Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
WE’RE THE BEST BY A COUNTRY MILE
A showcase for rural issues and our outstanding natural beauty, Countryfile has become one of Britain’s most popular shows. As it marks its 30th birthday, its hosts tell Lisa Sewards why...
From naked ramblers and newborn lambs to badger baiting and bovine tuberculosis, Countryfile has been highlighting the issues that affect the British countryside – as well as showcasing its unrivalled beauty – for 30 years next month. And it’s never been more popular. Airing 52 weeks of the year to a Sunday evening audience sometimes of almost 10 million, its ratings leave big budget period dramas in its wake. Celebrity fans range from hellraising rocker Iggy Pop to Charles and Camilla, and even Simon Cowell has been forced to concede its success is ‘staggering’.
So what exactly is its secret? Today, four of its main presenters have gathered to celebrate its birthday and John Craven, the show’s avuncular patriarch, has no doubt why it’s such a hit. ‘We pioneered what’s become known as “welly telly” and now there’s a plethora of programmes on all channels that have country life as their theme. But there’s still only one Countryfile!’ he says. ‘It’s so popular because it’s perfect Sunday evening viewing, and the star of the show is the British countryside. Millions of viewers in towns and cities find out about life beyond their urban boundaries, while our country-dwelling audience feel, I hope, t ha t their interests a r e prop e r ly represented.
‘ Every week we investigate key issues facing rural Britain while also revelling in its beauty, customs, achievements and wildlife. Because we have only two days a week to film each episode, we have to plough on no matter what the weather, which adds reality to the show. We can’t wait until the downpours stop and the sun comes out, so we just have to crack on come what may.’
The show was launched on 24 July 1988, billed as a replacement for The Farming Programme, a niche Sunday lunchtime show resolutely aimed at the farming community. Its highlight was the cattle prices. The following year John, a journalist by trade, left his iconic children’s current affairs programme Newsround to join the fledgling programme. ‘After presenting Newsround for 17 years, I thought it was time to move back into grown-up television. For me it was the perfect challenge, moving from a news studio to wide open spaces and a weekly reflection on rural life,’ says John, 77. ‘Now, after 29 years on the show, it feels like an extension of me. A personal high was being awarded the OBE by the Queen in 2000 for services to rural and children’s broadcasting. It came out of the blue and made me so proud of Newsround and Countryfile.’
Today’s Countryfile is a radically different beast to the one he joined though. Spotting the huge potential for tapping into the new growing popularity of all things rural, the BBC gave it a makeover in 2009, turning it into a more mainstream show that would appeal to all the family and shifting it to a Sunday evening slot. It was an instant hit – from a lunchtime average audience of 1.7 million viewers, ratings rose immediately to over 5 million, and they’ve been climbing ever since.
Not everyone was happy though. ‘Initially some farmers quite resented losing their own programme, but farming is still very much at the heart of the show and always has been,’ says John. ‘I suppose it probably had a higher proportion of serious items in the early days. But it was a big breakthrough and it soon became one of the country’s top factual programmes.’
Critics though have dubbed the revamped show ‘Towniefile’ because it features plenty of cuddly creatures alongside the gritty issues, yet nearly half of Countryfile’s viewers live in towns and cit ies. ‘ Some people feel you’re not a real country person unless you’ve been born and bred there and go back generations and hunt and all that,’ says John. ‘But there are a lot of real country people who don’t fit that mould. I’ve spent most of my life now in rural areas and I’ve loved the countryside ever since I was a little boy growing up in the suburbs of Leeds. We were soon on our bikes and into the wilds of Lower Wharfedale, which is where I discovered the countryside.’
With the show’s rebranding came a change of presenters as a raft of younger hosts replaced some of the show’s stalwarts, a move that led former presenter Miriam O’Reilly to bring a case of ageism against the BBC. Today there are no less than twelve hosts, and John insists they all get on like a house on fire. ‘It’s a very happy show to work on. I don’t think I’ve had a cross word with anyone during all the years I’ve been here,’ he says. ‘People have come and gone but everyone who’s worked on the show has done so because they’ve loved it. There’s a rapport that’s heartwarming and genuine, whether we’re out on location or working in the office. And our Christmas parties are legendary. I always leave for a while, and then suddenly Santa appears with his lit-
‘The SAS once tracked me while I was filming’ JOHN CRAVEN
tle helper and gives out the presents. Then Santa says goodbye, and I arrive back a few minutes later and everyone says, “Oh, John, you’ve missed Santa!” It’s a lot of fun.
‘For my 25th anniversary on the show the team presented me with a wonderful cake with a version of me in icing leaning on an icing five-barred gate surrounded by icing sheep in a field of green icing. That’s friendship for you from great colleagues.’
