User Reviews

So TBONTB is a waste of licence payers money? What an unenlightened comment. Compared to a sitcom or a soap it is incredibly cheap to produce, and has the benefit that it is shown regularly on satellite (and brings in a huge amount of advertising revenue) and exported to pretty much every English speaking country (including BBC America, Oz, NZ, Canada, South Africa). Programmes like TBONTB, Flog It!, Bargain Hunt and Ground Force creates huge amounts of revenue for the BBC and are not a drain on resources. Unlike that rubbish Tittybangbang!

So there you go, if you don't like it, tell someone who cares! I feel better for that.

TBONTB - A couple of presenters choose three houses to show someone struggling to find their dream home.

As daytime television goes this is not the worst, but nor is it worthy of any real praise. It serves mostly as a way of people to get themselves on television, as very few of the prospective buyers seem very interested and just find rather pedantic flaws in every house they are shown. It doesn't help that they usually have a pathetically small budget of around £100,000 (when the average house price in the UK is now over £200,000) and they always have an ideal that is well out of their price range. Nor are they ever willing to compromise much on any of their requirements so they usually turn all three down. Some of them claim to be downsizing then moan constantly about a prospective house having 'only' eight bedrooms.

The presenters do their best to try and enliven the show, but it is tough, and it usually descends to childishly insulting each other over their dress sense, height or "the house I picked was much better than yours." "Oh no it wasn't." "Oh yes it was..." etc. etc. This gets worse when you combine Simon Rimmer with Sarah Walker as she only seems to pick houses she likes rather than following the wants of the prospective buyers, and he is just so incredibly smug the whole time it is painful.

As to original programming, there is precious little difference between each episode and the ones they show are very often repeats anyway (not that you'd notice). The BBC would probably be better off showing quality repeats during the day - very few people these days do not have some sort of recorder - which would free up the evening schedules for new shows instead of old episodes of "Only Fools and Horses" and "Open all Hours." Still better than the even more annoyingly repetitive "Homes under the Hammer" though.

The only thing rising faster than UK property prices over the last few years is the hours of programming devoted to reality shows about buying or doing up homes. I was ill a few days and genuinely unable to get the energy to watch anything that required much thought so I ended up slumped in front of BBC daytime television watching this. The gimmick here is that individuals, couples, friends looking to buy a property hand the task over to the presenters who then set up three viewings on properties in the area selected and within the price ranges. As the potential buyers view the property, the presenters listen into their comments on earphones before entering the house to tackle the negative points raised. This is followed by a "guess the price" moment before moving on. When one of the three is selected, the buyers have the chance to "try" the property "before they buy" with the test drive.

The idea is basic and you really need to be interested in people buying houses – which, to be honest, is threatening to replace the weather as the main topic of casual discussion in the UK. However the appeal of the show is just looking around houses for sale and going "oooh" or "urgh" with the viewers themselves. As such I found it slightly engaging as daytime tat but struggled to work out why it has run for years (aside from being easy and cheap filler). The presenters know this and they work every comment for entertainment value. They ham it up like crazy in that sort of cheerful daytime television way that is rather inane and always makes me feel sorry for them because of how desperate and hard working they are against all the odds. They are still rubbish though! Overall this is just what you expect it to be given its scheduled running time at like 9am on weekdays. It is a very basic affair and the presenters are dieing trying to make it work – which they really struggle to do when they get dull buyers handed to them. Tat then, but at least it knows its target audience.

Having a few days off recently, I decided to flick through the channels on TV one morning and I came across this rubbish. To Buy Or Not To Buy is just one of the very many property programmes on TV at the moment and to make things worse, BBC 1 is currently repeating them.

This one is about prospective buyers who go and inspect properties and most of the time, they don't buy them anyway. While they are inspecting, the show's two presenters are outside with earphones on their heads to hear what they have to say. This is when the presenters show off a lot and act stupid.

This programme, like all property programmes are a load of rubbish and should be axed. A waste of time and licence payers' money. Everyone on this should be ashamed.

To buy or not to buy i think is a good programme to watch. The series is about a couple who decide that they want to buy a house of out 3 houses the host pick. They show the house to the couples and they have to guess the price of the house. 10 out of 10.