BBC Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on 'big' decisions with wife after 'end of a chapter'

Matt Baker has revealed what it's really like working alongside his family—including his parents, Janice and Mike.

The Countryfile host and his relatives are well-versed in television appearances, having previously teamed up for Matt Baker's Our Farm in the Dales.

During an exclusive conversation with Express.co.uk in 2024, Matt discussed some of the tough choices they've faced whilst filming their programmes, including Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad, which broadcast last year.

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Discussing the filming process for Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad, the broadcaster revealed: "We used to do these little trips away, where we would go and see how our wool was being processed in the wool mills, and so we just basically supersized that concept of these rural days out.

"And the key with it is they're always close to home because obviously, having a farm, you can't go far. And plus, with the dad being like 80, the reality of them planning to go on some sort of adventure was never going to be the case," reports the Express.

Regarding the prospects for Our Farm in the Dales, Matt hasn't dismissed the chance of another series.

"There are no plans not to do it," he confessed, continuing: "It's the question everybody keeps asking me, 'Are you doing more on the farm?'

"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."

"It seems to sort of happened off the back of that, and it's been really successful. People have loved it, but we're now in our third series where I think the key is that we're not going far," he added.

Matt's programme "took off," and he reckons its triumph came from showing not just the idyllic aspects of farming life but also the harsh realities, as audiences watched the Baker clan grapple with tough choices.

The Countryfile presenter admitted: "We were all surprised by how successful it was, but I'm really proud of it, and it's something that because although it was about farming, it was also about the difficult things that all families go through.

"And when you get those big decisions, where, for mum, choosing to change direction on the farm and to make decisions in families, when you decide to do something different. And, we sort of filmed that process of deciding how to make things easier, going forward, and more sustainable.

"And honestly, the amount of correspondence that I've had from people say, 'it's difficult to have those conversations' but even if you don't live on a farm, it's the same thing, families go through the same thing all the time, and we were doing it to a backdrop on the farm, which made it visual and practical to see those things happening. But actually, the conversations that it started were more important."

Speaking about the series' finale, Matt described it as the "natural end of a chapter."

Expanding on this, he stated, "So that's why we didn't sort of decide to stop filming it; it's just the end of that process."

Going into more detail, Matt continued, "It was a real, natural, end of that chapter, so that's why we haven't done any more."