Kelvin Fletcher admitted defeat during a repeat episode of his ITV series Fletcher's Family Farm, putting his head in his hands after a disastrous attempt to shear their sheep. The former Emmerdale star and his wife, Liz, decided to shear four sheep themselves, but what started as an enthusiastic effort quickly turned into chaos.
Shearing Attempt Goes Wrong
After both tried their hand at shearing, they decided to time the next run to see how fast they were getting. “Let’s time it and see how quickly you can do it. On your marks, get set, go,” Liz told Kelvin. In a voiceover, Kelvin explained that a trained shearer can remove a full fleece in under a minute, but admitted they were nowhere near that pace. Struggling with the size of the animal, he commented, “He’s so big, so strong, and he’s got such a big fleece as well.”
By the 11-minute mark, Liz pointed out how long it was taking, prompting Kelvin to groan: “Oh my goodness, that’s embarrassing.” The situation worsened when, just as Kelvin felt he was getting the hang of it, the clippers died. “Battery’s gone,” he said, reminding Liz that both batteries only last 90 minutes, adding they definitely hadn’t been going for three hours. Liz wasn’t convinced, laughing: “We might have done… We’ve only done two and a half sheep. It looks like someone’s been murdered.”
Defeat and Humour
Clearly deflated, Kelvin admitted he was furious and couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. He gestured to one sheep with its coat half off and pointed out they now had an unfinished job on their hands. Liz did the maths and joked that at their current speed, shearing the full flock of 40 would take around 80 hours, while their usual shearer gets the whole lot done by the afternoon.
Kelvin then accepted defeat, saying it started well but they’d messed it up. He even said he felt like crying, while Liz tried to put a positive spin on it: at least they’d learned they won’t be attempting it again. With the botched shears needing sorting, Kelvin said they’d have to call in their professional shearer, though he was reluctant. He joked he might just send a photo with “SOS”, while Liz compared the mess to a disastrous throwback to her hairdressing days.
Fletcher's Family Farm is available to watch on ITVX.
