Escape to the Chateau

Escape to the Chateau is a Channel 4 reality television series, which follows the story of couple Dick Strawbridge and Angela ("Angel") Adoree and their family as they bought and renovated the 19th-century Château de la Motte-Husson, in Martigné-sur-Mayenne, France, while simultaneously raising two young children and starting a business hosting weddings and other events.

The first season followed Dick and Angel's quest to restore the derelict château from its uninhabitable state by installing running water, heating and electricity in the 45-room château, which had not been lived in for the previous forty years. They were working against a deadline – their own wedding – which was to be held at the property. The subsequent seasons of the program continued the story as they established their special events business, at the same time as renovating the château and its grounds. It also documented family events and milestones.

Nine series of the programme were filmed, with Series 9 first airing on Channel 4 in the UK on 30 October 2022. That was said to be the final series, a decision made with the agreement of the couple.

Following the completion of the final series of Escape to the Chateau, Dick and Angel Strawbridge launched a weekly podcast titled Dick & Angel’s CHAT…EAU. The first episode launched on Global Player and other major podcast platforms on 1 November 2023, and is titled 112 Steps, 2 Turrets & 1 Tip. It involved the couple looking back at how they found their chateau and knew that it was "the one".

Dick Strawbridge
Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, engineer Dick Strawbridge appeared on numerous television shows, including It's Not Easy Being Green (2006), Coast (2006), Scrapheap Challenge (2009), The Hungry Sailors (2011), Saturday Farm (2011) and Dirty Rotten Survival (2015). In Escape to the Chateau, his engineering and cooking experience is highlighted, with his can-do attitude and mechanical expertise at the fore, as work on the château and its surrounding land continues through the seasons.

Angela ("Angel") Adoree
Adoree was born 7 April 1978 as Angela Newman and grew up on Canvey Island, where her family ran a jewellers' shop. She runs a hospitality business called The Vintage Patisserie, for which she sought investment when she appeared on the reality television business programme, Dragon's Den, in 2010. In 2015, the business relocated to Chateau-de-la-Motte Husson.

Adoree provided a creative factor and flair for the show, adding her style and interior-decoration skill to the château renovation, as well as sharing her interest in hospitality and entertaining.

The couple has two children, Arthur and Dorothy.

Series 7
Series 7 takes place during lockdown in France due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there are no weddings or events at the Chateau.

Series 9
It’s ‘The Year of Celebrations’! Dick & Angel return for their ninth and final series.

Variant series
A second version of series 1 was shown on More 4.
 * Episode 1 is called "Hole in the Wall" (26 June 2016).
 * Episode 2 is called "They're our Flies" (3 July 2016).
 * Episode 3 is called "Angel's Palace of Dreams" (10 July 2016).

More 4 has shown these additional episodes as "an extended four-part version of series one". These are described as follows: Episode 4 of the More 4 series seems to be the third episode of the original three-part Channel 4 series.
 * "S1 Ep1/4 - Dick Strawbridge and Angel buy a fairy tale French chateau and set about bringing the abandoned building back to life",
 * "S1 Ep2/4 - Dick, Angel and the family move into their crumbling chateau, which they find home to bats, birds and thousands of flies",
 * "S1 Ep3/4 - Wanting to create a stunning honeymoon suite, Angel asks Dick to smash a hole in the three-feet-thick castle wall", and
 * "S1 Ep3/3 [sic] - Dick and Angel are due to marry in just a few weeks, expecting 200 guests. But room after room still needs to be restored, decorated and furnished, and the moat needs damming."

Retrospective series
An additional three episode retrospective series began showing in late 2019. These are: These covered events during the first five years.
 * Episode 1 is called "Escape to the Chateau : Restoring the Dream" (26 November 2019).
 * Episode 2 is called "Escape to the Chateau : Designing the Dream" (2 December 2019).
 * Episode 3 is called "Escape to the Chateau : The Great Outdoors" (9 December 2019).

Background and production
Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree invited production company Spark Media to film them documenting their journey in searching for a house. The couple had already spent four years searching for a home to bring up their two young children, Arthur and Dorothy. The producers took the idea to all major broadcasters but were repeatedly rejected. Eventually Channel 4 agreed to a 3 part series to test the water. It was an instant hit with viewers. In contrast to many other home shows, the television coverage was never planned, but Channel 4 paid to document the couple's journey, which defrayed some of the expense of such a large task. The assistance was in the form of the presenter's fee, in addition to the exposure from the show's advertising, which allowed the business to build its popularity as a wedding and events venue.

The appeal of the show might have been due to the apparent affordability and lack of demand for such French properties, which has attracted many British house buyers. That was the same story with Dick and Angel. When they first started house hunting in France, they were looking at more modest properties, such as small farmhouses, until they realised that at the prevailing low prices, they could buy a castle.

In 2015, for £280,000, they purchased a chateau, on a 12 acre property, that listed forty-five rooms, seven outbuildings and a walled garden, and was surrounded by a moat, ten times larger than the average British house. Despite the apparent advantages, however, the show made viewers aware of the extent of the restoration and the running costs of such projects, which can become a problem for people trying to make a business out of such ventures, as well as the significant personal effort required.

American broadcast
Escape to the Chateau premiered in the United States on local PBS stations.

On 5 December 2020, episodes started to air on HGTV. The first one-hour episode of the series was titled "Meet the Chateau", which featured Dick and Angel purchasing the property, including the walled garden, moving in, and then installing electricity and a heating system.

History of Château de la Motte-Husson
From the 12th to 14th centuries, the site of the Chateau was used as a fortified stronghold in the parish of La Motte. In 1406, the Husson family, seigneurs of Montgiroux, named the castle Château de la Motte-Husson.

The Baglion de la Dufferie family (a French branch of the Baglioni family of Perugia) acquired the estate in 1600. After that, it was rebuilt within the square moat during the period from 1868 to 1874. The current façade is reflective of the efforts of Countess Louise-Dorothée de Baglion de la Dufferie (1826–1902), who told her husband that she wanted a grand residence. The chateau served as a summer home for the family.

Escape to the Chateau DIY
Escape to the Chateau DIY involves Dick and Angel giving their tips to other expatriates in France, who are trying to run businesses from châteaux in conditions similar to their own. The series documents various renovations and looks at possibilities for generating profit. The show was planned to have four series. The initial broadcast was on 9 April 2018, and the third series concluded on 15 November 2019. The fourth series commenced broadcasting on 24 March 2020.