Changing Rooms’ star Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has admitted he is glad his former co-star Carol Smillie is not returning to the show with him.
The 56-year-old TV designer is set to star in the new and upcoming Channel 4 version of the home improvement show, which used to air on BBC Two.
Laurence is the only original BBC star to feature in the updated version of the show, which starts on Wednesday.
The revamped series will see a new batch of designers on the screen and it will be fronted by Naked Attraction host Anna Richardson.
When asked if he would have liked Carol Smillie, 59, to return as host, Laurence said that it would have looked like “Jurassic Park” if she’d returned to the helm.
(Image: WireImage)
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.
“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.”
(Image: WireImage)
Laurence has apparently not been in touch with Carol recently and did not consult her before returning, The Sun reported.
Laurence said that Changing Rooms was one of the first reality TV contests in a similar style to The X Factor, and compared himself to music mogul Simon Cowell.
On Simon Cowell, he said: “I think he’d adore the comparison with me.
(Image: TV Times via Getty Images)
“I know him reasonably well — we’re involved in the same charities. And we are nearly always the two men in the room with the highest heels.
“Obviously with me it has more of an impact, shall we say.
“There’s a whole group of middle-aged, middle-class men at the moment like Gordon Ramsay, Jeremy Clarkson and me, and actually we were all doing our own schtick which was, ‘We are who we are, and we are not going to do it anyone else’s way’.”
For more of the latest showbiz news from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
