WHEN the DIY SOS: Children In Need special featuring the transformation of a Blackburn church hall is aired tonight, it will moisten the eyes of even the hardest-hearted TV viewer.

But one person who won't be seen on screen crying is host Nick Knowles.

He has revealed said he asks to not be shown crying on camera so as not to detract from the real-life stories being documented in DIY SOS.

The host said he is “not a big fan of TV presenters sort of hoarding the moment”, but admitted shedding tears behind the scenes.

Nick said: “I get massively emotional with each show that we do, but I encourage the editors not to put pictures of me crying in the programme.

“I try to get off camera when I do because I think the story too often, TV here has presenters that say ‘Look at me’, when in actual fact your job should be to say ‘Hello, look at them’.

“The centre of attention on this should be the people we are building for, the volunteers and the organisations."

The Children In Need episode, which airs on BBC1 at 8pm tonight (Nov 13) sees the DIY SOS team transform St Silas' church hall into accommodation and a support centre for Nightsafe, which provides support for young people aged 16-24 who are homeless or vulnerably housed.

Nick said it was important that the home renovation show covered the episode because homelessness among the young is not something that is highlighted enough.

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He said: “It’s very difficult to get it signed off for them to talk to us because they are vulnerable, which means that not many programmes are made about them. So we had to decide whether we would go ahead and make this build without necessarily being able to speak to the young people involved who would use it.

“Would we and could we make a programme that the audience would trust us, despite the fact they didn’t meet the people to empathise with them?

“I think it was really important that we did (do the programme), because there are so many young people sleeping rough and homeless on a night-to-night basis in the UK, it’s disgraceful, and there are people trying to help them, but they need help to help them.”

The episode documents the build as well as sharing stories from people who have been helped by Nightsafe.