Grand Designs Bingo: Calling ‘House’ for a full card
We all love a bit of Grand Designs Bingo. So get your dabbers ready, and let's check these super fans' cards
Spotting the Grand Designs clichés in each new episode, then calling them out on social media – or just in your own front room – is a favourite game of GD fans. Grand Designs Bingo has become an essential accompaniment to the show for many. In fact, the unofficial companion activity to the programme has proved so enduringly popular that GD Bingo cards are now used by Channel 4 as adverts to promote the show.
You can tell a lot about a Grand Designs watcher from the tone of their homemade bingo card. Some are a bit chippy (no pun intended). Others just affectionate and amusing.
This could be the full house week! Bonus snowball prize on weeks when there is a surprise pregnancy!😁 #GrandDesigns pic.twitter.com/XMQ9B1ypvl
— Paul Dunphy Esquire. 🏳️🌈 (@pauldunphy) September 27, 2017
Any chance that #GrandDesignsBingo could be a bit more challenging? We’re only 10 minutes in… pic.twitter.com/3TclDPv8pb
— surreyspinster (@surreyspinster) September 19, 2018
Grand designs bingo / drinking game
byu/hs94hc inDrinkingGames
“Kevin wears a hard hat”…
Desperate for a result this week!!!#granddesigns #granddesignsbingo pic.twitter.com/LSdlC3psWs
— David Barwise (@djbarwise) October 11, 2017
Me and my partner are so excited (and I’ve been so bored at work) that I made a bingo card for this season
byu/Embarrassed-Towel970 ingranddesigns
Grand Designs bingo https://t.co/pEnNEvpEgN pic.twitter.com/us3xU47oer
— Dr Alison Crutchley 🌈 (@accidentobizaro) September 19, 2015
Collated the faves in this thread into the Grand Designs bingo card you’ve all been waiting for. https://t.co/TgNRNNi94v pic.twitter.com/zgaZQGZAMn
— Andrew Frayn (@afrayn) September 10, 2020
View this post on Instagram
And she’s pregnant! #GrandDesigns #granddesignsbingo #haveadrink pic.twitter.com/MBEiUZK2gT
— Steve Wilkinson (@woodbridgevicar) October 5, 2016
Of course, Britain being Britain, lots of people play the drinking-game version that involves taking a swig every time a box is ticked…
I have put together some rules for the Grand Designs drinking game @autoit87 @gavinralph pic.twitter.com/ttCr21lV
— Andrew (@Newt32) October 2, 2012
Here’s another set of rules for the alcoholic version. Be warned though, because rules dictate you must drink each time each one of the very long list of very probable Grand Designs scenarios arises, you’re likely to end up pretty wasted…
There’s even an urban myth that Kevin McCloud once deliberately filled an episode with as many Grand Designs Bingo hits as possible in order to get viewers at home who were playing the drinking version thoroughly drunk.
Would’ve been dying tomorrow if you played the Grand Designs Drinking Game tonight . This one had everything #granddesigns pic.twitter.com/wWsFgiOqSt
— Ciarán Heeney (@SuperiorTriplet) October 9, 2019
Grand designs is on – lets play the ‘grand designs drinking bingo’ game! pic.twitter.com/4yF4GysLgX
— Nick Spall (@nsrestorations) July 21, 2014
The game appears to have originated on what was then Twitter more than a decade ago. The fact that people are still playing along so enthusiastically speaks volumes about the affection in which Kevin and the show are held by the British public. You can download a Grand Designs bingo card from Etsy. And even buy a greetings card with one on.
So eyes down, turn on Grand Designs, and when you get a full card, just be sure to shout ‘House!’ not ‘Bingo!’
