A star is born as young farmer steals show on TV

ITV1 is to be congratulated on its new programme The Dales, but surely the real star of the programme is young Philip Mellin who works the family farm with his mother, after the sad death of his father.

He willingly says that he loves his life, and all the work it entails, and was never so happy as on the day he was able to leave school! Not for him the daily grind of having his head buried in computers or books.

Surely this must tell us something about the current ridiculous idea that all children should go to university, whether they want to or not.

Here is a young man who is truly happy doing what he is doing in a place he loves, and who is not afraid to say so.

He is a credit to his mother and late father, and let us hope his naturalness in front of the cameras does not lead him to become a “celebrity”, although I suspect he is far too level-headed for that!

From: Mrs June Wolfe, Sutherland Road, Lightcliffe, Halifax.

AM I the only person to be disappointed in the first TV episode of The Dales?

If this was meant to tempt visitors from the South to sample the delights of Yorkshire, I would say it failed miserably.

The programme merely portrayed a number of isolated farms in bleak and windswept countryside where the vet’s hand was permanently up a cows bottom!

At least it wasn’t raining!