SQUARE EYE
Thorough inspection: Host Adam Ford with the Dolton family in Paddington.
It is the sort of idea for television that usually comes straight from the BBC. Who's Been Sleeping in My House? is one of those great concepts that combines family, architecture and history in one fascinating package.
But this show, which is about to launch into its second series here, came from an Australian idea. Presenter and archaeologist Adam Ford says the format is now being exported to the rest of the world.
''The UK is very interested in it and a number of European countries have already taken the licence for the format,'' Ford says.
Mark and Dorothy Galer.
Executive producer Daniel Brown, who was selling his own home in Perth, realised it was going to be replaced by units. He had an unusual idea of inviting over as many previous owners of the house as he could to have a barbecue to farewell it.
The warm and successful event sparked an idea for television - of going into people's homes and helping them discover who had lived there previously.
''He thought, 'Hold on, there's something in this.' People do have a lot of emotional baggage or linkage to the houses they've lived in,'' Ford says.
It's something that has provided fascination for the families involved in the second series of the show, including Paddington couple Victoria and James Dolton and their three children - Tugela, 5, William, 4, and Aurora, 2. ''Working with a film crew, we've never done anything like that and they were great,'' Victoria Dolton says of their involvement in the show.
''We watched the first series and we'd recently purchased our place and then they [contacted us] saying, 'do you want to learn more history about your place? It was all very exciting.''
Other homes featured in this series include buildings in Roleystone in Western Australia (featured in this week's first episode), Yellingbo in Victoria, Toowoomba in Queensland, Gunning in NSW and St Peters in South Australia.
Victoria Dolton says it will be a wonderful experience for her children to grow up knowing the history of their family home and knowing they were involved in the television series.
''We got a lot out of it,'' she says. ''They moved around a lot in the first few years of their life and we took three years house-hunting around Paddington to find a terrace that we liked, so when we bought this one we wanted to stay in it.
''It's a definitely a home where we thought we do want to learn more about the house and hopefully they'll be teenagers and they'll be like, 'Wow, we did that when we were little.'''
Ford says using houses as a starting point is a clever gateway to history. ''Social history is quite a difficult thing to tell [on television]. You can do themes but it can come across as a little bit preachy,'' Ford says. ''The idea of using the house almost as a Tardis - a time-travelling vessel - to take you back and look at the stories of the people, I thought, was a great idea as an archaeologist.''
Just how do they find houses featured in the series? Plenty of in-depth research, Ford says.
''[A house] may have a history, but can we trace it back or do we reach dead ends?'' he says. ''We had a bunch of researchers go through the initial cut of the properties, [then it's] talking to the owners and making sure they didn't know much about the history as well.''
Even Ford wasn't made aware of the full story of the houses until he was on set with the families as the information was slowly unveiled, so all the reactions were genuine.
''It keeps the story genuinely interesting because I'm actually going on the journey while it's being filmed,'' Ford says.
Who's Been Sleeping in My House? screens on Friday at 8pm on ABC1.
Fassnidge's rules
As if the My Kitchen Rules juggernaut hasn't made enough stars already, keep an eye on Irish-Australian guest judge Colin Fassnidge, who grew up in Dublin and has called Sydney home for 14 years.
Fassnidge, who had his first big break on television on Channel Ten's MasterChef, has stepped up his profile even further by appearing on Channel Seven's hit cooking show. He has been perfectly cast as the judge not afraid to say what he thinks (and he appears to be living up to expectations). No doubt he learnt a few tricks on that front during his time working for Gordon Ramsay.
In Fassnidge's appearances on My Kitchen Rules he has even become a bit of a style icon - pulling off his casual male chic with aplomb (although credit may rest with the wardrobe department for that).
As with many of the faces being watched by millions on MKR, Seven seems keen to capitalise on their new man. Fassnidge will appear as a guest on Better Homes and Gardens this Friday in a segment with the show's host, Johanna Griggs.
Not only will he show off his very own vegie garden, he also reveals his passion for motorbikes.
Seems he has the bad-boy style down pat.
Better Homes and Gardens screens on Friday at 7.30pm on Seven.
Brotherly love
If you think you've seen every Daddo brother on TV, think again.
Andrew, Cameron and Lachie Daddo may all be well known to television viewers but their brother Jamie is the star of an insightful and moving episode of Artscape airing on Tuesday night.
Jamie, who is Andrew Daddo's twin brother, was left disabled after he was hit by a car at 18. He is now a painter and a poet.
The show portrays Jamie's passion for the arts and also the love between the twin brothers, with Andrew appearing throughout the program.
Artscape: Anatomy - Brain airs on Tuesday at 10pm on ABC1.
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