Nick Knowles in real-life SOS

Nick Knowles in real-life SOS
Nick Knowles in real-life SOS (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Nick Knowles has said his 'blood ran cold' when he saw an overturned car and found a woman and her eight-week-old baby girl trapped inside. Nick, who presents the BBC's DIY SOS and Wildest Dreams, pulled both passengers to safety with the aid of another motorist - currently only known as a builder called Simon. Nick was travelling in his Range Rover on the B3227 close to Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton, Somerset, to film his latest show, Home Truths, when he noticed an overturned black Ford Mondeo in a field. The presenter said he pulled over and rushed to the scene with Simon and discovered Claire Williams and her eight-week-old daughter Alexandra in the car. Speaking from the filming location in Somerset, Nick said: "When I heard the baby crying my blood ran cold - you wonder what you're going to see. That was fairly terrifying. "The mother was saying 'I've got to get my baby out'. So Simon and I ripped the side door open. I went in through the back and passed the baby out to Simon, who was knelt by the car." A passing nurse also stopped and treated the mother while they waited, Nick said. He added that he believed the baby was saved by her child seat, in which she was "fully strapped". Nick denied being a hero and paid tribute to Simon the builder, the nurse and emergency services. "I just did what everyone else would do," he said. "I would hope anyone else would have done the same to help my loved ones."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.