Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job returns for a second series, tonight at 8.30pm on BBC One. Stream it on BBC iPlayer.
Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are packing their boiler suits once again after bagging another ‘One Euro’ house – this time, in the idyllic region of northern Tuscany.
Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are packing their boiler suits once again after bagging another ‘One Euro’ house – this time, in the idyllic region of northern Tuscany.
Falling in love with the romance and history of an old building, Alan purchases a dilapidated 17th century house with a medieval watchtower in the rural hamlet of Fornovolasco, and ropes in best friend Amanda to spend their summer transforming it into another Italian dream home.
However, arriving at the property for the first time, they discover it’s been left empty since the previous owner passed away. Full of damp, and with rotten floors and cracked windows it dawns on them that a massive restoration job lies ahead.
Speaking about the new series, Amanda said: “Tuscany is completely different. I mean, the Sicilian location last year felt sort of, in a lot of ways, a lot more glamorous than this. This one was more tranquil and secluded, it was literally in the middle of nowhere in a sort of crevice of a mountain. It’s very green, a bit more moist weather, let’s say that, and it was a medieval house, which was so much bigger a project than we ever thought it would be”.
Alan adds: “It’s good because last year Amanda chose the house, and then the production company said, “Right. You choose the house this time, Alan”. They gave me a Euro, they said, “Go and get on Right Move and put in Tuscany”. So I’ve done that. I’ve done my classic, romantic, “Oh my god. I love this old house.” But, of course, as anyone knows who has an old house, the older it is, the more problems, and this house has been standing for several hundred years so it was like an onion. We were peeling back problems that had been bodged up over the centuries. You know what I mean? Like I see what they did in 1782, they’ve put this rubbish bit of wood up. We were just finding more mistakes.
But what people will love with this one is, last year we just had to deal with squatters who put poo up the walls and smashed up the toilet, and it was all a mess. This one was like going into the Mary Celeste. There were photos in there, passports. It was like they had just been whisked away by aliens. So we had a real emotional tug. We wanted to do something right for the show. But also we wanted to make it nice for that community and for the people who knew the people that lived there. It had to be special”.
