Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer share ‘replacement’ fears as Location, Location, Location stars mark milestone
Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer have reflected on Location, Location, Location’s 25-year milestone as they share fears of replacement.
After a quarter of a century on the British reality property programme, Allsopp and Spencer remain one of TV’s most beloved, bickering duos.
Since the show launched in 2000, they’ve completed 469 property searches, viewed over 1,800 homes, and helped buyers secure more than £176 million worth of property.
As they celebrate the milestone in a new Channel 4 documentary, Spencer joked, “Twenty-five years? You’d get less for murder!”- a nod to their enduring partnership and Allsopp’s“particularly fiery” personality.
Speaking to The Mirror, he added: “Little did I know we would go on to become long-term colleagues and lifelong friends.”
The pair have shared countless light-hearted moments on screen.
Allsopp once asked Phil: “Have you ever been bitten by a horse?” and mused, “Do you think anyone thinks we’re spies?”
Now, however, their biggest worry is becoming obsolete.
“There are chatbots helping people decide where to live. Well, we were going to be replaced one day,” Allsopp said, “I thought it would be a younger, thinner me but clearly it’s AI.”
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The show’s original title was The Great House Hunt, but it changed after Allsopp accidentally let slip a profanity during early filming.
“I was mortified,” she admitted, “I almost said, ‘This is proof telly is not for me’.”
Neither host was confident on camera in those early days. “We were good at house hunting but we were pretty terrible at pieces to camera,” Spencer said.
Back then, offers were phoned in from red phone boxes, long before smartphones or property websites existed.
“You had to search physically to see a property,” Allsopp recalled.
By 2004, the show’s popularity had soared alongside property prices, with the average UK home costing £140,000.
When the 2007 financial crisis hit, Spencer feared the end: “I remember worrying people wouldn’t want to watch property programmes any more. But actually, they needed advice.”
Allsopp, 53, called the show an “absolute privilege”, and both hosts say the people they’ve helped have had just as much impact on them.
“They’ve changed our lives, too,” she said.
They’ve been through a lot together, most tragically in 2023, when Spencer lost both his parents in a freak car accident at their Kent home.
Both have settled down personally as well. Spencer, 55, married Australian Fiona in 2001 after meeting her at Ministry of Sound in 1995. They have two children.
Allsopp recently married long-term partner Ben Anderson in January; they share two sons and she is stepmother to his two older boys.
Though they don’t socialise outside of work – “It would be too much,” they said – the affection runs deep.
Spencer recently said: “I put Kirstie among the most important people in my life.”
Allsopp agreed: “We’ll never be apart. I can’t imagine a time when he and I go more than a month without seeing each other.”
Reflecting on their legacy, Allsopp wondered, “Are we in a situation where a lot of people think the best way to make an offer on a house is in a pub? Is that what we’ve achieved?”
As they toasted to the “next 25 years,” Spencer simply said: “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”