'With a baby, dog, tortoise and bearded dragon, our home is pretty full'

The Yorkshire Vet's Matt Jackson-Smith chats family life, feeling the pressure and setting his sights on Strictly

- LAUREN MORRIS

The Yorkshire Vet’s Matt Jackson-Smith is apologising for running late, having just buckled his adorable 11-month-old daughter Anastasia into her car seat. The TV vet is setting off for a friend’s wedding with his wife Katherine and their lively bundle of joy, who is currently “losing her chuffing marbles in the back” as Matt chats about his new memoir.

With a beautiful family, a budding TV career and an autobiography, Matt is in a great place. However, his story could have ended far too soon when he was held up at gunpoint during a terrifying robbery.

While working at Blockbuster as an 18-yearold, Matt found himself in the middle of a robbery when two men stormed the video rental shop. “It was quite surreal. Two men burst through the door – one in a Green Goblin mask, another in a balaclava – and they put a gun in my face,” he says. “Everything seemed to slow down.

“The guy with the gun shoved my female co-workers into the backroom and locked them in. The other one was with me, trying to open the tills.”

The robbers eventually fled when a “much bigger” customer walked in, however, the ordeal left the teenage Matt reeling. “That really shook me up. I remember shaking afterwards when the police came. It wasn’t until I left that I remembered there was a panic button I could have pressed that Blockbuster had told me about when I joined.”

Despite facing a pair of gun-wielding robbers, not even that could prepare Matt for the intensity of veterinary medicine. “The pressure is very different. I don’t think anything can prepare you for what [being a vet] is,” he says. “Not even doing a placement as a student and watching vets. It’s a case of, ‘You’re ready and away you go.’ The best teaching is experience.

“But now, when someone uses the phrase, ‘Gun to your head’ – I can relate to that!”