Inside Richard E. Grant’s Georgian house at Christmas

I had a two hour one-to-one conversation

this close with Barbra Streisand.

At the end of my conversation I said,

I have commissioned a two foot tall sculpture

of your head for our garden.

And she said, You're crazy.

And I said, Yes, I know that.

So here it is.

[upbeat music]

It's a Georgian rectory built in 1840

and it's in southwest London.

It looks from the outside like a Charles drawing.

It feels like something

that I suppose I'd fantasize about living in

since I was a little boy.

I've had people come into the house

and go, oh, I can't look at all these masks.

They freak me out or there's too much stuff.

Or other people come in and say,

feel like I've always lived here.

I think because of my job, you have to try

and inhabit other people's lives.

So masks, puppets, portraits, people and pictures

is what I've mostly collected and responded to.

This celebrated American design Nancy Lancaster,

she designed a house in Mayfair

and had a yellow drawing room

that was on the cover of a magazine.

And my wife said, we are always painting the rooms,

that's the color we should have in this drawing room.

It took a few goes to get the right color of paint.

It feels sunny in the day,

especially when it's the middle of winter as we are now.

It always feels bright and lift your spirits.

And at night, the combination of candlelight

and the yellow wall

seemed to sort of double up the glow of it.

My wife and I bought everything in pairs

and this room is testament to that.

There are two of absolutely everything all the way around.

My wife died three years ago, four days before she died,

she said, I charge you both to try

and find a pocket full of happiness in each day.

It has proved to be an extraordinarily wise mantra.

[upbeat music]

So this is a room that my wife

used to teach actors in privately

because she was a dialect coach,

we now use it to play the piano and as a reading room.

The most important thing about reading is that you have

to find a good comfortable chair that you can then,

you know, pretend that you're reading

and then just quietly nod off.

That's the idea.

The piano is a friend of mine's and he moved apartment

and he couldn't fit it in his new place.

So he lent it to me 25 years ago

and hasn't asked for it back yet.

[gentle music]

So it sounds terrible,

but the central heating makes it go all wonky.

So it sounds like a honky tonk,

which is good for Christmas carols, cheers everybody up.

[upbeat music]

I made dolls houses for my daughter when she was little.

I made a replica of our house in doll's house form,

so she would play with that.

It's a whole other subculture

of collecting in miniature form.

This used to be the original kitchen

and the stove used to be in here

and then previous owners took the aga from here

and put it into the conservatory.

So because it's right next to the kitchen

and there's a television here as well,

it's very easy to eat and graze outta the fridge

and watch TV in front of the fire in here,

especially in the winter.

All the sofas in the house have come from George Smith

in New Kings Road.

You just can buy them off the shop floor, which is great,

because you don't have to wait too long,

as I'm very impatient.

These are cassette box holders that I bought in Habitat.

Just painted them and cut out photographs from old albums

and just put them on here

like little miniature 3D stage set.

This is a kitchen conservatory,

obviously has the most light in the house.

So very attractive to be in.

I like Hyacinth and paper whites for Christmas

because it brings spring into your house,

albeit forced in the middle of winter.

[upbeat music]

My wife embroidered

every single cushion that's in this house.

So once a year she did a cushion cover

or something that was on a frame, of key events

or people or movies or jobs that we did.

So that our whole history of our marriage

is in these embroidered things around the house.

So even though she's not physically here, you know,

all the things that she made are still around me.

I'll show you the outdoor pergola

where we can eat outside 'cause there's a fire.

Come and have a look.

So this is a pergola, eat outside

and even though it's a walled garden

and you know surrounded by greenery,

you can still hear the road just over the wall at all times,

which is why I bought

this huge 18th century Italian fountain

so that the water distracts you from sound of the road.

[upbeat music]

These copper panels here,

they're from the 1870s from Manchester

and I bought them from an antique dealer

because they thought that it was too low.

So I wanted something, a freeze on the top

and then people can be in here and then dance in there.

So it's a great outdoor space.

If it's not raining, put the fire on

and sit out here

and eat leftovers on Boxing Day.

Barbra Streisand, her preferred left profile

and surrounded by Precinmac from the film of Saltburn.

The Jo Malone perfume shops had these baubles

as part of their Christmas decorations,

so I got about 40 of them,

the perfect frame for her.

[upbeat music]

My candle bill is very large, burn a lot of candles

because it's the best lighting if you're over 35 years old,

which I astonishingly am,

candlelight is the most gorgeous thing.

I've been to a Catholic church supply shop in Paris

that you can buy these long wax tapers

so you don't have to go round with a match

or burn yourself with a cigarette lighter.

Well, it's really getting darker, yes, Christmas is coming.

So thank you very much for joining me

and I wish you all a great Christmas.

I think this is alcoholic.

I'm allergic to alcohol, so I'll have

the tea champagne version,

one I prepared earlier, cheers.

[upbeat music]