover series that uses virtual reality to let people see how lovely/different/weird their homes could look.
Two rival architects go head-tosuited head, not by having a fist fight but by drawing up alternative plans. The homeowners then put on virtual reality headsets so that they can (a) immerse themselves in each of these architects’ magical visions, and (b) look like someone’s glued a shoebox to their face.
We start with Silvia and Julian, a couple living in a messy, cramped bungalow near Brighton who have decided they’d rather be a couple living in an unmessy, uncramped bungalow near Brighton, particularly if they’re not going to be allowed to step outside it for the next three months.
They don’t actually say that last bit, of course.