The Netmums Podcast - S12 Ep3: Dad on the Screen: George Clarke on Raising Kids in the Limelight

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Wendy and Alison get cosy with George Clarke, the architectural aficionado who's captured the nation's heart with his Channel 4 shows. George opens up about the unique challenges and joys of parenting through the lens of a TV personality George reflects on his journey from architect to TV presenter and the personal regrets of time spent away from home. He also gives us an insider's look at the world of architecture for the younger generation, discussing his first children's book, "How to Build a Home," and the future of 3D printed houses.

You're listening to The Netmums Podcast with me, Wendy Gollich, and me, Alison Perry. Coming up on this week's show... In the early days, because they were very young, I mean, they were literally born. I was on TV when they were born, so for them, weirdly, they thought everybody's dad was on TV. Like, genuinely, they did. That's what they thought. That's that's what dads do dads make telly um why not and then when they got when i took them on holiday when they were like eight nine ten they really didn't like it like my son emilio would be like dad why are people hassling us all the time why do they keep coming over they want selfies and sign this and sign that but before all of that this episode of the netmamas podcast is brought to you by fairy non-bio the number one laundry brand for sensitive

skin they've partnered with great ormond street hospital children's charity to support seriously ill children and their families with every fairy non-bio pack bought from Home Bargains, Fairy Non-Bio will donate 5p to GOSH charity with a minimum donation of £100,000. I know where I'm going after this. Now, on with the show. Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode. Now, that was a very chirpy hello, but actually I am feeling winter. Wintery, weepy, wallowy, woeful. I'm feeling all the W's and I'm trying not to pass it on to my kids because I'm sure the reason I hate winter is that my dad hates winter and he used to moan about it. How are you wintering, Alison? Do you have tips? Can you chivvy me to spring?

How am I wintering? When you said you were all winter Ws, I thought you were going to say winter whiz, because my five-year-old twins are currently doing phonics, so I'm obsessed with whiz instead of W. Anyway, I would say, Wendy, what you need in your life, you know those 99p bunches of daffodils that all the shops do at this time of year? So wherever you are at the till, there'll be a little bunch of daffs. Buy those whenever you see them and they will just brighten up your home. Or wine.

That's a W. Or wine. Another way. It gets off. We've not even introduced it. Go on, tell us who we've got. We are joined today by the heartthrob of the homes world. It's none other than George Clark. And of course, George presents an array of programs on Channel 4 from George Clark's Amazing Spaces and Old House New Home.

And he's also recently published his first children's book how to build a home welcome to the podcast george thanks for having me glass of wine would be great thanks are you feeling wintry oh yeah do you know what i like the winter i don't mind it you know i'm from the northeast so you know this is like summer in London. Oh, you're nails, you are, if you're from the North East. Yeah, I mean, the North East was pretty brutal. You know, the wind would come crashing off the North East coast and it would hit you pretty hard. It would literally cut through you.

It was absolutely freezing. And you could just go in kind of 10, 15 miles inland and it would be about five or six degrees warmer because and i bet you when you were 18 you'd still go to the pub in just a t-shirt wouldn't you i mean everybody's just on the northeast anyway to be honest exactly that's just standard that's just we only do that because we're scared we're going to get our cold snicked from cold i've got i've got a geordie friend and we're going on a night out this weekend. And when I told her that I was planning on wearing a short skirt and no tights, she was like, yes, respect.

So to get respect from a Geordie for not wearing very much, I feel like that's up there. We do kind of say, yeah, we're really tough. And we go out with T-shirts on or short skirts, not me personally. That's a shame. tough and we'd go out with t-shirts on or short skirts not me personally and and then you see girls just absolutely shivering standing outside i mean literally trembling and you just think why just don't do it it's part of a good night out i mean i'm scottish so i remember many a night where i'd be standing in the taxi queue or waiting for the bus home and everyone, like you say, is sitting there shivering, but it's just... No shoes

on. It's just part of the fun, isn't it? I'm always pretty well prepared to lend that. I mean, actually, literally, those cupboards there are just front of my kind of winter filming gear, really. So when I go off to Alaska or

