Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'

Matt Baker treats little lamb with a sprained leg

Matt Baker has opened up about his new series which sees him travel the north of England with his mum, Janice, and dad, Mike. The first episode of Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad saw the family head to the Northumberland County Show - North East England’s biggest annual celebration of all things countryside.

During the programme, they got to see what it took to put on this massive event and Janice even entered puppy Archie and Stanley the cockerel into two of the categories - and they won.

The Countryfile star and his family don't shy away from the spotlight as they have worked together before on Matt Baker's Our Farm in the Dales.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Matt opened up about why he loves to work with his mum and dad and addressed the difficult decisions they have had to make as a family when filming their shows.

When referencing his other TV shows and how Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad compares, the presenter began: "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.

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Matt Baker said he loves to work with his mum and dad (Image: Channel 4)

"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."

He continued: "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.

"We're not going abroad, and it's actually really relatable, and hopefully, from my generation's perspective, I'm kind of inspiring people to take the older members of their family out, to get these new experiences and to have fun and just to be together and experience stuff that they wouldn't really do themselves."

When asked whether his wife, Nicola, and children appear in his new series, Matt explained his wife looks after the farm when they are away filming so "it wasn't a decision for any reason other that it's called Travels with Mum and Dad."

Matt Baker and his dad (Image: Channel 4)

Turning his attention to Our Farm in the Dales and whether fans can expect another series any time soon, Matt didn't rule it out.

"There are no plans not to do it," he admitted before adding: "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.

"There was loads of stuff going on around us, and I was apologising, and then the channel was like, 'Would you film that?' So it was one of the things that was actually born out of reality."

Matt's series "blew up," and he believes its success was due to it showing the highs and lows of farming and his family life as viewers got to witness the Baker family making some tough decisions.

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Matt Baker discussed why his farming series came to an end (Image: Getty)

The Countryfile star confessed: "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."

When speaking about why the series came to an end, Matt said it was a "natural end of a chapter". He added: "So that's why we didn't sort of decide to stop filming it, it's just the end of that process.

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

Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad returns on Monday at 9pm on More4.

Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'

Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'

Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'

Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'

Countryfile's Matt Baker opens up on making 'tough' family decision after 'end of chapter'