TV presenter Brendan Courtney has taken up the reins of his late friend Hugh Wallace's TV show, The Great House Revival, hoping to do justice to a project the architect was passionate about. He talks to Claire O’Mahony about fond memories, his own renovation and why an honest connection with audiences is essential.
Brendan Courtney has big boots to fill. The new series of The Great House Revival arrives following the death of its much-loved presenter, architect Hugh Wallace.
For viewers, Wallace’s enthusiasm and sharp eye were central to the programme. For Courtney, however, the loss is also personal. When he steps into the series, it is not just as a broadcaster taking on a well-known format, but as someone who had known and liked the man whose voice shaped it.
"Yeah, it’s a privilege," he says. "And it feels right because I kind of thought about it at first. Obviously, I was a bit scared, but then I thought, he was a good friend of mine, and if anybody else was doing it, I’d be raging."
Their friendship was built over time through work and shared circles. The suddenness of Wallace’s death still feels strange to him, because only days before, they had been together.
"I was with him on the Friday night before he passed away," Courtney says. "We were speaking on the phone on the Sunday. And then he was gone."
The moment the news arrived remains vivid. Courtney had been filling in on RTÉ Radio 1 that morning.
"I was covering for Oliver Callan on the Monday, and I got a phone call to say he was gone," he recalls. "And then I got a text from Martin [Wallace’s husband] to say it’s okay to announce it. So weirdly, I announced his passing to the public from Radio 1. It’s all very connected."
When asked to describe his friend, Courtney pauses. "There’s nobody like him," he says. "Like, you only get one Hugh. There was only one of them in the world."
What stands out most clearly, he explains, was Wallace’s way of thinking. He approached ideas and conversations from unexpected angles, often with humour but always with intelligence.
"He was incredibly smart, super funny, very generous, very sweet, very ethereal in his thinking," Courtney says. "He didn’t think like anybody else that I’ve ever met."
What makes the loss harder, he adds, is that Wallace had appeared to be entering a particularly contented stage of his life. It was something Courtney had noticed that final evening they spent together.
"When I was with him on the Friday before he passed, I noted how well he looked," he says. "Consciously, I thought, God, he looks great. And I thought, he’s really having his moment now. At 67 years of age, he’s coming into himself: the show’s doing well, he’s really happily married, he’s just about to move into his new house."
Their last evening together had been at the HIV Ireland Red Ball, where Courtney was hosting. "I had such a laugh with him on the Friday," he says. "Martin doesn’t drink, and I don’t really drink much, and I was working that night, so the three of us were not drinking.. We were meeting at the side of the stage and having a good old giggle about people’s behaviour."
Wallace, he adds, had a mischievous streak. "He was bold as brass. If he could wind someone up, or if he could do something bold, he’d do it."
Although Wallace cared deeply about architecture and restoration, the television aspect amused him more than anything else.
"He took the work seriously, but he didn’t take telly seriously," Courtney says. "The celebrity side of stuff and the telly stuff, he thought was funny."
Although Courtney has spent decades working in television, his involvement in The Great House Revival has given him a new appreciation for the people who choose to take on ambitious restoration projects.
"They all have one thing in common: a combination of tenacity and naivety," he says. That mixture, he believes, is almost essential for anyone attempting a major renovation project.
"You really need to be naive going into it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t do it. I think naivety is actually a very important fuel to ambition. Once you realise how long it takes, you’re a lot less likely to go again."
He speaks from experience. Over the years, he has carried out several renovations of his own, each one more ambitious than the last. "I’ve done my third renovation," he says, "and each renovation I’ve done has gotten bigger and bigger."
Watching the homeowners featured in the show still leaves him impressed by what people are willing to attempt. "I’m constantly amazed at what people take on themselves," he says.
One project that stands out involved Jill, who insulated her house herself. "She actually did the insulation of her house herself," he says.
"It’s unbelievable what she did. She saved eight or nine grand." Beyond the individual projects, Courtney believes the series has influenced how people think about property in Ireland.
"I have no doubt that Hugh’s influence and this show has changed the way people look at property," he says. More people, he believes, are beginning to see possibilities in buildings that might once have been ignored. "People do see opportunities in derelict buildings and outhouses," he says.
For Courtney, the programme also reflects a wider change in how people view Ireland itself.
"When I was a teenager, it was all about leaving," he says. "If it wasn’t going to Australia for the year, it was getting away to London or New York." Now he sees things differently. "I can’t think of anywhere better to live," he says.
If you Google 'Brendan Courtney’, one of the first things that comes up is his court case. He was assaulted last year on the quays in Dublin, and the case has now been adjourned until July.
Can he say anything about this? "No," he says.
On another personal note, I ask him about his love life; he ended a long-term relationship last year.
"Barren!" he says. "I broke up after a 10-year relationship over a year ago, but Adam and I are best friends. I love him so much. We were in the friend zone probably a few years before we broke up, and we acknowledged that’s where we were."
For now, he is comfortable not dating or being coupled up. "I decided to give myself a year of being single," he says. "Just sit with myself and not rush into anything."
Meanwhile, work continues on his own home in Wicklow, which he moved to from his Dublin city centre apartment. The house was seriously damaged when a car ploughed into it last year.
"The rain has delayed it by about two months," he says of the renovation. "So we did both at the same time. Fix the front and extend the back."
Viewers and listeners probably think they know him quite well. Does he think that being so open about his own life has helped him connect with audiences?
"Yes, of course, and I suppose it stems from a couple of things. One is being out at the start of my career. I knew, if I’m going to be out about my sexuality in Ireland in the 1990s on screen, there weren’t a lot of places to hide around that. I also was only 24 or 25, and so I didn’t really want to hide. I’d spent all my early teenage years hiding, and so the minute I got a professional role in an industry I’d only dreamt about working in, it was so important to me to be myself," he says.
"That style of presenting was the new style of presenting, which is feeling like we were getting to know the presenter as opposed to delivering a very wooden traditional piece-to-camera from a BBC type with a posh accent."
He continues: "We were coming into a new era of television, where people wanted to feel like they knew the host or they were getting insight to the host. As well, it was the start of our obsession with celebrities and getting to know them. I suppose it came from gossip, didn’t it? But it felt very natural for me to be myself. So I really feel when I’m doing radio or television, I’m really very much myself. It’s much easier to be yourself. Everyone else is taken, right?"
With the new series, Courtney says Hugh Wallace’s influence is still present. "Hugh had such a gorgeous care and attention for the home builders," he says. "He properly cared."
Even away from the cameras, Wallace stayed invested in the people he met. "They told me he’d go and visit them without filming or anything," Courtney says. "And people would fall in love with him."
The two friends were planning another television project together. "We had written a travel show called Hugh and Me," Courtney reveals. "Hugh would explain the architectural history of a place while I washed the dishes," he says. "Or he’d explain the history of the Ritz in Paris while I served breakfast."
For now, Courtney says he hopes he is doing justice to the show his friend cared so much about.
"Every time I’m driving to a shoot," he says, "I’d have a chat with him. Ask him, am I doing okay? Let me know, give me a sign."
You can watch The Great House Revival every Sunday on RTÉ One, or catch up now on RTÉ Player.
