Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country: Kilmichael Glassary (S2EP1 Channel 5 Tues 5 July 2022)

Kilmichael Glassary: With no prior experience managing a pub, in a location they have only ever visited on vacation, and as the hospitality sector faces the greatest challenge in its history with Covid lockdown, Ben Fogle spends a year following Paul, Toni, and daughter Harriet as they risk everything to purchase a run-down pub in a remote village in the breathtaking wilds of Scotland.

In order to spend more time with their family, Paul and Toni sold their home in Kent, quit their jobs in busy Rochester, Kent, and said goodbye to their friends and loved ones to open and operate a 200-year-old pub in the tiny Scottish village of Kilmichael Glassary in the heart of the wild and breathtaking west Scotland countryside.

For 25 years, Toni worked as a part-time respite caregiver for people with disabilities, while Paul sold luxury cars and worked long hours and weekends as a car salesman. They’ve never both held jobs in the hospitality industry. Paul will be the bartender despite never having pulled a pint. Toni has never managed a commercial kitchen and will be the chef for the dining area. She has only ever prepared meals for her family at home.

But before the pair can even open the doors, the whole pub is in need of extensive renovation. The couple are on a very tight budget, and it’s a race against time to get ready to open, so they can start getting an income to live off. They manage to open the bar, but the takings aren’t enough to survive. It comes down to Toni’s food.

They get the kitchens and dining areas open by the end of the summer 2020, but Toni finds the next months cooking over 50 covers every night gruelling. Then autumn brings lockdowns due to the pandemic, which, in Scotland, means pubs closing all through the winter months. When Ben returns to visit a year after he first met them, will the family still be in business?

Airdate: Tues 5 July 2022 at 21:00 on Channel 5

Season 2 Episode 1

Ben Fogle meets some adventurous Brits who have given up their city jobs.