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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Nick McGrath

Kevin McCloud: ‘We thought Grand Designs was going to be watched by one surveyor and his dog’

 ‘The key to the show’s longevity is choosing human, original, exciting stories’: Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs.
‘The key to the show’s longevity is choosing human, original, exciting stories’: Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Observer

I grew up in a tight-knit family without much money. Once a year we’d go camping in Snowdonia or Scotland or France or Austria in the Vauxhall Victor. The rest of the year we’d be eating kidneys.

My dad, who was an inventor and a maker and an engineer, bought a house from a developer and finished building it. I remember going for a wee on the first floor of the house above the kitchen and being able to see through the floorboards into the pantry below.

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