In this BAFTA winning BBC 12-part Documentary series, we followed the struggles and triumphs of different farming families in beautiful and remote parts of Scotland.
Staying true to its values of giving the public a real flavour and an honest insight into the everyday life of the farming community, I was honoured to be taken on as freelance Producer for the series.
The aim of the series was to represent as much of Scotland on screen as possible. Different terrain gives you different types of farming.
I started my role by sitting down with Joe Roe, the BBC Executive Producer to look at the farming calendar to plan coverage of lambing or a big bull sale.
I was tasked with scouting for the farming families before heading out into remote and rural Scotland, solo to shoot, research, cast and direct casting films of over twenty shortlisted families on a variety of dairy, arable, mixed and croft farms.
I think it’s about telling a good story. The audience goes on a journey with all the families involved in the series.
Farming is a unique profession, it’s humans dealing with the life and death of animals and the pressures of modern life as part of their everyday lives. You have a lot of autonomy, how you run your farm and how you look after your livestock.
I fell in love with Robin and Penny, in Sutherland, from the beginning as our team knew with her Parkinson’s Disease that we couldn’t predict how the year would unfold. It was lovely to see the shooting team made sure the audience got the sense that where they were for that year wasn’t a bad place to have Parkinson’s.
Being your own boss is probably the biggest motivator you can have to make you get up and work from dawn to dusk as a framer, which is why I think the public are naturally drawn to these experiences.
During the casting, I also followed Buffalo farmer and business entrepreneur Stevie Mitchell who proved a real hit on this years series. I caught up with him a year on at his Bogilly farm in Kircaldy where and I loved recently hearing about his plans for taking the mozzarella business forward and how since appearing on our screens business is booming and demand for buffalo beef is on the up
It’s been great to see the second series of This Farming Life has proved to be another spectacle hit with the Scottish public and beyond!
