Phoenix is rising again

And he’s back because Channel 4 is bringing us a second series of BUILDING BRITAIN’S SUPERHOMES (10pm), the show that casts a spotlight on this larger-than-life character (by which I mean either you'll love him or he'll get on your wick) and the swanky gaffs he builds. This time Guy has purchased a plot of land in rural Nottinghamshire, for which he has grand ambitions (hence he forked out £200,000 above the asking price).
It’s already got a house on it, but that’s an ugly old Sixties thing (he particularly dislikes its “putrid” yellow bathroom; I can’t say I blame him) and he'll be getting it knocked down ASAP.
His plan is to replace it with a superhome covering 9,000 sq.ft, which is several times the area the current place covers.
This huge new house will be worth around £4 million (which is standard Guy Phoenix territory, price-wise).
The cost of building it will be around half that sum.
It’s a bit of a gamble, mind you, because this is in an area where nobody spends anything like that sort of money on a house, even if it’s a fancy one.
He’s just got to hope he can buck the trend. “This superhome will offer luxury and opulence like no other home for miles around,” says the programme’s voiceover chappy Philip Glenister (seemingly not too fussed that whoever wrote this script for him has reached for the words “opulence” and “luxury” with quite exhaustin...