It was one of our more unusual requests – and this comes from a team that has seen over the year’s dog wedding cakes, pianos in the woods and even a bride in wings! But to us each hire of Middle Coombe Farm is unique and treasured, so this is why when ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent contacted us to host one of their semi-finalists we were thrilled and slightly star-struck.

Picked out from literally thousands of woodlands available in the country, the researcher was looking for a picturesque woodland to interview and film Olena Uutai as part of her semi-final. We know our woods are special, and so do our visitors – but this really brought it home why so many people come (and come back) to our woods.

The day of the filming couldn’t have been better. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. At this time of year spring is in full swing with birdsong, bluebells and the buzz of busy bees making the woodlands sing – allowing Olena to be at one with nature, and complement her Shamanic tones.

Living in Devon, we often take for granted our humble scone. there was a huge batch of scones for the crew – served the Devon way; lashings of clotted cream then home-made strawberry jam on the top (if you arrange a viewing with us we promise you can taste these too) and of course, copious amounts of tea. With many of the crew London based, needless to say these didn’t last long. From the comments they won’t be forgotten – for all the right reasons!

Quite simply, when Olena sang in the woods, we were moved to tears, it was like the spirits of the woods stopped to listen. It couldn’t be more perfect and despite her not getting through to the finals that day she gained us all as fans and hope she will visit us again soon. We hope you enjoyed watching the event as much as we did.