Opinion

If we don't have Homes Under the Hammer, what do we have?

Under the Hammer presenter Lucy Alexander with her co-hosts Martin Roberts, left, and Dion Dublin. Picture by BBC
Under the Hammer presenter Lucy Alexander with her co-hosts Martin Roberts, left, and Dion Dublin. Picture by BBC Under the Hammer presenter Lucy Alexander with her co-hosts Martin Roberts, left, and Dion Dublin. Picture by BBC

EVERYONE is resigning. We haven't experienced an Independence Day-style alien invasion or a freak tornado, but in the last few weeks everything that could have happened appears to actually have happened.

No longer do we have a prime minister, membership of the European Union, a strong currency, or any more football or tennis to look forward to. And it's raining.

Oddly, the one resignation which seemed to capture the mood of an extraordinary time wasn’t the expected departure of Top Gear host Chris Evans or the welcome departure of UKIP leader Nigel Farage but the news that Homes Under the Hammer presenter Lucy Alexander was leaving the show after 13 years.

Ms Alexander, who co-hosts the BBC One mid-morning programme with Martin Roberts and former footballer Dion Dublin, said she was leaving "with a huge heavy heart...it's not the outcome I wanted but to pursue other work and a commercial deal I had to leave".

A million viewers cried: "If we don't have Homes Under the Hammer what do we have?" The other options are too terrifying - the alarming problems on ITV's The Jeremy Kyle Show, a two-hour discussion on The Wright Stuff, or Judge Judy?

Recessions come and go, governments rise and fall, but since 2003 the format of Homes Under the Hammer has remained the same - person buys house or commercial property at auction and either manages to renovate it or stumbles into unforeseen problems.

When one of the presenters asks a new homeowner if they've "read the legal pack" about the property before they've bid for it, you can tell a lot about their personality and the potential outcome of the project by their answer.

In a world where Boris Johnson and Michael Gove almost became prime minister, Alexander provided a welcome friendly face to accompany your mid-morning cuppa.

Her enthusiastic encouragement of nervous and often clueless new homeowners meant that, unlike other property experts, she never tried to outshine the projects or their buyers.

Television critics and culture ministers often sneer at daytime television for being bland and predictable - the viewing equivalent of magnolia walls.

A government white paper published in May complained that BBC One's daytime schedule relies too heavily "on long-running property and collectables programming: Homes Under the Hammer in its 20th series, Bargain Hunt in its 43rd series, and Escape to the Country in its 16th series".

But the white paper failed to recognise that viewers recovering from a late shift or a sleepless night with a new baby want something sedate and reassuring to go with their cornflakes and coffee.

When the whole world's in a state of chassis, we often return to the familiar. During one difficult hospital visit with a close relative, both of us couldn't help but notice most of the waiting room was watching Flog It!

A show about antiques didn't make the visit any easier, but it reminded us both there was a world outside the hospital.

Daytime television offers a kind of vicarious warm bath - showing viewers what it might be like to Escape to the Country or try to flog forgotten knick-knacks or renovate a poky flat in suburban Birmingham without the bother of actually having to do any of these things.

Rather than have to follow complex and often daft plots about dystopian futures or international arms dealers or maverick detectives with personal problems, daytime programmes offer decent, low-stakes viewing.

Will that retired teacher from north Yorkshire make money from that horrible plate? Was that two-bed terrace in Rhyl worth renovating?

Regular daytime television viewers tend to be among the poorest, most vulnerable, or the plain overlooked in society - pensioners, the unemployed, students struggling with huge debts.

Some are housebound. Others, like myself, work evening shifts. With widespread cuts to public libraries, few forms of entertainment are now free.

Yet there are millions of viewers who cannot afford or have no direct access to other forms of entertainment. Homes Under the Hammer has a regular audience of 1.1 million.

Compare this to the much-lauded revamp of Top Gear, which finished with fewer than two million viewers.

Prime time television is the annoying distant relative who comes round to hold court once a year and assumes you're interested in their exotic holidays and children's achievements.

Daytime television is the aunt who makes buns and sandwiches for her neighbours' wakes and never outstays her welcome on Christmas night.

Ms Alexander may never make another Homes Under the Hammer, but at least there's always the repeats.