A Norfolk farmer has enjoyed a "super-surreal" 48 hours following his choir's emotional Britain's Got Talent victory - including national media interviews and partying with Jeremy Clarkson.
Ben Brooke is part of the Hawkstone Farmers Choir, which won the prime-time ITV talent show on Saturday night, singing an uplifting original song called This Is Home.
And the fourth-generation farmer said this success had created an even greater platform to help raise awareness of the agricultural community and its mental health challenges.
Mr Brooke, 35, said he was "completely overwhelmed" by the choir's victory, adding: "I burst into tears. Jeremy Clarkson came up on the stage, I was jumping up and down with him.
"It's quite hard to put into words, to be honest. I'm not really much of a crier, but it just felt like a bit of a relief, just pure excitement."
That moment sparked a whirlwind of national media interviews, an appearance on ITV's This Morning programme, and partying into the small hours with TV celebrities - including the choir's famous founder.
"Jeremy Clarkson was there [at the after-show party], I was speaking to him for ages about farming and other stuff as well, which was super-surreal," said Mr Brooke. "I always find it weird that he knows my name now.
"Amanda Holden came as well, and it was just lovely to be surrounded by everybody's families, my daughter, my wife Emily - everybody was there, and everybody was just loving it.
"It's crazy. We're just farmers at the end of the day - but now we're here, I think what's good is the fact that we've now got a bigger platform to shout about what we want to shout about."
He hopes the choir's success can keep raising the profile of the industry and its mental health pressures - and inspire potentially-life-saving conversations.
"It's quite an 'old school' industry, isn't it?" he said. "So, you get people that don't want to talk about their feelings - if they're suffering, they'll just do it in silence because they don't want to bother anyone.
"We're trying to provoke these conversations. For me, to talk about my feelings online is not comfortable, but I'm trying to do it so other people will do it as well.
"There is so much help in place now, and I would always advise reaching out to people that are close to you, or reaching out to these helplines - you don't have to suffer alone. It's not 1960 any more, you know. We've evolved as a species, open to how our brain works.
"Having this platform to portray that message is good and, to be honest, I think we're already saving lives. I think a lot of people are opening up a lot more. Someone that works for us opened up to me before we even got into final. So I do think we're doing something good."
A proportion of the £250,000 prize money will be donated to agricultural charities, and Mr Brooke said the choir is also discussing using some of the money to get mental health training themselves, so they can help others who get in touch with them.
"I just want people to know that they're not alone," he added. "There are support systems in place, but also you're not a burden to your friends if you reach out to them when you're not feeling great."
Mr Brooke said it was also satisfying for the farmers to earn so much support from the audience vote in Saturday's showpiece live TV final.
"That was such a touching thing, to be honest," he said. "We didn't know whether we'd get through in the first place, and then we've always been worried about the public vote, just because I think farmers can sometimes be misconstrued.
"So for us to have the support of the whole agriculture community, but also the general public as well - it just meant absolutely everything to us and I felt so emotional on Saturday night.
"We're forever thankful for the support and the belief that everybody has shown us."
As part of their Britain's Got Talent prize, the choir will perform in front of King Charles at the Royal Variety Show later this year - and there are hopes that their newfound fame could open doors to other prominent performances too.
"We're talking about trying to perform at Glastonbury, which could be quite enjoyable," added Mr Brooke.
Share