This is the emotional moment when Kevin McCloud revisited the first Grand Designs couple, 25 years later, and met their son, who was just a baby at the time.
In tonight’s episode of the Channel 4 show, Kevin travels back to Newhaven to meet Julia Brock and Tim Cox, who built the show’s first house in 1999.
The couple were in a race against time to build their home on the East Sussex coast before their new baby arrived, and they had just three months to complete the project.
But things didn’t quite go as planned and the last time Kevin visited the house, newborn Tiger had arrived, but the house was barely finished.
Now, 25 years later, Kevin returned to the site and emotionally reunited with a now-adult Tiger, back in the house where it all began.
This is the emotional moment Kevin McCloud visited the first Grand Designs couple, 25 years later, and met their son, who was just a baby at the time. Pictured: Tiger, now 26 years old.
Kevin returned to the site and was emotionally reunited with a now adult Tiger, back in the house where it all began.
Kevin, 65, was delighted to see Tiger again, now 26, a full-time paragliding instructor and children’s book author, who also looks after a falcon.
Barely concealing his excitement, Kevin exclaimed: ‘Last time I saw you, you fit in a shoebox!’
Tiger joked: ‘I think I was in a wheelbarrow the last time you saw me!’
He reflected on how important his parents’ build was to him growing up, particularly being so surrounded by nature and the sea.
He said: ‘My parents had a very hands-off approach to parenting. They would just kick me out, I was going to build a lair. And then, when dinner was ready, the doorbell would ring.
“It was like something from Paddy Clarke or some old school story.”
His father, Tim, added: “It was nice for Tiger growing up here. Especially since it is a huge area that was his kingdom.
At the emotional reunion, Kevin was shown clips of Tiger as a child enjoying the house and garden.
The first episode of Grand Designs, which aired in 1999, showed Tiger as a baby.
Tiger (pictured with his mother Jules in 1999) had arrived before the couple had the chance to complete their new home in Newhaven, East Sussex.
Tiger, now in his 26th year as a paragliding instructor, still lives at home and even raises a falcon.
Tiger followed his father’s love of paragliding and enjoyed growing up at home.
Julia Brock and Tim Cox, who were the show’s first couple, returned to screens once again after 25 years.
In the 1999 episode, Tim and Jules, owners of a paragliding school and parents of four daughters, wanted to build their new family home on the cliffs in a record time of three months.
After selling their family home, raising capital of £30,000, the couple sought to build a large family home from scratch for £60,000, with more for a terrace and garden.
Their need for a lightning-fast build arose from Jules’ pregnancy, as the couple intended to have their first baby together in their new home.
However, the preliminary work and assembly of his wooden frame kit, specially designed for speed, did not go as planned.
More problems followed, from unexpected costs to materials not arriving on time, meaning Jules and Tim’s dream of giving birth at home was in serious jeopardy.
The last time Kevin visited the newborn, Tiger had come, but the house was barely finished and the new baby meant the job was taking “ten to twenty times as long.”
In Wednesday’s episode, revisit the house after a quarter of a decade to find out if Tim and Jules’ barely finished first home stood the test of time.
At the emotional reunion, Kevin was shown clips of Tiger as a child enjoying the house and garden.
When Kevin last visited in 1999, the property still had a lot of work to do (pictured)
Last week, Grand Designs viewers slammed a couple’s ambitious project to transform a water tower into a family home as the show’s “worst idea ever.”
Tassy and Adam surprised Kevin with the project, located on an estate in Northamptonshire.
They hoped to transform the abandoned tower into a unique nine-bedroom home to live in with their three young children, complete with a pool, slides, fireman’s pole and sky garden.
But at the end of the episode, and after five years of work, the project was nowhere near complete and all they had managed to do was build some concrete walls.
While visiting the construction site, Kevin noticed that the exterior had not changed at all and that the project appeared to have been on hold for the past two years.
Last week, Adam and Tassy undertook the seemingly impossible task of converting an old water tower in Northamptonshire into a home for them and their three children.
Viewers were horrified by the lack of progress and criticized the design as “concrete hell.”
Viewers were horrified by the lack of progress and criticized the design as a “concrete hell.”
They wrote on X/Twitter: ‘Why the hell did they think this was a good idea?! This has to be the worst choice ever made on this show. The substation noise alone (forgetting about potential health issues) makes it an absolute no-no. The mind boggles’;
‘You could give that work another 5 years and it wouldn’t be finished. It’s ridiculous to try to do a project like that with very limited funds and professional labor. No wonder it still seems that way’;
‘Oh yeah, and if the concrete monster wasn’t enough, there’s a loudly humming electrical substation next door AND a train line. The sanity of those ‘fathers’ in serious doubts’;
Grand Designs airs again tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.