Naked farmers show their love

AN 81-year-old Devon woman got involved in a nude photo shoot to promote the county when she stumbled across it on a beach walk.

Pensioner Muriel Pitts was unfazed when she encountered 10 young men wearing nothing but wellies on Westward Ho! beach in North Devon.

Muriel Pitts with members of the Woolsery Young Farmers on the beach at Westward Ho!

The stunt was part of Lovemydevon finalist Anne Tattersall's campaign to promote the county.

She is one of a shortlist of three competing to secure the most publicity for the county, and win £10,000 for herself in the process.

Click above to watch the Lovemydevon auditions

The competition is being funded by Visit Devon, using money from the county council and private tourism businesses, and supported by the WMN.

Instead of reacting with shock, Ms Pitts said she "couldn't believe her luck" to stumble across the naked farmers.

"At my age the likelihood of coming across something this naughty is extremely rare," she said.

Mrs Tattersall, 48, a former Mayor of Torrington, had organised the farmers as a publicity shot when she met Ms Pitts.

"As soon as Muriel came along we had to include her in the shoot because she was the epitome of the friendly characters who live in Devon," she said.

Mrs Tattersall will be touring the country in Danny Devon, a Volkswagen Beetle based on the film character Herbie. Among the finalists are trio Barney Sutton, Dick Smith and Jona Ahearn, who managed to coax reluctant WMN reporters into singing first thing on a Monday morning.

The team has adapted the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's Cheek to Cheek, and recruited the WMN team to sing a line for their video. It will be cut in with lines sung by local celebrities and the people who make Devon so special.

The team plans to post the final result on the web-based video sharing platform YouTube, to help them gain publicity.

All the finalists have the month of January to muster as much exposure as they can.

Surfer Helen Blackman is planning a video Internet campaign, being launched today with TV wildlife expert Johnny Kingdom.

She said: "It's so exciting. We're all really looking forward to it."