0:00:02 > 0:00:06About five years ago, something strange happened.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Television fell in love with the British countryside,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11its people and its animals.
0:00:11 > 0:00:17We are now in the midst of an all-pervading television world,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20where every time you turn something on, it's some
0:00:20 > 0:00:22creature giving birth, rather messily.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24There it is!
0:00:24 > 0:00:27'The countryside has moved from the niche to the mainstream.'
0:00:27 > 0:00:32People are beginning to view the countryside in a different way.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36It's television that's done it. I don't think there's any doubt at all.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40The programmes have proliferated - more and more and more and more.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46So what lies behind this agricultural love-in?
0:00:46 > 0:00:50What made the metropolitan media embrace the rural idyll?
0:00:50 > 0:00:57The heart of Britain does not reside in the countryside. It's an idea we ought to disabuse ourselves of.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Is this the real thing? Or will it all end in tears?
0:01:01 > 0:01:04I don't feel that television understands the countryside
0:01:04 > 0:01:07or, I think, makes much effort to understand the countryside.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Tonight, we salute the heroes of welly telly...
0:01:10 > 0:01:14Jack Hargreaves was one of the iconographic country characters.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17We relive some landmark shows...
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I remember watching One Man And His Dog,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23thinking, "Is this actually for real?"
0:01:23 > 0:01:27..as we tell the story of the British countryside on television.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30MOO
0:01:30 > 0:01:36# I see trees that are green... #
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Say what you like about the British countryside,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42but a lot of people on television like it - a lot.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44What a wonderful place the British countryside is.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48I've been to more than 80 countries and I think the British countryside
0:01:48 > 0:01:50is the best place on Earth.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58There's something inherently British about hedgerows and oak trees,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02big swathes of green fields and meadows and butterflies.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Lately, we've been inundated with shows about shores,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09sheep and sheer drops...
0:02:09 > 0:02:10Wow!
0:02:10 > 0:02:15..as if television's been trying to answer a question of its own devising.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19Is it more than just a feeling, or is there something truly special
0:02:19 > 0:02:22about our countryside and our wildlife?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25What makes the British countryside special?
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Everything is there for a reason.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31You may not understand what the reason is.
0:02:31 > 0:02:37The hedgerows were there because they kept stock in one place.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Barns fulfilled a function. Little bridges were built for a reason.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46Everything is there for a reason. It is just accidentally glorious.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49I suppose what's so special about it
0:02:49 > 0:02:53is that it is in such close proximity to all the towns.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56MUSIC: "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks
0:02:56 > 0:02:58It wasn't always this way.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03Town and country may be close, but at times they seem worlds apart.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05In the early days of television,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09the countryside didn't get much of a look in.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Since the Second World War, the work needed to be done with inner cities.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20The countryside was more or less left to its own devices in the 1950s
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and the 1960s.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26It never really, you know, never really broke the meniscus.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30The heroes of '60s telly were almost all urban,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33and so was the spirit of the times.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41The '60s, in the first half, is the apogee of white heat,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43of the technological revolution.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister appealing to suburban voters,
0:03:48 > 0:03:53promising to build this new Britain, scientific and dynamic.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58In that Britain, the countryside almost disappears from view.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02In terms of art and fashion and music, it's all urban.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05To be fair, there were practical difficulties.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10Television was still a young medium and didn't get out much.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12If you worked in television
0:04:12 > 0:04:16in the '50s and '60s, most of your work would have been in studios.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18There was very little location work.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Cameras were cumbersome. It was expensive to shoot on location.
0:04:22 > 0:04:28It was easier to have a studio show in which you held up photographs of the country!
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Hello. Do you hear that bird singing in the garden?
0:04:32 > 0:04:34BIRDSONG
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Well, here's a picture of it.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Yes, of course. It's a robin.
0:04:42 > 0:04:49When TV emerged from its urban habitat, it was often to take potshots at country pursuits.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52The great moment has almost arrived.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Still enjoying the protection of the law,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59the quarry picking at their last breakfast.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05In the ensuing moments, the principle of noblesse oblige will be gloriously vindicated.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Whatever your mamby-pamby queer pinko may say,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14they enjoy it every bit as much as we do.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19Farming was seen as unglamorous. Farmers weren't TV friendly.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Or even friendly at all.
0:05:22 > 0:05:28I freely admit, in my childhood days, it was the belligerent farmer that I knew.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30I used to potter around as a kid.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Inevitably, you find yourself on farmland.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37To a lot of farmers, that's trespassing.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39"Oi! Get off my land!"
0:05:39 > 0:05:45That was the way that I thought of nearly all farmers for a long time!
0:05:47 > 0:05:53Television tried bring farming into the mainstream, with mixed results.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59Welcome to the first round of our farming quiz, Top Of The Farm '69.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02'Ted Moult was an iconographic country character.'
0:06:02 > 0:06:06A gentleman farmer who was wheeled out. Very good value.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11Vic, how would you contract - I hope you never do - Weil's disease?
0:06:17 > 0:06:20'His farming quiz programme
0:06:20 > 0:06:24'was terribly scientific, almost like a sketch show now.'
0:06:24 > 0:06:28I th... I'm s...
0:06:28 > 0:06:33There's incredibly complicated questions about silage and tillage.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38A disease of cows, called teart, has been known for a long time.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42But what's the basic cause of the disease?
0:06:54 > 0:06:56BUZZER
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Parasitic bronchitis.
0:06:58 > 0:07:04'Fraid not, Vic. It's scouring caused by excessive micronutrients.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09# The city is a great big smoking monster
0:07:09 > 0:07:13# Man is its slave by night and day... #
0:07:13 > 0:07:17After years of neglect, television was about to embrace a myth
0:07:17 > 0:07:20that's as old as the hills - the rural idyll.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24We refer to ourselves as "a green and pleasant land".
