If not quite as traumatising as Gary Barlow replacing Simon Cowell on X Factor, the unveiling of two new judges on Home of the Year (RTÉ One, 8.30pm) nonetheless rates as a mid-scale seismic shock in the sleepy land of Irish reality television.
Joining the returning Hugh Wallace for this cheerfully intrusive tour of the kitchens and living rooms of the great Irish public are interior designer Suzie McAdam and architect Amanda Bone (replacing Deirdre Whelan and Patrick Bradley).
They’re straight into the action in an opening episode that serves as a reminder why Home of the Year is such a solid ratings winner. And that, of course, is because we are a nation of inveterate snoopers. Granted the power of invisibility most of us would use it not to sneak into the cinema or rob a bank, but to immediately nip next door and cast a withering eye over the neighbour’s new fitted kitchen.
First up is Trish O’Brien in Co Clare, who has redone a turn-of-the century century farmhouse into a minimalist wonderland. Then it’s off to Mullingar, where Kevin and Ediana Dolan have transformed their suburban home into a dazzling showcase for industrial design (they made their own table – something we should all have got around to during lockdown).
However, the pièce de resistance is the Cork commuter-belt abode of David O’Brien. This rambling, dark-hued structure, created from scratch with the help of his brother and of a professional architect, crouches menacingly on the horizon, as if beamed in from a cover-shoot for a Godspeed You Black Emperor! album.
Yet within all is sweetness and light. Playful too, with a grand piano that doubles as a kitchen island. Does he eat his breakfast cereal off it? Crushingly, we never find out.
Home of the Year wouldn’t work if the expert adjudicators were cruel or judgmental. They are invited to score each house out of 10 – but it is unthinkable that anyone would go lower than seven. Six would be hugely insulting. Five is right out.
And as the new series gets under way it’s evident McAdam and Bone have read the brochure as they try to see positives everywhere (even in the Dolans’ mildly terrifying all-pink bedroom).
There’s a clear victor after all the snooping about with O’Brien’s Ballygarvan doom-barn going through to the final. But the real winner is Home of the Year itself, which has successfully added two new judges without compromising its irresistible formula.
