EMMERDALE star Kelvin Fletcher has revealed how he struggled with his HUGE career change after leaving TV behind to run a farm.
The Strictly Come Dancing winner – who played Andy Sudgen in the ITV soap – upped and moved to the Peak District with his family last year.
Kelvin, 37, has been getting to grips with sheep farming over recent months two years after he took home the Glitterball trophy with Oti Mabuse.
During lockdown, the actor made the decision to take his life in a new direction, purchasing a 120-acre farm, complete with a huge tractor and dozens of animals.
Ever since, the star has been busy learning the ropes of shepherding as part of his new life – worming, sheering, cleaning and removing maggots from his sheep.
The star now works at the farm full time – explaining to the Mail Online he and his wife Liz had been receiving lessons from their nextdoor neighbour.
“I’d left Emmerdale for freedom – to take a risk,” Kelvin explained, admitting he had his sights set on moving to America to “make it big” before making the move.
“Then the pandemic hit and we got an email from the embassy saying they were putting a hold on all workers coming in. From there, we had to reconfigure.”
“[We went for] something different, a challenge,” he added, as wife Liz chimed in that they struggled to get to grips as they “weren’t farm people”.
Nonetheless, the couple – and their two children Marnie, five, and Milo, three – have spent almost a year moving in and learning the ropes.
“We don’t want to just be hobby farmers,” Kelvin insisted. “The challenge is doing it properly and having pride in what we are doing.”
The couple are looking ahead to a “busy spring” in 2022, which will see their first “lambing season” and the birth of their third child.
To make things more complicated, the family have been filming for a new TV show – Kelvin’s Big Farming Adventure – which is due to air on BBC One.
He announced the new show on Instagram last year, writing to fans: “f you’ve been sat there wondering what these random farming and outdoor pictures are all about well now you know!
“We have literally jumped in at the deep end and bought a farm!
“A reluctant Wife, two crazy kids and a Husband with knowledge of farming you could write on the back of a stamp! What could possibly go wrong?!”
Kelvin has been getting to grips with driving tractors, bottle feeding lambs, mucking out horses and raising piglets in a series of social media snaps.
In December, Kelvin announced he was going to be a dad for the third time as he revealed his wife Liz was expecting again.
Kelvin’s Big Farming Adventure starts on BBC1 at 8.30pm on January 17
