BBC DIY SOS: Big Build's heartbreaking tragedy behind huge EastEnders' project
He is the bearded, benevolent man who makes Christmas wishes come true, and he’s standing right next to me carrying a big sack over his shoulder.
No, I’m not in Santa’s Lapland lair helping the big man spread festive joy. I’m on a busy building site in Harlow, Essex, with Nick Knowles, helping this big man mix cement… helping to make dreams become reality. DIY SOS The Big Build’s Christmas special has quickly become a seasonal staple, when our hearts are warmed as we watch Nick and his band of builders help a deserving cause with a major construction project that will enable them to change more people’s lives. And this year will be just as magical as, joined by the cast of EastEnders and local volunteers, he transforms a derelict bungalow into a wellbeing hub for a mental health charity.
DIY SOS team member Gabriella Blackman (PHILIP COBURN)I’ve joined Nick on day three. The site, on the outskirts of Harlow, is awash with activity and hundreds of tradespeople and other volunteers who have answered the presenter’s call for help. I help Nick carry bags of gravel and shovel cement as he gushes about his latest Big Build project, and the woman who inspired it. Angie Hannibal set up the Butterfly Effect Wellbeing in 2019 after her mother took her own life, quitting her career to help people like her find meaning and purpose with self-help groups, therapy and counselling for those struggling.
The team builds a new site for the Butterfly Effect Well-Being charity in Harlow (PHILIP COBURN)Angie, who had been working out of a Portakabin, was gifted an empty building by the council, but it was in such a state of disrepair it needed a total refurb to make it fit for purpose, so Nick and his team stepped in. He says: “She’s amazing. She just wanted to do something nice in her mum’s memory but began to see more people needed help, couldn’t turn anyone down, and the thing just got bigger and bigger. “I asked her if it ever gets a bit too much and she replied, ‘Every day.’” The new building will run a range of groups, including men’s meet-ups, “Chill and Chat” teen sessions, groups for survivors of bereavement or suicide, cooking and craft sessions.
Nick, Matt, Gabriella and plasterer Chris Fredian (PHILIP COBURN)Nick has just six days to complete a major rebuild that might normally take months… and, as with most of his projects, there have already been some unexpected surprises. He adds: “We started by putting a new roof on the building, but then discovered the lintel beam that was supposed to be holding it up wasn’t there. So we have to raise the roof up, put in the lintel, and rebuilt, which was a major delay.”
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Nick, though, is clearly in his element and seems to love the chaotic business of the building site – and appears to know most of the volunteers by name. He says: “I get as much satisfaction working in this environment than I do on the day of the final reveal. “We get to spend time with these amazing people who genuinely want to do something good and make the world a better place. And then there’s the emotion at the end, when they get to meet the people who are going to have their lives changed because of them, and to watch that happen is a really beautiful thing.”
EastEnders stars helping out include Natalie Cassidy, Gillian Wright and Colin Salmond. Today it’s the turn of Perry Fenwick, who plays Billy Mitchell. He emerges from behind the main building caked in cement and looking somewhat shaken. Nick says with a chuckle: “You have to be creative with these celebrities, because they don’t have any discernible building skills.
Eastenders’ actor Perry Fenwick (PHILIP COBURN)“Last year we had Rylan with the Strictly Come Dancing crew, and he was so tall we realised we could use him as an acrow prop to hold ceilings boards up as we screwed them in. “Perry does a bit of gardening so we’ve got him outside using a wacker plate on the concrete foundation of the greenhouse. He’ll be vibrating for days. If you see him still trembling on the EastEnders Christmas Day special, that’s why.” Perry adds: “I stopped an hour and a half ago and I’m still shaking. But it’s been worth it. I’ve met some really good people. I know I’ll get home feeling really good about myself.”
The new building will run a range of groups (PHILIP COBURN)Before the build he went on a walk with some of the project’s users. “He says: We had a right laugh, they’re a brilliant bunch of people. Everybody had a story to tell, including myself. I used to suffer from panic attacks, but I didn’t want to tell anyone and had no one to open up to. It gets worse and you end up being frightened of your own shadow. It feels great that we’re helping provide a place where people can talk about whatever they’re going through and find help.” Unlike on the first few series of DIY SOS, which Nick has presented since it started in 1999, he no longer needs to go begging local companies to donate manpower and tools.
Angie has a laugh with Nick (BBC Studios)He says he just needs to put out a call for help and they are flooded with offers of donations. Nick adds: “These companies donate knowing they won’t be getting any publicity, they just want to play a part. A lot of TV shows don’t show the construction industry in a good light, but on ours people can see the other side, that they are really good guys. We end up creating a network of local businesses that will support the project afterwards.
“I mentioned to the boss of a local house builder who’s donated their materials that Angie hates doing spreadsheets and applications for grants, and he said they had someone who’s good at it, and he would get them to come in once a week to help her. So it’s great to see the builds thriving years after we’ve been here.” Nick says the programme has become a mental health project in its own right which has helped countless struggling men.
He adds: “There’s a high suicide rate in the construction industry, a lot of people work in isolation. And then they come on a site like this and get to interact with people. One guy was a wedding planner, he suffered with terrible anxieties. We put him on the gardening team and he checked in each day and loved it.
“It’s good for people’s mental health to join it, it’s obviously good to the people who receive the building, and it’s good for people who watch it because it reassures them the world’s a better place than it’s often painted. It reminds us at Christmas that most people are good.”
- DIY SOS EastEnders Christmas special airs on BBC One and iPlayer on Monday, December 18 at 8pm.
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