Is there anything Kelvin Fletcher can’t do? He’s a former heart-throb Emmerdale actor, inline hockey champ and Strictly Come Dancing winner who does motor racing in his spare time. Now, having moved from the city to a 120-acre farm, he’s taking on his next challenge: bring the site back to its former working glory.
And by the way, “what I know about farming you could write on the back of a stamp”, Fletcher admitted.
That’s the premise of Kelvin’s Big Farming Adventure (BBC One, 17 January, 8.30pm). If that concept sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The same brief was followed – albeit with a less good-looking star – in Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm. Many viewers have already cried “rip off”.
It offered more of a family focus than Clarkson’s show – but that too has been done before, on Channel 5 series Our Yorkshire Farm.
Fletcher had trouble with tractors, wrestled with sheep and tried to track down his daughter’s escaped pet rabbit. On hand to help was next-door neighbour Gilly, who doled out encouragement like the worst parent at kids’ football. “Is he such a blinking wuss?” she said. “Don’t be such a girl.” Although to be fair to Gilly, Fletcher did appear to have a hair-trigger gag reflex for farmyard smells.
The show is unlikely to shake off the obvious comparisons. But there’s one fundamental difference. Unlike Clarkson, Fletcher at least appears to genuinely want to make a success of his new venture, rather than self-sabotage for entertainment’s sake.
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