DIY SOS

Did You Know?

• The show has an active dedicated forum.
• Garden SOS was described by a Radio Times reviewer as 'all good fun' but lacking in gardening related content.

DIY SOS (1999–2010)

Launched on 7 October 1999 after audience figures showed interest in other home makeover shows such as Changing Rooms, the programme was a weekly full builder and designer level renovation of a section of a viewer's home. A team of professionals took over after a viewer's DIY project had gone wrong and not been finished. The format consisted of a main project and a small project initially headed by Lowri Turner; after Turner left, a number of subsequent presenters were used for the smaller segment. A viewer call-in vote allowed audiences to choose one of three families who had 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. Regular team members included Nick Knowles, Lowri Turner, Brigid Calderhead, Kate McIntyre, Claire Rendall, Deborah Drew, Julia Kendell, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, Gabrielle Blackman, Julian Perryman, Chris Frediani, Mark Millar, Billy Byrne, Ian Soo, Dawn Bayley, Garfield Caven, Steve Fallowfield, Chris Young, Kyle Dwnt, Warren Furman, Bob Grose, and Mat Skelton.

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. The team now enlists the help of local tradesmen, suppliers and the larger community to help deserving families, with projects often involving 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 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, and the show was retitled back to simply DIY SOS but retaining the Big Build format. Regular team members during this period have included Nick Knowles, Rhod Gilbert (one episode in 2021), Julian Perryman, Chris Frediani, Mark Millar, Billy Byrne, Mat Skelton, and designers Charlie Luxton, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Oliver Heath, Hannah Huggins, Nina Campbell, Gabrielle Blackman, Julia Kendell, Naomi Cleaver, Sophie Robinson, Radha Siyver, and Ashley Edwards. According to Stuart Heritage of The Guardian, the show is now a "big hitter" offering far more emotional heft than almost anything else on television, whereas in its previous format it had merely burbled along pointlessly.

Garden SOS (2003)

In 2003, the BBC created a short-lived spin-off of DIY SOS called Garden SOS, which aired on BBC One for just six episodes between September and October. Instead of houses, it focused on garden makeovers, with a red team and a blue team of experts working on separate projects. Hosted by Andy Collins and garden designer Ann-Marie Powell, the show let viewers phone in to choose which projects would appear in later episodes. One critic called it a cross between DIY SOS and Ground Force, describing it as enjoyable but noting it lacked gardening content and felt like one makeover series too many in a crowded market.