TV AND SHOWBIZ: Don't miss this comedy about cancel culture (2024)

Wimbledon host Annabel Croft reveals the surprising way she overcame her phobia of public speaking

How is she doing this? Millions of us asked that question as Annabel Croft stepped out on to Centre Court in front of a vast live and television audience at Wimbledon last year to interview the winners, just weeks after losing her beloved husband Mel to cancer. ‘I don’t actually know how I did it. I cried a lot, I cried every day,’ she says. ‘There were many times, even backstage, I’d be crying. Then it was extraordinary, how once I had to go out and do the job, I would just lock in to what I knew.’

Annabel, 57, is looking back a year on as she prepares to co-host the tournament again for the BBC. ‘In many ways, the work was a respite from the terrible grief. It was a brain rest from crying. People were so kind and so thoughtful and forgiving, they kept saying, “You’re doing such an amazing job and you’re so brave.” But it was a saviour to me, to work.’

Still reeling, she could have pulled out on compassionate grounds. Some well-meaning friends and colleagues even advised her to do so. ‘A lot of people said, “Don’t do anything.” I don’t think I could have survived, actually.’ Was the distraction a way of coping? ‘I think so. It was helpful to have something to do and be surrounded by my tennis family, so many wonderful people who knew Mel. We were a double act. We grew together.’

The pair met in the 80s when Mel Coleman had just taken part in the Americas Cup and Annabel was on the verge of quitting professional tennis, at the young age of 21. ‘He was so laid back and had a great sense of humour. He made everything great.’

Mel became her ally as she walked away from the tour and looked for other work. ‘He was with me when I was having freak-outs about speaking in front of people. Mel helped me find the confidence I lacked and enabled me to flourish.’

It’s hard to imagine Annabel being so shy as she sits here looking elegant and composed in a long blue and white cotton summer dress and trainers, although occasionally her eyes mist over as she talks about Mel. We’ll explore how she went from being in the top 25 of world players to a polished television performer, thanks to all that support from her husband and another, unlikely source of therapy: ‘Weirdly, it was by doing pantomime…’

Annabel will also reflect on the huge outpouring of public support last year as she moved straight from Wimbledon to Strictly, dancing with a professional partner who, we’ve just discovered, was also struggling. Johannes Radebe has only recently revealed he had to return to South Africa a few weeks before training to bury a cousin, who had taken his own life. He thought about asking not to have a partner and was alarmed to be teamed up with Annabel, given her circ*mstances.

‘I think at first he was a bit panicked about having to cope with my grief when he was coping with a lot of grief himself,’ she says. ‘It was very emotional behind the scenes for both of us, there were so many tears at so many different points.’

More on Strictly in a moment, but for now her mind is mostly on Wimbledon. The high point of her commentating career so far was also the most challenging: the thrilling five-set final last year between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, after which Annabel questioned both men in front of a packed house including royalty, with hundreds of millions watching on television. ‘My biggest audience ever. The most painful aspect was that Mel wasn’t around to witness it, because he had been so excited about me having that job.’

Her husband had been thrilled when Annabel found out she’d be taking over the key role from her friend Sue Barker. So were their three children Amber, Charlie and Lily, all in their twenties. But then Mel, a champion yachtsman and banker who set up tennis academies with his wife, was told he had colon cancer. He died just eight weeks after the diagnosis, at the age of 60.

That was 24 May. Annabel began work at Wimbledon on 3 July, with the finals a fortnight later. ‘I remember standing courtside ready to go on, thinking, “Oh God, I can’t believe he’s not here,” but wanting to do it for him. To know how much he wanted me to do that job gave me strength.’

Having been through so much last time, will it be a challenge to return to Wimbledon this year? ‘I don’t know. I think it will just be about the work again and taking each day as it comes.’ Britain’s brightest hope is Emma Raducanu, but some question whether she’s taken on too much outside the game after her US Open win in 2021 with deals with Nike, Wilson, Tiffany, Dior and British Airways.

