Catching Up With The Fletchers

Catching Up With The Fletchers

The recent Chatsworth Country Fair provided us with the opportunity to catch up with Kelvin and Liz Fletcher about life on Fletchers’ Family Farm.

The pair have embraced agricultural life alongside their four children - Marnie, Milo, Mateusz and Maximus – since purchasing their farm near Macclesfield, with their behind-the-scenes TV show proving to be hugely popular with fans.

Having been joined by the pair at the Great Yorkshire Show earlier in the summer, the Chatsworth event allowed us to learn more about what life is like for the family in what are still relatively new surroundings...

First up, let’s talk about Chatsworth...

LF: We’ve been here before with the children but we didn’t dare to go in the house in case they broke anything – so we stuck with areas where we knew we would be safe! This is the first time we have been to the fair, and it’s been an unbelievable day.

KF: We did some clay shooting yesterday which was a real adrenaline rush, and we both managed to hit a clay - which was surprising!

LF: I missed one and then shot again and got told off for double shooting...

KF: She thought it was Call of Duty!

There is so much we could talk about so to start things off, having made your name through acting, what was the thinking behind a move into agriculture?

KF: When we first moved, it wasn’t with the plan to actually farm. We were moving to America in 2020 following the Strictly Tour and then the pandemic hit, which changed our plans to head to the States. We wanted to move somewhere new and go to a new setting with the two kids we had at the time, so we swapped the sunny skies of California for a small farm near Macclesfield.

We’d viewed a lot of different places and eventually found ourselves in a little village called Wincle, and that was it. We ended up with some sheep because the neighbours had some, and that was where the love affair started.

I always say now that I can’t imagine us not farming as it’s been a discovery for us all, and whilst I was the catalyst to an extent, the whole family has really taken it on. We run the farm ourselves and the kids help out, and we are discovering the joys of living off the land and are learning from our mistakes.

I imagine it must be hard to deal with the family side of things and getting the kids involved when there is so much going on with the farm and the TV show – very different to if you’d jetted off to the USA...

LF: I quickly threw away the bikini and bought some wellies! It’s been a step into the unknown for us all and you could say the kids have been a bit of a hindrance rather than a help as they are only little –so you need to have eyes in the back of your head with all the dangers there are on a farm!

We’ve got to make sure they are safe, but we tend to do as much as we can when it is school and nursery time, and outside that, Kelvin has to do more of it on his own. We save the big jobs that have to be done together for the time when can be together. I often say we’re in survival mode, and there will come a day when we can just sit back and talk to each other whilst the kids do all the work!

What I love is that the kids are learning at the same time as we are learning, and where else will that happen? My daughter experienced lambing a sheep for the first time at the age of three, and that was at the same time we did. I really love the way we can have these shared experiences, and learn things together.

How difficult was it finding the right property?

KF: We’d viewed another farm near to where we ended up moving, but I have a bit of an obsession with Right Move and I go on it like people go on Instagram!

We came across the farm and you get a feeling when you got into a house, wherever it is, and whatever kind of property it may be, and we go that feeling. We’re not from a farm or country background, but it felt like a home and you go with your gut instinct.

When Liz saw it, she said it was lovely but not for us as we weren’t that kind of people – we were townies. I asked What If? and she told me I was ridiculous; I don’t think she saw our next step being what it was.

For us, Oldham had always been home, even though Liz spent time down in London working and I had a spell in Leeds when I was with Emmerdale. We both grew up in Oldham so we kind of tore up the rule book and took a punt with the move, and now I look out of the window and see the fields and see the sheep and I can’t imagine it being any other way.

There will have been many, but what has been the biggest challenge?

LF: I think the biggest challenge is that whatever you plan, there will be a curveball somewhere – something will happen. A few days back we had a leak, and we had to work out where it was, get it sorted and it took up the whole day; we couldn’t plan for that. We have to work out a lot of things which is a challenge, but it’s rewarding when you do it. When I was living in Oldham or living in London, I never imagined I’d be in a position where I could do fencing or electrics!

So what is most the rewarding thing?

KF: I think there are many rewards. Having livestock is a huge responsibility with all the forms and the things you have to learn and it can be overwhelming and daunting when you consider everything involved. We had to pull a calf out from a heifer at 5:30am with no-one else to lean on and had to go with our instinct and think on our feet which was a huge challenge, but the end reward was fantastic.

There are plenty of occasions where it is like that and when you come through a challenge, even with some mistakes along the way, it’s the best part of the job. There are also the times when you are walking along in the middle of nowhere with no phones or distractions and it’s just us as a family. Those moments are things you cherish.

Having a TV show in the middle of it all must be quite a thing to have to consider. It shines a light on the industry and what you have to go through, but how do you think it’s been received?

