Nick Knowles fought back tears during a live TV appearance just days before it was announced that his long-running home renovation show DIY SOS is to be “rested” by the BBC after 27 years.
Knowles has hosted DIY SOS since 1999, sticking with the show as it transitioned out of being a more traditional home improvement series and into something bigger, with Knowles and his crew of builders repairing and transforming properties across Britain with help from local communities.
It was announced yesterday (17 September) that the show would be “rested” – if not outright axed – and replaced by a spin-off show composed of old footage, due to the corporation’s bid to make £500m in cuts over the next three years.
While it is unclear whether Knowles knew about the impending “resting” during a Tuesday appearance on ITV’s This Morning to promote the show, he did spend the interview discussing the show’s importance to British television and its work to represent and celebrate working class communities on TV.
“[It celebrates] the best of communities all over the country,” he said. “Thousands and thousands of working class heroes, which you don’t see much on TV. We don’t get into those areas. We don’t celebrate working class people, and that’s the kind of community I came from. So it’s a big deal for me to make sure that we represent [them].”
Presenter Ben Shephard then insisted it’s “never felt like a more important time” to see shows like DIY SOS, “at a time when everything feels very divided and divisive and there are things going on that make people feel ostracised or isolated”.
Knowles briefly paused during the remainder of the interview after choking up while discussing an episode of the new series of the show. It sees Knowles and his crew renovating a home in Preston to accommodate the needs of a 16-year-old boy who’d been in hospital for 18 months undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour, which has left him with complex disabilities.
“The people that turned up just worked and worked and worked because they knew they were trying to get this boy home,” Knowles said. “On this one, because it was his first time from hospital, the builders lined the road and the ambulance came…”
Knowles then choked back tears, before being comforted by Shephard and his co-presenter Cat Deeley.
“I felt exactly the same,” Deeley added.
Later in the conversation, Knowles discussed the show’s evolution over the decades.
“They wanted something on the BBC that was sort of similar [to Changing Rooms],” he recalled. “But we decided to make it more life-like … [We’ve done] the garden of Great Ormond Street for veterans, re-building at Grenfell after the fire. There have just been so many of these things that have been done. I think that’s my favorite thing and, like you say, it’s more important than ever that people see how many good people there are in the country.”
When Shephard noted that the show had been airing for 35 series “and that there’ll be plenty more as well”, Knowles pointedly did not respond.
Yesterday a BBC spokesperson confirmed that the show will be leaving the airwaves, writing: “In light of the BBC’s savings challenges we have taken the decision to rest DIY SOS in 2027 and commission a new spin-off show instead from producers South Shore.
“DIY SOS Rebuilt My Life will revisit successes from the show’s past and expand the brand on the BBC in a more cost-effective way next year.”
The Independent has contacted Knowles for comment.
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