‘Farming Today’ and ‘On Your Farm’ are a long-established, well-loved part of the Radio 4 schedule. But how did agriculture on the air begin? A century ago radio was the wonder of the age with the newly-formed BBC offering an astounded public a nightly menu of news bulletins, chamber music and children’s stories. Farming broadcasts soon followed and were keeping listeners in touch with rural life long before the first radio drama, sports commentary or record programme had crackled in to the ether. In the century since, the strictly-scripted agricultural studio talk of the 1920s and ‘30s has evolved beyond recognition, and along the way brought fame and fan mail to the most unlikely of ‘stars’; a university farm manager, a Times newspaper correspondent and a Surrey horticulturalist. We look back at a hundred years of rural broadcasting, and the programmes that have been made for – and about – farmers. As we delve in to the archives, we’ll find out what’s changed over the last ten decades; what in the past is surprisingly familiar to us now; and discover how we’ve arrived where we are today. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Vernon Harwood Picture: The BBC's head of agricultural programmes, John Green, at home on his Cotswold farm on 17th March 1945. Interviewed guest: Jeannie Hamilton Interviewed guest: Jim Heffer Interviewed guest: Tom Hercock Interviewed guest: Robin Hicks Interviewed guest: Anna Hill Interviewed guest: Felicity Peake Interviewed guest: Rebecca Pow MP Interviewed guest: Robert Seatter Interviewed guest: Richard Willmott Interviewed guest: Robert Young Reader: David Wethey Archive material used in this programme: The End of Savoy Hill; National Programme, 14/05/1932 6BM Calling; BBC Radio 3, 31/03/2004 Today in the South & West; West of England Home Service, 18/11/1964 Auntie, Uncle and Mr Mike; BBC Radio 4, 01/01/1974 The Farming Week – 60th Anniversary Special; BBC Radio 4, 25/03/1989 Farming Today – Robin Hicks; BBC Radio 4, 25/05/1972 Dig for Victory – R.S. Hudson; BBC Home Service, 10/09/1940 In Your Garden – C.H. Middleton; BBC Home Service, 03/12/1944 Radio Allotment; BBC Home Service, 18/04/1942 Post War Careers – Irene Hilton; BBC Home Service, 07/06/1945 Farming Today – Hill flocks; BBC Home Service, 10/02/1944 Farming Today – Cattle at the Crossroads; BBC Home Service 11/11/1943 Farming Today – Pig farming; BBC Home Service, 09/03/1944 On Your Farm; BBC Radio 4, 29/01/1983 The Oral History of the BBC; John Green video interview, 19/11/1992 The Oral History of the BBC; John Green audio interview, 01/09/1989 The Farming Week – CLA Game Fair; BBC Radio 4, 01/08/1987 Pick of the Year; BBC Radio 4, 29/12/1989 Royal Welsh Show; BBC Wales, 21/07/1987 Plague ’67; BBC Radio 4, 06/12/1967 Six o’clock News; BBC Radio 4, 19/02/2001 Farming Today – EU referendum result; BBC Radio 4, 24/06/2016 Asian Club – Richard Dimbleby; BBC General Overseas Service, 27/04/1964