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GREAT LOCATIONS!
‘He thought I was mad, I thought he was gay!’ says Kirstie Allsopp as she celebrates 25 years of Location show with Phil
See what they had to say about their working relationship
KIRSTIE Allsopp has revealed the magic she has with Phil Spencer that has guaranteed their TV success for 25 years.
Kirstie and Phil have fronted Channel 4's hit property series Location, Location, Location since it launched in May 2000.
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The TV duo opened up to The Sun's TV Mag as they get set to celebrate a landmark quarter century together on our screens.
But it wasn’t obvious from the start that their chemistry would bring such career longevity.
“He thought I was mad, I thought he was gay,” laughs Kirstie, 53, recalling when producers paired them for the first-ever series of Location Location Location back in 2000.
“I remember the first day we filmed the pilot in Lewes [East Sussex]. We were staying in a hotel and I had worn these very high boots all day long, and I was in quite a lot of pain in the evening.
location, location, location
"So I came down to the lobby with bare feet to have a drink with Phil and he was like: ‘You can't walk around with bare feet!’ We did hit it off immediately, but not sort of <ecstatically>. I think I understood who he was and he understood who I was.”
“I thought she was mad as a box of frogs but great fun,” smiles Phil, 55.
“And I had instant professional respect. She knew what she was talking about."
Phil added: "We both approached the giving advice part of our job very seriously right from day one and that has maintained throughout.
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"We are there to help, to guide, to advise - and that's why people apply to the show. She's always fun to be around. And I think people watched us get to know one another and become very firm friends.”
There’s a whole night of TV in honour of the show’s silver jubilee, but while the duo are TV fixtures for viewers, they still can’t quite believe how it’s happened.
Location, Location, Location's Kirstie Allsopp says she would knock through and make one big room while inspecting a house in Leeds
Both assumed that ‘real’ presenters would be brought in if Location Location Location was commissioned, and they filmed the first few series at weekends while spending their weeks continuing to run their separate home-hunting businesses in London.
“We thought: ‘We're quite busy enjoying our businesses, looking after our clients. Things are going well. Do we want to take time out and do it on the telly?’” says Phil.
“And the conclusion was: ‘It's unlikely to come to anything. Let's make a series over the weekend and demonstrate that we knew what we were talking about, that this service existed.’
"It would probably be good for business for us to be able to say: ‘As seen on telly' but it’s unlikely to go anywhere…”
Little did they realise that their show - among a host of other property series - would become firm favourites.
Though Kirstie does admit that had social media been around in 2000, she may not have agreed to be on screen at all.
“Someone said to me recently: ‘You're on record saying that you wouldn't have started this job if social media existed 25 years ago’ and I stand by that, because you’d have been able to see what people were saying about you,” she shares.
“I don't have a Google alert for my name, I don't read articles about myself unless someone who works for me says I need to, and I never, <ever> search for my name on social media. Why, why would you go looking for that? That’s my advice to everybody.”
In their time on screen, Kirstie and Phil have been trusted with more than £175million of Brits’ money, viewed over 1,800 homes and helped around 750 people.
“When I started Location…, I was single and I didn't have any stepchildren or children, it was just me and the dog,” says Kirstie, whose father was Baron Hindlip, making her the Honourable Kirstie Allsopp.
“My son will be 19 in July, so there's loads of immutable facts that tell me it's been 25 years, but I find it a very hard concept to grasp.”
When the presenters met, Phil was engaged to his now-wife Fiona, with whom he has two sons.
Kirstie later met divorced property developer Ben Anderson, becoming stepmother to his two sons and having two more boys together.
However, when Kirstie and Ben arranged a very hush-hush London wedding in January this year, there was one very notable absentee.
“Phil wasn't at my wedding because he was in New Zealand,” she explains.
“He absolutely would have been and everybody would have known him. He’s not a separate part of my life, he’s <another> part of my life.”
“Obviously I would have loved to have been there,” adds Phil. “But the pictures looked absolutely fantastic. She looked so beautiful and so happy. Really, really happy. That's what shone through for me.”
Looking to the future, Kirstie and Phil say they will carry on presenting Location Location Location as long as they’re both enjoying it.
“Phil and I always say that the only reason the show still exists is because we never wanted to stop at the same time,” reveals Kirstie.
“There have been times when Phil hasn’t wanted to do it and times I've not wanted to do it, but because those never coincided, we've never stopped."
Kirstie added: "I've had kids during this process, I lost my parents, he lost both his parents. A lot has happened. So there have been times when I thought we should call it a day, but we would never let the other one down, so it rumbles on.”
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“We both enjoy it and we enjoy doing it together. We're better together than we are apart,” says Phil.
“We’ve had each other’s backs for 25 years. Kirstie is one of the most important people in my life.”
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