The Block Australia S15

Take the toughest challenges on Survivor, and add hammers, nails and paint, and you get somewhere close to the drama on The Block. One of Australia’s top reality shows, this is as addictive as it gets.

This season, five teams of two contestants each tackle a townhouse in the formerly glam, now derelict Oslo Hotel in Melbourne’s trendy suburb of St Kilda. Each couple has to contend with a super-tight schedule and a tiny budget, and, toughest of all, the judging panel: supremely calm magazine editor Neale Whitaker, and interior designers Shaynna Blaze and catty Darren Palmer.

If you think you’ve seen it all, think again – the terraced houses of the Oslo are more than double the size of the penthouses on last season’s Gatwick Hotel, so the contestants are facing a monumental challenge. Can they even hack it?

The show is presented by the inimitable Scott Cam and Challenge Master Shelley Craft, who pops in to set the contestants challenges, offer some encouraging advice and occasionally break their hearts. Foremen Keith and Dan are in charge, and woe betide the contestants who defy them or build something that’s not up to Australia’s exacting building codes.

Each week a room or area has to be completed, and at the end of the competition, all five apartments are auctioned. The couple who makes the most cash wins – and they get to keep the windfall.

While the gorgeous interior design is at the heart of the show, the soul is the human drama. Couples fight, neighbours quarrel and you’ll quite often wonder whether someone shouldn’t take the sharp pointy tools away.

New episodes arrive on weekdays on DStv.