Matt Baker’s Double Life

Matt Baker has spoken about the major lifestyle shift that now defines both his home life and his television work, revealing how deeply he has settled into farming after relocating with his family to the Durham countryside.

The Countryfile and Our Dream Farm presenter lives on his family farm with his wife Nicola and their children, Luke and Molly. The move has become more than a change of scenery for Baker, who has increasingly shaped his screen career around rural life, land management and the realities of modern farming.

Baker stepped away from BBC’s The One Show in 2019, with his final appearance airing in 2020, after years as one of the programme’s most recognisable faces alongside presenters including Alex Jones. Since then, the former Blue Peter host has focused more closely on countryside programming, a space long associated with figures such as John Craven and fellow Countryfile contributor Adam Henson.

Speaking to Total TV Guide, via Gloucestershire Live, Baker described how the countryside continues to influence his identity, creativity and daily routine. “When I'm not on telly, I'm out in the fields.”

That connection is rooted in Baker’s upbringing. He grew up surrounded by livestock on his parents’ farm, and has often framed farming not simply as work, but as a family culture. In a previous interview with the Mirror, he credited his family with helping him balance the demands of television with the physical and emotional commitment required by farm life, describing that balance as proof of a strong family unit.

Baker has also spoken about the value of working closely with relatives, saying that one of the greatest parts of growing up on a farm was the shared effort across generations. For him, that family-centred way of life remains one of farming’s defining strengths.

His latest project, Our Dream Farm, follows seven contestants competing for tenancy of a 600-acre National Trust property in Eryri, North Wales. Baker has described it as the Trust’s most nature-rich farm in Wales, with contenders including builders, experienced farmers and a mother-and-son duo.

For Baker, the series brings together his television career and the farming life that now shapes much of his work.