Page 3 | Escape to the Country annoyances.

DontEscapeToTheCountry · 2023-10-21T09:14:44+00:00

Why is there a new part where they show them standing on their doorstep chatting like a couple of vagrants? Why when they show an elderly couple a kitchen or living room that you could host a barn dance in, do they say that it's much too small? What are these people doing in their kitchens that requires so much space? And why, when they say that they want a 3 bedroom home with no stairs and a small garden, do they show them Chatsworth House?

LittleGuinea · 21/10/2023 11:58

A house in my village was recently bought by a couple who were shown it on ETTC...it is a 6/7 bedroom house and they are a child free couple in (I guess) their early 50s...

Robotalkingrubbish · 21/10/2023 11:58

DontEscapeToTheCountry · 21/10/2023 11:45

I love the long and stilted questions that they clearly force the couple to ask the local expert.

There's been a long and fascinating history of frog whispering in Little Wellieboot Upon Hampton since 1683. What is it about this particular village that makes it such a hotspot for the Wiltshire frog whispering community?"

Yessss 😂 it’s all so staged and unnatural.

mateysmum · 21/10/2023 11:58

My biggest bugbear is the couple in their 60s who want to retire to the country for a quiet easy life, whilst running a little B&B with a few acres for chickens/sheep/llamas etc. Also the younger townie couples who say they want 10 acres but have no idea how big that is or what they would do with it.
We get ETTC visiting my area quite often as we are in the South West. They featured one property as being near my local village (which is very picturesque and has all the facilities), but the house was actually nearly 3 miles away just off a busy A road with the west coast main line at the bottom of the garden! The couple rejected it because it wasn't in a village - no mention of the trains charging past every 1/2 hour or so. They similarly showed another property that I actually viewed. The house was OK, but they suggested it was near another pleasant local village whereas again it is much nearer a main road and the local town. And.... after I viewed it the garden and road outside were badly flooded..
some people do buy one of the houses but this is a TV show with a bit of property porn, it's not really about someone buying a property I always think.

907onaWednesday · 21/10/2023 12:00

Does anyone remember the episode with the couple who only wanted to be on the programme to meet Alistair Appleton? I'm not even sure they wanted to actually move house! One of their 'requirements' was that the kitchen shouldn't have a table in it. Alistair tried to explain that the any of current owners of the houses they would be viewing would take all their furniture with them when they moved out, but the woman had a fit when he showed them a kitchen complete with table and chairs! She couldn't get her head round the concept that she didn't have to have a kitchen table and if memory serves, refused to look at the rest of the house. Bonkers.
Then, of course there is the inevitable voiceover at the end; 'On reflection, Brenda and Norman decided that none of the houses in Aberdeen were quite right for them and they've started a search for their forever home in Kent.'

Cadburysucks · 21/10/2023 12:01

How would you clean them? I always wondered. You would need to employ a cleaner who can drive there.

longtompot · 21/10/2023 12:07

MrsSkylerWhite · 21/10/2023 11:49

Why don’t you switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead? (Realise only a few posters will get the reference 😁)

Haha, I loved that show!

Back to ETTC
The couple recently made me feel very uncomfortable by holding hands the entire time! I pointed it out to dh and he found it very strange too. It was a relief when towards the end they stopped. I felt like I could breathe again.

It was years ago, but I remember a couple looking around a cottage somewhere and were shocked, shocked I tell you, when they walked into the kitchen and there was a table there! Maybe it was at the beginning of the dining kitchen and it was a new thing, but I think the house was a farm house style, so had a kitchen diner that you'd expect in such a house.

I love the update show they made, I Escaped To The Country. I'm always disappointed at the end of the normal one where you don't find out if they bought the house or not, so this programme was great to see what happened next.

ABetterBitOfButter · 21/10/2023 12:13

I would like to watch Escape To The City, where country-dwellers like myself want to retire and move to city centres. 'We've had enough of beams, chickens and bloody mud everywhere. We're looking for a top spec apartment within hobbling distance of theatres, art galleries and museums, with loads of nearby restaurants, easy access to heallthcare (instead of having to drive for an hour to get to a hospital appointment) and masses of taxis and public transport on the doorstep, instead of one bus a fortnight. '

newnamethanks · 21/10/2023 12:18

I am irrationally annoyed by buyers - although this seems more frequent on the 'buy a house abroad' shows - who say this is perfect, just what we want, and then offer a ridiculously low price because they want eg a new kitchen, bathroom and pool and expect the vendor to pay for them. Makes me seethe.

SirChenjins · 21/10/2023 12:19

MrsSkylerWhite · 21/10/2023 11:49

Why don’t you switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead? (Realise only a few posters will get the reference 😁)

Which was always a weird lyric given that it was for the theme song of a TV programme they presumably wanted kids to watch!

Agree with everything that’s said on here - the eye watering budgets (how??), the completely unrealistic wish lists, the patently unsuitable houses. Bingo - every time.

I also laugh at the Place in the Sun where people want a holiday home where they can take their dogs - how long would their journey to that Greek island be, given they can’t take the dog on a plane?!

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 21/10/2023 12:23

We know people who went on it and they were shown houses they’d already looked at and discounted. But had to pretend they hadn’t. So it was all pretty pointless.

