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?

I had to stop watching APITS because it was driving me demented.

Trevor is a barman and Diane is a full-time housewife, at home in Skegness in their cosy 2-bedroom terraced house. They have a budget of £62,000 and are looking for a detached finca in rural Spain with at least 5 bedrooms and its own pool.

I'd forgotten about Catherine Gee.

I love. ETTC. Very annoying that DC1 has started school so I now miss it due to going on the school run.

I'm sure it's on iPlayer creepy

I'd be a lot more inclined to watch APITS if they had higher budgets.

I don't want to look at apartments smaller than what I stayed in when I was young and skint

It feels wrong to I player it Duggee.

I know what you mean creepy, actually intentionally searching out ETTC on iPlayer would feel a bit...sad maybe? It's like HUTH - you wouldn't cancel an appointment to watch it but if it happens to be on, one might just sit down with a brew.... (I got slightly obsessed with HUTH when on mat leave )

Mine are crime dramas and diet programs.

Exactly Duggee, although I do search out Wanted Down Under...

I save up ETTC to watch on Iplayer when I work from home!

It's total televisual crack. I moved from the city to the country and rent a house that would make it on to ETTC. I basically hate it. The maintenance is huge, particularly the garden, I can't walk to the shops, or get lots of stuff delivered easily. The house is nice but too big for us (and our children are still at home), we have to drive everywhere, the MUD, the tractors, the community that we'll never penetrate because our surnames aren't on any graves in the churchyard. I can't wait till we go back to the city!

And yet... I watch ETTC and I want the houses and I want to move to them. How does the programme do it?

the community that we'll never penetrate because our surnames aren't on any graves in the churchyard.

Haha SO true! Hate village life.

the community that we'll never penetrate because our surnames aren't on any graves in the churchyard. We'll never let you in!!! Seriously if you're prepared to be a joiner inner and be sociable then people will be accepted. A lot of the people on ETTC seem quite insular.

On Grand Designs, the woman always get pregnant to add to the brood of mop haired, rosy cheeked children playing amongst the rubble and death trap machinery of a permanent building site

They're all Mcloud's children! I'm sure that he gets the wife of the family pregnant on one of his visits.

ETTC makes me me cross.
Why on earth do they need 5 acres. What are they going to do with It?
I'm retiring to a city!

IPromiseIWontBeNaughty "If I had all that fish I’d want a pad in central London."

Wouldn't you need somewhere with a lake or large pond?

Love it!

I will require a moat when I retire

DH dropped DS off at a new friends house years ago and he came back reporting they had a moat.

Whoa !

I know! There's no competing with that really is there. Not that you should need to I guess.

We would need a moat plus drawbridge to win.

Seriously if you're prepared to be a joiner inner and be sociable then people will be accepted.

To an extent. Never really though.

I love it! I have a crush on Jules, I’ve always had a thing for the public school type - I’m as rough as you know what!

Also have no idea why retirees want to be mikes away from any services or public transport. They will probably move back to the city after the first winter!

I love it! I have a crush on Jules, I’ve always had a thing for the public school type - I’m as rough as you know what! Me too. I love his rosy cheeks and gilets. Plus he he knows a bit about the country. Sometimes he can barely conceal his annoyance at some of them.
I can't stand this constant emphasis on things that 'date from the 17th century'. These houses were built for people much shorter than modern day Britons. DH scoffs at all the low ceilings and beams. He would be constantly banging his head and yelling FFS.

I love ETTC, not keen on Alistair though, but I do like Jules and Denise.
I remember that Catherine Gee episode but to be fair, the family concerned liked really modern homes which ETTC knew and they still showed them that house which was an older period property

Here's a good one on iplayer

Malcolm and June from Cheshire want to move to Hampshire to be nearer their daughter who has escaped to the City.

Malc needs a "study" June needs a sewing room.
First kitchen not big enough.
Malc likes the bland exterior of the 60s house but not the lovely brick and flint cottage.
June has lots of clothes so needs plenty of wardrobe space.
They don't seem to have got the must-hold-hands memo but Malc likes to corral June out of the rooms.
They are downsizing and have a budget of £700,00.
Alistair's looking gorgeous.