House Rules judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen opens up about the show’s newcomer Jamie Durie and his Manpower past

Jamie Durie’s career start as a stripper for Manpower is a constant source of amusement for House Rules judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who still jokingly “torments” him about it.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the acerbic aristo judge on Seven’s House Rules, offers a slightly maniacal chuckle as we talk about the departure of his former co-star and TV play thing, Drew Heath.

Their pairing over the past two seasons of the renovation series was happy sport for LLB but a constant source of frustration for Heath, who often bore the brunt of the Brit’s on-air taunts.

“I’ve eroded him,” he tells TV Guide/Watch, with another cheeky laugh.

Replaced a more formidable and experienced TV performer in Jamie Durie, LLB says Heath’s exit was only a matter of time … or lack there of.

“He’s got such an incredibly large, flourishing, proper, grown-up design practice, he was beginning to feel, quite rightly, that actually he needed to spend some time on the real thing.”

Anyway, LLB argues: “he used to give as good as you get. I just used to slip the editor a few dollars to leave his replies out, so I always got the last word.”

He’ll have to fight harder for a word in with Durie, who is his match when it comes to lifestyle TV credits, including sharing the screen together on a Singapore reality series, The Apartment (similar in format to The Block, which airs on Netflix).

The Backyard Blitz favourite and Living Room regular makes for a more confident counterpoint to LLB and Wendy Moore, the new general manager of Foxtel’s lifestyle brands and the third judge in this dynamic trio.

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Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Wendy Moore and Jamie Durie. Picture: Jeremy Greive/Channel 7

“He definitely has a particular stylistic axe to grind, which is something Wendy and I try not to do. We try to take what the contestants have done and where they were coming from,” LLB explains, “while Jamie really finds it very hard to cope with anything that isn’t very mid-century modern,” he teases.

“We have to take him through that very carefully.”

Durie’s career start as a stripper for Manpower is a constant source of amusement for LLB, who admits: “I never stop tormenting him. In fact, in many ways, Drew got off lightly compared to some of the stuff I inflict on Jamie. It’s a constant tease. Even Wendy is quite good at it as well. Jamie was talking about taking his trousers off the other day and she made a reference to the fact they were probably all velcro anyway, so they’d come off very easily.”

If that sounds a little saucy for this feel-good family viewing, LLB has much to explain.

“I may have coined the phrase ‘renogasm’ this season, for which I apologise, obviously. But the thing is it’s certainly got a sense of no holds barred. The renovations themselves are much bigger and more architecturally tectonic than anything else we’ve done before,” he says.

“The whole approach is much more inspirational. It’s always been a program you watch for aspiration, but I think this season is very inspirational as well.”

What’s impressed him about the latest season is a trend he’s seeing across many lifestyle series worldwide, as contestants raised on a diet of flipping and DIY programming put their design knowledge into practise.

Hosts of Channel Seven reality TV show House Rules, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Jamie Durie. Picture: Supplied

“What I’m finding on House Rules, in particular, is that the teams have definitely listened to a lot of the things I’ve been saying over the last couple of years. One of the big stars this year are the incredibly elegant and sophisticated children’s bedrooms that the teams are coming up with. That was something I was very keen to get everyone to start thinking about … stop over-theming your children’s bedrooms and let’s make this really nice space for them to inhabit first.”

The doting father and grandfather continues: “there’s always been something so patronising about it … ‘oh it’s only a kids room, they can have something Barbie pink, or blue, or whatever. I really like the way this season the children’s rooms have turned into really thoughtful, really sophisticated spaces in their own right, with the hope you’re going to end up with very thoughtful, sophisticated children. Who knows?”

While he’s spent a lot of time away from his family filming in the last year, he was expecting to reunite in Mauritius for a romantic holiday with his wife of 30 years, Jackie — the first of a “series of events planned” to mark their June anniversary.

“We’re doing a real bucket list trip to Egypt, which we’re not doing until November because of filming. That’s something she’s always wanted to do and I’ve never been there. It’s one of the few places I haven’t been and her family has a long association with the country. They were water engineers and did a lot of work on the Aswan dam. It’s always meant a lot to her. We’re doing it on the Steam Ship Sudan, which is where they film all the Poirots (the Agatha Christie detective series). It will be very, very elegant,” he adds, “so I’m expecting brownie points for that one.”

* House Rules, 7pm, Sunday, 7.30pm, Monday to Wednesday, on Seven.