Return of The Contented Countryman podcast
After an 18-month gap, I'm proud to announce the return of The Contented Countryman podcast. We're now in Season 2 and have twelve more episodes lined up including interviews, book readings, talks, nature obervations, and updates about The Wild Carp Trust.
I've recorded a short introduction to the new podcasts, which you can listen to here.
The series begins proper with a new four-part series about famous countryman and broadcaster Jack Hargreaves, known for his Out of Town and Old Country TV programmes. In it I interview Simon Baddeley about Jack's life on screen and off. You can listen to the first podcast here.
The podcasts are also available via the usual channels such as iTunes and Spotify, so please subscribe to them so that you automatically get each new episode.
Thanks
Fennel
News release about the Jack Hargreaves' podcast series
Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves, an interview by Fennel Hudson with Jack's stepson Simon Baddeley
A new four-part podcast series has been produced to celebrate Network’s countryside DVDs Out of Town Volume 1, Out of Town Volume 2, and Further Out of Town. These box sets feature digitally restored film sequences of famous countryside broadcaster Jack Hargreaves, who presented the iconic ‘Out of Town’ programmes on Southern Television from 1960 until 1981 and ‘Old Country’ on Channel 4 from 1983 until 1985. Collectively, the DVDs represent 69 programmes and more than 1800 hours of viewing.
In the podcast series, Jack Hargreaves’ stepson Simon Baddeley is interviewed by countryside author Fennel Hudson for his Contented Countryman podcast. The result is a four-part series, with each episode being nearly an hour long. Simon and Fennel talk about Jack Hargreaves’ life and career, his lasting legacy as both a broadcaster and commentator about country life, and what it’s been like for Simon to step into Jack’s shoes to introduce the programmes in the new ‘Further Out of Town’ DVD.
Speaking of the interviews, Fennel Hudson said, “Speaking to Simon Baddeley about his stepfather Jack Hargreaves was a genuine honour. I’d grown up watching Jack on TV and was captivated by his warm presentation style and endless fascination with country life. Simon has these qualities, too, so he and I enjoyed talking for many hours about Jack and how he shaped our appreciation of the countryside and rural life. The result, inevitably, is a series of podcasts that makes for engaging listening and emulates the gentle, reflective and contemplative tone of Jack’s programmes.”
Simon Baddeley said, “The original ‘Out of Town’ programmes were ground-breaking at the time for their informal presentation style and outdoor broadcasting technique. I’m sure that if Jack were alive today, he’d be entertaining millions of people all over the world via a global podcast. So it was a pleasure for me to be interviewed by Fennel on his podcast, to speak about my stepfather and especially about the DVDs that perpetuate his work.”
The four podcasts cover the following topics:
In the first episode, Simon talks about Jack’s childhood and how he came to love the countryside and then share these passions in later life with his new family when he came to live with Simon’s mum. We hear about Jack’s early successes in media and journalism, his work during the War, how he became a magazine editor, and his enduring desire to get away from urban places to experience and cherish rural life.
In the second episode we discover how Jack got into TV and honed his presenting skills to develop his famously warm, natural and intimate way of presenting. Simon explains how Jack created ‘Out of Town’, the TV series that ran throughout the sixties and seventies, only coming to an end in 1981 when Southern Television lost its franchise. He speaks about Jack’s perspectives on fishing and the importance of patience when being outdoors, also about the art of contemplation, of deliberately taking one’s time to savour things and reflect upon them – both of which are central to the character of Jack’s TV programmes and broadcasts.
In the third episode Simon speaks about the making of ‘Out of Town’, the way it was filmed and produced, and Jack’s belief in not revealing everything so that the viewer’s imagination can fill the gaps in much the same way as when reading a book. He also speaks about the significance of presenting from a shed, and the traditional role of other outdoor-indoor portals to our homes, and Jack’s move from Southern Television to the newly formed Channel 4 where he was able to maintain the character of ‘Out of Town’ in the new series ‘Old Country’.
In the fourth episode Simon speaks about ‘Old Country’, the Channel 4 series based on ‘Out of Town’ that ran for 60 episodes until 1985. He then discusses what happened next, with Jack rescuing the footage from ‘Out of Town’ and re-recording the intros to several programmes and releasing them on video tapes. Simon explains how, after Jack passed away in 1994, the footage from ‘Out of Town’ was rediscovered and salvaged, and how interested parties were brought together to restore and distribute them to new and loyal viewers via Network. Finally, we get to hear what it was like for Simon to step into his stepfather’s shoes to present the new ‘Further Out of Town’ DVD, and his work with Network in perpetuating Jack Hargreaves’ legacy.
The podcasts make for very relaxing and engaging listening, much as Jack’s broadcasts did, and feature audio clips from the newly recovered episodes.
Jack Hargreaves looking contented in the countryside
Further information
Jack Hargreaves was a countryside broadcaster, author, magazine editor and television executive. His easy-going nature, extensive knowledge and love of the countryside, and famous pipe, whiskers, hat and sheds, enthralled viewers of all generations for three decades through his ‘Out of Town’ and ‘Old Country’ TV programmes. When the series’ ended, Jack saved from destruction many hours’ worth of ‘Out of Town’ footage. It is this material, much of it unseen for decades, that has been painstakingly restored and revisited in the Network DVDs.
Simon Baddeley is Jack Hargeaves’ stepson, licensee and keeper of the archive of Jack’s work. He has recently stepped into Jack shoes to present the introductions to the episodes featured in the Network DVD entitled ‘Further Out of Town’.
Nigel ‘Fennel’ Hudson is a countryside author best known for his Fennel’s Journal series of rural lifestyle books and as host of The Contented Countryman podcast. He is an outdoorsman who explores the quiet corners of the landscape and encourages us to ‘Stop – Unplug – Escape – Enjoy.’