Thanks to the coronavirus we're getting unprecedented looks at people's homes when they're interviewed on the news.

Am I going to take pictures of them and rank them on an entirely arbitrary scale? YOU BET.

In an ever-expanding thread, it's time to ROOM RATE.

First up...

VERY fancy set up for BBC reporter in Italy. Exposed brickwork is a bit 'Suffolk 1990s' but that yellow IKEA chair pulls the look together for a warm and welcoming residence that says 'Have some soup and wine!'

9/10

HELLO.

Someone's been to Farrow & Ball. Luxuriant dark green walls but plenty of quirky furnishings and art, in a room that speaks 'Don't worry about spilling your herbal tea on that chair, I was planning on sending the au pair to John Lewis to get a new one anyway.'

7/10

This *may* be her place of work, but either way, this woman has chosen to exist in the Phantom Zone.

0/10

Plus points here:

- That kitchen looks neat and easy to clean with a disinfectant wipe.
- Plenty of natural light.

Cons:
- Horrible clock that looks like it's counting down the days to your death.

4/10

This man has nothing in his abode but a dehumidifier which I assume he makes love to in his EXTREMELY WHITE ROOM.

White rooms, as we'll see, are going to be something of a theme.

1/10

Classic millennial set-up. Again, a very white room, but a lovely use of footwear as decoration as well as storage. Nice touch. Points lost for the contraption on the right.

5/10

Again, a VERY WHITE ROOM. But a nice IKEA Billy bookcase and a lampshade that I would actually really like to own. Brown furnishing in the bottom left ruins an otherwise nice theme.

6/10

More white walls, so immediate points off, but these two lads have made the room more jolly by putting up some picture frames that they clearly haven't taken the stock photos out of.

2/10

Hmmm.

Lot of messy vibes here in this MP's house (Dehenna Davison). Big ol' Union Flag hanging on an otherwise undecorated plain wall looks vaguely dystopian. Chair doesn't look like a lot of fun and clashes with the flag.

2/10.

Man in an extremely white home (how *do* they keep the walls clean and scuff free?!?). But a nice skylight to bring in natural light, and the curtains look to be of good quality.

7/10

Looks like the set of an ITV studio comedy from 1998.

4/10

Nice to see a wall that isn't white, but it's featureless and the mustard yellow clashes with the dark green on the wall near it. Good inset LED lighting, but not enough to save it. Looks like a room you'd expire in as your will was amended by a greedy niece.

1/10

This man clearly lives in a passport photo booth. Absolute disgrace.

-1/10

Like this A LOT.

Can't tell if it's a partition or a lovely big cabinet/bookcase, but this lovely mixture of wood and glass adds a real touch of class to crisis.

Guys, I'm going to do it. I'm going to give the first

10/10

No roundels

3/10

Interesting one, this.

Again, VERY WHITE WALLS. Lot of natural light - nice - but there's a chaotic middle class vibe going on, like if a John Lewis shop threw up on itself. Pictures hung too close together, spotlight lamp and unnecessary 'ahem' picture.

All a bit much.

5/10

Not a fan of those messy shelves, Joe.

6/10

This one, spotted by @IanMcArdell, seems to depict a man who lives in an art gallery. White walls (again!) and a picture that you can actually *hear* screaming at you. Wouldn't be surprised if this chap's floor was covered with clear plastic sheeting either.

2/10

A nice jolly touch here, as Ed Davey MP appears to have papered over his doors with Christmas wrapping paper, perhaps believing that the festive air will keep sickness at bay. I like it a lot.

8/10

Sticking with the famous, BBC News reporter Norman Smith appears to be reporting from what appears to be a child's bedroom in Heaven.

The globe is a lovely touch. Love a globe.

7/10

As always, points off for white walls, but this guy has changed up the game nicely by making the staircase his background. The angle and banisters make the whole scene more interesting, and his curtains look nice, and possibly recently vacuumed.

8/10

A lovely home - one you'd imagine enjoying a lovely big glass of rosé in as you gossip about Jane's divorce. But again, points off for being so blandly white and cream.

6/10

Put some effort in please.

0/10

This chap is cheating by standing outside (should he even be outside?!?) but let's take a look. Veranda above the garage looks pleasant, the building itself is a bit brutal and overbearing. But it's a nice sunny day. Points off for no dog in the background.

