George Clarke's Amazing Spaces - TV review

You can't afford the mortgage on anywhere nice to live and every old wreck seems to get sold to a property developer looking to make a quick buck instead of a first-time buyer who actually needs it.

So instead of dreaming big, it seems creative types across the country are now thinking small as they look to unlikely sources to transform into impressive spaces.

With money to be saved, or made, architect George Clarke thinks that it pays to think out of the box and Amazing Spaces hopes to show that even the smallest plot can be turned into something incredible.

In that spirit then, how would you feel about buying an out-of-service old wreck of a bus? Or a naff 1970s caravan? Or even some public toilets?

Sound like a terrible idea?

Well you might not get luxuries like space, comfort or an inside toilet, but there is one huge advantage over buying a house – it's cheap. . .

In fact, in the main focus of last night's opening episode, Rob managed to pick up a rusting old Bedford bus - way past its prime - and turn it into a holiday home for just £4,000.

That's right. £4,000.

It may not be Grand Designs, but this mini-makeover saw the wreck transformed into a place fit for a family of four in the Welsh countryside, making £85 a night from tourists looking for somewhere interesting to stay, for less than the price of a second-hand car.

You can see that host George Clarke feels at home with this project – as the self-styled 'Restoration Man', he helped conservationists work on crumbling ruins and this ageing piece of public transport, the first bus in the company's fleet, certainly fits the bill.

Unfortunately we're whisked to and from Rob's project all too fleetingly as three other designs are crammed into an hour of television.

And whilst the effort made by Laura to convert a set of 1930s public toilets, eight feet under the south London streets, into a cosy one-bed apartment is no less impressive it would have been worth the extra time to see exactly how she managed to do it.

Because although you might have to turn a blind eye to certain aspects of the home – the mention of the kitchen's 'splashguard' certainly raises an eyebrow – you can't fault her creativity and vision.

For the £65,000 spent, Laura could have bought herself a nice flat in the Midlands, but the completed valuation of £200,000 shows how lucrative a conversion it was instead – and just how ridiculous London house prices are . . .

Meanwhile, George also somehow squeezes in time to show off an old horse box, skillfully turned into a plush holiday letting, and his own project – the 1970s caravan.

This central hook of Amazing Spaces will link together the series as Clarke looks to transform his £300 purchase into something worthy of the show's title.

One week in though and I'm far from sold on the idea as the project only gets as far as the motorway, dragging along as our host wandered around caravan parks pulling unrealistically excitable faces about the lumps of rusting metal on offer.

It's the bigger restoration projects which suit you George.

Let's leave the real Amazing Spaces to the entrepreneurial first-time buyers that really need them – like Rob and Laura.

Todd Nash