BBC1's Countryfile has lined up a special guest editor as part of the Sunday night rural-affairs programme's 25th anniversary – none other than the heir to the throne himself, Prince Charles. Showing a knowledge of television audience viewing figures previously unhinted at in the royal household, HRH said: "Is it not quite revealing that the BBC's Countryfile programme has become so tremendously popular? Ever since they moved it to its prime-time slot on a Sunday night, it has become one of their most successful television programmes with over 7 million viewers a week. There is evidently a thirst for the countryside and for the culture it represents." Prince Charles will be interviewed by the programme's hosts Matt Baker and Julia Bradbury and show the team around his organic farm in Gloucestershire, and much else besides in the show to be broadcast next month. No word on whether he also asked why the programme's shift from Sunday morning to night required such a radical change in the presenting team, including, famously, the axing of older female presenters such as Miriam O'Reilly. Maybe he'll ask about that in the 30th anniversary show.
