Channel 4 has announced that Simon Davis is to takeover as presenter of Country House Rescue when it returns for a fourth series in 2012.
Davis replaces former presenter Ruth Watson who launched the show after quitting Channel 5’s Hotel Inspector.
The series takes viewers behind the scenes of some of Britain’s most beautiful houses whose owners face financial ruin and are struggling to maintain their crumbling stately homes.
Davis has written about travel, food and architecture for publications including The Daily Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller, Country Life and the London Evening Standard.
Some properties have declined through lack of funds, inherited an already neglected house or bought a property without realising just how costly it is to maintain.
Each week Davis will work with owners as he attempts to turn the properties from money pit into money spinning mansions.
Davis said: “I have an unbridled love of the country house and believe passionately that they, and the public, are best served by these properties staying in the hands of the original owners and being made to work to survive.
“Our great country homes need to function as they did when they were first built. They need to be culturally inspiring but above all they’ve got to be places where people go to be entertained.”