Nick Knowles, best known to UK audiences as the presenter of DIY SOS, is going to bring rugby union to the United States. He has bought a stake in second-tier side Cornish Pirates and is planning a Welcome To Wrexham-style TV series to help him sell worldwide sports fans on rugger. An ambitious project you might say, but any man who can get two builders, a plasterer and an electrician turning up in one place at the same time is clearly a force of nature.
It is true that Knowles does not have the Stateside star-wattage of Wrexham’s Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds’s films have grossed $6.6bn worldwide, or the equivalent of two kitchen extensions and a patio in UK money. But Knowles said that the success of Welcome To Wrexham hangs not just on the presence of Reynolds and, as he said in his recent Telegraph Sport interview “the other lad, the other Hollywood guy”. If you’re reading, Rob McElhenney, the creator and star of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and the Wrexham co-owner, what a name-check, what a boost.
Knowles might not be up to speed on the exact identity of the brains behind the longest-running live-action American sitcom in history, but he has identified another Wrexham-inspired selling point for the US market: Cornwall. Knowles said that the other reason Welcome To Wrexham has been such a hit is because it showcases the area and the people who make up the football club. And it should be said that the county of King Arthur, pirates and picturesque seaside villages does seem very appealing to Americans. Maybe even more so than post-industrial North Wales? Maybe. Also, if it all fails, there are loads of second homes in the surrounding area that Knowles and his crew can do up.
The reason that DIY SOS has been on air for an incredible 33 seasons is the simple formula: guileless have-a-go hero attempts vastly overambitious project, is badly let down by useless or unscrupulous trades, and then the day is saved by Nicholas Simon Augustine Knowles and his band of superheroes who wouldn’t mind a cup of tea if you’re making, nine sugars please luv. If only Michael Johnson had run into Knowlesy in a BBC green room sometime, it could all have been so different. We could all do with a bit of DIY SOS sometimes.
Given the state of rugby governance in the UK today, why not broaden the scope of the project and have Knowles act as a Svengali/project manager for rebuilding the whole sport? He could hardly do worse. Key to this plan would be to have Knowles wandering around the Rugby Football Union corridors of power, tapping his teeth with a pencil and wincing “ooof, you’ve had cowboys in here mate”.