Interview with Sandi Toksvig and judges Willard Wigan MBE & Laura Jackson

24 March 2022

Sandi Toksvig presents a brand-new competition series that puts the miniature making skills of 10 amateur crafters from across Britain to the test.

Over eight episodes, the crafters must transform a derelict mini mansion into the ultimate fantasy house. Dreaming big but building small, our mini makers work in teams to tackle the house room by room, with each room having to be fully furnished in a different and stunning interior design theme from history, from Regency to Art Deco. Whether it be tiny tables, toilets, curtains or food, all of the contents made for the house must be shrunk down to a twelfth of their usual size.

World-record holding micro-sculptor Dr Willard Wigan MBE and interior design guru Laura Jackson are tasked with judging the results, whittling the miniaturists down room by room, week by week. Only when the mini mansion is complete can one person be crowned champion of the Great Big Tiny Design Challenge. 

Miniature enthusiast Sandi Toksvig oversees all the action, seeing the work up close and personal as she shrinks down to take a tiny tour of the finished rooms. Sandi also visits some of Britain’s fanciest homes as she takes in over 500 years of incredible interior design in all its life-sized glory.

Here, Sandi Toksvig, Willard Wigan and Laura Jackson tell us about the series.

What was it about the show that made you want to get involved?

Sandi: I mainly agreed to the show because I didn’t think they’d find another presenter the right height. I was destined to do it. I didn’t realise until I was asked about this show how many people are interested in the world of miniatures and it’s the range of people, too, there is an enormous number of very young people. I mentioned it to friends when we were having dinner and their 18-year-old went ‘oh miniatures are my thing’ and showed me all these houses she’d made. You can become obsessed with it really quickly.

Laura: I don’t think there’s been a show like this in terms of the idea. There’s lots of take home, it’s a great competition. The competitors are so passionate, it was a wonderful thing to be a part of. It’s kind of that nice mixture of miniatures and interiors, there are some really nice nuggets for people who like design as well as miniatures, it kind of straddles those two worlds which I think will be really interesting for the viewer.

Willard: What was amazing about this programme was, it was very difficult to send people home who are so talented. So many emotions came out during filming. It was so much fun, I enjoyed every minute of it, especially with Sandi and Laura, we had a great laugh. It was a great experience.

What is it about this show that will capture people’s imaginations?

Sandi: I think it’s the scale that will make people not be able to believe it. I mean, when you see a miniature bathtub, a twelfth of the size of an actual bathtub, with running water, when you see a mangle that can actually mangle clothes, it’s breath-taking. Some of the scale was incredible wasn’t it, Willard?

Willard: Oh yes. There’s a difference between my work and their work, their work is incredible in its own way. I do microscopic, they do miniature and I was just as fascinated [with their work]. A lot of people love miniature stuff and you’ve got to think about things as being a little bit smaller. My mum was always saying that the smallest things can have the biggest impression on people. Being involved in this programme was an absolute honour and the contestants, all 10 of them, were amazing. This programme is going to show the world what miniaturisation is all about and it’s about time this happened. To see the way they all evolved, they just got better and better.

What was filming like? What can we expect from the contestants?

Sandi: I think it’s one of the nice things about this show is the way everyone helped each other out. There was such a sense of camaraderie because they all come from this world and don’t usually work in teams.

Laura: It was very well cast because everyone had their area of expertise within miniatures, so as we got further along in the competition and there were fewer and fewer contestants, there was really high jeopardy because not everybody knew the skills outside of their own specialisms. So they did have to take on things they’d never done before, things like woodwork. It was really quite interesting as we got further along in the competition.

Sandi: Another fascinating thing, I went to proper stately homes and looked at what it should have looked like, whether it was art deco or Regency or whatever and it was amazing how close they all got to making the look of period, which was very exciting.

Willard: Sometimes you can get people who are trained in miniatures and some people are just naturally gifted and all 10 contestants are all naturally gifted. It was nice to get away from the microscope.

Did it get quite tense and emotional at times when they were working on the tiny designs?

Laura: It was quite moving at times during filming because we are on this journey with these incredible contestants. There were some tears throughout the series, it’s a really moving show and that’s what I’m drawn to with TV shows, ones that have meaning and purpose.

Sandi: I defy anyone not to be fascinated by the makers. The designs are of things from all around the house that have got to be made tiny yet functional and beautiful and how do they do that? One of the makers chose a chess piece, he turned it upside down, cut a bit off it and suddenly there was this magnificent bathroom table. I hadn’t even seen that coming. You cannot help be gripped by this, whether miniature has been your world or not. We also laughed a lot. There was a lot of laughter.

Do we go on a journey with the contestants?