the Arctic or Norway oreden to do a christmas special all my literally all my jackets boots window boots all that stuff is in those cupboards there's a lot of it yeah i mean it doesn't matter how far north you're from then you if you're going to those places you need your winter willies don't you yeah but the crew gave me a lot of stick last year in iceland when i just walked around in a t-shirt in november i thought it was quite nice actually i thought it was fairly mild they thought i was absolutely now your youngest iona is 16 is that right george and your sons are older yeah 16 18 20 so you must have this teenage parenting nailed

because Alison and I are just entering the fray. What are your teenage parenting go-to tips? Keep away from your kids as much as possible. I can do that. That's number one. No, on a serious note, my kids are brilliant, actually. I'm very biased. I'm bound to do that. That's number one. No, on a serious note, my kids are brilliant, actually. I'm very biased.

I'm bound to say that. We thought that with my daughter, we might have the kind of tricky teenage years. And she was great. I'll say it was made easier because she went to boarding school. She wanted to go to boarding school. Her mates were going.

I'd never even thought about it. And she was like, Dad, I really want to go. My friends are going. I think it's going to be great. So I was probably being slightly serious on my first comments that she's not been around a lot. She's been at boarding schools. That's the other thing.

She's not at boarding schools. She absolutely loves it. Wow. I'm glad she never went when she was very young. I mean, she was even kind of late. i think a lot of kids call like eight years old and then they called 11 or something like that i mean she went like a year and a half two years afterwards she went when she was like 13 um so by then she was pretty grown up i would say she was fairly mature anyway um so she did yeah kind of three years on her gcses and then she stayed on to do her air

levels and it's been fantastic for her i mean she's super independent she's got her head screwed on anyway i mean i've been told by the kind of um the school mistress whatever they call them these days but that word puts the fear of god in you even if you're 45 um yeah my daughter's kind of one of the girls that the other girls turn to if there's a problem so she's very calm she's very level-headed she's kind of very helpful if someone's got a problem does she get that from you well i don't really want to take credit for that but probably from her mum or from her nanny probably it's an amazing job

she probably got it from me a bit to be honest I mean I don't really like dramas I think everything can be fixed within reason I think it's good to talk about stuff I'm really open with her I'll just say to her if there's ever a problem doesn't matter what it is

just call me straight away I'm here for you even if you've done something bad don't worry about it we've all done bad stuff in our life I'm not going to give you a hard time I'm pretty liberal actually I mean even when it came to exams school exams

my kids were under a hell of a lot of pressure, like other kids, to be honest with you, not just mine, but under a massive amount of pressure. And I just thought it was all a complete waste of time. I think the amount of pressure at that age is just not good. So I would say to my kids, even though I've kind of paid for their education and there won't be good schools, I said, look, I don't care about your grades. I don't care. I literally do not care about your grades. I don't care. I literally do not care about your grades. I want you to work hard.

I don't want you to be lazy. I want you to give it your best shot. Obviously, for yourself, you want to do the best that you possibly can. So just because I'm saying I'm not bothered about your grades, you can't just lounge around and do nothing all day and not learn. I said, but just stop worrying about your grades because that was like panic what if i get a c what if i get a d what if i don't get this the whole world's going to end and sometimes it would um they would kind of freeze with the panic

particularly my younger boy who wasn't particularly academic he would it was like a rabbit in the headlights he really couldn't function he probably wasn't learning because he was panicking so much and i said you go to school to learn you don't go to school to be graded don't worry about it or to pass exams genuinely i was absolutely brutal with them i said i don't care i literally do not care what grades you get i want you to learn as much as you possibly can and enjoy the experience of being at school and the grading system.

It's rubbish anyway, to be honest, isn't it? I mean, when you're like 28, who cares what grades you got for your A-levels? You're nobody else. It's all just a stepping stone to the next thing, isn't it? And as long as you can get to where you want to go, whatever you want to be doing. Yeah, exactly.

It's fine. Exactly. So I'm kind of, yeah, I don't think I've ever really given my kids a whole time, to be honest with you. Really? You sound like such a proud dad though, George. What do you think your proudest moment,

proudest parenting moment has been so far? That's a great question. That's a brilliant question. I think I have a number of proud moments, really. I couldn't pick out kind of one or two epic ones. They're kind of just little moments where you have a moment to yourself afterwards and you think, that's pretty cool.

