Barry Bucknell, home makeover guru of the Fifties, dies at 91

Barry Bucknell, the London builder turned television DIY guru who encouraged post-war Britain to rip out and board up period features, has died at the age of 91.

The former Labour councillor became the face of home improvement during the 1950s and early 1960s as the presenter of shows in which he introduced viewers to the joys of Formica and hardboard.

At the height of his fame, Mr Bucknell, who presented his BBC shows live in his distinctive checked shirt and tie, was receiving 37,000 letters a week asking for decorating tips.

His family said he had died early yesterday after a short illness. Shortly before his death, he had made a "farewell speech" to loved ones at his home in St Mawes, Cornwall.

His son Jonny, 46, said: "My father was a charming and entertaining personality who lived a very good and fulfilled life." The balding, rotund figure of Mr Bucknell became a feature of the nation's sitting-rooms in 1955 with a show called Do It Yourself, but his best-known venture was Bucknell's House, centred on a derelict house in Ealing, west London, where he demonstrated an improvement each week to an audience of up to seven million.

Modern interior designers – and viewers of the rash of modern makeover programmes, such as Changing Rooms, which he arguably spawned – would probably wince at the Bucknell school of home improvement. His audiences were often treated to lessons on how to remove Victorian fireplaces and cover period features with hardboard panels. The BBC eventually pulled the plug on his show in 1962.

Asked about his pioneering style in 1997, Mr Bucknell said: "My aim was to get rid of all the clutter, all the fussiness and to introduce clear, modern lines."

Design experts yesterday said his legacy had helped to kickstart a DIY industry now worth £11bn.

Drew Plunkett, head of interior design at the Glasgow School of Art, said: "His influence was not stylistic. Instead he made people aware that they could do something significant with their homes.

"He was demonstrating in an age where there was not great prosperity that you could adjust the interior of your house with a few quick fixes. He focused people back on their homes."

Mr Bucknell later made his fortune as a designer, inventing a wheeled suitcase and a sailing dinghy. But he is best remembered for the perils of decorating on live television. At the end of one edition of Bucknell's House, during which paper freshly glued to a ceiling had peeled off on to him, he said: "That's not how to do it."