Does Annabel agree? ‘She’s such a marketing dream, she probably never has to pick up a racket again. But I still love watching her play. She’s such a beautiful, effortless player. I guess it’s for her to figure out what she wants to achieve in the sport and whether she wants to win, but I’ve never doubted her talent.’

Annabel has a relentless schedule on the circuit this summer, so would she rather keep going than stop and think? ‘Definitely. I’ve hardly had a day off since Mel died and when I do stop, it’s hard. Being busy is very helpful. I think it’d be harder not to be busy.’

Annabel was confirmed as a contestant on Strictly almost immediately after Wimbledon. ‘I knew it would help me, because when it started to get gloomy and dark in the autumn afternoons it’d be hard to come back to an empty house that Mel used to be in. So the idea I’d get out of bed every day and learn a new skill was a comfort to me.’

Her husband was a big fan of Strictly. ‘I remember Mel calling out, “Stop what you’re doing, come and watch Johannes. He’s incredible.” When they paired me with him I just couldn’t believe it: of all the dancers, to be with the one I knew Mel loved. Every time he walks into a room he brings such an energy. We just clicked and I can’t explain it. We have this unbelievable bond.’

Strictly contestants often say such things during the series, but this partnership seems a lasting one. ‘We danced in his solo show at the Palladium on 4 May and it was one of the most incredible experiences. We got a standing ovation before we started, then again when we finished. It was overwhelming.’

The relationship is obviously platonic, as Johannes is gay, but clearly close. She gave Johannes a book of backstage Strictly photos collated by her daughter and wrote, ‘I hope we dance together forever.’ Annabel smiles. ‘He says the same to me.’

They talked and talked during the series, sharing each other’s sorrows. ‘Sometimes we’d dance all day then he’d ring me at night and we’d speak for a long time. I think our record was two hours 40 minutes. We still have those conversations now. I think he’s a very special human being.’

While Johannes kept his sadness private, Annabel spoke openly and dedicated dances to her late husband. ‘The public reaction’s been overwhelming. People still come up to me in the shops or the park to tell me about their own grief or how much Strictly meant to them.’

She sounds very calm. ‘I want to keep my feet on the ground; you can’t let anything overtake you or you lose track of reality,’ she says. ‘I think nothing compares to losing a partner of 36 years. I won’t get stressed about anything now, because whatever happens won’t be as bad as that or bring him back.’

She even remained positive after a ‘terrifying’ ordeal last week when a mugger on an e-bike stole her phone outside London’s King’s Cross station. ‘He rode straight at me and took it clean out of my hands, but luckily he dropped it so I got it back,’ she posted on Instagram. ‘On a positive note a lovely gentleman came to help me.’

Annabel was committed to tennis from the age of nine, and won junior versions of Wimbledon and the Australian Open. But she struggled on tour. ‘The lifestyle was tough. It still is. Your happiness is dependent on whether you win or lose. I didn’t want to live in combat every day. I started to question everything. I wanted a normal life.’

Annabel describes the alarming reality of travelling around America alone at 15 or 16, having organised her own logistics in the days before the internet and mobile phones. ‘I remember waiting at a Greyhound bus station at three o’clock in the morning with a load of druggies and drunks thinking, “Gosh, I don’t think my parents would think much of this, I’m not going to tell them.”’

Her mother and father, Susan and James Croft, a club-level tennis player and chartered surveyor in Surrey, would doubtless have been horrified. Why was nobody with her? ‘I had my coach sometimes but not every week, otherwise you’re paying for two rooms and double the expenses.’

Life was on a shoestring. ‘You’d turn up to some little cup somewhere in America and have three rounds of pre-qualifying, then three of qualifying. If you made the main draw they’d pay for the hotel. If not, you were paying for all of it.’

