The duo - known affectionately as the Gleam Team and the Queens of Clean - won through auditions to host a series, How Clean is Your House?, telling grimy Brits how to keep house properly. ('To remove stubborn limescale marks on enamel, take a clean cork and use it to rub a little cream cleaner over the affected area.')

Neither thought the idea would work, but after a nine-show series (with a 16-episode follow-up scheduled) and a top-tips book that has sold 220,000 copies - with some 8,000 leaving the bookshelves a week, making it by far the best-selling manual - both have given up their day jobs to cajole and frighten undomestic goddesses (and gods) into anti-grime action. ('To make your toilet truly sparkle, pour a can of cola into the bowl and leave it for an hour. It will remove all known stains.')

The show attracts six million viewers each week and has prompted highly sought-after tabloid newspaper columns and guest appearances on chat shows. ('Mrs Mop from Bath wants to know how to clean chrome showerheads properly? Easy, just soak them in a mix of half white vinegar and half water for an hour.')

It is unclear just what impact their advice, and the tenacious way they impart it when visiting filthy British homes, is having on the state of homely hygiene, but sales of cleaning products have risen, testament to their mantra that 'cleanliness is next to godliness'. It's not only the heavily advertised cleansers and soaps that are shifting. The more traditional methods of keeping things clean, such as soda crystals, have made a fashionable comeback, too, according to manufacturers. (How do I stop my shoes from smelling? No need for Odour Eaters, just leave bicarbonate of soda in them overnight.)

The advice is apparently taken on board by male and female viewers, because everyone loves a spankingly clean home. The tips were not lost on one woman, who asked if there was a way to clean up her husband, who had 'developed an allergy to house-cleaning'. 'Just tell him you have an allergy to sex, dear!'

There may be a biological argument to explain why males avoid domestic chores. Apparently, the female of the species is more prone to doing housework because 'home' is psychologically linked to the human body, and as we all know, women are a tad more hygienic than men, be it in the under the arms department or under the sink section.

Woodburn and MacKenzie may be ultra-hygienic, and fun to watch and read, but to many in the growing anti-cleaning backlash gaining weight in the broadsheet opinion pages, they are sad obsessives who belong to a bygone era. No modern person in their right minds should find the time to vacuum blinds, curtains and mattresses or sleep on nylon sheets just because mites prefer cotton and wool. And neither should they polish their door key, as MacKenzie once admitted doing.

Still, there are benefits to housecleaning that would have even the publishers agog: an hour's busy scrubbing and dusting burns 200 calories, a far better way, we can all agree, than buying up those other fast-selling manuals, the diet books. Something for Atkins aficionados to chew over - as long as they wash the plate afterwards.