Former Hotel Inspector Ruth Watson is back to save more stately homes from financial ruin

What’s the attraction of Country House Rescue?
I think it’s partly that whole upstairs, downstairs thing. The British public is fascinated by antiques. Look at the Antiques Roadshow. How many years has that been going? So I think people genuinely like looking at our history. We do have the most extraordinary, splendid domestic history in this country. I think we also love to see people exposed, as it were, and being asked to step up to the mark.

How does this series of Country House Rescue compare to the first?
Well, we’re doing eight instead of six. So that’s two more. It’s been interesting to get feedback because of course as a presenter I never get to see them until they’re finished. Visually it’s still very lovely, but I think we’ve managed to get a range of stories that are very different from each other. Architecturally they are very different – we go from Jacobean to Gothic Revival and the owners are very different, and the solutions are also pretty different from one another.

What sort of reaction do you get from the owners?
Well I think I’m beginning to detect a kind of pattern. My arrival is usually greeted by great excitement and they seem to be very up for it. But by the second visit they’re in deep depression because I’ve challenged them on many fronts and have asked them to step up to the mark – and that’s the nadir of the experience for all of us, as they find it difficult and challenging.

So people want to be helped, but in another sense they don’t?
Absolutely. And I think that’s just human nature. We say we want help and then when people suggest things we actually recoil from it. ‘How dare you! I’m fine! I can do this!’ But they’re not fine and they can’t, because none of us are. But by the time we get to the end, it all seems to be back on track again because they’ve seen changes, they’ve seen what they can do and they’re now thinking in a more fresh and focussed fashion. So I think it’s difficult and challenging, but also cathartic – and generally it ends up with a happy conclusion.

Do you ever feel like losing it with any of them?
Oh yes. I would have happily walked away from one place we visited. But I can’t because I’m a professional and we have a programme to make! And also, there’s a degree of stubborness in my make-up as well. I think, 'Bugger this, we are going to get something out of this'.

How do you stay calm in these situations?
Well I’m a hotelier by trade and that’s my real job. And you don't want to start to losing your rag with every single person who didn’t like what you were doing or saying. I had a phone call recently from a woman who could hardly speak, she was so cross. I just said, 'Can I just stop you because I know why you’re cross and I know why you’re ringing.'  We had sent out an email for a special offer, and she was already booked on the higher rate. But what we always do is to change whatever the rate is to the best offer of the day. We don’t cheat people, but she thought she was being cheated. And she could hardly articulate how angry she was about it all. So you have to keep calm. You say, 'Please don’t worry about it. Your rates will be adjusted to reflect that.' I bite my tongue a bit, but I’m old – maybe 20 years ago I would have lost my rag a bit more than I do now!

By Olly Grant