‘We’re thrilled with our new life’ say TV couple - Love Thy Neighbour winners Andrew Johnson and Vicki Allan were busy settling into their new home this week. Six months after they learned they had won the Channel 4 reality show and a £300,000 cottage in Grassington, the couple finally moved in on Saturday. They were unable to get the keys until the final show had been broadcast. And now, Andrew, 26, and Vicki, 23, are busy meeting up with old friends and rediscovering the village – without an accompanying camera crew. “It’s actually better than winning the lottery,” said Vicki. “We keep pinching ourselves, we just can’t believe it.”
Since arriving back in the village, they’ve been inundated with cards, flowers and messages from their new neighbours. Andrew and Vicki were one of 12 couples competing to win over the residents of Grassington and win the most number of votes in a village election. The couple were pitched against London high-fliers Sunny and Anoop Karir, but convinced villagers with Andrew’s business ideas and Vicki’s desire to set up dance fitness classes. Now, with no mortgage or rent to pay and the house already furnished, the couple plan to do odd jobs before settling into a routine and eventually starting a family. And the couple, who have been living with Vicki’s parents, Lesley and John Allan in Frimley, Kent, hope to get married at Linton Church in August next year.
“We’ve not been able to plan anything because we’ve not been able to tell anyone that we’ve won, and until we came up this week we’ve only been back to Grassington once,” said Vicki. “The only way I ever want to move out of this house is when it’s to a bigger one, because I want three children.” They believe programme makers Studio Lambert edited filming to make the couples appear to be more competitive than they actually were. “They wanted it to look like we were squabbling with each other,” she said. Without their accompanying television crew, Vicki and Andrew are discovering the countryside around Grassington. “Around here, it’s like the Ascot of where we come from,” said Andrew.
“It just feels really safe. You see children playing out on their own, which you don’t see down south and it feels like the kind of place you could leave your doors unlocked. It’s nice to be able to walk along the river without seeing shopping trolleys.” For now, the couple are looking to do catering, cleaning and shop work, before Andrew can establish his business as a window cleaner. He has also signed up to play with Wharfedale Rugby Club.
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