Changing Rooms

1 9 9 6 – 2 0 0 4 (UK)
165 x 30/60 minute episodes

With a time limit of two days and a budget of just £500, two sets of neighbours or friends attempted to improve a room in each other’s home in this surprisingly successful series.

Given the help of a professional designer – Graham Wynne, Michael Jewitt, Laura McCree and, more notably, Linda Barker, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (all flowing locks and crushed velvet) and Anna Ryder Richardson – and the assistance of crafty Cockney carpenter “Handy” Andy Kane, they set about transforming the look of one of their friends’ rooms.

The series was panned for some of its over-the-top designs, quick fixes, ubiquitous MDF (Medium-Density Fibreboard – an engineered wood product) and cheapo decorations.

The results ranged from the supremely stylish to the garishly ghastly and at the end of each show, the friends or neighbours were taken back into their own homes and shown the results – often to delight, but occasionally to heartbreak. Rumour has it that many people swiftly undid the damage that had been done to their homes as soon as the Changing Rooms team had departed.

Impossibly wholesome and bubbly blonde Scot Carol Smillie (pronounced “smiley”) introduced the programme and reported on progress throughout.

Beginning modestly on BBC2 but transferring to BBC1 after two years, Changing Rooms was one of the first of a new tranche of lifestyle/DIY programmes – Home Front, All Mod Cons, Change That etc – that had viewers queuing outside B&Q on a Sunday morning.

By its second series, Changing Rooms was pulling in nearly eight million viewers an episode. There are now entire satellite channels devoted to nothing but DIY.

The series merged with a sister programme for a special in 2000, entitled When Changing Rooms Met Ground Force, in which interior decorating and gardening specialists switched jobs.

In 2003, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen took over as host from Carol Smillie, bringing some much-needed attitude to the show and his snide comments kept his fellow designers on their toes.

The final edition was broadcast on 22 November 2004 after a successful 8-year, 17 series run.

The show was also franchised and variations of it appeared in several other countries, sometimes with a different name such as Trading Spaces in the US, and sometimes as a local version of Changing Rooms such as in Australia (with host Suzie Wilks), New Zealand (with host Kerry Smith) and the Netherlands (hosted by Martijn Krabbé).

Carol Smillie
Linda Barker
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Anna Ryder Richardson
‘Handy’ Andy Kane
Graham Wynne
Michael Jewitt
Laura McCree