AN AWARD-WINNING farming family will be appearing on a TV show and ‘lambing during lockdown’ as part of the third series of Springtime on the Farm.

The Nicholson family, of Cannon Hall Farm, who won the Outstanding Achievement title at this year's Northern Farmer Awards, were due to host the ‘as live’ broadcasts with Helen Skelton and Adam Henson presenting on location.

But plans had to quickly change as the Covid-19 pandemic put the country on lockdown.

Producers from Leeds-based Daisybeck Studios had already pre-recorded a lot of content with the farmers, having sent documentary crews to follow them since February.

But some quick thinking had to be done to figure out how to pull together the live links and interviews.

Cannon Hall Farm have ended up filming the lambing themselves on their iPhones.

Producer Richard Mortimer said: “Robert and David Nicholson, our resident farmers for the last three years, are more than familiar with what we need.

“They are also used to filming for their own social media channels – and we’re confident they’ll be able to catch all of the last minute, live action. Being full-time farmers with over 1,000 animals to care for, they’ll already be on site and they’ll send us their footage via wi-fi to our isolated edits based at the home of the editors.”

Yorkshire Vets Peter Wright and Julian Norton will also be included in the show.

The four-part series is coming to Channel 5 on Easter Monday at 8pm.

* Picture shows, from left, Robert Nicholson, Helen Skelton and David Nicholson, with a baby alpaca whose birth was included in the pre-recorded segments filmed before the lockdown