A Liverpool woman said her life was transformed by the six months she spent living on an Amish farm for Channel 4's The Simpler Life.
Originally from Bristol, Fran Hogan moved to Liverpool after the first lockdown in 2020 before heading south to Devon for the "life-changing experience" as one of 24 volunteers cooking, building and farming on a 40-acre site run by Lloyd and Edna Miller, an Ohio couple from the traditionalist Christian community, the Amish. But IT project manager Fran was totally unprepared for the phoneless world of strict gender roles.
Realising how much her laptop and job monopolised her day, a friend sent Fran, 34, a link to apply for the new Channel 4 series, which was broadcast in six parts between March 22 and April 6. Fran was "excited about the unknown", but imagined the experience as "some kind of river cottage, escape to the countryside retreat" where she'd plant and eat fresh vegetables. It was only when she was sat on the farm last spring that she realised just how stark the contrast with her own life would be.
