THERE’S GOING TO BE A GREAT FLOWERING OF LOVE
As Grand Designs returns, Kevin McCloud talks to Georgia Humphreys about how 2020 has made us all think differently about the spaces we live in
Kevin MCCloud has – by his own admission – got quite good at being rude during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Bedfordshire-born presenter and designer, 61, says he is in a vulnerable group and so is “very, very wary about spending time with other people”.
in fact, if somebody gets too near him in public, he will happily say to them: “excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?! Be Covid compliant!”
Kevin began filming the latest series of Bafta-winning Grand designs – which he has presented since it first aired in 1999 – in June.
They’ve got “massive Covid compliance” on set “partly driven by me”, he says. “We’ve developed a protocol for all the various places, whether we’re in a building or outside.”
Grand designs follows ambitious people across the uK who pursue their vision of a dream house by building it themselves.
interviews with contributors are now being done three metres apart, every move in front of the camera is thought about, and “within all that, you’ve still got to find the spontaneity of the conversation and the fun”, he notes.
Asked about highlights of the new episodes, the Tv personality, writer and father-of-four teases there is a clash of opinions – “not exactly fisticuff moments” – with a couple converting a biscuit mill. “They go to it with too much brio. Character is made up of thousands of details; start rooting out a bit, before you know it, you’ve ripped out everything. And then you try to put it back and it looks like a disney version of what it was.”
He continues candidly: “i had my misgivings from the beginning, so i said to my producer, ‘look, i’ll say what i think’. He said ‘Great, do that!’
“i enjoy being let off the leash sometimes.”
There is also a moving story of youth and illness... about a young couple who met because they both had brain tumours in their teens, and who are now married and “hugely in love”.
“The entire film is a poem, a love song, between them about what they want and making something to share knowing time is incredibly precious.
“i get emotional just thinking about it because they were a lesson to so many people who fret about the colour of kitchen cabinets or having that particular brand of bifold doors or whatever it is.
“Actually, when you look at it with a long view you think ‘What a ridiculous waste of energy’.
“So many of us have lost loved ones or worried about losing loved ones,” he continues, “just as we all need a film, a binge-watch, something to take us away from the day to day, all of us also realise we shouldn’t get too obsessed about things that don’t matter – the superficial.
“We’ve all come to realise how important loved ones are, and how actually, what matters is living life, not just planning it.”
He also considers the pandemic has made us think more about design.
“ordinarily our houses don’t get stressed – but in lockdown, suddenly we feel imprisoned, need privacy, just an hour to ourselves.
“We need spaces to work, to relax; kids need places to do home study.
“So, anybody building that house, or thinking about an extension, thinks about them not just for indulgent purposes, but actually for some really functional roles.”
Kevin has relished being able to get back to work, but has been unable to see friends because of selfisolating since March.
“i miss that, enormously. And i’m looking forward to seeing loved ones, as and when we can get vaccinated. That’s going to be an extraordinary time, isn’t it? it’s going to be a great flowering of love.”
Grand Designs is on January 6, Channel 4, 9pm