It's nearly midnight and I just can't sleep. If I turn the light on to read a bit more of my book (I'm re-reading Lark Rise to Candleford again), I will probably wake my husband, so I decided to write a blog entry.
The theme song to "Out of Town", a programme I grew up with, won't leave my head - having suddenly sprung into it when I laid my book down and put the light out! There were two theme tunes -the first was Max Bygrave's song of that name: "Spring starts to spring, the cuckoo starts to sing, a song to take the edge of winter's frown, and spring cleaning, has a meaning . . . Out of Town . . ." Later, Jack Hargreaves (for it was his country programme which showed on a Friday evening at a 1/4 to 7) changed the music to a soft Spanish guitar melody. The programme ran for 25 years and I vaguely remember that before Jack Hargreaves was Olly Kite, who sadly died young . . .
Isn't it odd how some things just stick in your head like this programme? I can remember him showing unusual countryside objects and asking viewers to get in touch if they knew what they were used for. At Christmas he would suggest suitable presents for the horsey girls in a family - his favourite suggestion being a folding hoof-pick! I can remember him getting a new bridle and soaking it in Neat's Foot Oil to soften it. My golly gosh, I should think you could still tie it in knots ten years on! He had a wonderful workshop where much of the inside filming was done and where he would sit and show you how to tie a fly or how a lark twirler worked! His passion was fishing, and he had the knack of making it interesting even to a totally horse mad girl not even in her teens. He used to show all the sights and sounds of the countryside. HERE'S a clip of him on You Tube. He always had a driving cob about the place, and in later years it was a white mule. I met him once, towards the end of his life, at a tack auction at Dorchester Market. He was looking for a browband for the little white mule - not a bridle, just the browband! He was obviously careful with his money . . .
He died, aged 83, in 1994 and his ashes strewn on Bulbarrow Hill which overlooked the Dorset village where he had spent his final years. HERE is a link to his obituary.
I think I would have liked this show--just for the homely oddity of it.
ReplyDeleteWHY does insomina have to include tunes and lyrics chasing through one's head? Never quite complete either so that one gets stuck on the same phrase!
You put your finger right on the pulse with the insomnia comments MM! I don't know WHERE the tune suddenly came from, but I suspect that the landscape of my childhood is a very comfortable place to be right now, which is why my poor brain is conjuring it up. As for OOT, there are bits of his programmes on You Tube and well worth watching still.
ReplyDeleteI remember "Out of Town" very well. Jack Hargreaves often featured the New Forest . I remember the cob in the cart and the gentle, slow pace of the programmes. You could almost smell Jack`s pipe tobacco!
ReplyDeleteI think I would have liked that show, we had one here in the South called Nature Scene where a local , Rudy Manke--I still remember his name, went to lesser known parts of South Carolina and Georgia, and if I sit very still I can still hear the music from that show, done on acoustic guitar.
ReplyDeleteThats the weirdest thing!!
ReplyDeleteLast night my Husband was away and I was looking for a DVD to watch. I ended up watching Jack Hargreaves "Out of town" with episodes about grafting apple trees, Appleby fair and so on.
I was given the DVDs as a present, they are still available to buy on Amazon.
Yes, I remember those programmes well. I suppose they would be deemed a bit old fashioned now. Lark Rise is one of the books I return to again and again because it is such relaxing reading.
ReplyDeleteWeaver - It stands the test of time, along with other classics such as Laurie Lee's "Cider With Rosie", all of Mary Webb's novels and poetry, Ronald Blythe's "Akenfield", the gentle "Miss Read" books (great when you're poorly), and others of that ilk still crowd my bookshelves.
ReplyDeleteKath - well, you must have passed on the theme tune to me then!
Mac n' Janet - such programmes are what rural life is all about - whatever side of the Atlantic.
DW - that's it exactly - VERY atmospheric.
I've got 10 dvd's of Hargreaves shows. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteWe'll all come round to yours then Sharie!!
ReplyDeleteI got them off ebay, they are still selling them. Just put in Jack Harvgreaves or Out of Town.
ReplyDeleteI never saw these programmes though they sound my kind of thing. Must have a look on Amazon! The YouTube link is unavailable now due to a copywrite claim!
ReplyDeleteHe also had a cottage at Rye Harbour, next door to the pub. Remember him being around when I first visited, which must have been in the late 1980's.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I remember the programmes from my childhood. I wonder how many fans of the Fast Show got the connection?