But he’s seen many lows over his 29 years on the show too, from BSE to salmonella in chickens and the foot and mouth disease of 2001. In fact there was a point where a succession of rural tragedies led him to wonder if he was a jinx on the countryside. ‘Coincidentally, all these big issues, especially in animal health,
happened around the same time. The low point was when foot and mouth disease spread across the countryside. I’ll never forget the sight of those burning pyres of animals and the despair of farming families who saw their life’s work go up in flames. Rural Britain was on its knees for a time, but it recovered and now those dreadful months feel like a bad dream.’
He’s also had a few near disasters himself. ‘You never know what to expect next when you’re working with animals and I’ve been dragged across a field by one of Adam Henson’s oxen, and I once got attacked by a highland cow. Luckily Adam was on hand to rescue me from the ox, but the cow caught its horn in my anorak. I wasn’t hurt but it did spoil my anorak a bit. I’ve also successfully delivered a calf when the farmer was elsewhere, and I’ve been at the wrong end of a cow when she evacuated over me and a vet. My more heart- stopping moments include being winched from a lifeboat into a rescue helicopter at high speed off the south Wales coast, flying in a microlight aircraft in search of badger- baiters and abseiling down the Malvern hills. Once I was secretly tailed by the SAS while filming in Slovakia, something I only discovered many years later.’ John learned that last fact when a st ranger approached him in a pub, revealing that the captain of his SAS unit had spotted Craven at a hotel while they were all in Slovakia, and had his men follow him as a training exercise.
Most of the current presenting team are from genuine farming stock. The One Show host Matt Baker grew up on his family’s farm in the Durham Dales, while fellow former Blue Peter presenter Helen Sk elton was raised on a Cumbrian dairy farm and wildlife expert Ellie Harrison on a chicken farm in the Cotswolds. Adam Henson runs his own rare breeds farm in Gloucestershire and Tom Heap is the BBC’s rural affairs correspondent. Their expertise is evident today at our photoshoot as Matt and Adam simply scoop up a lamb bouncing hither and thither around the studio, folding the delicate limbs gently and neatly under the belly for the perfect picture. In fact, it’s only one of Countryfile’s newest recruits Anita Rani who’s a city girl, having grown up in Bradford before moving to Hackney in London. Did Anita, a bundle of energy today, get any flak for being a townie? ‘One woman said to me, “I can tell you’re a townie with your nail varnish.” I thought, “Well, I’m being radical. I’m bringing nail varnish to the countryside!”
‘Since I started on Countryfile three years ago my wardrobe has changed beyond recognition. You need layer upon layer for the most extreme temperatures. But most of all you have to have the right wellies. When I started I had a really cheap pair and my feet froze. So I bought myself the Aston Martin of Wellies – Le Chameau. I’ve had so many comments from country folk saying, “She’s got the right wellies!” I might have nail varnish, but I’ve got the right wellies too.’
Anita, 40, realised she’d won over even the hardcore farming set when she filmed at her first big country fair, the CLA Game Fair in Leeds. ‘I’d been on the show for a while, but I realised I was now entering the bosom of country life. There were more tweeds and red corduroys than I’d ever seen and I thought, “Now I’m going to find out – I’ll either get slaughtered or survive.” But then some bloke came up to me and said, “Anita Rani, you’re doing all right lass.” And I thought, “Yes! I’m in!”’
She’s also keen to encourage people from ethnic minorities to enjoy the countryside. ‘I think it’s really important that people see somebody from the city, somebody with a brown face, doing these things on TV. It seems weird to even have to spell it out. One of the best things I did was introduce a minibus full of Sudanese refugees from Bradford to the countryside and animals. It was snowing and they’d never seen snow before, so I taught them how to have a snowball fight. It was just wonderful.’
She’s had a few fish- out- of-water experiences though, like when she had to enter a pen full of huge Tamworth pigs to feed them. ‘ These things were foaming at the mouth,’ she laughs. ‘They were massive and it was terrifying. But there was a moment when everyone realised, “That’s why we’ve got Anita on the programme.” I’m representing the people watching at home. That’s the wonderful thing about Countryfile – there’s no snootiness, no pressure to wear your countryside credentials.’
It was Adam Henson’s countryside credentials though that landed him a job on the show in 2001. He grew up on his late father’s now famous rare-breeds Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire, and became its proud custodian after his father’s retirement in 1999. The new role came at a critical time when he needed a lifeline.
‘ Foot and mouth disease was sweeping the country and I was terrified we were going to lose all our rare breeds,’ he explains. ‘ We sat around the kitchen table, me and my business partner, talking about what we were going to do if we lost the farm. If you had just one animal
‘I was told I was a townie because of my nail polish’ ANITA RANI
with foot and mouth they slaughtered the lot. So that would have been sheep, cows and goats, all gone. Luckily we were clear.
