Dick Strawbridge shuts down children's demands to be in the spotlight before UK return
Dick Strawbridge shuts down children's demands to be in the spotlight before UK return
Dick and Angel Strawbridge, stars of Channel 4's Escape to the Chateau, joined Jamie Theakston and Davina McCall on Heart FM's Breakfast Show this morning to chat about their upcoming UK tour and podcast, Dick and Angel's Chat...Eau.
The couple are looking forward to hitting the road for their Forever Home UK 2024 Tour, which kicks off in Angel's hometown of Southend-on-Sea later this year.
Dick, 64, and Angel, 46, will be joined by their two children, daughter Dorothy, 10, and son Arthur, 11, but the youngsters' hopes for a starring role were dashed by their dad.
Heart FM host Jamie Theakston quizzed the couple: "You're also heading back to the UK after the summer's done, on tour," to which Angel replied: "We've got our Forever Home tour, and we take the children with us, and my mum and dad."
Dick added: "They're loving getting to see different people in different places, and, of course, we meet family - we meet friends all over the place - and they're getting up and chatting.", reports the Express.
Dick revealed: "In fact, Dorothy and Arthur just come along and say hello usually, and then they leave the stage. But, after the first time we did it, Dorothy said, 'can we rewrite the tour so we're on stage a little bit more please?'".
He laughed: "And this is from an eight-year-old - and I said 'no' - they don't get to do that!".
TV's favourite renovating couple, Dick and Angel Strawbridge, also opened up to Jamie about their bold move from the UK to France, where they transformed a dilapidated chateau into a stunning family home.
Jamie quizzed them: "Tell us how difficult it was for you, turning back in 2014, to kind of upend the whole thing and embark on this ridiculously daft project!".
Dick candidly replied: "We were ready for it! We'd been searching for four years to find a chateau and somewhere to move, and we were living in Southend, and Dorothy had just been born, and being ready for the move - it was easy."
He added with a chuckle, "I couldn't live in London, I'm a country boy, the country scared Angela, but France seemed to be a bit different.."
Angel chimed in with her take: "I am a bit of a Londoner through and through, and if I was actually going to move anywhere, it had to be a beautiful big castle!".
The Strawbridges' children have become familiar faces on their hit Channel 4 series, Escape to the Chateau, which sadly wrapped up in December 2022.
Reflecting on why they decided to end the show in a statement at the time, Dick shared: "We made the decision because the kids are growing older, and all the parallel activity was not sustainable at this level. We are doers and we are never going to stop completely, but we're also protecting them."
He elaborated on the pressures facing their family, especially Arthur as he steps into senior school: "Arthur is starting senior school and the pressure on our little ones is phenomenal. When he goes there, people may have heard that his parents have done stuff on television."