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Brand Britain is actually a country brand.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30# Say what you will
0:07:30 > 0:07:33# The countryside is still
0:07:33 > 0:07:37# The only place where I could settle down
0:07:37 > 0:07:41# Troubles there are so much rarer
0:07:41 > 0:07:44# Out of town... #
0:07:44 > 0:07:48In America, it's small towns where the real America is,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50where you go to find America.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55In Britain, it would be the countryside. I don't know why that should be.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00For people trying to make a living from the countryside,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03it is far from idyllic a lot of the time.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08But for many of us, it is this idyll. It's an escape.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12With fresh air, with sunshine, with birdsong,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14rolling down hills in long grass!
0:08:14 > 0:08:21It took a technological revolution to transform television's relationship to the countryside.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24This is the BBC television service.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28We now present another experimental transmission in colour.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33'The countryside becomes important once television goes into colour.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35'There was very little point,'
0:08:35 > 0:08:41until the technology to transmit pictures of it that were attractive,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46and also when outside broadcasts became common in the mid '70s.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50When we first had colour, we used to sit in front of our screens
0:08:50 > 0:08:55and watch a piece of grass, there might have been a flower on it,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57in absolute amazement.
0:08:57 > 0:09:03It wasn't a show. It was just a picture of grass and a flower. We thought, "Isn't this wonderful?"
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Alongside the coming of colour came a cultural change.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14By the early '70s, it seemed we were falling out of love with the towns.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17As often in British history, the pendulum swings.
0:09:17 > 0:09:25You have the resurgence of the countryside - the romantic, organic hippy movement, back to the land.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30The return to communes, the self-sufficiency movement,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34and that is a violet reaction against the white-heat ethos
0:09:34 > 0:09:36of the early '60s.
0:09:36 > 0:09:43The turning point, I think, in our lifetimes, was 1973.
0:09:43 > 0:09:49It was the oil crisis that stopped this vision of the future.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Futurism actually hinged on oil.
0:09:53 > 0:09:59You needed oil to make plastic, and the big expression of that was The Good Life.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Tom in The Good Life, his job is to design plastic toys
0:10:08 > 0:10:11that are given away in cereal packets.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16A job that is somehow hugely suggestive of this debased, tawdry
0:10:16 > 0:10:19world of advertising and modernity.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25It wouldn't be any better if I was designing something useful. I'd still be a cog in a machine.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28It's quality of life, that's what I'm after.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31If I could just get it right.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34A couple drop out of the rat race
0:10:34 > 0:10:37and decide to be self-sufficient in Surbiton,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41much to the chagrin of their neighbours, a very snooty couple.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51If one of you so much as sniggers, I'm going straight back indoors.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54'Gradually, the neighbours, because they're friends,
0:10:54 > 0:10:59'they muck in, and the clash at the beginning soon becomes'
0:10:59 > 0:11:03the four of them working against all other forms of system.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Weak and feeble, am I?
0:11:13 > 0:11:19The '70s were a very regressive period where the country became more important.
0:11:19 > 0:11:25I hereby declare our first harvest well and truly gathered.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29'In popular culture terms,'
0:11:29 > 0:11:33that was when you've got Tom and Barbara and, more or less, overnight,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38the look shifted from Bridget Riley and Op Art into Laura Ashley
0:11:38 > 0:11:40'and kind of "hedgerow art".
0:11:40 > 0:11:43'Suddenly, we turned the clock back.'
0:11:43 > 0:11:50That's not a remote thought. I think we went through the same thing about 18 months ago.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55By the mid '70s, the countryside was in every living room,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00complete with countryside characters to show us around.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04For someone my age, the greatest countryside icon was Jack Hargreaves
0:12:04 > 0:12:08who had a number of programmes, most notably Out Of Town.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Each week, he'd look at old crafts, like whittling,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14or he'd go for a ramble with his dog.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18He had a very amiable slow delivery about him.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25If you were a collector of agricultural antiques
0:12:25 > 0:12:30you'd tell me that was a billhook as I've done a billhook's job with it,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33chopping wood, but you'd be wrong.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37You'd have an excuse, though, because it's quite like a billhook.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39There are many kinds of billhooks...
0:12:39 > 0:12:41'That went on for years.'
0:12:41 > 0:12:46The implication was that, if you went out in the countryside,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50there was lots of things you could do, from fishing to ferreting.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55He was easy to spoof. Even of its time, it seemed that
0:12:55 > 0:13:00it had passed its prime, but there was something watchable about it.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Alone for the first time in his life,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08he is walking up to meet something he has no knowledge of.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13There's about 25 experienced women interested in him.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17It's like turning a schoolboy loose backstage at the Folies Bergere.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21He has absolutely no idea of what he's for
0:13:21 > 0:13:23or what they want.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29It's going to be an extraordinary 24 hours while he finds out.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33If television had gone on making those programmes
0:13:33 > 0:13:37there wouldn't be this huge divide between town and country.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42I think what happened is, with no real portrayal of the countryside,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45people in towns have grown up knowing nothing about it.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48MUSIC: Theme to "One Man And His Dog"
0:13:48 > 0:13:51To the connoisseur of welly telly,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54One Man was outstanding in its field.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59This is Buttermere, one of the most lovely spots in the Lake District.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03It's the ideal place for watching sheepdogs work.
0:14:03 > 0:14:10In a green field below me, they're going to start a series of trials specially organised for television.
0:14:10 > 0:14:16I remember watching One Man And His Dog and thinking, "Is this actually for real?"
0:14:16 > 0:14:21"Is this a really long skit that's going to have a punchline in it?"
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Now, that is shedding! That is like slicing it off!
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Then I realised, "This is actually a television programme."
0:14:31 > 0:14:36It just seemed amazing, watching sheep being rounded up by a dog.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39Ten out of ten for the shed.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43That maximum puts Raymond one and a half points in the lead.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46He's got to be on his toes here, Phil.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Look at it! Streaming in!
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Oh, yes!
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Yes! Ten out of ten!
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Its presenter had a reputation as "the baddest man in the Dales".
0:14:59 > 0:15:04There's a whistle for "go to the right", one for "go to the left",
0:15:04 > 0:15:07one to "come on", to follow on up to the sheep,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11and one to "stay", and this is how its done.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13WHISTLES
0:15:13 > 0:15:18'When Phil Drabble was doing it, it was a brilliant programme.'
0:15:18 > 0:15:24He brought total authenticity to it. People in the countryside listened to what he had to say.
