The Fast and the Farmer-ish: welder Shannon Cartin is happy to let television opens doors for her

Welder Shannon and her team of tractor enthusiasts will compete in a new show The Fast and the Farmer-ish which begins on Wednesday night on BBC One NI and the newly relaunched BBC Three.

She said: “I think it’s brilliant all these rural shows.

“Years ago if you thought about Northern Ireland it was all about Belfast city people, but now with the different agriculture shows and country shows there’s more of the rural Northern Ireland coming out, it’s not dominated by the city.

“The farming community is massive, but people don’t realise it.”

Shannon’s sister Tylor and her dad have featured in two series of Tricked Out Tractors.

The 25-year-old from Claudy, who started a new job as a lecturer at North West Regional College in September, said she felt confident about appearing on TV: “People slag you about your fifteen minutes of fame, but it’s all for a bit of craic.

“Tylor is a female mechanic, I’m a female welder – it opens far more doors when you appear on TV.”

The Fast and the Farmer-ish sees teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland battle it out for the glory of becoming the UK’s best tractor driving team.

Drivers and their machines are pushed to the limit in spectacular challenges designed to test their skill, nerve, creativity and teamwork.

The series, filmed in Ballymoney, is hosted by Tom Pemberton, a full-time beef, dairy and sheep farmer who has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across the world on his social media channels.

It is the first commission from BBC Three’s partnership with BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen.

Made by local independent production company Alleycats, it is one of many new programmes that will launch the return of BBC Three as a TV channel from today.

The show begins this Wednesday with the English heats followed by Northern Ireland next week when Shannon’s team ‘The Determinators’, which includes David Boyd from Garvagh and Stephanie Reid from Crumlin, take on The Bogmen from Fermanagh.

“It was the best weekend’s craic filming it,” said Shannon.

The Fast And The Farmer-ish is an Alleycats production for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Three made with funding from Northern Ireland Screen. It will air on BBC Three (9pm) and BBC One Northern Ireland (10.35pm) on Wednesday night. A pre-watershed version will air on BBC One NI on Monday at 7.30pm. All episodes will be on the BBC iPlayer from Wednesday.

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