Fred Sirieix is well known for his TV adventures on First Dates, Gogglebox and Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip – but now he’d like to take things a step further.
Speaking exclusively to Express Online, he shared his ambition to create a show based on his home renovation secrets and his desire to build an award-winning garden. The house-proud Anglophile, who moved to the UK from France more than three decades ago, revealed that he feels the Brits take gardening far more seriously than their counterparts across the channel.
“The French do gardening very differently. My parents have a lovely garden from a French perspective, but from my own British perspective, if I may say so, I think that my garden is much better,” he declared.
“My lawn is definitely much better than my dad’s, because I trim it with scissors. I’m very particular.” He added that entering a garden “should be like Narnia”, leaving people feeling they’ve “entered a different world”.
He’s keen to share his talents with the British public on a new TV show – and wouldn’t rule out one like Channel 4’s Escape To The Chateau. The show, which ended in 2022, was hugely popular, seeing British-Irish couple Dick and Angel Strawbridge buy and overhaul a dilapidated chateau in France, even televising the DIY and plumbing mishaps they had along the way.
Fred wouldn’t be deterred by the infamous plumbing disasters Dick and Angel encountered along the way, even after learning that sewage had formerly leaked into the chateau’s stunning moat.
He insisted: “You can’t be too precious. If something smells, your toilet’s blocked, of course it smells.”
Asked whether he’d be willing to put on an Escape to the Chateau-style show based on a home of his own, he exclaimed: “Why not?”
The I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 2023 star also says he’ll be preparing to welcome spring as soon as the calendar hits January.
He intends to plant bluebells in his garden and transform it into a “pleasure not just for the senses but for the eyes”.
For now, however, Fred’s next show – Emission Impossible, filmed with TV sidekick Gino D’Acampo – is next on the agenda.
It’ll be screened in December, just days before Christmas, and will see the pair travelling around the world while attempting to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible.
Their usual co-star, chef Gordon Ramsay, won’t be joining them on this occasion, but the show is nevertheless tipped to be epic.
Meanwhile, Fred is also promoting his new book, Seriously British, which discusses the much-discussed cultural differences between the French and the Brits – and has even teamed up with Autotrader to craft bespoke scent profiles for leading car brands.
