The battle for the Iron Throne is a bloody one: in the hit TV series Game Of Thrones few survive from one series to the next – and even fewer prosper.

But as Season Five begins tomorrow night, one man has done both. He’s no red-carpet star, or even a lucky extra. He’s Irish pig farmer Kenny Gracey and it’s fair to say the global smash-hit fantasy epic has saved his bacon after the credit crunch left his rare-breeds business struggling to survive.

For the herds of ‘medieval’ pigs seen on the drama’s twin continents of Westeros and Essos are Kenny’s. So, too, are the sheep, Joey the donkey, Suzie the goat, Yana the red deer and the plump red hens that scratch around in village scenes.

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Irish farmer Kenny Gracey's herd of pigs can be seen on Game of Thrones along with his sheep, Joey the donkey, Suzie the goat, Yana the red deer and some of his plump red hens

In the new series, his two Irish wolfhound-deerhound crosses Murphy and Hennessy make their screen debut.

And much of the ancient farm equipment – the rusty chains, horse collars, anvils, mangers and troughs – that dress the sets in Northern Ireland has been salvaged from teetering piles of scrap in Kenny’s junk-filled barns near Tandragee in Co Armagh where it had been gathering dust for decades.

The unlikely story of how an Ulster pig man bet his farm on television’s hottest property with around 18 million weekly viewers began in 2010.

By then the credit crunch was crippling the business Kenny, 57, started in 1992, and he was weighed down with debt.

The programme - featuring Emilia Clarke (left) and Kit Harington (right) - receives around 18million weekly viewers

Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, wearing a long blue dress, walks her Direwolf through the set

Occasionally Kenny gets into costume and appears on the show, if his animals - which feature alongside the two horses above - need a helping hand on set

‘I got a call out of the blue from a props buyer who’d heard about my hoard of old farm bits and pieces,’ he says. ‘She popped in for 30 minutes and left five hours later.

‘My wife Jennifer had told me to have a clear-out and get the stuff to a junk yard. That afternoon I got the Game Of Thrones enquiry and two days later I sent a lorry load to the set.’

Occasionally Kenny gets into costume and appears on the show, if his animals need a helping hand on set. ‘It has funded the preservation of my rare and speciality breeds. I could not afford to keep all the animals I have commercially so it’s been a godsend. Game Of Thrones has put me on the map.’