That's really good. It's quite often in times when they're socialising or I see them around adults or strangers or people that I've met. My kids are really good at just connecting with people. My daughter in particular, but actually my two sons are really good as well. I remember taking my daughter to New York when she was 11. This is quite a funny story, actually. So my youngest boy loves horses. Horse riding, horse jumping.

Done it since he was four years old. And he's always had a horse, and that's not cheap at all. And so Emilio got his horse, very expensive, which I'm slightly whinged about for quite a long time as to why horses are so expensive and then my eldest boy was into Formula One

and I said look it's really not cheap that's not cheap either and actually I've only been at one or two but I took him to the Singapore Grand Prix one year which was really special

the night race he'd never been to Singapore before. One of his friends was going with his dad, so we thought, right, let's the four of us go along. And my daughter was brilliant. She just went, so dad, Emilio got a horse. What would happen now?

Went to Singapore business class. Just drop that in there. That was a nugget of information. And then she just went, that kind of hands up, that facial expression of, what about me? What about my shames?

And I said, okay, I will take you anywhere that you want to go on the planet, anywhere. Wherever you want to go on the planet, I will take you. Can you be my dad, please? That's what he's saying.

What about me, George? That's it. But you've got to decide in 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 7, 8. I just thought that's a bit funny. I thought I was going to really push her mind to think very quickly about where she wants to be. I don't think I got to to seven to be honest with you

insurance new york new york i want to go to new york but business class like georgie went to singapore yeah no flies on her and it was probably um i've been having two great times with my kids i would say it's probably one of the best things I've ever had, like kind of in my life really. It was just great because it was just me and her. It was dad time, mum time. The boys were busy doing other stuff with their mates and things like that. None of them get jealous, by the way, of the others. It's because I kind of, they get little perks relatively in the same way. And we just had the best week.

It was amazing. I took you to a nice hotel on the Upper East Side. We did all the kind of usual touristy stuff, you know, Statue of Liberty, things like that. I went for some amazing lunches. And then there was one night, there was a very small Italian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. And it's quite smart. And that part of the Upper East Side is, you know, there's a few quid

around so it's mainly kind of women in their 80s who are minted looking beautiful with gorgeous brooches and everything looks really very classy and then you might have, I don't know a couple of amazing gay guys who work for a top fashion label or something like

it's quite an eclectic bunch, but they're all quite amazing people in there. And you're not actually supposed to take kids in. You take them in during the day, but not at night. So I called them. I said, it's a special thing for my daughter. Yeah, I'd love to take her.

Can you let her? He said, look, George, for you, we'll do it. I'll be fine. He said, just make sure she wears something quite smart so she's not looking like a little kid in the corner. So I went out and I got a nice little dress

and I got a nice little jacket. It was the first time, because we were sharing a room, it was the first time I ever saw her put a bit of makeup on in the bathroom. I'd never seen her do it.

And it was just brilliant. But what blew me away, what made me mega, mega proud is we're sitting there in this restaurant and i put her in the seat so she was facing out so she could see everybody else and all of a sudden people started coming over so you know the 80 year olds amazing women were going oh my god i love your jacket i love you oh my god you're so beautiful i love your hair obviously not talking to dress. Oh my God, you're so beautiful. I love your hair. Obviously not talking to me.

Um, and then these, there were a couple of gay guys from a fashion house on the table next to us chatting away to her. Then there was another couple, a man and a woman on the left-hand side started talking to her. And before I knew it, there was like eight or nine people around our little table just talking to her. And she was brilliant. It was like two hours she was charming she talked to everyone she was interested in what they were talking about and this woman on one side

of the table had written um books about new york dogs and how dogs have been really helpful for the guys who have come out the military they've have had major problems. So connecting with an animal and things like that, getting out of the house, having a friend, going for long walks. And the fashion boys on the other side were chatting to her about dresses and fashion. And I just sat there with my bowl of pasta, just not saying anything.

I couldn't get a word in at all. She was over me, this whole restaurant. And we stayed way beyond when we went. So I think we'd stay till like 10 o'clock. I think we're there till like midnight and just chatting away to everybody and just holding the room.

