With a new series of DIY SOS, Baz Ashmawy taps into some more uplifting stories – but the recent Christmas special also showed a darker side. He talks to Donal O'Donoghue about family, fatherhood and finding his way.
"Saint Baz is what my missus calls me," says Mr. Ashmawy with a gap-toothed grin. "It’s like, ‘Ah, here comes Saint Baz! Everyone thinks you’re fecking great, going around helping people all the time – and you won’t cut the grass at home!’"
And he laughs again, the TV presenter, producer and writer whose small-screen career has covered everything from laddish reality (How Low Can You Go?) to biographical documentaries (Baz: The Lost Muslim) to an investigation into Ireland’s gambling addiction (All Bets Are Off). Most famous, perhaps, are the shows with his mum Nancy, including the Emmy award-winning 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy.
In recent times, though, the 47-year-old has been in the limelight for his winning turn as the empathetic (and hands-on) host of DIY SOS Ireland. This is Saint Baz, father to six kids, maker of uplifting TV, but still with a mischievous glint in his eye that suggests his canonisation may not happen any time soon.
We’re in his production office in Dublin’s south inner-city: a room of soft furnishings, business hardware (printer, phones, PCs) and a framed poster of a dog in a suit. On another wall is a whiteboard inked with dates, numbers and words including ‘sugar daddy’ and ‘sexorcist’.
The man himself is sprawled on a couch, whirring with ideas and plans. Next month, Faithless, a comedy series co-written by and starring Ashmawy, starts filming for Virgin Media TV, while later this summer he’s lined up to host a documentary series on RTÉ.
"I’m working a lot at the moment," he says, adding that he probably won’t clock off until 7pm or so that evening. "Tanja [his wife] is away for the week with some of her mates. I can see her now with a glass of champers in the spa." And he laughs at the swings and roundabouts of family, career and being Baz.
Coming next week is a new season of DIY SOS: The Bigger Build Ireland, where communities band together to help people in need. Ashmawy’s natural empathy, and impish sense of fun, is a significant part of the show’s charm and success.
But a recent Christmas special, which featured building homes for Ukrainian refugees in Mitchelstown, prompted a minority to lambast the programme for not "putting Irish people first".
"I had people following me to Kinsale on my night off," Baz recalls. "I got out of the car and they started attacking me, and I was thinking, ‘The energy these people are putting into chasing me – and not doing anything to help others.’"
He shrugs and gives the pragmatist’s perspective: "People were upset and wanted someone to blame. But you can’t blame a show like DIY SOS because the people who helped build houses for Ukrainians are very often the same people who come back every week and help build houses for Irish people. The show is entertainment, sure, but it’s also showing the goodness of humanity."
The new series opens with an uplifting episode from the northside of Cork City. This is the story of Adam Drummond, a talented basketball player who was left paralysed from the waist down following an accident in 2021.
His positivity and inspirational attitude light up a show which culminates with the 23-year-old making an emotional return to his wonderfully renovated, wheelchair-accessible home after nine days of intensive work. His story, Ashmawy says, was one of the most heartbreaking in his TV career.
"I’m a dad so I can relate to these things, and I’ve lost people who were close to me and I know the void that can leave in your life," he says of his onscreen empathy. "I always say that we’re not just rebuilding a house here, it’s not just bricks and mortar – we’re also bringing someone home. And the show taps into that idea of home and what it means to people."
Baz Ashmawy, who was born in Libya, grew up in Rathfarnham. "I’m so south Dublin," he says with a laugh. "If I go to the northside of the city, I bring back a stick of rock. I never moved far from the home where my mum still lives."
He was eight when his Egyptian father Mohammed walked out on his wife and their only child. "Someone once asked me was I ever looking for a father figure, but I wasn’t really. There were men I admired, like our next-door neighbour who was a great dad and a great husband, and was also very kind to my mum and to me."
Yet during his teenage years, he says, he was a bit lost. "Trying to figure out who you are and the rest. Being mixed-race Irish, it was so hard to clone yourself, to fit in. You could put on a bomber jacket and wear Levi jeans but you’re still going to have the big curly hair and be slightly browner than other people."
In those early years, Baz was also, he admits, a bit of a handful. So when he was 12 or so, Nancy sent him packing to boarding school in Clara in Co Offaly for a couple of years. How was that? He rolls his eyes.
"It was hard, but it was also a great education. I was one of the few Dublin boys in the school. There were a lot of boys who came from a tough family background and that certainly gave me an appreciation for how nice a family life I had, and how good my mum was to me. I did a lot of growing up down there."
But it was his mother who made him. A couple of years back, Baz said, "Having one person who believes in you, just one, it’s life-changing for people, you know, and I was very lucky in all that I learned from my mum." Today, he nods at the utter truth of that.
"You have to fail to achieve," he says of his career, "but people don’t usually see your fails, they just see your wins."
Did he ever think about giving up? "I changed my attitude to what I saw myself as," Baz says. After hitting rock bottom he decided to get back control: producing his own shows, diversifying ("I get restless quickly") and making television for himself.
"Like, who is going to know what TV show you want to do better than yourself? And then there’s the thing that you don’t dislike what you see in the mirror. I’m in my late forties now and it has taken me a long time to get here, although my missus reading this will probably think ‘he still has a lot of work to do’. But you should like who you are, because that reflects on how you are as a dad and a husband and a person."
Baz met Tanja in 2006 and is stepfather to Charlotte, Harry, Jake and Amelia from her previous relationship. They also have two daughters of their own, Hanna and Mahy.
"Being a parent has had a very positive effect on me. I just wanted to be around and be a better person for my kids. There were certain things about myself that I didn’t like and wanted to change, and to be a more present dad. But then I had my own ‘daddy issues’ and probably just wanted to be better for those reasons too.
"When I see family in Egypt there are mannerisms and physical traits that I have which are identical to my dad. I picked up those habits in my those first eight years and there's the genetics as well, but I was also very strict with myself that there were certain aspects of his personality that I don’t replicate – to be less selfish than him and be more present for my family. I believe that’s 90 per cent of parenting, just being there."
In March 2021, at the age of 46, Baz became a granddad. "Somewhat earlier than expected," he says, "but it’s great because Lilly has brought so much happiness to everyone."
And while his mum (now 80) is in flying form – zipping off to Spain with her pals and whatnot – he’s unsure if they will reunite for another TV show following the broadcast of Baz and Nancy’s Last Orders in June 2022.
"Right now there’s no idea in the back of my head that would work for both of us. But of course, two minutes after saying this to you, an idea might pop into my head and I’ll go: ‘Snowbirds! I’ll go round the world looking at where all the old people go to retire and bring mam with me and there’s a show!"
Who knows what might pop up next on that whiteboard? "Once I finish one thing I’m thinking of the next," Baz says, adding that he’d love to do a DIY SOS special focused on housing the homeless. So many ideas – and so little time to mow the grass and polish that halo.
Watch DIY SOS: The Bigger Build Ireland on Sunday at 6:30pm on RTÉ One.