0:15:31 > 0:15:32And I was in
0:15:32 > 0:15:36London for three years - the worst three of my life.
0:15:36 > 0:15:37I just didn't laugh
0:15:37 > 0:15:42at the same things as these sharp Cockneys. I don't think fast enough for them.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51Phil Drabble was the real thing. I think that's why people loved it.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Along with the new love of the countryside,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03came a fascination with those who lived there and new ways of telling their stories.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05CHURCH BELLS RING
0:16:05 > 0:16:09There's been lots of films about the country.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12One is Peter Hall and Rex Pike's groundbreaking Ackenfield,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15which looks at the life of a Suffolk village,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19but has the villagers playing their own ancestors.
0:16:21 > 0:16:29Ackenfield is about living in Suffolk and working on a farm.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Of course, an author could write a screenplay.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38We could shoot that screenplay with actors imitating Suffolk dialect
0:16:38 > 0:16:44and learning to shear a sheep or plough a field or drive a tractor,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46or whatever the agricultural skills may be.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50The one thing I was clear about, it was no good doing it.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53It's one of the first lavish colour films
0:16:53 > 0:16:56that gave the countryside its due.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Beautifully done. They were there for months filming.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02'Low Birk Hatt Farm in Baldersdale.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09'It's been Hannah Hauxwell's home since she was three years old.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12'Today, she farms its 80 acres alone.'
0:17:15 > 0:17:20TV's new obsession led to some memorable films of the '70s.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31It's all right, thank you.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Hannah Hauxwell's an interesting character.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40She lived a very sequestered life
0:17:40 > 0:17:42in this remote rural area.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46'In the house, there's no electricity, no water on tap.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49'When she wants a cup of tea,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53'she goes to the stream in the field where the cattle graze.'
0:17:53 > 0:17:57What television did, after documenting that life,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02celebrating its separateness from the urban 20th century,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07it proceeded to send her out across the world, having experiences,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11the very experiences that it valued her for not having had.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15What did you notice when you came to the city, about the difference
0:18:15 > 0:18:18between there and life in the country?
0:18:18 > 0:18:22I think, maybe, of course, the traffic and the noise.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27And I think, the little that I've been out in the town,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32people rush about and they don't look at you....
0:18:32 > 0:18:35'What's interesting is that it seems to replicate'
0:18:35 > 0:18:40the kinds of anthropological movements, experiments really,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44conducted on indigenous peoples in the 19th century.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49If TV didn't know what to make of country people, it could make fun of them.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Noble savage wasn't the only stock character.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58The classic stereotype is the yokel. It's deeply rooted in English culture.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01You go all the way back to Shakespeare.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06In Henry IV, part II, they stop on the way to the Battle of Shrewsbury
0:19:06 > 0:19:08and meet all these rural yokels.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13Falstaff finds them hilarious, because they're so adrift.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18That is exactly what you get in 20th-century sit-coms.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21They buried Jack yesterday, in Shropshire.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24- What part?- All of him.
0:19:24 > 0:19:32These guys have a sort of home-spun wisdom that belies the fact that you think they're just dense.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36They're probably brighter than you are and that's part of the joke.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40'Ere's one. Think of a number between one and three.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42- Oh, I can't do that.- Why?
0:19:42 > 0:19:45I shall 'ave me dinner between one and three.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57Once situation comedies actually started to be made on location,
0:19:57 > 0:20:04then much is made of the location, probably no more so than Last Of The Summer Wine,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07which is set in the wild open spaces.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11'The camera lovingly picks out the tiny characters.'
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I used to come here and ponder the meaning of life.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18- I used to come up here for rabbits. - Given up girls?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Ee, I've had more lasses than you've had handbags.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24It's moments like this that make you realise
0:20:24 > 0:20:27just how bloody draughty it is!
0:20:27 > 0:20:31'The point about these three was to be
0:20:31 > 0:20:34'that they were just like young people.'
0:20:34 > 0:20:39Getting their childhood back, being fancy-free, days to fill.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42And when that clicked, that was it.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46I've never written old men, always kids.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50For nearly four decades, it was the show that wouldn't die.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52How do you know when you're dead?
0:20:52 > 0:20:56- You're expected to take the hint when they bury you.- No.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58When you think about it,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01there's a lot to being dead. It's not summat any fool can do.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Else why are there so many still alive?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07'It's an interesting phenomenon.'
0:21:07 > 0:21:12It ran for ever and it was, essentially, rural.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14It was extremely rural.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17It was almost embarrassingly rural.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Its main character held his trousers up with sash cord.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27It went through the Thatcher years, through the 1990s, Cool Britannia. It was always there.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32If there is an 'eaven, do you reckon you can take your ferrets?
0:21:32 > 0:21:35'Summer Wine lasted because it stayed the same.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37'It's its own barmy universe'
0:21:37 > 0:21:41without any reference to the real world.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45'What it looks back to is this "vanished England"
0:21:45 > 0:21:47'of tea shops and old folk.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'All these other shows have come and gone.'
0:21:50 > 0:21:53That still appeals to people.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Probably, that was less about country and more about nostalgia.
0:21:57 > 0:22:03Even down to the music, it was about a gentler, simpler time.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08By the late '70s, the link between the countryside and the past
0:22:08 > 0:22:13was well established and would give TV some of its best-loved series.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16One that really made an impression on me
0:22:16 > 0:22:19was All Creatures Great And Small - I loved it!
0:22:19 > 0:22:22My wife and I looked forward to watching it together.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26When we were thinking, "Where shall we move?"
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Yorkshire Dales was a part I wanted to see and we moved there.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34The experience of living there was true to watching it on TV.
0:22:34 > 0:22:3840, 50 years difference in time, but it was very much,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40in terms of the spirit and look,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44it was what All Creatures Great And Small presented.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47I'm sorry, Mr Hanshaw. This cow has a broken pelvis.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Damaged nerve endings, as well, I shouldn't wonder.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53'I loved All Creatures Great And Small.'
0:22:53 > 0:22:58That was the reality of things as it was for a Yorkshire vet
0:22:58 > 0:23:00in very tough farming conditions.
