Stepson Simon Baddeley on Jack Hargreaves' classic 1970s TV series Out Of Town
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- Опубликовано: 11 авг 2022
- Jack Hargreaves OBE (31 December 1911 - 15 March 1994)
/ jackhargreaves
was an English television presenter and writer whose enduring interest was to comment without nostalgia or sentimentality on accelerating distortions in relations between the city and the countryside, seeking - in entertaining ways - to question and rebut metropolitan assumptions about its character and function.
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He is remembered for appearing on How, a children's programme, which he also conceived, about how things worked or ought to work. It ran from 1966 on Southern Television and networked on ITV until the demise of Southern in 1981.
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Hargreaves was the presenter of the weekly magazine programme Out of Town, first broadcast in 1960 following the success of his series Gone Fishing the previous year. Broadcast on Friday evenings on Southern Television the programme was also taken up by many of the other ITV regions, usually in a Sunday afternoon slot. In 1967, with Ollie Kite he presented Country Boy, a networked children's programme of 20 episodes in which a boy from the city was introduced to the ways of country. Two further series followed in 1969 and 1970. Other programmes he created for local viewers were Farm Progress and a live afternoon series Houseparty. His country TV programmes continued after the demise of Southern with Old Country for Channel 4.
He was involved in the setting up of ITV, and a member of Southern's board of directors. He was employed by the National Farmers' Union, serving on the Nugent Committee (the Defence Lands Committee that investigated which parts of the Ministry of Defence holdings could be returned to private ownership). A biography of Hargreaves by Paul Peacock was published in July 2006.[1] It was for his contributions to the Defence Lands Committee, which produced the Nugent Report in 1973, that he was appointed an OBE.
Hugely popular and fondly remembered to this day, Out of Town saw Jack Hargreaves exploring rural life in Britain - reflecting on its character, traditions, history and folklore, and the skills that had passed from generation to generation.
With his extensive experience, knowledge and love of the countryside, Hargreaves' easygoing presentation style enthralled both rural and urban viewers - the series becoming so popular it ultimately ran for over two decades. An unsentimental record of a bygone time, it set the bar high for all “country matters” series that were to follow in its footsteps.
This volume contains the 35 editions that remain from 1980/1981 - including the unbroadcast 21st anniversary special and an episode never previously released on DVD.
Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves, an interview with Simon Baddeley, 4 of 4
Published Friday 12 February 2021
In this 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 introductions 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 the episodes 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 perpetuating Jack Hargreaves’ legacy.
New Jack Hargreaves' DVDs
The podcast is published in celebration of the new DVD box-sets of Jack's work, including Out of Town Volume 1, Out of Town Volume 2, Old Country and Further Out of Town. These include previously 'lost' episodes of Jack, with the final box-set being introduced by Simon.
@ 27.40 re. hunting. The main practical reason for foxhunting was for the training of young gentlemen in the skills of horsemanship that an officer would require on a field of battle. the "big clue" for this was the military nature of the hunting uniform, that the master of foxhounds was very often a high-ranking regimental officer, and the practice of "blooding" a novice hunter- presumably to get the novice used to seeing a bit of gore.
Brilliant. Thanks.
It was a pleasure to listen to this intelligent gentleman share his reminiscences about Jack Hargreaves and his television work.
Excellent interview - speaking as a rural peasant myself - and perfect timing too!
He is my grandpa
Thank you very much to both of you a fan of Jack since I was 11 yrs old 👌
Being only a whippersnapper of 54 years, I had the pleasure of growing up watching Jack.
Thankfully during these tumultuous times I can rely on Jack's books and DVD's to remind me of life as it was.....and should be.
Great interview, thank you.
Men whose work was vital in the War were in Reserved Occupations. Thank you for this interview, and Dave Knowles for putting Old Country on You Tube.
Excellent program , common sense observations backed up by a wealth of experience , thankyou so much this knowledge has real value
A superb and lovely interview. A proper conversation and some great stories. It has to be said, and I hate to say it, but at one time Jack sold out many small farmers, communities, the environment and, along the chain, the public. Not that he may quite have known the consequences - but those farmers did. Massive scale 'farming' will be the ruin of us all eventually, in every way. The greatest form of advancement now must be a 'sensible' reverse engineering of all 'modern' human systems. I'm not religious but God bless you all.
