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Speaker 1: The Block is on Sunday night, seven a Block on

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Speaker 1: Channel nine. We're going to catch seven Block, seven a Block.

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Speaker 2: I certainly that's the show. And he's a full bottle

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Speaker 2: on everything from food to homes. The Man with Great

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Speaker 2: Style on Neil Whittaker, good morning, Good morning, Neil.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, guys, good morning, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 4: Well, well, I mean, it's gone so quickly.

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Speaker 5: I can't believe everyone last night was saying, well, we're

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Speaker 5: sort of almost halfway there. Almost halfway there, Sharon and

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Speaker 5: Ankor this has been the big story this week. They

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Speaker 5: really are struggling with a whole host of issues from

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Speaker 5: their builder, especially fiction with their builder. They left last

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Speaker 5: night to have a bit of a call down. Now,

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Speaker 5: considering that you just see their end results each week

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Speaker 5: and they're getting really good feedback on their rooms, are

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Speaker 5: you surprised at what's going on during the week as they,

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Speaker 5: you know, get the room wreck look.

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Speaker 3: I mean, to be very honest with you, the three

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Speaker 3: of us judges are often surprised by what goes on

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Speaker 3: just week because we are in a bit of a vacuum.

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Speaker 3: We don't know, we know very little about what goes

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Speaker 3: on during the week. I mean, obviously, if something really

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Speaker 3: major happens, you know, like someone God forbid has has

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Speaker 3: a bad accident or something, then yet that we would know.

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Speaker 3: But otherwise we're very much in the dark about what

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Speaker 3: goes on during the week. And that's deliberate because obviously,

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Speaker 3: you know, the progencers of the show don't want our

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Speaker 3: judgment to be swayed in any or prejudiced in any

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Speaker 3: way by what's going on. But you know, sometimes you

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Speaker 3: can read the panic in a room. You know, you

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Speaker 3: can almost tell. It's like it's you know, it's like

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Speaker 3: that old expression, you know, walls can talk, and sometimes

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Speaker 3: you can you can sense the panic, or you can

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Speaker 3: sense the anxiety in a room by the way it's

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Speaker 3: been delivered. But I must admit, you know, I've been

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Speaker 3: surprised this week watching the show myself at the strife

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Speaker 3: that Sharon and Ankor are in.

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Speaker 5: When you say you can read the room, sometimes, does

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Speaker 5: that also apply to things like there was a classic

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Speaker 5: example last weekend when I can't remember which couple.

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Speaker 4: It was a lovely couple.

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Speaker 5: They just wanted to just sand back that little bit

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Speaker 5: on top of their fireplace at the last second, and

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Speaker 5: of course it.

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Speaker 4: Just old bits of it started falling off.

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Speaker 1: Can you problem?

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Speaker 4: Can you read what happened there?

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Speaker 5: Can you look at that and think I know what

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Speaker 5: they did and I know what happened?

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Speaker 3: Yes in answers, yeah, I mean pretty much. Yes, you can.

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Speaker 3: You can. I mean it is, it is. It is

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Speaker 3: the little sort of unfinished details that you can read.

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Speaker 3: And you know that. Occasionally you walk into a room

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Speaker 3: and it's just perfect and just so finished, and there's

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Speaker 3: almost a sense of calm in there. But more often

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Speaker 3: than not, you can read the sort of level of pang. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's probably gone into it because we know that, you know,

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Speaker 3: tool down was literally only an hour or so before

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Speaker 3: we go in and start judging, right, it's all very fresh.

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Speaker 3: It's not unusual for us to walk into a room

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Speaker 3: and the paint still wet. Now, that's that's quite normal.

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Speaker 2: You can smell like, I mean, we know how it

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Speaker 2: works them. Before these multimillion dollar properties are sold on

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Speaker 2: the block, they do get the little bits and pieces

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Speaker 2: are fixed up, but that's not the point. It has

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Speaker 2: to be done in the timeframe, and so it is

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Speaker 2: a lot of pressure for them, isn't.

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Speaker 1: It, Neil.

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Speaker 3: It's a huge amount of pressure, and you know, it's

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Speaker 3: fair to say that the pressure this year would have

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Speaker 3: been greater than ever before because these are such enormous properties.

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Speaker 3: They're enormous properties, and at the back of their minds

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Speaker 3: also the contestants are worrying about saving money for the landscaping.

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Speaker 3: So even though they've got a budget each week to

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Speaker 3: do the rooms, they're not getting a separate budget on

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Speaker 3: top of that for the landscaping. So you know, what

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Speaker 3: they're going to do with their landscaping really depends entirely

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Speaker 3: on how much they've managed to save during the twelve

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Speaker 3: weeks of the competition.

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Speaker 5: Now, I understand you're currently building something in the beautiful

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Speaker 5: southern New Southwest town of Bury. Have you ever sort

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Speaker 5: of looked around the rooms and thought, oh, might check

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Speaker 5: that idea so I steal that one?