This gruelling experience has given her sympathy for young players today. ‘People have no idea of the layers of fighting required to make it to a tournament like Wimbledon.’ Is life any better for them now? ‘I don’t think the stress of being on court has ever changed. You’re going out to fight in front of people with rackets instead of weapons. It’s a weird existence. But the teams around them are enormous compared to my day. That makes some things easier.’

Annabel struggled to adjust after quitting. ‘If I ever had a job involving speaking I used to have a panic attack. I’d hyperventilate. It was a phobia, but I overcame it.’

Was it really pantomime that healed her? ‘Yes, I did five years of it when I first came off tour. It was scary but I slowly became less fearful.’ Who did she play? ‘You’ll laugh. Dick Whittington with Roland Rat in Crawley, Prince Charming with Michael Barrymore in Bristol, then Cinderella with Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs. I loved it - the playful language, learning by watching people perform - and we laughed so much.’

Her attempts to get into television were rebuffed at first. ‘I remember one gentleman saying, “You’re not cut out for this. You’re not very interesting and definitely don’t have the personality.” I also remember thinking, “I’m going to prove you wrong.”’

She did too: Annabel took over Treasure Hunt from Anneka Rice, then went on to present and commentate for Sky, Eurosport and the BBC. Now she’s stepping into the shoes of her former doubles partner Sue Barker, who’s retired. ‘I never thought we’d see Wimbledon without Sue but life goes on. The show must go on.’

I wish her luck. ‘Thank you. People have been amazingly generous. Obviously my children, my closest family and friends, have got me through but the public have also taken me under their wing,’ says Annabel. ‘I’m warmed by the support and am very grateful. I could not have got through this last year without all of that.’

Wimbledon coverage begins on 1 July across BBC TV, iPlayer, radio and BBC Sounds.

The day Posh Spice asked to borrow my loo – the BBC’s Glastonbury presenters share their extraordinary memories of the festival

Hugh Bonneville’s bold new comedy, Douglas Is Cancelled, satirises the culture wars

Right now there’s no hotter topic than cancel culture, in which a (usually famous) person is publicly shamed after they’re deemed to have done or said something unacceptable. There’s nothing funny about it for them - but there is for us because award-winning Doctor Who and Sherlock screenwriter Steven Moffat examines the phenomenon in his satirical new four-part ITV comedy- drama Douglas Is Cancelled.

His razor-sharp script takes no prisoners, skewering misogynistic old dinosaurs, woke culture, amoral journalists and Gen Z snowflakes alike as a newsreader finds his image in tatters after he’s overheard making a sexist joke at a wedding.

Hugh Bonneville plays Douglas Bellowes, the much-loved newsreader brought down by his faux pas, with Guardians Of The Galaxy star Karen Gillan as Madeline, his TV co-host - or should that be nemesis? ER’s Alex Kingston plays Douglas’s wife Sheila, the high-powered editor of a tabloid newspaper, The Crown’s Ben Miles is Douglas’s producer Toby, and Penny Dreadful’s Sir Simon Russell Beale plays Bently Cassock, Douglas’s useless agent.

The show is timely, given how many celebrities have plummeted from grace after airing views that others consider offensive. ‘It taps into so many strands of what’s current in terms of what we can and can’t say, what we can and can’t do, what’s acceptable, what’s beyond the pale,’ says Downton star Hugh. ‘Steven’s drama is a kaleidoscope, looking at all those things through the prism of these identifiable characters against a backdrop of light current affairs.’

Douglas faces a ‘pile on’ when his misdemeanour goes viral thanks to his co-anchor Madeline, who retweets the story with a supposedly supportive comment. Producer Toby goes into a panic that his star’s cultural collateral is about to crash and burn. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’ he seethes to Douglas. ‘When you’re out in public and civilians can hear you, you must be balanced, boring and bland!’

