Alnwick couple to feature on Kirstie and Phil's Love It or List It

Chris and Caroline Friend, co-ministers at Alnwick Baptist Church, are appearing on Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It.

Presenters Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer visited their four-bedroom home at Chapel Lands last summer.

The programme synopsis says that having grown up on the same street, Chris is ready for a change of scenery and a bigger, more user-friendly space for combining work and family needs - including fitting up to 14 people round a dining table.

Caroline, however, loves their home, and particularly the neighbours who brought her, Chris and their teenagers comfort while she was undergoing cancer treatment.

“We’re very excited to see the show,” said Chris. “We see it at the same time as everyone else. There’s been no preview or anything like that so we will watch it in real time like everyone else.

"It was filmed between March and September over six days. Kirstie and Phil are both as pleasant off screen as they are on screen and the production company were really good.”

He won’t divulge more details but says all the properties they visit on the show are ‘in the Alnwick area’.

In 2016, the couple embarked on a three-year training programme to become baptist community ministers.

“We’ve had that role since September 2019 and, with that, our home also became the manse,” explained Chris.

"It therefore needs to be more than a family home – a place where we can also do church stuff, where we can hold meetings and things like that.

"The house just wasn’t configured for that and me and Caroline spent 18 months talking about what we could do about it – without agreeing.

"So, on a whim, we said ‘why not apply for Love It or List It’?

"We both enjoy the programme anyway and like the concept so we applied and within three weeks the process had started.”

Kirstie and Phil's Love It or List It airs on Wednesday, January 12 at 8pm on Channel 4. It will also be available on the All 4 catch-up service.

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