IT has long been recognised that BBC Television, despite its never ending protestations of impartiality, is dominated by a politically correct hierarchy. It seems they are happy to encourage the likes of Bill Oddie with his wildlife ramblings but will not stomach Clarissa Dickson-Wright, who hunts, or Johnny Kingdom who also supports hunting. 

Instead the BBC prefers to promote soppy wild life films about meercats or cheetahs, elevating these animals to a semi-human status with an approach I personally find nauseating and insulting to the animals concerned.

On the other hand ITV simply manages to get it wrong on an epic scale!

Take, for instance, the daily soap Emmerdale which purports to represent rural life in a tiny North Country village. It combines a bizarre mixture of rampant rumpy-pumpy as the weird muddle of drink-sodden villagers leap in and out of each other’s beds; a vet who would have been struck off years ago; barking mad so-called farmers, and all interspersed with laughable attempts to include aspects of shooting.

The directors simply cannot begin to get it right! Apart from the fact that the so-called gamekeeper, Zac Dingle, appears to spend most of his time poaching, setting snares in the middle of a wood or organising driven shooting in the height of the summer, the latest own goal included an episode when a character was shot in the side by someday called Grayson wielding an over-and-under 12-bore in a confined space.

As this was from a distance of about six feet, one might suppose that the victim would have suffered a severe wound or even succumbed – but this was Emmerdale! All he apparently needed was a night in hospital and a piece of lint to cover the hole. His side, he complained, was quite sore!

Furthermore, the shotgun morphed into a rifle as we learnt that he had been hit by a bullet! How on earth can programme directors get it so wrong? Who advises them, if anyone?

Incidentally, have you noticed the TV vixen? Whenever BBC or ITV want to introduce a spooky element or create an atmosphere at night they trot out the poor old vixen who is persuaded to scream whilst, at the same time, a tame barn owl is wafted across the set!

Yet there was a time when television produced such excellent country programmes as the Jack Hargeaves’ Out of Town series made by Southern Television, films fronted by a man who knew and understood the countryside, its wildlife and sports and which set a bench-mark for this type of entertainment.

Indeed, the enduring popularity of this series is confirmed by the fact that the programmes have been re-issued in DVD form and were also shown last year on Country Channel TV, the internet-programme makers who cover a wide range of country topics.

The viewer simply goes into their site on your computer and bingo! You have fieldsports and the countryside as it should be shown, not the distorted rubbish purveyed by BBC and ITV.

I understand from a director at Country Channel that they intend to expand further into the country and fieldsports arena so I hope you will go into their site and see for yourself what they are up to.

They also have ten hours a week on Sky but not everyone, including myself, has the satellite channel so they are largely limited at the moment to the Internet.

Is there another Jack Hargreaves lurking out there? I believe there is and his name is Chris Green.

Thousands of country folk and fieldsports supporters will have seen Chris demonstrating wildfowling or pigeon decoying at country shows and fairs and I reckon a good many of you have watched his truly excellent and highly professional DVDs on both subjects.

His latest, Wildfowling, the whole story, is an absolute corker and without question the best I have seen on the topic. For £20 this two hour film is an absolute bargain and will have you donning your waders as soon as you’ve seen it!

Chris, a Cornishman, is a genuine countryman who has spent his entire life in the countryside and has been fortunate enough to combine his love of fieldsports with the ability to earn a living from them.

His innovative pigeon and goose decoys are probably the finest on the market and increasingly in demand from a discerning public. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting pigeon with Chris over his decoys and was astounded to see just how realistic and effective they prove.

Personable and able to talk to camera, Chris Green would in my opinion be ideal to front a series of country orientated TV programmes. I wonder if there is someone out there with imagination and the understanding that there is a potentially huge audience hungry for this type of programme. Perhaps BASC or the Alliance should be looking into creating their own Internet country and fieldsports films.

Meanwhile, as I write it is still raining! In fact, here in the West Country we have just endured a 24 hours of non-stop drenching with local rivers spilling over their banks and any hopes of an Indian Summer rapidly receding.

Worst of all is the fact that the wheat harvest is virtually a complete write-off and at the time of writing little more than 15 per cent has been gathered in.

 A local farmer with 30 or so acres of un-gathered wheat has virtually thrown in the towel as his corn is turning dark brown and has been flattened by rain and wind. Whilst there was a break in the weather a week or so ago when he might have been able to salvage something from the ruin, petty legislation from the European Union forbade him to take vehicles on the ground for fear of interfering with the soil structure!

I have been watching these fields with pigeon in mind but scarcely any have appeared, perhaps because there are too many fields from which to choose.

The farmers are our allies and friends and without them and their co-operation there would be little shooting and no hunting. Let’s give them all possible support at this desperate time.