'I'm following in the footsteps of stuntman dad'

A motorbike stuntman will follow in his father's footsteps and revive his touring show after receiving a £25,000 loan.

Sam Coulter, from Ludlow, Shropshire, performs wheelies, jumps, tricks and rollovers on his quad bike as the Kangaroo Kid, continuing the legacy of his dad Matt.

Matt, the original Kangaroo Kid, performed across the world for 35 years and his son said he broke records with his jumps over jets, boats and trucks.

Coulter said his own five-month-old son had spurred him to get back into the arena following a break so he could "give him those opportunities I had".

Sam Coulter grew up in the ring, under his father's guidance.

"I was literally driving around on a little 50cc quad at two, three years old," he said.

"I was always wanting to be the Kangaroo Kid and to be my dad and replicate what he did."

Warning: Some readers may find some of the details in this story distressing

He joined his dad in the ring when he was 18 but took a break to found a recruitment businesses.

Now he said he felt financially secure enough to manage the seasonal nature of the work but had "big shoes to fill".

"It's an absolute honour to have that name. It's a lot of pressure because dad did such a wonderful job," Sam Coulter said.

"But I always want to try and bring my own spin to it and give my own show my own character."

Being the Kangaroo Kid comes with a hefty dose of peril. A crash when attempting to jump a paddle steamer in the 90s left his dad severely injured.

"I think he ripped his lower leg away from his knee, paralysed his left foot, but it didn't stop him. It spurred him on to actually do more and do better," Sam Coulter said.

Matt, who has moved back to his native Australia, probably worries "far more about me than he ever did about himself", his son added.

But he described the risks he took as "calculated" and said he had "a really good relationship with fear".

"You don't have any fear, you go and do something silly and that's when you hurt yourself," he added.

"But I have a little bit of fear, which really just helps me ensure that I'm assessing everything that I'm doing, and not going too over the top."

He admitted he had had his own dicey moments, recalling a particularly embarrassing one as an 18-year-old when he jumped two monster trucks, landed perfectly, then was flung off and broke his wrist while celebrating.

While he practises in his father-in-law's field, there was no substitute for being in front of a crowd, he said.

"Part of me thrives better when I'm actually in the arena and I've got, say, a big police van, a telehandler and a couple of cars lined up ready for me to jump over and I'm like, 'this is the angle I've got to do, and this is the speed I've got to do'," he said.

"I usually do better when I'm just out there doing it."

The loan, from provider SWIG Finance, will help him with buying quad bikes and ramps.

Sam Coulter said he was looking forward to a summer of shows, including in Kenilworth, Warwickshire on 6 June and Newport in Shropshire on 11 July.

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.