DIY SOS

DIY SOS is a British DIY television series made for the BBC and presented by Nick Knowles, Lowri Turner, Kate McIntyre and Brigid Calderhead. The series was broadcast from 1999 to 2010 before its current format DIY SOS The Big Build from 2010, also presented by Nick Knowles. 242 episodes of DIY SOS and DIY SOS The Big Build have been broadcast over 32 series.

DIY SOS
Also known as
  • DIY SOS (1999–2010)
  • DIY SOS The Big Build (2010–)
Presented byNick Knowles
Lowri Turner
Brigid Calderhead
Kate McIntyre
StarringBrigid Calderhead
Deborah Drew
Julia Kendell
Charlie Luxton
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Oliver Heath
Hannah Huggins
Nina Campbell
Gabrielle Blackman
Naomi Cleaver
Narrated byNick Knowles
Lowri Turner
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series32
No. of episodes243 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerRobi Dutta
ProducerHamish Summers
Running time60 minutes
Production companyBBC Studios Factual Entertainment Productions
Release
Original networkBBC One
Original release7 October 1999 (1999-10-07) –
present
Related
Changing Rooms

DIY SOS (1999–2010)

Launched in 1999, after audience figures showed interest in other home make-over shows such as Changing Rooms, DIY SOS was a weekly full builder and designer level renovation of a section of a viewer's home, taken on by a team of professionals after a viewer's DIY project had gone wrong and not been finished. It is the longest running show of its format having been shown for 21 years and has an active dedicated forum.

Launched with presenter Nick Knowles, the format consisted of a main project, and a small project initially headed by Lowri Turner (but after Turner left the show, a number of subsequent presenters were used for the smaller segment), and a viewer call-in vote format voting for one of three families who have made short video pitches for their projects to be addressed in the following programme.

An episode filmed in June 2009 was not broadcast after a domestic incident where a man held his wife hostage at gunpoint before shooting himself, the week before the intended broadcast. The episode is believed to have included the fitting of a new kitchen into the couple's semi-detached home.[1]

Presenters

Designers

Crew
  • Julian Perryman - Builder (1999–2010)
  • Chris Frediani - Plasterer (1999-2010)
  • Mark Millar - Carpenter (2006–2010)
  • Billy Byrne - Electrician (1999-2010)
  • Ian Soo - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Dawn Bayley - Decorator (1999–2006)
  • Garfield Caven - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Steve Fallowfield - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Chris Young - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Kyle Dwnt - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Warren Furman - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Bob Grose - Builder (1999–2006)
  • Mat Skelton – Builder (2008–2010)
  • Genie - Fitted the chair lifts (2000–2010)
  • Herbie - Fed the cats (1999–2010)

Episodes
Main article: List of DIY SOS episodes
Series Episodes Start date End date
1 6 7 October 1999 18 November 1999
2 7 7 March 2000 25 April 2000
3 9 18 October 2000 13 December 2000
4 8 12 June 2001 31 July 2001
5 8 31 January 2002 21 March 2002
6 9 20 June 2002 29 August 2002
7 8 9 January 2003 6 March 2003
8 8 10 July 2003 28 August 2003
9 8 15 January 2004 10 March 2004
10 6 19 May 2004 19 August 2004
11 8 16 March 2005 11 May 2005
12 8 28 July 2005 26 September 2005
13 10 1 May 2006 17 July 2006
14 8 8 November 2006 2 March 2007
15 8 13 July 2007 19 November 2007
16 7 27 June 2008 15 August 2008
17 8 22 August 2008 10 October 2008
18 6 9 April 2009 14 May 2009
19 7 28 April 2010 16 June 2010

DIY SOS The Big Build (2010–present)

In 2010, DIY SOS was rebranded, adopting the title DIY SOS The Big Build. In doing so, the show became a one-hour programme in which the team enlists the help of local tradesmen, suppliers and the larger community to help deserving families. As the title suggests, the projects often involve "ambitious" construction work such as building a loft conversion or extension. In October 2015, The Big Build's "Veterans Village" special achieved a 34% audience share (with viewing figures of 9.6 million), the biggest in the series' history.

