TV presenter Kate Humble, 53, on her new series, being drawn to rural Wales and the joys of dancing n**ed.n**ed in a field.
Your TV show A Country Life For Half The Price is back. Remind us what it’s about.
I like to think of it as a celebration of people’s bravery as they make long-held dreams come to fruition.
We follow the journeys of families making the move to the countryside, whether it’s for the sake of their children or a better way of life.
It sounds idyllic…
It’s a huge process, I know, because I did it. Lots of people dream of having land and maybe being self-sufficient — growing vegetables and having animals.
They’re very often surprised at the huge amount of work and responsibility that goes with that. It all looks lovely on the telly but it’s bloody hard work!
Did any of the stories amaze you?
One couple bought a run-down house on the Welsh Borders. I thought they were completely mad!
They have six adopted children and were living in Solihull, and they took on this huge project. In another episode there’s a family who move from Bristol to Orkney with 75 animals.
Are some of them naive?
What I love about this series is that it’s not me standing on the sidelines sucking my teeth, going, ‘Look at this bunch of idiots!’
That’s not the point of the series. I can genuinely say, hand on heart, that I admire all of them because I know it takes tremendous guts.
It must be nice not having to worry about the pressure to look smart when you present a show like this…
That’s why I never present studio shows. I’m not that kind of girl. One of the things I realised right from the outset when I went into television was, don’t try and pretend to be something you’re not because you will not fool the viewing public.
People laugh about how scruffy I am but you stand on a Welsh hillside all bloody day being filmed and you’re not going to look great either.
Why did you move from London to rural Wales?
I’d never fitted in to a city. I don’t like lots of people around me. I like waking up early in the morning and walking across the grass in my bare feet.
We didn’t know anybody in Wales, we had no connection with this part of the country at all other than the fact that, when I looked at a map of Britain, for some reason I found myself drawn to the brown, west corner, with beautiful names like Abergavenny.
Then, every time we drove over the Severn Bridge to look at houses, I felt my heart lift. In the end I said to Ludo [Graham], my very long-suffering husband, that if we moved over this bridge I was never going back. He agreed and we did it.
Did people think you’d lost your marbles?
I got fed up with people saying, ‘How are you coping in your Jimmy Choos in the rain?’
I grew up in the countryside and I knew the realities. The city was the anomaly for me. I now live on a remote smallholding with four acres of land and sheep, pigs, goats, dogs and poultry.
Is Wales your forever home?
I’ll never move back to a city. If anything, I’d go more extreme. I don’t think I’d move very far but I have a house in my head that would be my forever home.
It’s built entirely of natural materials, and is more remote and completely off-grid.
Is it true that you and your husband got together when you were 16?
I noticed him at my step-grandfather’s birthday when I was 16 and he was 24. He was the coolest person in the room, which wasn’t hard given that everyone else was about 80!
He had spiky hair and was ridiculously handsome but he completely ignored me. I can remember what I wore on the day and thinking, ‘One day you’re going to notice me.’
We eventually got together when I was 20 and got married when I was 23, so we’ve been married for nearly 30 years.
What’s the secret of a long and happy marriage?
In our case it’s space and allowing each other to be individuals.
We understand that you’re a naturist…
It’s one of those infuriating things that people want to put a label on.
I’m not a naturist in that I don’t join other people who like to take their clothes off but there is something really magnificent about swimming with no clothes on or just feeling the sun on your skin and the grass on your back.
There’s something joyful and liberating about it.
What reaction do you get?
I find it odd that people find it bizarre. The way some people dress on Instagram is way more outrageous than a middle-aged woman taking off her clothes in private and doing a little dance in a field!
Who cares? It makes me happy but no one need worry. I’m not going to streak across a cricket ground!
A Country Life For Half The Price is on Channel 5 at 7pm on Thursdays
