Problem homes

Kevin McCloud reveals why his long-running show Grand Designs is a victim of its own success. Jim Maloney reports.

He has presented Grand Designs since 1999 but Kevin McCloud says that people on the show never take his advice.

“I try to say, ‘You should do this. You should ring up that person. Why don’t you do this as it would be so much easier?’ and for nearly 25 years, no one has ever taken any notice. They completely ignore it.

“They say, ‘We know you have seen hundreds of projects and we have heard you say things again and again but we are going to ignore all that because we think this is going to be perfect.’

“And what I love about that response is that it embodies hope and optimism – that zealous position of, ‘We are right, we are doing the right thing’.

“And, of course, then it goes wrong. That’s human nature. Because hope is this terrible emotion which takes you to the brink of a cliff and then it pushes you off. It can be very destructive and we have seen some really powerful projects where those drives have led to chaos in the end.”

The long-running Grand Designs, which starts a new run this week, is hugely popular but McCloud refuses to watch it himself.

“I don’t like to watch myself on TV so I have never seen it. The programme hasn’t changed that much over the years. The biggest difference really is that when we started, we were at the end of the 20th century which had seen modernism, functionalism and brutalism, of trying to design for modern use. Sustainability and the ecological performance of buildings was a fringe interest back then.

“We’d have our token eco-home in each series, but now all of them are super-insulated and go way beyond building regulations, because if you’re going to build a house for yourself why would you not want a zero-energy build?

“All of them have some form of managed ventilation or innovative heating source or solar panels. It’s become less of a fringe benefit and

more of a core value to what we film.

“I’m always looking for great stories and projects that deliver something unusual, that we haven’t seen before.

“If a project comes in and it’s so similar in story and design to something we’ve done, then we probably won’t do it. And I think that’s helped with the longevity of the series.”

But the show’s enduring success has made finding interesting projects to televise more difficult.

“It’s tough finding good projects. As the years have passed we have covered a fair few water towers and conversions of old houses and quite a few glass boxes.

“But then along comes a project where you think, ‘We have got to do this because it is such an interesting story’. And it’s the stories of the people, building for three generations, or one site for two families sharing one house, or people who have returned from abroad to the UK – the human angle that drives the building.

“At the beginning of each film there is no building, there is just a site. And so you’ve got to somehow convey the energy and the passion of these people and their truth.

“We do a lot of due diligence and research and we always tell a story which is the truth. Of course, there are many projects that don’t come our way. We have people say, ‘I really wanted to do it but my architect said no way’ or vice versa. I visit lots of wonderful buildings where I think, ‘I’d have loved to have filmed this’.”

A big appeal of the show is when, inevitably, things start to go wrong and there is the drama of if and how they will be able to dig themselves out of the hole.

“The majority of people we film have a degree of self-belief. That’s what’s got them there in the first place. That brings with it a belief that I hear again and again, which is, ‘This project is going to come in on time and on budget’. And my answer is, ‘I’ve never really seen a project do that’.

“The common mistake is to try to do everything yourself and not ask for help. I’ve said it before – spend money with an architect who sees the world the way you do, get a quantity surveyor if you can afford it, get a good builder and look at their work.

“When you build a house it’s one of those times in your life when you actually need all the resources you can muster, all the energy, everyone around you to support you and help you.

“I think most people believe because they put up a shelf, they can build a house. Or because they have managed a marketing team, they can manage a team of builders, and that’s not always the case. But that’s what makes Grand Designs so watchable and compelling.”

“I think most people believe because they put up a shelf, they can build a house.”

– Kevin McCloud

When Scotty Morrison began fronting Te Karere back in 2002, it was still being broadcast with almost as minimal a setup as the show’s very first episodes, produced and presented by Derek Fox 20 years earlier in 1982.

“I would go into the studio, there would be one camera sitting in front of me and a desk about the size of the old school desks with a felt carpet top and a microphone sticking out,” remembers Morrison.

“That’s where I would present from – sit down in the chair and present straight down the lens. So it’s come a long way since then,” he laughs.

Now celebrating 40 years since the first one-minute bulletin was broadcast for M ori Language Week on February 21, 1982, Te Karere (literally ‘the messenger’ or ‘the message’) was New Zealand’s first M ori-language TV programme.

Earlier shows like the iwi documentary series Tangata Whenua in 1974 and weekly magazine programme Koha in 1980 had showcased M ori content before, but always in English.

“This is the value of what Te Karere has been. It’s helped to normalise te reo M ori in Aotearoa New Zealand,” says Morrison.

“A lot of people put it on in the background and they hear it and it just sinks into their DNA and they become familiar with the sounds of the reo, so they recognise that it’s around and that it’s part of us, of people living in Aotearoa,” he adds.

Morrison will be celebrating

“The pictures are there to help you. You start to become familiar with words and you start to imitate what people are saying on the show.”

– Scotty Morrison

his own Te Karere anniversary in November this year, notching up 20 years as presenter. Having not learned how to speak M ori until his first year at university, the 51 year old says Te Karere was a “valuable resource” for him. “At the start I wouldn’t have been able to understand a single word, but as you go through the language journey, shows like Te Karere become really important for you to gauge how much you’re understanding. “The pictures are there to help you. You start to become familiar with words and you start to imitate what people are saying on the show.” To then go on to host it himself, and for 20 years, is not something Morrison takes lightly. “There’s so much responsibility, so much legacy, so much importance to carry when you join the team at Te Karere, and that makes it, to me anyway, more than just a news show. It’s an honour and a privilege to be a part of every day.” While TVNZ news bosses in 1982 initially expected that original presenter Derek Fox would simply translate one or two stories from the mainstream news bulletin into M ori, Fox was determined that Te Karere would be “M ori news, not just the news in M ori”. The distinction is not lost on Morrison.

“Yes, because we are distinctly different in how we view the world,” he says.

“We have different ways of operating, different ways of reflecting who we are and what we’re all about, and that was never achieved by anybody until Te Karere came along, because all we heard was one language and all that was shown to us was a very monocultural view of things.

“I always give the example of when Ngati Kahu were protesting at Kaitaia Airport (in 2015).

“They cross live to the mainstream reporter, who says, ‘The protestors are here and they’re attempting to burn down the building at the airport’. And then you get a cross from the Te Karere reporter not long after and she says, ‘Ngati Kahu are here and they’ve lit fires to show their traditional land tenure and occupation of this area’.

“And so you’ve got two points of view there – one completely wrong but very inflammatory, and the other one actually the correct way of explaining what was happening, but also showing what the M ori worldview was in terms of how you show traditional land tenureship.”

Keeping the fire burning is what Te Karere has been doing for 40 years now, and Morrison believes that flame will endure for another 40 years to come at least.

“It’s a taonga now,” he says. “You listen to whaikorero and, if it’s something to do with broadcasting, people will use the words taonga or tupuna for programmes that have been around for 30-plus years, and those programmes are Waka Huia, Marae and Te Karere.

“So it’s a taonga to us now. It’s an ancestor to us now and, therefore, it’s so highly regarded and respected and treasured that I think it would be a very brave person who would decide to finish it.”