To The Manor Bowen — Season 1, Episode 5: All About Laurence
Reality • 60 min • 1 season, 8 episodes
Episode synopsis
Jackie and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen are living in their 400 year old manor house as it is remodelled around them into a Llewelyn-Bowen classic. The worst floods in living memory threatened to cancel their summer party but miraculously the waters drain away in time for 300 neighbours and friends to enjoy the Llewelyn-Bowen’s hospitality. As part of the celebrations, Laurence’s Auntie Val (a surrogate parent) presents him with a very special roll of wallpaper– the inspiration for his design career and not to be outdone, Jackie’s PA Donna presents her with a birthday flying lesson. Laurence is choked with jealousy as Jackie hangs out with the pilots and rechristens herself Top Mum! Meanwhile Cecile (12) and Hermione (9) have broken up from school, and with Jackie busy running the business, that leaves the celebrity Dad in charge. The girls and their friends fail to see eye to eye with Laurence on what makes a good day out – the farm bores Laurence senseless, but a day out at the quarry? Guess who’s enjoying himself now? Laurence also takes the girls to a very special event commemorating the work of Laurence’s father Trefor Llewellyn (CORRECT) Bowen, founder of a charity dedicated to helping special needs children. Trefor was a talented orthopaedic surgeon who tragically died of Leukaemia at the age of 42, when Laurence was only 9. The event sparks Cecile’s interest in the grandfather she never knew and the impact his death must have had on her dad. In the house the builders score top marks when they manage to complete Laurence’s kitchen in time for the scheduled photo-shoot and then find themselves starring in it as well! Laurence finally finds a trip to please everyone when he takes them to Blackpool. Laurence has been invited to design this summer’s illuminations and the whole family goes to watch him turn them on.
About To The Manor Bowen
To The Manor Bowen follows Changing Rooms design guru Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his wife Jackie, their two idiosyncratic kids, batty old grandma and their eccentric entourage to the heart of the English countryside in their quest to buy a grand new home. Jackie is tired of the London celebrity treadmill and is on a mission to get her family and staff to move to the country in search of the simple life. Laurence, a Londoner through and through, is less enthusiastic. But undeterred Jackie finds herself a run down 17th century manor house in the West Country and buys it. Luckily Laurence loves it too, and put his reputation, finances and family’s happiness on the line by moving everyone into this rundown rural ruin while they attempt to transform it into a magnificent family home. The beautifully surprising and refreshingly unpredictable Llewelyn-Bowens open their normally tightly-bolted celebrity doors to give us a peek at their unconventional and unruly family life.