A popular local hairdresser will be seen cutting it as a designer this week when a new BBC series gets under way.
Peter Anderson, who runs a salon in Monkseaton, Whitley Bay, will be making his debut as a contestant in Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr on Wednesday.
The hugely popular show, which pitches talents against each other in a succession of design challenges, has previously aired for two series on BBC 2 but is now set to premiere on BBC1 - and, in another first, it welcomes - in Peter - its first Geordie contestant.
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For his part, Peter is determined to 'fly the flag for the toon!' he says, adding that he is already planning to host a night out in Newcastle with his fellow contestants.
They all clearly get on well and have just had a London reunion; keen to catch up as filming on the new third series wrapped up in September.
Peter can't of course talk about the outcome of the show whose 10 contestants compete to create designs for the likes of offices, homes or restaurants and who are then whittled down, with one being eliminated every week over the series' run, by judges who rate their work.
The prize at the end sounds a life-changing one: the winner gets the opportunity to revamp and design an entire luxury hotel in Cornwall.
It seems that Peter - son of a miner who was born in Dudley, near Cramlington - is the only one of the contestants who isn't already a designer but he loves everything to do with design and his unique and imaginative ideas clearly won over the show's team during the selection process.
It was Peter's son who persuaded him to enter for it, saying - having watched contestants in the previous series - that his dad, who regularly redesigns the family home, could do better.
During the application process, much of which took place during lockdown and included his first ever Zoom meetings, Peter said "I put that I had lived through the shagpile 70s and minimalist noughties" and he told them his own design approach could be summed up as "expect the unexpected".
When he reached a stage which involved a psychological assessment, to see how he might cope with attention sparked by the series, he realised he was close to making the cut.
"The I was down to the final 15 from 1,200," he recalls. "And then the final 10."
As for whether he actually is prepared for the attention that is set to follow his screen appearance, he says: "I know it's quite a big thing but it hasn't hit home."
When he was selected, he thinks it was his quirky ideas put into practice - proving completely different from his rivals - that caught the judges' eye.
The team to please includes a special judge each time and in Wednesday's first episode viewers will see Matthew Williamson - a bold and colourful interior designer Peter particularly admires - take part.
And viewers will watch Peter, who loves bold colours like turquoise and chocolate brown, create wonders from the likes of a seventies-style louvre door, painting it matt black and using it as a window covering, and bamboo which becomes a headboard.
He is paired up in the first challenge with a fellow contestant and they are tasked to design a living room and a bedroom respectively.
"The brief was geared towards 25 to 30-year-old professional people and I went a little bit over the top!" he says.
His approach was opposite to the others and he sums up his chosen look as "Bahamas meets Ibiza - which says 25 to 30 to me!"
And he created unique features for his contemporary-looking apartment such as a 360-degree mirror which, for people getting ready for work, would show every angle.
The 63-year-old was the oldest of the contestants but he is set to shine in the TV spotlight.
Customers from his Anderson’s Hair Salon have been eager to hear about the show but he's had to keep quiet - and it hasn't been easy.
"I'm the worst at keeping a secret!" he laughs. He will be watching the show on Wednesday night with his family and, while he wonders how it might be edited, he says he loved the experience of making it, despite the gruelling travel it involved to and from Brighton where it is filmed.
He says of working with Alan Carr, who has family connections in the North East: "He's such a lovely friendly man.
"You wouldn't know he was famous, he's so nice - we talked about Whitley Bay and Spanish City."
Peter recently moved to Preston Grange where he has not yet had the time to let loose his creative flair on what is currently "a blank canvas".
Its decoration might have to wait a bit longer as, if he wins the show's top prize, he will have a huge job on his hands, not to mention his ongoing commitments to his hair salon which he runs with his wife Fiona.
But he's used to doing many things at once and his approach is not to think too much about matters until they happen and his designs reflect that 'expect the unexpected' spontaneity.
The new series of Interior Design Masters can be seen on Wednesday, March 9, at 9pm on BBC1. The programme also will be available on BBC iPlayer.
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