Adam is a rare breed of TV farmer

With spring on the horizon, it is a busy time for BBC TV’s Countryfile presenter Adam Henson. But before lambing season takes over, Adam has taken time out to tell Let’s Talk about his life on the farm.

What do they say about time flying when you’re having fun? I can hardly believe that 2020 marks my 20th year on ‘Countryfile’ – the 20th anniversary of my first appearance on the BBC’s flagship rural affairs programme.

But the truth is that my big break into television nearly didn’t happen at all! When the show launched an on-air search for a new presenter, I’d been far too busy with my day-to-day work on the farm to take much notice. It was only when my partner, Charlie, insisted that I record a video and send it to the BBC that I started to take things seriously. I’m so glad she gave me that friendly shove because since 2001 I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in a programme that’s the perfect fit for someone born and brought up in the British countryside with farming in his blood.

Although appearing on TV every Sunday night is far from being the only thing that occupies my time; I’m first and foremost a farmer and the family home is the Henson’s tenanted farm in the heart of the Cotswolds, where the counties of the English midlands meet the glories of the West Country. It’s a landscape I’ve loved all my life. My parents came to Bemborough Farm, high up on the Cotswold hills near the picture-postcard village of Guiting Power, in the early 1960s to take on the tenancy in partnership with Dad’s oldest friend from school, a lovely man called John Neave (he was like a member of the family and was always known as Uncle John to me and my three sisters).