Why TV star Joe flocked here
COMEDIAN Joe Lycett has already helped put needlework in the spotlight by fronting hit BBC contest The Great British Sewing Bee.
And now he’s turned up in Wales with a gang of knitters – on a mission to “make wool cool again”.
Along with his Sewing Bee co-star Patrick Grant, he decided Wales – perhaps unsurprisingly given its famed sheep population – was the place to make it happen.
Joe and a team of Welsh knitters have designed jumpers with the slogan “Just Knit Myself” on, to persuade Brits to commit to buying more wool and help save the industry.
And along the way there were some surprises in store for unsuspecting shoppers in Bridgend town centre – not least househunter Nathan Henry.
The 26-year-old from the town’s Brackla area was plucked off the street while he was buying his new house, to model the new jumpers in the shoot.
Nathan and his partner had been signing everything off when they saw the programme being shot.
He explained: “We were just walking through Bridgend, seen them shooting, stopped for two minutes to watch with my partner and then they asked us to get involved and be an extra.”
Meaning to only be involved for a day, Nathan was surprised to have a call to come down and model the jumpers at a farm.
“It went from that then to ‘Could you come back another day?’ and doing a bit of modelling as well.
“I’m not used to it, but it’s been quite good and Joe has been quite funny, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve never held a lamb before.”
That meant, however, that his partner and her parents were left to start the move alone.
“I’m going to go back now to move to the new house, take the boxes to the new house and get the keys!”
Joe was full of praise for Nathan’s impromptu modelling debut: “Nathan is a star,” he said. “Nathan is, in many ways, the hero of our story!”
Filming took place on Cwm Risca Farm in Tondu, where Joe was able to get involved with some lamb cwtching and sheep shearing.
Jacob Antony, 28, owns the farm with his family and was thrilled to be involved. He said: “It’s been brilliant. It’s such an important story for us, British wool and the price we’re getting for it.
“We’re not getting a lot for the wool product any more. It’s costing us about £1.30 to shear a sheep at this current moment and we’re getting less than a pound back for that fleece.
“You do the maths on that and we’re losing quite a significant amount of money.”
Wool is a natural by-product of sheep; the sheep have to be sheared for the animal’s well-being, and the product is biodegradable and renewable.
Jacob explained: “Regardless of whether we’re selling the wool or not, we’ve still got to shear the sheep.
“It’s a pity because wool is such a fantastically diverse product. It’s the oldest fibre known to man, it’s carbon sequestering so it catches carbon that’s released into the atmosphere.”
He added that wool “is going to be here forever so we may as well be using it, rather than synthetic fibres that are polluting the ocean and water streams, and being made with harmful chemicals.”
This isn’t the first time Joe has ventured across the border to help industries in Wales.
Last year he held a rave in a Cardiff house on Woodville Road with Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing to challenge CPS letting agency, and more famously legally changed his name to Hugo Boss in support of Boss Brewing in Swansea. He recently revealed he is still a fan of the brand. “I’ve had a lot of their beers over lockdown,” he posted on social media.
■ Joe Lycett’s Touch the Nation film for his Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back series three will be available to watch on Channel 4 soon.