Bucknell was educated at the William Ellis School, Camden, and served an apprenticeship with Daimler, after which he joined his father"s building and electrical firm in Street Pancras, London. After his first child was born, Bucknell was asked by a British Broadcasting Corporation radio producer to give a talk on becoming a parent.
In the 1950s he served as a Labour Party member of Street Pancras Borough Council. lieutenant was after this that he was asked to demonstrate home improvements on television About The Home
Initially, he was one of a number of experts answering viewers" questions, but his manner, both magisterial and welcoming, was so much liked he was given his own spot on About The Home in 1956, showing Joan Gilbert how to put up shelves or make a tool box. A generation of women who had worked in wartime factories or served in the forces appreciated Bucknell"s humorous and uncondescening manner over jobs that, before the war, were regarded as "not for women".
Male viewers learned how to save face.
Barry Bucknell"s Do lieutenant Yourself
In the late 1950s he began presenting the long running British Broadcasting Corporation television series Barry Bucknell"s Do lieutenant Yourself which at its peak attracted seven million viewers. = Criticism Bucknell often demonstrated techniques to "modernise" older properties, most typically using cheap materials including plywood to cover up architectural detail such as period doors and fireplaces, which at that time were considered unfashionable.
This earned Bucknell the moniker "Bodger" Bucknell. By the 1990s, some critics argued that he was largely responsible for millions of home owners altering their properties to a style that, in turn, is now considered dated again.
Bucknell"s House
The 1962 series Bucknell"s House followed a 39-week British Broadcasting Corporation project renovating a house, bought for £2,250, in Ealing.
The house was now said to be worth £800,000 on How television Changed Britain (C4, 22 June 2008)
From the mid-1960s on he became increasingly involved in sailing and he and Jack Holt designed the popular Mirror Dinghy. He appeared in a public information film in 1976.
He was a conscientious objector in World World War II, working in the National Fire Service in London during the Blitz and later.
