Changing Rooms review: The Notorious LLB is back, but reboot needs more MDF

Changing Rooms review: The Notorious LLB is back, but reboot needs more MDF

Metro.co.uk - Entertainment·2021-08-19 07:01

Changing Rooms has made a comeback (Picture: Jon Cottam)

For anyone not around and conscious in the 1990s, the return of Changing Rooms won’t mean that much to you – just another home makeover show, isn’t it?

But for those of you who were, you know it’s a whole other kettle of fish – and we would be surprised if a kettle of fish was suggested as ‘quirky’ dining room centrepiece by Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.

After 17 years off our screens, the definitive home improvement show is back to potentially destroy the friendships of neighbours nationwide in the name of dado rails and feature walls. Considering the original series – all 17 series of it – isn’t available to stream, it’s remarkable how much of an imprint it has on my brain. I was 14 when the show ended, and I can still viscerally remember a floor being painted black and not drying quickly enough, leaving the entire design team locked outside the room. I giggle every time I think about the Greek nudes carved out of MDF – because you can’t get marble on a BBC budget – tacked onto a four poster bed. And the teapots. Oh, the teapots.

If you ask anyone about the most memorable moment of Changing Rooms, they’ll say the teapots. It’s basically ‘where were you when JFK was shot’ but for primetime home improvement. Linda Barker decided to display a woman’s priceless teapot collection on floating shelves in the middle of a room, much to the horror of her friends. They added too many books to a spare shelf, the entire contraption collapsed, and the teapots were no more. It was stomach-churning stuff.

……

Read full article on Metro.co.uk - Entertainment

Entertainment International