Makeover magic
Breegan Jane is an interior designer on HGTV’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She tells Sarah Nealon about how a new home can be built in five days and why the show always moves her to tears.
Television makeover shows have a way of pulling at the heartstrings – especially when their subjects are people who put other people’s needs before their own.
This is the basis for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a reality show where selfless types have their houses renovated, extended or are even gifted a new one.
It’s enough to make anyone shed tears of joy – and plenty of viewers do just that.
Breegan Jane is an interior designer lending her expertise to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She can remember watching the show’s early seasons with her family.
“It was a show I was in love with and I feel like I sort of grew up with,” she says.
“It was on for a very long time and it was something I always watched with my family, especially my dad.
“So it was very surreal to be cast in this new rendition of it because I have such fond memories of watching it with my whole family.”
It was a show which moved Jane and her family to tears.
“It was one of the shows that, you know, I actually saw my father cry every week with me,” she says.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was hosted by Ty Pennington until it was canned in 2011. The latest season, a revamped version, is now fronted by Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Celebrity guests this season include Pennington, country singer LeAnn Rimes, and Black-ish actor Anthony Anderson.
Jane is part of the core cast. She has her own interior design company in Los Angeles and runs a lifestyle blog. She is also a single mother of two boys, aged four and six years.
When asked what her own home is like, Jane says, “I have learned, because of the pressure of being an interior designer, how to make my home as functional and beautiful as it can be without looking like children have taken over my home.
“I love to entertain and I love a basket with lids for toys and it’s about simplifying the toys.
“So my house is very lived in. One of the things that’s interesting about
it is it’s very white – all white walls.
“That’s because white is bleach friendly. If my kids colour on the walls, I don’t have to worry about matching that beautiful shade of blue or crying over the wallpaper.” But back to the TV show. On Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, people are sent away from their homes under great fanfare. This is reality television after all.
Once the homeowner is gone, the makeover experts, like Jane, then get to work.
“On this rendition of the show we did remodels which they had not done in the past,” she says.
“But we did full-construction, new builds from the ground up. Some, where we were, we knocked down the original home and rebuilt. Some, you’ll see, we actually started with just the land and constructed a home, and it’s crazy because this happens in five days.”
If you’re wondering how you build a home in such a short space of time, Jane explains, “It’s a well-executed plan of so many volunteers that, I mean, it’s like watching an anthill just get constructed in front of your eyes.
“There are months of planning and each thing is executed so efficiently. But also I’ve been on construction sites for years and years and years. It’s very difficult sometimes to achieve a common goal when people aren’t fuelled by love, right?
“My plumber might argue with my electrician who might argue with my drywaller, right? Because they’re all in each other’s way and things are happening, the nature of business is it just doesn’t always go smoothly.
“I really think the secret sauce to this show is that everybody is tied to the purpose of the family and the need. Everybody is working on top of each other going, ‘Hey, how are you? Can I help?’ ”
When the show aired in the United States, Jane watched it at home with family members.
“They would come over and watch it on Sunday with us,” she says.
“And I would always say, ‘Don’t worry, we’re all going to cry but just know I cried all five days we
were filming this’.”
“White is bleach friendly. If my kids colour on the walls, I don’t have to worry about matching that beautiful shade of blue or crying over the wallpaper.” – Breegan Jane
When it comes to building with Lego, Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught knows a fair bit about the subject. The Lego Masters Australia judge is what is known as a Lego-certified Professional. “There are 14 of us around the world and we all do totally different things,” he says. “So I obviously do Lego Masters, the TV show, and we make store displays – so like big Lego models that you see around in stores.” Then there are exhibitions in museums in Australia and abroad. “So basically, it is Lego’s way of telling us that we are part of the family.” McNaught heads a team of Lego builders under his ‘The Brickman’ brand. The group is responsible for impressive structures like the 10-metre-high Christmas tree which was constructed from more than half a million Lego bricks and stood in Auckland’s Aotea Square at the end of 2016. Other builds include life-sized cars and a Disney princess. “Each year I try to tick off at least one thing on my long list of things I’d like to build,” he says. “So there’s always some things that I’ve got lined up. I’ve always wanted to make a yacht out of Lego. So maybe one day I’ll get the chance to do that.”
McNaught, who has a background in IT, quit his corporate job to set up his own business.
