Bucknell's House

1 9 6 2 (UK)
39 x episodes

Already a British television favourite with his do-it-yourself programs, Barry Bucknell was asked by the BBC to do a series showing him renovating a neglected old house. When a likely property had been found in Ealing, the BBC sent in a surveyor, who was horrified and said that under no circumstances should they buy it as the building was dilapidated and had dry rot. "Splendid," said producer Stanley Hyland. "Is there any wet rot anywhere? And woodworm?".

"There's wet rot," said the mystified surveyor. "But happily I've found no woodworm."

"You go back and find some," ordered Hyland. "We're not buying it without woodworm!". Fortunately the surveyor discovered woodworm.

Barry Bucknell says: "There were birds flying in and out of the roof, and the place smelt dreadful, but being a man who takes on anything I said OK. I had to employ a team of helpers to work on the house, and we often had to work all night to find some dry rot in a wall so that the cameras could film it the next day. Another time, we toiled away through the night so that a wall was ready to knock down for filming in the morning. But when the wall came down there was so much dust that the camera couldn't see anything. And we could hardly do a retake!".

The 39 week series was a huge success, and Bucknell received half a million letters asking for pamphlets. Looking back, he concludes: "It had the atmosphere of a serial and that feeling of one person against adversity. It was real television - if anything went wrong, you saw it."

The house was sold at auction for £7,000 and the new owners found that even Barry Bucknell made mistakes when they uncovered a large damp patch on one of the walls. Bucknell immediately offered to put it right and pay for it himself.