With Amanda Holden and Alan Carr’s hit DIY show back on TV soon, we spoke to real women doing it for themselves

With Amanda Holden and Alan Carr (fresh from his Celebrity Traitors win) unveiling not one but two new treats from their hit brand of DIY/travel show this week – Amanda & Alan's Spanish Christmas special, plus new series Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job, freshly confirmed for early January – we’re getting ready to enjoy more of their reality/comedy exploits from the comfort of our sofas.

If your viewing attitudes have been anything like ours, you may have also thought, “Better them than me” as the pair set about, each series, on their quest to transform a crumbling European building into a gorgeous contemporary palace – with much slapstick chaos ensuing along the way.

And it sounds like the new Greek series will offer more of the same, with the pair admitting in their early press releases that “this was probably the worst [house to start on] yet.”

Amanda added, “It didn’t have stairs inside, it didn’t have windows... oh yes, and there was a message in blood written on the door outside!”

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Breaking walls down

Much of the show’s comedy is centred around the notion that, at first glance, Amanda and Alan do not look like your average hearty “get stuck in” types. They play up their lack of skills for laughs, often roping in brawny local tradesmen when disaster strikes.

Essentially, of course, the joke is on them, as a few of the doubters are invited back for the Christmas special to bask in the glory of A’n’A’s actually pretty decent job on their latest home in Spain.

However, the caricature strikes a chord.

Indeed, a survey from earlier this year showed that a worrying 71% of UK women confessed to aligning with the statement “I am not confident at any form of DIY”.

The impact of learning to do it yourself

But what if that didn’t have to be the case? Around the country we found a growing number of DIY 'evening schools' often run by and for women and other groups who are often underrepresented in the DIY world.

Starting by taking a tiling course myself – at London’s magical grotto-like The Good Life Centre in Southwark – I was amusingly told that I was “the muckiest pup in the group.”

But I also took the opportunity to ask the centre's founder, Alison Winfield-Chislett, who is also author of The Girl’s Guide to DIY, whether she’d ever been positively surprised or vindicated by the progress of attendees, particularly women, on her course. Her answer was “absolutely.”

"So this woman came to one of my courses and I asked [the attendees] why they were here. She burst into tears, and it transpired that she and her husband had purchased a retirement house. He had gutted it and then sadly, soon after died. So she was living in a completely gutted house without any skills. She stayed in my mind."

Stories like this are surprisingly common. I've spoken to a range of women who have refused to let the stereotypes win – for a range of reasons we’ll explore here.

A huge independence boost

Claire Bennett, 47, is a lecturer in radiography based in Bristol and a mother of two teenagers. When her husband died suddenly in March 2023, she says, “my life suddenly changed in a split second.”

“He did all the DIY, the garden, and stuff. I did all the cooking and cleaning,” she admits. “With all of the traumatic experiences, it took me a long time, but after two and a half years [of seeking help from tradespeople] I thought, 'I'm just paying people to do jobs for me at the moment. But I've got a long time ahead, by myself. And... I need to show [the children] that we can do this. We can do life.' I wanted to be a role model.”

That’s when she decided to do a course at Bristol’s BePractical centre. “I wanted to do a course so I could understand things in the house,” she continues. “But also, then to teach [my kids] because they haven't got their dad any more. I want to be able to give them some skills and make them more independent."

Demystifying houses

It was a tragically similar story for another Be Practical Centre (Bristol) course alumni, Jo Bonwick, who is a former COO and mother of two from Hampshire.

“I lost my husband a couple of years ago,” she begins. “All of the sorts of things that he did, I just had to get somebody to do.”

“[My husband and I] shared every task in a very 1950s way. Well, not totally, but my husband was in the trade, so naturally if something wanted doing, he'd get the drill out. So I hadn't even lifted the screwdriver.”

Attending the BePractical course “demystified” many of the processes involved with house maintenance, says Jo. “The first thing I did – and anybody that does DIY will go, 'Well, that's not difficult, is it?' – was I plumbed my washing machine in [when I moved into my new house]. I felt just such a massive sense of achievement.”

Build confidence with tradespeople

Caroline Henn is the founder of BePractical (and incidentally cited by many of her students as an inspiration herself). She describes some of the more teeth-clenchingly frustrating anecdotes she has heard from participants.

“I've had customers coming through the door saying that they've had tradespeople working in their street,” she says, “and they have been charged different prices than their neighbours because they're a woman on their own. Which absolutely infuriates me. That should not be happening and should be challenged.”

Among the lessons she most wants to impart is what to do when the course is over: “I do an awful lot of encouraging people to understand how their homes work. And I send them home after my beginner's course with homework to go and identify where their isolation valves are and all their pipework.

"I think knowledge is so powerful and I think it's an area where people feel like it's a bit like magic and we're not going to understand it and it isn't.”

Deploy your patience and creativity

As head of buying at B&Q, Laura Nicholson was already a dab hand at getting crafty, but even with her credentials she admits to some misgivings when it came to tackling buying her first home: “It marked a turning point. It needed refurbishment and modernising, and I was nervous but excited. Starting out in life, money was tight, so I learned to stretch my resources and my skills.

"I got the basics down: hanging pictures, setting up shelves, doing small gardening jobs.”

The difference, she says, was having some great role models growing up: “I grew up in a single-parent home, where my mum was my first role model for practical living. Her mantra was simple but powerful: ‘Try to do it yourself first.’ Watching her tackle household tasks, I learned that with a little patience and creativity, most problems could be solved with your own two hands.”

When it comes to tackling micro-aggressions, particularly when shopping for tools and DIY materials in B&Q or other hardware stores, Laura advises: “Ask our store teams for guidance, no question is a silly one. Remember you’re more capable than you think.”

In terms of boosting confidence, she also has a few suggestions: “Why not join a DIY group on Facebook and share your projects with your friends who will help boost your confidence with their unwavering love and support? And keep track of your DIY firsts to see how your confidence builds. You can track your progress and treat yourself after each project with a treat or mini celebration.”

Alan Carr, when describing the new BBC series, reflected on how much he and Amanda have achieved and how there's always something more to learn. He says, “What makes this one really special is that even though we’re getting better at DIY, even when we saw the state of house at the beginning my heart genuinely sunk. But the transformation was mind-blowing.”

Amanda & Alan's Spanish Christmas airs on Mon 22 Dec 2025 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job will begin on BBC One on Friday 2 January 2026.