To The Manor Bowen — Season 1, Episode 8: Lairy Christmas
Reality • 60 min • 1 season, 8 episodes
Episode synopsis
It’s now 7 months since the Bowens first arrived in the village, which they’ve christened Poshington, and although rather broke, they have succeeded in transforming their tired run down manor house in to a very special family home. We look back at their momentous year and watch as they create some Christmas magic in the run up to the festive season. Laurence instructs the family on the finer intricacies of bauble decorating and Jackie provides the merriness, with her homemade sloe gin. We see the Bowens on their Christmas present trolley dash round Fortnum and Masons and Jackie succumbing to the stresses of festive preparations as she tries to involve the girls in baking Christmas tree decorations. Laurence also has a surprise for Jackie. He invites celebrated artist Sheree Valentine Daines to immortalise her in oil – so that the Manor house gets a matching pair of Llewelyn-Bowen portraits for its walls. To help the Bowen’s look back at the whirlwind that has been their existence since moving to the countryside – the builders, gardeners, raffle winners and friends reflect on the experiences that they’ve shared together. As the halls of the Manor get decked out in Christmas finery, the Bowens glam up as special guests of honour at a Christmas charity ball and the whole of Cirencester turns out in force to watch Laurence and family switch on the Christmas Lights. The series closes with one final intriguing Bowen twist, which will leave the viewers guessing.
About To The Manor Bowen
To The Manor Bowen follows Changing Rooms design guru Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his wife Jackie, their two idiosyncratic kids, batty old grandma and their eccentric entourage to the heart of the English countryside in their quest to buy a grand new home. Jackie is tired of the London celebrity treadmill and is on a mission to get her family and staff to move to the country in search of the simple life. Laurence, a Londoner through and through, is less enthusiastic. But undeterred Jackie finds herself a run down 17th century manor house in the West Country and buys it. Luckily Laurence loves it too, and put his reputation, finances and family’s happiness on the line by moving everyone into this rundown rural ruin while they attempt to transform it into a magnificent family home. The beautifully surprising and refreshingly unpredictable Llewelyn-Bowens open their normally tightly-bolted celebrity doors to give us a peek at their unconventional and unruly family life.