Property News · August 5, 2017

Get a House for Free: poverty porn at its most pernicious


A property tycoon sets out to donate a £120,000 flat to someone in need, but the supposedly noble exercise makes for cruel, uncomfortable TV‘I have dreamed about this for a long time … to be able to give somebody something of this magnitude,” says Marco, the knight in shining armour at the centre of Get a House for Free (8th August, 9pm, Channel 4). Marco is a property investor and landlord from Preston, Lancashire, who made his fortune buying and selling houses. Now he wants to give away a fully furnished, three-bedrom flat worth £120K.Several centuries ago, Marco might have been observed in frock coat and powdered wig lobbing gold coins out of a horse-drawn carriage at toothless paupers. But these days a rich man can find a different kind of absolution by parading his charitable nature on TV while embarking on an all-important journey of self-discovery. And so, in the same conscience-easing mould as The Secret Millionaire, in which tycoons go undercover in the name of philanthropy, here Marco gets to audition people on the breadline to decide which of them is most deserving of his munificence. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Get a House for Free: poverty porn at its most pernicious

You may also like...