Bristol's Amanda Holden and comedian Alan Carr have praised tradesmen after getting their hands dirty - and suffering a few minor injuries - during their new BBC show. The duo will star in Amanda and Alan's Italian Job, which starts tonight (January 6).
The show sees the radio presenter and the comedian revamping a dilapidated Sicilian property into a luxury home using their DIY skills. The two were eager to do all the work themselves and weren't afraid to get their "hands dirty".
But this meant the pair were doing some tough jobs and ended up with a couple of minor injuries. Speaking to Express, they detailed the difficulties they faced.
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The friends share an interest in both travel and interior design, so it was the perfect project for the duo. Their hopes were for the property to go on sale once complete, with the proceeds donated to UK charities.
When asked about how their bodies coped, Amanda said: "I think we definitely had sore backs." The 51-year-old Britain's Got Talent star added: "I definitely broke a couple of nails."
Alan, 46, recalled: "It wasn't an injury, but my shorts split didn't they? I'd been testing out a bidet, like doing lunges."
"He straddled it," Amanda cut in, adding: "I don't know why you'd want a bidet..."
Alan added: "My hands were like... callus, they were callus. I know people will go, 'Oh, I bet they didn't do anything,' but we genuinely did."
"We bashed walls down, we took metalwork off, we took windows out, we brick laid," Amanda clarified.
"I now have so much respect for tradespeople," Alan, 46, admitted.
"When they come around your house, the builders, and they suck the teeth... I was like that. I'm like that because they went, 'Oh, this kitchen needs to be done.' And I was like, 'Darling, darling, it ain't gonna be done.'"
Amanda went on: "It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be quick. And then what we didn't think about was because it's on right at the top of the hill, we had to try to get all the rubbish.
"How do you take it all down? How'd you get we marble up?
"You know when you're at home you just get a skip and you put everything in the skip and someone comes and takes it.
"But here there was just nowhere for it to go, and then when we came to build the kitchen, the marble is so long on the island and it weighs an absolute tonne. We had to have a vehicle with like every man we could find in the village to try and help us to get it all.
"We just never thought about narrow streets and villages and heaviness, and we lived down three flights of stairs. So for our apartment, you had to walk down three flights."
She added: "I was just flapping about, you know when it looks like you're actually helping?"
Amanda and Alan's Italian job airs on BBC One at 8.30pm on tonight, January 6.
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