Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s ‘lifeline’

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Cite

Karasin, E. (2026, October 19). Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s ‘lifeline’. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/amanda-owen-yorkshire-shepherdess-b1301386.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-10-19 · by Ekin Karasin

Quick Summary

Amanda Owen, a 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess with nine children, asserts that screens have been essential for her family's well-being during the renovation of Anty John’s farmhouse in a Channel 4 documentary series. She emphasizes that while she limits internet access to inside the farmhouse, screens are crucial for her farm's diversification and her business success. Owen balances screen time by providing ample opportunities for outdoor activities and has authored several books inspired by her rural life, including recent titles like "Cosy Bedtime Stories From The Farm."
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-19, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Amanda Owen, a 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess, says screens have been her family’s "lifeline," rejecting calls for banning them. She stars in Channel 4's documentary series *Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids*, which follows her and her nine children as they renovate an old farmhouse called Anty John’s into a modern home. Owen emphasizes that screens have enabled their farming business to diversify through media exposure, stating it would be hypocritical to ban screen time given the crucial role technology plays in their livelihood. She allows internet access only inside the farmhouse, maintaining a balance between digital and outdoor activities for her children.

Written for “Amanda Owen On Screens” on 2026-10-19, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.35, but all 2 of its quote(s) are attributed speech - words the article quotes from someone, not the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 90158: attributed speech only · logged 2026-10-19

Story

📰 Amanda Owen On Screens
Entertainment · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard · 0.96 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 22 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles report on Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen's comments about screens being her family’s ‘lifeline’ and discuss the documentary series where this is mentioned.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 22 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-19 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 5849 article(s) · 50 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 50 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Ekin Karasin
67 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s “lifeline” and that it would be “incredibly hypocritical” to ban them for her children. The 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess stars in the Channel 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her life in the countryside with her nine children as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John’s into a modern home.
🔮 Ticket holders will be contacted with rescheduled dates “as soon as they are available”, according to a statement on Sir Michael’s website.
🔮 The actress said her character feels “shocked and devastated” after discovering she is pregnant, adding: “It’s not a situation that she wants to be in. “She’s got to make a decision whether she goes ahead with it or whether she gets a termination – and that’s quite traumatic in itself.” Reflecting on the repercussions this may have on the character, Fallon said: “I think it’s going to eat away at her until one day she can’t take it anymore.
🔮 He added: “I don’t think I could have ever been prepared for how your heart expands, becoming a parent.
🔮 He will always think about every single other person before himself, and I think that is such a rare quality to find in someone.”
🔮 National Album Day will take place this weekend on October 17.
🔮 “It's, 'When things look dark, turn your face towards the sun and the shadows will fall behind'.
🔮 When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
🔮 Read More A contestant may not enter the competition if a member of their immediate family or the same household is on the judging panel, the rules state.
🔮 The insider went on: “They reached a point where they couldn’t even communicate directly.
Also by Ekin Karasin
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 67 articles by Ekin Karasin →

Topics

Channel 4 England Press Association York Yorkshire

Subjects

Owen PERSON · 4× Amanda PERSON · 2× Amanda Owen PERSON · 2× Clive PERSON · 2× Yorkshire GPE · 2× Channel 4 ORG · 1× Eliza Forder PERSON · 1× England GPE · 1× John PERSON · 1× Press Association ORG · 1×

Narrative

Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s “lifeline” and that it would be “incredibly hypocritical” to ban them for her children. The 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess stars in the Channel 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her life in the countryside with her nine children as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John’s into a modern home.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-19
🔮 Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s “lifeline” and that it would be “incredibly hypocritical” to ban them for her children. The 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess stars in the Channel 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her life in the countryside with her nine children as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John’s into a modern home.

Claims (22 extracted, 0 hedged)

Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s ‘lifeline’ asserted
screens → say → ?
Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s “lifeline” and that it would be “incredibly hypocritical” to ban them for her children. The 52-year-old Yorkshire shepherdess stars in the Channel 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her life in the countryside with her nine children as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John’s into a modern home. asserted
they → say → home
Owen said the internet can only be accessed inside the farmhouse, giving her the “perfect split”, she told Press Association. asserted
she → say → Association
“It would be incredibly hypocritical to say, ‘Oh, no screen time, screens are death knell of society’, because that would be totally and utterly not what I believe,” she explained. asserted
she → say → what
Owen went on: “Screen is what has been our lifeline. asserted
what → go → ?
It’s what has given us the ability to put ourselves out there and basically to prop the whole business of farming up, which, let’s be honest, is in dire straits. asserted
’s → ’ → straits
She said she feels “blessed” to have the space in the countryside to allow her children to do other things rather than sit watching their screens. asserted
children → say → screens
She said: “We don’t set limits on it, but there’s other things going on. asserted
We → say → it
There’s other things for them to do. asserted
them → ’ → ?
So I’ve never really had to sort of push that one. asserted
I → have → one
The dynamics are always changing. asserted
dynamics → change → ?
Owen said her life changed when she read The Hill Shepherd – A Photographic Essay, by John and Eliza Forder, which documents the lives of fell and hill shepherds in north-west England. asserted
which → say → England
She has since written a number of books including a new children’s volume, Cosy Bedtime Stories From The Farm. asserted
She → write → Farm
It follows last year’s Christmas Tales From The Farm. asserted
It → follow → Farm
She said: “I failed miserably at school. asserted
I → say → school
I was just, sort of, like, coasting. asserted
I → coast → ?
Wasn’t anything because nothing inspired me. asserted
nothing → inspire → me
“And it was when I found a book that did inspire me that set me on the path, the trajectory to where I am today. asserted
I → find → path
“Quite honestly, I never set out to write books. asserted
I → set → books
When someone says the word ‘author’ a little bit of me sort of dies inside because I don’t see myself as that at all. asserted
I → say → that
“I am just the one who has found their place, found their thing, what they enjoy, what they like doing, what they’re good at, and then from that started to write about it.” asserted
they → find → it
The new series of Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids is available to watch and stream on More4. asserted
series → watch → More4
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