Our Summer with Alan and Amanda 1
We have alluded to the fact several times that we have been very busy this past summer, but we’ve been unable to talk about it too much, as we have had to keep everything under wraps! However, now we can spill the beans and explain what has been taking up so much of our time.
The village of Moclín has been the focus of the third series of the BBC One TV Series, ‘Amanda and Alan’s Spanish Job’, previously known as ‘Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job’!
If any of you do not have a clue what this is all about, then do read on…
During the pandemic, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ presenter, Amanda Holden hatched an idea to buy a property in Italy to restore under that country’s €1 scheme: a scheme to regenerate rural villages by selling off abandoned properties for €1. The first series of ‘Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job’ was filmed in Sicily and followed Amanda and her friend, comedian Alan Carr, on their journey to renovate two apartments. The programme is a bright and sunny mix of property restoration, travelogue, culture and chat between friends as they get their hands dirty and travel the region looking for inspiration for their project. A key factor behind the success of the series is the genuine bond between Amanda and Alan, and much laughter along the way. Following the success of the first series, a second series was commissioned by the BBC and it was around this time that we became involved.
Back in February 2023, just as the first series was being broadcast in those miserable post-Christmas and New Year weeks, one of our businesses was featured in an article written by Amanda Hyde for The Telegraph, entitled ‘How Andalucia’s beautiful ghost towns are being brought back to life’. The article explored initiatives that have been developed to try to stem the tide of rural depopulation - villages that are suffering as younger generations have had to leave in search of work.
A member of the team at Voltage TV, the production team for the BBC behind ‘Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job’ got in touch having seen the article and explained that they might be looking at Spain as a new location for the series.
As a result, we had a visit from Tom and Ailish from Voltage to have a look at the village and view properties that might be suitable for a TV restoration project. So began 18 months of adventure.
As many of you will know, property marketing is one of the many strings to our bow, and we had a selection of suitable restoration properties in Moclín. We managed to get the villagers together, with a spot of live music, to fill the bar on a Monday evening in winter in order to give Tom and Ailish a warm welcome. Marco, the mayor, was introduced to the team and we gave an overview of what the project might entail. We showed a couple of lovely old houses in the village, accompanied by our architect Paloma so that we could provide estimates of restoration costs and information on planning and any local restrictions. We were under no illusions that this was an exploratory visit that could amount to nothing, but we as a village gave our best welcome.
As it happened, the BBC commissioned the second series to be filmed in Tuscany and I imagine this decision had already been taken by the time of the first visit from Voltage. Tom and Ailish returned to the UK, filming took place in the summer of 2023 and we thought little more of the BBC project that might have been…
We got on with our busy lives; I was still Councillor for Tourism and Heritage in the municipality and this took up a lot of my time, in conjunction with Casa Higueras and Esperanza 9, and much more besides. Summer came and went, followed by Autumn and then Christmas.
It was in January of last year, 2024, that we heard from Voltage TV again with the news that a third series was on the cards and Spain had been identified as a location.
A second visit was planned with Claire, Tom’s colleague as producers of the series. The excitement of this return visit was slightly tempered by the knowledge that this trip included visits to Catalonia and Portugal as well as other areas within Andalucia. It felt like a competition, and as we were given this second opportunity it was a competition that we were really keen to win.
The house before
We showed the team a different selection of houses this time, one of which was an elegant 3 storey town house in the main village square. We brought together the town hall team of Marco, the mayor, the Tecnico de Cultura, Manolo, and other members of the local government so that we could discuss the project in relation to changes in planning permission and the unorthodox way of running and filming a building project that had to be completed in just 3 months. Once again, we did our best to give assurances that we could work collectively to ensure that production would go smoothly and that the restoration would be completed on time, bearing in mind at this stage that we had no idea what that restoration might look like!
The team went off to look at the other areas and properties on their list, and we waited.
Finally, we heard that the BBC and Amanda and Alan, who are both very much involved in the production content, had shortlisted two possible locations: our town house in Moclín and something similar in the nearby village of Montefrio. Montefrio is something of a rival to Moclín in that it gets a lot of publicity having been listed as having one of the best views in the world by National Geographic magazine. Naturally, we firmly believe that Moclín is infinitely more beautiful! Knowing that the choice was between Moclín and Montefrio did little to assuage stress levels at home. We had invested a lot in this project already, in terms of our commitment and passion, as we were of the very strong belief that this project could have a massive and positive effect on the village.
One week followed another, and the waiting for news was tortuous. There were days when I became convinced that we had been unsuccessful in our bid to become the focus of this new series, and it was difficult not to feel disappointed.
This is the first in a series of 10 blog posts about our summer with Amanda and Alan, and the next instalment will be posted soon.
‘Amanda and Alan’s Spanish Job’ is being shown on BBC One from 24th January 2025 and will be available on iPlayer.
For the programme, Amanda and Alan bought their property through our estate agency business, Granada Village & Country and we were instrumental in putting together the building teams who completed the renovation of the property.
The property will be available for sale through Granada Village & Country, and featured on Rightmove, at the end of the series.
Our other businesses as featured on the programme:
Casa Higueras Bed & Breakfast
Esperanza 9
Granada Cultural Holidays
With enormous thanks to Amanda, Alan and the entire team at Voltage TV for choosing Moclín and for your enthusiasm, love and consideration throughout the filming of the series. We loved having you all here!
