Fed up with BBC 'Countryfile'

[vexedfoxy]

AIBU to be fed up with BBC patronising style of Countryfile......should be renamed 'Towniefile'

Yes, boring, self-righteous shite.

Is that the one where Julia whatshername hides from John Craven and whispers "help me" at the camera or am I getting it mixed up with something else?

Sounds too much like paedophile for my liking.

I agree it's getting more of a British tourism programme vibe now. Still watch it sometimes, but it's not the same. No hard news, nothing contraversial, little about farming.

I used to Love Out of Town - it was the best part of weekend TV when I was a kid. You can find some episodes on YouTube. That was a real country show - interesting and not condescending, while explaining things very well. No dumbing down.

"Who is really ancient and remembers Out of town with Jack Hargreaves"

Oh yes, I was only talking about him the other day! I was only young when his programme was on but I used to love it - well, not so much the bits where he'd batter the fish he'd caught over the head with a priest - but it sparked my dream of living in the country (which I do now).

Another one who loved it on Sunday mornings but rarely bother now. It started going downhill when there was less of John Craven and now they have brought in Helen Skelton who I simply can't abide. Am sure she's a lovely person, I just can't stand her voice and her addition really makes it, as others have said, Blue Peter for adults.

My farming friends were all raving on FB about Lambing Live last night. One of them did point out that they've spent the last 2 months lambing, there's still sheep lambing In the barn and there they are watching lambing on the TV!

I can't be arsed with CountryFile 90% of the time. If anything its like a tourism programme for parts of the UK I've not been to, I like that aspect of it. DD loves it.

I wish the Adams Farm section was a whole programme in it's own right.

I agree with the person who said the Radio 4 programmes are better for people who actually live in the countryside.
With great respect to Adam, who I like, he's not a 'proper' farmer in the way that people who have to earn their crust from it everyday are.

I can't watch John Craven although he's probably a really nice bloke and have nothing against hm.

But when he talks he whistles and it irritates me for no reason other than it does.

I can't stand it because Julia Bradbury always has a smug grin on her face and I don't like the ginger farmer.

I used to love Sunday afternoon ones. It does seem a bit patronising now and the episode the other week about halal food, too graphic for the time it goes out.
Yes I appreciate kids need to know where foods coming from but showing the sheep being lined up on a conveyer belt for slaughter than hanging up wriggling about. Too much, I turned it over and accidentally caught it repeated at the bit I turned over from so saw the whole bloody (!)thing

Why woild we need a programme specifically for farmers? A relatively small number of people in the UK work as farmers. There isn't a programme for steelworkers, hairdressers, or taxi cab drivers. Why do farmers need a show of their own? A programme about the ccountryside in general has much wider appeal.
S
Surely if farmers need tips on smock purchasing, straw chewing, subsidy claims or the best time to head out onto a bypass so that it causes maximum inconvenience in a slow moving, rickety agricultural vehicle then there are other sources of information, like the daily farming programme on radio 4 , the NFU or the Internet.

Not sure where you get the "Adam is not a proper farmer" - he and his business partner farm over 1000 hectares?

caruthers I like Craven. Him and Pam Ayres seem to be the only celebrities left from the 70s who can sleep soundly in their beds.

I can't stand Julia Bradbury.

I find the Adam's Farm bit interesting if he's actually on his farm, so about one week in six.

There isn't enough focus on serious issues affecting farmers. Too much "and here's a community project building habitats for threatened species X" or Matt and Julia having some pointless head-to-head in some old country game that hasn't been played for 75 years.

I like it! I watched it last night (rarely get a chance to sit down and watch anything on tv) and I actually felt quite relaxed! I have no interest in the countryside as such and would hate to go to a farm/walking/near animals as I hate mess,dirt and mud but it was strangely interesting and just something different to watch.

caruthers I like Craven. Him and Pam Ayres seem to be the only celebrities left from the 70s who can sleep soundly in their beds.

I hear you ComposHat but it's that damned whistling through his teeth (Maybe he's had new choppers installed?).

Arf at "the ginger farmer" :o
He really boils my piss, the only man to ever have had a farm. Striding manfully about in shiny wellies and North Face jackets.
And DH likes that section

I'd watch it for definite every week if mr bloom was on it as well

We used to watch it religiously as a child, usually with steamed up windows from the Sunday dinner cooking.

And what was that Jack Hargreaves sitting in a shed with a pipe program called?

Sunday telly used to be SO shit. As a tiny, I'd get up early and watch the programmes for Asian viewers, Ap Ghar Haque or something, and try and teach myself Urdu. Thank God for ceebeebies!

"I can't stand Julia Bradbury"

Me neither, ever since I caught her in an episode of "Come Dine With Me" were she called another guest boring for not wanting to drink alcohol Just because she can only be a party animal after a few doesn't mean those who can enjoy themselves without getting pissed are "boring". It really annoyed me, and I'm not even tea-total.