5/10

A genuine Hollywood star's house! Goldie Hawn, making her very bland abode interesting with a big picture of an angry panda. Quite a sinister vibe it's giving off. Looking at it in that white room makes me feel chilly.

6/10

Mate, hang your pictures up, *PLEASE*. Unless you've taken them down to paint that abominably white wall with a nice splash of colour. I've seen morgues with more cheer.

1/10

Now *this* is more like it. Couple of lovely plants add some real cheer. However they fail to detract from those very bare shelves, which I feel could be put to better use. Get some books on there.

7/10

Move along.

0/10

Another BBC correspondent, another VERY WHITE ROOM. Where's all your stuff at, Sandford? Did you sell it to buy that vaguely Impressionistic painting? Not a lot to go on here. Disappointing.

1/10

Real 'Tuesday afternoon at the therapist's office' vibe coming off this. *But* a lovely wooden door & exemplary coving rescue the situation. I feel like I might be in the waiting room of a private clinic, reading a copy of Horse & Hound as my mistress gets her boobs done

7/10

Well it's taken for bloody ever but we finally have a home with some colour in it. The Gompertz that doesn't do the art on the BBC has some lovely bold splashes of frankly horrible colours in his kitchen. But it's colour! Not a fan of the glass-fronted cabinets though.

9/10

Look at this. Look at it.

This is what a home should look like. All odd chairs and stuff on the shelves and bits propped up in corners. I want to live there. I want to sit in that chair and read a book and doze off.

Rantzen is doing the nation proud.

11/10

Nice peachy coloured walls and a very vibrant picture set really make this one stand out.

Could be a living room, could be the upstairs loo. I *love* the ambiguity.

8/10

Hmm. Struggling with this one. Slight 'sheltered accommodation' vibes from the colour and layout, but that's a very attractive picture in the corner that reminds me I'm not at my great aunt's flat in Hartlepool in 1994.

5/10

Do remember, these are about the rooms, not the people. We're #ROOMRATING. And what a room! Very 'As Time Goes By' vibe. Wall colour ties beautifully with the chair, lamp and fireplace.

Would be very pleasant to have a brandy and a fish supper in this room.

9/10

Now for a two-parter with the theme of 'Child's Bedroom'...

First up, a really pleasant room. Pictures, lighting, pink (but not too pink!) walls all tie together beautifully.

I would love to be 7 again and read a bedtime story in that room. A great room.

10/10

The reassuring presence of Roger Moore immediately catapults this otherwise unremarkable room to a high score, and the presence of LEGO, especially Batman LEGO, propels it even higher.

No argument here. A GOOD ROOM.

10/10.

A very attractive map of the world in the background, but those walls need some colour and that wire dangling maniacally from the TV mounted on the wall instantly knocks 3 points off.

WHAT AN AGGRAVATING WIRE.

5/10

This man has erected a very jaunty banner in his home. I approve its message and typeface. Just out of shot was some lovely exposed wood I suspect was part of a staircase. But again...white walls.

4/10

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

Too many people on this thread have rooms that are soulless. This room is full of lived-in love. Look at all those photos on the mantel. Look how those curtains clash with that nice picture of the sailboat. This room screams LIFE BEING LIVED.

10/10

Nice pictures, but again, where's all your stuff? Take a note from the previous room please. This room says 'We own a Dyson and wipe down the seat with a Dettol wipe after a guest leaves'.

5/10

Ooh, someone's bought the Fancy Paint! I think that's Farrow & Ball's 'Scolded Au Pair Gold' and 'Sexual Nightmare Navy' on the walls. Some nice touches in the books and pictures. Looks like a good place to have an argument after discovering your wife's having affair.

8/10

People who have aerial photos of their own homes are just the worst, but this isn't about judging people. That photo demands a frame. I guarantee everything in this room is from John Lewis or The White Company. This room is trying *too hard* but trying not to look like it

5/10

Abominably sterile room. If this room were a sound, it would be the sound of a medical-grade latex glove snapping onto a hand.

1/10

Really interesting room from Terry Waite here. Lot going on. Which I imagine what a man who spent 5 years blindfolded and chained to a radiator would want. Lot of light and air and room to, which I imagine what a man who spent- well you get the gist...

9/10

A wonderful room from George Alagiah. Fantastic colour on the walls, furnishings that scream comfort rather than 'show-off', and yet which tie in beautifully with the theme of the room and that beautiful fire surround. You could solve Sherlock Holmes style crimes in here.