0:23:00 > 0:23:06They don't make programmes like that now. The most you get is Midsomer Murders!
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Get her to the butcher's as quickly as possible.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12'It is a sort of blueprint.'
0:23:12 > 0:23:18It was easy to say, "Let's put the police in the country." "Let's put a doctor in the country."
0:23:18 > 0:23:21'"Let's put a detective in the country."'
0:23:21 > 0:23:27So, TV had found a place in its heart for the countryside - Sunday night.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31What people want on a Sunday night, is a family audience
0:23:31 > 0:23:35that wants to luxuriate in a warm bath of schmaltz
0:23:35 > 0:23:39before they get up again and begin their working week.
0:23:39 > 0:23:45'Television has always given them, on Sunday nights, programmes that are often nostalgic and always rural.'
0:23:45 > 0:23:50A programme set in Salford would never have the same effect.
0:23:50 > 0:23:57- How was your journey from London? - Long. The countryside is beautiful.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01If rural dramas delivered big audiences at peak time,
0:24:01 > 0:24:07the realities of country life were less appealing, put out to grass on children's television.
0:24:07 > 0:24:14In 1977, a BBC film crew arrived at the farm to film a dramatisation
0:24:14 > 0:24:16of a children's story called A Traveller In Time.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21The farm was buzzing with cameramen, technicians, actors.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26It hit me. This is the world I would love to be involved in.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30119,000!
0:24:30 > 0:24:34That is the colossal total of leaflets we've sent to people
0:24:34 > 0:24:36wanting our Blue Peter sledge...
0:24:36 > 0:24:37'It's the best job'
0:24:37 > 0:24:39in broadcasting, being a Blue Peter presenter.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42What a beautiful pair of knockers.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47It was like Hollywood, the BBC, having come down from Derbyshire.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51With all this snow, you can imagine what it's like in the Antarctic.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Some of the heaviest falls have been where my father's farm is.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Having emerged from the countryside Simon was sent back
0:24:59 > 0:25:04to teach a generation of city kids that milk didn't start in bottles.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08Biddy, the editor, realised there was a rich source of material.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12We would come and film during the seasons.
0:25:12 > 0:25:19Blue Peter had never done anything like that before. We filmed lambing, shearing, milking cows.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27In 1984, one of the last old-fashioned severe winters,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Janet Ellis came up to film and it was a charming film.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Wherever you pointed the camera, it looked wonderful.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Then Janet asked me about this harness attached to the ram.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42It's called a ram harness.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47There's a marker in there, so when he serves the sheep
0:25:47 > 0:25:52it leaves a mark so you can tell whether the sheep are pregnant.
0:25:52 > 0:25:58Janet says, "They should do that at the BBC!" People with marks on their backs!
0:25:58 > 0:26:04There was a slightly patronising attitude towards the countryside.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Don't remember any programmes. There was a farming programme on Sunday.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13It was just farming, nothing to do with countryside issues.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Just for farmers. Not exciting.
0:26:16 > 0:26:22When the programme was replaced by a show aimed equally at townies, there'd be trouble.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27Now we begin a new series aimed at all who enjoy the outdoor life -
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Countryfile.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35We were the first rural current affairs programme in Britain,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37if not in Europe.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39I met a lot of resistance at first
0:26:39 > 0:26:44from farmers and other people in the agricultural business.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48They resented the fact that they'd lost their programme
0:26:48 > 0:26:51which had been going for a quarter of a century,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56incorporated into this new thing looking at all sorts of aspects of country life.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00First, here's the latest news from the countryside.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05Eventually, they came to see our point of view.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11It was much more important for farmers to address the wider nation
0:27:11 > 0:27:14than just their fellow farmers.
0:27:16 > 0:27:23For 20 years, Countryfile enjoyed the kind of cult audience that only a daytime slot can give you.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28When I was on Newsround, I was aware that it was becoming an institution.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32To my surprise, exactly the same thing happened with Countryfile.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35We heard about students watching it
0:27:35 > 0:27:39recovering from a heavy Saturday night.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Countryfile eased them back into reality.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46Hello. Welcome to Countryfile.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Tonight, we'll be walking,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53and fishing on the river, but first, here's Whisky and Brandy Bolland,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56who found something rather unusual
0:27:56 > 0:27:59AS A DALEK: ..down on the farm.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Countryfile was becoming a voice in the wilderness.
0:28:02 > 0:28:09The heroes of '80s telly were almost all urban, and so was the spirit of the times.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11The Good Life effect was wearing off.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14No! No! No!
0:28:14 > 0:28:17We're not watching The bleeding Good Life!
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Bloody! Bloody! Bloody!
0:28:19 > 0:28:23The rural idyll is really, really interesting.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26It comes in and out of fashion.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28You were seduced by Tom and Barbara
0:28:28 > 0:28:32so you thought, "I'm going to give that a go."
0:28:32 > 0:28:34So you buy John Seymour's book
0:28:34 > 0:28:38and suddenly realise that, unlike Tom and Barbara,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40you would be killing your livestock.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43But there were darker forces at play.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47As the '80s gave way to the '90s, farming was plagued by diseases
0:28:47 > 0:28:50you seldom saw on All Creatures Great And Small.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52I joined in 1989.
0:28:52 > 0:29:00My arrival seemed to coincide with the start of a series of animal health crises, starting with BSE.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05Then salmonella, lysteria, bovine TB and, of course,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07the disaster of foot and mouth in 2001.
0:29:07 > 0:29:14BSE and foot and mouth caused untold hardship and left the countryside once again looking unsexy.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19In 2001, I was asked to make a programme called Town And Country.
0:29:19 > 0:29:26It was the time of the foot and mouth crisis, looking at the gaps between town and country.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31I spoke to a taxi driver, interviewed him in the cab, and he said,
0:29:31 > 0:29:37"I'm not really interested in the fact that you've got foot and mouth. It's not an issue for me."
