Can Bob The Builder fix Broken Britain?

Bohemian Rhapsody is not the only singalong British classic celebrating an anniversary this Christmas that built a big following. It’s 25 years since Bob the Builder’s Can We Fix it? Yes We Can! secured the coveted (at least back then) Christmas number one spot.

The single version of the kids’ TV theme saw off Westlife, Eminem and S Club 7 to top the charts in 2000. Not bad for a cartoon character voiced by Neil Morrissey.

Of course, the positivity of the tune and the idea we can fix anything in so-called Broken Britain could be just the tonic in 2025. To evaluate the song’s legacy, Big Issue caught up with Paul K Joyce – the man who wrote those immortal words. A composer by trade, Joyce constructed the melodies and chorus over just three days.

“I couldn’t think of anything to rhyme with builder,” says Joyce. “So I thought, Let’s not go there and make some naff rhyme. So I’ll just use the ‘Can we fix it? Yes we can’ as some sort of hook. It was that declamatory ‘Bob the Builder’ and then the answer and that sort of popped into my head and I liked it.”

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Joyce wasn’t the only one. The show’s producers liked it too and soon enough it was being recorded at Abbey Road with Morrissey.

“It came out on the BBC and the first I knew was at the end of a night out in Nottingham. I was walking down the street and these lads were coming down,” says Joyce. “They were having a great time and they were singing my song. I thought, how do they know that? What are they doing watching the show? So I knew something was going on then.”

As momentum built, BBC Records enlisted producer Grant Mitchell to arrange a version of the song to be released as a single. It debuted at number two in the charts when it was released in December 2000 before hitting the high note at Christmas and spending three weeks at the top. Joyce and co won the prestigious Ivor Novello award for best-selling single the following year.

The impact has seen the song become well-loved. Joyce tells Big Issue how he was invited into a school in Nottingham shortly afterwards to meet pupils, and was confronted by an assembly of children going “absolutely mental, jumping around and singing all the words”. 

It might not be exactly how the composer foresaw his creative life going. But he’s certainly grateful.

Read more:

• Why does the UK have a housing crisis?
• How we can end the housing crisis and fix the UK, explained
• How the building safety scandal feeds Britain’s housing crisis

“I’ve been in pop bands, rock bands and all sorts of bands and you always envisage in your mind’s eye how your creative life is going to pan out. And it never works out that way,” says Joyce. “Here I was this erstwhile pop person doing kids’ themes which I absolutely love.”

The song has built quite a legacy for itself. Joyce is a composer with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and had the opportunity to spend five months crafting a classical version of the song that was played at a composer summit in Prague a couple of years ago.

“I’m very grateful to Bob,” he says. “The pleasure for me and the great joy in my life has been to use the remuneration from Bob to pursue projects that have been very close to my heart.”

Joyce tried to get a rock version done – unfortunately, attempts to get Bruce Springsteen involved never got beyond foundations – and Barack Obama’s adoption of his ‘Yes we can’ slogan also triggered a flurry of press interest linking it with Bob’s iconic chorus.

The song is even being used for protests on the current state of the housing crisis more than a quarter of a century after it was first written.

In October, a Parliament Square protest from Citizens UK saw school children from across five cities dress as builders to demand that the minister for energy consumers Martin McCluskey step up efforts to fix horror homes to make them more energy efficient.

There was only one song to accompany the demonstration, although the name Martin McCluskey doesn’t quite fit as well as Bob the Builder.

“I’m quite chuffed that they can pick my song, to be honest. They should have contacted me and I’d have written different lyrics,” Joyce says, after Big Issue shared a video of the Citizens UK protest.

“Of course, I had tailored the song so that all the words could be said by very young children very easily. A bit like any good rock song that you know, when it gets to the chorus, all the vowels and consonants sit perfectly with the melody. I wanted to achieve that same thing.

“I’d like to think that it’s a timeless classic in the sense of that punchiness and attention to detail and the way that the lyrics can be easily remembered.”

No we can’t

Joyce believes Bob the Builder changed the perception of the construction industry in some small capacity, painting it in a “positive light”.

Of course, the kids that grew up with the show are now old enough to be builders themselves. But perhaps the housing crisis and the state of the construction industry shows that it has been more of a case of ‘no we can’t’ when it comes to fixing things over the last 25 years.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) estimates 47,000 new workers each year are needed to meet the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2030. 

So we asked Adrian Beckingham, CITB executive director, strategy and policy, if Bob the Builder had any impact on driving youngsters towards building sites.

“While Bob the Builder remains a nostalgic cultural reference, there’s little evidence it influenced career choices in construction,” says Beckingham. “The industry’s appeal relies on showcasing the variety of opportunities, with over 180 different job roles to choose from, the valuable skills to be learnt, competitive salaries that remain well above the UK average, and the sense of achievement from building projects.” 

Beckingham tells Big Issue that the construction sector was expected to enter a significant growth period, up to an average 2.1% a year through 2029. But an ageing workforce, rising demand and persistent training gaps mean there is a skills shortage to carry out the work.

“Every year, over 100,000 people receive construction training, yet too few transition into lasting careers in the sector,” says Beckingham. 

“Ultimately, it’s a jobs issue rather than a lack of people being trained. This demonstrates an urgent need to improve the pipeline of people entering the construction industry.”

Perhaps that’s a job too big even for Bob the Builder. It’s something Labour and the construction industry will keep their attention on in 2026.

But before then, Joyce intends to mark his song’s special anniversary this Christmas.

“I’ll be raising a glass to Bob and Wendy and the crew. Building and fixing and getting the job done!”

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