Sweet young Grand Designs UK couple spill a show secret

As a longtime reviewer of Grand Designs shows, I have often wondered how “real” UK presenter Kevin McCloud’s response is when he arrives for the big reveal.

We usually see him walking along a leafy lane or across a field, catching glimpses of the house in question as he gets closer and closer. And then there is the invariable “wow” moment, when he turns up at the door and takes a good look around.

The owners welcome him indoors and his eyes widen, and we see his excitement (or otherwise if it’s an incomplete build). Often he is completely gobsmacked. But I am probably not the only person who wonders how rehearsed this is. Surely, he has already walked through the house and worked out what he’s going to say? In other words, none of this can be a surprise to him.

Well, it turns out I am wrong. Two Grand Designs UK homeowners, Greg and Georgie, who gave us one of the most heartrending episodes in 2021, have spilled the beans about what happened on their show. And McCloud’s responses at their reveal were totally genuine – there was no prior “walk-through”.

Greg and Georgie met while they were both having cancer treatment (ongoing in Georgie’s case), and chose to build a new home in a converted barn on a beautiful Kent property owned by Georgie’s parents.

They often post updates on social media when they catch up with other Grand Designs homeowners, and they have since seen him a couple of times in Grand Designs Live shows around the country.

And this is what they have to say about McCloud: “He’s really such a genuine guy, and would insist on sitting next us in order to really get to know us and our story.

“He would drop everything and focus totally on what we wanted to talk about and how the project was going.

“He would wait outside our property and would only come onto the site once cameras were rolling, so that his true response and reactions to progress could be captured, which is why I think the show feels so real… he doesn’t hold back if he doesn’t approve or agree on something, although sometimes expressing it through the eyes…”

McCloud has always said the show doesn’t do “jeopardy” because there is no need for it. The owners provide that all by themselves, because things do go wrong, as we know.

“It’s always a disappointment when my phone rings and someone says ‘this has happened – he is ill, or the relationship has broken down’,” McCloud told Stuff earlier. “We all groan, because all my producer wants to do is deliver a series, and we are always trying so hard to juggle everything. We want stories to go smoothly, and not be compromised. We are both quite ruthless in that way, and anti-jeopardy, but it does get awkward.

“This isn’t television for television’s sake. We follow some of the most noble and difficult aspects of human behaviour, and as time changes, projects and people change.”

But he only had wonderful things to say about Greg and Georgie: “What they’ve produced is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen.

“Sometimes, your socks are blown off.”

And as for Greg and Georgie – they say their house is working out beautifully. Their 4.2kW solar system powers most of the house throughout daylight hours.

“Excess goes into our hot water tank through our “solar boost” almost acting like a battery. When that’s up to temperature, excess goes back to the grid.

“Our average monthly bill is under £60 (NZ$127) with most of this being standing charge…. Maybe we will go totally off grid one day.”

The couple have recently been camping off-grid with their caravan in the north of Scotland. And back in April, the pair celebrated 10 years since they bought The Brickworks Freehouse in Royal Tunbridge Wells, a pub that offers live music.