And we go back to the hotel and went to bed. And the next morning the phone goes off and it's the concierge downstairs. And I said, oh, hi. He went, can I speak to Miss Clark, please? I was like, hang on a minute, it's for you. Handed the phone to her. And he said, we have a number of things for you you. Handed the phone to her, and he said,

we have a number of things for you in reception. Could we bring them up to your room? And they came up to the room in the broads. There was two or three beautiful books by the woman who'd written lots of books on dogs, all nicely wrapped up with a little card inside, saying we're going to walk in at Central Park this afternoon. My daughters would love to meet you. And then a couple of dresses from the fashion house,

from the fashion boys. They all had a chat about some of their gifts. Yeah, it was amazing. It was incredible. I also had to say, I'm so proud of you. It's not about the gifts. It's not about their gestures. They have done that because you were outstanding.

That's right. You were adorable you were charming you were grown up you were funny and for a kid that's 11 years old at that time in a big city I was kind of blown away really. It's hard to imagine how stressful it is for families when their child is seriously ill but Fairy Numbio has partnered with GOSH charity to provide some comfort. That's right Wendy one of has partnered with GOSH Charity to provide some comfort. That's right, Wendy. One of the areas that GOSH Charity funds is free accommodation for families located close to the hospital while their child is receiving treatment. Being able to stay close to their child and not worry about the cost

helps ease the stress during what can be an extremely difficult time. Between now and the 31st of March 2024, for every pack of Fairy non-biodetergent, Fairy fabric softener or Fairy in-wash scent boosters that you buy in home bargains, Fairy will make a 5p donation to GOSH charity. Which means that you can show your support as you shop. Now back to our guest. so how do they feel about your heartthrob status more than how you feel about your heartthrob status i think they think what do they think about you being the housewife's choice george it's just it's a funny game this game to be honest with you you know i can i genuinely just see myself as an architect i love

architecture i love buildings i've wanted to do it since i was a kid my granddad was a builder even for me sometimes i just think i'm doing a bit of telling about architecture you know that genuinely that's how i see it and you know the c word um celebrity kind of it doesn't really sit well with me i feel a bit awkward about it I don't make other TV shows about other things do you know what I mean? I don't make, I was going to say Top of the Pops but it doesn't exist anymore, I'm sure that will die

It shows how old we are All I make is architecture design property shows I don't do other stuff I've just made a kind of architectural travel log, which comes out in January. It's January the 21st or something.

Where I travelled across America. So quite a different show to what I would normally do. I don't do travel logs. I normally just turn up and see buildings and chat about them. So it was filmed in a different way. A lot less scripted. Me just literally walking down the street being filmed

and us finding out what's going to happen. So quite random. But still, even though it's a different type of TV for me, it's still me finding buildings and architecture. Yeah. So how did you go from architecture into TV production? Because you own your

own TV production company as well, don't you? It's not like you just work on it. I don't anymore. I like I don't anymore just so you know I had that company for like seven eight years and I sold my shares in that and there was actually lots of good things about running your own production company but lots of bad things as well it basically meant I was fully tied to that business sort of even someone else came up with a fantastic idea. I kind of couldn't do it unless it went through my company and it caused all sorts of issues. I had a great time there. We made some

fantastic programs together, but I said, you know what, I just need to step back from being kind of embezzled as a partner or director of the production company. So I do partner in deals with other production companies now, which is great because it means I'm open to more ideas that are out there rather than just being restricted by what we did.

Yeah, I'll give you the super, super short story because the other one's really boring and you'll fall asleep. I was at the center of my architectural practice. I had a building company. It was in London. I taught at two universities so I went to Newcastle University and Nottingham

that would take up a fair bit of my time I'd go to Newcastle once a week like every Friday get the train up teach students all day get the train back and get back really late at night loved it

absolutely loved teaching it was brilliant lots of studio time around drawing boards sketching looking at models and stuff like that. The university said,

you have to do research as well as teach students these days. And I was like, I'm trying to run a business. My kids have just been born. To do research on top of all this is just too much for me. And they're like, no, just write a book. Write a book, get it published.

