Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud joins fellow podcaster Tim Ross on a tour of Australia

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that successful podcasts inevitably turn into a live show. With our desire to see people whose voices live in our ears, accompanying us to the gym, sending us to our dreams, we are willing to pay good money to watch them chat “IRL”, as the kids call it.

That moment has arrived for the show’s hosts, Kevin McCloud and Tim Ross. Tim and Kev’s Big Design Adventure. The paint is still wet on the joint audio initiative, which was launched in August and has not yet passed the 20-episode mark. But its popularity is so high — Apple’s podcast editors recently ranked it in the Top 10 — that some performances on the duo’s upcoming five-city Australian tour have already sold out.

Like many public endeavors, podcasting is not a level playing field; A touch of fame gives you a distinct advantage. McCloud, 66, is a well-known name presenting the British edition. Great Designs For more than 25 years. Ross, 55, cut his teeth on breakfast radio as one half of Merrick and Rosso before turning his love of modernist furniture into a career making design and architecture documentaries. Both men have rusty audiences. In 2019, two shows at the Sydney Opera House sold out.

Successful podcast duos need chemistry, of course. McCloud and Ross have been friends for more than 10 years and met when the Brit appeared on Ross’ ABC soap. Streets of Your City. Even on a Zoom call from opposite ends of the world, you can tell their love runs deep.

“There is an ease and warmth to our friendship,” says Ross. “On our last trip to the UK, we spent all day recording, seeing things, and having incredible conversations. But even before we did all that, we spent a few hours eating breakfast and just chatting. We never seem to run out of things to talk about, and I think that’s really special. The older you get, the more important your friendships become, and caring and thoughtful people are the ones who rise to the top of the heap.”

It’s possible McCloud might be blushing at this point. But he’s also enthusiastic when I ask him why Ross is such an important friend. “When I look at Tim, I see a better version of myself,” he says. “I admire him as a broadcaster, writer and comedian, but there are also personal things that I really admire, really personal things about family and warmth of heart.”

I think this is a design-focused friendship. “Well, in some ways it’s a slow friendship,” says Ross, calling from the modernist home he shares in Sydney with wife Michelle Glew-Ross and young sons Bugsy and Bobby. “Sometimes it’s just emails and annual briefings, but when we meet, we fit in a lot.”

McCloud, who is also at home in the Herefordshire countryside in a house he shields from public scrutiny (more on this later), thinks technology has helped him maintain his long-distance friendship. “We both have small studios at home,” he explains. “We use this incredible software that provides ultra-high-definition audio. When I put on my headphones and sit next to the microphone, it’s like we’re sitting next to each other. You don’t start a friendship that way, but the nice thing is that when we meet once or twice a year, it’s like we’ve never been apart.”

The idea for a podcast on “people, space, design and architecture” emerged about two years ago. McCloud says it’s just a way for two friends to meet, have some fun, and enjoy a shared passion. “We’re just laughing,” he insists. “We didn’t set out to do this for anyone but ourselves.” I’m not sure I believe him. It’s clear that they both take it completely seriously in terms of the research, scripting, and editing required to make each episode coherent, informative, and entertaining.

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There is no doubt that the pleasure of traveling light without the need for the equipment and personnel required by television. They share a rental car, choose their own itinerary, and head to whatever catches their eye. “When we went to Park Hill in Sheffield [a heritage-listed housing estate built between 1957 and 1961] We saw a group of people from all over the world walking towards us, consisting of two old men and a group of children in their early 20s. ‘This is an architectural study tour,’ I told Tim. And it was. We stayed there for a while, chatted with them and recorded it. “If you were with a film crew there was absolutely no way you could capture this.”

So far most Grand Design Adventure Recorded in England. They visited landmarks such as the Isokon building in north London, the David Mellor cutlery factory in Derbyshire and The Homewood, a modernist house built by architect Patrick Gwynne in Surrey. Some destinations are less obvious than others. McCloud waxes poetic about an Arne Jacobsen-designed petrol station in Denmark, and Ross launches a trip to Wrexham to explore how the Welsh city has changed since its football team was bought by a pair of Hollywood actors in 2021.

Aside from serious discussions about design and its impact on the way we live, McCloud and Ross often veer into more lighthearted areas. Topics like Skippy’s gender, his favorite biscuits, and the origins of the Splayd, the hybrid gadget that became a ubiquitous wedding gift in the 1970s, perfectly capture Ross’s sense of humor. “If there’s a better tool for cooking lasagna than the Splayd, I haven’t found it yet.”

The podcast will take on a more Australian flavor during the live tour. Venues such as the National Library of Australia in Canberra, the St George Performing Arts Center in St Kilda and the Brisbane Legacy Museum will provide the setting for future episodes. “I want Kev to see the Brisbane I love and the people I love,” Ross says. “I fell in love with that city because of the people and the architecture. The tour is a tour of discovery in some ways. It’s not just a case of ‘we’re here, we’re performing, thank you very much, see you later’.”

You can forgive them for leaning on their public personas when recording the podcast. Ross, the boy from Mount Eliza, has the laconic ease of the average Aussie. McCloud is open and friendly, but there is something very British about this Cambridge-educated design historian, with his taste for bespoke tweed suits and a willingness to describe a building as a “minimalist monastic temple” without discernible irony.

McCloud couldn’t agree less. “I’m not a typical Englishman,” he says. “I’ve always felt out of sorts in this country.” Actually, he might have been Australian. By the late 1950s their parents were determined to become “Ten Pound Poms”; Their places were reserved, a new life was waiting. But the adventure was canceled when his mother became pregnant and he was born in a hospital in Luton, an English town now famous for its airport and little else.
Growing up in Bedfordshire, McCloud felt a strong connection to Australia. His uncle, an artist, managed to emigrate, and Kevin had one of his paintings, “A semi-abstract landscape of the Outback,” on his bedroom wall.

“Australia was in our lives. I grew up with airmail letters that said Sydney Opera House on the envelope, my uncle’s painting, and the boomerang he sent me. It was a life we ​​had never lived, and it was very attractive to me.”

Ross also acknowledges a certain sense of dislocation. “I’ve always considered myself an unorthodox Anglophile,” he suggests. “The bond between Australians and Brits is a remarkable thing, isn’t it? There is a desire to find meaning in each other’s countries and an endless pull in both directions. This doesn’t happen anywhere else.”

The first episode of the podcast was recorded at Ross’ home and is covered in great detail. I ask McCloud when he’s going to fight back, even though I know full well he won’t. “I knew this would turn out great,” he sighed. “This is not only my home, this is my first job. The other one is the name of my day job.” Great Designs And I’m supposed to be an arbiter, a voice of disaster, a Cassandra if you will. If someone saw my house they might say: ‘What makes him qualified to say these things?’ If you’re not careful, you’ll damage your reputation. It wouldn’t matter one bit if I were presenting an ice dance show, but I don’t care.”

Actually it is not. But if it did, I’d probably pay to watch it, especially if Tim Ross was a contestant.

Kevin McCloud and Tim Ross: Live in Interesting Places at Melbourne’s Capitol Theater on 7 February and at St Georges Performing Arts Center on 8 February; Brisbane Old Museum on 11 February and the TRI Building on 12 February; Lindfield Learning Village, Sydney, on 14 February; National Library of Australia, Canberra, 15 and 16 February; and the State Library of NSW on 18 February.