0:29:37 > 0:29:42There was this perception that there was the town, here was the country
0:29:42 > 0:29:47and there was not much interest or knowledge of farmer's problems.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49It wasn't just about disease.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54There was a growing ideological divide between town and country.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57There's always been a political edge.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01The countryside has been Conservative, with a big C.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04The shires have tended to vote Conservative,
0:30:04 > 0:30:09whereas big towns, just look at an electoral map, from almost any period in our history,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12the cities and towns tend to be red and the countryside blue.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17What you got in the 1990s, when Labour were in power from '97,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19with big majorities, was a lot of people in the countryside
0:30:19 > 0:30:23felt their interests weren't being listened to.
0:30:23 > 0:30:28That's why you had the emergence of the Countryside Alliance.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33With the rise of the Alliance, it seemed town and country had never been further apart.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35The Countryside Alliance, not really a political
0:30:35 > 0:30:39movement, just the whingeing sound that the right makes
0:30:39 > 0:30:40when it's out of power.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45The frustration that Labour had the temerity to be in power for a decade.
0:30:45 > 0:30:51I went on all the marches, the two London marches, the Hyde Park rally.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54It was the voice of the countryside.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57The battle lines were drawn up over fox hunting.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02You don't have to live somewhere to know the facts, if there's cruelty,
0:31:02 > 0:31:08cruel sports going on, if there's ruining of woodlands and so forth.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13It wasn't just fox hunting. The countryside felt very strongly
0:31:13 > 0:31:15that they were completely disenfranchised and that
0:31:15 > 0:31:18the Government was not supporting farmers or the countryside, generally.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Tony Blair wanted to turn the countryside into a theme park.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26These were dark days for welly telly.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Out Of Town had long since passed into broadcasting history
0:31:29 > 0:31:34and although One Man made it, things were never quite the same.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40I very much enjoyed my custodianship of it.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44As the years went by, I presented it for five years,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48increasingly it became more like Jeux Sans Frontiers
0:31:48 > 0:31:52and less like sheepdog trialling, and I walked away from it.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57When the countryside did return to our screens, what we got
0:31:57 > 0:32:00was something a lot less cosy.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05- Would you like me to take you to the country?- Yes, please!
0:32:05 > 0:32:07'I've always been convinced'
0:32:07 > 0:32:12that television is largely a metropolitan-based industry.
0:32:12 > 0:32:19With Clarissa And The Countryman, we both felt, because Johnny's been a sheep farmer for years and years,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23that the actual country itself was not being portrayed.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Starring Clarissa and Johnny Scott, complete with culling and coursing,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34here was the countryside, red in tooth and claw.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37The show didn't pull back from the townies' taboo - dead animals.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43'I remember filming at the Highland Show one year.'
0:32:43 > 0:32:45I wanted to film the carcass room.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50The carcass display is magnificent, one of the finest I've ever seen.
0:32:50 > 0:32:56They wouldn't film it. I said, "Why not?" They said, "They're dead."
0:32:56 > 0:33:03I said, "Why do you think there are all these magnificent animals parading in the ring?
0:33:03 > 0:33:06"What do you think they're for? They're not pets."
0:33:06 > 0:33:11This was, I think, the first time that I became aware
0:33:11 > 0:33:15quite how...estranged
0:33:15 > 0:33:19television was from the reality of death and the reality of food.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24The show attracted lots of viewers, but divided opinion.
0:33:24 > 0:33:31'Clarissa Dickson Wright is sort of the embodiment of every Telegraph reader's fantasy
0:33:31 > 0:33:35'about what women of the British countryside used to be.
0:33:35 > 0:33:41'She's like Britannia, somehow, this figure of utter reliability'
0:33:41 > 0:33:46and stoicism and intolerance and rudeness
0:33:46 > 0:33:50and other qualities that we admire, for some reason, in this country.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53CROWD CHEER: Go on! Go on! Yes!
0:33:53 > 0:33:57ALL CHEER ON
0:33:57 > 0:34:02The fluffy bunny brigade within the BBC didn't like the programme much.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05We were talking about filming the Waterloo Cup.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08They were all edgy about the Waterloo Cup.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12Then Johnny said, "A lot of Pakistanis go to the Waterloo Cup."
0:34:12 > 0:34:17'Which they do. Coursing is a major sport in Pakistan.'
0:34:17 > 0:34:21They said, "Ethnics! Televisual!" Then wanted to film it.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24- Here they are! - Tolerant voice of reason(!)
0:34:24 > 0:34:28'There are always protestors at the Waterloo Cup.
0:34:28 > 0:34:35'There was a wonderful moment when they were shouting, "One dead fat lady. One to go!"'
0:34:37 > 0:34:40The BBC was going, "That's dreadful!"
0:34:40 > 0:34:44I was saying, "Film it! Show what sort of people they are."
0:34:44 > 0:34:47< I love that. "Animals now. Children next."
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I think the programme was decommissioned, not because it had run its course,
0:34:53 > 0:34:59but because the antis, the people who are opposed to field sports,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02protested up to the Governors,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06and, in the end, the BBC lost its nerve and pulled it.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Some of it got quite nasty.
0:35:09 > 0:35:15I mean, I got a lot of death threats. So did Johnny.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19I have a Special Branch officer on the other end of a telephone still.
0:35:19 > 0:35:25If the country wasn't keen on the town, the town had serious issues with the countryside,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29summed up in the Simon Nye comedy, How Do You Want Me?
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Dylan Moran's wife comes from the countryside.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38He finds himself "marooned" from his comedy club in London that he ran.
0:35:38 > 0:35:39Oh, hello.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42How are you? Hi. How are you guys?
0:35:45 > 0:35:51I wanted to shine a loving light and it turned out much darker than I thought it was going to.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56Could I have a pint of your most amusingly-named local bitter please?
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The random violence surprises him.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06You associate that with London, with urban angst.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Actually, there's rural angst as well and he runs into that in a big way.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16It's a very interesting show because it taps into
0:36:16 > 0:36:21what some townies might find that darker side of the countryside,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24when some characters seem a little unhinged.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28You live in our village. You live by our village rules.
0:36:28 > 0:36:34This is not the country of Countryfile. This is the country of The Wicker Man!
0:36:34 > 0:36:38How can I respect anyone who keeps turkeys
0:36:38 > 0:36:42in an anti-turkey environment and tells them lies
0:36:42 > 0:36:44about seeing the New Year?
