The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

As a youngster Out of Town was about the only TV programme apart from The High Chaparral and The Virginian that I had any interest in.
Despite finding Jack's coughing and and fumbling of words quite frustrating ,along with his annoying trait of referring to some of the more expert guests on his programme as "This Chap" rather than by name,I loved the programme and it always seemed too short.
It was during one of my first sea fishing trips that I found a possible answer to the lack of editing or retakes that might've made the show a little more slick. Our skipper was an elderly chap called Kettle and JH had filmed on his boat. It seemed that in order to save film and editing time the camera only went on when someone hooked a fish. If it was a good one whoever had hooked it would hand the rod to Jack and the camera would roll.
A more personal story is of the time our Dad took my brother and I toba Game Fair. Dad whispered out of the side of his mouth "Look who's over there." It wasJH. Now earlier in the day I had bought a ferret kit and had the little mite tucked-up in my arms. While I was too shy to do more than glance at Jack,my little brother grabbed my new pet and ran up to him with a cry of "Mr Hargreaves will you bless my ferret!"
The poor chap looked mortified but managed to mutter something like "That's a nice little ferret lad" but it was pretty clear he had no intention of letying it anywhere near him let alone laying hands on it to deliver a blessing!

Kev, there's a lot of JH references on this forum, if you use the 'Search' option on the page header you'll doubtless find a few.

The old trick of bolstering the main man's catch is still done today notably during some of Robson Green' efforts where he is extolling the virtue of his fixed spool or fly outfit only to land the fish of the day on his guide's multiplier. I suppose it saves a vast amount of time as fish are unpredictable and some TV personalities are not necessarily the greatest anglers.

Having said that, considering the cost of film over video and the age when JH made his shows, I for one, forgive him every short cut. His delivery was unpolished and would never make TV nowadays unless being parodied in the Fast Show, but it was TV Gold.

Don't knock it, J.H. was Mr Crabtree on the t.v. His shows were groundbreaking for countryside appreciation from the mid sixties.So many of the early broadcasted black and white were destroyed in the name of progress . Always my childhood hero deserving of saintdom , however his personnel life another matter !!!!!!!

How I used to look forward to Out of Town.
So much so I would be watching the clock, not wanting it to end.