Country House Rescue is an observational documentary series which airs on British terrestrial television channel, Channel 4. The series has also aired on BBC Canada, ABC1 in Australia and Living in New Zealand and in South Africa.
In each episode, an expert visits a struggling country house and tries to turn its fortunes by giving advice and suggestions to the owner/s. The first four series saw Ruth Watson in this role. The fifth series, airing from June 2012, saw Simon Davis take the role.
The series premiered in December 2008, and gained audiences of up to 2.7 million on its first run. In March 2009, it was reported that a second series of Country House Rescue featuring Ruth Watson had been commissioned by Channel 4, to be filmed in HD. The second series was originally planned to return for an extended 14 episode run, in early 2010, however 3 episodes (all revisits of houses previously featured) were brought forward, and aired during November and December 2009 as a mini-series. The second series of new episodes aired throughout Spring 2010, and the third series aired throughout Spring 2011. From August 2011, a further series of revisits of houses previously featured aired, though the series began with a previously unaired episode from series two. However, Watson stated on her own website that she would not present any more series of Country House Rescue in the future. In November 2011, Channel 4 announced that Simon Davis would present the 4th series to be broadcast in Spring 2012.
The series is narrated by Hugh Bonneville.
Famous quotes containing the words country, house and/or rescue:
“A country whose buildings are of wood, can never increase in its improvements to any considerable degree.... Whereas when buildings are of durable materials, every new edifice is an actual and permanent acquisition to the state, adding to its value as well as to its ornament.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“We want some coat woven of elastic steel, stout as the first, and limber as the second. We want a ship in these billows we inhabit. An angular, dogmatic house would be rent to chips and splinters, in this storm of many elements. No, it must be tight, and fit to the form of man, to live at all; as a shell is the architecture of a house founded on the sea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)