Healing a hardman

How a West Sussex farm is helping ex-footballer and actor Vinnie Jones cope with a devastating loss

- CAREN CLARK, JUDY EWENS, IAN MACEWAN

Vinnie Jones in the Country

Available: Monday 20 November Genre: Reality Season: 1 Eps: 6 (first two eps from 20 Nov, then weekly)

He’s best known as the football hardman who reinvented himself as a Hollywood actor specialising in tough-guy roles. So it might come as some surprise to learn that Vinnie Jones is at his happiest birdwatching, looking for hedgehogs and pottering about on his West Sussex farm.

This new reality series follows Jones as, with the help of a new ‘crazy gang’ comprising builder ‘Wobbly’ and personal assistant Emma, he refurbishes outbuildings on his 2,000-acre estate and indulges his love of living in the countryside.

‘When you’re so much in the public eye, to come here is wonderful,’ explains Jones, who won the FA Cup with Wimbledon in 1988. ‘In this place, money, cars and how big your house is – none of it matters!’