Former Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox is guest judge at Royal Welsh Show

Renowned for her work on the airwaves with the BBC and as a television presenter, the 48-year-old mum-of-three is actually a huge advocate of farming and the countryside, having grown up on a farm near Bolton.

She will be attending the iconic Mid Wales event to judge a cattle competition.

Cox, who rose to fame as the presenter of BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show in the early 2000s and has presented Radio 2’s drivetime show since January 2019, will be attending the show later this month along with her dad Len, a beef farmer.

“We’re delighted to announce that BBC Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox will be joining us as a guest judge at the Royal Welsh Show,” said the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society on its social platforms.

“Sara will be coming along with dad Leonard Cox to judge the Interbreed Beef Young Handler competition on the Wednesday of the show.

“A farmer’s daughter, Sara remembers with great fondness her childhood days getting the cattle ready to take to show, and is now looking forward to judging at the Royal Welsh.”

This year’s Royal Welsh Show takes place near Builth Wells from July 24-27.

Cox has returned to her farming roots in recent years. An avid horse rider, she bought a horse during lockdown and has helped farmers find love on rural-themed dating show Love in the Countryside.

She even wrote a memoir about her childhood growing up in rural Lancashire in the 1980s, entitled Till the Cows Come Home.

The youngest of five children, Sara grew up on Grundy Fold Farm, a 40-acre tenanted cattle farm surrounded by encroaching housing estates in Little Lever, near Bolton.

Till the Cows Come Home features a picture of her as a young girl riding a Hereford bull on the front cover, with Sara describing in a 2019 Countryside Online article how she grew up on a farm that was “the Bolton version of Narnia”.

“The farm was my very own adventure playground with the animals at the centre,” she said.

She fondly remembers dad Len’s big Hereford stock bulls. “One was called Lowesmoor One Fatham known as Fat-Ham and another was called Ferrari – which, as kids, we loved because we could say, ‘Ow, a Ferrari stood on my foot’,” she added.

“I always buy British produce, especially meat, as animal welfare is high on my checklist and British meat is produced to the very highest of standards.

“I like things that are ethically and sustainably farmed. British farming is really important to me as many farmers really struggle to make ends meet.”

She admits she once risked the wrath of her father by turning vegetarian, but it didn’t last long. She said: “My dad is a beef farmer so he wouldn't be best pleased. I tried going veggie once, but it lasted about four hours.”

Cox’s attendance is the latest celebrity coup for show organisers’, after Neil Morrissey attended the Winter Fair in November.

The Men Behaving Badly, Line of Duty and Bob the Builder star was revealed as one of the judges in a new mouth-watering section – the bacon, burger and sausage competition.