Does anyone else share my guilty pleasure ... watching Escape to the Country

[IamtheMistressofmyFate]

I always fast forward over the presenters trying out worthy pastimes or learning a local trade like sheep tickling.

I cringe when the couples are being introduced to us and they've been instructed to look at each other and smile and the camera lingers for too long.

And I wince when the retired couple want a large house so their grown up children can come and stay over Christmas - don't these people read all the AIBU threads where posters loathe visiting family over Xmas?

My guilty pleasure is “Claimed and Shamed’ - BBC1 in the morning - the cringe factor is high for people who get busted lying on insurance claims 😂

I do love Escape To The Country. Some friends of mine actually bought their house through this show.

The only thing I find is how often whatever it is that the couple say they don't want, gets presented to them in the Mystery House.

I find it fascinating looking at the houses though, and how people see them.

I was going to respond with exactly the same fast forwarding proviso as you. Love it but get a bit annoyed when they’re repeats from 1984...

Its the one programme I download and take to the gym . I am getting bored of people saying ‘I want it to have a nice open feel’ or ‘I was hoping for a bigger kitchen’ unless its the size of a field.

Did you see a recent episode of a young couple from Rickmansworth looking to buy in Herefordshire? Their budget was £600k but Christ was that jules presenter condescending - I was cringing throughout the whole episode

I love to hate seeing the couples walking around hand in hand like they cannot bear to be apart.

I love this but the couples drive me mad. As a pp mentioned the house usually has a kitchen bigger than my ground floor but its almost always too small
Then we have the 'not to my taste' about the decor. Have they not heard about paint? Are you not bringing your own furniture ?

I love it. They always want a massive kitchen for entertaining. They want four bedrooms even though it's only them. They don't want to live near other people. How's that going to work when they're old and decrepit.
My favourite presenter is Alistair. He's so lovely. Some of the women presenters grind my gears. Most of the people have no concept as to what country living is really like

I love to hate seeing the couples walking around hand in hand like they cannot bear to be apart

Me too! Though Harry and Meghan are getting on my wick too with their constant hand clutching!

Off to watch the Rickmansworth couple ...

DH and I love watching this together! We skip the bits about jobs or the couple trying out some "fun" activity, too.

The budgets annoy us, though. We want to see people buying houses for 350k, not 700k. Why do they have trouble finding a house to buy for such a huge amount? Bizarre.

No, Jules is way better than Alastair!

I find it mesmerising. People are so ridiculously picky and entitled, wanting utterly contradictory things (no road noise but great transport links) and completely unrealistic about their budget.

Today's was typical - want character/old house but moan about low ceilings! Also 1.5 million?!

"We want to live in the countryside but not near cows. Or sheep. Or a field of crops because of pesticides, but I don't want to be too far from shops. Or major transport links or the West End theatre, because Terry and I are extremely cultural, and we want a six-bedroom character property, ideally haunted but by a benign spirit possibly an old lady of some kind, with a traditional roof but not thatch in case there's rats in it, and quite near a church but not next to an actual churchyard because spooky and also because we don't want to be driven insane with church bells once a week. And the kitchen has to be cosy with an Aga but also big enough to entertain upwards of thirty people for when we become lynchpins of the local amateur dramatic society, and with a feature cider press and room for chickens in the garden which we probably won't have in case there are foxes nearby and we're caught between a desire to protect our livestock as boutique farmers, but also our respect for the natural animal kingdom rights of the local foxes. Oh, and it has to have a garden big enough for a ride-on mower and a stag.'

[sadface voiceover] Terry and Pauline have a budget of £1.3million and they are unable to find anything at all west of Cheltenham.

Glasgow that's a brilliant summary of most of them 😂

Iwant -my aunts is already recorded, their budget was £300k and is on this series x

I love it! DH and I say we'd never get on it (even if we had the money) as we'd be asking for a one bedroom place so no one can visit!

GW

DH and love to take the piss out of these programmes. We also do the same to Wanted Down Under (we want more quality family time although we will have to work all the hours God sends to afford the cost of living), Homes Under the Hammer (oops our budget of 25 pence and 2 weeks stretched to 25k and 2 years but our gamily and friends helped a lot) etc etc

I love ETTC. I love a bit of property porn.

I shout at the stupid couples, for all the reasons given above, and when DP is here we create backstories for them (the ones returning from overseas have usually been abroad because they were on the run).

We rip the shit out of the kitchens, regardless of the fact that they're always nicer than our shabby midden, the decor (our house hasn't seen a wet paintbrush for years) and the fact that you can sometimes SEE OTHER HOUSES from the garden (we live in a 1930s semi, on a small estate of almost identical semis, and while we have an excellent view of the downs, a castle and can see almost 30 miles, there are an awful lot of houses between us and the view).

I hate Jules and Alistair, but like the blonde bloke and most of the women.

And the first house on today's show was just bloody lovely and I want it. But I want it to be in Cornwall, with sea views.

DH and I

DH and I watched one waiting for a hospital appointment where the woman chose the house because it had a red front door and she loved the rug. Not sure she'd heard of paint so the notion that the vendors would take their rug with them might have blown her mind.

However DH really enjoyed it and has even recorded a couple. I have warned him that the one we saw in the hospital is the only one in 15 years where someone has bought the house though . . .

love it...love looking at the houses, but always want to know where the young couples with 800k get their money from ;-)

I assume most of them are tyre kickers

We love it. Some of the couples are so bloody ungrateful for the help they're given though!

I used to know someone who bought the mystery house.

I'm no longer in touch with her, which is a shame as a) she was lovely, and b) I've since become obsessed/ ENRAGED by the way the man steers the woman out of every single room, in every single episode. I'd have loved to ask her about that. Honestly, an alien who's only exposure to earth was ETTC would think that women can't work out corners.

I always wonder how they got so much money!