Celebrity architect Dermot Bannon has lifted the lid on next year's Room To Improve.
The hit RTE show celebrates its 15th anniversary next year, and Dermot dished the details on what viewers can expect for the next series. He revealed: "It never finishes because you’re working on next year’s episode.
“We’re always trying to react to whatever is going on, so for us the big opportunities are in derelict houses because there’s grants available. We’ve a really cool project in Mayo. It’s an old butcher’s shop that’s going to be converted into a family home. That’s brilliant.
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“It’s more of the same. We’ve got a farmhouse down in Kilkenny, we’ve got an ordinary house in Santry. I think everybody wants to see the houses." But fans will have to wait until January 2024 to see any of them.
He said: “It depends on how many episodes we can get made (but it will air in) January 2024. Until RTE tell me no more, I’ll keep moving away from them."
Dermot opened up about his pride for the show but said he loves and hates it in equal measures. He said: "Room To Improve has been going for 14 years. We’re into year 15 now.
“If it all ended tomorrow, I wouldn’t feel like we failed. I would just feel like 'didn’t we do well?' In some ways, TV wise, I don’t feel like there is anything left to prove but for me there is because when I do Room To Improve, I go into it every year as if it is my first year.
“So say with the shop and the derelict buildings, there’s a whole rake of stuff I can do with that. You hear a lot of people saying ‘brand new series and it’s very exciting for me’. That’s b******t. This is actually because there’s no challenges.
“There’s a project this year that I actually started designing before it was approved by RTE. That’s how excited I was. I had no authority to do that. That was way above my pay grade but luckily it got approved."
The Dubliner added: "I always had a day job. Room To Improve is great because I love it and I hate it in equal measure because it is so stressful but it is what it is. I don’t know if I would like to see Room To Improve season 22 because god knows what age I’d be.
“But I feel very lucky it has gone on this long. I have felt like that since day one. I have a day job. I have a practice, we’re busy. Most of my life is actually in the practice.
“I have very few wants and we don’t have a lot but we just have what we have and we’re happy. I’ve got three healthy kids, they’re getting through school and we’ve a grand house.”
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