0:36:45 > 0:36:48He takes the view, "I'll see it through.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53"It's like a code and I'll crack the code." But he doesn't crack it.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58That seemed to go all right.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03The idea of a darker countryside is very convenient for town dwellers.
0:37:03 > 0:37:09The idea that it's to be feared, stick to the paths, people are burnt in wicker men,
0:37:09 > 0:37:14all of that really plays into the civilised psyche.
0:37:14 > 0:37:20The thing which cityfolk notice is that night is really dark.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26There's no light. You need a torch. It's never like that in London.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30That means that shadows take on different meanings.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33The trees move in a weird way.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37The town-dweller's fear of the countryside was nothing new.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40It had been there since the start of TV.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44Look at John Bowen's marvellous Robin Redbreast.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48A woman goes to the country and is immediately,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52sinisterly obsessed by what's going on around her.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54The villagers seem other-worldly.
0:37:57 > 0:38:05Nothing's shown. Things around the village could be normal but, through her eyes, take on sinister import.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07CLATTERING
0:38:07 > 0:38:10'The idea that the countryside is going to
0:38:10 > 0:38:14rip you up like some Grimm's fairy tale
0:38:14 > 0:38:17is a very convenient way of justifying to yourself
0:38:17 > 0:38:19"That's why I don't go there."
0:38:19 > 0:38:23You farmers, you don't like outsiders, do you?
0:38:23 > 0:38:28- Like to stick to your own. - What do you mean by that?
0:38:28 > 0:38:30I've seen big-eared boys on farms.
0:38:30 > 0:38:36- For goodness' sake! - You see a field with a family having a picnic and there's a nice pond.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40You fill in the pond, plough the family into the field,
0:38:40 > 0:38:47blow up the tree and use the leaves to make a dress for your wife who is also your brother.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57This was the nadir of welly telly.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02Yet, within a few short years, the countryside would be rediscovered
0:39:02 > 0:39:06and repackaged to delight an urban audience.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09If you'd sat broadcasters down ten years ago
0:39:09 > 0:39:13and told them what's happening now they would be dumbfounded.
0:39:13 > 0:39:20Because we were still in the middle of a concrete-obsessed culture.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23The turning point was Coast.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31The white cliffs of Dover.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Starting point for an epic journey
0:39:34 > 0:39:39round one of the most complex and fascinating coastlines in the world.
0:39:39 > 0:39:40Our own.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45'Coast was such a huge iconic series.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51'This was actually a very big celebration of what I think'
0:39:51 > 0:39:55is our national logo, that thing that is shaped like that.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Instantly recognisable. We're very proud of it.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02When you do that, you always colour it in green.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06Coast seemed to open the flood gates.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11The rural idyll was back in its purest TV distillation.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14Once they find out people want to watch this,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17then they'll find other ways to exploit it.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Television's always done that. This is no different.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24This is mountain country that can be appreciated by anyone,
0:40:24 > 0:40:28as Wordsworth wrote, "Who has an eye to perceive
0:40:28 > 0:40:30"and a heart to enjoy."
0:40:30 > 0:40:35We'll see great lakes and lochs,
0:40:35 > 0:40:39climb rocky peaks and mountains...
0:40:43 > 0:40:47..and travel through gentle landscapes, too.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50This was a golden age for composers
0:40:50 > 0:40:54and colourists and whoever it is that speeds up clouds.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Once again, technology helped drive the revolution.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03The countryside is very present in TV because of high definition.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06The Cotswolds don't have to get their teeth fixed,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09like newsreaders and gameshow presenters.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The Sussex Downs are not having Botox.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14It's in HD.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19It's in 3-D, in some cases, in widescreen and so on.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22The visual experience is so extraordinary.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27The beautiful lavish shots you get, you can almost smell the countryside
0:41:27 > 0:41:29wafting off the TV.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36The great thing was, you didn't even have to go there.
0:41:36 > 0:41:42There is a temptation to stay in your armchair, not get wet and cold
0:41:42 > 0:41:44and have somebody tell you what you're looking at.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47It's become soft porn.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52The countryside has become a top-shelf pursuit
0:41:52 > 0:41:55for a largely urban television audience.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00They're not going to consummate a relationship with the countryside
0:42:00 > 0:42:04but they don't mind having a...furtive little firtle.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10If the countryside was sexy, so too were the people who worked there.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16Farmland isn't just part of the British countryside,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18it IS the British countryside.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23For the first time in television history, farming was fashionable.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Jimmy Doherty's had a bright idea.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35- He's chucked in academic life... - They're just specimens in a case.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37..to start a pig farm.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43I'll never face anything like this again in my life.
0:42:43 > 0:42:49'What people like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Jimmy Doherty have done'
0:42:49 > 0:42:52is make the idea of how food's produced
0:42:52 > 0:42:55very approachable, very understandable.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58They can get all their natural foods now,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03which is the whole point of me having pigs in the open.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05Naturally reared.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10'You could argue that they appeal to a largely middle-class audience
0:43:10 > 0:43:14'that may have the money to then go out only buy organic,'
0:43:14 > 0:43:17but they ARE making people think.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21One effect of television's new take on the countryside
0:43:21 > 0:43:25was the extraordinary renaissance of Countryfile.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29We ploughed a lone furrow on daytime television.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Then suddenly, it seemed to take off.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Urban television makers discovered
0:43:34 > 0:43:39there were things happening outside towns and cities.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41We've all benefited from that.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46Countryfile now at prime time is getting six or seven million people
0:43:46 > 0:43:51every Sunday evening, wanting to see what's happening in the countryside.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55Soon, it wouldn't be enough to report on the countryside.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58You had to immerse yourself in it.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02Back home in Bristol, my dream of escaping to the West Coast
0:44:02 > 0:44:04looked exactly like this.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07It feels like I've left the city behind.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12There'd been a sea change in TV's attitude to the countryside and everyone was swept along,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15apart from one or two people in the country...
