THE stars of a new documentary following the lives of tenant hill farmers as they try to breed the perfect sheep have spoken of their small screen experience ahead of its release.

Tom and Kay Hutchinson, who live near Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, feature in Addicted to Sheep, along with their three children Hetty, 10,Esme, 12 and Jack, 13.

The family, who fully admit being “addicted to sheep”, were filmed over 18 months at their Bail Hill Farm home by French film maker Magali Pettier.

She was given unrestricted access to the family from June 2010 to September 2011, where she captured 62 hours of footage of them and their flock of pedigree Swaledale sheep as they battled through the seasons.

Talking about the experience, Mr Hutchinson said: “It was not intrusive as we thought it would be.

“The children thought it was done well – they were quite nervous seeing it because they were a lot smaller when it was filmed but Magali was very good with them”.

Mrs Huthcinson said: "My favourite bit is when Esme goes into a field and starts painting because I think there are not many kids that can appreciate the freedom that our kids have.”

Ms Pettier, of Provence Films, teamed up with Jan Cawood, of Tin Man Films, to produce the independent documentary, after £9,000 was raised through a successful crowd-funding campaign.

A £3,500 sum from Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership and the Heritage Lottery Fund also allowed the pair to work with editor, Matt Dennis, to develop the 62 hours of raw footage into an 85-minute documentary.

The team were then helped in post-production by Teesside University’s DigitalCity, where Ms Pettier and Ms Cawood are both former fellows.

Ms Pettier said: “For the family of course it cannot be easy to have a guest in the house, especially someone who’s looking for something good to film but at the same time it was the best way of portraying this way of life.”

She added: “We worked with wonderful people who believed in the project especially because it’s not a commercial project – it’s a labour of love.”

Two previews of the documentary have been held for the local community ahead of its official screening at the Gala Theatre, in Durham, on February 19.

For more information visit www.addictedtosheep.com or search for Addicted to Sheep on Facebook and Twitter.