‘Around that time, Countryfile were looking for a presenter. My partner Charlie persuaded me to apply and made a video of me. My grandfather had been a famous comedian and my uncle is the actor Nicky Henson, so it’s sort of in my bones to perform. My dad did some TV presenting with Johnny Morris on Animal Magic too. But there I was getting my words wrong, getting slobbered on by a bull which kept disappearing to the back of the stable, and trying to hold a goat that was misbehaving.’
He got the job, only to find it wasn’t what he thought. ‘They said I’d got it, but then they’d discovered Ben Fogle instead as he’d come out of Castaway. So they decided they didn’t need the Ginger Farmer any more. I was offered an opportunity to present for one day with John Craven. Much as I love John, I didn’t want to spend a day doing that if I wasn’t going to get the job full time, as I still had a farm to run. I was gutted and really cross. But Dad said, “It’s pointless throwing your teddies out of the pram. Go along, enjoy the filming for a day. My advice is to carry the cameraman’s tripod, make friends with him, he’ll make you look better than you are.”’
It worked, and Adam, 52, soon became a regular presenter on the show. He admits it was John Craven who helped him find his feet. ‘I was just a two- bit farmer with no journalistic background, coming onto his patch. But John just took me under his wing, and if I was fumbling my words or getting it wrong he would help me out.’
Yet for a serious farmer, Adam’s undertaken some fairly frivolous escapades on Countryfile. ‘I had to train my chickens to race once by shaking a bag of wheat to get them to run from one end of the yard to another,’ he laughs. ‘And I had to enter the World Toe Wrestling Championship in Derbyshire. I was beaten by some big hairy tattooed man who I think had athlete’s foot.’
One of his least funny moments was dealing with the rogue oxen that nearly took John Craven out. ‘We had a pair of long- horn oxen and John was walking them down a rough track with me. One of them lurched to the side a bit and knocked him over. Thankfully the ox didn’t tread on him or it might have been fatal. I could have been responsible for the demise of John Craven!’
That of course would be unthinkable as John’s pretty much a national treasure now. And following in his footsteps is his co- presenter Matt Baker. Not only did he cut his teeth on Blue Peter, but he’s now the popular co- host of The One Show, although that means having to squeeze all his Countryfile filming into his one ‘free’ day on Friday. ‘It’s probably a bit annoying for the other presenters who often have to travel to join me wherever I’m filming if we’re presenting together,’ he admits.
But then Matt has always squeezed so much into every aspect of his life. He was also a young gymnast training for Olympic stardom until anaemia cut short his ambition. ‘I used to have a milk round as well,’ he says. ‘So I’d get up at 4am, do that, then go back and feed my calves. Then I’d do my gymnastics training before I went to school. I’d do it again at lunchtime and in the evening, then sort my animals out again.’
Matt was clearly born to present Countryfile, which he joined when it relaunched in 2009. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s just what makes me happy. I really relish a journey with a cattle trailer on the back of the car, as opposed to one without. You can only go 56mph, but you just sit there and it’s happy days. I absolutely love The One Show but I feel very at home on Countryfile.’
For all his TV popularity, Matt has no interest in the celebrity aspect of his job. He’s married to his childhood sweetheart Nicola, the mother of his two young children, living out in the hills with his sheep and other animals and has a total passion for the countryside and its issues. ‘I was so excited to join Country file when it changed to bring in a family audience. We were creating a family programme that was going to encourage people, if they didn’t live in the countryside, to go out and discover it. We had no idea it was going to be so huge.’
He may be a dab hand at gymnastics and farming, but he’s not com- pletely fearless. ‘ My most scary moments are always out at sea. The most frightened I’ve been was when I was off the east coast on a boat filming an underwater city and the weather turned. It was absolutely horrendous. We had to go way up the coast for about four hours to get back in because it was so bad. Everybody was terrified – even the skipper and his son, who was throwing up. Then there was the time I was left in the North Sea for a training exercise to be rescued by the local lifeboat service and even though you know they’re going to come and get you, you just have to sample that for five minutes to think, “This is terrifying, just terrible.”’
Some of his highlights, though, were the recent special episodes to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation, which explored her lifelong attachment to rural Britain and its animals and were filmed at the Queen’s homes, Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral. ‘I met Emma, a Fell pony who’s one of the Queen’s favourites. I mucked her stable out, which was a dream come true for me. I really felt that the Royal Family are custodians of our landscape, how protective they are of the countryside. It’s a passion shared with not just the rest of the presenters on Countryfile, but also all our viewers.’
Countryfile celebrates its 30th birthday in July, and is on BBC1 on Sundays at 7pm. Countryfile Live is at Blenheim Palace from 2-5 August.
‘My oxen once almost killed John Craven’
ADAM HENSON
‘We had no idea the show would be so huge’ MATT BAKER