Matt Baker has confessed to experiencing some “emotional” moments while filming his new series, National Trust: Our Dream Farm with Matt Baker, particularly when it came time to bid farewell to potential tenants.
The fresh eight-part series, premiering tonight, sees Matt team up with the National Trust to find a new tenant for a sprawling 600-acre farm in the stunning Eryri (formerly known as Snowdonia), North Wales.
This thrilling new programme features Matt and seven shortlisted applicants being put through their paces, all of whom have been assembled to familiarise themselves with the farm they aspire to call home.
Each week, the hopefuls undertake genuine farming tasks as they compete to demonstrate that they are the right choice to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inhabit the farm.
The contenders must contemplate what running the farm entails and will be assessed on their capacity to exploit all the opportunities the farm presents, from environmental sustainability and agricultural innovation to tourism, reports .
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Matt Baker had the help of Trystan Edwards and Giles Hunt (Image: Channel 4)
Applicants will exit the process one by one until only two remain. The remaining two will then be invited to a final meeting with the National Trust. Only the victor will be granted the truly life-altering 15-year tenancy of this remarkable farm deep within rural Eryri.
While the Countryfile host clarified that he wasn’t the one making the decisions, he conceded in an exclusive interview that he found it “hard to say goodbye” to the tenants.
Matt opened up about the emotional rollercoaster he experienced while working with Trystan Edwards and Giles Hunt from the National Trust on selecting a tenant. Matt confessed to Reach PLC: “Yeah, of course, it was hard to say goodbye, and there were plenty of emotional moments in the series.”
The winner would become the new tenant of this farm (Image: Channel 4)
He clarified his role by saying, “I didn’t make the [overall] decision, but I was pleased with the outcome and the right tenant was selected, but at the same time, for the tenants who didn’t get selected, it is a huge learning curve because they can now be even better when they apply for their next tenure and they will know what they are doing.”
Matt also reflected on the significance of the process: “At the end of the day, this is people’s lives, and they work so hard for it. The tenants had to do a lot of tasks, and it was challenging for them.”
He emphasised the importance of showcasing agriculture through television: “For me, any show that puts our agricultural world front and centre is vital, as far as I’m concerned. Not a lot of people know of the world of tenant farming and the fact that a third of British farmers are tenant farmers.”
The tenants’ skills were put to the test each week (Image: Channel 4)
Finally, he expressed his appreciation for the countryside, saying, “I think you only have to go out into the countryside and be so thankful that it looks the way that it does because of our farmers.”
Matt spilled the beans without naming names, revealing: “I won’t give away who it was as I don’t want to ruin the series, but yes, of course, some of the tenants realised they weren’t cut out for it, but that is the whole point of this process.”
National Trust: Our Dream Farm with Matt Baker airs on Saturday at 7pm on Channel 4.