James Harris was still serving in the Rifles when he was introduced to Hi-Line through one of the HighGround Rural Weeks he attended, where Kirsty & Matt from Hi-Line were presenting a session on Arboriculture.

Roll forward many months to October 2019 and James, who is now a climber at Hi-Line, Kirsty and Matt were all asked if they’d be happy filming with BBC Countryfile for the day!!

Countryfile wanted to include a piece on Remembrance Sunday about veterans moving into the land-based sector when they leave the military and were keen to chat to James who has successfully made this transition.

The filming included interviews with James up in a lovely Oak tree, demonstrations of climbing and pruning and an interview with Kirsty about an employer’s perspective of recruiting military veterans.

The episode of BBC Countryfile was on BBC1 on Sunday 10 November 2019 at 5.20pm.