‘I couldn't do TV without my farming life’
Matt Baker is helping other farmers realise their countryside dream in his new show
Matt Baker is in his happy place – down on the farm. But this time he’s looking for a farmer to take on a 10-year lease at Gallows Hill Farm on the National Trust’s Wallington estate. Matt (46), has seven hopeful applicants who, throughout the Our Dream Farm series, will get the chance to work on the smallholding and spend time in the farmhouse they hope to call home.
Deciding who will win the tenancy is the Wallington Estates General Manager, Sally Richards and Giles Hunt, the Land and Estates Director for the whole of the National Trust. We caught up with Matt to find out more about this inspirational series that will change the winner’s life for ever.
How will the applicants be put through their paces?
This isn’t like Strictly Come Farming, this is very much the real world and I wanted it to be incredibly authentic, so we built the tasks around the particulars the National Trust were looking for. It was very important to me that this whole process was uplifting and educational for the farmers. It’s not rose-tinted, it’s bleak and cold. It was important that the National Trust got to see how the applicants reacted to that.
You grew up on a farm and then went back to run your parents’ farm. You know that life well… I’ve never left the family farm – I've only ever lived six months of my life without a flock of sheep! And that wasn’t a happy six months, to be honest with you. You’re just in the city and the energy is really out of kilter. The pace and the tempo of London versus the Durham Dales was really odd for me. Then I realised, “Let’s get back to that. Let’s get some sheep,” and everything was great again. I couldn’t do everything I do in my telly world without all of the stuff I do in my countryside and farming world.
Do you hope your kids go into farming?
They’ve grown up in the same way as me with a very practical life. You don’t realise how important that is until you move away. As parents, it’s not our job to push our kids to do things; it’s our job to introduce our children to stuff so they have the choice. When it’s ingrained in you, it can’t not be part of you.
Whatever they do, as long as they’re passionate about it and give it their everything, then I’ll back them 100 per cent.
Is there anything in TV you still want to try?
No, because I’ve done so many things in my life. I love the eclectic mix of stuff that I do and have done. It makes me laugh when I hear comments – because I was a British champion gymnast when I was younger – like, “Why is the guy from Countryfile commentating on gymnastics?” And that’s what it’s all about, what can you offer this world? I’ve never had a plan, I sort of notice things and feel things, and go with it. ■ Our Dream Farm, Saturday April 6, Channel 4