Escape to the Chateau’s Dick and Angel Strawbridge have announced the ‘best news’ three years after the show was axed over ‘bullying claims’.
The couple took to social media to reveal some career news, a decade after they were propelled to fame with their Channel 4 series.
The programme, which first aired in 2016 and wrapped in 2023, followed the duo and their two children as they renovated an abandoned French chateau.
The series came to an end following tensions behind-the-scenes, which saw Dick and Angel engulfed in a bullying scandal with show staff.
It was revealed in May 2023 that Channel 4 had cut ties with them following an independent investigation into their conduct – with Dick and Angel refuting the claims made against them.
The TV channel confirmed they would no longer work with the pair on any new productions ‘following a review’ after they were branded ‘spiky and volatile’.
Escape to the Chateau’s Dick and Angel Strawbridge have announced the ‘best news’ three years after the show was axed over ‘bullying claims’
The couple took to social media to reveal some career news, a decade after they were propelled to fame with their Channel 4 show
A leaked recording revealed Angel branding a producer a ‘F***ed up little c**t’.
Last summer, Angel spoke out for the first time defending herself over the foul-mouthed rant as she explained she fell into a pre-laid trap – admitting that she wished the incident didn’t happen.
Nonetheless, the pair are gearing up for a comeback, after revealing that their podcast was set to be re-launched in a post via Instagram.
The couple wrote to their following: ‘After a little break from the world of podcasting, we’re back in the “Chateau Studio” recording and filming our brand-new podcast.
‘Yes, that’s right…you wanted to see more of us (?!), so we are now filming the full episode!
‘We can’t lie…it honestly feels like having a date with each other and with you.
‘If you’ve listened to our previous shows…you know there’s always a chance to ask questions and we’re opening the floor again.
‘So if you have a question for either of us, on any subject (cough), drop it in the comments below! We can’t wait to hear from you. Have a lovely day!’
The pair are gearing up for a comeback, after revealing that their podcast was set to be re-launched in a post via Instagram
The series came to an end following tensions behind-the-scenes, which saw Dick and Angel engulfed in a bullying scandal with show staff
Fans of the couple were quick to rush to the comments section to gush over the announcement, with one writing: ‘This is the best news! Cannot wait.’
Another chimed in: ‘HALLELUJAH! So happy you’re coming back to the pod!’ as a third added: ‘Can’t wait!!!! Missed all of you and everything you created.’
A fourth penned: ‘Yes best news I have missed you,’ as a fifth concluded: ‘So thrilled that we get to have our favourite family back in our homes!’
Last year, Dick and Angel opened up on their lives after TV as they remained defiant by insisting they have no regrets over leaving their Channel 4 show.
Escape To The Chateau aired 50 episodes over nine seasons, before wrapping up in 2022 after it was dramatically axed due to behind-the-scenes bust-ups.
The pair juggled doing up the castle in north-west France with raising two young children and running a wedding and event planning business.
Dick and Angel told Devon Live that removing cameras out of the family’s life was ‘the right thing to do’ so they could focus more on their children’s livelihood and navigating senior school.
Dick added: ‘Back in 2022, we had a huge conversation saying, “before they get all the pressures that young people have in their lives on them, it was time for us to walk away from the Escape”.’
Dick and Angel opened up on their lives after TV as they remained defiant by insisting they have no regrets over leaving their Channel 4 show
The series followed the couple during the restoration of the French chateau
Escape to the Chateau was shelved in 2023 following the behind-the-scenes row, which saw a recording of Angel leaked.
Speaking on the How To Fail podcast, Angel confessed in that moment she saw red: ‘I was the one in the wrong for losing my temper, but do you know what, I will not apologise – he was so disrespectful in our house, he was so upsetting to me, my family, and I stand by what I did.
‘If I was to apologise and say “I’m sorry for using bad language and chucking you out,” it would just be disingenuous to me.’
She added: ‘Would I like to erase that? Yeah, I’d love to. But I would also like to erase what he was doing, because my rage just didn’t pop out of nowhere.
‘It grew over time and it was provoked and therefore I’m not ashamed of what happened in the end, I just wish it hadn’t happened.’
Speaking about the backlash that followed her rant, Angel previously said: ‘The actual incident, it actually happened a long time ago – so it happened about six years ago.
‘We had so many amazing people filming Escape To The Chateau, but in this particular quite small timeframe, we had someone that wasn’t particularly very nice.
‘His behaviour was completely unacceptable, but it didn’t just happen in one little moment, it happened over lots of different occasions.
Escape to the Chateau was shelved in 2023 following the behind-the-scenes row, which saw a recording of Angel leaked
The series often showed the pair getting stuck in with restoration work
‘It was a high point towards the end of filming a series. We set a lot of stories in parallel activity. We were particularly busy, and I think that’s why we just didn’t have the head space to address his behaviour.
Recalling his behaviour she explained: ‘He was not very nice, he was doing these weird pictures of Dick killing animals and posting them on his Instagram. He was so horrible with the children.
‘There was this one incident, and I actually, truly believe that because he knew he was caught, I think in my heart, that is why he set up this filming.
‘Because the way that he was acting was how he’d never acted with me before. You don’t accidentally film someone when you’re not filming. Completely happened secretively and on purpose.
‘He broke all of the kids’ fishing rods and the next day I was upstairs and he came up in a really very out of character way for him and was really in my face, in a really angry, like he’d lost it kind of way.
‘I’ve not listened back, it makes me feel a little bit sick if I do. But obviously all of my friends have, and they’re like “I can hear you” – he actually took out what he said – “I can here you gradually getting more angry, more angry, more angry”.
‘And then I just say like “get out of my f***ing house”. I can’t even remember what I said. I think I said a really bad word beginning with c, I think that’s how p***ed off I must have been.’
Angel said the fallout after the incident felt really ‘disproportionate’, adding: ‘There was so much noise going on on one side.
‘And on the other side there was this sort of like outpouring of love and understanding, and people saying “you know what, it’s okay to be human”.
‘But when you have children you have to be able to zone this out, because the kids pick up on everything.
‘But for me the children put everything into perspective. And also this went global. I couldn’t believe the momentum that everything took.
‘I just had to focus on the family, the business. And looking back I probably did feel a little bit ashamed that the kids would listen to it, or someone at the children’s school would listen to it.
‘But I also think that anyone with a little bit of understanding or common sense, could possibly understand what happened.
‘I just regret that I didn’t do it sooner and probably in a calmer way. If I’d just taken a breath two weeks beforehand and thought to myself “we need to get him out and get a new person in”, then I think it would have played out differently.
‘We don’t teach our children to use bad language, but when you’re pushed that far and are seeing red, it’s kind of hard.
‘I don’t want to say I regret using it. I stand proud for just defending myself at that moment against his behaviour. I probably wish that I hadn’t said the c-word. I don’t even like that word.’
‘Asked if she might have been treated differently if she was a man, she said: ‘There’s a lot of people that make a great living out of that. There probably is a bit of truth in that.’
