In May 2026, a choir of farmers, initially assembled for a beer advert, went on to win Britain’s Got Talent (BGT). The Hawkstone Farmers Choir grew out of an ad for British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone Lager, for which he recruited farmers to sing the “Flower Duet” from the Delibes opera Lakmé with pints in hand.

The ad was banned from TV and radio for indecent language, but the group carried on. Clarkson later described it as a gathering of brilliant people and beautiful voices representing the heart of rural Britain. The choir has around 33 members, aged between 27 and 74, and all of them work in agriculture.

The members kept on singing, as the choir work began to matter to them for reasons much deeper than a pint of beer. Member Andy Owens said 2025 was a hard year for farmers because of the drought, and that the choir has made them all close, providing others to lean on and talk to. Katryna Shell explained that many of the members work alone for long hours and found the choir an outlet from that isolation.

When they selected the song to sing for the final, their choice was not without risk. Rather than pick another well-known cover, they performed their own original, “This Is Home.” The song was written by Simon Gwilliam, the choir’s musical director, who wrote it as a tribute to the farming community and the landscapes that shape rural life.

It was the public vote that made the choir the winners of that BGT season—the first choir ever to take the title.

When they won, Katryna said: “This is for the farmers.”