Escape to the Chateau has been a huge hit on UK television since it first aired in 2016.
It charts the story of Dick and Angel Strawbridge who bought Château de la Motte-Husson in France and then embark on a massive restoration project.
The pair have spent the past eight years transforming the property and creating a successful special events business based there.
They are in Aotearoa to tell their story in a show called Dare To Do It and joined Jesse Mulligan to talk about the trials and tribulations of doing up an old, run-down French castle.
Photo: Screenshot
When they eventually settled on a property to buy it soon revealed its quirks to them, Dick says.
"The Chateau Fights Back ! our very first job was putting in some plumbing to make sure we had some hot water and we're able to have baths and showers.
“The walls, you can't just drill a hole in the wall, we ended up excavating, like major sort of rodents making holes in the walls two or three feet across - it was quite busy.”
Although the project sounds grand, relative property prices in France made it a possibility, Dick says. The chateau cost less than a bed-sit in London.
“Because in France, people don’t buy homes to do up. And our Chateau went up for auction and nobody even put an offer in the locals. And the hammer came down at 100,000 pounds without a single offer for everything that we ended up buying. Nobody wanted it."
People have enjoyed watching an ordinary British family grapple with the project, Angel says.
“On one side, there’s this sort of like really grand renovation. And then on the other side, we got a very, very simple life, you know, being out in the garden, just sort of doing things outside making bows and arrows. And it's the big things and also lots of little things that people want to chat about.”
The film crew documenting the project was small and became part of the family, Dick says.
“There's two of them maximum at any time, and consequently, they become part of the family, you get absorbed in family, and the vast majority will stay for a very long time, despite the fact it's quite awkward to go out and stay in France and work in France for long periods when it comes to your social life.
“We've had, for example, Chloe, who's been with us for almost five years, she's been coming backwards and forwards to see us. So, it's a very interesting sort of small team, they're just it's like part of the family.”
They integrated with local life quickly, Angel says.
“We got married in our Marie’s office, the mayor married us, So, we have very quickly become part of the community.”
The show they are bringing to New Zealand will explain the “ridiculous story” of how, the two of them came together, Dick says.
“There's two decades between us and I was born in Asia and Angel was born in London, in Essex, and that whole mindset, how do you come together and live in a castle?”
You can buy tickets for Dare To Do It in Auckland here and Wellington here.
