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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:
Woopdewoop · 02/12/2019 07:03

@PotteryWheel I’m from the UK. My husband works in France sometimes, always for ex pats. They’re sought after as they price and structure their working day on a 9-5 get the job done regular working week basis.

itsthemostwonderfultime · 02/12/2019 07:19

@widdindiddin

Totally agree with you.

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 07:21

They can both speak french. The kids both go to a French school.

longwayoff · 02/12/2019 08:16

They are exceptional people who have put together a lifestyle that both suits them and rewards them. Difficult to achieve so good luck to them. From the little I know, they've worked hard for it. First family? No complaints as far as I know. There isn't a shortage of publications willing to publish 'my divorce hell, etc' so they're probably fine. Happy Christmas to them all.

Azzizam · 02/12/2019 08:22

It's in line with the anyone with Aspergers/HFA can achieve the success of Chris Packham. It may be possible but keep reality firmly in mind too.

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 09:26

in theory, anyone could do it, they haven't done anything unattainable to anyone else.

However, you have to be a certain kind of person with a very good work ethic to pull something like that off. You would have to be smart, business minded etc. Also, like they have you would benefit from supportive family and people who can mind your children.

I think its not impossible for anyone to do it, but you have to be a certain type of someone to do it.

Sagradafamiliar · 02/12/2019 09:29

I have to admit that none of their spoken French is very good, but the children being young will learn and they will be bilingual. As for Dick and Angel, at least they get stuck in and give it a go even though they know they're not quite there with the language.

PotteryWheel · 02/12/2019 09:41

Dick's spoken French is quite basic, from what I've heard in the recent-ish episodes I've seen, but is better than what I've heard of Angel's -- but he can clearly get by. I can't recall hearing Arthur speak French at all, but Dorothy's sounded far more fluent, as you'd expect from a child at a French school.

Having said that, I borrowed a house from a friend of a friend in the Dordogne a few years ago, and met several longterm British residents in the area who did the grounds and/or worked as cleaner/caretaker for Brits with summer houses, having essentially done what Dick and Angel did, moved to France to set up a business -- and in many cases, their French was pretty basic, too, and they'd lived in France for far longer.

bellabasset · 02/12/2019 11:05

As well as James visiting last week, his sister's wedding was held at the Chateau in 2016. So clearly Dick's children from his first marriage remain in his life. Despite both Dick and Brigit having remarried it wasn't until recently that the sale of their Cornish farmhouse was completed. They - as well as several villagers - had an extremely unpleasant experience with a ' business partnership' who had rented their house intending to buy it.

Dick obviously relished a busy lifestyle and being in the limelight, something he clearly shares with Angel. It wouldn't appeal to me but I'd quite like to see the chateau and stay there. When you look at the work done, the equipment for catering installed it's understandable why it's so expensive.

Jeeperscreepers69 · 02/12/2019 11:33

I love them. Sunday affternoon at mams. Back to back pre recorded episodes whilst eating lunch 😉

Waspnest · 02/12/2019 11:54

I like the programme, it's brilliant escapism on a miserable dark Sunday evening and I quite like Angel (the Angela thing is funny) but Dick pisses me off. The extravagance of the chateau plus the four children make me think that the whole 'It's not easy being green' stuff was a load of old bollocks that he didn't really believe in.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 11:58

Dicks French is superb

Grin No, it really isn't. No.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:00

Personally I think Dick has a really vicious temper, I have seen snippets of it. He reminds me a lot of a couple of nasty men I had as bf's years ago.

Angel will have had enough of all that as soon as she gets to late 40's, mark my words...

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:04

billie I don't personally feel as though I've seen a bad temper at all?

I think they seem really happy together, I'd be really surprised if she left to be honest.

PotteryWheel · 02/12/2019 12:13

Dick seems remarkably even-tempered to me, even as I'm well aware that everyone involved knows when the cameras are rolling, and that the 'brand' of this series is not a grim tale of business failure, couple sniping and marital breakdown.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:19

Oh, she won't leave.

Her parents are there, her DC's...

No, no, he will have to leave, not her.

ChardonnaysDistantCousin · 02/12/2019 12:22

Why is anyone leaving? The only thing I want to see leaving are the poor birds in those god awful aviaries.

They look happy as a couple.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:22

Let's hope not though, me just being cynical (but with experience of this 'lifestyle, in a lesser way)

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:25

All I am saying is, should this marriage, this second marriage, in France, this business in France, with most of HER family living there, break up.

The law is going to very favourably on her side!

ChardonnaysDistantCousin · 02/12/2019 12:25

It can be claustrophobic.,

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:26

what " lifestyle" billie?

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:31

The lifestyle they have chosen to live Hmm

Second marriage, not their country, neither of them, not their laws, way of being, hosting people, one much older and unfit etc, etc...

They only have each other and they are generations and lifetimes apart.

Fine for a decade, but on vera... I see no reason to be jealous of them whatsoever. Each has their own very specific agenda in this relationship.

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/12/2019 12:32

I don't think they only have eachother considering that its france, and not mars. Her parents live next door.

I wouldn't say they were "generations" or "lifetimes" apart either.

you must be fun at parties.

BustedDreams · 02/12/2019 12:34

HNRFT. From a humanist perspective I think we all like to think of ourselves as ‘normal’. Although I do believe they realise they created something special for themselves and their young family. I admire them and the image they present. I enjoy watching their progress.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 12:35

I must be fun at parties? I am Grin

What has that got to do with the price of fish? (or this thread?)

A generation apart at least. A generation is 15 years.

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