Lieutenant Colonel (ret) Richard Francis Strawbridge, MBE (born 3 September 1959) is a British television personality, engineer and former army officer. He is often referred to as "Colonel Dick".[1]
The third of seven children of Jennifer and George Strawbridge, a worker in the oil industry in the Middle East and Far East,[2] "Dick" Strawbridge was born in Burma, then raised and educated in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He attended Ballyclare High School from 1971 to 1976.[3] To achieve his ambition of becoming an army officer after taking his O levels, Strawbridge enrolled at Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College before going on to Sandhurst.[3]
Strawbridge has appeared as an engineering and environmental expert on various television programmes, including Scrapheap Challenge. He first appeared as a contestant on the team Brothers in Arms who became series champions and later, he became the main presenter replacing Robert Llewellyn. He has also appeared on three series of It's Not Easy Being Green for BBC Two, the six-part BBC Two series Crafty Tricks of War of which he was the main presenter, Planet Mechanics, and as a regular guest presenter on Coast. Following his switch of career to television, Strawbridge often refers to himself as a "telly tart".[1][12]
Scrapheap Challenge
Strawbridge began his career in television as the 'Yellow Team Leader' for six episodes in the first series of Scrapheap Challenge. He has to date appeared in over 30 episodes of Scrapheap Challenge and Junkyard Wars, winning the Scrapheap Challenge trophy in series 3 with his two younger brothers, David and Bobby, as 'Brothers in Arms', and the Junkyard Megawars trophy in 2003. On 5 June 2008, it was announced that he would be returning to Scrapheap Challenge for its 11th series.[13] Strawbridge took over from Robert Llewellyn as the main presenter. The series was shown on Channel 4 in 2009.
It's Not Easy Being Green
Strawbridge, along with his family, filmed three series of It's Not Easy Being Green for BBC Two. In series 1, which was shown on 28 March 2006, the family moved to a new home in Tywardreath near St Austell, Cornwall and attempted to live as green a life as possible, using renewable energy and environmentally friendly resources. The second series started in Spring 2007 with a different format: Strawbridge and his son James aided several members of the public in larger and smaller ecology projects around the country.[14]
Coast
Also in 2006, Strawbridge appeared as a one-off presenter on the BBC Two series Coast, examining the workings of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, a role he revived in the 2007 version of Coast, presenting a short part of the programme on the failure of Exercise Tiger. In series 4 of Coast in July 2009, Strawbridge examined the terrain of the Normandy landing beaches.
In 2011, Strawbridge and his son James filmed a 20-part series, The Hungry Sailors, that was broadcast by ITV, in which they sailed around Britain's coastline buying local food and then cooking it.[citation needed]
In 2012, filming began on a second series of The Hungry Sailors around the Cornish coast, taking in the Channel Islands and the Isles of Scilly. The series was broadcast from 1 July 2013.[15]
This programme followed Strawbridge and his partner (now wife), Angel Adoree, through their purchase in 2015 and subsequent renovation of Château de la Motte-Husson in Martigné-sur-Mayenne, France.[16]
The family's Château de la Motte-Husson in 2019
A full nine seasons were filmed, with the ninth and final season starting to air in the UK on 30 October 2022. The decision to cancel was made with the agreement of Dick and Angel Strawbridge.[17]
The couple travelled to Australia and New Zealand in February 2023[18] with their Dare to Do It Tour.[19] The plan included a series of theatre and book signing events, from 12 February to 9 March 2023.[20] They had completed a similar Dare to Do It tour of the UK during February and March 2022.[21]
This programme, first aired in 2018, followed Strawbridge and his wife Angel as they helped expat château owners restore and redecorate their properties.[16]
Secret France with Dick and Angel
In December 2022, the couple revealed that a new series with the working title Escape to the Chateau: Secret France (w/t), would air in 2023, about their "new journey to seek the unexpected and the extraordinary and discover more about France's history".[22][23]
The plan was for four episodes of one hour each, a joint venture of Two Rivers Media, Channel 4 and the Strawbridges' own company, Chateau TV.[24]
However, in May 2023, Channel 4 announced that the planned series would not go ahead, and it would not work with the Strawbridges again. "Following a review, we have taken the decision not to work with Dick and Angel on any new productions in the future," the statement said.[25]
The announcement followed the leaked release of an audio recording of Angel allegedly swearing at a crew member. Production company Two Rivers Media also released a statement saying that it would "no longer work with Dick and Angel".[25]
Dick and Angel Strawbridge subsequently released a statement via Instagram, saying: "There are two sides to every story and from the incredible support we have received, most of you know that. We are proud of who we are, and we feel we must do what we believe to be correct, that is in fact what kept Escape to the Chateau unique, and whilst we have indeed parted ways with Channel 4, we are hugely grateful to them and their teams for their support and creativity over the years."[25]
Other television appearances
Strawbridge also had a major role in the BBC's commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, and he was the co-host and resident "boffin" on the 2005 game show, Geronimo!. He also appeared as a regular team captain in the US series, Junkyard Mega-Wars.
Strawbridge also starred in The Big Idea, in which he tested out amateur inventions, and he featured in the short series The Re-Inventors, a series of five, hour-long programmes commissioned by the UK digital channel UKTV History and first broadcast through the week of 11 December 2006. Each episode featured Strawbridge and his son James reconstructing an invention of historic significance, with a budget of £500 and their mobile workshop. They then try it out against the real thing. UKTV History also shows "Crafty Tricks of War" from time to time.
On 13 November 2009, Strawbridge was a guest on Robert Llewellyn's web series CarPool.
In 2012, Strawbridge was announced as presenter of new Channel 5 series Beat the Ancestors, which commenced broadcast in February 2013.