Hugh says that he accepted the part because the script was so on point. ‘It made me roar with laughter but, as with all good satire, the laughter gradually turned to ice as the questions raised by the comedy became more stark,’ he says. ‘Some of the twists and turns are toe-curlingly funny, but by the end the lights have gone out, the fun has evaporated and we’re into dark territory. Hopefully, the viewers will have a similar rollercoaster experience.’

Steven wrote the script six years ago, just as the term ‘cancel culture’ was gathering traction with the rise of social media, but he insists Douglas is not inspired by anyone specific.

‘I first wrote it as a play before the #MeToo movement had even begun,’ he says. ‘At the time we would have pointed to a different set of examples of bad behaviour, so this is a story that keeps repeating itself. People will compare this drama to real-life incidents, but there are honestly no comparisons to be made. However, the drama does exist in a world in which all that has happened. Douglas will remember that those people have got into trouble recently and worry that he could be next.’

Steven was inspired by the idea of adult bullies and office power struggles. ‘As you grow up, people still bully each other,’ he says. ‘There’s a scene where Sheila’s assistant is bullying her. Who is exercising the power there? I’m fascinated by all those things.’

He also seized the chance to cast actors he’s worked with in the past. Ben Miles starred in his hit TV sitcom Coupling 20 years ago, while Hugh, Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston all appeared in Doctor Who.

Karen, who’s hit the Hollywood big time as Nebula in the Marvel Universe films, says Steven sent her the script when he first wrote it. ‘As soon as I read it I badgered him to make it. This was prior to dramas like The Morning Show or Bombshell that touch on the same themes. Eventually he came back saying, “Would you like to play Madeline?” So I feel like I did my little bit to manifest Madeline for myself.’

The series is full of amusingly recognisable types. Douglas could be one of many ageing stars who have got complacent in their position as top dog. ‘Is he smug? I wouldn’t say so,’ muses Hugh. ‘Unguardedly confident, definitely. But just as the dinosaurs didn’t know they were a dying breed, Douglas is blithely unaware the next generation is smarter, more streetwise and capable of sheer ruthlessness when the chips are down. Or when wrongs have not been righted. That’s his blind spot, his fatal flaw.’

As for Madeline, Karen calls her a fiercely ambitious woman who now has her guard up after experiencing darker aspects of the industry. ‘You don’t quite know what her motivations are, and you don’t quite know whether you can trust her or not,’ she says. ‘That was really fun to play.’

Steven’s genius is in investigating the thorny issue of cancel culture in a way that’s very funny. ‘He has the courage to put the conversation on the table in a way that is super important,’ says Alex Kingston. ‘He does it in a darkly comic way, which allows people watching to laugh, but hopefully also ask questions like, “Where are we going with this? And how dangerous is this becoming?”’

Douglas Is Cancelled, Thursday, 9pm, ITV1 and ITVX.

Suranne Jones’s spellbinding new documentary charts the history of witches

She’s best known and loved as TV’s feisty cop Rachel Bailey and vengeful Doctor Foster. But in a gripping new two-part documentary Suranne Jones focuses on women with a different type of power - those tried as witches hundreds of years ago, and those actively practising witchcraft today.

‘For most people a witch is an old crone with a pointy hat and green skin, one eye up here, one down there,’ she says. ‘Popular culture has given us countless portrayals, from that fairytale crone to the modern magical teenager, but none get anywhere close to how dark the real story is.’

She begins her odyssey in Pendle, Lancashire, close to Oldham where she grew up. In 1612, ten people were executed there for the use of witchcraft, eight of them women. ‘It’s one of the most notorious executions for witchcraft in English history,’ says Suranne, 45. ‘Lancashire was known as the dark corner of England, where traitors and misfits ran away to. I like that I’m from the dark corner.’

Historians describe how trials came about over the episodes. ‘Magic was part of the fabric of everyday life,’ explains Dr Laura Kounine of the University of Sussex. ‘It was how people made sense of the world and misfortune.’

