Former Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher and his wife Liz are returning to TV screens with a new season of Fletcher’s Family Farm — but behind the smiles lies heartbreak. The couple revealed they were left devastated after a fire tore through their beloved Peak District farmhouse.
Kelvin, who proudly tells cameras he “finally feels like a bonafide farmer,” said he and Liz had just started filming when the unthinkable happened. “We took the whole family away and a few days in, we got a call saying the house was on fire,” Liz recalled. “Our first reaction was, ‘Thank God we weren’t there.’”
The blaze ripped through the roof of their home — one they had spent years restoring — leaving it uninhabitable due to heavy smoke damage. “It was the stuff of nightmares,” Kelvin said. “Our neighbour called us in a panic and the fire was roaring. We were in another country; there was nothing we could do.”
Despite the heartbreak, the Fletchers are determined to rebuild. “We just have to clean up and tidy up,” Kelvin smiled. Liz, ever the optimist, joked: “My ironing board’s gone. Luckily, I never did any ironing.”
The couple’s four children — Marnie, Milo and twins Mateusz and Maximus — have also embraced farm life. Even after the fire, lambing season is in full swing, and the family recently welcomed a breeding bull named Crowther, in tribute to Kelvin’s late best friend. “Every time I look at him, I think of my mate,” Kelvin said. “If Crowther were an animal, he’d be a bull.”
Now, the Fletchers are moving forward by expanding their mixed farm to include crop growing for the first time. “We’re going to grow oats and hopefully, in six or nine months, we’ll be sitting at our breakfast table eating our own,” Kelvin shared. Liz admitted she was skeptical: “This is definitely Kelvin’s idea — I said I didn’t think it was possible.”
Through tragedy and triumph, Fletcher’s Family Farm returns to ITV on Sunday, October 19 — a powerful portrait of resilience, love, and starting over from the ashes.
