As part of The Great British Property Scandal season Kevin McCloud embarks on an epic battle to build his very own Grand Design. Britain needs more homes, but fed up with the poor quality of the country’s identikit new houses, Kevin aims to prove that it wouldn’t cost any more to build homes that are a lot nicer to live in. This first episode of the two-part series follows Kevin over five years as he sets out to prove that we can all have beautiful, affordable eco homes for the same price as low-cost social housing.

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TV presenter Kevin McCloud says his Channel 4 show Grand Designs isn’t “property porn”.

Speaking to the PA, Kevin said, “I don’t like to use the ‘p’ word… Property, that is.

“The series isn’t about property and I don’t think people watch it simply to slobber over the finished product, either.

“Our audience stays with us the whole of the programme because they follow a story – and pornography isn’t known for its strong storylines, put it that way.” Read more & comment »

In a brand new Channel 4 Specialist Factual series, Kevin McCloud sets out to prove what Britain’s housing industry said couldn’t be done – to build beautiful, contemporary, affordable, sustainable homes and still make money.

For 10 years, as presenter of Grand Designs, McCloud has followed some of Britain’s most ambitious self-building projects, as intrepid individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams. But he has become increasingly frustrated that so many people in Britain live in poorly-designed outdated houses.

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In this two-part special, showing as part of Channel 4′s Indian Winter season, Kevin McCloud discovers a world of curious juxtapositions in one of the most extreme urban environments on earth: Dharavi. With a million people crammed into one square mile, Dharavi is one of the most densely populated places on earth. It is also one of Asia’s biggest slums.

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Kevin McCloud embarks on a major journey across Europe to explore the lasting legacy of the ‘Grand Tour’ on today’s Britain in a new four-part series. He follows in the footsteps of some of the most celebrated and notorious aristocrats, artists and architects of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, who travelled around Europe in history’s equivalent of the gap year. It was a journey made in a search for art, enlightenment and adventure but also vice and debauchery. In each episode Kevin visits a different part of Europe, from Paris and Venice, to Athens and the Alps, revelling in the sights, sounds, tastes and smells.

Sunday 20 September 2009
9:00pm
Channel 4