0:44:15 > 0:44:19The current crop of shows are aimed entirely at people in the towns.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23I don't think people in the countryside watch them.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26..and one or two people in the town.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29I'm not excited by the countryside on television.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32The idea that you can make a picture of Britain
0:44:32 > 0:44:37by driving around Britain's bumpy bits in a 4x4,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39is I think a preposterous idea.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43The heart of Britain does not reside in the countryside.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47So, my next goal is getting some livestock.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49I need pigs for bacon, hens for eggs
0:44:49 > 0:44:53and, of course, a vegetable patch for my own chives.
0:44:53 > 0:44:58Shows like Beachcomber Cottage gave us the real-life Good Life.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02This time, it wasn't playing for laughs.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06The countryside on television at the moment is very documentary based.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Now, Lenin, don't be silly.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13'What we don't have is what we had in the '70s,
0:45:13 > 0:45:19'which is countryside based sit-coms or children's programmes.'
0:45:19 > 0:45:26At the moment, we don't want countryside, the fiction. We quite like countryside, the fact.
0:45:26 > 0:45:27That's a really recent explosion.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32Of course, TV still had a place for countryside drama.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34Good lord!
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Big Eric!
0:45:36 > 0:45:40And that place was still Sunday night.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Based on the Compton Mackenzie novels,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50it was brought into today's world, except we looked as if
0:45:50 > 0:45:52we were still living in the '50s.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Everybody hankers after this beautiful life in the country
0:45:56 > 0:46:01with magnificent scenery. The scenery was the star of the show.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08With old-fashioned feel and lovely views, Monarch Of The Glen continued
0:46:08 > 0:46:11the tradition All Creatures had begun.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14One day, I was getting on the train
0:46:14 > 0:46:20to go up to the Highlands and a lady said, "Oh, I love your show!"
0:46:20 > 0:46:25I said, "Yes, it's so humorous and the scenery's fantastic."
0:46:25 > 0:46:29She said, "We turn off the sound and look at the pictures."
0:46:29 > 0:46:34You learn all your words and they just want to see the pictures!
0:46:34 > 0:46:39Thanks to television, everyone now wanted to move to the country.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Thanks to television, they could.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45'On Escape To The Country, I'm househunting on the Cornish coast,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49'with a group of London friends hoping to surf their way to success.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54It's got such a nice feel. Look at that view! Fantastic!
0:46:54 > 0:46:59- If you woke up to that.. - You'd never want to go to London.
0:46:59 > 0:47:04The view and the feel about the place is just fantastic.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Not only was TV encouraging real people to escape to the country,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12but real TV presenters were leading by example.
0:47:12 > 0:47:18Simon Groom returned to work his father's farm, bringing Goldie.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20She's gone. He ploughs on.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Years ago, it wasn't cool to live in the countryside.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29You've now got Elizabeth Hurley, rock stars. It is quite fashionable.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32I wonder if there might be something spiritual.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36I don't believe we were designed to sit at computers.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40People find it's fun to get your hands dirty.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46When we moved to the Cotswolds, there was a lot of that,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50"But you're going to get your Jimmy Choos muddy."
0:47:50 > 0:47:55"The farmers are going to shoot you because you've got big floppy cuffs."
0:47:55 > 0:48:01I would say the countryside is extraordinarily friendly.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05I don't know, statistically,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09whether there are more people getting into the countryside.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11The answer must be that there are.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Whether that's good depends how they behave.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18This week on Countryfile, we've come to this Welsh mountain
0:48:18 > 0:48:22partly because of the rural environment and the ecosystem,
0:48:22 > 0:48:26but mainly because this is the last place in Britain
0:48:26 > 0:48:30that hasn't been covered by that BLEEP Bill Oddie.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34We've noticed that the beardie bird-fiddler gets everywhere...
0:48:34 > 0:48:40By now, it was impossible to take a walk in the country without bumping into a presenter.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45..enjoy the peace of this corner of the countryside while it lasts.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47Oh, tits!
0:48:47 > 0:48:52Tits indeed! That's why I've come to this Welsh mountain,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55a rare and natural habitat of the great tit.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Those wondering what welly telly would do next the answer was simple.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04The British countryside was about to go live.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09We're here at the Fishleigh Estate, a wonderful organic farm in Devon.
0:49:09 > 0:49:15I promise you, it is literally buzzing, tweeting, flapping with wildlife.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19You're going to see that wildlife, courtesy of...
0:49:19 > 0:49:22well, we've got about 50 cameras.
0:49:22 > 0:49:28It seemed like a nutty idea to me to do British wildlife live,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31but so nutty that...
0:49:31 > 0:49:33you couldn't say no.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39I wasn't surprised at the success of Springwatch or Britain Goes Wild.
0:49:39 > 0:49:45If you've got something that has the excitement of a wildlife "Olympics",
0:49:45 > 0:49:47all these cameras over the place...
0:49:47 > 0:49:51"We'd better go over there, because here he comes!"
0:49:51 > 0:49:56Instead of an athlete, it's a bird. It makes for very good television.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01There's something of the car crash culture.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04"It could be a complete disaster and nothing will happen."
0:50:06 > 0:50:07"Bill, have you got...?"
0:50:07 > 0:50:11"No. You haven't got anything. Um... How about Kate?"
0:50:11 > 0:50:16"No. Kate hasn't got anything." You've got to have a few of those!
0:50:16 > 0:50:18- Are they there?- No!- No, they're not!
0:50:18 > 0:50:22That phenomenon that this is actually happening,
0:50:22 > 0:50:28for some, is like watching paint dry, for others, it's a living link with the countryside.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Andy Warhol could have made Springwatch.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34It's CCTV images of nothing happening
0:50:34 > 0:50:37in a field in a place where you will never go.
0:50:37 > 0:50:43It is like watching... It's like going to the Turner Prize.
0:50:43 > 0:50:49Suddenly, it's as if the whole lawn was lit up.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54Yet Springwatch gave us genuine drama,
0:50:54 > 0:50:57thanks to anthropomorphism
0:50:57 > 0:51:00that would have made Johnny Morris blush.
0:51:00 > 0:51:06At last! He has found his love.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08'What was gripping the viewers'
0:51:08 > 0:51:10was personal stories.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15They had characters, for a start. Kate and I named everything.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19- We have to go back to a forlorn little figure.- We do.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22To Damian, our jackdaw.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25'It's soap opera.'
