Kevin Mcloud: The success of Grand Designs was a real shock

My favourite train journey is from Birmingham into Wolverhampton," Kevin McCloud reveals.

We nearly fall off our chair.

Really? Mr Grand Designs? The man with a passion for beauty, order and architecture has a thing for that most gritty of Black Country landscapes?

"Yes," he reassures us. "It's like a journey through the industrial revolution. All of those amazing old factories – they have a beauty all of their own. It's a wonderful journey."

And it doesn't stop there. He's also impressed with the controversial new library in the heart of Birmingham, the £189 million structure that has already picked up titles ranging from "the people's palace" to "the budgie cage".

"It's beautifully built, a much much better building than what was there before. The design has changed a little since the first plans, it's gone from being quite floral to more rigid geometric shapes but it's very impressive, almost Islamic.

"My only criticism is that it's about 35 per cent too big. I think The Rep next door is swallowed up somewhat, that's my only concern."

Either way, it fares better than Selfridges, which McCloud describes as "just a shop covered with cladding and silver Smarties".

Ouch.

Still, it's an opinion he's entitled to seeing as he's no stranger to the second city. For the best part of a decade he's been at the centre of Grand Designs Live at the NEC, which attracts 55,000 people each and every year.

"I won't say it's a completely well-oiled machine," laughs the 54-year-old. "It's too big to say that! But it is extremely well organised and over the years we've relaxed more and we know what we're doing now, we don't worry or fret too much.

"I love it because I get to meet all the viewers. Usually I'm just standing in a field talking to a camera so it's wonderful to actually speak to people.

"It's quite a strange thing though; even though I'm not the organiser or the one who books the exhibitors – my job is just to make the TV programme – I'm at the centre of it all, at the centre of this phenomenon. It's very exciting."

Grand Designs Live is the largest homes show in the country, including anything and everything (literally the kitchen sink) to do with design, building and decoration.

This year's show runs from October 4-6 and Kevin is particularly excited about the "self build on a shoestring" theme.

"Self build doesn't just happen on television and it can happen on a tight budget," explains the father-of-four. "And not just self build, there's kit houses, customised houses, groups of people getting together to build and manage their own apartment blocks – there's lots of things out there to give people more power.

"Every year about 10,000 of us commission a new home for ourselves or even build it with our bare hands. The National Self Build Association is dedicated to making that easier, cheaper and more accessible, as is the government.

"We want to take the stress and distress out of it and make it more empowering. There are fantastic opportunities out there. I see it a lot in Europe but it's more unusual over here – however it can be done."

McCloud himself grew up in a house created at the hands of his parents in Bedfordshire.

"It was a very small, normal house that was half finished," he recalls. "My father was an engineer and was an incredibly practical man, he was always taking things apart. There was always a boiler lying in the hallway or a motorbike in pieces on the kitchen table. I don't think my mother was too pleased but my brothers and I never had a fear of questioning how things work or getting to the very nuts and bolts of things, that was all down to my father."

Kevin, who lives in a 15th century farmhouse in Somerset, studied history of art and architecture at Corpus Christi College before going on to work as a theatre designer and then setting up his own business, McCloud Lighting (here's one for all you fact fans: examples of his work include the ceiling at the food hall in Harrods).

But it was in the late 1990s that he began working on the idea for Grand Designs, the colossus of a TV show that sees him follow people on their journey to creating their dream home.

It truly is a phenomenon, repeats are shown almost constantly on More4 and still pull in big viewing figures – it's been known for GD fans to watch the same episode time after time after time.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be this successful. You can never predict these things. I thought at first just two surveyors and their dog would watch it. But now we have all these episodes that are shown around the world, the magazine, the live show – it's quite extraordinary.

"It's quite strange for me too because I'll be in some strange corner of the world and someone will come up to me and start talking about the show or telling me about their building projects.

"It's wonderful because this is not exploitative TV, it's not nasty, it's just about people and their homes. But that's what makes it such a success – the people. We made a decision early on that it can't just be about the buildings and we would never film a commercial building. There's no point doing a shop, a factory or a swimming pool because people just can't get involved in the same way, there's no personal or emotional investment there."

The show has just returned for its latest series on Channel 4 and Kevin says the one to watch out for is Yorkshire couple Gwyn and Kate falling in love with a decaying 1920s cinema.

"It's an amazing building and this is as much about the regeneration of a place rather than just a house. The couple have a wonderful sense of humour about it all and I could share in that as my family originate from the north of England. There's just something about the northern sense of humour isn't there? There's another brilliant one about a build on a working airfield too."

On the show, Kevin is known for his in-depth knowledge, razor-sharp observations and often-ignored advice. But, after all of these years, are people finally starting to see the light? "Nope, they make the same mistakes time and time again," he chuckles. "I see the exact same mistakes all the time because human beings essentially remain the same, do they not?

"People do have very different dreams but the mistakes rarely differ. Is it frustrating for me? Not really, I think it would be more frustrating if every build was the same, that wouldn't be very interesting. And the more we go on, the more imaginative the builds become, I enjoy that.

"I'm just glad though that the new series is finally on the air. I'll get people coming up to me on the train saying 'When's the new series on' and I reply 'It's been on Channel 4 for the past five weeks!'.

"You know what it is though don't you? It's those never-ending repeats on More4, they're taking over, people think it's the only place you can find us."

By Elizabeth Joyce