Thursday 26 April
ann maurice – interior rivalry (6/8) 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 is interior-design expert Gordon Whistance. In this week’s episode, the five remaining contestants must make a business pitch to a pair of estate agents, before home staging the ground floors of two houses in less than a day.

This week’s challenge is about the fledgling home stagers learning to do business. Ann has arranged for the participants to make a pitch to two top estate agents in order to practise their business skills. She creates two teams: Kate and Rolf, and Neal, Liza and Jayne, each of whom have only three hours to come up with a business name and identity. They will then meet graphic designers who will turn their ideas into promotional material.

Kate and Rolf hit upon the company name of ‘Revive’ and decide upon a bold black and white colour scheme. The second group choose ‘Selling Solutions’ for their name – but their graphic designer is nonplussed. “It doesn’t quite tell me what you do,” he says. In the end they settle on ‘Staging Solutions’, with a reserved colour palette.

The next day the teams gather nervously to make their pitches. Sitting in judgment are top estate agents Vito Rause and Jon Byers. Ann and Gordon are standing by to see how their charges do: “Basically, they better turn up knowing what they’re going to say, prepared, and be able to sell themselves,” Ann says. She hopes to teach them the importance of winning business from agents.

The Revive team do well in their pitch, with Rolf especially coming off as the “most passionate and the most credible”. Their promotion material is also praised. However, the Staging Solutions group don’t fare so well, as poor old Neal stumbles in his presentation: “My nerves got the better of me,” he admits. But it is Liza’s aggressive style that makes the judges uncomfortable. “Your pitch, Liza especially, scared me,” Vito Rause tells them. “I nearly ran.”

The second part of the challenge is now unveiled: the teams have less than a day and only £100 to restage the ground floor of a property belonging to one of the estate agents. The aim is to depersonalise the houses to make them more saleable. The Revive team of Kate and Rolf must tackle a house in Holloway, North London, belonging to Vito Rause’s agency. They are confronted with a cluttered living room, a kitchen bristling with pots and pans, and a hole in the hallway ceiling.

The Staging Solutions team of Neal, Liza and Jayne must contend with another property in Holloway, this time belonging to Jon Byers’ agency. As well as endless clutter, the house is sprinkled with knick-knacks and a conservatory with a table covered in papers. This table is soon a bone of contention between Liza and the other members. Liza wants to move the table and eventually gets her way, but it is apparent that a fissure has opened up in the group. “I don’t think either Jayne or Neal really had a clue when we walked in,” Liza says. “I think she sees me and Neal as the donkeys!” is Jayne’s response.

The Revive team, meanwhile, make good progress, despite their opposing personalities. “She’s quiet and calm and that’s not me!” a stressed-out Rolf jokes. With barely an hour before Ann and Gordon’s inspection, Kate dashes out for some items to dress the house, and even negotiates the loan of a rug. But over in the Staged Solutions house, things have gone from bad to worse. “They’ve decided it’s going to be the Jayne and Neal show,” Liza complains. “They fear my talent,” she adds. With time running out on their most pressurised challenge yet, can the Staged Solutions team claw themselves back?