Channel 4 step into the Changing Rooms

Best on the Box for August, 18th.

Bring on the colour, patterns, textures and imagination… minimalism begone – Changing Rooms is back.

“Channel 4 has a very good track record, with things like Bake Off and Pottery Throwdown, of understanding the essence of what the audience wants, but bringing in a kind of subversive cheeky twinkle. Even 25 years ago, Changing Rooms had that subversion, it had that cheeky twist. Changing Rooms was the first reality show, so it’s incredibly important to maintain that immediacy.

“The classic interior design show returns to our screens, 25 years after it first aired on the Beeb. This Channel 4 version of the legendary home-DIY series gives the format a fresh lick of paint for an era of pinspiration and insta-interiors. From a 30 minute slot on BBC One to a full hour slot on Channel 4, its twice the show it used to be.” – Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Returning to Changing Rooms is interior design icon Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who’s joined by host Anna Richardson and designers Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead and carpenter and joiner Tibby Singh completing the team.

Interview: Anna Richardson on the return of Changing Rooms

“I really enjoyed what I did on Changing Rooms originally, but it was like Crossroads. With the best will in the world, you’d lean on something and it would go sideways. [Now] we have to inspire with the rooms, we have to lead with the rooms, we have to do something that people get very excited about. And the problem now is that if you don’t like the rooms, you can’t get rid of them, because they’re so incredibly well built!” – Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Changing Rooms sees two sets of homeowners from the same neighbourhood work against the clock to renovate a room in each other’s houses, and with the help of the designers’ bold and opposing styles, bring the new looks to life in their chosen rooms, ensuring each transformation is spectacular, innovative and unexpected.

The revamped series kicks off in Swansea, where two sets of neighbours makeover each other’s rooms; Florist Claire’s living room is a sea of beige, but she’s hoping for something ostentatious. Will her neighbour, postal worker Lisa, with help from her daughter Kirsty, give her the wild room she’s after? And can Claire and her best friend Jo turn Lisa’s cluttered, neutral bedroom into the unique and contemporary space that she dreams of?

Changing Rooms, Channel 4, 8 pm