To have your hopes and fears – your laughter and tears – captured on camera for TV is both an honour and a risk.
Nevertheless, we were delighted to be invited to take part of Channel 4’s popular reality show A New Life in the Sun. We featured in series 6, which aired in 2021.
We’re Damon Biddlecombe and Graham Welch (Damon’s the one with the beard). We set up a cheese and wine bar and B&B in Belvès, officially one of France’s most beautiful villages, in Dordogne.
If you’re based in the UK, you can watch us on the Channel 4 website – we appeared in episodes 21 to 25 of series 6. You’ll see us transform an old haberdashery into a bar/restaurant with guest rooms above.
Our first day of filming took place in September 2019. At that time, we’d just bought the property and were clearing it out and deciding what work was needed.
The cameras followed our progress over a year. Iris and John were our most regular camera people and they became like part of the family – in fact, we’re still in touch.
We had some ups and downs along the way and learned some important lessons. Above all, we made some great friends here in Belvès.
We opened the bar at the end of July 2020 and it quickly became a popular venue with locals and tourists alike. Our customers say they value our passion for high-quality cheeses, cold meats and wines.
Being on the show has been great for the whole of Belvès too – it’s boosted its profile internationally and encouraged other business to open here.
We were lucky enough to be invited back onto the show several times. We appeared in follow-up episodes of A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now?, in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
They follow our efforts to expand the business, including selling wine at Belvès’ summer night markets and catering at weddings in local châteaux.
Take a look at our Facebook or Instagram profiles or our Google or TripAdvisor reviews to find out more about how we’re getting on.
We hope you enjoy our story on A New Life in the Sun. If you’re thinking about following in our footsteps and building a new life for yourself abroad, our advice would definitely be to go for it.
In the meantime, if ever you’re in Dordogne, please pop in for a glass of wine and a platter of cheese and charcuterie – or maybe book one of our rooms for a night or two.
À bientôt, we hope.
