Mary Killen and Giles Wood, t?e breakout stars ?f ‘s Gogglebox, live ?n what they ??ll the Grottage – a ?ong red-brick house ?n a hamlet in Wiltshire, with ? thatched roof th?t Giles hates ?s water pours off it on t? his head.
?heir home is f?ll ?f paintings, books, Mary’s hats ?nd ?ack copies ?f Tatler. It’s t?? kind of house I l?ke, but t?ey th?nk it i? tatty. T?ey were shamed ?nto r?-upholstering a chair t?ey sat on for Gogglebox ?ecause viewers ?n said it l?oked dirty.
A dog, Merlin, lies on the sofa.
I ?m not here b?c?us? ?f Gogglebox, no? in its tenth year, ??ng h? n? ??p chính hãng even though t?e couple ?ive perfect impersonations ?f their onscreen selves ?ll d?y.
Giles says mad things to get Mary’s attention. She says sens?ble things and soothes h?m o? gets cross. A journalist and agony aunt, sh? is ‘a professional diplomat’. ?e is a painter who ?on’t paint, but spends his tim? in t?e garden.
They have writt?n a book – a miscellany of their lives and opinions – cal?ed Country Life: A Story of Peaks ?nd Troughs.
Mary ?rites ?bout leaving Northern Ireland for England at 18, and h?w to b? sociable; Giles reflects ?n ?is obsession ?ith ecology ?nd how not to be sociable. ?he two are coy ab?ut t?eir ages, but are cl?arly in t?eir 60?.
Mary Killen ?nd Giles Wood, t?e breakout stars ?f Channel 4’s Gogglebox, live in w?at they c?ll t?e Grottage – a long red-brick house ?n a hamlet in Wiltshire
?hey are long wed (they married m??e than 30 ?ears ago) and contradict ea?? other ?hile finishing each ot??r’s sentences ?o m? transcript reads like a Noël Coward play.
When I arrive, Giles ?s out and Mary giv?s me tea and a brownie.
She is very beautiful, and easy to talk to. ?er column, Dear Mary, in The Spectator, i? a?out keeping friends. T?ey moved f?om Chelsea to Wiltshire ?n 1988, ?h? says, becaus? he? friend Candida Lycett Green, the daughter ?f poet Sir John Betjeman, ?as living there.
‘I swapped gaiety for financial advantage. ?t ?as m?ch cheaper t? be here,’ sh? s?ys, ‘and I h?d a crush on Candida, who I th?ught ?as a?solutely perfect. ? w?nted to be in t?e satellite ?f her ?orld.
It’? cert?inly better for Giles, ?ho is not a city person ?t all. He wou?d ?ave be?n unhappy, the children [their two daughters, Rosy and Fleur] wo?ld h??e be?n unhappy, t?ey ?ould h??? ?ot into sex and done drugs at a young age.’
Giles ?omes in. ‘Nutty?’ he calls. (Confusingly, t?ey both call ?ach ?ther Nutty.) Mary ?ants to s?ow me the area, ?ut I ?on’t have a jacket, so Giles hangs h?s sheepskin coat ?n me.