In 2016, he was announced as a co-host of the three-part BBC Four series Trainspotting Live,[27] which was broadcast in July 2016.
In 2017, Strawbridge presented Cabins in the Wild with Will Hardie, a show following a competition set up by the Welsh Tourist Board. Eight competitors were selected based on their designs to build cabins, intended to be combined as a hotel in the countryside, before one ultimate winner was selected. The two presenters also constructed their own cabin.[28]
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.[30] According to Global Player, Dick and Angel's Chat...Eau will follow the day-to-day life of the Strawbridge family today, including "the inner workings of their unique family home, the upkeep, the projects and the adventures, big and small".[31]
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," and involved the couple looking back at how they found their chateau and knew that it was "the one".[32]
Personal life
Strawbridge married Brigit A. Weiner in 1982,[33] with whom he has two children. The couple separated in 2010.[34] He has two additional children with Angela Newman (born 7 April 1978;[35] known as Angel Adoree),[16] founder of The Vintage Patisserie, whom he married in November 2015.[36] She had founded the Vintage business in London about 10 years earlier; it was relocated to the couple's château in the Pays de la Loire region of France in 2015.[37]
Strawbridge was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Plymouth University in 2010.[38]
Dick with James Strawbridge (celebrity chef son) are the authors of Preserves, a book in the "Made at Home" series published by Mitchell Beazley in 2012.
Sir Anthony Robinson is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder and has presented many historical documentaries, including the Channel 4 series Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. He has written 16 children's books.
Robert Llewellyn is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He plays the mechanoid Kryten in the sci-fi television sitcom Red Dwarf and formerly presented the engineering gameshow Scrapheap Challenge. He has also founded and hosts a YouTube series, Fully Charged, which has grown into a company that puts on EV and "Everything Electric" conventions in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell OBE is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987.
Lisa Rogers is a Welsh television presenter. She has appeared in films, television programmes, theatre and radio.
Matthew Edmondson is a British television and Sony Award-nominated radio presenter, best known for his work with BBC Radio 1 and ITV2.
Caroline Vanessa Grant is an English vocal coach, television presenter and session singer.
Martigné-sur-Mayenne is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France.
Virginia Louise Buckley is a British journalist, radio and television presenter.
Iain Andrew Stirling is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator and Twitch streamer from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Scrapheap Challenge is a British television show where teams of contestants build a working machine that can perform a specific task, using materials available in a scrapyard. The series features teams of four or five members who are given ten hours to build vehicles or machines to complete a specific task, such as a trebuchet, or complete a racecourse whilst acting as a gyroscope. The programme ran for eleven series and was originally shown on Channel 4. The format was exported to the United States, where it was known as Junkyard Wars. The American show was also produced by RDF Media, and was originally shown on The Learning Channel. Repeats have aired on another Discovery network, the Science Channel.
Jonathan James Irwin was an English television presenter, writer, lecturer, businessman and property expert. He was best known for presenting the Channel 4 lifestyle programme A Place in the Sun between 2004 and 2021, as well as the BBC daytime programme Escape to the Country between 2010 and 2023.
Stephanie Rose McGovern is an English journalist and television presenter. She hosted Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4 from 2020 to 2023. She worked for the BBC as the main business presenter for BBC Breakfast, often co-hosting the entire programme.
Timothy Spall at Sea series is a set of three BBC Four television series that follows the voyage of actor Timothy Spall and his wife Shane as they take their Dutch barge, The Princess Matilda, on a circumnavigation around the British Coast, with visits to Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.
Brady John Haran is an Australian-British independent filmmaker and video journalist who produces educational videos and documentary films for his YouTube channels, the most notable being Computerphile and Numberphile. Haran is also the co-host of the Hello Internet podcast along with fellow educational YouTuber CGP Grey. On 22 August 2017, Haran launched his second podcast, called The Unmade Podcast, and on 11 November 2018, he launched his third podcast, The Numberphile Podcast, based on his mathematics-centered channel of the same name.
James Laing is an English presenter, television personality and investor. He is the founder of the confectionery company Candy Kittens and is best known for appearing on the reality television series Made in Chelsea since the second series in 2011. He runs and hosts three podcasts - "Newly Weds" with his wife, Private Parts, and a BBC Radio 1 podcast, 6 Degrees from Jamie and Spencer. As an actor, he has appeared in shows such as Hollyoaks, Murder In Successville and Drunk History.
Nishant Kumar is a British stand-up comedian, television presenter, political commentator, and podcast host. He became known as the host of satirical comedy The Mash Report, now known as Late Night Mash. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy show Newsjack, the Comedy Central series Joel & Nish vs The World, the BBC Radio 4 programme The News Quiz and Hello America on Quibi. Since May 2023, he has been the co-host of the political podcast Pod Save the UK.
Madeleine Moate is a British television presenter, podcaster, YouTuber and children's author best known for presenting the CBeebies series Maddie's Do You Know? for which she was awarded the Best Presenter BAFTA at the Children's BAFTAs 2017. Moate is a science communicator; she studied theatre, film and television at Bristol University.
Escape to the Chateau was a Channel 4 reality television series, which followed 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.
Château DIY is a Channel 4 formatted documentary television series which follows the stories of various families who are renovating châteaux in France, or looking at ones to purchase. The original series Escape to the Château DIY was narrated by Dick Strawbridge who, along with his wife Angel Adoree, provided help and advice to some of these owners until 2020. The programme was spawned from the associated series Escape to the Chateau.
The Château de la Motte-Husson is a Neo-Renaissance style château. It is located in the small market town of Martigné-sur-Mayenne, in the Mayenne département of France. The château is currently owned by Dick Strawbridge and his wife Angel. It is the setting for the Channel 4 programme Escape to the Chateau.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
