A retired farmer from Bedford has advanced to the next round of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) after the choir he is in received the prestigious ‘Golden Buzzer’ from the celebrity judges.
Tim Durrant, 69, has swapped his lifelong passion for singing in tractor cabs and grain silos on his Bedford farm to singing in front of a national audience as part of the 40-strong Hawkstone Farmers Choir’s audition for the 19th series of BGT.
The choir’s journey has become a powerful local case study for “social prescribing,” a movement that recognises communal activities as a vital tool for supporting mental health.
For members facing the isolation of the farming industry, this musical connection has served as an essential form of vocal therapy and community – and is at the heart of the choir’s ethos.
The choir was formed in 2024 after a search for “strong singers who are farmers” for a project involving Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone brand.
Tim, who had spent 50 years enjoying folk music and had danced with Bedford Morris Men since the 1970s, had never previously sung in a choir.
For him, singing was intrinsically linked to work, as he often used his time on the tractor to learn new songs and says that singing in the acoustics of empty grain silos provided a “cathedral-like” sound.
However, for the retired contract farmer, being selected from 500 hopefuls has provided a lifeline after he struggled to define his identity outside of farming.
“Having a well-developed imposter syndrome, I found that being accepted by others into the Farmer’s Choir has given me a sense of community and belonging that I hadn’t realised I’d lost,” he said.
“Once a farmer, always a farmer”
The fellowship of singing together allowed him to look back and realise how “bogged-down” he had become in the solitary nature of his work and the loss of identity in retirement.
He now lives by the mantra given to him by his fellow choristers: Once a farmer, always a farmer.
Performing at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Tim described the high-stakes experience as unexpectedly powerful.
“I thought I was well in control of my emotions and excitement on the day of the audition, but I was wrong,” he told the Bedford Independent.
“It blew me away when everything we had worked hard towards culminated in what was recorded for the show”.
Emotional shift
The choir’s vocal coach, Lizzie Deane, is a familiar face in the county as she locally directs The Collaboration Choir and Choral Nova.
Under her expert direction, the group of farmers moved the celebrity judging panel of KSI, Alesha Dixon, Stacey Solomon and Amanda Holden to tears with a soaring rendition of Elbow’s “One Day Like This”.
And while achieving the Golden Buzzer marked a professional triumph, Lizzie said the true success lies in the profound physiological and emotional shift the music has brought to her local singers and the core mission of the choir – to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention in the farming community.
“Singing together has absolutely made a difference… we could all do with spreading the joy in this world,” she says.
She jokingly describes her rehearsal process at The Farmer’s Dog pub as “vocally herding sheep,” but says that by encouraging them to “sing from the gut”, she’s helped a disparate group of producers form a cohesive family.
As the choir prepares for the live semi-finals, we wish Tim and his fellow farmers the best of luck for the future, and we’ve got everything crossed for their future success.