We hear how James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, was gripped by the idea of witchcraft and wrote a book about it, Daemonologie, in 1597. Officials then sought out supposed witches to put on trial. ‘The Pendle witch trials started with a girl in the woods, muttering a curse under her breath,’ says Suranne. This triggered an investigation, resulting in the arrests of the suspected witches. ‘They were in this perfect storm where powerful men used them to further their career and curry favour with a deeply paranoid king.’

Their trial and execution by hanging resonates deeply with Suranne. ‘These women were old, poor, on the outskirts,’ she says. ‘A witch was someone who made a pact with the devil, but these were just women. One of the things that struck me most is that women were silenced, they didn’t have a voice. They were repressed. And that’s stuck through society and been repeated and repeated. It’s still a big issue today.’

She moves on to Bamberg in Germany, the epicentre of witch hunts that spread through Europe in the 17th century. There, freezing temperatures caused disastrous crop failures that led to the capture, torture and execution of 1,000 alleged witches. ‘If disaster strikes, we become ready to see evil in other people,’ explains Professor Johannes Dillinger of Oxford Brookes University.

Suranne’s next stop is Salem in Massachusetts. It was there in 1692 that 14 women and five men were hanged as witches after young girls began convulsing as if possessed by demons. Some claimed witches appeared to them in visions, testimony known as ‘spectral evidence’. Salem’s history has made it a mecca for the supernatural; millions flock there, creating a tourist industry worth $150 million a year.

Suranne also meets broadcaster Gabriel Gatehouse, who discusses QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that rose to prominence in 2017. ‘QAnon believes America’s ruled by satan-worshipping paedophiles, and Hillary Clinton is the figurehead,’ he explains. ‘That’s almost the same as spectral evidence. It’s nonsense, yet millions have fallen for it. She’s a powerful woman, the definition of a witch.’

As her investigation ends, Suranne draws parallels with today and meets women who identify as modern witches such as Bat For Lashes singer Natasha Khan. ‘Witch trials were born in a climate of fear caused by economic hardship, political upheaval and extreme weather. But these elements are part of our lives today,’ says Suranne.

‘Women like Natasha defy expectations of appropriate behaviour for women.’ So are they in danger of being persecuted again? ‘Hopefully people think of something else when they hear the word ‘witch’.’

Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials, Sunday, 9pm, Channel 4.

Five more magical shows about witches

WandaVision (Disney+)

Domino Day (BBC iPlayer)

Domino (Siena Kelly) is a Mancunian barista, tattooist and witch who sucks the life out of bad men she meets via dating apps in order to stay alive. An edgy series that uses the supernatural to explore themes of dating and female friendship.

A Discovery Of Witches (Sky/Now)

Matthew Goode plays a 1,500-year-old vampire who falls in love with a witch as a war unfolds between their clans. This fantasy drama feels like a grown-up version of The Twilight Saga.

Mayfair Witches (BBC iPlayer)

The White Lotus’s Alexandra Daddario plays neurosurgeon Rowan in this sexy-looking adaptation of Anne Rice’s bestselling books. When Rowan realises she has the power to kill with her mind, she discovers she comes from a long line of powerful witches.

Charmed (Prime Video)

This soapy sitcom featuring the Halliwell sisters, good witches, had a devoted following over its eight-series run. Watch Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), Prue (Shannen Doherty) and Piper (Holly Marie Combs) fend off demons while trying to date handsome guys.

TV critic Kathryn Flett: I’m pumped up on gym sitcom Peaco*ck

The inside story on season three of The Bear

THE BEAR

The knives are out and the aprons on as The Bear returns for a third season of kitchen chaos this week. Dishing up a flavourful combination of soulful characters and fiery tension in a Chicago restaurant kitchen, the Disney+ series has often resembled a dramatised version of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares - and viewers have devoured it.

Now it’s back, with Jeremy Allen White reprising his role as Michelin-level chef Carmy Berzatto (pictured), still on a mission to turn his family’s sandwich shop into a high-end eatery, The Bear. Girls star Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays unpredictable restaurant manager Richie, and Ayo Edebiri is savvy sous chef Sydney.