And that can count as research funding. I'm like, oh, you me. And they're like, no, just write a book. Write a book, get it published. And that can count as a huge funding. I'm like, oh, you know, as you do. Like never written a book before ever. A friend of mine is a writer. She got me an interview slash meeting with a literary agent at Covent Garden. I sat with her for about an hour. There was a Thursday morning. I remember it very well.

And she said, look, you seem really passionate about it. Do you sign the contract? We'll work with you on ideas about what this architectural book might be. And then she called me on the Monday and she said, have you ever thought about doing television? And I went, no. I said, I thought you were just a literary agent. She said, I do literary broadcasting.

I look after writers who present and things like that. Some historians like Simon Sharma and people like that, mainly academics. I said, do you fancy doing television? She said, no, absolutely no way. Like, no way. Like, I hated drama at school. I couldn't stand it.

I basically played football, hung out with girls, and was frantic about art, architecture, and the fact about architecture and design, that was literally my life. Football, girls, architecture, design. That was it. It was very simple. If there was a school player, I used to break out in a sweat. I'd want to be the dead tree in the corner of the state.

Not even a live tree, a dead one. That's what I wanted to be. Can I just segue in to say my daughter spent this morning she they're doing a play at school and she's a donkey and i was like what's your line she said i only have one mummy eat or so is that it she was like yeah it's brilliant i just get to stand there and say eat more so I think she might be like that is so sweet, wish her the best of luck from me, that's amazing what can go wrong

so I said no way, I'm not doing it absolutely no and then she called me again the next day on the Tuesday, she went have you thought more about what we talked about yesterday and I went Rosemary, I said no like I couldn't have been any clearer there is no way i'm doing this and if you think about it around that time there was not

the kind of established architecture design property shows that there are now so grand designs have been good for four or five years pretty successful that was i'd say that was the main one with kevin presenting that but all the other stuff was like changing rooms makeover programs through the keyhole you know what i mean location location location that was pretty much it wasn't it well that just started actually that wasn't even in full swing i don't think i think that might have been like just a year beforehand so i don't think that was necessarily flying. It was quite early days. So for me, it was all kind of makeover cheap stuff,

apart from grand designs. And I was saying, I'm just not up for that. I want to do good buildings, good architecture, good design, not just slap some wallpaper up and do an interior show. And I said, oh, and sure, well, I've booked you in for a screen test tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. And I literally swore. I don't need orders since Thursday.

I'm not going to repeat what I said, but it wasn't very nice. I kind of told her where to go. And she said, oh, it's an hour of your time. You might hate it. They might not like you. It's five minutes from your office. Why don't you go and do it? So I went for the screen test and it was an absolute like cliche i walked in and there was like an executive sitting at a big desk

and me put on a fake leather black sofa which was like two foot lower than the height of his desk so i was really not there with some 12 year old kids pointing a camera in my direction. And he asked the worst first question you ever ask anyone from Sunderland or the Northeast. It was, so tell us about you. And I just went, what do you want to know? And I didn't mean to be rude. I really didn't mean to be rude, but it probably came across rude. Because you can imagine if someone wants to be a presenter, they're like, well, this and then do that and i've trained at that i'm absolutely amazing and i dance and i sing and i'm wonderful give me the job and i just went what do you want to do and he

read this pause for about four or five seconds so he thought oh god i've got one here um and my body language probably did show that I was not interested at all. So he's probably thinking, well, I'm going to waste all my time with this kid. And then his next question was brilliant. He said, I've been told you're passionate about architecture and buildings. Why don't you become an architect? But I didn't shut up. Then I walked out and my agent called me.

She said, you've got the job. I said, I'm still not doing it. I said, I'm not doing it. and it had to be like a negotiation so basically it was a series called property dreams it was for channel five back in the day and i actually said to them i said no why don't you get somebody else to present it because i looked at the format of the tv show i must have had a bit of mouse about creating television somehow um it shows you how much the the property market was booming so it was about families who'd made so much money on their property and had so much equity tied up in it so this is like 2005 2006 before the massive financial crash that came soon afterwards and

they had three options one was to release the money do up their existing house release the money buy a second home in england release the money and buy a second home abroad they were the three times have changed and i just said to him i said go and get another presenter to present it all because i i can't present i've never done it um and i'll do the refurbishing the house i'll do some designs and sketches. I'll meet them. I'll walk through the house with them. We can get a little model made,

a little 3D graphic done to show them the potential of what their new, sorry, their existing house could look like with the budget that they've got. So for me, that's what I do at work every day. Yeah, I go to people's houses, see how they live, see how I can recraft the space for them.

