Review of Changing Rooms: Trust Me... I`m A Designer

Introduction

"This year I`ll mostly be wearing Laurence Llewellyn Bowen"

Unless you`ve has your head in your MDF wardrobe for the last few years you couldn`t fail to notice the rather scary surge in designers and DIY programmes. A rough count on your badly bruised fingers will take you into double figures so you can use your plaster cast to count on as well. DIY on television has launched some marvellous sketches such as Kenny Everett but these days they are so busy producing "Changing Rooms" and all its clones there does not seem to be any room for comedy or drama.
What a shame Handy Andy`s circular saw doesn`t slip so they could produce "Changing Rooms- director`s cut".
A lot of the appeal of the show is to see what happens when the expectations of the client don`t match up with the designer`s vision. Give them their due they do work extremely hard and although some of them occasionally come across as arrogant and sometimes plainly batty they always put their heart and soul into producing something unique. The "clients" are not always so appreciative and seem to take it incredibly personally when they consider the room has been "trashed".
The disc does not contain complete programmes but is a series of clips with a wraparound commentary by Carol Smillie. The emphasis is on humour, as the designers seem well aware of the supremely silly nature of the programme. I liked Linda Barker`s admission that she did have fads on certain materials like grass and bamboo. I don`t think the client kept the growing coffee table, Linda.
This is a cheap show to produce compared to investing time and money on quality drama. Like the soaps it is essentially transient and I`m not sure of the point of issuing this disc. Presumably cashing in before the bubble bursts?
On the plus side we have sold this show to the States. Their version is called "Trading Spaces". These days we sell gameshow formats to the USA and they produce the quality drama. My, how things have changed.

Video

Straight from television so reasonable reproduction of all those "gorgeous" colours. A standard transfer.

Audio

No challenges to the sound as it is mainly dialogue with the annoying theme tune that seems to have been written by the committee that brought us "Gardener`s World" and "Food and Drink"

Features

About an hours worth taking the whole disc to just over two hours.
Scene selection-see the worst and best transformations over and over again.
Subtitles
Designers and their designs - short "reveals" of selected programmes with the basics of the design, how much they went over budget and crucially if their "clients" liked it.
Outtakes - the "funny bits"
The designers-Linda Barker and Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen design a room for each other.

Conclusion

Don`t get me wrong I like the programme; it`s fine during the week with a glass of wine because it really doesn`t require any effort to watch. But this "best of " is an insult to the purchasing public. At £20 it`s also quite pricey, look out for cheaper offers in the run up to Christmas, they will be anxious to shift it. With a limited shelf life it will no doubt be appearing in the Bargain Buckets in the January Sales. I`m just fed up with these sort programmes being continually rehashed-what about some new ideas? This kind of cheap television seems to sum up the rather lazy attitude of the programme makers and I don`t want to perpetuate it. With all the appeal of a corporate training film without the sandwich lunch afterwards it`s just plain annoying.