'I WAS KISSING HIM AND RUBBING HIS BELLY!'

Interior Design Masters host Alan Carr chats about meeting Pudsey Bear, Simon Cowell's toilet paper and his own dubious home purchases

- JO BERRY

Interior Design Masters host Alan Carr is tasked with keeping a handful of DIY-challenged celebrities – and cuddly mascot Pudsey Bear – in check as the show returns for a Children in Need special. The heart-warming episode sees famous faces attempt to revamp rooms at a centre for young carers – and proved to be more emotional for Alan than he expected. “I was ugly crying,” he says.

“At a certain point, I had a lump in my throat and couldn’t even film the links to camera. Everyone was moved, and I think even the man underneath the Pudsey outfit had a little cry.”

Comedian Jon Richardson and model Leomie Anderson, celebrity couple Shirlie and Martin Kemp, and comedian Darren Harriott and podcaster Joanne McNally are paired up on the show, with each duo transforming a room at the Sandwell Young Carers Project.

While the pairs work on making the West Midlands centre a place for children to relax and receive support, they’re treated to a cameo from Pudsey himself. And Alan confesses that he was as thrilled as the children to meet the Children in Need icon.