IT has been a successful year for Bromyard farmer James Manning, who has not only opened a popular pizza bar but has also landed the job as a BBC presenter.

The 28-year-old will be presenting Harvest 2015 on BBC2 next week in three hour-long episodes with Gregg Wallace and Philippa Forrester.

And he has got the job in the same year that he set up The Shack Revolution bar in the Bastion Mews in Hereford with his brother, Rich, 25.

The brothers set up the venue selling cocktails, craft beer and stone-baked pizza in May and have been overwhelmed by its success.

James said: "It is one of those years where everything we wanted to happen, has happened. It has been a really good, gratifying year so far."

He is no stranger to the camera and has already appeared on Channel 4’s First Time Farmers. James thinks it was this which helped him get the BBC presenting job.

He said his screen test at a farm south of Bristol did not go quite to plan though, as he had to do a freestyle section and chose to do a cocktail master class in front of the camera.

James said: "I was making it on camera and I went and smashed the glass live on camera, which was not quite what was supposed to happen."

But he still got the job and said it has been brilliant seeing the innovative work of farms across the country as they bring in their harvest.

"The best part of the job has just been meeting all the farmers and seeing a really broad range of different farms from sweetcorn to quinoa to oats and lettuces,” he said.

"I am a dairy farmer. I am used to more traditional farming methods. I went into it hoping I would learn a little bit. I actually came out learning so much."

And he said it has been brilliant working with Gregg and Philippa who have guided him through the process.

James said: "The hardest bit I found was talking directly to the camera. You had to say four lines that were set and couldn't freestyle.

“You had to do it in your own style and every time I would try and put my print on it I would get the words wrong. When I got the words right I lost my personality. We had to do lots of takes."

James grew up helping out on his parents, David and Liz, on their dairy farm in Bromyard, where they milk 400 cows and have 300 young stock.

He studied agriculture at the University of Reading, before he came back to work on the farm for six years.

In 2011 James and Rich set up The Shack Revolution as a mobile cocktail bar business, as an offshoot of the family-run business, Mannings Juice. It has continued to grow and they have provided bars across the country including one at Wembley Stadium for the Rugby World Cup.

James said: “What we are trying to do now is create a market for everything we grow and produce on the farm."

He opened the Shack Revolution at the former Dinosaur Market in May as a pop-up shop with Rich.

James said: “We went into it and our main aim was just to bring something different to Hereford over the summer and to have a lot of fun and make sure everyone who came had a lot of fun. And all summer has just been phenomenal – it has blown all our expectations."

They are now looking at whether they can keep it going long-term. They have a licence until end of December and they would like to keep it running beyond that and also open other venues within an hour's radius.

He said:"A couple of years ago, before the Old Market opened, we felt Hereford was fairly flat. We didn't feel there was the right sort of buzz to come and open. Then the Old Market opened... and we just felt there was a buzz. Every time we went to the Old Market or Rule of Tum we just felt something had changed in Hereford. We thought let's add the Shack in, which is different and unique compared to what Hereford had – that was the key thing."

· Harvest 2015 is on BBC2 at 8pm on October 13, 14 and 15.