Barry Bucknell

Original television DIY handyman

Robert Barraby Bucknell (Barry Bucknell), designer and television presenter: born London 26 January 1912; married 1944 Betty Pearn (two sons, one daughter); died St Mawes, Cornwall 21 February 2003.

Television DIY programmes might seem a modern phenomenon, but Barry Bucknell, the original screen handyman in shows such as Do It Yourself and Bucknell's House, was passing tips on to viewers half a century ago, before the days of B&Q and Homebase.

Always dressed in a shirt and tie, with his hair slicked back, he would undertake home improvements on live television and dealt with the unexpected with good humour and professionalism. Once, after he over-soaked some ceiling paper, it fell down on him and he piped up: "This is how not to do it!" He subsequently explained:

The trouble was, I'd already applied paste to the ceiling in rehearsals, so that when I applied more during the show the mixture lost its stick. By the end of the show, I had coils of paper hanging down round my neck. People loved it, of course.

Born in London in 1912, Bucknell qualified as a mechanical engineer on leaving school and ran his father's garage. He also served as a Labour councillor in St Pancras and was chairman of its housing committee. As a conscientious objector he worked for the London Fire Service during the Second World War. When his parents were badly injured after a bomb fell on their house, Bucknell took over the running of his father's building business.

He also began to design gadgets, such as a suitcase on wheels and a car for drivers with no legs. Barry Bucknell made his first broadcast when, after his wife, Betty Pearn, presented a BBC cookery series, he was asked to speak about fatherhood on a radio programme.

It was the dawn of the 1950s, and the austerity of the war years was beginning to disappear. As more people owned their own houses and the consumer society was born, there was an increase in electrical appliances, spending power and advertising. Bucknell was invited to bring his own experience to the afternoon television programme About the Home (1956-57), which was presented by Joan Gilbert and featured practical tips for housewives.

Then, in 1958, he landed his own series, Do It Yourself. The first programme was a festive show in which he demonstrated how to make a Christmas tree stand and gave viewers the benefits of his wisdom on tree lights. Anyone who wanted to know how to put up shelves or strip wood tuned in and Bucknell was soon the most popular person on television, receiving more than 35,000 letters a week. Some of his quick-fix solutions, involving hardboard and covering period features such as fireplaces, were later derided, but he succeeded in getting millions of people interested in do ityourself.

In Bucknell's House (1962-63), the presenter took over a derelict dwelling in a Victorian terrace in Ealing, west London, and gradually renovated it. The property was dilapidated and had dry rot, wet rot and woodworm. A surveyor advised strongly against buying it, but Bucknell relished the challenge, over 39 weeks, explaining:

I had to employ a team of helpers to work on the house and we often had to work all night to find some dry rot in a wall so that the cameras could film it the next day. Another time, we toiled away through the night so that a wall was ready to knock down for filming in the morning. But, when the wall came down, there was so much dust that the camera couldn't see anything. And we could hardly do a retake!

At the same time, with Jack Holt, Bucknell designed a family sailing dinghy and adapted it for the Daily Mirror newspaper, which promoted the boat – complete with red Viking sails to match its own masthead – and thus gained publicity itself. The Mirror was launched at the 1963 London Boat Show, 90,000 models were eventually sold and it later went on permanent display at the National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich.

Bucknell lived out his retirement on the Cornish coast and was, fittingly, featured in 1997 in All Mod Cons, a series about the history of home improvement.

Anthony Hayward