Kevin McCloud believes ‘Grand Designs’ teases out “every human emotion”.
Kevin McCloud believes ‘Grand Designs’ teases out ‘every human emotion’
The 65-year-old host is marking 25 years of fronting Channel 4 architecture series, is fronting a new series of the show that has been preceded by a silver jubilee special episode to take viewers through some of the show’s greatest and greenest self-build journeys.
He told the Daily Record about the show, which first aired in 1999: “It’s become me, and I’ve become it. I think it’s one of those big adventures we all imagine we might go on, even if we don’t.
“And it seems to tease out every human emotion, every human drive, the good and the bad. And that, I think, is why people watch – it’s storytelling.
“We have villains in the form of mud and money and rain, and then there are the heroes – the craftspeople, builders, inventors and engineers – who are just trying to do good stuff.”
The show has featured homes including one built from a shipping container to a lighthouse-style mansion constructed on a cliff, and Kevin has also told how one of the crew had his finger sliced off when they were trying to get a perfect drone shot of sea scenery.
He said the device was flying back to a boat off East Yorkshire but its GPS landing spot moved, causing it fling off course and cause the grisly accident.
Kevin told The Sun: “It bounces off the mast, heads for the water – Steve tries to grab it and it slices his finger off and the drone crashes into the sea.
“The footage is gone, so we just try to make it up the old-fashioned way.”
He added when drones were first released they were like “miniature helicopters” so powerful they would make windows of buildings shake – unlike today’s small machines.
Kevin added about how he has always loved his job fronting ‘Grand Designs’: “There’s something very powerful in the moment trying to find a narrative path through the project.
“I love it, and I’m quite addicted to that process and don’t have to worry about who pays for lunch.”