Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen admits he’s glad that host Carol Smillie won’t be returning for the reboot of Changing Rooms.
The TV presenter, 56, will be the only one of the original group of stars to be in the upcoming revamped show.
The BBC classic, previously presented by Carol, has now moved to Channel 4 and sees Naked Attraction’s Anna Richardson take the reigns as the main presenter.
Laurence was asked if he wanted the former host to return for the job and he said: “No, and hand on heart, what the producers and what Channel 4 have done is actually very clever.
“They have moved on and it wouldn’t have worked if it had been Jurassic Park — it had to be a reinvention.”
He continued to The Sun : “And to be fair, I resisted it for a long time. I was very keen that they really should look at finding possibilities with other people. Otherwise, it would just be a revival, actually, it always needed to be a reboot.”
It was announced last week that Anna was replacing Carol in the series.
Davina McCall was initially said to have been attached to take the helm but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with The Masked Singer.
Laurence, who was in the original Changing Rooms, will be joined by designers Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead from 2LG Studio and Tibby Singh, who works as a carpenter and joiner.
Laurence recently discussed his excitement with working with Anna and praised her “naughtiness”.
“What’s really nice with Anna is she has a sort of Peter Panishness, a puckishness, a naughtiness that she’s very much bringing to this,” he told The Sun.
“I think everyone who’s watched Naked Attraction knows she’s very clever with words, she’s very good at getting information out of people and that’s definitely something she’s using very well.”
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carolsmillieofficial/Instagram)
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Changing Rooms first aired in 1996 and focused on home makeovers and interior design.
“There’s no room for beige in our homes and, just as it was in the ’90s, Changing Rooms is once more the homestyle antidote to Britain’s blues (and greys and taupes, and even Magnolia),” he said in a statement back in October, when the reboot was announced.
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Channel 4)
“It’s taken quite a lot of coaxing to get me under the Changing Rooms banner once more, but nothing like as much coaxing as it’s going to take for me to squeeze those leather trousers back on,” Laurence quipped.
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