# 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. A total of 243 episodes of DIY SOS and DIY SOS: The Big Build have been broadcast over 32 series.

## DIY SOS (1999–2010)

Launched in 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 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.

### Personnel
#### Presenters

* Nick Knowles (1999–2010)
* Lowri Turner (1999–2006)
* Brigid Calderhead (2002–2006)
* Kate McIntyre (2003)

#### Designers

* Brigid Calderhead (2002–2006)
* Claire Rendall (2005)
* Deborah Drew (2003–2007)
* Julia Kendell (2008–2012)
* Laurence Llewelyn Bowen
* Gabrielle Blackman

#### 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

| 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, 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.

### Personnel
#### Presenters

* Nick Knowles (2010–)
* Rhod Gilbert (one episode in 2021)

#### Crew

* Julian Perryman – Builder (2010–)
* Chris Frediani – Plasterer (2010–)
* Mark Millar – Carpenter (2010–2021)
* Billy Byrne – Electrician (2010–)
* Mat Skelton – Builder (2010–2013)

#### Designers

During The Big Build, the following designers appear in an alternating recurring capacity.
* Charlie Luxton
* Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
* Oliver Heath
* Hannah Huggins
* Nina Campbell
* Gabrielle Blackman
* Julia Kendell
* Naomi Cleaver
* Sophie Robinson

### 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.

## 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 | 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 | Finish a garden project, started but abandoned by a gym enthusiast |
| 1.3 | 18 September 2003 | Repair a garden in Surrey, left in a mess after the owners had swapped houses with their daughter |
| 1.4 | 25 September 2003 | Finish Wendy and Nigel's attempt to create a vegetable garden in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire |
| 1.5 | 2 October 2003 | Resolve the conflicts between couple Liz and Ian caused by their garden |
| 1.6 | 9 October 2003 | 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.

## 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. 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.