Series creator Christopher Storer grew up in Chicago and has worked in restaurants. ‘I realised early on that working in a restaurant was a really difficult, demanding job, and it attracts a certain kind of personality,’ he says. ‘It’s a business that can become very toxic and intense, but also very loving and kind, which made for a perfect setting for a TV show.’ To add authenticity, exterior shots of The Bear restaurant are filmed at Mr Beef, a real Chicago sandwich shop owned by friends of Storer.

After an explosive second series finale in which Carmy got locked in a fridge on a friends-and-family night ahead of the full opening of his restaurant, the third series sees him and his team attempting to improve standards amid personality clashes and financial struggles. ‘So much of the second season was about putting the restaurant together, so there wasn’t that much cooking,’ says White, 33. ‘But in the third, I think we’re going back to the functioning kitchen atmosphere we had in the first.’

White prepared for his role by going to culinary school (alongside Edebiri), and he sharpens up his chef skills before each series. ‘I’ll spend a fair amount of time with chefs,’ he said ahead of his prep for the third season. ‘I’m going to put together a menu with them and cook, and get prepared to do more of that stuff on camera.’

Carmy’s story will return to his relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon), an A&E doctor who appeared to dump him in the series two finale - while he was in the fridge - because of his singular focus on work. White says he can relate to Carmy’s dilemma. ‘I remember a time when I was really wrapped up in my work and in success. I think Carmy is battling with a similar thing. He’s in a very lonely place and any empowerment or confidence is coming from his craft, which leaves him in a very vulnerable position.’

The Bear has proved so popular that a fourth series was filmed back-to-back with series three. So prepare for another sizzling culinary journey fraught with emotion and featuring a hefty dollop of comedy in a show that leaves us hungry for more.

From Thursday, Disney+

DID YOU KNOW?

Trained dancer Jeremy Allen White relaxes between scenes by tap dancing. ‘It’s a meditative thing,’ he says. ‘I’ll do a shuffle, then just shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. And I’ll do it until they say “action” again.’

Historian Dan Snow’s high-stakes Inca adventure

Dan and his team encountered treacherous rock faces, venomous snakes and dangerous bugs - and all at such high altitude that they suffered constant nosebleeds. But it’s all in a day’s work for the TV historian who’s explored some of the most amazing archaeological finds of the past century for Channel 5.

Dan’s new two-part series opens with the discovery of the 2,000-year-old Terracotta Army in China 50 years ago, before moving on to Machu Picchu. ‘These are among the world’s top ten archaeological sites,’ says Dan. ‘No one thought they’d find them.’

Machu Picchu was the summer retreat for Inca ruler Pachacuti, who built his kingdom into an empire to rival Rome’s. Bingham was actually searching for a different site when he found it in 1911. It took him several visits to realise what he’d discovered - a true lost city that not even the Spanish conquistadors, who destroyed the Inca empire and plundered its riches, had found.

Situated atop a mountain surrounded by other peaks, its isolated position is what made it special for the 400 people who lived there 500 years ago. ‘I was so moved when I saw it,’ says Dan. ‘You walk along this mountain path for hours, you’re exhausted, then you come over this pass and see it below you. A huge ray of sunshine hit Machu Picchu - it was an overwhelming sight.’

As well as learning fascinating facts such as that the emperor had a lavatory with its own drainage system in his home, Dan was able to go to the highest point of the site, inaccessible to the million tourists who visit each year. ‘I saw the extraordinary Intihuatana, a spike the Incas carved into the mountaintopthat we think is to do with a special connectivity with their gods.’

‘It’s magical. Maybe only the emperor and the high priest might have been there 500 years ago. And I got to do it.’

In one of the most challenging moments, Dan also held the mummified remains of a 12-year-old Inca girl who’d been sacrificed at the top of a nearby mountain - her hair, skin and even the clothes she was buried in still preserved. She’s one of 19 mummified Inca children discovered over the past century.

