Dick and Angel try to ‘make do and mend’?

Over the past four years, we’ve watched intrepid renovators Dick and Angel Strawbridge transform their 18th-century French home from a crumbling, uninhabitable group of buildings into a successful wedding venue and holiday home.

Dick and Angel bought Chateau de la Motte Husson, a 45-room manor home in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in 2015 and have since been sharing their own renovating experiences with others on TV series Escape to the Chateau.

The programme has been a huge success, building up a solid fanbase and selling to over 40 territories, from Australia to Angola; Canada to China.

One of the show’s spin-offs, Escape to the Chateau: DIY, follows Brits who’ve also upped sticks to the French countryside to buy their own chateau or manor house, often spending less on their new homes than the price of a one-bedroom London flat.

It became Channel 4’s highest daytime ratings for a new launch in a decade.

Now, with people spending more time at home than ever before, Dick and Angel have recognised the public’s desire to renovate what they can in their homes and filmed a new four-part series to inspire us all.

In Make and Mend, the couple are setting their sights on interiors, offering how-to DIY advice from their French home, as they tackle their own dream projects and try out new crafts to keep the whole family entertained during the lockdown.

The Strawbridges spoke to Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield on This Morning about their new venture: “It’s humbling that our audience wants to see more of us and our adventures,” they said.

“Between the pair of us we have nearly a century’s worth of “make do and mend” experience and so we are really excited to be making this brand-new series.”

“Everyone has a junk drawer somewhere in their house, they’ve got certain jobs that need to be done…

“We always have people asking us for our advice, on how we did this [renovated their chateau].

“We thought we’d show them how to do some jobs, and find out how they’ve done some, too… We’d visit their home on Skype or FaceTime, and we’d find out what they’ve done.”

In tonight’s opening edition, Angel helps Miriam get over the lockdown blues by transforming her 1970s bathroom into a relaxing sanctuary – without changing either the suite or the tiles.

Meanwhile, Dick digs out his old handmade smoker to help teach Phil the ancient art of cheese smoking.

Then, together Dick and Angel advise Tom and Sim how to bring their unique front door into the 21st century.

Amid all this, life goes on at the chateau, and Dick takes to the sky to reveal the location of his brand-new potting shed.

And there’s an important arrival – Petale – a beautiful Kerry blue puppy who becomes the newest member of the Strawbridge family, much to the delight of children Dorothy and Arthur.

Millions of viewers will be looking forward to seeing what handy tips and tricks Angel and Dick have for us to spruce up our living spaces.

And the popular couple are likely to earn even more new fans and followers as many of us tick off those time-consuming DIY jobs that have been on our to-do lists for too long.

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