Emmerdale star swaps TV role to look after 100 sheep, 30 pigs and 10 horses
After more than 20 years playing Emmerdale farmer Andy Sugden, Kelvin Fletcher must have learned a thing or two about rural life.
But all that pretend lambing and mucking out can’t have put him off – because now the actor has become a farmer for real. Kelvin and his actress wife Liz ditched showbiz three years ago to take on a 120-acre holding on the edge of the Peak District.
The couple now have 100 sheep, 30 pigs, 10 horses, six chickens, a cat and Ginger the dog. Oh, and four children under the age of seven. Next week, Kelvin and his brood will be back on TV for new ITV documentary series, Fletcher’s Family Farm.
Former Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher and his wife Liz (Julian Hamilton/Sunday Mirror)But today, they also have a rather inexperienced farmhand to, er, help out on the land. Me. Before I pull my wellies on though, I want to know what it was that made the soap star and 2019 Strictly winner turn fiction into fact.
“People make an obvious connection to Emmerdale,” he says. “So you play a farmer all those years, then you become one. Life imitating art. But I was an actor. I had zero farming knowledge. There might be a scene where I was next to a sheep, but that was it. The storylines were deaths, affairs, storms.
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“I don’t know what the catalyst was for becoming a farmer. Emmerdale [shot on a country estate in West Yorkshire] was an amazing place to work. It is aesthetically beautiful, so maybe that was part of it.
The couple star in a new TV farm show (Steve Morgan)“But it’s like doing Strictly. You do all right so people assume you must have had some dance training when you haven’t. Liz isn’t from a farming background either. Really, we got into it by accident and we’ve literally been learning on the job.”
With no farming experience and a young family to raise, Kelvin, 39, says the lifestyle change has certainly been a culture shock. He and his childhood sweetheart Liz, 38 – best known for her role in 2016 BBC drama In The Club – have been up since the cock crowed with 16-month-old twins Mateusz and Maximus, along with Marnie, six, and four-year-old Milo. Forming a morning “tag team”, one feeds the twins while the other gets the older kids ready for school.
“We’re always late,” says Kelvin. “I don’t know how everyone else does it. Their kids run into school pristine, while Marnie runs in late with a bed head after feeding the pigs.” Like most modern farmers, the couple have diversified. The farm cottage is a holiday let and today, a camera crew has rented out the space for a fashion shoot.
Kelvin and his wife with their kids Milo and Marnie (Steve Morgan)So, with the eldest kids at school and the twins under the watchful eye of their grandparents, the couple start to work through the neverending list of jobs on the farm. “We’ve had a medical emergency,” Liz says. “A lamb is ill so we need to go to the farm shop for medication, if you don’t mind coming.”
We all pile into Kelvin’s rickety Land Rover and en-route, the couple tell me how they “accidentally” swapped showbiz for life on the farm. They had planned to move to California, but were grounded by the pandemic. “It was Kelvin’s idea,” Liz says. “We had two children, no real responsibilities, they weren’t at school, we had no jobs… then all visas got stopped, but we were in the mindset for change.
The actor as Andy in Emmerdale (TV Grab)“Kelvin saw this farm on Rightmove and said, ‘Liz, what about buying this?’” Kelvin, who expertly navigates the country roads while tucking in to a bacon sarnie, adds: “We didn’t do it because we wanted to be farmers. We wanted something different.
“We looked at all sorts of places but the thought of this quiet, idyllic life got us. Then, lo and behold, it’s not as quiet as you thought. There are sheep, so you think, ‘I’ll get some more sheep’. Then it snowballs.”
With the emergency medication for the poorly lamb collected, it’s back to the farm – but Kelvin sadly warns me: “I think we will lose this one today.” Liz adds: “It’s the circle of life – even the kids understand that now. They get to see the magic of the babies being born but understand that sometimes, they die.”
Kelvin with Oti Mabuse on Strictly COme Dancing (BBC/Guy Levy)Meanwhile, with no farmhands to help with the dirty jobs, they tell me I’ll be mucking in – and out, too. My first task is feeding their herd of Oxford Sandy and Black pigs – and mucking out their barn. The minute the four sows and 25 piglets hear Liz rummaging in the feed bin, they race to the gate. We’re nearly bowled over by the 200lb sows, pushing their piglets aside to reach the food first.
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It’s all a far cry from stylish Liz’s old life in Manchester, where she loved dressing up. Nowadays she’s more likely to be found wearing leggings and wellies. She says: “When I first arrived here, my only wellies were ones I’d bought for £3 from Asda for a festival.
Kelvin looking after the sheep (Julian Hamilton/Sunday Mirror)“I never imagined wellies would become the most important item in my wardrobe.” All this as well as being a full-time mum. But she explains that the kids all muck in, too. Liz says: “The twins are usually in their buggy watching, while Milo and Marnie love collecting eggs from the chickens and feeding the pigs.”
Kelvin adds: “The kids are getting a good grasp of life and all it entails – having empathy with animals and each other. Farming involves life and death, hard work and is for ever changing.” This year’s commitments made it too hectic for a family holiday so Kelvin took the older kids camping in the forest. But back to today, and with the pigs sorted, we move on to sorting out the sheep.
The Sunday Mirror's Amanda Killelea (right) helps with mucking out the Oxford Sandy and Black pigs (Julian Hamilton/Sunday Mirror)Not content with farming, parenting, filming and acting – which they both still do – the couple have also hosted family events on the farm, including an Easter trail during lambing season. And they’re gearing up to transform it into a festive village for Christmas.
Kelvin says: “We’ve found this massive love for everything a farm represents – hard work, early mornings, challenges and laughs. “You are covered in muck but you are really happy.”
Fletcher’s Family Farm begins on ITV on October 15 at 11.30am and on ITVBe at 7pm
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