Welly Telly - The Countryside on Television
BBC4, Thursday 02 June 8:00pm - 9:00pm
John Craven, Kate Humble, Bill Bryson, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Bill Oddie and a flock of fellow countryphiles pay homage to rural TV, which has enjoyed a surprising renaissance of late. There are droll archive clips - including esoteric 1960s quiz Top of the Farm - and tributes to celebrity countrymen like plain-speaking Jack Hargreaves and Phil Drabble, whose show One Man and His Dog ran for 17 years and also proved to be popular in Sweden. As well as rose-tinted reminiscing, there's an interesting analysis of the small screen's on/off love affair with the country as town-dwelling TV producers alternately idealised, belittled and generally misunderstood those noble savages and yokels. You can catch a classic episode of Last of the Summer Wine (8.30pm) and a tribute to farmer and Falklands war veteran Jim Armstrong (10pm).
Radio Times reviewer - Claire Webb
VIDEO Plus+: 2258289
Repeat, Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-described
Directed by: John MoulsonRadiotimes
