KELVIN Fletcher has sent Emmerdale fans wild with an emotional nod to the soap on his Big Farming Adventure.
The soap star – who has swapped urban life to start farming in the countryside, compared his Lancashire farm to sets he worked on during his time on the ITV soap.
On Monday’s episode, Kelvin held his first village fete but before this could go ahead, the village had to prepare for it and called a meeting to discuss what needed to be done.
The Oldham family were thrilled to host the village event on their farm as they prepared to welcome the residents.
The soap star was chuffed with the community spirit and Kelvin couldn’t help but compare his picturesque farm to some of the locations he worked on during his time on the popular ITV soap.
The Strictly Come Dancing winner was mesmerised by the landscape and told wife Elizabeth Marsland: “This is looking like a cropper little village get together.”
The TV star, who played Andy Sugden on the soap, gushed how the summer event reminded him of his acting days back before his exit in 2016.
He continued: “Do you know what it reminds me of this place now? Emmerdale because we used to film scenes like this.
“I remember filming and thinking, ‘Is this what people in the countryside really do? Is that what their little events are like?’ And now I’ve turned into them!”
Fans were thrilled to hear Kelvin’s reference to the ITV soap, with one writing: “Kelvin speaking about his time on Emmerdale makes my heart warm. #BigFarmingAdventure”
Another posted: “Kelvin was a brilliant actor on Emmerdale, he should go back! But he’s clearly loving life as a real farmer.”
A third posted: “I can’t believe Kelvin is a real farmer after playing one for so many years, he’s doing a great job. So nice to hear him speak about his time on the soap.”
‘IT’S DIFFERENT!’Â
It comes after Kelvin has hit back after fans accused him of “ripping off” Jeremy Clarkson’s Farm with his new TV show.
The soap star swapped urban life to start farming in the countryside in 2020, and had BBC cameras follow him during his farming journey.
However, viewers were hit with a deja-vu moment and suggested that Kelvin’s new show was very similar to Jeremy’s Amazon Prime hit series.
The actor has now defended his show against criticism, insisting it is “different” to the hit show made by former Top Gear host Jeremy, 61.
Speaking on Netmums podcast Sweat, Snot & Tears, Kelvin, 38, explained they had already started filming when the successful Amazon series debuted.
“It’s a bit unfair, I think,” he said of the comparison. “There’s a whole host of that type of show – I can think of half a dozen straight away.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.501.0_en.html#goog_400075892
“So to be compared exclusively to Clarkson I think is a little random. As people can see, it’s a completely different show.”
Kelvin further explained of their filming schedule: “We were already three months into production when Clarkson’s came out.
“So to suggest that we’ve, and we did get a lot of suggestions, that we just ripped it off or copycatted it – don’t forget there’s probably a three to four month development process.
“There’s a pitching process, a commission process, we were three months down the line into filming, then Clarkson came in the summer.”
Despite the competition, Kelvin insisted that they were also “fans” of Jeremy’s show, adding: “We love the show, we binged watched it.”