‘They were doing scientific research on the mummy,’ says Dan, ‘I had to hold it for a minute while they took readings and I ended up with her in my arms. She’s my daughter’s age. We study the Inca and their history but I was holding an actual Inca person. It was one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had.’

The Terracotta Army With Dan Snow, Friday, 9pm, Channel 5. Machu Picchu coming soon.

Property show presenter George Clarke: Why I’m glad I made it to 50

George Clarke has just turned 50, and he’s a bit shellshocked. The face of Channel 4’s architectural shows, including Remarkable Renovations, Old House, New Home and Amazing Spaces - which returned for a 12th series last week - admits he’s had conflicting feelings about it.

‘I’m in a state of depression,’ he exclaims, although it’s obvious from his megawatt smile that he’s joking. Then he turns serious. ‘Without getting too heavy about it, my dad passed away when I was very young - he was 26 and I was seven,’ says Sunderland-born George, whose father, a printer, died in a waterskiing accident. ‘So I’m slightly impressed with myself that I made it this far. I’m thankful for every day, let’s put it that way.’

It helps that he’s ageing like fine oak rather than battered plywood. ‘I don’t feel my age,’ he says. ‘My kids say, “Dad, don’t worry, you’re the youngest dad of all the dads we know,” to make me feel better.’

His children - sons Georgie, 21, and Emilio, 19, and 16-year-old daughter Iona - are all from his first marriage (after his second marriage ended in 2022 he’s now found happiness with Swiss opera singer Florence Hvorostovsky), and they were integral to his 50th celebrations. ‘It was very simple,’ he says. ‘I was with just 12 people - my kids, my partner, her kids, a couple of my best friends and their wives and my mum. I booked a beautiful long table in a restaurant and we just sat there from one o’clock till five. I had a lovely four-hour lunch with the closest people in my life and that was enough for me.’

Adam’s double-decker holiday home

He’s certainly making the most of every day: he’s currently filming three TV shows - a 13th series of Amazing Spaces, a series on renovating kitchens and gardens, and another about returning to live where you grew up.

But first it’s the 12th series of Amazing Spaces, championing more ordinary people creating extraordinary miniature builds. ‘People you might consider quite conventional can build a little pavilion at the end of their garden and become amazing architectural rebels, the most experimental, brilliant, bonkers people you’ve ever met,’ George says. ‘I love that.’

In last week’s first episode there were tears when George revisited Adam Collier-Woods, who made an old double-decker bus into a holiday home in Sussex in series two. Tragedy struck when the bus caught fire two years ago, and Adam is now building a holiday home from shipping containers. But he’s also battling Ménière’s disease, an inner-ear condition that causes fatigue and dizziness.

‘Adam really captures the spirit of Amazing Spaces,’ says George. ‘He’s a bit eccentric but he works unbelievably hard, sets himself enormous challenges and is very ambitious on a very tight budget. You’re with him every step of the way. We got emotional because I knew what he’d put into it - the blood, sweat and tears and the financial risk. I don’t mind producers keeping my tears in because they’re real.’

Other highlights of the series include the return of teenage woodworker Eli Baxter, who wowed George in the last series with his shepherd’s hut-style trailer. Now he’s back with a new idea. ‘As soon as I heard he was doing another project I said, “We’ve got to follow this boy,” because when he was 16 he blew my mind,’ says George. ‘I’d have Eli in every series if I could.’

Even George can fall victim to building woes, though. He’s due to film in Portugal, but delays at his new west London house are causing problems. ‘My wardrobes are covered up, I don’t know how I’m going to pack,’ he laughs. ‘The house is brilliant, though, it will be home for life.’

It sounds like 50 is an exciting new chapter for George Clarke.

George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, Thursday, 9pm, Channel 4.

EastEnders: Meet the new Mitchells