Amanda Holden and Alan Carr film secret spin-off show that won’t air for a year – and it promises to be ‘strange’
BEST pals Amanda Holden and Alan Carr are all ready for NEXT Christmas – after filming a 2025 festive special of their home- renovation show.
After two series of Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job, they filmed a third season of their BBC show in Spain over the summer — and we can reveal they returned this month to film the yule-tide episode, ahead of time.
A TV insider said: “The third series of their show was made in Andalusia, so it made sense to stay in the region to make the Christmas special, which takes place in Malaga.
“It will seem strange watching them in the Mediterranean sun next December when we are battling to stay warm and hoping for Christmas snow.
Biggest challenge
“But their show will certainly deliver plenty of cheer for the festive season.
“It’s just a shame that viewers will have to wait so long to see it.”
The new series, Amanda & Alan’s Spanish Job, is expected to start early on in the new year and the eight-parter will again see the pair transforming a rambling, rundown property.
They will be taking on their biggest challenge to date, as they aim to attract tourists to a forgotten and unloved part of the Costa del Sol.
Series one of Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job was filmed in Sicily, and aired in 2023, while the sequel, shot in Tuscany, was released earlier this year.
We are not sure exactly what they have in store for the third series, or whether there will then be yet another season.
But at this rate, Amanda and Alan will have renovated the whole of the Med by 2030.
Harry New Year
WE are about to meet new Traitors and Faithfuls as the reality show’s latest series starts tomorrow – and straight after, 2024 champ Harry Clark is back for a last hurrah, in spin-off series Uncloaked.
He joins host Ed Gamble and two celeb fans, TV presenter Emma Willis and funnyman Babatunde Aleshe, for the new Traitors season’s first episode of TV podcast Uncloaked which discusses action on the main show.
Advising the contestants, Harry asks: “Why would you go there, put added pressure and not be yourself?”
Uncloaked is on BBC Two at 9pm, then iPlayer, after The Traitors on BBC One at 8pm.
The Traitors’ second episode is on iPlayer afterwards, while BBC One shows it on Thursday, and episode three on Friday.
Come Slime With Me
COME Dine With Me toasts its 20th anniversary in 2025 – but I hear the upcoming new series will contain one rather disgusting moment.
A host whips out a Wheel Of Fortune game and the diners face a stomach-churning penalty where they must lick mayonnaise off each other’s bare toes. Oooh, yuck!
My source tells me: “When they filmed the show, it was pretty gross – more like a Bushtucker Trial.”
The new series, which starts in a few weeks, also features a fishmonger and a Beyonce wannabe rowing over whether sea bass steaks exist.
To mark the anniversary, Channel 4 will be posting classic epsiodes of Come Dine With Me on its streaming service throughout January.
Liv spills beans on doc
LOVE ISLANDER turned documentary maker Olivia Attwood has given fans of her ITV show Getting Filthy Rich a hint as to when they can see it return.
Replying to a question on Instagram, she posted: “It will be early-ish 2025 (I have no idea if I was allowed to say that).”
House is Don up a treat
AN unearthed episode of Through The Keyhole will air on the BBC next month, featuring US President-elect Donald Trump.
The peek inside Trump’s palatial 126-room Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida was first broadcast in 1999 but gets a second outing ahead of his return to White House duties next month.
In typically humble style, though, he reveals during the episode that he has always fancied buying a certain property in the UK that is even grander.
Interviewed by host Sir David Frost, Trump says: “Buckingham Palace is probably the one I would most cherish – that’s a beauty.”
But he adds that London is too far away from the US for setting up another home.
Oh well, once he is back as President, he may at least be in line for another invitation to the Palace.
Sad reading for Jimmy
QUESTION for you.
Which won the rating battle as BBC One quiz Have I Got A Bit More 2024 News For You, starring Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, clashed with Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, fronted by Jimmy Carr, last week?
Answer: Ian and Paul’s lot, by about a million viewers.
Feel the Gee-Gee force
ITV has put all its bets on the gee-gees for 2025, with a second season of horseracing docu-series Champions: Full Gallop lined up for autumn.
The six-parter, which comes after the debut series proved a huge hit, will follow the dramatic highs and lows of the jump race season – including the battle for the £500,000 David Power Jockeys’ Cup.
With the stakes as high as ever – millions of pounds up for grabs and jockeys’ reputations on the line – the show will follow every twist and turn, with an access-all- areas backstage pass to the biggest events in the racing year including the Cheltenham Festival and Randox Grand National.
Top jockeys including Harry Cobden, Sean Bowen and Harry Skelton are back, along with trainers Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls, plus new characters such as teen rider Freddie Gingell.
Giddy-up, all!