So it just didn't feel like tv to be honest i left all the other presenting stuff to her and then it went to the boss of channel five and these are his words by the way he went she's not very good he's brilliant i want him as a main presenter and recut the whole thing and that's when i had to learn how to do pieces to camera. I had some like 60 pieces to camera in a day. Baptism of fire. All of these links to then drop into the program as if I'd been there. We love watching all of your TV shows. In fact, you featured my friend Emily's house in one episode of Old House, New Home.

Do you know the episode where you did up that stressing flat in pink? And then you did my friend Emily's house to see how she had used pink in her house and we were all so excited to see emily's house on the telly and but what i want to know is do your kids enjoy seeing you on tv or do they find it a bit cringe they don't watch they literally don't watch they don't watch at all like nothing at all i mean and they cringe i mean obviously in the early days i think when they it's been mixed with them it's an interesting point that actually because in the early days very because they were very young i mean they were i mean literally born they were i was on tv when they were born so

for them weirdly they thought everybody's dad was on tv like like genuinely they did that's that's what they thought they thought that's what dads do dads make telly um why not and then when they got when i taped them on holiday when they were like eight nine ten they really didn't like it like my son Emilio would be like dad why are people hassling us all the time why do they keep coming over they want selfies and sign this and sign that I don't mind doing that of course

I really don't, I mean if someone's going to take the time to watch my show I can take two minutes to have a selfie with them and sign something for them but for them it was really intrusive they kind of hated it. So I had to start protecting them around that age. And I would then just say to people,

look, I'm having to do a shot with you, but can you just wait till we finish dinner? And just to make it less intrusive for them. So I would get up to go to the loo and I'll pretend to go to the loo and they'd go over to their table and do a shot. Just so it didn't affect the kids as much really. And now it's gone kind of full circle now, so now they're

older. All of their mates that they meet, like my son went to university recently and all of his mates are like oh my god, your dad's George Clark! He's so cool! So after them thinking that I was a real geek and boring and did a

pretty crap job just talking about houses, I can kind of see their shoulders go up a little bit. They're like, yeah, he's my dad, he's my dad. And then they like the attention that way now. So it's given them a bit of kudos at school, I think. So what inspired you to write a book about architecture for kids? I was approached, actually, to be honest. It didn't really come

from me it came from the publishers um it's actually a series of books it is called little experts up there at the top so they've gone to you've got people like james may to write a kid's book on cars i think they've got their they've got a chris packham to write one on nature and animals and the environments. With Deborah Medan on actually a while back, because Deborah Medan has written one about money. So we had her on as well. Yeah, she's done it.

So it's all part of the Little Experts series. So it's not just a one-off book, really. That was my lowest point. I tried to pitch my husband's business to her. You did. You did. It was terrible,

George. It's like, talk about you being cringe on telly. i can never listen back to that episode how bad was it allison it was fine it was fine oh she's so nice she didn't invest she didn't say all right hang on a minute wendy let me get my pen and paper so that i can take down your details so that i can invest lots of cash in your husband's business now she fobbed me off quite sweetly though bless her watching all this from the business i'm intrigued just to get it on the pitch renewable energy renewable energy device so i was i was going for the planet it was for the planet well she's good with all that she's passionate about the the planet and the environment. Clearly, I'm just shit at pitching.

I'm just full of a dick myself. Yeah, you're basically shit, yeah. Yeah, fine. That's what we like. Go back to the book, quick. Yes, it is called How to Build a Hole, and it's really, really, really simple. And the bit about 3D printing with concrete,

that just blew my tiny mind yeah that you can and also actually what i kind of suggest in the book is that because concrete's a pretty bad thing environmentally um you've got you've got about a ton of carbon needed to create a ton of concrete which is not great really But the nice thing is that they're developing new materials to do 3D printing with. So it's all sorts of recycled material. Because it is literally like squeezing toothpaste when you're 3D printing. You're just adding layer onto layer.

