When he first appeared on TV, chronic hoarder Richard Wallace was living in squalor. His hoarding was so out of control that his own life was in danger.
Mountains of papers and packaging filled his home from floor to ceiling and, worryingly, surrounded his gas cooker where he made his boiled eggs and toast.
Richard was shunned by many of the residents of Westcott Village until landscape gardener Andy Honey offered to help.
Becoming Richard's closest friend, Andy rallied the village to help clear over 60 tonnes of rubbish from Richard's garden. Six months later, Andy is still by Richard's side.
Now they are trying to deal with the bigger problem of clearing Richard's home to make it safe, but Richard can't let anything go.
Inside the bungalow the dangers have got worse and he now has an extraordinary 'death tunnel' in his kitchen that he has to crawl through every day.
Progress is slow and, despite Andy's best efforts, the local NHS mental health team for professional support were called in. Led by clinical psychologist Sophie Holmes, they visit Richard to make an assessment.
Opinions in the village about Richard are mixed. Some residents want to cook him meals and help clear the house, but others are frustrated by the ongoing mess and cost to the local council.
And when Andy and Richard's friendship takes an unexpected twist, some locals start to question Andy's motives for helping.
Every other reality show seems to be about hoarders or salvagers these days. As someone who is a borderline compulsive hoarder they have a special interest for me. They will also for many others next April when they are forced to "downsize" from their present three or four bedroomed homes to a single roomed bedsit as a result of housing benefit cuts.
In last night's show I felt Ray was doing far too much for Richard. I'm all for "helping" someone but this amounted to doing it all for him. That robbed Richard of any sense of dignity or of being in control. In my experience once somebody comes to realise that an item is useless they are only too pleased to get shot of it. An example was when Richard was shown the twenty-five pallet-loads of newspapers and magazines taken from one of his homes alone. Even then Richard let Ray do all the work of shifting them.
The programme touched only very briefly on the reasons why people hoard which is essential to an understanding of the problem.
For anyone who missed last night's showings it can be seen again on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/obse ... oarder/4od or on 4Seven at 9.00pm tonight.
