House Doctor (C5) Hot Property (C5) Being April (BBC1)

American interior designer Ann Maurice is the original House Doctor. Accept no cheap imitations like the recent C4 show that blatantly ripped off the format in which an expert tells a homeowner having difficulty selling their property where they're going wrong.

What's nice about her is that she speaks her mind, even if she does sound bitchy and rude. Penny who'd been trying to sell her top floor apartment in Manchester for ten months received a full blast when Maurice viewed her cluttered flat. "Are you joking, this is your entrance hall?" she demanded to know on being greeted by the sight of, among many things, an ironing board and armour when entering the property.

The inspection moved on. "I am almost speechless. Show me the rest, it has to get better," said Maurice. It didn't. The urban minimal look demanded by a loft apartment was hidden beneath mounds of fabric, clothes, books and furniture. "You're a bit messy, aren't you?," she commented.

The property boom on C5 continued with Hot Property in which a couple try to win their first home. They're shown three properties, then pick their favourite and guess the selling price. If they get within £1,000 (£500 either side), the house is theirs.

Presenter Alice Beer is much nicer than Maurice, although can't resist the odd caustic comment. "A fine view of the bus stop," she noted on entering the bedroom of one house. A look at a kitchen was accompanied by the observation, "a nice view when you're doing the washing up". Clearly, Beer spends a lot of time looking out of windows.

Being April is a very des res in TV drama terms. It has all the features for a hit show - a popular star (Pauline Quirke) surrounded by faces familiar from other series and a plot designed to appeal to everyone. April has three children by three different fathers - a fat lad who still lives at home, a gay man and an Asian. She also has a new boyfriend (a Scot, to ensure no one's left out) whom, we're assured, goes like a train - "not a British one, obviously, a French one".

The opening episode was taken up introducing everyone as April thought about moving, with boyfriend and children, to Dublin. They didn't go, of course, or there wouldn't be any series. So far, Being April feels like it's been written strictly to formula although there's enough there to suggest matters may develop interestingly