Grand designs

Amanda Holden and Alan Carr tackle a restoration project in sunny Sicily

NEW FACTUAL

Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job

Friday 6 January, 8.30pm, BBC1 (box set, BBC iPlayer)

Alan Carr and Amanda Holden take on an ambitious project in a new eight-part series, as the best friends attempt to renovate two dilapidated Sicilian apartments over the course of just one summer.

Inspired by a scheme where rundown properties in small Italian towns and villages are being sold for just €1 each in a bid to revive the areas and attract new residents, the pair decided to purchase – sight-unseen – two apartments in the small hilltop town of Salemi as a renovation project.

Both share a passion for interior design, but neither has tackled a project of this scale before – will it prove to be their undoing?

TV&Satellite Week joined Carr, 46, and Holden, 51, in Italy to find out more…