THEY have been labelled the modern-day Waltons.
And now a former Huddersfield woman and her family are set for a second dose of TV stardom.
ITV1’s popular series The Dales is back for a brand new run in 2012 as Ade Edmondson returns home to Yorkshire to bring us the stories behind another summer in the life of the Yorkshire Dales.
Edmondson spent many of his childhood summers in the Dales with his family and in this series he returns to meet old friends and make new ones.
And among those are the Owens, with former Newsome High School student Amanda and her husband Clive facing new challenges on their sheep farm in Swaledale.
The Owens and their five children face another eventful summer on their remote Ravenseat Farm.
It’s the summer holidays and the children are taking advantage of the vastness of the farm and Amanda has some good news to share that will change life on the family farm.
Edmondson spends the night in the Owens’s newly refurbished Shepherd’s Hut where Amanda uses the river as a place to cool the refreshments.
Edmondson, star of The Comic Strip and The Young Ones, said: “What a fantastic idea for a hotel – a bottle of beer in the river. This has surely got to be the most picturesque mini bar in the world.”
Mrs Owen, 37, was brought up in Newsome, but left Huddersfield at the age of 19 to pursue her dream of becoming a shepherdess.
She and Clive run one of the country’s most isolated farms, looking after their 900-strong flock three miles from Britain’s highest pub at Tan Hill.
They are also bringing up five children – Violet, Raven, Reuben, Miles and Edith – with the youngest just a year old.
The presenter said: “We meet up with The Owens again – the sheep farmers who live in a very remote spot.
“They’re an outstanding family. I think a lot of us dream of living the simple life, and they seem to have won the ‘simple life’ lottery.
“They live a life that you feel could have been lived in pretty much the same way around 100 or 200 years ago and they seem unfettered by the modern world.
“Of course they’ve got machines and such, but it’s a pretty rugged life, and yet it seems to bring them a lot of happiness – they’re like the modern day Waltons!
“ I’ve been up to see them a few times now and they’re as lovely in real life as they are on the screen.”
The run starts next Monday.
WHO were The Waltons?
They were a fictional family created by US author Earl Hamner Jr.
A film based on his book came out in 1963.
The popular TV series aired from 1971 to 1978 in the US and the UK.
It was set in the fictional town of Walton’s Mountain.
John and Olivia Walton raised seven children through the Great Depression.
The children were John-Boy, Mary Ellen, Ben, Erin, Jason, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth.