10/10

I don't know where Brazzaville is but they clearly have a furnishings and decoration shortage there. Dire.

0/10

Amazed it's taken this long to get to our first 'This wall's all books!' Skype call. It's a viewpoint that screams 'I'm smart!'.

But you know what isn't smart?

The messy arrangement of those books on the shelves. All higgledy-piggledy.

7/10

A home office space.

Pros:
- Exceptionally tidy desk space
- Ample plug sockets
- Good supply of stationery
- Nice wall colour

Cons:
- No desk lamp? Why?
- Put that sodding picture up.

Looks like a good space to fiddle taxes in.

8/10

This chap and his room have featured several times on BBC News, and no wonder they want him back with a quality space like that. Strong picture game and that's a graceful dividing wall.

Looks like a good room to have a first kiss with a new lover in.

9/10

Lot of wood, which is good. Wood is good, people.

Sadly I am of the firm belief that people who hang rugs and tapestries on their walls are not to be trusted. They're clearly hiding something, whether it's a stain on a wall or a stain on their soul. Or both.

6/10

If this room could talk it would say 'Yeah I take the twins to kids' yoga, but I also remember seeing Oasis at Knebworth. Had to move my vinyl collection so we could turn the spare room into Lyla's nursery, so I'm in the box room now. It's cool.'

5/10

Our first ROYAL ROOM RATING!

Charlie boy here has opted for the classic 'In front of bookcase', but I suspect the whole room is made of bookcase. Nice neat book arrangement, good lamp, and a family photo all add together to say 'This room is keeping the British end up!'

10/10

A good-looking but entirely uncomfortable looking room.

If this room was a shoe it would be a stiletto.
If it was underwear it would be awkward lingerie.
If it was a kitchen item it would be an imported espresso machine.

Feel like I'm losing money just looking at it

5/10

Hello!

A handsome kitchen here, though points off for glass-fronted cabinets. Lovely marble splashback and a neatly arranged worktop. Would love to prep a mushroom risotto on that.

Like Andrew Castle's hair this room not only looks good, but is also practical and grey

9/10

Tricky one, this.

Family photos, a splash of colour on the walls, and some books, but it's lacking that X-factor that would be provided by the presence of, say, a lovely cat, a couple of cushions, an erotic print, or a cork board with clues to a mystery on it.

6/10

See earlier Room Rating about my feelings on cloth wall hangings.

Looks very comfy, but it's far too busy and just a bit twee. Like the room of a minor Harry Potter character who enjoyed smoking a herb called 'WyndyMind' and drinking 'Floffal Foot Tea'

7/10

Sandi Toksvig, in what my part-Danish wife assures me is 'a very Scandi room', but which to my British eye looks like a very fancy sauna. A Bond villain's sauna, replete with nice painting and typewriter. Nice touches.

I'm torn. And at risk of international incident...

6/10

This room irks me (Though clearly Sky pays its presenters a good wage).

Quality furnishings, but it's just a lot of stuff, scattered about, without any sense of gravity. It's a room from a catalogue picture. The family photos paradoxically only serve to enforce the facade

5/10

It's our SIXTIETH ROOM!

Good room. Clean, simple, colourful. Nice picture, some flowers. Even this guy is so impressed with it that he's giving it two thumbs up. I wouldn't go that far.

Looks like a good room for getting a better deal on your home insurance.

8/10

'sigh'

Have the bailiffs just been in?
Is this a safe house?

SO. BARE.

With blinds closed and just a clock on the wall, one is reminded of one's own mortality, and that you only have 5 minutes left with the rent boy you agreed to meet here.

Still, nice mantelpiece.

2/10

This room is a human rights violation.

-9/10

This is what I imagine purgatory's admin office looks like. But it is neat and that big whiteboard looks well-arranged. Nice use of different colour on it to clearly delineate skills to those shepherding souls to Heaven or Hell

7/10

This just makes me feel sad.

Poor chap in his empty white room with just a small portrait of - what I imagine is his beloved dead dog - on the wall to keep him company. Perhaps it was called Rover or Jess or Douglas. No more pain where you are, faithful hound...*sniff*...

1/10

The classic 'bookshelf behind' manoeuvre. Safe. Well-known.

