Jonnie Irwin
Well-liked presenter of the television property shows A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country
JONNIE IRWIN, who has died from lung cancer aged 50, was a popular daytime television presenter specialising in helping viewers to escape, whether from their homes, their families or their lives; he presented Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun with Jasmine Harman and was also seen on Escape to the Country (BBC One) and Dream Lives for Sale (Sky One).
Blessed with boyish good looks and a winning personality, Irwin knew his stuff. He had been a successful property surveyor when he was selected from hundreds of applicants in 2004 to present A Place in the Sun, advising Britons looking to buy a home in sunnier climes, whether in France or Spain, or further afield in places such as Barbados or Florida.
As well as guiding participants through each country’s legal and regulatory minefields, Irwin and Jasmine Harman picked apart their guests’ personalities and relationships with typical good humour. There was the new-age house buyer searching for a home in Madeira whose mother described her as “bonkers” for being guided by her crystal pendulum necklace; the couple who clashed over their ideas of décor while buying a holiday home in the south of Tenerife; and the buyer who tried to calm his nerves by stabbing himself in the hand with a kitchen knife during filming.
Escape to the Country, which Irwin joined in 2010, deployed a similar formula but closer to home, helping city dwellers, many of them newly retired, to find a rural home that suited their needs.
Irwin and his fellow presenter introduced participants to three homes, including a mystery property, before showing them taking part in local activities to see how they had adapted.
His next programme, Dream Lives for Sale, not only helped participants to find an overseas home but also to acquire a business there. Irwin would meet them in the UK to establish their motives, assess their finances and manage their expectations before scouting out the potential opportunities. “I did the research myself, I was talking about things I’m passionate about,” he said.
There were pitfalls. Irwin told how one of the requirements of television was having to wear the same outfit for several days to achieve continuity in the final broadcast. “Once, after filming, I put a linen shirt in the hotel laundry and it shrank so badly it looked like a muscle vest,” he said.
Viewers overlooked this particular wardrobe malfunction, but in general they were quick to pass judgment on his appearance. “A wonderful episode today ruined by your beard,” one social media commenter told Irwin, who remained sanguine, saying: “You have to take the good with the bad.”
Jonathan James Irwin was born on November 18 1973, the son of James Irwin, a property developer of Irish descent, and his wife Averil, née Orr. He was brought up on a small farm and stables in the village of Bitteswell, in Leicestershire, and educated at Lutterworth Grammar School, where he took a shine to acting that soon fizzled out. He played rugby for Lutterworth RFC and Rugby Lions RFC until he was forced to retire after a back injury.
He studied estate management at Birmingham City University, which later awarded him an honorary doctorate. While there he jumped on the property ladder, purchasing a small place in Bearwood, followed by another in Moseley that he retained as an investment.
On graduating he joined Christie & Co as a surveyor. After six years he was recruited by Colliers, a commercial property agent in Birmingham, to set up a department buying and selling hotels, pubs and restaurants.
In due course, he began to feel he had “plateaued” and was casting about for a new job, even considering a move to Sydney. He then spotted a message that a television production company was looking for people working in property to present a new show, but when he called to inquire he was told that the deadline had passed.
Undeterred, he borrowed his mother’s camcorder to film his own screen test, venturing into Fosse shopping park near Leicester to interview shoppers about why they were returning Christmas presents. He sent it in and the producers offered him a formal screen test, followed by a job offer to co-present A Place in the Sun. The show’s second series won a Television and Radio Industries Club award for best daytime programme.
Over the past decade or so Irwin popped up on a range of daytime programmes. In 2013 he moved into consumer television when he joined BBC One’s Cowboy Trap, in which the presenters try to fix poor jobs left behind by shoddy builders. “It’s quite heart-wrenching when you see the victims,” he said. He also enjoyed making Channel 4’s
The Renovation Game, in which a squad of builders had to increase the value of a property by £15,000 but with only £3,000 to spend and three days to do it.
Meanwhile, A Place in the Sun spawned a whole industry, with an online property portal, online seminars and a regular exhibition at London Olympia, where Irwin often made guest appearances. He was also a commercial director of Judicare, a specialist law firm advising clients on overseas property.
He was filming in Italy in August 2020 when his vision became blurred while driving. Tests revealed he had lung cancer which had spread to his brain.
In 2016 Irwin married Jessica Holmes. Four years later they left their home in Hertfordshire to live in the Jesmond area of Newcastle. Despite his television work, he never did acquire his own place in the sun, though he loved visiting Mumbai, “one of those places where English is widely spoken yet it still feels completely foreign”.
His wife survives him with their three sons, of whom the younger two are twins.