A Masterclass in Rural Marketing 

Hawkstone Beer and joining the Singing Farmers - A journey to national TV

May 2025. Most farmers (or farm-to-fork advocates) don’t have access to Jeremy Clarkson’s budget, a slick London PR agency, or a full-scale production crew — but that’s not the point. It’s ideas that matter. And Jeremy has a big one: build a brand rooted in British-grown food and drink, with real farmers at the heart of the story.

Enter: Hawkstone Beer, the Diddly Squat Pub — and a farmer-led choir.

In early 2025, a social media callout went viral in our farming WhatsApp groups: “Can you sing? Are you a farmer?” Over 500 farmers responded, auditioning with both a song and their farming credentials.

From there, about 15 were selected to record in a studio in Oxford. A few days later, 20+ more joined for a full day of filming at The Farmer’s Dog on a blazing sunny day. I was lucky enough to be selected. We rehearsed, recorded four tracks, and were treated well — fed, watered, and paid. (Yes, this wasn’t a freebie — but most of us would’ve come anyway just for the craic.)

Jeremy and Kaleb took part. Spirits were high. Some of us talked about doing more of these meet-ups in support of rural charities.


And we did!

We were invited to audition on Britain's Got Talent, so we picked a song, rehearsed and auditioned at the Birmingham Hippodrome in front of the judges and an audience of 1,500 people.  The audition was broadcast in March 2026 and revealed (we were under contract not to reveal the result) that we had been put through to the semi-finals by Amanda Holden pushing the 'Golden Buzzer'.  Aside from singing we made a strong point on stage and through social media about the value of farmers getting together, talking, and in our case singing to overcome the mental stresses associated with farming. 

Following our performance on TV, our Social Media presence has soared (we are on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok) and I worked with the choir members and the BGT press office to orchestrate a nation-wide PR campaign with the farming press, local newspapers, local radio and regional TV, some of which then resulted in national TV and radio interviews.

At least 35 media outlets ran stories, many of them with multiple pictures.  In hard copy editions some of the stories were half-page or even on the front cover.  

How was this achieved?

Prior to the broadcast, 46 local press, farming and media outlets were proactively contacted with:

The success of the Hawkstone Farmers Choir in achieving widespread media coverage was not accidental. While the Britain’s Got Talent appearance provided a powerful platform, it was the combination of: