Jonnie Irwin, the presenter of TV property programmes, who has died of cancer aged 50, was notable for his fresh face, charm and cheeky manner, with a sense of humour that he could draw on when his screen “clients” proved picky or unrealistic about how far their budgets would stretch.
The Channel 4 series A Place in the Sun took him around the world with Brits searching for their dream homes, although the sunny climes of Spain and other southern European countries proved to be the most popular destinations.
The show began in 2001, presented by Amanda Lamb, and in 2004 Irwin became the first co-presenter with Jasmine Harman of a spin-off series, A Place in the Sun: Home or Away?, with couples deciding whether to relocate in Britain or abroad, which ran until 2019.
By then, Irwin had become one of the presenters of the parent show and its sister programme A Place in the Sun: Winter Sun, with many episodes made in Florida, where, Irwin noted, some properties had fallen in price by up to 60% following the global recession of 2008.
The joys of making enthusiastic homebuyers’ foreign dreams come true occasionally came at personal cost. While filming in Spain, Irwin was injured after walking straight into a glass door as he headed towards the beckoning sun. “Before each house, I go and make sure I know where everything is,” he said on the Channel 4 show Steph’s Packed Lunch in 2021.
“I thought, ‘I just need another poke at that garden, just so I know what I’m talking about before they get in there.’ So I ran through the house. Of course, they’d shut the patio door and I just went straight through it. And then I was on my knees suddenly, like, ‘What is going on?’ Blood everywhere. The owner couldn’t believe it. I cut my shirt, cut my hand, broke my nose and pushed my tooth back.”
From 2010 until 2023, Irwin was also a presenter of another popular daytime property programme, the BBC’s Escape to the Country, for those looking for new homes in Britain.
His time on A Place in the Sun came to an end in 2021 following a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer the previous year. Irwin kept it secret from the public until 2022, when he said he was “aggrieved” at having been dropped. The show’s production company explained that it had been unable to get foreign travel insurance for him during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Being a TV presenter almost defines you,” Irwin said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme in 2022 after the cancer spread to his brain. “Not being able to travel and do what I think I’m pretty good at, and not being able to provide for my family – every show I do now, that’s money for my family in the future.”
Irwin was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, to Avie (nee Orr) and James Irwin, a property developer. He grew up in the Leicestershire village of Bitteswell, attended Lutterworth grammar school (now college), took part in amateur dramatics and played rugby as a junior for Lutterworth.
After gaining a degree in estate management from the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University), he began his career in 1997 as a surveyor with Christie & Co, buying and selling commercial properties, and became an associate director within three years.
During this time, while playing for Rugby Lions RFC, he broke his back. Then, in 2003, he joined the property company Colliers International, helping to establish a specialist hospitality venues department in Birmingham.
Looking for change, he was considering moving to Sydney, Australia, when he heard that a television company was hiring property specialists for a new Channel 4 programme. Although he missed the deadline, Irwin recorded a tape of himself interviewing the public in a shopping centre, sent it in, attended an audition and landed his job on A Place in the Sun: Home or Away?
For the BBC, alongside Escape to the Country, he presented two series of To Buy or Not to Buy (2010-11), giving potential buyers a chance to try out properties; Wreck or Ready? (2011), about renovation projects, a hobby of his own; the 2013 run of Cowboy Trap, which exposed shoddy builders; Make My Home Bigger (2014), which followed homeowners expanding their properties; and Escape to the Perfect Town (2019).
He also helped British people seeking to buy both homes and businesses abroad in Dream Lives for Sale on Sky One and presented the Channel 4 weekday-morning show The Renovation Game (both 2011).
In 2016, Irwin married Jessica Holmes. She and their three sons, Rex and the twins Rafa and Cormac, survive him.
• Jonnie (Jonathan James) Irwin, television presenter, born 18 November 1973; died 2 February 2024
