A couple from Oxfordshire are starring in a daytime Channel 4 show, after packing their life up in the county to start a new business in Italy.

Mark and Jane Barton, who moved from Mixbury to live full-time in the Abruzzo region in southern Italy, are starring in A New Life in the Sun.

The Channel 4 show follows expats as they say goodbye to the UK and begin the long journey of setting up businesses in places such as France, Spain and Portugal. It shows a window into their new lives and the positives and negatives that come with it.

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Their business has two elements to it: the first is a holiday let apartment in a town in Casoli district and the second is servicing other people’s holiday lets, which is based from where their new home is in Palombaro.

The couple, both 55, got involved with the show as they had watched it before and Mr Barton saw it was advertising for participants, so he applied online.

Mr Barton said: “We have always wanted to move to Italy full-time. Two things precipitated the move; Brexit being one, we lost our rights as Europeans, and the second one was HS2 which was spoiling Mixbury for what we wanted Mixbury to be.

“The time was right to get out for us really.”

The Bartons had not worked in a similar business before moving to Italy.

When they lived in Oxfordshire Mrs Barton used to work with horses on a freelance basis and she joked she has “come out the right side without too many injuries”.

Mr Barton, on the other hand, used to be a property developer but during the last few years was working in plumbing, heating and electrical work.

The coupled said since moving to the country the business has been “remarkably busy”, especially on the holiday let side of the operation.

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Mr Barton explained: “There are a lot of people who are looking to move to Abruzzo and so the apartment has been rented out almost full-time with people staying a month at a time looking at properties.”

There is not a lot they miss about Oxfordshire - besides cycling being easier.

Mr Barton said: “Literally we are half an hour from the beach, we are 40 minutes from the ski slopes, the wine is only a euro a litre for the good stuff, the food is excellent and cheaper than the UK.

“We do not owe anybody any money, so pretty good to be honest.”

A New Life in the Sun airs weekdays on Channel 4 at 4pm with the Barton’s episodes airing on January 26, 27 and 28.

You can check out their business on corsovittorioemanuele.co.uk/.

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