O IAN HYLAND
ON LAST NIGHT’S TELLY
Love In The Countryside, BBC2: ★★★★★ ver on BBC2 last night busy Yorkshireman Martin was explaining how his farming life had ruined his dating life: “The cows are great, but you can’t exactly take them to Nando’s.”
You’d be in even more trouble if you tried taking them to an Angus Steakhouse, Martin.
Martin, 44, was one of the farmers in the second series of Sara Cox’s rural dating show, which is now challenging Channel 4’s excellent First Dates Hotel in the Most LifeAffirming Programme Currently On TV category.
As well as Martin we met Grace, below, a 23 year-old farmer on the WalesShropshire border.
Answering the question of those male viewers who were no doubt yelling: “How the hell is she single?!”, Grace blamed the long hours she puts in on the farm. Following a speed dating round in London, Grace chose three guys to take back to the farm, including a hunky, Love Islandshaped painter and decorator called Mike, who happened to have a hobby farm of his own.
“It’s good that Mike has experience of livestock,” said Grace as she explained her choices, although you got the feeling she would have said the same thing if his only experience of livestock had been feeding the school hamster when he was six.
As for Martin, when we last saw him he was giving his three picks a tour of his farm, and promising them that “Every day you’re gonna get covered in something.”
Hmm. You might want to work on your chat-up lines, Mart.