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Speaker 3: Oh look? Over the years, definitely, yes, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: there's nothing I mean, I think I've said it on

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Speaker 3: air actually on the show a few times. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's nothing better than walking into one of those rooms

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Speaker 3: and saying to you know, thinking to myself, my odd,

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Speaker 3: I'd like that in my own home. Yeah, yeah, it does,

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Speaker 3: it does happen. But hey, what I'm building here in

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Speaker 3: berry is minuscule to what those guys are doing. It's

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Speaker 3: like a shed, you know, a little shed compared to

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Speaker 3: what they're doing.

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Speaker 2: Neil, Neil, there are lots of cameras around, so don't

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Speaker 2: try and make any boxes of the KitKat Charles for

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Speaker 2: the bathroom hate. I am fascinated by when the three

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Speaker 2: of you walking to judge a bathroom or a room

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Speaker 2: or whatever it might be. Do you sometimes you know,

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Speaker 2: as a you have to be a critic, and you

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Speaker 2: have to be critical. Sometimes you sometimes influenced by the

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Speaker 2: mood you're in. You have to put that aside.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, you have to put that absolutely that. You

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Speaker 3: definitely have to put your your mood aside. And I

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Speaker 3: find that you well, for me, it's very important to

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Speaker 3: put my own taste aside as well, which might sound

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Speaker 3: like an odd theme to a lot of people listening,

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Speaker 3: but I think the number one rule of being a

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Speaker 3: judge is that you have to see the room that's

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Speaker 3: presented to you in the context of of of what

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Speaker 3: the property is and who the market likely to be.

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Speaker 3: You know, you can't allow you I mean that. I

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Speaker 3: guess that's the lesson I learned in all my many

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Speaker 3: years as a magazine editor. You know, you can't allow

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Speaker 3: your own taste to judge, to cloud your judgment. You

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Speaker 3: have to see the room for what it is and

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Speaker 3: judge whether it is a good example of the style

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Speaker 3: that's being presented to you.

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Speaker 5: And I expect that that also applies to the contestants.

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Speaker 5: They've got to try to step back and think about

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Speaker 5: it that way as well.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, they do. Absolutely. You know, one thing that is

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Speaker 3: always very difficult for the contestants is that they're not

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Speaker 3: designing for themselves necessarily. Yeah. I mean, you know, they've

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Speaker 3: got to think who the target market is, and often

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Speaker 3: the target market could be them. But you know, they

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Speaker 3: can't just go in there and design something for themselves.

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Speaker 3: It's a it's a balancing you know, it's a bit

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Speaker 3: of a tight rope that they walk. A bit of

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Speaker 3: a balancing act.

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Speaker 1: Of course, not every time I switch is on.

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Speaker 2: I see that boys are very likable omar and os,

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Speaker 2: but I always think, I keep thinking, it's like the

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Speaker 2: elephant in the room. This incredible advantage I've got with

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Speaker 2: that amazing kitchen coming up? Was it two hundred and fifty?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 4: I know, I can't wat they deal with that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars upgrade, upgrade

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Speaker 3: the two hundred and fifty thousand dollar kitchen. It's an upgrade.

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Speaker 3: Someone wouldn't we all like that?

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Speaker 1: What a bonus that is? Yeah, they know it's coming,

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Speaker 1: you know, no wonder they're so smiley.

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Speaker 5: Well, you know one thing that I really am enjoying this.

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Speaker 5: I'm loving what I'm saying they put out, and I'm

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Speaker 5: loving the colors that they're all using this year. Definitely,

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Speaker 5: they all seem to have a good grasp on that

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Speaker 5: area that they're in in massaging.

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Speaker 3: I think so. I think so too. I think they're

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Speaker 3: using some beautiful color palettes this year. I think they're

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Speaker 3: using some lovely materials palettes. And I think they're all

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Speaker 3: they're all interpreting country in a different way, which we

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Speaker 3: knew they would. It would be very dull if if

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Speaker 3: all five couples, you know, just interpreted country style in

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Speaker 3: the same way, because at the end of the day,

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Speaker 3: there is no such thing really as country style. You know,

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Speaker 3: country style means something different to all of us. But

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Speaker 3: I do think that they have taken into account how

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Speaker 3: just how beautiful the landscape is outside of their properties

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Speaker 3: and sometimes you just have to let that landscape speak

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Speaker 3: because that that is really, you know, what the houses

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Speaker 3: are all about. And I think you know, for the

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Speaker 3: most part, they're choosing color schemes that work beautifully with

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Speaker 3: what is going out and going on outside of the window.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well that let's cape a lot better than Sharon

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Speaker 1: and clean up. Yes, there's a lot of mess.

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Speaker 3: Filming. Oh, it's early days and my goodness me they

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Speaker 3: took a hammering from the weather during.

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Speaker 1: The Scotty told us it was terrible.

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Speaker 5: All right, Well, Sunday night, seven o'clock, we're getting a

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Speaker 5: bedroom and a bathroom and for some of them.

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Speaker 4: The loop as well. And I can't wait for kitchens.

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Speaker 4: Neil Wider, thank you so much.

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Speaker 3: Absolute pleasure. Good to talk to you both.

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Speaker 2: By