Changing Rooms stripped from schedules

It was the television show that started a living room revolution.

For eight years the home makeover show Changing Rooms told us how to redecorate at high speed and on a low budget, made huge stars of its presenters and sparked a DIY boom.

But now the show - which spawned a host of imitators - is being axed, a victim of its own success.

"The entire audience is so literate in interior design there's nothing left to teach them," said flamboyant host Laurence Llewelyn Bowen.

The final series will be screened this autumn, with four specials to follow next year, giving the show what Llewelyn Bowen called a spectacular "Viking funeral" send-off.

Llewelyn Bowen, who will present a new BBC series on art, said: "It does feel as if Changing Rooms has done the job it set out to do. It's a case of beam us up, our work on your planet is done.

"There's not a house in Britain left untouched by the Changing Rooms attitude. It was an institution, the very first makeover show, and really changed the way people looked at their homes."

Changing Rooms transformed our viewing habits, as well as millions of homes across the UK, not to mention sales of MDF fibreboard.

When it was launched on BBC2 in 1996, hosted by Carol Smillie, viewers were quick to embrace its charms. It spawned many imitators such as Home Front, DIY SOS, House Invaders, Trading Up, Real Rooms and Better Homes, as well as popular spinoffs such as Ground Force.

The format - get neighbours doing up the home next door with help from the experts - had international appeal and the show has been sold to more than 20 countries.

But detractors now complain that there are now far too many similar shows on our screens.

Even BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey promised to cut back on DIY programmes when she took up her post four years ago.

And former BBC chairman Gavin Davies added weight to her arguments.

"There is a place for all sorts of TV, but these programmes, which I suppose you can call semi-factual programmes, have become too significant in the schedules," said Davies when he was appointed chairman in 2001.