There's this kind of gum that squeezes out some liquid, and it just goes on top of it again, on top of it again, on top of it again, to just build up the structure. And there's loads of stuff going on. To be honest, it's a really, really exciting time for the industry, I think, because I'm going to be brutally

honest, I think most of the houses that we've built other than kind of amazing ones on Grand Designs or on my programs, you know, most of them in the last 30, 40 years are shit. Like, most of the houses built by the big house builders and let's talk of millions you know they build about 250 000 houses a year i call them naughty box houses

because they're just little naughty houses like it's like called lego houses in our house yeah it's a bit like even monopoly houses you know they all look the same but they're just slightly different colors and you just you might as well pick up a handful of them and just throw them on a bit of land and see where they land and then just join them up with roads. And it's sort of the more sophisticated planning. And I've been a bit disheartened by all that, really, to be honest with you. Because we've got some of the

best architects and designers in the world. I mean, we've got amazing architects in this country, but very few of them are working on big house building projects. You know, it's like take the same standard plan that you used in gloucestershire buy that site over there and use the same plan and the same looking house and put it in ipswich and that's why most of the houses just look a bit boring and dull i think so the whole idea behind this was to say the kids you should be thinking

about your future when it comes to houses what would you want to live in how do you think we should be building homes now for you and that's from everything from the look the style the feel how sustainable it is how environmental it is what impact it has on the planet um so yeah it's a really, really simple book that takes you through incredible houses, future houses, teamwork. You know, how you need to work as a team when you're building houses as well. How you get through deep into your home, how you think like an architect. Marvellous materials. It's such a great book.

I honestly think it will inspire so many children to consider architecture as a career. But what about your kids? Are any of them following in your footsteps and you know doing absolutely not architecture absolutely not they're being completely scarred by my lack of talent should we say um yeah they're just they're very different actually they're completely different i mean i was i was a bit of a kind of, but my daughter calls me a neek. So I'm not a geek or a nerd. I'm a neek.

Oh, both! Yay! Oh, she calls me a neek. And I am. I mean, I genuinely am. I mean, when I was 12, I knew I wanted to be an architect. I would literally go off and sketch buildings when I was 12, 13, 14 years old.

I'd spend time on building sites with my granddad. My granddad bought me the glossary of architectural terms from Sunderland Library at a book sale. Well, you can imagine how much of a good read that was, eh? All the way to school, I was architraved to cigarettes. You know, that's how interested I was at school. And I would memorise it all and learn about the capitals,

the orders of Corinthian columns and Ionic and Doric columns and stuff like that. And I just loved it. I absolutely loved it. And for me, it's actually genuinely a way of life. It's an odd job. So you're going to have a horse rider,

a Formula One driver. Well, the horse rider's just packed in he's retired at the age of 18 i was a little bit gutted because it's cost me so much money since he was four years old i genuinely thought he was going to have a career with horses and it was about three weeks ago he said to me no dad i've decided i'm not doing it. I mean, to be honest, it was amazing for him because it was such a discipline. He would have to go to see the horse every day after school, really look after it, make sure it was being well-groomed

and well-fed and healthy and fit. And that was brilliant. And he's got a lovely heart, so he's got real connections with animals. So it gave him a huge amount of joy when he was a kid. brilliant and he is he's got a lovely heart so he's got real connections with animals um so it gave him a huge amount of joy when he was a kid and i think he just fancies not being in that industry he's realized it's quite tough it's a very tough business to be in and obviously quite expensive because i'm not going to be paying for it forever and he might have

literally just sold his last horse um which is a bit of a shame. Formula One driver, probably not. He loves his football, but he loves history. And he's actually at university doing American studies. He's doing everything about America, from American politics, history, entrepreneurship, landscapes, literature, everything to do with America. So I don't know what he's going to do. Actually, my daughter wants to be a film director.

