Escape to the Chateau DIY

David Higgins says it all for us, a terrific series for lovers of France but completely spoilt by the recaps and to-ing and fro-ing between the various locations. A much better idea would be for each episode to concentrate on one Chateau and follow the story through with no recapping after the adverts. Most people have a memory span longer than the adverts. I have complained to c4 about this but of course no one has bothered to reply.

Many people dream of moving to France or having a holiday pad there. We are lucky, we have a holiday pad and I have to say that we have loved watching this series. Yes, getting work done in France is extremely hard and yes, it is very expensive so you do learn. Seeing how others have been (brave or stupid?) enough to take on even more of a project and to risk more than we dared to risk has been amazing. It is entertaining, informative, light hearted, realistic and so much more. It helps that the production team have also been able to demonstrate how down to earth and likeable the chateau owners are too - it really has made those watching the program feel part of what is going on and this has been helped by the interactive facebook group which all owners appear to be participating on too. This has also added to the vibe. Yes, the reminders after the advertisements or when they swap to another chateau can be a little annoying but this seems to be the UK 'thing' now. If it was safety related I'd suggest it was implied in legislation somewhere which the UK would take to the n'th extreme and which the French would probably ignore ;)

We love seeing Dick and Angel with Dick's narration including seeing the Chateau's with the local flavor. If only the producer would cut out the recap on every come back from commercial it would be a much better show as others have mentioned. We look forward to it coming back very soon. Hope it will come back again in 2018.

It's interesting to hear the comments about the recaps being an American thing. I believe someone said it was "dumbing down" for the American audience. I am American and I thought it was a British thing because it is most frequently seen on British shows such as Grantchester, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders, etc. I enjoy all of the programs and just ignore the recaps. I'm sure American television shows are too dumbed down to be watched in the UK. It's not like British viewers would enjoy dumb American shows like Stranger Things, Friends, Big Little Lies, CSI or Breaking Bad, right? If you don't like the recaps or coming ups just fast forward.

I am not a chateau owner but I followed the original series with Dick and Angel and enjoyed it immensely. Even more interesting to see other British people buying up these beautiful houses and returning them to life after many years of being abandoned. A lot of hard work goes into restoring these places and requires a lot of dedication.

In each episode there are several homes being featured on each episode and the owners are seen tackling various restoration work, some of which causes a lot of stress due to timescales for events booked. Yes, there is a fair bit of recapping, but to be honest I do not mind this, seeing the houses become lovely family homes after years of neglect. A thoroughly enjoyable series, there is a lot of humour and quite often Dick and Angel Strawbridge appear to give advice. Ten out of ten.