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 originally broadcast from 1999 to 2010, before transitioning into its current Big Build format, also presented by Knowles. Collectively, 205 episodes of SOS and The Big Build have been broadcast, while Garden SOS aired for one series in 2003.
''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 over 17 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, 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, DIY SOS was rebranded, adopting the title 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 "Veterans Village" special achieved a 34% audience share, the biggest in the series' history.
Personnel
Presenter
Nick Knowles
Crew
Julian Perryman - Builder
Chris Frediani - Plasterer
Mark Millar - Carpenter
Billy Byrne - Electrician
Mat Skelton – Builder
Designers
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 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.
''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, to be completed within three days. 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:
