After 18 years, Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer are still TV’s hottest property

THERE are TV names that just go together. Ant and Dec, Phil and Holly and Tess and Claudia.

And up among the pantheon of telly duos is Phil and Kirstie.

For almost two decades, Mr Spencer and Ms Allsopp have been helping hopeful house-hunters while we have a nosy at how other folk live.

As they reach 18 years together on screen, Phil, 48, admits it’s a telly marriage that’s lasted longer than many real ones.

“We’re still going strong,” he tells iN10. “People watched us get to know one another and become firm friends. So they know we are genuinely friends who enjoy each other’s company and taking the mickey out of each other.

“Sometimes one of us is moody and sometimes one of us is mischievous. What happens, happens. It’s never rehearsed or produced – Kirstie wouldn’t let you do that anyway. It is real.”

Kirstie, 46, says that having exactly the same things that matter to them – such as partners, kids, home life – has made their friendship and working relationship a delight.

And so has the shared experience of being two of TV’s best-known faces.

“It’s weird because I can’t ring anyone else up and say ‘You’ll never guess what….” says Kirstie, who has two sons Bay and Oscar with partner Ben Anderson, as well as being stepmum to teenagers Hal and Orion.

“No one but Phil has had that experience. We were both stunned to find ourselves on telly as we never had any intention of that.

“We had different house-hunting businesses, we both turned up for the screen test because they said if we got through that they’d make a pilot and the fee was £600 a day for three days.

“We thought they’d make that and then they’d find proper presenters.”

The pair quickly became “proper presenters” themselves, not only making Location, Location, Location together but numerous other shows separately like Phil Spencer: Secret Agent and Kirstie’s Handmade Britain.

“It’s great to work apart but it’s better to work together,” admits Kirstie.

“It’s having an ally in the trenches. And there’s no competition. We are highly competitive as people. If you back us to eat a piece of toast fastest or tie a shoelace we’re hugely competitive. But in a career sense, there’s never been anything.”

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What drives Kirstie mad about Phil?

He’s very much a creature of habit. You can’t shift him. He’s very set in his ways and he takes a long time to adopt something new.

With Twitter, for example, I just set up an account in his name and tweeted as him for three months.

He was furious when he found out and said he wanted the password to take over the account. He still doesn’t do as much with it as he should.

It’s called Pip Off The TV because I made up that name.

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The duo are, happily, together again in Kirstie and Phil’s Love It Or List It which has just started a new series on Channel 4.

Based on a Canadian show, they offer their insight as to whether householders should bring a freshness to their home by renovating or put it on the market and start again somewhere new.

“It’s a topic we thought so many British families were facing,” says Phil. “I’m in the ‘move on’ camp in the show but in general I actually try to find the right house with a view to what you might need in the future.”

Despite his ‘stay put’ mentality, Phil made a major change two years ago.

He moved from his London home to a place in the country in Berkshire for the sake of his Australian wife Fiona and their two sons Jake and Ben.

“It was a big change – different lifestyle, property, school and transport choices.

“We’ve gone the whole hog with chickens and ponies and sheep and dogs. I’m used to that as a farmer’s son but Fiona grew up on a beach in Australia.

“Life in London was convenient with friends on the doorstep, a shop round the corner and we always walked the boys to school. In Hampshire everything is further but for that we get the nature, the greenery and the tranquillity.”

And going through the upheaval of a move – he’s hoping not to do it again for at least a decade – gave him fresh understanding of what his telly homeowners are facing.

“It really made me appreciate the stresses and the strains of those big decisions. It took me a month between looking at the house and offering. So when I’m saying on the TV ‘it’s an extra 10-minute drive to the school’ it was healthy to realise that could make a serious impact.”

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What drives Phil mad about Kirstie?

Sometimes she just doesn’t remember what she’s said – and she says a great deal. I struggle with that.

She doesn’t have a censor button and just says how she sees it. But a while later you’ll go back and say she said or felt that and she totally denies it.

She’s dyslexic and sometimes can’t remember things in order.

She will swear black and blue that she didn’t say something when she definitely did.

Part of the duo’s appeal is their sparky relationship and Kirstie’s straight-talking approach with householders.

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Chat to them both for even a few minutes and you realise it’s definitely not put on for the cameras. Both are fun and easy company, but Kirstie has – charmingly – no problem speaking her mind. Remind her of the storm that erupted in certain quarters when she suggested that washing machines had no place in a kitchen and she’s soon in full flow.

“Columnists said it was proof I was completely detached and lived in this grand world with separate laundry rooms. No, it proves I’ve been in houses up and down the country and I know the variety of places people put them. I was affronted.”

She quit Twitter for a while in the aftermath before deciding to return, somewhat the wiser.

“I am more careful now because I know there’s no humour on Twitter,” she admits.

“When I said my life was dedicated to getting the washing machine out of the British kitchen anyone with half a brain knew that was a humorous comment. No one’s life is dedicated to that.

“It’s dedicated to ridding the oceans of plastic or making sure all children get the best education possible.”

But if Twitter storms can irritate, ask Kirstie if being such a well-known face that attention is constant can do likewise, she’s adamant that’s not the case.

“No, I’ve never been irritated,” she says firmly.

“I have absolutely no right to be irritated. I earn an absolute fortune. I lead a life of immense privilege. If that means that when someone comes up to me on a Saturday morning when I’ve got no make-up and my hair is swept back on my head and says ‘Can I have a selfie?’ there is absolutely no question of me saying no.

“I am horrified by people who make money out of being on telly or movies and start banging on about their private space. You didn’t have to do that job.”

And Phil is quick to back it up.

“I get asked property questions everywhere I go,” he adds. “People only come up because I make programmes people want to watch.

“And if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t have a job. I’ve had a wonderful run with Kirstie but TV can be a very fickle world so we’ll hopefully just keep doing it as long as people want us to.”

And for Kirstie that’s also as long as it doesn’t take her away from family too much.

“All the shows are made in Scotland, always have been.

“When people say, ‘Oh another London show’, well yes, that’s where my kids live. I do try to get home when I can. That’s important and if it does get to a point where that’s not being facilitated then that’ll be much more difficult.”

Kirstie and Phil’s Love It Or List It, Channel 4, Wednesday, 8pm.