Having conquered Sunday nights for BBC1, Countryfile will roll its tanks – and tractors – on to the manicured lawns of daytime TV as John Craven’s daily spin-off show goes year-round.
Countryfile Diaries, which aired for the first time this spring, will return for three new series in summer, autumn and winter on BBC1, it was announced on Thursday.
Presenter John Craven will return for the three new series, alongside Countryfile regular Jules Hudson, Flog It’s Paul Martin, Keeley Donovan and Margherita Taylor.
The daily diary show aired on five consecutive weekdays in May and was commissioned after the Sunday night edition of Countryfile soared to its biggest ever audience of 8.6 million.
BBC1 was criticised in the government’s white paper on its future last month, with its daytime schedule highlighted for a lack of new shows. Daytime staple Bargain Hunt, for instance, is now into its 43rd series.
Dan McGolpin, the BBC’s controller for daytime and early peak programming, said: “Countryfile Spring Diaries brought us some wonderful scenes and insightful journalism at a key point of the year for rural communities.
“We are now extending the series to all four seasons, with five new programmes for each of summer, autumn and winter to be scheduled across weekday mornings on BBC1. I look forward to many more topical and relevant stories from our exciting team of presenters.”
The BBC has enjoyed ratings success with another stripped seasonal show about the countryside, Springwatch, and its various offshoots at other times of the year, currently in its 12th series on BBC2.
Margherita Taylor, who also presents a show on Classic FM, said: “One of my favourite things about summer is the great flowers that appear so I’ll be looking at the rise in seasonal British cut flowers as well as the elderflower harvest and the invasion of the spider crabs out on the Dorset coast, so it’s set to be a show of huge variety.”
