BBC Countryfiles Matt Baker lands new role in major | UK News

It has been six years since Matt Baker stepped down from The One Show, but he’s now making his return to the BBC with his debut solo collection.

The former Blue Peter star, who stays a acquainted face on Countryfile, is set to entrance the new programme Matt Baker: Life With Dogs for BBC2 daytime, produced by his own tv company, Big Circus Media.

The show will explore the wide range of roles that canines fulfil for people — from working farm canines and therapy canines to help canines for those dwelling with disabilities and service canines working alongside the police and armed forces.

Matt told The Mirror: “Dogs have been a lifelong passion of mine, and I’m so excited to be making this series about the bond between humans and dogs.

As well as acquiring my professional dog training qualifications, I’m going to be meeting a whole range of incredible canines that enrich our lives, from cancer detection to conversation. It’s the ultimate show to celebrate our lives with dogs.”

A BBC insider added, “Matt is a much-loved presenter, and viewers will be thrilled to welcome him back with this new series. As a life-long dog-lover, he is the perfect frontman for this show, which examines the many varied ways in which our four-legged friends are more than just pets.

“The programmes will take a deep dive into the many different methods in which canines are indispensable to people.”

The series is hoped to achieve the same level of popularity as ITV’s For the Love of Dogs, which launched in 2012 with the late Paul O’Grady as host and is now fronted by Alison Hammond.

Pete Wicks has also enjoyed considerable success with his For Dogs’ Sake series on UKTV, produced in partnership with the Dogs Trust, reports the Mirror.

The show, which is currently in production and is expected to air later this year, comes after Matt, 48, suffered the loss of his own dog Bob, a collie, earlier this month, leaving him utterly devastated.

In a post earlier this month, Matt revealed that he, his wife Nicola, and their two children, Luke, 18, and 16-year-old Molly, were “extremely unhappy” following the passing of their border collie Bob.

He wrote: “Bob was a good canine. He was there for me with his mild soul as the last word companion through some of the best chapters of my life from raising our children to all the adjustments we made on our household farm.

“It’s broken my heart but I feel hugely grateful to have had him in our lives and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for everything he’s taught me and brought to our family. I’m sure all you dog lovers will agree the reason we love our dogs so much is because the only time they break our hearts is when they leave us. RIP Bob.”

The programme will explore how canines might be educated for medical detection functions, enabling them to alert their house owners to impending medical episodes such as seizures. In rural settings, canines ceaselessly help with herding and guarding livestock, while also offering invaluable consolation as therapy animals — usually deployed in hospitals, hospices, and care properties.

Matt at present divides his time between his 11-acre smallholding in the Chiltern Hills, Hertfordshire, and his mother and father’ farm in the Durham Dales.

He routinely trains canines during his free time and has persistently stored at least one companion by his facet. Bob had been instrumental on the farm, where the household raises chickens and sheep. They also own a dachshund named Ivy, who will flip two in the autumn.

Matt revealed he was stepping down from The One Show after 9 years presenting alongside Alex Jones in 2019 — by the time of his departure in 2020, the pandemic had struck. At the time, he expressed enthusiasm about recent alternatives — “but most of all I’m looking forward to having dinner with my family and being able to put my kids to bed”.

He joined the programme a number of months after ending runner-up in the 2010 collection of Strictly Come Dancing, taking over from comic Jason Manford on the couch.