Matt Baker has made no secret of his love of the countryside, with his presenting roles on shows like Countryfile, Our Farm in the Dales and Our Dream Farm showcasing his passion for nature. It’s an appreciation he’s passed down to his children, teenagers Luke and Molly, who Matt thinks will follow in his footsteps in carving out a life in the countryside.
As Matt, 47, prepares to return to screens in season two of Channel 4’s National Trust: Our Dream Farm with Matt Baker – which follows the Trust’s search for a new tenant of a 600-acre farm in Wales’ largest National Park, Eryr – the dad-of-two spoke to HELLO! about what fans can expect from the new episodes, his children’s future on his family farm in Durham and leaving The One Show to focus on projects from behind-the-camera.
What can you tell me about the series?
Matt: 600 acres of Eryr Snowdonia Park. It’s unbelievable. You’ve got pasture, woodland, access to the little lake, then you’ve got the hospitality side of things with this annex attached to the farmhouse. You’ve also got all the livestock. The farm comes with a flock of Welsh mountain sheep, pigs and Welsh Black cattle next door. But while all of those tasks and challenges are going on, they’re lambing at the same time, and the person who impresses the most in those tasks gets to stay in the farmhouse as a temporary farm manager and take on responsibility of all of the land and the animals while they’re there. It’s a full on experience, they’re all there because they desperately want this 15-year tenancy. It’s life changing for them.
© Steven Landles / Channel 4Why do you think people resonate with the show?
Matt: It’s a window into the world that they’re unfamiliar with. People don’t realise a third of our farmers are tenant farmers. You only have to go into the countryside and look around to think, wow, these farmers are not only producing our food, they’re also making the countryside what it is. They’re looking after our environment. There’s so much respect and so much intrigue and fascination around it all. I think at heart, a lot of people want to do this, they want to be farmers. There’s something incredibly earthy about it. For me, it’s a world I’ve grown up in. It’s a world I couldn’t live without.
© Steven Landles / Channel 4You’ve got your own family farm in Durham. Have you thought about its future?
Matt: Well, even a good few years ago when we did Our Farm in the Dales, we turned our attention to how to make it as sustainable as possible going forward. So that’s what we’ve done. We’ve made it so that mum and dad can cope and look after it, and it’s ready for whoever and whenever to take over. We’ve secured the future of it in that respect. It’s ready and waiting for when the time is right.
© Ken McKay/ITV/ShutterstockAre your children getting stuck into farm life? What does the future hold for them?
Matt: I’ve worked hard to try and give my children the same upbringing that I had because it’s been so useful for me in my life. I mean, who knows what they’ll do. I think the job for us parents is to introduce our children to as many different things as we can, so that they can go off and do whatever they want. As I said before, the work that we did was to set the farm up for the future, so whoever or whenever can take over. It’s always going to be an option for anyone to, if they want to, get involved. I would imagine that my children would definitely have a life in the countryside because, similar to me really, that’s where they feel at home.
Will we see your mum and dad in another series of Travels with Mum and Dad?
Matt: My dad’s in his 80s now, we’ve parked the caravan up for a little bit but if it comes around, it comes around. I just go with the flow with my family, I like to keep that relaxed. I’ve got other series that are coming out later on in the year and now I’m going through a phase where I’m doing a lot of television producing. When I left The One Show, that was the purpose of that, really, to set up my own production company to produce shows that people want to see, and it’s gone incredibly well.
National Trust: Our Dream Farm with Matt Baker airs on Channel 4 on Saturday 15 March at 7pm.
