A COUPLE who live in a Cumbrian castle have appeared in a Channel 5 show which explores different lifestyles.
Muncaster Castle was featured on Channel 5's Rich House Poor House 'Millionaire Special' on Sunday night, May 14.
The concept of the show is that people will swap homes - and lives - for a week to put themselves in another person's shoes. In this episode, it looked at different attitudes to wealth.
In the program, castle owners Iona Pennington and Ewan Frost-Pennington swap lives with self-made Liverpool businesswoman Kate Stewart, who came from a working-class background.
Ewan Frost-Pennington said: "We were approached to do a show last September. We were really cautious about it as we didn't know how we were going to be portrayed, we were quite nervous.
"It was originally going to be called New Money, Old Money with the idea that we explore the views and values associated with that. In the end, we agreed to do it.
"For us at Muncaster, we survive purely on people knowing about us, so if there's any reason for a family to live in a place like Muncaster, we need to take any opportunity we can to make it a wonderful tourist attraction.
"It went really really well and all the feedback we've received so far has been positive.
"We believe that it's a true reflection of who we are and what we're trying to do."
Kate is very proud of her wealth and lives a glamorous lifestyle, whereas at Muncaster Castle, Ewan explains that they value a longer-term view of wealth, with a lot of it being tied up in assets.
This means they can't live freely and spend lots of money, whereas they look after those assets and reinvest anything they make back into the place.
In its synopsis, Channel 5 said Iona begins to understand the joys of 'new money' when she meets Kate's stylist for a personal clothes-shopping session... while Kate starts to see Iona's sense of duty to the financial near bottomless pit of Muncaster.
The Penningtons lived Kate's life for a week and vice versa. Ewan says they learned that they always prioritised the business and working all the time - whilst Kate is business-minded but takes time to enjoy her lifestyle.
Ewan added they learned to prioritise themselves a bit more, and perhaps take more time off.
READ MORE: Muncaster Castle hosts Sausage Festival over May bank holiday
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