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DIY SOS
DIY SOS is a British DIY television series made for the BBC. It has been presented by Nick Knowles since 1999 and was broadcast until 2010, before changing format to DIY SOS: The Big Build. A total of 243 episodes of DIY SOS and DIY SOS: The Big Build have been broadcast over 33 series.
Launched on 7 October 1999, after audience figures showed interest in other home makeover 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 26 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.
In 2010, following the success of a pilot under the same name, the show was reformatted into an hour-long series titled DIY SOS: The Big Build, where the team now 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.
In June 2023, the BBC put the series up for tender as part of the company's "competitive tender" policy. In May 2024, it was announced that the Welsh-based South Shore had won the bid to produce the series. The show was retitled back to simply DIY SOS but retaining the "Big Build" format.
During The Big Build, the following designers appear in an alternating recurring capacity.
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.
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DIY SOS
DIY SOS is a British DIY television series made for the BBC. It has been presented by Nick Knowles since 1999 and was broadcast until 2010, before changing format to DIY SOS: The Big Build. A total of 243 episodes of DIY SOS and DIY SOS: The Big Build have been broadcast over 33 series.
Launched on 7 October 1999, after audience figures showed interest in other home makeover 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 26 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.
In 2010, following the success of a pilot under the same name, the show was reformatted into an hour-long series titled DIY SOS: The Big Build, where the team now 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.
In June 2023, the BBC put the series up for tender as part of the company's "competitive tender" policy. In May 2024, it was announced that the Welsh-based South Shore had won the bid to produce the series. The show was retitled back to simply DIY SOS but retaining the "Big Build" format.
During The Big Build, the following designers appear in an alternating recurring capacity.
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.