THE FARMER’S VIEW
Farmer Jamie Blackett tests the programmes against the BBC’S original aim to “inform, educate and entertain”.
How informative are they?
It is striking how many viewers say they feel much better informed about farming after watching Clarkson’s show. And James Rebanks’s disparaging comments about Countryfile
have had resonance because they chime with rustic opinion about the BBC’S coverage of the countryside. Perhaps the Amazon Prime programme has connected with viewers more successfully because Clarkson, a highly professional journalist who cut his teeth on local newspapers before he hit the big time with Top Gear,
starts with the premise that he needs to show what he thinks viewers will find interesting rather than what he thinks they should be told.
The BBC’S public service broadcasting ethos, honed during the “dig for Britain” command economy phase of history and during various crises since, puts it at a disadvantage here as, like The Archers’ plodding agricultural story editor, it feels duty-bound to provide information that it believes should be in the public domain.
But there is also a gritty honesty and spontaneity to Clarkson’s Farm that is missing from
Countryfile. The Heythrop Hunt are shown meeting in his fields, with a subversive aside from Clarkson about the absurdity of them being unable, legally, to do anything about the fox raiding his chicken run. This important cultural aspect of rural life – especially in Rebanks’s Cumbria – would have been airbrushed out of
Countryfile.
The programme is also more informative because it shows a farmer’s eye view rather than a rambler’s view of agriculture. The innately urban preconception of farming apparently ingrained in BBC producers assumes that farmers are there as state controlled kulaks to “curate” the countryside for the benefit of the public.
Clarkson puts the public in his shoes as he grows food, even to the extent of showing them his farm accounts, which show how meagre farming incomes are, even with subsidies.
What is their educational ethos?
Once again the BBC is tripped up by its ethos. It sees its role as nudging farmers towards something called “best practice” and guiding public opinion in a politically correct direction. Last week, we had an example of what I would say is political bias when BBC presenter (he would argue he is a freelance contractor) Chris Packham recorded an online video for “National Badger Day”, an event promoted by the Badger Trust, in which he says: “We didn’t ought to be culling them.”
Countryfile is generally more careful to be balanced but the subtle messaging is there, and the Countryfile
calendar is invariably headlined by a cuddly badger. In fact, it deploys balance to devastating effect, sliding in antifarming messages about methane from cows alongside pieces about beef farming.
Where Clarkson’s Farm
wins is by its “show don’t tell” ethos, tapping into our natural instinct to learn for ourselves rather than be lectured to. Clarkson is modest about his role. He tells me he is, “not a proper farmer so why should people listen to any agenda I might have. I just show things as they are and the system.”
More widely, the BBC is failing to educate the public about the regenerative farming revolution. Netflix’s Kiss the Ground (do watch), asks whether modern farming has the solution for reversing climate change through better soil management, which includes intensive grazing by cattle. Pioneering farmer-ecologists Allan Savory and Gabe Brown are given a platform they would be denied on the BBC because they don’t fit with its narrative.
Which is the most entertaining?
There is no contest here. Countryfile uses all the resources at the BBC’S disposal to show us the British countryside in all its glory through the seasons with excellent journalism, attractive presenters and stunning photography. But for sheer watch-ability Clarkson’s humorous-yet-serious take on farming was always going to win hands down.