LF: It was important for us that they follow what we do and that nothing is set up; we want to show the good, the bad and the ugly. If we did the tv show, it had to be real and we get farmers who have been doing it for years who love the show because they get it, and they give us advice to help. However, there are also people in London who can watch and think ‘I didn’t realise that is how it’s done’. Children and grandparents alike can enjoy it, and the fact we show it as it is is what is important.

KF: We were surprised by the feedback to it from all audiences and it’s quite humbling as inviting the cameras in was a big thing for us. We’re used to being on camera but you are playing someone else, so when you have to be yourself, you have to open yourself up and can feel quite vulnerable.

You have to have trust with the production company and the TV channel that it will be our story and of course there are things that they’ll try to capture for the edit, but if a lamb escapes then that is the story.

We’re just a small family farm and I don’t intend to try and speak for the whole industry as it is just our take on things and how we see it from our eyes. We’re still in that period where this is a positive experience for us all and that is the only story we can portray on screen. Of course there are pitfalls but it’s a great way for our family to live.

Can you compare the pressures that come from acting and come from farming?

KF: I think there is a lot of synergy to be honest in terms of the fact that you never know what is round the corner. There are so many variable in farming that are outside your control like the weather, the market prices, the demands – so you are always at the mercy of the decisions of others. That can be challenging as you have to put the same work in regardless, and at times, you feel you are planning for the future but are trying to do it blind.

Acting is the same as you never know where the next job is coming from, which scares a lot of people. I’ve been acting for over 30 years but I have to audition and effectively do a job interview like everyone else, and despite being established, I won’t get eight out of ten roles that I go for.

You have to be determined and back yourself, and that’s why I say there are similarities between acting and agriculture.

LF: You have to be reactive in farming as you do in acting where you might get a call to say ‘Can you be in London tomorrow?’ and everything has to be dropped. I have friends who would need a week to plan that, but as an actor, you don’t know what you are doing from day to day and it the same for farming.

My friends say I live by the seat of my pants and that is what farming is all about as one minute you can be stood cooking dinner and the next thing, the sheep are out and you have to drop everything. You have to react quickly to things, and that is where it is similar.

What’s it been like living with Kelvin as a farmer? Has he changed?

LF: Kelvin has found his calling. To see someone who is so content in what in what they do, even though it’s tough and it’s a graft, is really special and I’m glad we are able to do this journey together.

KF: She’s being nice because this is recorded...

Are there changes that have surprised you?

KF: I’m not sure if many men can relate to this but previously, Liz was hardly ever wrong and now, she is never wrong! What she says is always right, so I have to surrender...

We are chalk and cheese and opposite in many ways, so our approaches are different. We had to get the lambs in recently and I had one way to do it and she had another, and after some harsh words to each other – because you have to argue getting sheep in – we did it.

We work well together but she is adaptable and for a mother of four to wear so many hats is great; I sometimes wonder how she handles it all so effortlessly. The hardest challenge is being a parent and nothing will ever beat that, but she can be a mum one minute and then the next minute she is wrestling sheep – and then she looks all glamourous like she does today.

They say you shouldn’t work with animals and children, which we now do all the time and we are also working with each other when they say don’t work with your spouse – so we have drawn the short straw all round! We don’t see ourselves as anything special and are just a young family, which is what people can relate to.

Away from farming, you’ve been involved in motorsport Kelvin. Might you come back to it at some point?

KF: My last race was at Brands Hatch in 2022 I think in British GT. I’d been there for a few years and at the time, was in a McLaren GT3 but I had taken a break over the summer for a show in national theatre. That was a fantastic opportunity but racing was interrupted and then with the farm and the kids, it’s been on the back burner a bit.

Racing is something I wanted to do it when I was younger, and I idolised people like Barry Sheene, Carl Fogarty, Jason Plato and Nigel Mansell. I started to race at the age of 28 with no aspiration other than to give it a go and I think I’ve had a decent career. I did a year in the BTCC only two years after passing my ARDS test and raced top GT cars, so I’ve ticked a box and surprised myself a lot.

I’d love to get back into it and maybe have a go at bike racing as racing has always been a passion. I even used to go to bed with a spanned as my comfort blanket at the age of three or four.

How do you feel about the prospect of Kelvin going racing again?

LF: We do encourage each other that if you have a passion to do something, you should do it. Time is short for us but have to get out and do things, and we always support each other in that way. Good luck in finding the time but if you can, then you are welcome to do it!

KF: When I made my BTCC debut it was at Brands Hatch Indy in 2016 in a Chevrolet Cruze that I’d never driven until first practice, so it was a real step in at the deep end. Liz was pregnant at the time with Marnie and there is a picture of us in the garage with my name up there on display, and it was a like the realisation of a boyhood dream being there alongside drivers like Plato, Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal.

It was a true highlight of my life and it’s crazy looking back at it now, but if I was to do it again, it would all come down to having the time – and the boss giving me permission!