What does our nation need to see in these straitened times? Surely not a young couple who have ‘just’ 40k to do up an already over-priced doer-upper
Such is the total state of this country that when I first saw the title of this series I assumed it was a euphemism for Britain. As in: here’s Worst House on the Street, a hard-hitting Channel 4 documentary about the UK housing crisis. Next, set the tape – as my mum would say – for Sick Man of Europe, an unflinching look at our shrinking economy, how countries closed their borders one by one to UK air travel during the pandemic, and … you get my drift. How grim. But, also, nice one, Channel 4. What else should a public broadcaster be doing while the ideological – sorry, formal – process of selling it off continues? You get the TV programming you deserve.
Then I Googled Worst House on the Street (Channel 4). Oh. It’s another property programme. The Place in the Sun of 2022, if you like. The logical outcome of a situation, where, even if you have a place in the sun – which, obviously, you don’t – you can’t get to it because all the flights are cancelled. And a place in the sun is deeply concerning because Europe is on fire. What does a nation primed over generations to be infatuated with home ownership need in such end times? A classic Channel 4 property programme about how whacking a £4,750 porch on to the front of your “ultimate doer-upper” could add 2% to the value. What the Worst Country on Mainland Europe needs, in short, is Worst House on the Street.