I think a lot of people on shows like this don't realise that it isn't really about them at all; they are just props for the programme that the producers want to make.

Like on gameshows where they insist on probing for 'funny stories' and making the most tedious, obvious jokes about their surnames and they have to roar along as though they've never ever heard them a billion times before.

I remember one episode of Family Fortunes, with Max Bygraves as the host, and one chap had a bit of a moment, whereby he answered "Turkey" to three of the questions in a row (to be fair, it was a great answer for one of them, and not a ridiculous one for another, but the third one was 'name something you always take with you to the beach'!)

His family were clearly deeply ashamed of him and his wife offered William G Stewart (the producer at the time) £100 not to show that episode, but WGS pointed out that it had actually cost them £38,000 to make it, so they were getting their money's worth, even if Turkey Bob did end up a laughing stock for the rest of his life!

Sux2buthen · 21/10/2023 12:24

My ex is on sn episode with his now former mother in law. Always makes me chuckle

Kittensat36 · 21/10/2023 12:24

MrsSkylerWhite · 21/10/2023 11:49

Why don’t you switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead? (Realise only a few posters will get the reference 😁)

Blast from the past there, @MrsSkylerWhite.

Read it while dipping gingernut bikkies in orange juice next to a bowl of buttercream.....

SahliJ · 21/10/2023 12:33

LadyBeth · 21/10/2023 11:17

Why do people go on these shows then? Do they get paid?

Show quote history

My neighbours said the estate agent put them in touch with the production company.

I think my neighbours thought it would be a free holiday, when in fact it was one day rushing between houses in France and the same in the UK. They didn't say they got paid, maybe some expenses?

When Jonnie Irwin was ‘here’, interviewing them outside their house, that wasn't their house either. The production company knocked and asked a neighbour if they could use their garden instead! 😆

HavfrueDenizKisi · 21/10/2023 12:35

ABetterBitOfButter · 21/10/2023 12:13

I would like to watch Escape To The City, where country-dwellers like myself want to retire and move to city centres. 'We've had enough of beams, chickens and bloody mud everywhere. We're looking for a top spec apartment within hobbling distance of theatres, art galleries and museums, with loads of nearby restaurants, easy access to heallthcare (instead of having to drive for an hour to get to a hospital appointment) and masses of taxis and public transport on the doorstep, instead of one bus a fortnight. '

I'd be on that show like a flash.

DH and I want to retire to central London (in our dreams).

DBinHK · 21/10/2023 12:37

All of the above.

And they always want a 'property', never a house.

And it's always a great 'space', never a room.

It feels like that anyway.

Lovesocksie · 21/10/2023 12:52

Oh an ISLAND! We’ve always wanted an ISLAND haven’t we Beryl? If you have a million quid to spend couldn’t you have put an island in your own kitchen by now?

The Australia one- wife doesn’t want to leave mum, sisters, best friends and cries buckets at the messages from home. But hang on… A WALK IN WARDOBE ???

AUSTRALIA !!!

LetMeGoogleThat · 21/10/2023 12:53

I hate it when they say they couldn't live with the decor....you can decorate it any way you wish if you buy it.

Mochudubh · 21/10/2023 12:54

What gets me is the Oooing and aaahing over the "fabulous" view. Of a field.

Ok, I'm Scottish so I have a higher bar for what constitutes a "view" than Jocasta and Tarquin from Islington but it's just a bit of rough pasture, not even with any cows in it. Plus 5 years down the line it'll have an "Executive Development" of 5-bed houses built on it.

SleepingStandingUp · 21/10/2023 12:57

The food. Why do they always show them eating??

Robotalkingrubbish · 21/10/2023 13:02

Always the same wording, “within budget” they must be coached on the right phrases to say. When they show them something “over budget” there’s always a “sensible conversation” to be had with the vendors.

Robotalkingrubbish · 21/10/2023 13:03

SleepingStandingUp · 21/10/2023 12:57

The food. Why do they always show them eating??

Indeed! Are they just trying to make them seem normal because they eat? 🤷‍♀️

GuitarGeorge · 21/10/2023 13:04

MrsSkylerWhite · 21/10/2023 11:49

Why don’t you switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead? (Realise only a few posters will get the reference 😁)

Love this!

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 21/10/2023 13:05

I live in the country. And it's a bloody pain in the arse, miles from anything useful, everywhere's always covered in mud, you're woken at five by cockerels and again at six by the farm dog howling.

And people want this voluntarily?

Tell them to come back in February, see if they want it then.

mumda · 21/10/2023 13:05

I am a Rightmove addict.

I generally only look at very expensive houses which I can not afford without a lottery win. Most of them are in the 'country' and have huge bits of land attached.
I sometimes look at more affordable houses but only to be nosey (ie: ones on my street).

MrsSkylerWhite · 21/10/2023 13:06

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · Today 13:05
**
I live in the country. And it's a bloody pain in the arse, miles from anything useful, everywhere's always covered in mud, you're woken at five by cockerels and again at six by the farm dog howling.
**
And people want this voluntarily?
**
Tell them to come back in February, see if they want it then

🤣This. We’re returning to a city centre. Everything within 5 mins. Can’t bloody wait.