That might be something. That's close. That steps fairly closely to this industry. And she spends a lot of time on location with me as well. During the holidays, she'll come on the road with me for like five or six days and we film every day. That was one of our questions, actually. Do you spend much time at home

or are you and so i'm a complete it's it's one of the most upsetting and disappointing things about this job is i spend all my time talking to people about their homes and how to create beautiful homes for them to be safe, secure and stable for many years to come. And I'm never at home. I'm a nomad. It's the worst part of the job. I mean, I don't have any regrets in life at all, to be honest with you. I think everything happens for a reason and you have to learn from it so they never become regrets. I never kind of go, I regret doing that. I go, that happened. What did I learn from that?

It might have been a bad experience, but everything happens for a reason. I think my biggest regret is just not spending enough time with my kids when they were younger. And it really is hopeless for courses because the kids will say to me now, they're really lovely.

They're like, dad, it was your job. It's what you did from the point of being born. So it wasn't like I was with them every day for seven or eight years and then started a TV job and then was never around from Monday to Friday every week. To them, they were just like, Dad, it was just normal for us, but you just weren't around Monday to Friday.

And I was like, yeah, but you might be fine with it, but I'm not fine with it because I wanted to spend more time with you as you were growing up. And I was very much a kind of weekend dad really which was we had great time and you know absolutely amazing we had great quality time but when people say well that's not about quantity it's about quality i think it's actually about both. I would have just loved to have had more quality time with my kids. Well, final question, George, for you. If you could have a kid nose around anyone's home,

because it's clearly something that you do love doing, who would it be and why? I would love to nosey around David Attenborough's house. Good answer. I love him. I met him not that long ago. In fact, he signed something for me. We'll show you this.

Just leave it there. Give me a second. I'd never met him before, so I've got a few heroes in my life that I always wanted to meet. I've kind of met them all now, actually. No, no, apart from Sting, I still haven't met Sting. I really haven't met Sting.

If you're listening, Sting. If you're listening to this podcast, can you just get me around for a cup of tea? And I'll make it. Do our best. I'll happily make it. I think Sting is just a legend. I think he's so good.

A North East lad like me, he's from Newcastle. I went to see him at concert recently 70 years old oh my god i fancied him so much he looked he was i was like how can you look like that at 70 he looks absolutely he's a beautiful beautiful man if he was gonna have that cup of tea he might have changed his mind now. George might think you're going to jump him. He would not get me out of his house. I'd literally have to chain myself to his dining table. That's it. I'd be in bed. Yeah, he's definitely not having you over now,

George. Sorry. I've got no choice, actually. I think this is going to get more weird. I'm going to start stalking. Back to David Attenborough. Anyway, off from staying, for our love and adult, I've just, like all of us, I've grown up with David Atten love and adult I've just like all of us I've grown up with David Attenborough

and I've just grown up with that voice and I love the environment and I love nature and I'm not just saying that because we're in a kind of sustainable age I mean from

when I was like eight, nine years old I'd be watching all of his programs I had Nancy and her uncle who were kind of quite hip loved wildlife you know kind of vegetarians, but would buy me, as I was like, adopt a partridge in London Zoo for Christmas when I was like nine, which I never saw.

I was all kind of looking after the planet, but I've just always been an enormous fan of him and I met him at in 2018 the Temperate House, one of the beautiful big conservatories at Kew Gardens had been restored and he was at the Alperette and so there's this metal thing that they gave you and there's a little engraved plan of

Temperate House and he signed it for me on top of me, I had a lovely little child, it was literally fleeting. It was like, I spoke to him for about, probably not even a minute. And he was just wonderful on every level. So I'd love to go around his house. Because imagine all the stuff that he's got.

He was on telly when telly had just been invented. You know, he was like going to the Galapagos Islands when he was about six and doing pieces to camera. It was, you know, he has lived through the entire life of TV and he's been all over the world and seen wonderful things. Yeah, I think his house must be a treasure trove of beauty. Well, thank you, George. What a lovely way to while away an afternoon.

It's been a pleasure to talk to you. And good luck with your book. I've really enjoyed it thank you very much just a reminder that this episode was brought to you by fairy non-bio who have partnered with gosh charity whose registered charity number is 116 0024 fairy will donate 5p to great ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity for every pack of Fairy non-biodetergent, Fairy fabric softener or Fairy in-wash scent boosters purchased in home bargains between now and the 31st of March 2024 with a minimum donation of £100,000.