Nick Knowles and the DIY SOS team are back for a brand new series, and tonight’s emotional episode could have viewers in tears.
Nick heads to Scotland to meet the Connelly family, who are desperately in need of help.
Teenage daughter Nell was born with a rare bone condition and has never been able to walk.
Her parents, Raymond and Gill, bought a new home with plans to adapt it around her needs. Gill had even drawn up the plans herself.
But tragedy struck shortly after the couple ripped out the kitchen.
Gill became desperately ill and needed an emergency kidney transplant. She then developed sepsis while recovering.
Within just two days, Gill had died.
Raymond has since been forced to leave his job so he can care for Nell full time in a house that isn’t suitable for her needs.
He is even having to cook meals for Nell and her brother Kai using a hotplate.
Can Nick and the DIY SOS team come to their rescue?
Nick Knowles and DIY SOS returns with Nell’s Next Chapter
Nick announced the return of DIY SOS on social media last week. He promised the new series would be a “fun, emotional and reassuring ride”.
Judging by tonight’s episode, Nell’s Next Chapter, the emotional part of that promise certainly rings true.
Nick visits the Connelly family’s home and meets Raymond, Nell and her older brother Kai. Their story leaves him visibly close to tears.
Raymond tells him: “When Nell was born, they told us she had Arthrogryposis. They said it was like a curvature of the joints and she wouldn’t be able to walk.”
He also reveals that Kai is “always looking out” for his younger sister, adding: “We’ve always been a tight family”.
But just two months after the family moved into their three bedroom semi, Gill became seriously ill.
“I heard her up in the toilet being sick,” Raymond recalls. Gill was rushed to hospital, where her condition quickly became critical.
“I got to the intensive care unit and a doctor came out and said that Gill was really, really ill and needed a liver transplant,” he adds.
Gill underwent an emergency liver transplant a week later. But Raymond recalls: “It was all looking good and then she got sepsis.
“They told us her whole immune system had gone.” Breaking down, he cries: “She lasted about two days. It was terrible.”
Nick arrives just seven months after Gill’s death and is shocked by the state of the family home.
Raymond has to cook using two electric hotplates and a microwave. The house also has extremely poor wheelchair access.
He even struggles to get Nell into the back garden.
“We’d ripped out the kitchen and started to get things moving,” Raymond explains. “But since Gill passed away, all of our plans have ground to a halt.”
The Connelly family’s build
Nick and the DIY SOS team, including show favourites Billy Byrne and Gaby Blackman, are ready to get stuck in. Two months later, they return with an army of local volunteers and tradespeople.
The team decide to use the plans Gill created before her death. But they have much bigger ambitions for the project.
Nell wants her own bedroom, bathroom and hoist so she can have some privacy. She also has her heart set on a walk in wardrobe.
In one particularly emotional moment, she tells Nick: “I still tell mum the gossip when I’m supposed to be sleeping.”
Kai also reveals that he wants pictures of their beloved mum around the house, along with plenty of space for flowers because Gill was a florist.
Kai tells the volunteers before work begins: “[Mum] would always help out. I’m sure if it was somebody in the crowd she’d be there with you.”
Nick Knowles and DIY SOS team hit with issues
As Nick and the team begin the build, they realise the work could cause major disruption for the neighbours at the front of the property.
Instead, they remove the rear fence and decide to transport everything 200 yards along a country footpath into the back garden.
That includes the huge beams needed for a massive timber frame extension. In fact, it is one of the biggest timber extensions ever built on the BBC show.
Gill’s favourite colour was pink, specifically coral. Gaby therefore promises to add “pops” of coral throughout the house.
But once the ground is broken, the Scottish weather takes a turn for the worse.
Can Nick and the DIY SOS team pull off the build and give the Connelly family the home they desperately need?
It certainly looks like they have another emotional transformation in store. Welcome back, Nick and the team!
- DIY SOS returns to BBC One at 8pm on Tuesday September 22, 2026.
Read more: DIY SOS: Nick Knowles helps siblings whose mum died in a freak accident when falling down the stairs
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