Homeless kids broke my heart
Heartthrob status – does that really exist? Hilarious
NICK KNOWLES ON HIS POPULARITY WITH FEMALE FANS
Apenniless girl shivering in a doorway after attempting suicide and a teenage boy sleeping by a canal are among the desperate young people viewers WON’T see in tonight’s DIY SOS.
The girl and the boy, who heartbreakingly wants to sprinkle salt around himself before sleeping to keep slugs at bay, are the focus of the Children In Need special episode but presenter Nick Knowles says they are too vulnerable to be shown on TV.
Nick, 57, says: “Normally we introduce you to the people we’ll build for so you can get to understand them. But these homeless kids between 16 and 18...for their own wellbeing we can’t show them.
“But they still need a place to live. So should we just walk away because we can’t show them on TV? Of course not.”
Not seeing their faces does not dilute the emotive power of the stories told by homeless youngsters supported by the charity Nightsafe in Blackburn, Lancs.
Hearing what they have endured makes the whole crew tearful.
Nick says: “They are kids who’ll be at school and very often their teacher won’t know they’re homeless. A lot of them have been in care and the care system looks after them until they’re 16 then they get bounced out into society.
“The youngsters who have had the toughest start in life then find themselves homeless.
“We should be helping those who have had the toughest start and I don’t think we do. There are up to 50 kids sleeping rough in Blackburn ever night. Multiply that around the country and you’ve got 100,000 – more than enough to fill Wembley stadium.”
Luckily, there are people to help. The DIY SOS team and an army of 100 volunteers, who travelled from as far as Cornwall and South Wales, take on the immense task of transforming an 1830s church hall into a brand new home for six homeless young people.
A female vicar joins the crew to push a wheelbarrow full of bricks and two brothers who lose their mother during the project carry on working because they know their mum would have wanted them to help children.
“That makes me genuinely proud,” says Nick. “All credit should go to the people who work for nothing and the suppliers who give us materials knowing they’re not going to get any publicity.
“What a generous, empathetic, supportive and community-led group of nations we are.
“It’s important we remember that and don’t allow politicians to convince us of the narrative of negativity towards each other.”
In a TV world where so many shows pit people against each other, DIY SOS is a life-affirming hour of kindness. Over its two decades, it has built homes and respite centres worth £16million.
This year it will receive a Bafta Special Award. “It’s a really lovely congratulations to all the people who have worked so hard on it over the past 20 years,” says Nick.
He’s too modest to say it, but a great deal of the programme’s success is down to him. His mix of blokey charm and sensitivity wrapped up in hi-vis gear has made him a heartthrob.
“Heartthrob status – does that really exist? I think that’s hilarious,” says Nick, with a laugh so hard it ends in a cough.
“I think that’s just to do with being on telly and in the public eye. You could film any man for 10 days and edit him to 55 minutes and you’d probably make him look attractive.
“Although it’s funny, I do get asked a lot if I’ll do a calendar. But I would find it too embarrassing to be
posing and primping. Once I was asked if I’d do a skin-care range. I said, ‘Does this face look like it’s ever used skin care?’”
He might be self-effacing but there’s no denying twice-divorced Nick, who lives alone in the Cotswolds, is a hit with the ladies.
After dalliances with TOWIE star Pascal Craymer and ex-Emmerdale actress Gemma Oaten, he was recently linked to 26-year-old PR executive Emily Hallinan.
He has four children – daughter Tuesday, 25, and son
Charlie, 24, with first wife Gillian, then 21-year-old son Tyrian J with beauty therapist Paula Beckett-Vass after his first divorce.
Nick had his youngest son Edwin, five, with second wife Jessica Rose Moor but the pair separated in 2016.
Nick, whose singing on last year’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! propelled him to the top of the iTunes singles chart, admits he is perplexed by the offers he gets from lovestruck fans.
“I look like a bag of spanners. Maybe it’s just because I like talking to people and I’m empathetic but even
Knowles serenaded jungle pals in 2018 that’s not unusual – if you look at the end of the programme you’ll see a lot of hairy-arsed builders in tears.”
The wise-cracking chumminess amongst the crew of tradesmen is another reason DIY SOS is such a hit.
But they don’t always work in perfect harmony, Nick admits. “Over the years we’ve had a few fall-outs and a big fist fight, a proper punch-up, in Stirling up in Scotland about 15 years ago.
“We were all involved. I remember Billy jumped on my back and was riding around shouting, ‘Don’t forget, we’re representing the BBC!’ in a desperate attempt to calm us down.
“I have no idea what it was about – we just got on each other’s nerves.
We had a proper set-to and the next morning we all went back to work with fat lips and black eyes and just got on with it.”
As well as the fights and tears, there are a lot of laughs on set.
“Once we had a streaker who ran around a building completely naked,” says Nick. When asked to identify them, there is more laughter and embarrassed throat-clearing. “Er, I’m not prepared to divulge who it was.”
Nick’s ambition for the future is...to carry on as he is.
He says: “The chances of being a TV presenter are probably half a billion to one that it’s going to work out in the long run. But over 35 years it’s worked out for me.” Also the presenter of BBC One quiz show Who Dares Wins, Nick adds: “I’ve had a Saturday night quiz show for 12 years. That’s the longestrunning Saturday night quiz show on British television ever.
“I think if you have a platform, you have a responsibility to try and do what you can for various charities.
“But also you can try to make some programmes with some kind of worth.
“I could be doing programmes that make a lot more money, but my favourite programme is DIY SOS because I get to work with amazing people and for amazing people. So I’m really happy with that.”
■ DIY SOS: The Big Build BBC Children in Need Special is on BBC One tonight at 8pm. SINGING CELEB