If this room was sex it would be missionary position.
If it was crisps it would be ready salted.
If it was a newsreader it would be Michael Buerk in the early 90s.
If it was pasta it would be penne.

7/10

Nice picture selection/arrangement there. Looks like a series of Rorschach Tests for a toddler. A friendly atmosphere, punctured only by what looks like a menacing, wood-fired robot to the left, which adds excitement and doesn't remind me of my daddy, what?

8/10

Oh yes please.

This room is me in my mid-20s, mixing novels with graphic novels, posters with your first properly framed pictures. Impulse purchases in comic book stores. This is what your foreign GF sees when she Skypes you. This room is a last gasp to end in the attic.

10/10

Matt Lucas, whose room appears to be the title sequence from the first series of Doctor Who and is thus the first room impossible to rate. I have been beaten here.

?/10

More celebs now, and Michael Sheen bucking the nauseous trend for plastering/painting over everything with some gorgeous exposed stone and timber. Smashing, homely, neat shelves, and so Welsh I wouldn't be surprised if the fireplace played Tom Jones when lit.

10/10

Our first home cinema!

You wouldn't expect 'schoolboy blazer' green, and 'butterscotch Angel Delight' caramel to work, yet it does, in a vintage art-deco way. The Black Watch tartan throws on each seat a great touch. I want to sit with Samuel L Jackson and watch a film.

10/10

Back to earth, back to Blighty, and a room that looks like it enjoys Easter gatherings and Christmases. Tinsel on those framed CDs. Toddlers running past that cabinet of plates and trinkets. The smell of the lamb wafting from the kitchen. Point off for the wall colour.

7/10

STRONG vibes of the back wall of a charity shop coming off this room. I used to work in a charity shop and I'd price that white bowl at £3.

6/10

'Good afternoon, I'm calling from the Exsanguination Chambers, deep in the bowels of Hell, on behalf of our Lord and Fiery Tormentor, Lucifer. Can I interest you in painting the walls of your abode with the blood of damned souls?'

3/10

Quite a sparse roo-AWWWWWWWW, A BABY!

A cute wickle baby-waby wiv it's adorable widdle babygrow and it's wuvvly chubby widdle face and big blue eyes I WUV YOU BABY!

'Ahem'.

Yeah elephant cushion is a nice touch too.

8/10

In a cunning effort to beat me, this chap has used his window as a backdrop. A BOLD strategy, given that the light quality can change dramatically, or a bird could poo on the window, or a local pervert could rub his junk up against the glass.

No points for cheating, sir.

VOID

*Classic* spare room vibes here, in a room so pathologically dull that if you stare at this photo of it for too long, you *will* nod off and wake up wearing a cardigan you have no recollection of ever owning.

6/10

I know we did Charlie the other day, but the rule is we rate the room, not the man, and he's moved.

Bit busy, rather old-fashioned. Has the air of your dotty old aunt's house. I feel sorry for that piano, which, with all those photos on, has likely not sung in years.

8/10

I *HATE* this room because I cannot find a single sodding fault in it.

Look at the size of that burner! It could power a battleship! Beautiful furnishings and arrangement, great exposed brickwork, and a speaker system.

I want to drink sherry and listen to Bowie in here

10/10

Now don't laugh.

I'll tell you why I like this room. It's so appallingly sparse and meek that it perfectly fits the modest life of a man of God. It has a wonderful wartime vibe to it too. Real 'Brown Windsor soup, last of the meat ration for the week' feeling. Wholesome.

8/10

Time for a #HIGNFY portion of Room Ratings!

First up Ian Hislop.

Like it a lot. Good in-built bookcases made of proper wood and chock full of books. Looks like the kind of room where pipe-smoke and canings and milk pudding and memories of nanny would come to meet.

9/10

A real left-field play here, which is classic Merton, who's sitting in front of DVD's rather than the usual books. Quite a selection too! It tells us nothing else about the room though, and I suspect it may need a good hoovering.

6/10

If you went to any one of the big kitchen installation brands - your Wrens, your Wickes, your Magnets - and said 'I'd like a kitchen that looks like a set off Hollyoaks please', then this is what they would shove into your home. -1 for cafetière too. No one uses them.

6/10

Again, your classic bookcase.

Not too badly arranged! you might think.

But no, she's got all the Jasper Fforde novels in the wrong order, and that middle shelf isn't being used to its full potential. What a waste of shelving.

6/10