Jimmy Doherty is an English, Suffolk based farmer and television presenter formerly for the BBC and now for Channel 4, famous for the show Jimmy's Farm, detailing the operation of the Essex Pig Company that he and his wife Michaela Furney own.
Biography
Born in Ilford, Doherty moved to Clavering in Essex at the age of three. A childhood friend of Jamie Oliver, he studied at Newport Free Grammar School, has a degree in animal biology from the University of East London and studied for a PhD in entomology at Coventry University's zoology department. In 2002, he appeared as a friend and guest on Oliver's Twist which appeared 4 times in series 1 and in the episode entitled "Flash in the Pan" in 2003. He then trained as a pig farmer, where, in 2002, he met runner Furney, when Channel 4's filming for Jamie's Kitchen took it to the Cumbrian farm where he was working. After returning to Essex to run his own farm, Doherty and Furney set up The Essex Pig Company using free range meat production practices. The operation raises various rare breeds, most notably the endangered Essex, together with the Berkshire, Gloucestershire Old Spots, large and middle Whites; Soay and Jacob sheep and Red Poll cattle. Jimmy's farm is in Suffolk near Ipswich. There are currently 20 full and part-time staff. Their efforts were followed by a series of fly-on-the-wall documentaries which aired on BBC Two. In 2008, Doherty presented a series for BBC2 called Jimmy Doherty's Farming Heroes which aired from July 2008 to August 2008, followed by various other series and single documentaries for the BBC. Notably, Jimmy's Food Factory, in which he demonstrated the industrial techniques used in the production of processed foods, ran for two series on BBC One. When the Controller of BBC One at the time, Jay Hunt, left to become chief creative officer at Channel 4 at the end of 2010, she signed up Doherty to present exclusively for Channel 4. Doherty's last series for the BBC, A Farmer's Life for Me, was broadcast in February and March 2011. Since 18 June 2011, Jimmy's Food Factory airs as ProSieben BBC Spezial – Jimmy's Food Factory every Saturday on German TV channel ProSieben. In December 2012, Jimmy and Jamie Oliver presented the Channel 4 series Jamie & Jimmy's Food Fight Club. Since 2014, Doherty has co-presented the prime-time Channel 4 series Jamie & Jimmy's Friday Night Feast alongside Jamie Oliver. In 2016 Jimmy became the youngest ever President of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust a charity closely linked to his work and passions.
Personal life
Jimmy and Michaela Furney were married on 22 August 2009. The reception was held at their farm, Pannington Hall in Wherstead Suffolk. They have four daughters, born between 2010 and 2018. In August 2014, Doherty was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.
