Nick Knowles reveals difficulties faced during DIY SOS Children in Need special after ‘huge’ project overran and stars like Rylan Clark were called in to help-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

Nick Knowles and his DIY SOS team have undertaken their ninth Children in Need build, helping Leeds-based charity Getaway Girls, but the scale of the build meant it wasn’t all smooth-sailing.

Nick – who also celebrated his 60th birthday while hard at work on the site – and his team including Chris, Jules and Billy were joined by hundreds of volunteers to complete the build over 13 days, despite the ‘huge’ project overrunning and a delay due to Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk about the build, Nick told us: ‘There’s a real misnomer in the programme, it started as a programme where people did DIY made a mess of it and then we would go and help, but it’s now such a huge, it’s the kind of construction that would take a construction company six days to do and we had nine days to do it.

‘It was so huge that we overran to 13 days, but nonetheless it was extraordinary.’

He continued: ‘People came from Devon and Cornwall, and came down from the North East and South Wales, people turned up and put themselves up, and came down and worked to put us over the line and the real heroes are the people that run the Getaway Girls and now have the facilities to help hundreds more.’

During the project, Nick and his team worked with Radio 2, which meant that the likes of Rylan Clark were drafted in to help too.

Nick was joined by Radio 2 stars including Scott Mills (Picture: BBC/Neil Sherwood)

Meanwhile, Nick had to ask for more help from listeners, urging more volunteers to give up their time for the project.

The build actually ended up over-running partly due to the timing, as the team were midway through filming when Queen Elizabeth II died, on September 8.

‘Obviously we went overtime because everyone was very sad about the death of her majesty the Queen, and that meant we had a day for the funeral, which was in the middle of our build, there were various challenges that made it difficult, but there was never anything, we never think it’s totally insurmountable,’ Nick said.

Getaway Girls is a Leeds-based charity (Picture: BBC/Neil Sherwood)

He added: ‘It’s like Shakespeare in Love when it’s all going wrong, and they say behind the scenes “It will be okay”, how it will be okay I don’t know but it just will be okay.’

Speaking about how communities rallied together and volunteers came from across the country, Nick shared an uplifting message ahead of the tough times this country is facing amid the cost of living crisis.

‘The message is, there are people out there looking after each other,’ he said, continuing: ‘The next couple of years are going to be hard, it’s going to be really important that we look after each other, and if people have skills that can help somebody, they should use them.

The build took more than 200 volunteers and 13 days to complete (Picture: BBC/Neil Sherwood)

The build was halted during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral (Picture: BBC Children in Need/Neil Sherwood)

‘You know, we had it through the pandemic, the stories of the pandemic for me were stories about how everybody supported each other, protected each other, and I think in this coming crisis we’ll see the best of people helping and supporting each other, weirdly as a nation we get more generous when times are tough.’

Nick added: ‘We will always find a way and actually as a nation, we will always find a way in everything that we do. No matter what’s thrown at us, we’ll find a way, and I’m convinced that we’ll find a way.

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‘We’ve got a couple of really difficult years coming up, and I’m absolutely convinced that the people of this country will pull us through and get us through the other side of it.’

Getaway Girls is a charity supporting over 800 girls and young women from across Leeds, delivering crucial support and offering activities including music and sport. The project – which has been funded by Children in Need since 2010 – strives to improve mental health and confidence, whilst raising aspirations for the future.

DIY SOS: The Big Build for Children in Need airs on Wednesday, November 16 at 9pm on BBC One.

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