“It’s a different kind of work,” he says when he compares it with his former office life.
“While it’s still work and there are long days and, you know, lots of worries and those kind of bits and pieces, it’s a very different type of challenge.
“Because it’s in something that you love doing, it’s not really work if that makes sense.”
McNaught got his first Lego set when he was three years old. It was a present from his grandmother.
“I loved Lego up until I was about 14,” he says. “Then I put it away. It wasn’t cool to play with it any more. It wasn’t until we had kids – I’ve got twin boys – that I got back into it then.”
McNaught is used to being asked by Lego enthusiasts about how you become a certified Lego Professional.
“It’s funny. I remember when I was a kid, it (his current job) would have been my dream job but, obviously, you know, realism and real life kicks in and takes over that and you need to get a real job and that kind of stuff,” he says.
“So the thing that I always tell people is, ‘What we do is very mathematics based’. It’s very actual. There are a lot of calculations that are happening – you know, algebra, trigonometry, geometry. All sorts of things like that and we don’t even realise what our brains are doing.
“I always tell people if they want to do it, follow the maths path of things and then do a degree in something that’s exciting. Like in architecture or graphic design or industrial design or in all sorts of things and go from there.”
McNaught lives in Melbourne with his wife and their 12-year-old twin sons.
The boys watch Lego Masters Australia on television at home with their father.
“I don’t actually see the episodes until they go to air,” says McNaught. “So it’s a bit nerve-racking for me.
“But the kids are funny. (They say) ‘Dad, you got that one wrong’, ‘Dad, that one is better than that one’. They’re always fun. We have a good laugh.”
With two Lego-obsessed children of my own, I’m wondering if McNaught has any good tips for storing and organising the hundreds of plastic pieces which are currently housed in a big plastic box.
“It’s funny you say that because that’s exactly what we have at home,” he says.
“We have a giant plastic tub full of Lego and we just tip it out on the floor and play with it.”
Lego Masters Australia, which is hosted by Hamish Blake, is now in its second season.
Here teams of two, who are used to building Lego together in their own lives, compete in a series of challenges.
So what will it take to win the competition?
“Incredible team work,” says McNaught. “Whoever wins it, really needs to work well together.
“If one person’s working at a different level than the other or not quite on the same page, they will definitely get found out.
“So it definitely takes team work. It takes a lot of creativity – obviously thinking outside the square, finding different solutions, and also coming up with really cool ideas and storytelling.”
“There are a lot of calculations that are happening – you know, algebra, trigonometry, geometry.”
– Ryan McNaught
Danny Dyer, who plays the landlord Mick Carter in the long-running British soap EastEnders, is standing in his trademark spot behind the bar at The Queen Vic pub. Pointing at us, he snarls his catchphrase, “Get out of my pub now”.
Since moving into The Queen Vic in 2013, Dyer has become the show’s biggest name. Already acclaimed as a movie actor thanks to roles in films such as Human Traffic, Mean Machine and The Football Factory, he soon established himself on the soap as someone whose profile extended way beyond Walford.
The actor affirms his status on EastEnders by venturing that, “No one is bigger than the show, but I’d like to think they’ve never had anyone quite like me in it.”
To underline the point, 42-year-old
Dyer picked up the Serial Drama Performance award at the British National Television Awards in 2015, 2016, and 2019.
On the back of his new-found profile, Dyer also presented a high-rating episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2016.
In a memorable moment from that genealogy documentary, Dyer discovered that his 22-times great grandfather was King Edward III, the mighty mediaeval ruler, and this linked him to all the British monarchs as far back as his 30-times great grandfather, William The Conqueror.
That programme proved so popular that two years later, the actor went on to front a two-part series entitled Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family.
He had a whale of a time recreating the lifestyles of his
forebears and dressing up as a knight in armour and Henry VIII.
Dyer reveals that he was initially sceptical when the producers asked him to join EastEnders.
“When the call came, at first I wasn’t really that interested. I thought it was going to be obvious.
“They have approached me before – it’s always been the gangster, the villain, and I thought, ‘Hmm...’
“But this time, when the producer explained to me the role about taking over The Vic and coming in with a family, playing the alpha male, but not in an obvious way, it was like all my dreams come true.”
For all that, Dyer admits that he was so nervous the first time he stepped on to the EastEnders set.