Presenters

Crew
  • Julian Perryman - Builder (2010–)
  • Chris Frediani - Plasterer (2010–)
  • Mark Millar - Carpenter (2010–2021)[2]
  • Billy Byrne - Electrician (2010–)
  • Mat Skelton – Builder (2010–2013)

Designers

During The Big Build, the following designers appear in an alternating recurring capacity.

Episodes
Main article: List of DIY SOS episodes
Series Episodes Start date End date
20 2 15 April 2010 1 July 2010
21 4 26 August 2010 26 January 2011
22 6 13 April 2011 16 August 2011
23 10 10 January 2012 15 October 2013
24 6 22 October 2013 30 May 2014
25 6 12 May 2014 21 October 2014
26 9 18 December 2014 17 December 2015
27 10 17 February 2016 29 March 2017
28 6 8 June 2017 15 November 2017
29 6 4 January 2018 17 January 2019
30 7 3 April 2019 11 December 2019
31 6 19 November 2020 17 May 2022
32 5 10 May 2022 14 June 2022

Reception

Following the transition to the Big Build format, according to Stuart Heritage of The Guardian, the show is now a "big hitter", explaining that "Pound for pound [it] offers far more emotional heft than almost anything else on television". In its previous format, the show had, in his view, merely "burbled along pointlessly", lacking ambition or an emotional connection with viewers.[3]

Garden SOS (2003)

On 7 July 2003, the BBC announced a sister show to DIY SOS, to be called Garden SOS. Running for only one series, it was first broadcast on BBC One from 4 September to 21 October 2003. Using the same format as DIY SOS, it was to tackle gardens instead of houses. Described by a reviewer as a hybrid between DIY SOS and Ground Force, the show featured a red and blue team of experts sent to work on different projects.

It was presented by television presenter Andy Collins and garden designer Ann-Marie Powell. As with DIY SOS, viewers were given the chance via a telephone vote to select the projects in each subsequent episode. Reviewing the first episode for the Radio Times, David Butcher described the series as "all good fun", but lacking in gardening related content, and suggested this was one garden makeover series too many in an increasingly saturated market. There were six episodes in total.

No. Broadcast Episode description
1.1 4 September 2003[4] Repair a botched attempt to join two gardens into one in Lancaster and rescue a garden in Enfield with a hole where a patio was planned
1.2 11 September 2003[5] Finish a garden project, started but abandoned by a gym enthusiast
1.3 18 September 2003[6] Repair a garden in Surrey, left in a mess after the owners had swapped houses with their daughter
1.4 25 September 2003[7] Finish Wendy and Nigel's attempt to create a vegetable garden in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire
1.5 2 October 2003[8] Resolve the conflicts between couple Liz and Ian caused by their garden
1.6 9 October 2003[9] Regenerate the garden of Raffles Community Centre in Carlisle

International editions

The format was sold to RTÉ in Ireland in 2019, with episodes to be presented by Baz Ashmawy expected to air in 2020.[10]

Controversy

In May 2021, it was reported that Nick Knowles was holding crisis talks with the BBC regarding his job as the main host of DIY SOS due to his appearance in a Shreddies TV advert, which violated BBC's commercial agreements and guidelines.[11] A week later, the BBC announced that they have resolved the issue and Knowles will return to his DIY SOS role with filming to resume in the coming months and he was expected to be back on screens in 2022.[12]

References
  1. "DIY SOS participant found dead in Watford home". BBC. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  2. @MrNickKnowles (10 April 2022). "@dr_screener @CBFA2020 Sadly he moved on to other things & we all wish him the best of luck @Bonjourmillar came to…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. Heritage, Stuart (28 August 2014). "DIY SOS is back is this the most emotional show on TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  4. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 4 September 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  5. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 11 September 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  6. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 18 September 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  7. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 25 September 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  8. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 2 October 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  9. "Garden SOS - BBC One London - 9 October 2003 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  10. "Presenter unveiled for Irish version of DIY SOS:The Big Build". Irish News. 9 October 2019.
  11. "Nick Knowles 'holding crisis talks with the BBC as he faces axe'". 20 May 2021 – via www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk.
  12. "Nick Knowles to return to DIY SOS role despite Shreddies advert". BBC News. 26 May 2021.
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