POLLY VERNON
Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and what I’ve learnt about people on TV
The Times
In the loud, rancorous furore which marked the end of Phillip Schofield’s tenure at This Morning, the bitter unravelling of another primetime TV proposition has gone largely unnoticed. At the end of last week, Channel 4 announced it would no longer be working with Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree, the crafty, smiley, rosy-cheeked couple whose renovations of a derelict property in northwest France provided the basis for the reality TV show Escape to the Chateau.
The show ran for nine series and six years and — not unlike This Morning — relied heavily on viewers believing in the abject loveliness of Dick and Angel. Dick, 63, an engineer and former lieutenant colonel in the British Army, hummed, moved walls with less fuss than