“When I first walked into The Queen Vic, as it is for most people, it’s a moment. It takes your breath away because it’s just embedded into our psyche.
“The fear was there. I couldn’t help it. I’ve done high-profile things, which were pretty petrifying. But this was up there with them.
“You have grown up with it, and then you’re there, and then it started to become real to me.”
Gesturing around The Queen Vic, he continues, “Now this is my stage, this is my domain. This is the hub of the show. It’s a very, very important role.”
Before he came on board EastEnders, Dyer admits that he was a personality who tended to split opinion.
“I’ve got a persona and a bit of baggage that comes with the name Danny Dyer. I divide people completely down the middle. I’m either a legend or a joke.
“I get that. Either you buzz off what I do or you despise it. I know that controversy comes with me.
“I swear a lot, I have made some controversial films and I’ve said some stupid things in the past.
“But at least I’m raising some sort of debate.”
Now, however, it is fair to say that Dyer is widely regarded with enormous affection by British audiences for the brio that he has brought to the role of Mick.
He might even be in danger of becoming a national treasure.
The actor acknowledges that, “I have put my scent on the role now. I have found the character, and I know what I’m doing. Embrace it.”
He adores the role so much, he has pledged to stay on EastEnders for at least another 10 years.
“Another 10 stretch and then I’ll just take a backseat. I love EastEnders. I’m very grateful. It’s a lovely, lovely job. I’m on the best soap ever invented.”
But what might Dyer do after that? He confesses to fostering a desire to be the next James Bond.
“It’s the dream role. I was 1000-1 once to be the next Bond. They talk about having a woman James Bond, but why not have a working-class James Bond? ‘I’ll have half a lager... don’t stir it, for crying out loud.’
“He’d be a sophisticated working-class hero. I would love to have a go at it. You shoot for about five months a year, you’re in Hawaii, Barbados, all over the place, looking beautiful.”
Dyer concludes, “If I can run The Queen Vic, I can be Bond.”
South African series Trackers is a high-octane thriller where the danger is just as real behind the camera as in front of it.
Just ask the drama’s Finnish director Jyri Kahonen who, only days into filming, found himself running for his life from a stampeding rhinoceros.
“In the script it says, ‘Flea walks the rhino from one cage to another’. We shot three long shots with three cameras of the scene before the rhino just bolted. It was a nightmare,” he says, adding fortunately there was no need for a second take.
“It just went berserk, raving mad. We had to grab everything we could carry in our hands – like 100 people there in the middle of the night – and then we just had to run.”
It was an eye-opening introduction for the first-time visitor to South Africa who admits to being blown away by that country’s cultural diversity and landscape.
“It’s like New Zealand where you can actually swim and ski on the same day but in South Africa – while there is no snow – in the space of 100 miles you can see a beach, then drive through mountains to a desert,” he says.
Both Kahonen, and successful crime author Deon Meyer who wrote the book the series is based on, hope Trackers will catapult South African television on to the world stage.
In the six-part drama, its stars James Gracie (Scandal, Alex Rider), South African Rolanda Marais and Brit Ed Stoppard (Knightfall, The Politician’s Husband) become embroiled in a violent conspiracy involving organised crime, smuggled diamonds, rhinos, state security, the CIA and an international terrorist plot.
A collaboration between South African streaming service M-Net, Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF and American network Cinemax, Trackers out-rated even Game Of Thrones when it debuted in its country of origin.
A second series is already in the pipeline and Meyer – who worked with Death In Paradise creator Robert Thorogood on the screenplay – hopes it will prove as popular around the world as it did at home.
“We, as South Africans, are extremely proud of this TV series,” he says.
“I think that it is really the sum total of so many talents in this country – the cast, the writers – it employed a lot of young South African writers – the production team, the crew, the director who brought some wonderful international talent.”
Meyer also believes Trackers may help to dispel the negative perceptions people have of South Africa as a violent, crime-ridden country with a lot of poverty,
“I think people will see a different South Africa, a South Africa that is vibrant and beautiful and successful and operating on a very high level,” Meyer says.
The novel Trackers was written 10 years ago and much has changed in South Africa in the intervening decade.
“We had to make a decision on were we going to do a period piece or were we going to update Trackers to make it a very modern story which (is what) we eventually did,” he says, adding there were other changes too.
