Milton Keynes chicken stars in ITV prime time drama

An ex-commercial hen re-homed by the British Hen Welfare Trust has gone on to star in hit TV show The Durrells.

Lucy, who was re-homed by BHWT volunteer Janice Spokes in 2015, will appear in an upcoming episode of the ITV show, which airs on Sunday nights at 8pm.

And Lucy was also the hot topic when actress Keeley Hawes, who plays Mrs Durrell in the show, appeared on the Graham Norton Show recently

The popular Saturday night host had noticed how that the number of animals used in the second season of The Durrells had gone up and remarked that surely you ‘can’t train a chicken?’.

To which Keeley Hawes, referring to Lucy the BHWT ex-bat, replied: “If your chicken loves you like ours loves me that helps, because [she] wants to be near me.”

Keeley went on to explain: “We had a very long scene sitting at the kitchen table and for some reason or another the chicken had to be thrown onto the table, and [she] walked along [and up to my face] and wouldn’t go away, so now I sit with her doing scenes.”

Comedian Miranda Hart, who was also on the show, then asked whether you could stroke a chicken to which Keeley emphatically replied that you could most definitely stroke and cuddle them.

Janice, who adopted Lucy from the BHWT’s Milton Keynes re-homing point, said she spends a lot of time with all of the animals she has at The Poultry Barn in North Crawley.

“Initially we were asked if they could borrow a couple of brown hens and we picked two called Margot and Lucy,” said Janice.

“Lucy was such a star they didn’t even need to use Margot! They decided, because she was so well behaved, that they wanted to do more scenes with her.

“Keeley kept cuddling her, Lucy is that kind of hen – she is so super friendly. She would sit there all day and let you cuddle her.”

Lucy spent a total of five days filming and Janice said she has been watching the show waiting for her scene to pop up.

The British Hen Welfare Trust has many re-homings coming up across the country, including one in Milton Keynes on June 25.

To re-home some of your own ex-bats (who knows, they might end up being TV stars too) visit www.bhwt.org.uk

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