An Anglo-Spanish Christmas in rural Andalucía for popular British TV show

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Combining themes of property restoration, travel and culture, Amanda Holden and Alan Carr's Spanish Job programme chronicled the pair's fruitful work in a small village in Granada province

Alekk M. Saanders

Granada

Friday, 19 December 2025, 11:15

Combining themes of property restoration, travel and culture, the television programme Amanda and Alan's Spanish Job chronicled the fruitful work of Amanda Holden and Alan Carr in a small village in Granada province.

The celebrity friends found a derelict townhouse in Moclín, located in the Alpujarra. For the BBC show, they spent a long hot summer doing major renovation work, including installing a new roof. The result was Casa Alamanda, a B&B with Spanish flavour and Alhambra motifs, themed rooms, a bar and views of the Sierra Nevada. The aim of the project after the restoration of the house was to turn it into a holiday property and sell it for charity.

Director of real estate agency Granada Village and Country Ian Rutter and his husband Andrew Watson were with Amanda and Alan from the very beginning. They became involved in the entire project with the BBC in February 2023 when researchers for the production company, Voltage TV, saw an article about rural depopulation in the Telegraph, in which they were featured.

"One of our core philosophies behind our business activities is the highlighting of problems surrounding rural depopulation, and it is for this reason we became involved in the programme. We were instrumental in bringing the programme to Moclín. So we sold the property for restoration to the BBC and we subsequently sold the restored property at the end of the filming. Proceeds from the sale are donated to two charities in the UK," Ian Rutter told SUR in English.

Farewell party

Before putting their house on the market, Amanda and Alan decided to throw a farewell party to thank all the villagers who had helped them during the project and had even become their friends.

The Brits wanted to have an Anglo-Spanish Christmas because they were curious to find out which Andalusian holiday traditions they could adopt, but at the same time, they didn't want to completely abandon their British traditions.

Ian and Andrew were also fixers on the Christmas episode, working closely with the production team and Moclín town hall. They contributed their own ideas about the traditions and customs associated with a typical Andalusian Christmas.

"Some of the suggestions for filming that we proposed included jamón carving and buying a jamón from Trevélez. The celebrities bought prawns as a traditional dish for Christmas Eve, from Motril fish market, and Alan prepared a prawn cocktail," Andrew Watson told SUR in English.

In the show the mayor of Moclín, Marco Antonio Pérez Mazuecos, is invited by Alan to help him prepare a prawn cocktail based on his mother's recipe. However, as the BBC reveals, "the mayor's penchant for Tabasco nearly upends Alan's precious recipe and he has a job on his hands to keep his sous chef under control".

Meanwhile, Amanda is in charge of desserts. She is advised to visit one of Granada's oldest bakeries to learn about the Roscón de Reyes, the traditional Three Kings cake with hidden gifts. In Granada city they also sample churros and chocolate at Café Fútbol.

Sherry trifle

The English sweet contribution to the Christmas show is Amanda's grandmother's sherry trifle, made with the help of her favourite sherry man, Juan, who travels from Jerez de la Frontera to lend a hand.

In search of drinks, Amanda and Alan, dressed in their Christmas jumpers, take part in a special cava tasting. They learn how to make the perfect seasonal cocktail.

In December, Granada province attracts visitors with both snow in the mountains and sunny beaches on the Costa Tropical. It is no surprise, then, that Alan and Amanda appear in the show both doughnutting down one of the slopes in the Sierra Nevada and relaxing on their favourite nudist beach, taking a festive dip in the sea.

Amanda and Alan still manage to get to Malaga and enjoy the Christmas lights on Calle Larios, but an equally impressive celebration awaits them in their adopted home of Moclín.

"For the filming of the Christmas episode, we had to bring Christmas forward by a week to fit in with the filming schedules. We organised, with the town hall, the traditional concert in the village square and the programme sees Alan having a quick lesson in how to play the zambomba.

"Some scenes, such as carol singing in the streets and making Christmas decorations, didn't make the final cut, but the women's association are seen decorating the square with the handmade recycled decorations," Andrew Watson said.

Benefits

"The Christmas episode brings to an end two years of work with the BBC-Voltage TV and Amanda and Alan, and it has been such an exciting and fascinating time. The programme has highlighted the real beauty of inland Andalucía and we can already see the benefits in terms of visitor numbers and inward investment that will, in turn, result in employment opportunities for local people," Ian Rutter said.

The special episode, Amanda and Alan's Spanish Christmas, was filmed at the end of November and the beginning of December 2024. It will be screened on BBC One on Monday 22 December at 9pm (UK time). The programme is already available on BBC iPlayer.