Going round the houses

ON THIS week's INTERIOR DESIGN MASTERS WITH ALAN CARR (BBC1, 8pm), the contestants have a bunch of retirement flats to tart up.

- Mike Ward

Michelle Ogundehin, resident judge, puts it more eloquently than that, but essentially that's what the brief amounts to.

"I'd like you to use these high-end show apartments to demonstrate just how exciting retirement could be as a next chapter in life," are Michelle's actual words.

"Design should be luxurious," she goes on, "to attract the sort of buyer that wants a home that reflects those aspirations."

She does have a point, to be fair. If ever my wife and I go property-hunting, one of the first things we explain to the estate agent is: "We want a home that reflects our aspirations to be excitingly retired in our next chapter."