Tributes have been paid to Bargoed-born TV presenter Harry Greene, who has died aged 89.
Mr Greene, who was one of the first DIY presenters on British TV, collapsed on March 4, just three days after returning from a holiday with his TV presenter daughter Sarah Greene and husband Mike Smith.
Mr Smith paid tribute to his father-in-law on his blog.
He wrote: “My own dad had died back in ’76 – so Harry became particularly important to me.
“He was one of those driven people. Largely self-employed from teenage years and working his way from Wales to London via Art College, Cardiff University, stage management, design, building, acting, writing and teaching special needs children. He modified and built his own property with his own hands. He ensured that his three children were educated, informed, loved and sent on their way in life.”
Born Henry Howard Greenhouse, he changed his surname to Greene in 1950 by deed poll. He married Marjie Lawrence, an actress, in 1955 and they had three children. She died in 2010.
They worked together at Joan Littlewood’s theatre workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford, east London.
He toured the country for the workshop – whose members included Sir Sean Connery and Sheila Hancock – sourcing the company’s succession of battered old vans and building sets as well as acting.
In the same year they married, they found fame on ITV soap Round the Redways, in which Mr Greene played a handyman.
Mr Smith added: “From that, he actually became television’s first DIY expert.
“It was his DIY career that I got to know.
“In the 80s he worked for Greg Dyke at TV-AM, devising, writing and producing a great series called Dream Home.
“Harry found a tumbledown small house, persuaded TV-AM to buy it and then they filmed the whole conversion and building process. At the end, the house was given away in a competition.
“Later, for the BBC, he did a similar operation in the bizarre surroundings of the car park at Pebble Mill studios, Birmingham. On The House was a project to build and complete a house from scratch – and Harry and his team rose to the challenge.
“If it wasn’t for Harry Greene, none of those DIY TV shows of the 90s would have happened. He made DIY fashionable and accessible.
“Some of his best ideas were ‘borrowed’ by various TV executives and put on-air – with no recompense for Harry. That’s telly.”