'It looked an impossible task'
Best friends Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are old hands at renovating properties abroad – but how did they cope with a crumbling wreck in Corfu?
BBC
- Emma Cox
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Interviewing people “off the telly” is rarely how you’d imagine: celebrities are frequently more serious or less friendly than you might expect. Happily, however, I can report that Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are everything you could possibly hope for in the flesh.
They’re finishing off lunch when I walk in, and there’s an irresistible atmosphere from the off, with roars of laughter, outraged screams and overlapping answers. It’s clear why they’re best friends, and why their chemistry makes such good telly on their overseas renovation show: with a third series, Greek Job, currently on our screens.
“We’re the same people,” says Carr. “People ask if we really get along, but I couldn’t do this show if we didn’t. We’re filming in 40° heat, and she’s trying to put up hideous wallpaper and a disco ball. We have to get on. I hate putting that bloody jumpsuit on. I like the fun bits: the drinking, dancing, lighting candles, fluffing cushions. But whenever we’re doing something less fun she’s like, ‘Come on Alan, we can do it’. You couldn't do this with a Debbie Downer.”
Holden adds, “We’ve been friends for 20 years, but we’ve become closer in the last eight. He has no ego. He might have to stop for a cup of tea now and again, but that’s his biggest demand. We read each other well. There are moments when we’re quiet, when we’re nuts, tired, happy.”
Carr interjects, sparking another of Holden’s trademark cackles, “There are even moments when we’re sober, although I can’t remember any!”
Each series sees the pair given a rundown property to renovate. The latest is in Corfu, a favourite holiday destination for Holden who loves the family-friendly vibe for her teenage daughters Lexie and Holly – and the fact they do “huge measures” in local bars.
Their hearts sank when they first saw the building, though: a wreck with crumbling walls and ceiling, and a waste pipe running through the living space. “It was the first time we wanted to get back in the car and go home,” sighs Holden. “We had family coming out for a holiday and we thought that there was no way we would have time to do anything with them. It looked like an impossible task.”
“But it was a good project,” adds Carr. “We made a herb garden and an outside barbecue. It’s the first property that’s got a sea view from the main bedroom, or the Aphrodite Suite as we called it, where I’d look over to Albania in case I spotted my future husband.
“Amanda loves a disco ball and garish colours but there are lots of building regulations in Corfu, so it was nice to see her wings clipped. She did get more freedom in the bathroom, but I did laugh when she showed her dream bath to the builder who had to tell her she’d fallen in love with an AI-generated image.”
“We weren’t allowed to build stairs indoors,” adds Holden. “So you have to get your jim-jams on and use the exterior stairs, which is actually quite cute.” Carr chips in, “Amanda said to the builder, ‘I often sleep naked, can I walk up the stairs naked?’ His eyeballs were like BOING. He’s now bought the house opposite…”
Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job is Carr’s first show to air since he won Celebrity Traitors last year. Although celebs are meant to be tight-lipped about their involvement before entering the castle, Holden knew he was filming it.
“And I knew he must have done well because I didn’t speak to him for two weeks: normally we speak every day!” she says. “He’s been around for so long, but everyone’s suddenly like, ‘Oh I love Alan Carr’, and I think, ‘How is he a new thing to you? He’s always been this brilliant!’
“My daughter Holly, who’s always loved him, said to me, ‘Everyone’s asking me about Alan and I say to them, you’ve met Alan, he was in the back garden at our party, and you weren’t bothered about him then!’ Alan’s literally brought them a cup of tea in bed or been on holiday with them! But now they’re really into him, it’s brought a whole new generation because of all the TikToks and the memes, which is lovely.”
Shy on the subject of the Traitors, Carr admits it’s odd to be recognised by new fans in the queue for a sausage roll at Greggs or in the aisles at Lidl. Trying to divert attention away from the subject, he suggests Holden should be cast in the next series, not least because it would give him a two-week break from her.
“I do love the cloak,” she says. “I think I’d look like the woman from the Scottish Widows advert if I could customise it with a red lip. They’d make me a Faithful, though, and that’s boring. You don’t remember the Faithfuls. You ask anyone in a few months, who else was in the show other than Alan Carr? But I couldn’t do it anyway because it clashes with Britain’s Got Talent.”
“Well,” says Carr with pursed lips. “A Traitor would say that. Wouldn’t they?”
Amanda and Alan's top DIY TIPS
TAKE THE LOW-COST OPTION
Amanda You don’t have to spend lots of money. Lighting can add so much. You can get rechargable lighting that you can move anywhere to brighten up a boring corner, or put the focus on a painting.
Alan Or you can take a leaf out of Amanda’s book and go along the beach and find bits of old driftwood and turn it into a lamp!
TRY UPCYCLING
Alan and Amanda trasnformed a door into a headboard. BBC
Alan We had a front door that would have been a burglar’s dream, but I didn’t want to throw it out because it was the most gorgeous colour, so we repurposed it as a headboard for the Aphrodite Suite and it looks fantastic. Talking of which, we need to start loving our doors a bit better: the Greeks love a beautiful front door and it adds so much character to a property. They’re like art installations in Greece.
Amanda They love a doorknob and a knocker, too. We need more of those.
EXPERIMENT WITH PAINT
Amanda The thing we loved doing the most in Corfu was the colour washing. If you’ve got a new, well-plastered wall, you can get two colour options and sponges and wash the wall with them together. We tried a blush tone and a pink-ish tone but it looked like a bruise, so then we did a green and a minty green and it worked really well, and it’s so easy.
EMPLOY LOCAL CRAFTSMEN
Alan We get artisans and proper craftsmen wherever we go, to do traditional stonework and so on.
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Amanda It’s nice to put your money into the smaller villages up in the hills and embrace the traditional methods of working. Although I don’t recommend hand-building a brick barbecue in 40° heat!
Authors
Emma Cox
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