Esme Young's eight-year friendship with Patrick Grant: from arguments to karaoke nights

Although Patrick Grant initially judged on the Great British Sewing Bee alongside May Martin, we can't imagine anyone else other than Esme Young by his side now.

The fashion designer joined the show in 2016 and it appears that she and Patrick immediately hit it off and became firm friends, and their chemistry is certainly something to be seen, and Patrick even believes that this is part of why viewers continuously tune in.

"Esme, [former host] Joe and I have a real laugh and hopefully the audience are partly responding to that," the star shared with the Radio Times.

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Despite having such a great bond, Esme has admitted that the pair still "fight" and this is regularly over who should be sent home or crowned the winner on the Great British Sewing Bee.

Patrick confirmed they had arguments and joked that Esme usually would get her way. "We sometimes have quite serious conversations," he said. "We have a lot of discussion… and most of the time Esme gets her way."

Elaborating further on this with Gathered, Esme explained: "We have to have a really good conversation about it, but we never fall out. We always end up agreeing, but we'll go through this, that and the other to get to the decision."

It's not just on-screen that the pair have a strong bond, with Patrick confirming they have a WhatsApp group. When this nugget was shared, comedian Joe Lycett still hosted the BBC show, so presumably he came up with the name of "Sew Macho".

The 75-year-old revealed that she still kept in regular contact with Joe, but also surprisingly revealed that she and Patrick had done karaoke together, describing it as "great fun".

Patrick added in a separate interview: "That's becoming something of a crew tradition now, the karaoke. It's so nice we get to socialise because for three years we weren't allowed to outside of filming because of Covid."

It's not just karaoke that the duo do together. With the team having a lot of downtime due to the length of challenges, it turns out they have various ways to keep themselves entertained, including paying for pogo sticks.

"I think I managed to bounce Esme about 10 years across the floor – but that was pre-health and safety," Patrick teased."

Patrick has been particularly enthusiastic about how the show has improved since Esme joined, praising her for allowing contestants to explore their creative sides instead of just focusing on the technical aspect.

He told : "Now, if you're going to win this show, you have to have creativity and skill. And Esme was a big part of that – to begin with, we were a much more technical show, but when Esme took over, the creativity of the contestants was so much more of what Esme wanted to see."

DISCOVER: The Great British Sewing Bee: judges and presenters who left and where they are now

READ: The Great British Sewing Bee star Esme Young's home life away from cameras