0:51:25 > 0:51:27That's what people love,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31a real-life soap opera with characters they're familiar with,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34but seeing them in this way, that is unfamiliar.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39The countryside is, currently, its own reality star.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43Rather than having real people, we've got birds.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45Rather than the Big Brother house, we've got a nest.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Here was human interest without the humans.
0:51:49 > 0:51:54Springwatch could play out, pre-watershed, age-old obsessions -
0:51:54 > 0:51:56sex and death.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59You can show so much more when it's wildlife.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04I'm not saying it's joyful to say this, but death was fairly frequent.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Very often, we had heartbreaking moments
0:52:07 > 0:52:10when one little blue tit wasn't going to make it.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14One of these chicks was smaller than the others.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18All the others got the caterpillars and this one was a bit feeble.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21And they all fledged.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26We watched this happening, apart from the little one I called Runty.
0:52:26 > 0:52:32It was nearly nine o'clock. We were about to go off air. There's Runty, "Peep. Peep."
0:52:32 > 0:52:37Adults hadn't come back. What's going to happen to Runty?
0:52:37 > 0:52:41I don't think anything has united the people of Britain
0:52:41 > 0:52:46in a common concern, quite as much as what's happening now.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51We had people phoning the programme saying, "Don't let Runty die."
0:52:51 > 0:52:56Did Runty survive the night? We'll tell you after the titles.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59He fledged the following morning, and all was well.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03In 2010, welly telly made its next great leap forward.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06For years, TV had treated sheep as extras,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09herding them, treating them...like sheep.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Now, they were ready for their close-up.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17Lambing Live is probably the only programme ever
0:53:17 > 0:53:22in the history of television, ever, to be able to discuss, live,
0:53:22 > 0:53:27prolapse, castration and how to skin a lamb to do an adoption.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30We did all that on one night AND we had live births.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32Fannies and goo everywhere.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35- How's it looking, Jim?- No problem.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37No problem. There it is!
0:53:37 > 0:53:40OK, little one...
0:53:40 > 0:53:43'When I pulled my first lamb!'
0:53:43 > 0:53:48It is just the most miraculous thing in the whole world.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53Let's get you in front of your mum. There you go.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58'Jilly, my wife, and I watched Lambing Live feeling sceptical.'
0:53:58 > 0:54:02We thought, "This is going to be really bland, really sanitised."
0:54:02 > 0:54:07You know, "It's for the townies." We couldn't have been more wrong.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10It's marginally better than other programmes.
0:54:10 > 0:54:15The most important thing about the tup is you want two good balls.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18- You want a good pair of balls on him.- How do you...?
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Without... No. Let's get graphic.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25- How do you tell whether it's got two good balls?- You can feel.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28- You want two testicles the same size.- Right.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30Good, firm.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35- Is a girl allowed to do this without asking?- Course you can!
0:54:35 > 0:54:37LAUGH
0:54:37 > 0:54:39Those...are certainly the same size.
0:54:39 > 0:54:45Judging on my not extensive experience, they felt quite good to me.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48'I think Lambing Live'
0:54:48 > 0:54:54was unusual that it probably had an urban audience and a rural audience
0:54:54 > 0:54:57kind of swept along and experiencing it
0:54:57 > 0:54:59'in the same way.'
0:54:59 > 0:55:04Jim takes all his animals to a small, family-run abattoir,
0:55:04 > 0:55:06one of a handful left in Wales.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16We hadn't glossed over the tricky bit.
0:55:16 > 0:55:22These people produce sweet fluffy lambs, that end up on somebody's plate.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26I know you've done this a hundred times, Jim, but do you always feel
0:55:26 > 0:55:29a little emotional about this stage?
0:55:29 > 0:55:31It's what we're in business for.
0:55:31 > 0:55:36We produce lambs and pigs for the butchery trade, so...
0:55:36 > 0:55:39To be honest, I'm quite proud.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42'Things have changed in the last few years.'
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Programmes have shown animals going for slaughter without flinching.
0:55:47 > 0:55:52I think the general public are taking that on board more and more,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54understanding how farming works.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58MUSIC: Theme to "Countryfile"
0:56:01 > 0:56:07Has welly telly finally squared the circle by uniting town and country?
0:56:07 > 0:56:14Programmes like Lambing Live and Countryfile and the great upsurge in interest in that sorts of programme
0:56:14 > 0:56:19have made people think about the countryside in a more practical way
0:56:19 > 0:56:24and understand that the people who look after it play a vital role,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27not just for themselves, but for all of us.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31Or will the old symbol of our differences come between us?
0:56:31 > 0:56:34We thought there were two foxes.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38Each day, we kept seeing more and eventually saw seven.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42Foxes are not cute. They are vicious killers.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45When you're told by somebody like Springwatch
0:56:45 > 0:56:51that the nation's favourite animals are foxes, badgers and otters,
0:56:51 > 0:56:55all of which are classed as vermin, it's slightly worrying.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59All of a sudden, foxes are turned from,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03"It's exciting to see a fox in town," into, "They're vermin."
0:57:03 > 0:57:07"Bring back the hunt!" I want to see the Hackney hunt!
0:57:07 > 0:57:10Where next for welly telly?
0:57:10 > 0:57:14Will this passion for the countryside burn itself out?
0:57:15 > 0:57:16Come on!
0:57:16 > 0:57:20'Television, consuming so much material,
0:57:20 > 0:57:22'you can get a certain type'
0:57:22 > 0:57:26of Countryside Lite, or Wildlife Lite.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31There's nothing wrong with it but I think it's not quite so interesting.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35And it's not quite so...useful.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Most things are cyclical.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44I guess the current obsession with countryside programmes will pass.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46That's not to say they'll disappear altogether,
0:57:46 > 0:57:49just like reality programmes won't disappear,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52but they won't dominate the airwaves like they seem to at present.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57For now, it seems television's version of the rural idyll,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00pioneered by Jack Hargreaves, popularised by The Good Life,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04personified by Phil Drabble, has still got legs.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06MOO
0:58:26 > 0:58:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:29 > 0:58:32E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk