Phil’s not quite at home
IMEAN this in a nice way – of course I do, I mean everything in a nice way – but PHIL SPENCER’S STATELY HOMES, which is back for its third run (C4, 8pm), feels like a blend of several other TV shows. It has a touch of Alan Titchmarsh’s National Trust series and a hint of Giles and Monica’s Amazing Hotels.
There’s also a smattering of something you’d expect Lucy Worsley to be presenting (although no doubt she’d be swanning around dressed as Elizabeth I or Guy Fawkes or maybe an actual swan, you know what she’s like) and even an element of Kevin
McCloud’s Grand Designs (in the golly-gosh-wow sense, rather than the ooh-I-do-love-ugly-glass-andsteel sense, obviously).
Those, plus the tiniest bit of Richard Ayoade’s Travel Man, simply in the way it keeps flashing up statistics on screen, rather than Phil having to memorise them. Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, these graphics tell us tonight, sits in a 35-acre estate, has living space equivalent to 365 two-bedroom houses and features window frames coated in 24-carat gold leaf, even though that’s seriously tacky (it doesn’t say that last bit).
No wonder Phil is looking forward to his visit. “Chatsworth has been on my hit list for at least 20 years!” he tells us.
All right, he could have phrased this better – it does make him sound a bit Crimewatchy – but if you’re a lover of this kind of place then you can understand why he’s so excited.
Better still, he’s getting a guided tour by Stoker, no less. Oh, come on, you must know Stoker.The 12th Duke of Devonshire. Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish. Stoker to his chums. Good old Stoker.
Phil brings an infectiously boyish glee to this series. And he’s never afraid to ask the sort of question others might consider a bit basic. Questions such as why is this chap the Duke of Devonshire when Chatsworth is very much in Derbyshire?
I dare say experts would consider it a bit of a “why is Leeds Castle in Kent?” kind of inquiry but Stoker doesn’t seem to mind answering it, or suggest that maybe Phil could have done a modicum of research rather than just showing up and then trying to wing it.
Elsewhere, Michael Portillo also visits a remarkable building, Orléans Cathedral, in GREAT CONTINENTAL RAILWAY JOURNEYS
“Does it have a strong connection with Joan of Arc?” he asks his guide.
“Well, Michael,” the man replies, “since you’re stood beneath a set of whopping great stained glass windows depicting the story of Joan of Arc, how about you take a wild guess?”
Oh, sorry, that’s me shouting that at my telly.