As The Yorkshire Vet continues to power through its 10th series (another dozen programmes and it will have surpassed Friends’ tally of 236 episodes), its spin-off series following farmers Steve and Jean Green returns for another run.
The couple are among Britain’s oldest working farmers – Steve is 96 while Jean is 73; a 23-year age gap associated more with rock stars than Yorkshire’s agricultural folk. But then, how many rock stars are celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary? In the opening episode, friend and vet Peter Wright brings them a present to mark the occasion: vouchers for the local fish-and-chip shop.
The nature of the gift speaks to the charm of this programme and the Greens themselves – “proud Yorkshire rare breeds” who embrace the simple things in life (even if those “simple things” now include the intrusion of a TV production team). “We’re fortunate to have it,” says Jean, gazing across her fields from Stoneybrough Farm near Thirsk and towards housing new-builds that surround them like an invading army.
The Greens try to contact the ghosts apparently living in their farmhouse (Photo: Daisybeck Studios/5)In the previous series, the producers brought along an estate agent to tell them how they might enrich themselves by selling off one of their fields to developers. By the look of things, the Greens haven’t been tempted. This time a team of ghost hunters are invited to Stoneybrough Farm to investigate seemingly paranormal visitations. Strange figures have been seen passing the windows, and Steve was once woken from an afternoon nap to find two young women in Victorian clothing standing by his bedside (he gave up taking siestas after that).
Jean calls the supposed spirit Casper, but having gathered round a Ouija board, they “discover” that the ghost is called Nora – the same as one of Steve’s aunts. And while Christopher Timothy’s narration attempts to maintain a playfully sceptical tone, Peter Wright speaks for those with qualms about dabbling in the occult: “Maybe we shouldn’t be meddling in something we know nothing about.”
My main grumble with The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens is the way the producers keep introducing these elements to gee up the “entertainment” – helicopter rides in the previous series and ghost hunters here, as if the Greens’ everyday life wasn’t interesting enough. After all, Clarkson’s Farm has proven that the day-to-day mechanics of running a farm can be a rich source of material – even if (thankfully, some might say) the Greens lack Jeremy Clarkson’s bumptious journalistic nous.
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Back at Stoneybrough Farm, there are more down-to-earth matters to attend to, such as a pair of sick calves called Toffee and Apple. But perhaps not enough because the episode is not just about the Greens – we also follow vet Matt Jackson-Smith as he neuters a feisty Australian Sugar glider (a tiny possum with a nasty bite). Matt later introduces the Greens to a pet snake. “Aren’t you beautiful?” says Jean as the creature begins to wrap itself around her.
Jean’s adventurous nature is now well established. Next week, we see her getting a tattoo, while in this episode she recounts how she rescued the couple’s now 11-year-old greyhound cross, Reuben, as a half-starved puppy. The abusive owner had threatened to kill Reuben if Jean didn’t pay her £40, Jean recalling that: “She said ‘I’ll chuck him on the A19’ and I said ‘you’re not’ and I brought him home.”
Jean is more of a TV natural than Steve, with a homely sense of humour. When one of the paranormal investigators suggests setting up a night-vision camera, she simply suggests that he should eat more carrots. The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens might be a gentle side-shoot from the long-running mothership, but at least Jean makes sure it’s never boring.
‘The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens’ continues next Tuesday at 9pm on 5
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