While Meyer was happy to be involved in adapting the book, he was pleased to be doing it as part of a writing team. “As an author I think you are always too close to the book and too subjective to take the adaptation decisions on your own,” he says. “We spent perhaps more time discussing and brainstorming the script than on any other aspect of the TV show and I was very involved with that. I think we all had a similar vision. Let’s use the book as an inspiration but not as the gospel. “Our approach was let’s try to stay true to the book as far as great television allows us.” Meyer admits large parts of the novel didn’t make it to screen and that hurt a little. “But I really believe we made the right decision to stick to what works on screen. If the TV show is good enough the readers who love the book won’t mind if we moved away from the book a little bit,” he says, admitting he was still a little apprehensive until the series screened. “So far not a single reader has ever said, ‘Oh but you’ve changed the book’. Everyone said they loved the TV show. To me that is the real measure of success.”
Trix Vivier and James Gracie
At this time of crisis, the BBC’s new drama Cobra is well timed, to say the least. No, it’s not about a pandemic such as Covid-19. Rather, the threat here is an imminent solar storm that threatens to fry the UK’s national electricity grid.
Cobra is the acronym for the country’s Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, a real-life top-level emergency committee headed by the Prime Minister which determines the response to issues such as pandemics … and geomagnetic storms.
While Boris Johnson has been spearheading Britain’s fight against Covid, Cobra pitches Robert Carlyle (above, Trainspotting, The Full Monty) as Robert Sutherland, a charismatic Conservative politician who’s been PM for only a short time.
Cobra aired in February in the UK and had been in production for months before that. In fact, Carlyle says some filming took place when Theresa May, Johnson’s predecessor, was British Prime Minister.
“She was going back and forth to Brussels trying to negotiate (Brexit) and I felt for her.
“I looked at her and looked at her face. I mean her voice was gone. She looked like she was disappearing, just vanishing as a human being.
“As one human being to another, you’ve got to feel for that. That’s what’s happening with Sutherland to a certain extent as well. People within his party are more than willing to throw him under the bus.
“He’s not your usual Tory Prime Minister. He’s trying his best to be different and to look at things from different angles.
“That puts him at odds with his Home Secretary, played by the wonderful David Haig, because David’s character Archie is completely stuck in the past … the old-school-tie guy and Sutherland is trying to lead his party away from that,” says Carlyle.
Sutherland’s personal life complicates matters.
While the BBC drama
focuses on a different disaster scenario, it lays bare how the powers-that-be tackle such issues.
“He has a daughter who has just graduated from university. She goes to a party and her best friend takes drugs and lapses into a coma.
“So, of course, the press are sniffing around trying to figure out what actually happened and whether the daughter was to blame in any way for this.
“The s**t is basically hitting the fan all around and it’s a question of whether he’s going to survive. Because as we know all too well from recent times, politics can be a horrible, dangerous game.”
Standing by Sutherland’s side throughout all of this is his chief of staff Anna Marshall, played by Victoria Hamilton (The Crown, Call The Midwife).
Like her boss, Hamilton says her character is having to juggle her professional and private lives.
In her case, it’s a marriage already under strain when an old flame arrives on the scene. “She’s married with two teenage children. Her husband is a
very successful foreign news reporter and I think there’s a lot of love there, but inevitably as you look behind the curtains of their home you realise that they spend a lot of time apart. “She’s more morally complicated than just being a goodie or a baddie because there are certainly things that she does throughout the series to do with her personal relationships that I think a lot of people would find questionable.” So how likely is it that a solar storm could strike Britain? “When we were filming there was a piece in the papers about the possibility of it happening. I remember going into the make-up truck and sending the article to the producers and going, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God’. “You Google it and there are 10 examples of how it’s happened or could have happened in the last decade.” Hamilton reveals how much she enjoyed working alongside Robert Carlyle. “Him getting his head round being a Tory was very interesting to watch. A couple of the rooms we filmed in were in these old houses, with very, very posh rooms full of beautiful furniture. “He said to me, ‘I bet you’re used to this, aren’t you, after two years on The Crown?’ I told him I’ve filmed a painful amount of period drama in rooms like this my whole career. “He said, ‘The only time I’ve ever filmed in rooms like this is if I’m playing someone who’s breaking into them to nick stuff.’ “He’s brilliant.” Streams on Neon and Sky Go.
“People within his party are more than willing to throw him under the bus.”
– Robert Carlyle