I cant resist repeating this from Julian Schmechel whos only joined recently: QUOTE Hi Simon. I think it would be hard to single out specific parts of OOT that I enjoyed the most, as I simply enjoyed all of it - as I do watching the DVDs today. As a youth who spent most of his time wandering the woods and fields, or fishing, or scrabbling about under a hedge with a ferret, it was simply the most perfect telly programme! Sadly, the so called Country programmes on offer today are pale imitations, with most rather resembling Blue Peter for grown ups. The presenters have little knowledge of country matters, and tramp about the place like the city folk they are. One never sees a dead animal, for fear it might upset urban viewers, and fieldsports receive only brief and negative coverage. Its all very fluffy, safe, and a bit too cuddly for my taste, and where as Jack informed the viewer from knowledge gained by personal experience, todays Goretex clad knitwits ask farmers, And do you milk your cows every day? We need another Mr. Hargreaves. UNQUOTE The more I think about this the more it occurs to me that Jacks programmes were less about a specific subject - despite his fascination with the seismic changes to the countryside occurring in his lifetime - than about the pleasure he got from talking to people about almost anything that came to mind. People have spoken to me of enjoying being with him as he spoke of hilarious things that occurred during the war (like most veterans he never spoke of the bad things, or if so, only in swift passing, and in a way that somehow became funny-tragic and still hilarious). He could be entertaining on the subject of farm subsidies, television politics, the world of advertising, the design of cars, and likelihood that the oysters we enjoyed knew they were being eaten and the moral implications that followed, you name it! I dont want to get vexed by city folk. Jack would argue that most of us, even if we live in the country, are rather thoroughly urbanised, with the successful farmer holding an advanced degree in agribusiness, sitting in an air-conditioned tractor cabin with his iPad (JH would have had the computer back at the farm) following global farm commodity futures as the vehicle self-steered an optimally programmed track through a field bereft of hedgerows. Where the land is not being cultivated for food, its being set aside with grants to farmers to preserve imagined landscapes that encourage rural tourism. How can presenters of Countryfile and its siblings make that entertaining? Im not bitter but I recall the final lines of Jacks ode to a book he never got round to writing ...But I was angry and - as the Japanese say - to be angry is only to make yourself ridiculous. So we will live out our days in the cracks between the concrete. And then they will pour cement on top of us.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:11:56 +0000
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