Escape to the Country fans were left "cringing" just minutes into the Chesney Hawkes episode on Tuesday (December 30).

During the latest celebrity edition of the BBC show, presenter Jules Hudson welcomed The One and Only hitmaker and his spouse Kristina, who were seeking to relocate from their rented property in suburban Surrey to pursue countryside living in the Cotswolds.

The pair possessed a substantial budget of £1.3 million and were hoping to purchase a traditional character dwelling with contemporary proportions, which Jules acknowledged was "not the easiest to find".

They required four double bedrooms to house their entire family, alongside space for a recording studio and a garden for their dogs.

Jules kicked off the hunt in central Gloucestershire at the village of Edge, before moving on to a transformed public house in Ashton Keynes, located in north Wiltshire, reports Gloucestershire Live.

However, the property search soon came to a halt when Chesney decided to teach Jules how to play chords on the guitar. The pair then proceeded to improvise a song together in front of an outdoor fire.

That's not all, as Jules also hosted a singing quiz in one of the prospective properties, in which Chesney and Kristina had to guess the identities of famous musicians from incomplete pictures.

The presenter later asked the couple questions about major events in 1991 - the year that Chesney's most famous song was released.

BBC viewers weren't impressed with the amount of "filler" in the episode, with many taking to X (formerly Twitter) to share their complaints.

"Oh god this filler material is so unnecessary!" one person wrote, with another adding: "I agree. Cringe."

A third said: "For Christ sake BBC," with another similarly sharing: "Bloody hell don't quit the day job lads."

A fifth viewer asked: "What is the point of 'celebrity' version? Just Z listers looking around houses. No intention of buying anything. Total waste of money."

Later in the episode, Jules showed Chesney and Kristina a five-bedroom home in the village of Chalford Hill, before undertaking the show's largest ever viewing with the mystery house. Sevenhampton was home to a sprawling manor that dated back to the 1600s.

At the end of the search, Chesney and Kristina revealed that they particularly loved the third property, but they planned to continue looking. "What you definitely have shown us is that the Cotswolds is very, very lovely," Kristina concluded.

Celebrity Escape to the Country is available to stream on BBC iPlayer

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