TV star set to join Channel 4 following split from husband
AFTER suffering the heartbreak of a high-profile marriage split, it looks like Amanda Owen is launching a new chapter in her life through her TV career.
The Yorkshire Shepherdess became known for her Channel 5 show, Our Yorkshire Farm, which launched in 2018 and followed her agricultural adventures with husband Clive and their nine children.
But since the couple announced their split last June, Amanda has been in talks with rival Channel 4 and is poised to make a series of shows with them over the next year.
Earlier this year, she made a six-part series, Farming Lives, with the channel.
It saw her visit various farms across the country.
A TV insider said: “Channel 4 bosses very much saw the series as a test run of Amanda in a new setting and the response from audiences was good.
“So they want to push ahead and make more shows with her as soon as possible including a show which they are about to announce.
“It will still link to her origins on Our Yorkshire Farm, as it will tap into the region where she was born and spent most of her life.
“It very much marks the next stage of her evolution on TV and is a reflection of how she’s become a star in her own right.”
Last June Amanda and Clive issued a joint statement saying they had made “the difficult decision to separate” after 21 years together.
They met in 1995, when he was already divorced with two children, after she took up a job at his farm as a 21-year-old trainee shepherdess.
Meanwhile Clive has made a new show without Amanda called Beyond The Yorkshire Farm: Reuben & Clive.
Airing last year on Channel 5, it saw him launch a digging business with his son.
C5’s factual boss Daniel Pearl said last year that they, “hope to announce new projects with Amanda very soon”.
Well, it looks like Channel 4 may have beaten them to it.
RICHARD GETS THE CHOPPER
RICHARD Hammond’s Channel 4 show Crazy Contraptions has been axed.
The invention challenge’s first series failed to deliver ratings this time last year.
The gameshow pitted engineers against each other to make machines out of everyday objects such as books, loo roll and string to do mundane tasks like making beds or running a bath.
Grand Tour co-host Richard showed off his own creative skills in 2021, using the remains of his sunken boat to craft a gyrocopter in Amazon drama The Great Escapists.
A C4 spokesman said: “Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions was a bold and creative programme that engaged audiences with the exciting world of science and engineering.
“Our strategy continues to be one that develops new formats and exciting ideas.”
At least there will always be a call for loo roll crafting projects over at Blue Peter.
PRIDE ’N’ PLOY
CELEBRITY Hunted is set to be full of colourful capers – as these snaps show.
Blue singer Duncan James and model Christine McGuinness revealed they are a celebrity pairing on the upcoming series as they posted a picture online of themselves in rainbow hats and flags at Birmingham Pride.
While cheeky Strictly pros Giovanni Pernice and Kai Widdrington showed their ploy to evade the “hunters” by dressing up in drag.
They wear the unusual disguises as they go on the run in the next series of the Channel 4 show, which sees a team of experts pursue famous faces around the country using surveillance skills.
Kai and Giovanni were in Cardiff, apparently delivering a performance as their temporary alter egos, and even taunted the hunters with a video of them all dolled up posted on social media.
Giovanni said: “Well we have just finished our performance in Cardiff and yeah, we can’t see any hunters around, where are you?”
Kai added: “No one was waiting for us.”
Ender the road
JAMIE Borthwick says he struggled filming his final EastEnders’ scenes with Danielle Harold.
This week Jay is left broken after his terminally-ill wife Lola (Danielle) dies.
Jamie said: “It was very tough [filming] days but it was important to keep it as light as we could.”