Laura: Yes, absolutely, you really start to get to know each contestant on a personal level and they tell us more about their story, why they got involved with miniatures and what it means to them. It could be as simple as just having this hobby, this passion for their own escapism. We do get to know each and every one of them, which makes it difficult when we have to lose one of them every week because we’re invested in all of their stories. The winner is a truly deserved winner.

Sandi and Laura, did you have a go at making any miniatures yourselves?

Sandi: I didn’t on the show but, actually, in my time off because we were locked down for the whole time we were there, in my time off I made a little miniature library, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was completely bitten by the bug. I’ve been making craft things all of my life, that’s my hobby, so it wasn’t really anything new I’d just never sat down and made a whole room before.

Laura: I have never made miniatures but I love interior design. I’ve never made anything on a really small scale, I was very much led by Willard and Sandi on the miniatures side of things.

Do you have a favourite challenge from the show?

Sandi: The food. The food was so edible. There’s a blancmange I wanted to take home with me, it really looked delicious.

Laura: My favourite was the Georgian kitchen for lots of different reasons, but it was quite interesting to see how each team interpreted the theme. They were all given the same information but it’s interesting how they processed that information and came up with two completely different concepts. I found that extraordinary.

Willard: I also enjoyed the Georgian kitchen, I enjoyed the detail.

The competition doesn’t just test the skill for making miniatures, it’s also about interior design, isn’t it?

Laura: The interiors aspect is really important. When we did the Art Deco bathroom, Sandi went to visit Eltham Palace which is the best representation of Art Deco. It’s about the miniatures but it also looked really beautiful, they had to get the aesthetic right, the correct interiors for the room they were doing. It’s about the miniatures, the design and the interiors of the room they were doing that they had to get right to get through to the next round.

Has there been a resurgence in the popularity of miniatures?

Laura: Yes, absolutely, like Sandi said, it’s quite niche but when you do start talking about it, there are lots of people who are interested in it. There is a whole world of miniatures and miniacs who are really setting this trend. There’s lots of YouTube videos, lots of cool doll’s house and mini train worlds as well. I think it’s definitely coming into the mainstream.

And why do you think people have become so fascinated with miniatures?

Sandi: You can have the philosophical discussion about how the world is very complicated and here you can create a whole world and be in charge of it, I suspect there is something in that. And it’s an achievable thing of beauty. When you see the whole house finished at the end, it is staggering and wonderful. The arts are always a way we can escape.

Laura: This is escapism from everything that is going on right now that feels tough and we all feel quite helpless. But by being part of this miniatures world and being fascinated with getting granular with all of the details, you can lose an hour and be with us on this journey, and I think that’s what people are looking for at the moment.

How does it feel to see yourself in miniature form walking round the finished rooms, Sandi?

It’s very weird because when you see it, you sort of believe it. I sit down at the table, I give an apple to a horse at one point, it is the weirdest thing.

And the show opens with you saying you’ve waited your whole career for a show like this. What did you mean by that?

Sandi: Only that I am possibly the world’s smallest presenter and therefore I felt this one entirely fitted me. I don’t think people know about my secret crafting life, I have been making things always, I weave, I embroider, I knit, I do woodwork, I make things out of paper. I spend my life creating things so to be allowed to do it and in miniature seemed absolutely perfect.  

What are you looking for when you’re judging the designs, Laura and Willard?

Laura: I’m looking at the interior design. Is the theme correct? Have they got the right wallpaper, the right pattern, the right finishes with the wood? And the right colour palette, colour was so important for me, colour can make or break a room so I was essentially looking for the style of the era of the room they were given and making sure things felt harmonised. I was also looking for whether I could see this on a big scale, I wanted to see the details, whether it was cornicing, wallpaper, the style of a floor, pieces of furniture. They had to be in keeping with the era otherwise it didn’t really work for me.

Willard: When I was looking at all the contestants’ work, I noticed there were a few little flaws in the detail but that’s all part of the game. When you teach them to see the flaws and let them know what they’ve done, the next day, they’d rise to the occasion so each time they rose to the occasion it became more difficult to judge because they’d become greater and greater. When it comes to reduction, things get so much harder and that’s what people will understand when they watch the programme and they’ll understand the hard work and dedication that’s involved. When they’re working, you can see the intense concentration on their faces and I understand that, I spend hours looking through the microscope. The other day I was working and I fell asleep, my eyes must have been pressed against the microscope because when I woke up I had two red circles around my eyes.

Sandi, were you previously familiar with Willard’s work?

Sandi: I’ve seen it in magazines, not in person, and thought it was amazing. But when you actually see it through a microscope it seems unreal, it’s like a hologram, it’s the weirdest thing. He’s an absolute genius.

Willard: See this needle, Sandi [shows Sandi the top of a needle]? You’re going to be in one of these!

-Ends-