Throng

ann maurice – interior rivalry (7/8)
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. Assisting Ann on her search are interior-design expert Gordon Whistance and special guest Duncan Bannatyne. The four remaining contestants battle for a place in the final this week as they have to pitch their home staging ideas to a real client.

Ann and Gordon invite the participants to the local cinema to practise their home-staging pitches. Each competitor is shown a picture of a room on the big screen and has to tell Ann and Gordon what changes they would make. This must be done with care as the home owner will have an emotional attachment to the things that they wish to change. “This is an exercise in tact and diplomacy,” Gordon says. “You’ve got to make everything that’s negative a positive.”

In the event, only Kate passes the test, with a “very impressive” presentation. Ann decides that the home stagers need more practice before they face a real client, so she arranges for them to see a flat owned by a business associate of Duncan Bannatyne. The £1.3m apartment on the Thames has been on the market for over a year without any offers. Duncan explains the challenge: “I’m looking to see if you can express exactly what needs to change to make this a more saleable item.”

The home stagers take their turns to give their views to Ann and Duncan. This is the first time they have been presented with a property of this calibre and some of them struggle with the unusual features, such as a bizarre painting in the living room and a circular wall complete with a mural of naked women. Liza’s plan to tile over the mural and replace the glass table in the kitchen meets with a sharp rebuke from Ann: “Get your head out of the clouds! We’re home staging, we’re not redesigning this entire house,” she says.

Duncan is unconvinced by Neal and Liza, and he feels that while Rolf possesses a “very professional manner”, he wouldn’t be able to present his plans without upsetting the client with his opinions. Once again, Kate is the most successful.

The main challenge is now presented. The contestants have 24 hours to diagnose a large five bedroom house in North London and prepare their pitch to the owner, Peter Mullen, the following day. Ann splits them into two teams: Rolf and Liza, and Kate and Neal. They visit the house and find a large property with dated furnishings. It is also filled with cat and dog hair from Mr Mullen’s pets, something Liza finds hard to handle. “There’s the most horrendous smell,” she says, before hurrying from the bedroom.

The house is on the market for £775,000 but its faded décor and loud carpets have so far discouraged buyers. It’s common practice for a home staging project to cost one per cent of the asking price, but the competitors face a hard time convincing Mr Mullen to part with the money. The house has been his home for over 40 years and he is reluctant to redecorate. The teams have three objectives in their pitch: they must explain the benefits of home staging, illustrate that a small investment can mean a big return, and give a price.

Liza and Rolf are the first to meet Mr Mullen, but they make a crucial error when they forget to talk about the benefits of home staging and overwhelm him with jargon. Ann and Duncan watch on the TV upstairs: “They haven’t taken the time to woo him yet,” Ann says. Neal and Kate fare better, explaining the benefits and emphasising the low cost, but have they done enough to convince Mr Mullen? With two people set to be eliminated this week, the stakes have never been higher.