BBC Countryfile viewers have become annoyed with the agricultural show after they were left watching archive footage – and this isn’t the first time.
During tonight’s episode, John Craven visited Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire, discovering the vast array of bird species that call this place home during winter.
He also went and met a biologist who has created a series of ponds on the reserve which are some of the most monitored in Europe.
Later in the episode, a selection of winter wildlife stories from around the UK from the Countryfile archives.
One clip saw Matt Baker back in 2018 when he headed to the UK’s largest national park in the Scottish Highlands to look after herds of reindeer.
However, not all viewers were happy with the calibre of the episode and took to their X accounts to complain.
John Craven hosted tonight’s show
BBC
One commented: “Ohh the archives..again and again and again.”
“Unsure as to why they keep showing archived episodes? I want to see something new!” someone else penned.
A third added: “You’d think with such a farming crisis going on at the moment they would want to highlight it more rather than pulling out archives?”
“Archives again? How boring!” someone else fumed leaving another to quip: “I’m getting a little fed up with #Countryfile at the moment.
Anita Rani visiting the seals was one of the archived clips
BBC
“Constantly putting on archives episodes rather than anything new.”
Not all were left unimpressed with the archives being added in, as one praised: “Oh I do love when we can take a look back at previous segments.” (sic)
This isn’t the first time that viewers have been unhappy with what has been aired, as a previous episode also aired some archives.
The decision puzzled fans of the magazine show who couldn’t “understand” why the show had to resort to resurfacing old items despite such a sizeable cast of presenters.
One clip was from 2022 and saw John Craven heading to Naddle Forest in the Lake District to observe some red squirrels as he delved into the population struggles the animals face.
Another was pulled from a far older 2015 instalment in which Ellie Harrison explored the lives of the European pine marten, “the UK’s rarest native mammals”.
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Matt Baker visiting the reindeer’s in 2018 was also shown
BBC
“Pine martens were once widespread across the UK but in the 19th century, they suffered a massive decline,” the former Countryfile presenter explained in the historic episode.
She continued: “Loss of habitat and persecution pushed the pine marten to the brink. For more than 50 years, they were thought to be extinct in England.”