Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country

Ben Fogle spends a year following young couple Laura and Aran as they mortgage their futures and sink every penny they have into starting up their own bakery in the heart of the beautiful Peak District. But with a commercial bakery and shop on the high street to fit out, limited funds and no experience, they're risking it all to start up their new life and make a living from their dream. For 10 years, Aran and Laura rented a small flat in Dalston, East London. But despite Laura's well-paid career managing social housing projects and Aran's IT income, they couldn't get a foot on the housing ladder. So they upped sticks and moved their lives to the beautiful town of Buxton in the Peak District, and decided to start their own business and put everything they have into pursuing their dream of running their own bakery together — despite never having worked together before, run a business or had jobs in food. After they have been testing the water by baking bread out of a small garage, and trying out recipes for cakes, pastries and savoury pies in the kitchen at home, Ben meets the couple as they're about to take a great leap into the dark and rent a commercial premises on the high street, which they plan to convert to have a shop at the front and professional baking equipment at the back. It's a huge decision, as they have to sign a seven-year lease, committing to pay £45,000 whether the business works or not. It's not their only huge financial outlay. They have to completely kit out the new bakery from scratch with machinery and shop fittings. It's an expensive business and, despite spending all their savings, they have to buy secondhand equipment. How will the couple cope with rising costs, sleepless nights, their first ever renovation and the pressure of running their own business? Will their bakery be a success, or at least make enough money for them to live off? And how will the couple cope with working together for the first time and under such pressure? And when Ben returns a year after meeting them, will he find a successful business and the couple enjoying being their own boss and living and working together? And will they be living their new dream life in the country?

Ben spends a year following John, Heather and their grown-up children as they make a brand new life as cheese producers on a 240-acre farm in Derbyshire. He meets the family as they are starting to build their own dairy and cheese-processing plant, and discovers that they are basically building a small factory, including state of the art automated sheep feeding equipment from Sweden, and a huge temperature-controlled facility the size of an aircraft hangar.

Ben Fogle spends a year following 63-yearold Rizia as she swaps city living and life as a B&Ber in Edinburgh to follow her dream of living in the Scottish countryside and starting her own dog training centre in the beautiful Pentland Hills in West Lothian, with help from her two grown-up sons fireman Josh and builder Kyle, who are spending every spare hour helping her start up her dream business. Ben meets lifelong dog-lover Rizia a week after she has left her life in Edinburgh. She had to isolate during the pandemic, which meant she could no longer run her B&B and pay the mortgage. But Rizia has turned adversity into opportunity and sold her house to buy a 27- acre derelict farm in the heart of the Pentland Hills, where she plans to create a seven-acre outdoor dog training area, a covered indoor training area, a flower-growing business and build her forever home. When Ben meets her on a snowy day in winter, Rizia has just moved to her new home and is living in the back of a van that she shares with her two German Shepherds. The site has no electricity or running water. What's more, the buildings are in ruins and have been vandalized, with broken glass and debris everywhere — making Ben declare Rizia more optimistic than even he is for envisaging her dream life here. Work starts straight away, with heavy equipment clearing the site of 50 tonnes of debris, and then sons Josh and Kyle painstakingly continue by hand to make it safe underfoot for dogs in the seven-acre outdoor training area. Then they set about putting up a kilometre of fencing, and they need to build a car park and access roads for clients as well as a polytunnel for flowers. Rizia has dog training qualifications and experience, but to attract clients to her remote setting, she needs to gain specialist advanced certificates. After a long winter (when temperatures remain freezing until May), she has to decide whether to spend her remaining savings on building a house or an indoor training area. When Ben returns a year after meeting her, where will he find Rizia living? Will she have the advanced qualifications she needs? And will her business be making enough income for her to live off?

Ben Fogle spends a year following Alan and Yvonne as they risk everything to start a holiday lodge business in a remote part of Scotland, with no experience of running a building project or a business, and live in a home they bought online during lockdown without ever setting foot in it. Alan and Yvonne lived in the commuter town of Crawley and had become used to barely seeing one another because they both worked long hours. When the lockdown hit and they were at home together 24/7, they remembered how much they enjoyed spending time together and started to dream of a different life. They scoured the internet for places to create a holiday lets business. When they found their dream property, they gambled everything and, unable to view it in person because of lockdown, they bought it straight off the internet without ever setting foot in it. They used all their savings and borrowed from friends and family to make their dream of living a life away from the city a reality. Their new home is in Kyle of Sutherland, a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. Alan had worked as head of supply merchandising for a global retailer, but when Covid-19 hit he was made redundant. Yvonne was working as a food nutrition teacher in a state boarding school. They had dreamed of combining their love of the outdoors with Yvonne's passion for cooking and hosting, and decided to risk everything to buy a property where they could build lodges and a tourism business from scratch. Ben meets them after they get the keys to their new house and see it in the flesh for the first time. Before the pair can even start building the lodges for their business, they need sell their old house in Crawley, and Yvonne has to spend the school year teaching down south and living apart from Alan, who moves to Scotland first. With every penny they have going into the business, and only one salary, they endure financial hardships waiting for the sale. When they get the money, they encounter unexpected problems with building permissions and another wave of Covid at the end of 2021 — and face the risk that their dreams might come crashing down. Ben returns in spring 2022 to visit, a year after he first met them. Will he find them finally living together? Have they managed to get their lodges built and open for business so they can start their dream life in the country?