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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
Entertainment
Sandra Mallon

RTE Room To Improve star Dermot Bannon reveals show secret ahead of final episode

Celebrity architect Dermot Bannon is to get roasted by Majella O’Donnell and Nuala Carey in the final episode of Room To Improve.

The series finale of the RTE show will see the girls ask him the difficult questions nobody has ever been able to pose.

Dermot said: “It’s a look back over the last couple of years but we’ve gathered people for whom Room To Improve has been a part of their lives.

Read more: Room To Improve viewers unimpressed as Dermot Bannon calls budget 'tiny'

“Majella had a really good go at me most of the time. I don’t think it is a look back, it’s more like constructive criticism.

“It’s the really difficult questions that everyone wanted to ask about Room To Improve and you know Majella she has no filter.”

Dermot also revealed a show secret that many viewers might not have noticed throughout each series.

He said: “Sometimes people don’t have enough furniture to fill the room and they might borrow a bit.

“Majella was watching the show back and saying, ‘That’s borrowed, that’s borrowed, that’s borrowed’. The budget talk – obviously the most difficult scene we ever filmed was Daniel and the budget so there is a bit of a behind the scenes on that.

“It’s different. I get to see every episode of Room To Improve before it goes out bar this one.

“All I remember on the day was me squirming in the chair saying please make this stop and I don’t know how that will translate into a TV programme. In a way, do you know in American TV they do a roasting? It’s like that.”

And as another series finishes, Dermot is clear about Room To Improve’s future.

He said: “It is coming back. We’re filming another episode. The Blessington episode – that house is going to be on the new series and we have two others we’ve nearly finished.

“We were making seven but slots for TV programmes are precious. We were given five slots, so we have another three episodes that were nearly made. They will go out as part of a new season.”

And the Dubliner revealed he doesn’t want to end the series just yet as Irish people still have a great appetite for home renovation shows.

He added: “If I was going to rest a show, I wouldn’t be resting my one. It was the first Irish designs programme. We’ve been around the blocks for 15 years. I feel like the grandad of them all.

“It’s like cooking programmes, there is a huge amount of cooking programmes on and they’ve been going for decades.

I think it is because we all do it.

“In the same way, we’ll always do up our homes. It’s not the same as talent shows because not all of us are going to be singing in talent shows.

“I think home renovation shows hopefully will be a staple from here on in because it is something we all do.

“I do hope it doesn’t saturate but there seems to be a big appetite with the amount of shows. I watch them all as well myself.”

* Room To Improve airs on RTE One on Sunday night at 9.30pm.

Read more: Room To Improve viewers argue 'there is nothing wrong' with PVC windows

Read more: No footage of parent's house on RTE Room to Improve leave viewers annoyed

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