 The Property Doctor : Ian
Morris
It all started in 1986 when, in
addition to running a full-time surveying practice in the
UK, Ian Morris was participating in committee work for The
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors - both at county
and national levels. One of the forums in which he took an
active part at RICS headquarters was the Building Surveyors
Public Relations Committee which, among other things,
initiated new ways of promoting Chartered Building Surveyors
to the general public.
It was at about this time that
the RICS was approached by BBC TV, who were in the process
of devising a new daytime series, Bazaar, in which they
wanted to give advice to viewers about looking after their
homes. The TV producers had sufficient funds to print and
distribute a booklet to accompany the series but their
budget did not extend to paying anyone to write the content.
So it was agreed that the Building Surveyors PR Committee
would provide the content, and the BBC would print and
distribute the booklet, as a joint venture.
Two members of the committee,
Ian Morris and Michael Finn, offered to write the content
for the booklet, in which building problems were dealt with
in a simple manner by looking at the symptoms and
prescribing the remedies – in other words, a ”medical”
approach was adopted. A professional illustrator provided a
number of cartoon type illustrations, depicting the surveyor
as a cartoon character known as The Property Doctor, and the
original Property Doctor Book was thus born.
Having already been interviewed
on the radio, and done many phone-ins on building topics,
Ian was asked by the BBC to do a regular spot in the TV
series - as The Property Doctor - advising viewers on a
variety of common building problems. The original property
doctor booklet was presented to viewers in the second
programme, on 13th February 1987, and over 35,000 free
copies were dispatched within a few months. Viewing figures
for Bazaar (a daytime series) soon passed 3 million. Ian's
regular spots as The Property Doctor continued through the
first, second and third series of the programme, shown on
both BBC1 and BBC2.
The Property Doctor campaign was
at the same time actively promoted by the PR department of
the RICS and caught the imagination of both the national and
the provincial press in a big way: No other PR campaign
mounted by the RICS has ever received as much press
coverage, either before or since.
“The Property Doctor” was
adopted as the theme for the RICS stand at the Ideal Home
exhibition in March 1987 and, after officially opening the
exhibition, HRH Princess Margaret came to the stand to meet
The Property Doctor, Ian Morris, in person.
The original property doctor
book, which had been distributed free, was only 14 pages
long but on the strength of its popularity Ian was asked by
BBC Publications to write a full length paperback. The
definitive Property Doctor Book, a 144 page paperback,
written and illustrated by Ian Morris, was published in
January 1989.
Ian Morris is The Property
Doctor.
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