Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan

Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan
Born	Colin Lewis McAllister: 10 January 1968 (1968-01-10) (age 43) Glasgow, Scotland Justin Patrick Ryan: 11 February 1967 (1967-02-11) (age 44) Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Interior decorators, television presenters
Years active	1985–present

Colin Lewis McAllister (born 10 January 1968) and Justin Patrick Ryan (born 11 February 1967) are Scottish interior decorators and television presenters. McAllister and Ryan have incorporated their trademark behaviour, which includes their frequent bickering, fussiness, tantrums, mild innuendo and light-hearted put-downs, as comic relief into most of their programmes.

As well as being co-hosts, McAllister and Ryan have also been in a relationship since April 1985 and are credited as introducing laminate flooring to British households.^[1] On 15 February 2008, they had a private civil partnership ceremony in London followed by a Caribbean honeymoon.^[2] According to recent press and media reports, after leaving 2009's edition of I'm A Celebrity contest on ITV, they announced that they are to renew their vows on their 25th anniversary, April 28, 2010.

Although their main residence is Glasgow,^[3] they divide their time between there and London in their own homes in both cities. The two also own a downtown loft in Toronto where they are currently devising new formats for 2010 North American broadcast. They have filmed four x 13 episode series of Colin and Justin's Home Heist for HGTV,^[4] which is broadcast in approximately 25 countries.

Television and Radio Programmes

2003–05

• The Million Pound Property Experiment

Million Pound Property Experiment was a BBC Television series which originally aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom in 2003. In this, McAllister and Ryan renovated and re-sold properties for a profit as they gambled with a £100,000 loan from the BBC, with the ultimate goal being a sale of a property for £1million. Taking more than two years they bought, renovated and sold seven properties across the UK with the help of project manager Nigel Leck. Their final property sold for £1.25 million and after paying back all loans they made a profit of nearly £300,000 which was donated to BBC's Children in Need Appeal.

• Twenty Ways to Make Money on Your Property

McAllister and Ryan counted down the best ways to increase the values of viewers homes. The format also included Twenty Builders' Botch Ups and Twenty Design Crimes. The series was made for the UK's Five channel.

• Trading Up

Trading Up (and overseas spin off show Trading Up In The Sun) aired on BBC One in which McAllister and Ryan counselled people on how to successfully sell and buy property. The former concentrated on British homes while the latter saw the presenters travel around Spain and France in search of homes for British buyers.

• Housecall

This live format multi camera studio show, a production for BBC1, was hosted by Lowri Turner and co-presented by various experts such as chef James Martin and Colin and Justin. Spanning some seven series the decorators created live 'one hour' transformations interacting throughout with viewers. The emphasis was about creating 'style on a shoestring' and the show had a spin off series called Housecall in The Country on which Colin and Justin also worked.

• How Not to Decorate

How Not to Decorate aired on the UK's Channel 5 and followed the format of the popular What Not to Wear series, but in this case McAllister and Ryan were recruited to transform homes with dramatically ugly interior decoration schemes into something more stylish.

• Three Celebs and a Baby

A British TV first, Colin and Justin, along with model Caprice, attempted to raise a £150,000 anamatronic 'baby'. The show charted the three celebrities as they experienced the highs and lows of parenthood. Caprice infamously dropped her 'baby' while Colin and Justin later said in interviews that it made them realise they would indeed make good parents.

2005–07

• The Farm

In 2005, McAllister and Ryan hosted the reality series The Farm on Five.

• Wedding Belles

In McAllister and Ryan's next programme, Wedding Belles, which aired on Five in 2006, they became wedding planners to prospective brides. Four one hour episodes now showing across the globe.

• Hogmanay Stories

McAllister and Ryan presented STV's 2006/2007 Hogmanay Stories, a mix of traditional Hogmanay celebrations, with music from Michelle McManus, John Carmichael and some surprise guests. There were stories from Elaine C. Smith, Cameron Stout, Aggie MacKenzie, Sanjeev Kohli, Limmy and others - and messages to loved ones who find themselves away from home at that momentous time of the year.

• Colin and Justin on the Estate

McAllister and Ryan attempted to visually transform a council estate in Glasgow (Arden, on the south side of the city) in their 2007 show on Five. The premise was that everyone should be entitled to a good standard of living, no matter where they are on the social strata. An anniversary TV 'one year on' revisit is currently being planned.

In September 2006, they organised and ran a charity auction at the Oran Mor arts centre in Glasgow, to raise money for the event. It was attended by national and local celebrities, including Anna Ryder Richardson and Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon.

• Colin and Justin's Home Heist

Colin and Justin's show Home Heist is currently being filmed in Canada and is similar to How Not to Decorate, for North American audiences. Colin and Justin moved to Toronto in 2007 in preparation for the show, which premiered on the HGTV network in October 2007. The show has already been bought by multiple international broadcasters and is the decorators first move, via shared format, into TV production. The Canadian program's team also includes Cheryl Torrenueva, a designer and presenter also associated with other HGTV programming.

• Colin and Justin's Home Show

Colin and Justin visit different shopping centres/malls, create a set of a house in the middle of it, then proceed to decorate the set with items from the stores in the mall. The series was filmed before a live audience, and first shown in the UK on UKTV Style.

