New show is more demolition derby than Grand Designs
Which is where Stacey comes in, teeth glowing against the dull grey of bare plaster
You’d have thought that, if you’d just spent 50 grand or so on builders who had left you in the lurch, the last person you'd want to see coming round the corner to help you out would be former X-Factor contestant and de facto Queen of Essex Stacey Solomon.
However, as new series Stacey Solomon’s Renovation Rescue (Channel 4, Weds, 9pm) shows, there is a host of desperate homeowners willing to let this Loose Woman, well, loose on their ruined homes.
In the first episode, we met Caroline and Erick, who had taken on builders to extend and refurbish their two-bedroom bungalow in Enfield, north London.
As anyone who has had the builders in knows, it can be a risk taking on even those ones that come with a personal recommendation, and you can never truly be sure how everything’s going to turn out.
So it comes as no real surprise that Caroline and Erick’s builders took £80,000 to turn their home into an uninhabitable building site which showed no sign of ever being finished.
Having sacked their builders, a new survey suggested it would take another £65,000 to rectify the mistakes and finish the work.
Which is where Stacey comes in, teeth glowing against the dull grey of bare plaster, her upbeat, can-do mood at odds with Caroline and Erick, who seem beaten down by their building experience.
She promises to help them finish the project, and save money at the same time, claiming she will “teach them the skills they need to save money”.
Now we all know that Stacey is great at decluttering a hoarder’s home – thanks to her BBC series Sort Your Life Out, which finished it most recent run earlier this month.
But did you know that she’s also a dab hand with dot-and-dab plastering, and a a bright spark when it comes to electrics?
No?
Well, it turns out she isn’t. Caroline and Erick have yet more money to throw at more builders to help them finish the house – around £65,000 more, to be precise – and Stacey and her team don’t even show up that often.
Two months after their first filmed meeting is when Stacey next turns up, apparently, to show them how to change a small pane of glass above a door.
In the interim, we hear lots about how the experience has left Caroline and Erick feeling, and lots about how Stacey will help them stop feeling it.
So what sort of show is Renovation Rescue? It’s easier to say what it’s not really.
It’s not a ’learning DIY show’ – it’s not detailed enough to give tutorials in decent skills, and anyway, Stacey and her two subjects have Aggie the builder on hand to talk them through everything – a bit easier than struggling with a YouTube video on your phone.
It’s not a renovation story, like Grand Designs, as it doesn’t follow a project from the start, the house isn’t particularly noteworthy or special and the plans are straightforward.
It’s not a consumer, ’rogue builders’ show as we never see the first lot who left the house in such a state, and there are no hints on how to avoid a similar outcome yourself.
It’s not an interior design programme, it’s not a competition, it’s not a shopping show.
It wants to be all these things, at the same time, and fails. In fact, the only thing it succeeds in doing is advertising Dulux paint, a particular type of decking system and Amazon Prime gets a very significant mention for no obvious reason at all.
And in the end, after the big reveal of the finished house, the couple – to Stacey’s complete astonishment, it seems – have saved a grand total of just £5,000, despite reportedly breaking their backs to do a lot of work themselves.
I like Stacey Solomon, I really do. She’s funny, likeable and a warm, empathetic presenter, but you fear her Renovation Rescue could end up falling down around her ears.