Curtains for BBC's Changing Rooms

Changing Rooms made Carol Smillie a household name

BBC makeover show Changing Rooms is coming to an end after eight years.

The series will disappear after the final run in the autumn, but four specials episodes have been planned for next year.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said they plan to develop more shows based on family relationships and money.

The series helped launch the television careers of former presenter Carol Smillie and designers Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Linda Barker.

[Changing Rooms] revolutionised how people look at their homes and what they can do with them BBC spokeswoman

Llewelyn-Bowen now fronts the programme after Smillie quit in 2002.

He said: "Getting the timing right is never easy but it's always best to end on a high note.

"Changing Rooms was a major first and set the standards for the huge numbers of home makeover shows that followed.

"After eight years and 15 series, we believe we have done everything there is to do with the programme and it is time to move on."

Barker, who made the Changing Rooms pilot with Llewelyn-Bowen in 1995, appeared on jungle survival show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here and has won a number of lucrative advertising contracts.

Popularity

Other stars of the programme, such as Andy Kane (Handy Andy) and Anna Ryder Richardson, have also gone on to become household names.

The BBC spokeswoman said: "Changing Rooms has been decommissioned. It has been on for eight years and has done amazingly well in that time.

"It revolutionised how people look at their homes and what they can do with them.

"There will be some specials in the future, but it is too early to say what they will be like."

Changing Rooms, which began on BBC Two then moved to BBC One in 1998, spawned scores of similar interior design programmes.

At the height of its popularity, it would regularly pull in 10 million viewers, and the format has been sold to 20 countries around the globe.

The 15th and final series is currently in production and will be broadcast later this year.