Some viewers may know presenter and property expert Sarah Beeny from her more recent television programmes such as Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country but property obsessed people all know that Sarah was one of the main trailblazers of the development of property television programmes decades ago.
Now television channels are awash with property programmes that feature all aspects of the subject, from house hunters looking for their next home, renovation and transformation journeys both big and small, and interior design inspiration.
But back in 2001 Sarah presented Channel 4's programme Property Ladder, which saw often hapless wannabe property developers try to work their way up the property ladder by renovating rundown properties.
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Having set up her own property company aged 24 along with her brother Diccon and now husband, Graham, Sarah had the experience to give advice to the house renovators featured over the five years of this groundbreaking series, which many chose to ignore at their peril as Sarah was almost always proved right.
Before diving into property Sarah's past work is said to have included selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, window cleaning, working for the charity Save The Children and even running her own sandwich-making business.
In 2005, alongside her now blossoming TV career Sarah launched a matchmaking website called mysinglefriend.com with her friend and it has been reported that both mortgaged their properties to raise money to build, launch and market the site. But it's clear that her natural calling was property.
After the success of Property Ladder, a raft of property programmes began to sail across our screens with Sarah as the skipper, including From House to Home, Britain's Best Homes, Help! My House is Falling Down, Sarah Beeny's Selling Houses, Double Your House for Half the Money and Sarah Beeny's Renovate Don't Relocate.
But maybe Sarah's most memorable recent property programme was one that was a personal property renovation journey. In Beeny's Restoration Nightmare, the programme documented the restoration and revival of the near-derelict Grade II listed Georgian stately home called Rise Hall.
The 97-room mansion in Yorkshire was transformed by the couple into primarily a wedding venue, selling it for £1.4million. This stressful project utilised all of the couple's renovation and building skills accumulated over decades of renovating properties, but the considerable challenges were worth the sweat as the result was incredible.
In 2014 Sarah launched the online Tepilo estate agency which is now part of Emoov, and the following year she collaborated with living solutions specialist, Hafele UK, to launch the Sarah Beeny Home Collection. Numerous books have been published over the years including her latest, 'Sarah Beeny's 100 DIY Jobs, a guide to the most frequently tackled household DIY jobs'.
Born in January 1972 in Reading, Sarah met artist Graham Swift when she was 18 and they married in September 2002. The couple have four sons called Billy, Charlie, Raffy and Laurie who are aged between 12 and 17 and are the four members of family band The Entitled Sons.
In 2019 Sarah told Hello! magazine that the family had quit London and moved to a semi-derelict 220-acre sheep farm near Bruton in Somerset, having bought it in 2018. The property was in need of work, so the couple have extensively extended and this property journey was the subject of the Channel 4 programme Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country.
Two series of the programme saw the purchase, planning and first project stage of the property renovation in 2020 during series one, with series two focussing on the progression of the three main building projects and the interiors starting to take shape.
Famous neighbours in the Bruton area are said to include billionaire South African internet mogul Koos Bekker and his wife who bought the £12 million Grade II listed Hadspen House, musical theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh, fashion designer Stella McCartney, Caroline Corr of the Irish band, The Corrs and former Chancellor, George Osborne.
Also just down the road is Sarah's brother Diccon, who is married to Graham's sister, and having this branch of both families nearby was one of the draws that enticed the couple to move the whole family to Somerset.
It's not a surprise maybe that the family have moved to the country as in 2011 Sarah is reported to have bought seven acres of land in Dorset for £70,000 because she wanted to take the children camping while their London home was having a basement extension, so the country maybe has always been calling her.
But now Beeny is back and this time she's meeting and advising people who want to change little to large when it comes to their property in the new Channel 4 programme Big House, Little Plans, produced by Raise the Roof Productions.
Sarah and her co-presenter, architect Damion Burrows, visit small homes across the United Kingdom whose owners have elaborate plans for expansion. The first episode features hair salon receptionist Leah and her landscaper and builder husband Sam, who have plans to double the size of their two-bedroom cottage in Wiltshire.
Damion visits Sam and Matt, who have transformed their traditional three-bed home with the addition of an ultra-modern cubist extension. He also meets David and Lindsay in Bristol, whose big plans were to build a sustainable, eco-house on a brownfield site.
But this show is being promoted as a property programme with a difference, showcasing the extraordinary and the aspirational. Rather than bog-standard extensions, viewers will see a gleaming cantilevered box installed above an old garage, and a two-bedroomed cottage being supersized to be suitable for a family of six plus dogs, cats and tortoises. Sounds amazing.
Sarah Beeny's Little House, Big Plans is on every Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm starting Thursday June 8, and then available to view on All4. And if you want more new property TV check out George Clarke's new show and how participants Swansea brothers Ricky and Andrew are getting on with their first property renovation here.
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