'Get a shallow learning at school!' Dick Strawbridge defends kids attending D-Day amid school fine reports

Speaking on the latest episode of their podcast, Dick & Angel's Chat...Eau, the husband and wife duo opened up on how much their children enjoyed and understood the experience and admitted they had met other families with schoolkids who similarly attended to show their respect.

The Escape to the Chateau stars didn't mention they'd face any repercussions for taking Dorothy and Arthur out of school and similarly said the families they'd met in Normandy had been given permission by their respective schools to attend with their young ones.

However, this wasn't the case for everyone as one dad who took his 14-year-old daughter out of school to attend the D-Day commemorations in France had been fined in the UK.

Explaining why he felt it was important for his own children to attend, Strawbridge said to Adoree on the latest episode of their podcast: "It was so lovely to see so many people. And there were so many people with kids there!

"I was talking to some of the people from England and they'd taken their kids out of school and the schools didn't mind because it was D-Day which is good!"

Adoree then chipped in: "One of the families were paying homage to their great-grandfather and it's so important.

"This particular celebration felt poignant, I'm sure many of you have been following it on the news and social media, everyone celebrates when you have a decade of something, there's always a slightly bigger celebration even though every year is special...

"The reality of it is that on the 90th celebration, the veterans aren't going to be here.

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"We saw a veteran as we drove in from a smaller village that was filming with a French TV crew and I think that's why this one just felt so beautiful."

Delving further into why he feels it's important for kids to learn about D-Day outside of school, Strawbridge added: "The children learn about it at school but you get a shallow learning of it at school (compared to) going along.

"Dorothy wanted to go to the museum... Two reasons for wanting to go to the museum, they wanted to go because there was a gift shop and they wanted a cricket, you know the click-click (things), they both wanted a cricket.

"That was one part and I thought that was the only reason they wanted to go. But Dorothy and Arthur, as we went through the hall of the museum, they didn't want to rush it.

"You got to certain places and you got an audio story and Dorothy listened in French and Arthur in English which was interesting and it told you the story of various things, all the beaches and all the things that were happening along the coast and into the battle of Normandy and the end of the war.

"It was interesting just looking at the personal equipment the people had, what people carried, what people used... the children were absorbed by it.

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"They were looking at photographs of people and they were going, 'Oh, that's Omaha Beach! They had to blow up the walls', and then they were looking at defences - all of that, every single time we turned a corner they looked... they were mesmerised for ages."

Beaming with pride, Strawbridge commented: "We must've done something right because they appreciated what had happened and I thought they'd have the attention span of a goldfish and they didn't."

Elsewhere in the episode, Strawbridge risked the wrath of politically correct naysayers when he delved into his time covering the 60th anniversary of D-Day while working at the BBC.

The family lives in France after purchasing a rundown chateau in 2015 and restoring it to its former glory, as documented in the Channel 4 series Escape to the Chateau.