About this season
House Doctor is a television programme, originally broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK. Each week, the House Doctor - Californian real-estate stylist, Ann Maurice - helps UK home-owners sell their houses with her industry know-how and style tips. The popularity of the show has lent the word "house doctoring" to the British English lexicon, which is similar to the American term home staging. This program is now shown in many countries around the globe, which is broadening the use and familiarity of this term.
Episodes (12)
1. Ewhurst Green
Aired 13 July 1999
Ann Maurice helps a widower sell his 200-year-old cottage so he can pack up and start a new life in Scotland. The property is basically sound, but has an air of bachelor neglect made worse by the owner's pet Labrador, which acts like it owns the place.
2. Knutsford
Aired 20 July 1999
Ann Maurice offers advice to a bachelor having trouble selling his home in Knutsford, Cheshire, telling him to tone down its resolutely masculine decor and add a few softer touches.
3. Headcorn
Aired 27 July 1999
Ann Maurice visits Headcorn to help a couple spruce up their tiny cottage in a bid to make it more attractive to prospective buyers, clearing out all their clutter, getting rid of a dingy carpet and using small furniture to create an illusion of space.
4. Bournemouth
Aired 3 August 1999
Property expert Ann Maurice offers her advice on making first impressions really count, visiting a couple in East Sussex who are desperate to sell their unappealing Bournemouth home and move to Australia.
5. Aintree
Aired 10 August 1999
Property expert Ann Maurice targets the pink and beige colour scheme of a house in Aintree, Merseyside, which has been on the market for more than two years.
6. Southampton
Aired 17 August 1999
Ann Maurice and Tris Payne visit Southampton's prestigious marina development Ocean Village, where a couple's home needs sprucing up to attract potential buyers after being on the market for three months.
7. Episode 7
Aired 24 August 1999
Californian interior designer and estate agent Ann Maurice visits a house on the market, and offers advice on making it more attractive to would-be buyers.
8. Headingley
Aired 31 August 1999
Ann Maurice helps a student in Headingley, Leeds, make her flat more attractive to potential buyers, advising her on how to turn its slightly off-putting Gothic interior from a liability into an asset.
9. Wandsworth
Aired 7 September 1999
Ann Maurice visits a house off a busy road in Wandsworth, South London, where she helps the owners get their property ready for sale.
10. Maidstone
Aired 14 September 1999
Property expert Ann Maurice visits Kent to offer advice to a Maidstone homeowner looking to relocate after his girlfriend moved out and took most of the furniture with her.
11. Hammersmith
Aired 21 September 1999
In Hammersmith, west London, Ann Maurice helps a couple trying to sell their house by helping them store their belongings properly, redecorating and stripping the floors.
12. Rothwell
Aired 28 September 1999
Estate agent Ann Maurice offers her expertise to a couple whose home in Rothwell near Leeds is still for sale after 10 months, despite having attracted more than 30 viewings. Her advice includes ridding the house of the all-pervading pet smell, replacing the threadbare stair carpet and adding a lick of paint in a bid to persuade the next viewer to make an offer.