THE GREAT OUTDOORS
ANITA RANI, ELLIE HARRISON AND THE TEAM TALK COUNTRYFILE’S ANNIVERSARY EPISODE...
Countryfile turns 30 this year, and they’ll be celebrating the big birthday on air this week. We caught up with presenters Joe Crowley, Sean Fletcher, Ellie Harrison, Tom Heap, Anita Rani and Charlotte Smith to find out what’s in store for the big 3-0…
What can you tell us about the anniversary episode?
Ellie We head to the Lake District, where a lot of the opening credits are filmed. We get to physically be in each other’s company, which we don’t normally get to do.
Tom I’m doing something on the legacy of foot-and-mouth and how it changed farming.
Over the years, what have been your most memorable moments?
Charlotte Someone had this genius idea. We were going to stick a Countryfile ‘C’ on the side of a cow with veterinary glue, I’d walk in, deliver my piece to camera, and the cow would stay put. What could go wrong? That made every outtake show because the sign kept falling off, I got my words wrong, the cow wouldn’t keep still and you could hear the farmer snickering. Sean I did a piece on a landfill site that had been turned into a nature reserve. It was a great story, and there were a couple of cows humping behind me. We didn’t really notice until the last minute when we watched it back and they were humping all the way through it!
You must have dealt with some rotten weather…
Anita Joe and I were filming in Dumfries and Galloway, and it was chucking it down – rain that just gets to the bone no matter how many layers you’re wearing. I was planting trees
and we were all dripping – Joe got out of the car soaked to the bone and we laughed so much.
Joe It was quite a shocking thing for a man of my age to realise I was receding! I could see more scalp than hair.
Anita I know a surgeon in
India who can sort that for you!
Countryfile Live runs from Tuesday 2 to Sunday 5 August at Blenheim Palace