Funny farmer Jim back on screen as sitcom pilot airs
Perthshire’s farming comedian is back on television for more ploughing and lambing.
Scottish stand-up success Jim Smith appears as the character Jim MacDonald in‘The Farm’, a comedy set in rural Perthshire.
Smith, a real livestock breeder, and his show follows on from an earlier series of online shorts, which were co-written by and co-starred fellow stand-up Chris Forbes (Scot Squad).
The Farm, like the shorts shown just online, is filmed at Smith’s own farm with his dog, cat, sheep and cows.
Stuart Elliott, who directed the one-minute duration iPlayer shoots, returns for this bigger bite of the apple, a 30-minute pilot that hopefully heralds a whole series in future.
MacDonald’s farm is home to Jim, his mum Mary and his hapless tractor driver Donnie.
There are lots of laughs at the muck and maddening moments of rural life.
Ahead of the pilot programme going out last
Wednesday, Jim Smith tweeted about how this breakthrough had come about.
“About six years ago a very funny chap called Chris Forbes met me in the green room of the Glasgow Stand and asked if I fancied making an sitcom about farming with him.‘Hell yes’I replied.
“Massive thanks to Owen Bellshouse and Stuart Elliott for making this happen.”
Episode one was aired on February 17 at 10.45pm on BBC One Scotland.
Jim begins the episode firing shots at a rambler and feeling glum about getting older on his latest birthday.
The comedy is available on the BBC iPlayer for the next 11 months.