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Original poster

To get a bit annoyed when Dick and Angel Strawbridge insist they're "normal"

312 replies

Frankola · 01/12/2019 13:34

I love Escape To The Chateau. I love Dick and Angel. I really do.

However, it really annoys me when they frequently insist that they are "every day people" and that "anyone can do it".

They ARE NOT every day people! Dick is a respected engineering and environmental expert who has appeared on tele for years before ETC. He's done Scrap Heap Challenge, Coast and all sorts!

Angel is actually a qualified chartered accountant with a professional background in business studies. She was a successful businesswoman in London, creating The Vintage Patisserie hospitality business and also appeared on Dragons Den - where she secured funding for her latest investment.

They were introduced by their agent. Does that sound "normal" to you?

Do every day couples pitch their search for a new life to production companies? Channel 4 even funded their house searching France for them to find the Chateau as they approached them from the very beginning of their project to maximise the potential they saw in this.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for their success. But I find it a bit insulting almost to expect the doting British public to just buy that these people could be any Tom, Dick or Harry (pun intended).

Any one else feel like this?

OP posts:
hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:37

because you're very doom and gloom aren't you?

you think their relationship is destined to fail for x amount of reasons. Baring in mind you don't even know these people.

Bit miserable innit.

Yes one generation is 15 years (is it? I dunno!) but you said generations... which they aren't!

do you look at all your friends and think well they wont last because x y z?

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:38

Ok bolly

I'll back away now...

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:39

what like im the weird one! Grin

I just think its odd that you have thought so deeply into why they will inevitably break up!

mistydayswampwitch · 02/12/2019 12:44

Billie- why do you keep going on about this being a second marriage? It's not the 1950's anymore. People get re married. It's really not as taboo as you seem to be pushing.

theoriginalmadambee · 02/12/2019 12:50

Soo late to the party, but op asked if they were 'normal', of course they are, all you got to do is built an extention or something and tell production companies, I'm sure you will be flooded with offers Grin.

What I would like to know is their total spend, they always tell what the chateau initially cost, but it must be a whole lot more by now.

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:55

madam I would like to know that too. I expect its probably quite a lot. It will easily pay for itself now I expect.

theoriginalmadambee · 02/12/2019 12:59

bolly it actually annoys me a bit, because of the 'ohh everybody can do this'. They must have poured ££ into it Smile.

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 13:03

madam I think they probably have spent a fair bit, but I think they've been fairly open in that one wedding has paid for doing the next room and so on, I suspect a lot of money has come from events which they've then put back into the reno works.

I would assume it will be an awful lot, but I don't think most of it will have come from their pocket, but profit from the chateau itself.

They said at the start Dick had to go away for work to raise more cash, so I assume that probably happens regularly or certainly did towards the start.

theoriginalmadambee · 02/12/2019 13:08

Exactly bolly, though I guess they have to have quite a substantial external income. Their net income per wedding cannot be that big surely?

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 13:11

I have no idea, but I imagine their net income from a wedding is probably pretty good.

They have little cost for a wedding, they already own the chateau, the van, they have only a few staff, the flowers are all from their garden, some of the food from there too. It probably doesn't cost them that much to hold a wedding

I don't know what they charge but It will not be cheap, even more so now because it will have a good reputation and also its been on tele. They will also charge to let out however many rooms for prob 2 or 3 nights.

I bet they make a decent profit on a wedding.

WiddlinDiddlin · 02/12/2019 13:20

How is it patronising to say some people have a wider circle of friends, acquaintances etc etc than others, it certainly wasn't intended that way, it's more a statement of fact surely!

My partners dad has an incredibly limited circle of friends as he has a very specific interest/hobby... up until his wife died they had next to no friends at all, people he knew at work and a couple of neighbours and as far as I know, they were both absolutely fine with that. Now he plays guitar with a few bands and his new girlfriend is involved in that scene the only people he really knows and socialises with are musicians, and again he's more than happy with that (and has a better social life than I do, in his mid 70s!)

My dad on the other hand had (I say had as many are dead now) a very wide circle of friends from a wide variety of backgrounds, mostly to do with his hobby, that took him around the world on expeditions, and their kids are now my friends.

One of my relatives is doing a very similar thing to Dick and Angel, only not in france (somewhere else you can buy large properties cheaply)... the difference is they don't have a tv company following them about but otherwise it's the same thing... do a bit up, make it pay its way to do the next bit up, rely on income from other sources to keep everything afloat.

Why do people have to assume all sorts of nasty stuff just because someones on tv?

Thornhill58 · 02/12/2019 13:38

@Digestive28 his son was in the last episode. He is a grown man. They seem to have a wonderful relationship and his son came to help them with a celebration.
I think you are judging them with very little knowledge.

CoolcoolcoolcoolcoolNoDoubt · 02/12/2019 13:42

I've only just (within the last week) started watching Escape to the Chateau and to be honest, I'm in awe of them. I tire of redecorating one room at a time in a normal house, there's no way I could comprehend taking on a project of that scale. Yet they manage to keep going and are quite chirpy along with it - hats off to them.

BigSandyBalls2015 · 02/12/2019 14:24

What a crazy thread! I think they're fab and they look exceptionally happy together. Both of them are very talented. Good luck to them.

Poutintrout · 02/12/2019 15:45

No, they are not "normal" but that doesn't diminish from the fact that, in my opinion, it is a lovely programme and they are exceptionally talented people living what looks like quite an envious life. I look forward to the programme and find both Dick and Angel very endearing. It makes me smile to think of all the wonderful memories their children will have. Good luck to them I say.

BitOfFun · 02/12/2019 16:23

I have nothing useful to add, but that fifty chicken rotisserie was pretty impressive Grin.

Tally911 · 02/12/2019 17:13

Ignoring the first family.....how on earth do you know that!!!!
He had been split from his first wife for 6 years!!! His children have family’s if their own ...
That’s weird...,

Tally911 · 02/12/2019 17:18

To hold a wedding their is up to £35,000
Take the cost of food ... the cost of 9 staff
The french taxes...,don’t go there!
The fact that’s for THREE days when most wedding venues here are anything up to £25,000 FOR ONE DAY
It’s cheap!

Tally911 · 02/12/2019 17:19

Chickens mmmm!

Bubblysqueak · 02/12/2019 19:06

In some of the early episodes they ran out of money and Dick had to go back to England to work to earn the money to do extra work on the chateau.

CurbsideProphet · 02/12/2019 19:24

@BitOfFun wasn't it just Grin

Trigger4x · 02/12/2019 19:44

Love this programme, Dick and Angel seem like lovely people, they have worked so hard and their place is amazing, would love to go there one day.
They can do anything they put their minds too and their kids are so cute.

JolieOBrien · 02/12/2019 20:10

@Tally911

No wonder they are millionaires... I would not pay that much for a wedding myself ...

PotteryWheel · 02/12/2019 21:03

Gosh, they won’t be millionaires, or anywhere near. What they seem to have is a successfully-functioning business, helped considerably by the success of (and continued funding by) the tv series, which probably means they don’t have to advertise or go out looking for business.

Their website says they’re taking wedding enquiries for 2022 onwards, so it sounds as if the next two seasons are fully-booked.

Tally911 · 02/12/2019 21:55

They have to save the money from the last wedding to pay for the heating bill alone....
Trying to save £200,000 to replace the roof.
Tax bill which is big in France .....wage bill.....food bill (food being very expensive)
Not as easy as people think!
They are hard workers.
Bless them all.