Castles in the Air

[liadnan]

Hooray, new Grand Designs tonight. The Radio Times online says:

" Francis and Karen love castles so much that they had a castle-shaped wedding cake. So it's an obvious step for them to sink all their money into buying and restoring a ruined medieval castle in the Yorkshire Dales. But boy, oh boy, the problems. The couple need ancient monument approval - the "grandaddy of planning permissions" according to presenter Kevin McCloud - as well as hugely expensive archaeological surveys. Then a crucial wall falls down, it starts to snow and it looks as if all is lost. Francis and Karen's heroic task swallows money at every turn, yet they never give up hope. Soon you'll be willing them on in the classic Grand Designs tradition. It's a brilliant television formula that works every time - the doom and desperation when things start badly, the almost coquettish teasing when things pick up, then . . . well, you know the rest. In its own quiet way, this is as gripping as any Hollywood disaster movie."

Splendid. I shall have to miss the Ally McBeal re-runs on TMF. One of these days I will do a Grand Design. And if you think I'm mad, it looks fairly likely that my brother really is going to do so, despite the reasonings of his siblings and siblings-in-law, unless his long-suffering wife pulls the plug.

I spent most of today on a train to Leeds and back. There are worse ways to earn a crust when you have a dose of flu.

ETA: bad signs: when they're admitting to naivité and thinking about selling the place shortly after the first advert break. Before they've even obtained permissions, let alone done any work, but after contracting the stonemasons...

ETFA: and then it fell down. Or at least, a lot of it did.

Final thoughts: wow. What a building. And what a budget overrun...

Comments

[eccles.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Karen will mysteriously become pregnant???

[liadnan]

I wonder how many times they'll have to remortgage.

[eccles.livejournal.com]

Kevin: "And then to make matters worse Francis [lost his job/ hurt his back/ couldn't decide on fabric colours]*"

*delete as applicable

[liadnan]

All of the above. And the dog fell down a mineshaft.

[liadnan]

Oh dear God. It's an actual ruin and they've sold their house and bought it before even getting permissions...

[susumu.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's going well for them. Can't really see a completed house appearing in the next 38 minutes.

[liadnan]

You can just see the words "oh. my. god." running through McLoud's head... Love the "bonkers" comment from the CEO of English Heritage.

[susumu.livejournal.com]

I've just realised they've made it 90 mins long, presumably to allow more footage of money being poured into that large hole. Amazing stuff.

[liadnan]

Quite, quite, staggering.

[liadnan]

"it is... the most bizarre idea of his - so far"

[liadnan]

It was "the central spine wall fell down AND the authorised quarry almost went bust", if you were wondering.

[susumu.livejournal.com]

I can't believe they actually did it. How much luck?

[liadnan]

How muchmoney? 350k over a 400k budget, the overrun all raised on mortgage...
Stunning result though,

[greyarea.livejournal.com]

A £400k budget on that was absolute nonsense - I can't believe they ever thought they were going to get it through for that. They had 5 or 6 people living on site for a year; all doing specialist jobs - I can't believe the wage bill for the masons came in much under £150k. Let alone plant hire etc.

But it looked just fantastic at the end; and TBH a £750k outlay on that is pretty bloody good. I'd bet it's easily worth double that, even in North Yorks. And that view from the top floor - stunning, and priceless, really. Fair play to them, but I have to say, I really didn't think they'd make it.

No pregnancy, either. Kevin must had the snip.

[liadnan]

All the planning was nonsense. Mind you, McLoud has just said he thinks Mr was being "deliberately obtuse" on the More4 followup.

You're quite right about the end product too. And yes, it's got to be worth at least twice the outlay.

[susumu.livejournal.com]

I had to go to bed - was that worth watching?

Any house that needs 20k of archaelogical investigation should set alarm bells ringing, really.

[liadnan]

Not really worth watchiing, no. Mostly mcLoud talking to an architect and an interior designer, neither of whom I liked.

[tybalt-quin.livejournal.com]

Running through the comments, I see you watched the More4 Bitchfest that followed. Those two women - well, words fail me (although sadly not before I spewed out a load of cursing at the woman who said she'd rather have seen the castle fall down into rubble than have it rebuilt - I thought Kevin was going to faint!) Talk about picky - some of what the couple did wasn't to my taste (the whole Egyptian eye in the floor thing was a bit tacky) but in terms of the structure they and the stone masons did one hell of a job and really deserved a pat on the back.

My sekrit desire is to do a grand design on a ruined building and to have Kevin McCloud come and film it.