SIXTY SECONDS
THE JIMMY’S FARM BROADCASTER, 44, ON FARMING IN LOCKDOWN, TICKLING TAPIRS AND DANNY DEVITO’S WARDROBE MALFUNCTION
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
How has lockdown affected life on your farm?
It’s a funny situation. We’re waiting to hear about who can come back to work and what they can do, and whether we can open to the public – we can’t pay the wages if we can’t open up. Life is pretty normal on the working farm with the pigs, cattle, turkeys and so on but most of our meat goes via our farm shop and restaurant – so without restaurants being open, that’s difficult. But this should be our busiest time of the year in the wildlife park.
Have the animals picked up on it?
The donkeys recognise the regular because he’s desperate to have visitors so they miss that. Jerry, a look around. We usually cut our alpaca, loves the general the grass for the public but public so we’ve had to occupy him now the sheep are having a as a guard, looking after turkeys. nice time wandering around One of our meerkats, Steve the park, keeping the
. Staying alert:.
McQueen, is always escaping grass low.
. A meerkat.
Something about a newborn lamb just revives the spirits, doesn’t it?
Yeah, people have enjoyed the series opening this window on the countryside during lockdown. It’s a bit of escapism.
Have you been home schooling?
Oh yes. We get the two eldest up at school time and they join in classes remotely while I keep the younger ones occupied around the farm, growing seeds or doing up an old rowing boat. It’s stressful and I moan about it but when they go back to school I’ll miss this time with them.
How do you think lockdown will change people’s attitudes towards food?
Now it’s much harder to pop out to the shops or get an order online, people have got more frugal with food. There’s a lot of stuff around about what to do with leftovers. The ‘waste not, want not’ ethos is great. We’ve had to do the same on the farm, mending fences and so on with whatever we’ve got lying around.
If you had to choose one of your animals to be isolated with, which would it be?
Not the meerkat, he’d bugger off! Tapirs are so placid and they like a tickle and a swim. Who doesn’t like to tickle a tapir?
Where did your interest in nature and animals come from?
My parents moved to an Essex village from east London and my dad bought
I presented Danny DeVito with the key to Southend, then his trousers fell down
a little meadow. My brother loved West Ham and had it cut it into a football pitch but I hated football so I spent my time catching butterflies in the tall grass. I kept terrapins and bred snakes and lizards. I remember the budgerigars escaped once into a tree and I had to climb up it and stuff them into my blazer. I cleaned cars in the village and bought Kevin Redmile’s tropical fish tank with the money: watching the fish play out their lives was like watching EastEnders for me.
Are you living your dream?
Yeah, 100 per cent! The conversations we have on the farm are so bizarre: how to build a butterfly house, fixing the drainage, new sausage recipes, how much the camel weighs, who’s planting the runner beans, jazzing up the website, how we get some Indian rhinos…
Then his trousers fell down at the end of the pier! It was bizarre.
And dream bookings?
Obviously he’s retired from stand-up and not very well now but Billy Connolly would be amazing, a real showstopper. Ed Sheeran’s a local so I’d love him. We got a piano in for Gary Barlow and he sang Back For Pud, which was genius.
Ever considered doing any celebrity shows like Strictly?
I’ve always avoided that sort of stuff, even Celebrity Mastermind. The jungle one, I’d just go off and look at the animals, I wouldn’t be fussed about talking to the people. And I’m a terrible dancer so no Strictly either.
We’ve always felt that if you can make a difference with the environment, you’ve got a duty to do that. So we want to build another area showcasing the rare breeds and pushing forward with more conservation projects – fishing, hedgehogs, gibbons, you name it. I’m hoping Jimmy’s Festival will return next year, and we want to feature the environment alongside the food and music, so we’ll aim to plant a forest at each festival. .
. Danny DeVito.
Who has been your favourite guest on Friday Night Feast?
Danny DeVito turning up at Southend Pier. He chose a recipe based on one from the Italian town his parents came from. So we sourced all the ingredients from that town and he loved it. At the end I presented him with honorary citizenship of Southend and the key to the town, and he got really emotional.
What are your ambitions for the farm?
The whole series of Spring At Jimmy’s Farm is available on All4