Escape to the Chateau viewers devastated to learn it is final season

‘I can’t believe this is the final season EVER!’ Escape to the Chateau viewers devastated as first episode of the last series airs – seeing Angel transform basement into a wedding workshop

• First episode of the final series of Escape to the Chateau aired on Channel 4 
• Couple previously said ‘we have cherished every second’ of filming the show
• Channel 4 has commissioned Escape to the Chateau: Secret France due in 2023
• Many viewers confessed they’d be left devastated by the end of the programme 

Escape to the Chateau viewers were left devastated last night as the first episode for the final series of the Channel 4 show aired.

The hit Channel 4 show – which was the channel’s biggest in 2020 – follows Dick Strawbridge and wife Angel as they renovate a run-down 45-room moated chateau bought for just £280,000 in 2015 – which now hosts fairytale weddings in the Pays de la Loire region. 

However it was confirmed last month that the programme’s ninth season will be its last after six years of filming.

Dick and Angel, who met in 2010 and have two children together, confirmed that they ‘have cherished every second… the good, the bad and the ugly’.

Last night’s episode saw the couple preparing the chateau for 12 weddings after two years without any events due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

However viewers confessed they were distracted by the news the programme is ending, with one writing: ‘Can’t believe this is the last series ever. Heartwarming Sunday night TV.’

Escape to the Chateau viewers were left devastated last night as the first episode for the final series of the Channel 4 show aired (pictured Dick and Angel) 

Meanwhile another wrote: ‘Please tell me that this is not the final series!?’

A third added: ‘The final? Noooooo…’

A fourth commented: ‘Last series of Escape to the Chateau, noooo. Please say it’s not so.’

‘So happy that Escape to the Chateau is back on our telly boxes,’ one said. ‘Sad it’s the last ever series…it’s been such an enjoyable journey, adventures of eclectic measures. 

Many of those watching were left upset as they realised it was the premiere for the final series of the hit show 

‘Autumn wouldn’t be the same without The Strawbridge family.’ 

During the programme last night, the couple got to work in the room which was once the cider and vinegar store.

Since then, the room has been used as Dick’s workshop – and a temporary dumping ground for Angel’s wedding gear.

However Angel decided it was time to transform the space into a dedicated wedding workshop. 

During the programme last night, Angel worked to transform a disused storeroom in the chateau into a stunning wedding workshop 

The mother-of-two renovated the space into a fun and colourful space in which she could work to create the dream wedding for her clients 

She said she wanted it to not only be practical, but also for the space to be beautiful and inspirational to work in – including an inspiration wall, and a flower chandelier. 

After the transformation, she confessed: ‘This room is everything I’ve dreamt of and more.’ 

Elsewhere, Dick prepared the meadow in front of the chateau for guests arriving for the weddings.  

After searching for the chateau for four years, the pair bought the sprawling 19th century building in 2015 after swapping their two-bed home in east London.

She said she wanted it to not only be practical, but also for the space to be beautiful and inspirational to work in – including an inspiration wall, and a flower chandelier (pictured renovating the space)  

The series is full of arguments and tiffs over stressful renovations, precious moments with their children Arthur, nine, and Dorothy, eight and creating happy memories with newlyweds.

The chateau has since been valued at £2million but the couple also cash in through TV rights from Channel 4 for the series and its day-time spin off.

Dick and Angel also host fairytale weddings receiving up to £38,000 per wedding. The average price, however, comes out at around £19,000.

A six-course wedding dinner plus canapes upon arrival, a cheese and meat table during the evening and an unlimited full bar for the day for the maximum 80 guests will set you back £20,000, a post-wedding brunch £1,600 and hiring the chateau for the weekend is £6,250.

The chateau has since been valued at £2million but the couple also cash in through TV rights from Channel 4 for the series and its day-time spin off.

As well as weddings, the couple also sell glamping nights for £350 in ‘geodesic domes’ in the chateau’s grounds and £230 ‘days of decadence’ where you can meet Dick and Angel, enjoying lunch and afternoon tea at the chateau.

And the couple even charge guests £75 for a ‘working day in the garden’, with the website saying: ‘Yes to be frankly honest we are charging you to come and work! And in return you have to help make the place beautiful!’.

TV presenter Dick and author Angel now employ a PR to market their thriving business empire which includes not just weddings but personalised homeware, gifts, soft furnishings, calendars, diaries and cards.

How much will a wedding at the chateau set you back? 

The full run-down of the costs a wedding weekend for 80 at the chateau include:

Chateau hire – £6,250

Six-course wedding dinner with unlimited full bar including ‘bubbles’ – £20,000

Welcome dinner and drinks – £5,200

Personalised embroidery with guests names – £440

Flowers – £750

Wedding cake – £325

Post wedding brunch with champagne – £1,600

 

They have a separate ‘Chateau Products’ team based in Swindon, Wiltshire, to deal with all the merchandise inquiries.

However it wasn’t always plain sailing for the family who bought the property with no electricity, water or sewage – and a sanitation system that was emptied in the moat.

Over the last few years, viewers have seen them transform the chateau into a flourishing business but they were also hit by damaging bullying claims in 2021.

Last year, it was reported that sources close to Spark Media, the independent production company that filmed the first four series of ETTC, had accused Dick and Angel of bullying.

Dick was accused of pushing one crew member around a room, and threatening to throw another ‘out the f*****g window’ while brandishing a hammer. Both were also said to have sworn at TV staff.

Meanwhile, the show apparently haemorrhaged producer directors (PDs) during the first four series: three out of six left prematurely following rows — an exodus ‘unheard of’ in television, it’s claimed.

Dick and Angel — deeply dismayed by the accusations — wasted no time in categorically denying them. In detailed testimony via their representative, the couple have emphasised not only the warm atmosphere among the team that currently makes their show, but also their long-held, high professional standards, which they say has helped bring their chateau fantasy to successful fruition.

And no one can deny that theirs is the original entrepreneurial dream come true, powered largely by the determined Dick, who has decades of experience in television.

With such high standards, the Strawbridges say, of course, comes high pressure — yet, still, their representative stressed that production members associated with the couple over many years found ‘working with our clients at the chateau is a lovely experience.’

They also made accusations of their own of outrageous behaviour among the Spark’s production team.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 has denied all knowledge of the row, saying in a statement: ‘Channel 4 does not tolerate bullying or abusive behaviour in any of its productions.

‘Channel 4 was not aware of any of the alleged behaviour by Dick and Angel as described in these claims, which we understand relate to a period well before the current producers started making the series.’

The series was coined in 2014 after an executive at Spark Media heard that Angel and Dick, a former army officer who has appeared as an engineering expert on TV shows such as Channel 4’s Scrapheap Challenge, were leaving their two- bedroom flat in Southend, Essex, for a new life in France.

The popular series will return to Channel 4 this autumn for more heart-warming family adventures, innovative renovations and spectacular celebrations in their final series of Escape to the Chateau.  

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