What a wonderful interview
An absolutely fascinating insight. Several things that come to mind . One, the change in agriculture really began with the industrial revolution when millions of workers fled the land to the new factories for better wages. This meant that the UK hasn't been self sufficient in food since, even with the rapid industrialisation of agriculture since the end of WW2, which of course resulted in all the grubbing out of hundreds of miles of hedgerows, particularly in East Anglia. We still have to import 30% of our food. Even now, after leaving the CAP, there are vast swathes of (presumably) good farmland in Warwickshire being built on for warehouses for Amazon and other distribution companies. Two, the absolute separation of current populations with the source of their food - meat comes in cling film wrapped packets in a supermarket. Three - the economic power of the supermarkets to dictate prices at the farm gate, especially for milk. I don't think that the universal ideal of cheap food is now attainable or sustainable. Something has to give.
A great interview, not least correcting the near universal and totally erroneous impression that country life back before the 1950'-1960's was some kind of tranquil idyll for everyone.
Also, at last, a true online relating of Jack's life outside of his sutobiography.
Jack was a townie, the son of a successful London doctor and was brought up in London. He disliked his early home-life so was sent to spend school holidys with relations who ran a farm. He was a townie with a huge knowledge of and love for all things outside of towns and suburbia.
This does, of course, mean that Jack used a considerable amount of poetic licence in many of his tales about his family and early life.
I did post this fact in comment to a video uploaded by David Knowles who vigorously disputed this fact - I could not be bothered to quote from Jack's autobiography, so let it go.
Interesting about the hobby dairy farming. I live in Croatia and I still see milk churns in use, some of them quite small. A milk tanker goes around the small villages, collecting small amounts of milk, either from individual farms or small sheds. You see men and women on bicycles taking a couple of small churns to these sheds. My place probably had a cow, a few pigs, goats and chickens, just like a UK smallholding in the 1930s.
That's what I call a well spend live !
sadly the Blackbird Public House in Bagnor has closed down in the last year and looks a sorry state....I'm sure it will be sold and converted into "luxury flats"...had some great times in that pub as did my grandfather who knew Jack.
Very interesting. Thanks. Actually really good tv! Better than BBC. Thing is, soooo much is bollocks these days, and i think people are seeing past it. A new country peasant mentality that does the same but in the town with the pickings of modernity is growing, people spending their brass wisely, stuff that lasts, etc. It's just been a period of great change.
Hmm... two fellows with whom I suppose I agree on most things under discussion but... there was a fair bit of rather odd 'wandering' here and there - when have we had primates (other than humans) as wildlife here? I'm a farmer, beef and lamb, and by an odd coincidence went to the same school as Jack and used to hunt across the Vale where he spent time as a boy; I'm sorry to write that for the vast majority of the country there isn't a hope in Hell of returning to what some might see as a 'rural idle', but it might be preserved in a few places, probably under estates. As for the urban masses, education about the country and farming is a good idea; but, as with all good ideas, the hard part is putting it into practice.
stop copyright claiming the videos on youtube, simon! theyre a treasure! and im not paying 60 odd pound for a dvd! >:¬(
32:44 well that is the flip side of Jack’s let the market decide mentioned in relation to TV. There is nothing to stop being buying up homes and only using them at the weekend it is their choice.
But the quality of the food has declined horribly
"Our" BBC as he says what a joke! Maybe it never was
No, it used to be...
@@PeterBorenius In certain areas, yes.
@@PeterBorenius Do you know what scheduling this got? I saw it in the 80s on C4 about 6.30-7pm (may hv been Thames)
And the result is depleted soil that will grow nothing but thistle
I hope the interviewee was not mortally afflicted by the interviewer..
Lovely insight though :)
I am 85, I cannot go to my dad for advice on how to do something, My go to now is Google for every thing. from mending a car to cooking, and all and anything else. Now youngsters are doing this making Dads redundant .
Id recommend you make yourselves aware of the permacultural regenerative methods that have evolved.
Look uo Ridgedale Permaculture
In order to make an ideal environment you must not go there.
Nonsense. Just go lightly. You're repeating the revitalised mantra that man and nature are mutuallt exclusive. We just have to obey the rules when in someone else's garden ;-)