• Colin and Justin's Music Makeover

The Scots decorators host this drive time BBC Radio Scotland series which airs on Friday at 18:00 - 19:00. Two successful series have led to series three which will begin transmission towards the end of 2007. Renowned for its pacy, irreverent formula the series is a mix of gossip, social comment and music.

2009–present

• Colin and Justin's Influence Range at Matalan

The decorators have been working with UK department store Matalan and have so far launched two large homewares collections for the 190 store chain. A further collection of festive decorations will augment their now established range with the company and will appear in store in November 2009.

• Colin and Justin at Zellers, Canada

The decorators have been collaborating with Canadian department store Zellers, and their first collection of named brand bedding will be available from January 2010.

• Home Heist now broadcasts in approximately 20 countries such as Australia, Poland and South Africa

• Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Take Away*

The decorators have guested twice on this ITV1 show, both times dressed as elves, as part of the live action fun.

• Loose Women

Colin and Justin have guested twice on this magazine show format on ITV during 2009.

• The Hour, STV, Scotland

The decorators appeared twice on this tea time chat show.

• CityLine, City TV, Canada

The UK decorators have guested several times throughout 2009 on CityLine, a Canadian magazine format lifestyle show.

• Breakfast Television, City TV, Canada

Colin and Justin regularly guest on this early morning TV show, which is similar to GMTV in The UK.

• 60 Minute Makeover, ITV, UK

From September 2009, when the successful TV makeover series was re-formatted without its previous host Terri Dwyer, Colin and Justin, amongst others, joined as regular new presenters/decorators and fronted 24 episodes.

• Colin and Justin's After The Heist Home Tour

In conjunction with The Canadian Cancer Society, the decorators created a massive fund raising initiative to benefit those living with, or affected by, cancer. Essentially a grand gala evening and a guided tour around 20 of the 52 homes made over during their series, all profits were donated to the CCS.

• The West Coast Women's Show, The Toronto Fall Home Show, The Calgary Home Show, The One of a Kind Show, The Vancouver Home Show etc.

The British decorators regularly headline these visiting home fairs across Canada and appear, in design workshops, to dispense style guidance to the tens of thousands of paying guests who visit each season.

• I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!

Both Colin and Justin were contestants on I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! (UK series 9). However Colin was voted out by the public on Tuesday, 24 November 2009. Justin was voted out on Thursday, 3 December 2009 after being in the bottom 2 with Jimmy White. He finished fourth overall.

• The Ant and Dec Christmas Special

Colin and Justin play The Ugly Sisters in this ITV1 programme panto sketch. The show was broadcast on December 26, 2009 and also featured Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Robbie Williams.

• Celebrity Coach Trip

In November 2010 Colin and Justin appeared in TV Series Celebrity Coach Trip.^[5]

• Colin & Justin's Sunday Show

After a Co-hosting with Ewan on Real Radio Breakfast show, for one day, Colin & Justin's were given their own radio show. The series went out for a 13 week run on Sundays during the summer of 2011.

• Celebrity MasterChef 2011

Both were participants in the sixth series of Celebrity MasterChef.

Broadcasts

Several of McAllister and Ryan's television programmes have been re-broadcast outside the UK; including on HGTV in Canada and the United States, TV3 Ireland and on BBC Prime in Europe, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.

2010

Books

'The Million Pound Property Experiment' - published by BBC World Wide in 2004, which went on to win the People's Choice Lifestyle Book of the Year with WH Smith.

'How Not To Decorate' - accompanied the successful TV show of the same name. Published by Time Warner, 2006.

'Colin and Justin's Home Heist Style Guide - How To Create The Perfect Home' - this book accompanies the series 'Colin and Justins Home Heist', released October 1, 2008. Published by Penguin, 'Canadian Publi.

Magazine Columns - drawing on their journalistic background, in the UK the decorators write weekly columns in The Sunday Mail and The Sunday Mirror and in Canada they contribute weekly editorials to Metro Newspaper and to lifestyles title Sharp Magazine.

Column

The pair also writes a weekly column in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star, offering up their suggestions for sprucing up homes. Launched on September 27, 2008, it is also available online.

External links

• Colin & Justin's website
• Colin & Justin biography via HGTV Canada
• Articles by Colin and Justin for the Toronto Star

References

1. ^ 'How We Met: Justin Ryan & Colin McAllister', The Independent on Sunday, 12 December 2004.
2. ^ Canwest goes with the tried and true for fall season: big American hits. The Canadian Press. June 4, 2008.
3. ^ Moir, Jan (2003-12-23). "'We are the lovely boys from TV'". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2003/12/23/pmill23.xml. Retrieved June 20, 2008. 
4. ^ "BIOS - COLIN & JUSTIN". http://www.hgtv.ca/homeheist/bios.aspx. 
5. ^ "TV home makeover duo Colin and Justin to join Celebrity Coach Trip". Daily Record. September 21, 2010. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/television-news/2010/09/21/tv-home-makeover-duo-colin-and-justin-to-join-celebrity-coach-trip-86908-22576723/.