Phil Spencer puts on a brave face as he laughs with with Kirstie
Grieving Phil Spencer puts on a brave face as he laughs on set with Kirstie Allsopp as he returns to work after both his parents were killed in a car crash
Grieving Phil Spencer put on a brave face as he laughed on set while filming alongside Kirstie Allsopp on Tuesday, after returning to work following the tragic death of his beloved parents.
The presenter, 53, announced last month his father David, 89, and mother Anne, 82, had died in a crash on their family farm in Littlebourne, near Canterbury, Kent, as they were making their way to the pub for some lunch.
Kirstie took to Instagram to share a sneak peek behind the scenes after Phil returned to work last week.
Uploading a few snaps of them getting their make-up done to be camera ready, Kirstie wrote: ‘Back at work and a special treat, we’ve got make up. We don’t usually have glamour help on @c4locationsofficial or @loveitorlistituk but when Phil and I do studio work (which usually means being at mine) we do.’
Fans took to the comment section to say how good it was to see a grieving Phil have people around him to put a smile back on his face.
Supported: Phil Spencer laughed on set as he filmed alongside Kirstie Allsopp on Tuesday, after returning to work following the tragic death of his beloved parents
Back at work: Phil returned to work last week, with Kirstie taking to Instagram to share a sneak peek behind the scenes
Heartbreaking: Phil’s parents, David, 89, and Anne, 82, both died last month after their car careened over a bridge and landed upside down in a river
Fans wrote: ‘You always look lovely, bare faced or made up. Give Phil a hug from me.’
‘I’m thinking Phil would be happy to get back to ‘business as usual’ with you. Time to start bossing him about again. He’ll know you (and us) care about him and his family.’
‘Never stop being nice to Phil!’ and ‘Aww please promise you’ll forever be nice to Phil’.
Phil was seen for the first time since their passing in a video shared by his co-host Kirstie Allsopp last Tuesday, as she revealed the pair were back on set of their much-loved property show.
Kirstie began the video by explaining: ‘So we’re back at work filming on Location, Location, Location and I didn’t quite know what my next post on Instagram should be.
‘My last post was about Phil’s mum and dad and you all sent such lovely lovely messages and Phil was so grateful…’ prompting Phil to interrupt and confirm: ‘Very grateful, and I haven’t put anything on Instagram either, but I do appreciate peoples’ lovely comments.’
Kirsty added: ‘You see, he’s English and he’s a man, he’s just done really really well so round of applause to Phil for doing that and thank you, you’ve all been so kind.’
She captioned the clip: ‘He’s back at work, and was very, very touched by all your messages, I even managed to get him to say it on Insta. Bless him.’
‘Give Phil a hug from me’: Fans took to the comment section to say how good it was to see a grieving Phil have people around him to put a smile back on his face
Last week, Kirstie revealed despite the recent heartbreak that took place at Garrington Farm, Phil’s family are still going about their lives as best they could.
She told BBC’s Newscast podcast: ‘[Phil’s] got a lovely, lovely family and they’re very, very close and they’re all together.
‘In fact, his sister was married yesterday, which they went ahead with and today they’re all going to the pub for lunch. The same pub that his parents were on the way to when they died.
‘He’s very stoical and pragmatic, and he feels very strongly that it was the right thing that his parents went together.’
Flowers have been left at the remote spot Phil’s parents who both died after their car careened over a bridge and landed upside down in a river.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics and Phil’s brother Robert, who fought to save his parents’ lives by cutting their seatbelts using a penknife and pulling them from the river, the elderly couple were unable to be revived.
Anne, who was given clearance to drive after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, is understood to have been behind the wheel at the time.
Her husband was in the front passenger seat and a live-in carer – an agency nurse – was in the back seat and managed to scramble out of the car via a window and summon help.
Despite the devastating news, Phil said in the Instagram post announcing his parents’ death that he and his whole family are glad they were with each other at the end.
READ MORE: Phil Spencer and his siblings retell heart-warming tale of how their parents met at New Year’s Eve party
He wrote: ‘Very sadly both of my amazing parents died on Friday.
‘As a family we are all trying to hold onto the fact Mum and Dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one. Which is a blessing in itself.
‘Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), Mum’s Parkinson’s and Dad’s Dementia had been worsening and the long term future was set to be a challenge.
‘So much so that Mum said to me only a week ago that she had resigned to thinking ‘now it looks like we will probably go together’. And so they did.
‘That was what God had planned for them – and it was a good plan.’
David and Anne met at a New Year’s Eve party in the early 1960s, around the time he ended a short career in finance and instead bought Lower Garrington Farm.
The couple’s daughter, Helen, described it as a ‘step into the unknown’ as she told how David showed Anne the farmhouse before asking her to marry him.
The happy couple then married at Canterbury Cathedral on November 4, 1964, before raising their children alongside running the new family business.
Robert told KentOnline: ‘It was a mixed farm back then with a bit of everything going on, so Dad had very little downtime and was grateful for all the help he got from fellow farmers when he was starting out.’
He explained how David’s passion was growing hops, and was sad to give it up in the 1990s when it was no longer financially viable.
The father-of-four had studied engineering at Loughborough University, which came in handy for repairing machinery and buildings around the farm.
Shocking: Flowers were left at the remote spot Phil’s parents, David, 89, and Anne, 82, who both died after their car careened over a bridge and landed upside down in a river
Retirement plan: David bought Garrington Farm, where the couple lived for decades, shortly after leaving a career in finance
Robert added: ‘They gave us an idyllic life as kids growing up on the farm. They would have never left the farmhouse, which will always be the hub of the family.’
Anne was a lover of horseriding and for many years was a member of the East Kent Hunt and a volunteer for the Cobbes Meadow Riding for the Disabled Group at Chartham.
A trustee for the charity told how Anne was a ‘hugely popular instructor’ amongst the children they helped, and she was ‘always cheerful and smiling’.
David’s best friend, Stephen Twyman, had known the 89-year-old since childhood and said he was a ‘lovely man, quiet and considerate’.
Source: Read Full Article
