George Clarke moves up to Channel 4
Channel 4 has signed property and design expert George Clarke in an exclusive two-year deal. Clarke, formerly presenter of Five’s Build a New Life, will host a range of new property formats for 4 and becomes the latest name to join the channel’s highly respected and extremely successful team of property experts.Deputy Head of Features Walter Iuzzolino says: “George is an extremely talented expert in his field, he has considerable charm and we’re delighted he’s joining our team. Channel 4 leads the way with property programming, we were the first to do them and remain the best at making them. This is a major features commission and George will be at the heart of it.”
George Clarke says: "I am thrilled and excited to be working with Channel 4 on such an ambitious format. I intend to get my hands dirty on the new show and along the way, hope to inspire people to forego the usual beige boxes we all seem to be living in and go for something more unusual instead. I'm passionate about architecture and all over the country there are beautiful buildings with real soul that need to be saved. I'm not interested in creating living museums. The challenge is to give these historic buildings a modern twist and drag them into the 21st century by creating truly unique homes."
The new series produced by Tiger Aspect, is provisionally entitled Restoration Man and will see Clarke travel the country discovering forgotten and neglected property orphans, helping their new owners to sympathetically convert them into modern use.
Executive Producer Jo McGrath says: “There are a lot of beautiful buildings that deserve to be saved and could make unique homes but people are put off by restrictions, red tape and lack of experience. George Clarke is not interested in restoration just for restoration’s sake. He wants to breathe new life into them and make them useful again. He has the talent and determination to make this happen and hopefully inspire others to do the same.”
The series will air later this year.