Matt Baker and his wife Nicola have taken on the task of converting part of their family's farm into a new family home. The TV host documents the project in his new series, Matt Baker: Our Barn in the Dales, which follows the trials and tribulations of the building work alongside his parents.
On Instagram, Matt explained: "We're deep in an epic adventure which will be spanned across 2 series. The first starting in a couple of weeks is all the building and conversion stuff and another series next year will be the interior bits and bobs."
Location of the Farm
The farm is a 100-acre organic sheep farm in the Durham Hills, part of the wider Durham Dales in County Durham. Matt made a permanent move to the farm following his mum Janice's accident in 2021, and he has made a number of changes since to make his family's life easier.
Back in 2015, Matt wrote an article for the Countryfile website about what he loves most about the area, sharing: "You never ever know how good something like this is until you leave it. Now this area is like a magnet for me. I come up here with my wife and kids and to stay with Mum and Dad whenever I can. I feel at my happiest here; it's where I'm meant to be."
He added: "The family farm is a few miles west of Durham, at the gateway to the Durham Dales. The characters around here – the farmers and the other neighbours – are a real close-knit community. Everybody helps each other. Just as well – because it's not easy living up here. The farming is some of the toughest in Britain. Sometimes in winter you can't get in or out. But then the summer comes along and no matter how short it is, it somehow makes all the struggling worthwhile."
Public Access and Series Origins
As the farm is privately owned by the family, it is not open to members of the public. Matt has also previously said he had never considered putting his family in the spotlight before the series.
When making his previous series, Our Farm in the Dales, the presenter was keen to make sure his parents were happy with what was being shown to the public. He also explained how the concept was never planned to be a TV series, previously telling The Express: "We didn't do it as a TV programme idea, it sort of happened. It was an interesting story of how it actually evolved because I was sort of having meetings with different TV channels with our production company.
"When we started the work [on the farm], we'd actually started doing all of this stuff before we turned the cameras on, and I was having all these meetings, I was doing a Zoom and it was chaos. We were all surprised by how successful it was, but I'm really proud of it."
Matt Baker: Our Barn in the Dales starts on More4 on October 13 at 9pm.
