Have you ever wondered how House Doctor and those makeover shows are made?
I did and a simple e-mail led me to work on channel 5’s House Doctor ™ show as Location Coordinator.
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I was working with a client back in 2001. My client was heavily pregnant and so spent a lot of her time around the house and enjoying a lot of daytime TV.
Everyday she would call me at 10am and say “I’ve made you a coffee, lets watch House Doctor ™ and see how Ann Maurice sorts this one out!” So everyday I’d watch Ann, Alistair and the House Doctor ™ team go to work House Doctoring another property that was languishing on the market. I’d not really seen any of the makeover shows that had flourished in the TV schedules, I must admit that I don’t have a TV so the whole home makeover/ reality TV thing had passed me by. I was fascinated and amazed by them. House Doctor ™ soon became a favourite with me. I loved the way Ann Maurice, the House Doctor ™, didn’t mince her words and quickly got to the root of the problem. “It’s not rocket science” soon became a buzz word around the house. After a couple of weeks, this property was a big job, I began to wonder “How do they employ the team who do the makeovers?” I decided to email Ann Maurice, “well what the hell” I thought “at the worst I wont get a reply, and who knows… what if I do!” So I sent an email, not expecting I would get a response from a TV personality, but within just 2 days I saw, in my ‘inbox’, an email from ‘Amhousedoctor’…what’s more she told me that although she didn’t ‘hire & fire’ she had passed my name and number onto the series producer, Andrew Anderson. That was in October 2001. I finished the job at that clients house and was then busy up to Christmas with further Interior Design and decorating work. I didn’t think any more of the email and decided that I didn’t have any of the qualifications that would interest a TV company. However in early January 2002 I got a call from Andrew Anderson inviting me to come into the Talkback offices and meet him to talk about House Doctor ™ series 6. I really couldn’t believe my luck, still I had to find out what they had to offer first. By then I had caught most of the reruns of House Doctor ™, I’d make some excuse to friends or family that I needed to spend a weekend at theirs, “oh and could they record House Doctor ™ every day on UK Style for me….I think there is a whole weekend of it” so by the time that I went in to see Andrew I pretty much new Ann and the show. The meeting was fun, I showed some of my portfolio and chatted with Andrew and his assistant. “your work is very House Doctor ™” said Andrew at one point…I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad! The Job that they were offering me was of chippy/ member of the makeover team. “Would I be up to TV standards?" “Would I be too slow?” “What would it be like spending 3 months living out of a suitcase while filming the show?” However the filming schedule was due to start within three weeks of my meeting…. Well the following day I was called up and told that I got the job. Unfortunately I was about to move home myself, I was working with a client and in the middle of a job, it was just too short notice, this happens a lot in TV …I had to turn the job down….I was gutted. I made my apologies.
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Read the next part of the story of how I did join the team... making house doctor and more. Coming soon... |
