ann maurice – interior rivalry 2 (2/8)
20.00–21.00

Ann Maurice, the no-nonsense House Doctor with the flair to make any room shine, is once more on the hunt for Britain’s best home-stager. With a prize worth more than £50,000 at stake, Ann has no time for half-heartedness. Assisting her on her search are interior-design expert Gordon Whistance and business tycoon Duncan Bannatyne. Tonight, the remaining contestants are faced with the difficult challenge of turning a negative into a positive.

It’s week two for the prospective home-stagers. With contestant Nigel having to drop out of the competition for health reasons, Ann puts the remaining nine into three teams: Joe, Jennifer and Rolf; Rachel, Jayne and Dani; and Liza, Kate and Neal. Each team is given two days and £400 to make over a room – and the room will contain a bad feature that they can change but not remove. Each team is going to have to do their best to show what they can do, since at the end of this challenge, one person is going home.

Neal, Liza and Kate’s team are faced with what Ann considers to be the easiest challenge: a bedroom which features an imposing fireplace on a dark-red chimney breast. Unfortunately, the designers are not going to get off lightly –the fact that the challenge is easier means that Ann’s going to be expecting something pretty spectacular. They decide to change the wall colour, replace the wardrobe, paint the fireplace and change the carpet, and have everything decided impressively quickly. Liza and Neal hit the shops at 11am and get an excellent deal on a carpet, but back at the house Kate has a few problems with the DIY when the window frame falls apart in her hands. Painterdecorator Neal gets to work fixing it but in the process realises that the ceiling could also do with some work. Will this new project derail the rest of the makeover and scupper their chances?

Rachel, Dani and Jayne, meanwhile, have been presented with a living room that boasts a spectacularly ugly carpet. They think that a striking centrepiece will detract from the floor but have a hard time deciding how to divide up the work and end up arguing most of the day. Rachel and Jayne finally leave for the shops in the late afternoon, leaving an unimpressed Dani at home to do the grunt work. “They’re belittling the work that needs doing,” she says. “I could be on a team that doesn’t finish.” Ann and Gordon agree – it’s not looking good at all.

The third team, comprising Joe, Jennifer and Rolf, are faced with a very bulky problem: a large, mahogany shelving unit. They also have problems within the team: Jennifer is struggling through the flu, and Joe is distracted, having had some bad news from home. Can they keep it together for long enough to complete the task? They do not get off to a good start, arguing about colours for three hours and finding it difficult to work together. When Ann and Gordon visit, they are concerned at the lack of progress. “I’m not sure they’re going to make it,” worries Gordon. The team work hard to make up the time, but will their efforts be enough?

As day two dawns, the teams are at dramatically different stages. The fireplace team are doing well but still need to find a new bed, following up on a tip that Ann gave them when she visited; the carpet team still have shopping to do; and the shelving unit team are battling to catch up. When Ann comes to judge the rooms at 4pm, who will have pulled it together – and who will be sent home?