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Kirstie Allsopp’s latest idea to get us all sewing, sticking and stencilling? Sign up the stars for a talent contest...
Kirstie Allsopp on her quirky new series that gets celebrities crafting – and why we should all live a little more off-grid
Kirstie Allsopp has just returned from visiting her sister, who lives in one of the most remote corners of Britain. It was, it seems, the best holiday ever. This is despite there being no electricity, limited running water, and everyone sharing the same bath water. Which was brown, by the way.
‘They live off-grid,’ she says, with delight rather than horror, of the house on the Hebridean island Jura. ‘It’s where George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. It’s been in my brother-in-law’s family for generations. Orwell rented it. It’s like the land time forgot. If you want a bath you have to put the stove on and wait for an hour.’ How many people had to share the water? ‘I wouldn’t want to count,’ she admits. ‘You just have to make sure you don’t let the children go first. Too much muck. And too many ticks.’
When Kirstie shared a photo of her brown bath water on Instagram, her followers recoiled in horror. She pooh-poohs such squeamishness. ‘Clearly there is a divide between people used to water being this colour and people who aren’t. It’s perfectly safe. Wonderful for the skin. And my hair was baby soft after washing in it.’ How did she share a picture, though, if there’s no power? ‘Bizarrely there is 4G. But you can’t charge your phone unless you plug the generator in, which yo u can only do for a limited amount of time.’
The off- grid life wouldn’t suit everyone, but Kirstie thinks we could all learn something from her sister’s way of life. She raves about how relaxed she and her children were, and how she and her sister Sofie could properly talk. ‘We went for walks and sat on the beach. Ben [Anderson, Kirstie’s partner] snoozed. My niece pottered about in the sand. Bliss.’
It was kind on the environment too, she says, and the trip made her question how the rest of us live. ‘My sister has a washing machine but it’s generator-run, so she has to be selective in what she washes. It made me realise we all just bung in a wash because we can. Do we need to use those resources?’
Why don’t we all turn off our electricity while we are at it? Oh hang on, Kirstie actually thinks we should. ‘Have you seen the Margaret Thatcher series?’ she asks, wide-eyed at the recent documentary A Very British Revolution, which touched on the Winter of Discontent in the 70s,
when power cuts plagued the nation. ‘Electricity was only on for two hours at a time. We should go back to when we’d think before turning on a light.’
Her role fronting Location, Location, Location takes her all around the country and she’s baffled at how we’ve become a nation of cossetted souls, addicted to dishwashers and washing machines. ‘It’s changed in a staggeringly short time. Now it’s all, “We can’t do without this.” I’m from a background where we didn’t have central heating. You stuck your head out of the duvet and gauged how cold it was, then grabbed your clothes and ran to the kitchen to get dressed.’
Wait a minute, Kirstie – your children are of the iPad generat ion. Did they really relish a trip to the middle of nowhere? ‘ They moaned at first. “Do we have to go? There’s no Wi-fi...” But when we were going over in the boat they were so excited. And we saw a sea eagle nest. However much you think your child is the biggest Instagrammer of all time, they’ll still get excited by a sea eagle nest.’ It’s fairly typical of a chat with Kirstie that you start off talking about one thing – crochet, in this case – and end up veering off wildly. We were supposed to be focusing on her new TV project, Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters. Each week, two celebrities with a shared interest are pitted against each other and battle commences over macramé or mosaic art.
Mostly, Kirstie has avoided being involved with the type of telly that demands celebrity involvement. So has she bowed to the inevitable? ‘No,’ she says. ‘I came at it from the other angle. How do we get more people interested in craft? The answer was to get celebrities doing it.’
The first episode sees TV policeman Rav Wilding pair up with presenter Angellica Bell. Then come comedians Susan Calman and Mark Dolan. Later in the series are Debbie McGee, Anneka Rice and former Rolling Stone wife Jo Wood. Athletes Tanni Grey-Thompson and Sharron Davies are there too, along with comedians Rufus Hound and Jenny Eclair among others. So what do the celebs do? Everything from making cat baskets and dog coats to fabric chandeliers. At first they’re paired up with professional crafters for a lesson, but by the end of the programme, the celebrities have to go it alone in a 30-minute challenge.
Some of the tasks they tackle sound rather niche. Handbag marbling, anyone? ‘There’s something for everyone,’ says Kirstie. Including, it seems,
a leather truncheon holder for Rav. So were the celebrities any good? ‘Susan Calman on a sewing machine – brilliant. Natasha Kaplinsky made a fan
tastic toy alpaca. The women were competitive. Some of the men took it less seriously, but there was the comic factor.’ It is rather hilarious watching a bunch of celebs try to glue lengths of rope in place to make coasters. There is more glue than rope in the end result, but Kirstie refuses to accept the idea that celebs must be useless at all things practical. Many yearn to do something creative in their down-time, she says. ‘When you’re an actor, say, there is a lot of hanging around on set, hence the flurry of interest in celebrities knitting a few years ago.’
She personally adores rustling up her own lampshades, and you can see why in one of the episodes. The practical process is very Kirstie, and she says the level of focus required is a great de-stresser. It’s mindfulness, the old-fashioned way. And you get a new lampshade too.
So does this solo series signal a shift away from working with her Location co-host Phil Spencer? Never. ‘I don’t want a property TV career without him. There is no other partner I’d want and there never will be.’ The pair are fast approaching the 20th anniversary of Location. ‘Some might say it’s time to end it, but it’s not up to me,’ she says. ‘One day the viewing figures will dip and the channel will say, “We’re not going to recommission.” And that’ll be fine.’ What will she do then? Retire to Jura? ‘I don’t know. Maybe. But there will come a day when no one will want to put me on telly.’
Every episode of Location ever made is now on All 4, much to Kirstie’s amusement. ‘Watch the first episode. You’ll die,’ she says. ‘What did they think they were doing, letting Phil and I on the telly? Two less qualified TV presenters you have never seen.’ Then there were the clothes. ‘In Bolton I was wearing a red leatherette zip-up jacket. I had no stylist. We still don’t have make-up artists. I just do my lipstick in the car.’
Ageing on TV can be fraught for a woman, and over the last few years Kirstie has dropped several stone. ‘It was for health. Being fat at 50 is a big risk factor with breast cancer.’ Her mother and grandmother died from it, so she’s more conscious than most. It doesn’t sound as if she has much time for the idea of embracing every curve. ‘You should weigh what your doctor says you
‘One day no one will want to put me on telly’
should. There has never been more research into cancer yet we’re doing our best to get it with our lifestyles.’
Never far from controversy, Kirstie recently got drawn into a nasty business with Love Island contestant and air stewardess Amy Hart, who singled her out as her worst passenger. ‘Silly girl,’ she says, appalled. ‘She took a specific set of circumstances and put her own interpretation on them. It’s not true.’ Amy said Kirstie, who puts her children in economy while she flies in business class, had spent the journey going to and fro with the children, suggesting she tried to seat them in business without paying. ‘It was wrong, and embarrassing for BA when I fly with them often. I’m not a diva. I’ve been in this business a long time. If there was a hint of it, people would know. I’m not important enough for anyone to cover it up.’
Her critics might scoff, but Kirstie has a point when she argues that, far from being a diva, she understands more about ‘the real world’ than most people in TV. ‘My job brings me into homes all over the country. I hear people talking about their commute, schools, hobbies, all of it. I see more of the real world than many do.’
Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters will be on Channel 4 next month.