1 month ago
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Escape To The Chateau couple Dick and Angel Strawbridge are a winning combination - but why?
Angel - who previously started her own retro lifestyle business, The Vintage Patisserie, joked at the talk that she likes "old things" - and then cheekily quipped that her husband was one of them. She's still in her mid-40s, while Dick is now 65 - old enough to retire but with no plans to step back just yet.
While their personalities are like chalk and cheese, their differences mean that both of them are provide something the other one lacks. Angel has the ambition, youthful enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit to propel their chateau venture to success, while level-headed Dick, with his background in the military, deals with the practical side of their business, tackling everything from the plumbing to the renovation planning.
Their crumbling 152-year-old chateau was like a precious antique to be restored and lovingly brought back to life - and the nation watched, transfixed, as they turned it into a Cinderella-style success story. Yet the rags to riches transformation has been way more difficult than either may have been given credit for.
Dick chatted away cheerfully at the talk about "sewage", admitting that the antiquated plumbing system had been discharging waste into the moat before they'd stepped in to rescue the ancient building. The gleaming water bubbling away beside the chateau might appear to be the perfect fairytale aesthetic now, but back then the sewage struggles had made them want to gag.
The ordeal was so extreme - and the fix for it so laborious and complicated - that an entire chapter of their book is dedicated to sewage.
From budget-blowing expenditure needs to fielding 250,000 emails - the shock amount they've received since first hitting TV screens back in 2016 - the pair have had plenty of challenges to overcome.
However, their very different backgrounds mean that they both have unique and equally valid perspectives on how to deal with everything life's thrown at them.
They had a shared dream - but it took a combined effort to fulfil it.
Angel was once on Dragons' Den, seeking investment for her retro business - and her creativity and sheer joy at expressing it shone through and won the hearts of the Dragons.
Dick too had a background in television - and he honed the resourcefulness he'd built up in the military by appearing on Scrapheap Challenge.
The Channel 4 show, which he appeared on long before Escape to the Chateau hit our screens, saw contestants construct functioning machines purely from what they could find on a scrapheap.
That same style of strategic thinking in the midst of struggles and shortages helped him and Angel go from nothing more than a £20,000 budget and a fantasy to owning a chateau business worth millions and appearing on one of Britain's best-loved shows.
Dick once considered splitting up with her, fearing the age gap meant their relationship was doomed - but I'm glad they didn't, and that they've stood the test of time.
Check out our review of Angel and Dick's Forever Home talk, which is currently on tour throughout the UK, here.
English (US) ·