One of The Yorkshire Vet’s newest stars, sheep therapist Grace Olson, has said working with her animals’ vet Julian Norton on the 5 show is like appearing with your dentist or the woman who waxes your arms. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk following the launch of her new children’s book Grace, 51, who first appeared on the show in April 2024 explained her thinking.

“At first, you see Julian was just my dog vet and he only became my sheep vet when they chose to come and film my sheep. So it was slightly different. He’d never been up to my field before. But (even though I knew him) it was still odd that here’s my vet and here’s a camera crew. Really weird,” she laughed. Despite being acquainted with Julian prior to appearing on the show, Grace says he had nothing to do with her getting selected for it and rather it was all pure coincidence.

“It wasn’t Julian, who recommended me for the show. What happened was I posted a load of videos of my sheep doing agility on Facebook, because my sheep love to jump over things.

A friend of mine saw my videos, and she said: ‘Oh, my friend would love those. She’s the director of The Yorkshire Vet’. So she sent the video to her and the director said:’We have to have this lunatic woman on the show’.

So it was the director that called me and asked if I would be interested in being on the show. And I said, yes because I always loved The Yorkshire Vet, but to be part of it was amazing and I already knew Julian already anyway.”

It was at this point Julian progressed from simply being her dog’s vet to also caring for her sheep, all of which has been captured on camera.

Grace and her flock proved a big hit with viewers and she has become a fixture on the show.

She has recently been filming some segments for the new series and although she is sworn to secrecy about what is coming up she says she thinks viewers will really like it.

She has made such an impression that the show even covered the launch of her new book Rhubarb Finds His Family about a little orphan lamb searching for a new mother.

In a touching turn of events Grace admittedthe protagonist was inspired by real life. “Rhubarb is a real lamb and he attached to me so strongly. He was living in a flock at my friend’s farm, and I was looking after them. So I took him home with me when I finished working there and he’s just like my child, I’ve never had an animal attach to me so strongly. So that inspired the concept of little lamb looking and needing a mother,” she explained.

Grace’s new children’s book Rhubarb Finds His Family is available from her website