The Countryside Interview
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The Countryside interview hink of Kate Adie and you might picture her reporting for the BBC from a political hotspot, the latest war zone or natural disaster. TPerhaps your visualise her on the spot as the BBC’s reporter at the Iranian Embassy Trave lling to the siege in London in 1980, arriving on her weekend shift and 20 minutes later describing SAS soldiers storming the building to rescue hostages. Maybe it was Kate reporting on the brutally suppressed students’ protest in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, or her heart of t he st ory reports from the first Gulf War, or the US bombing of Libya in 1986, or the tragic Globe-trotting journalist, local radio farming producer, author and Farm Africa charity sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987. ambassador – just four of the lives of the extraordinary Kate Adie . Interview James Rudman ‘War is not as it is in the movies. It is vicious. It is unfair. It is not just violent, surrounded by the pastoral green of This included doing the request fascinated by it. I loved doing that it is brutal,’ Kate declares. peaceful fields, hills, valleys and woodland, programme, the weather, ‘Thought for the programme.’ In 1989 she became the BBC’s first where she loves to go walking. That is when Day’, and being the farming producer. Kate says that she particularly enjoyed chief news correspondent, a position she has time, for Kate, now aged 68, ‘The Radio Durham boss, who came getting out and listening to people and she held for some 15 years. remains extremely busy. from Manchester, looked around and said: seeing places. This meant she wasn’t ‘I had a fantastic run. I had ‘I have noticed we have got quite a lot of interested in presenting, which initially put wonderful stories and loved doing it. A DIZZYING SCHEDULE fields around here and farms, and we her off being on television. It was extremely physically tough; it She currently presents the BBC Radio 4 ought to have a farming programme’,’ ‘I got elbowed into a job as a regional can be a pretty rough and ready programme ‘From Our Own explains Kate. television reporter, but I was terrible.’ business, particularly if you are Correspondent’, does various commentary So she became the farming producer This, she says, was because she wasn’t a covering conflict. But it is great; work, is involved with other programmes when she admitted to liking animals. She journalist but a producer and simply had I had a great time,’ she recalls. and documentaries and has written five went around her first local show armed no idea what to do. But her fortunes ‘But then I thought it was time to non-fiction books, so far. with an ‘I-Spy Book of Sheep’ in her hand. changed when she got fired from BBC do something else. I have covered This has included her autobiography South, and ended up being recruited by some very big stories, and you come and also a book about the history of THE RURAL BEAT BBC’s National News. to a point where you think ‘been there foundling children, which she was drawn After 18 months at Radio Durham, Kate ‘They were a bit short of people. No great and done that’ and, yes, there may be to write as she was an adopted child herself. spent five years at BBC Radio Bristol where claims to actually being discovered, as it other big stories but I have done my Clearly, it has been quite a life, which she she was the station’s farming producer, were,’ she says. stint. And I thought, ‘I want to do recalls with candour and occasional bursts among other duties. She hired a presenter ‘I was in this very tough, every second something else’.’ of laughter. with a farming and countryside matters world of both national and She decided to end her frontline Born in Northumberland, and brought background, and headed off one day a week international reporting. It took me some reporting in 2003, but, characteristically, up in Sunderland, she found herself with to record programmes. time to find my feet, but when I felt that retirement was far from her mind. ‘rubbish’ A-Levels and an uncertain career. ‘I think it was the thing I enjoyed most. I was getting a grip on it, I realised at the Her home for the past few years is But her headmistress was determined to We travelled around Wiltshire, same time I loved doing it. a long way from the white get someone into university and ‘shunted’ Gloucestershire, Dorset and Somerset, and ‘It was a fabulous job that took you to all heat of conflict. It is in a Kate into one of the less popular courses. I was enchanted by the countryside.’ sorts of places. One day you were doing charming west She found herself studying and gaining a Although being from an industrial traffic chaos on the motorway; the next day Dorset degree in Scandinavian Studies/Swedish at town, Kate knew village Newcastle University and loving being a the countryside ‘up Sixties student. north’ because her family had a little BROADCASTING CAREER car when she was a She decided to get involved with child and they broadcasting, but her BBC trainee scheme would visit areas application brought a disappointing such as Weardale, response. Teesdale and ‘They took one look at me and Swaledale, and also I remember them saying: ‘Oh, Miss Adie. went to the Lake S Candidate number 314’, I think I was. ‘Yes, District and E R U T yes, yes. Well of course we tend to Cornwall for A E F favour…well, how shall we put it?’ And I holidays. X E R said: ‘Men at Oxbridge?’ and they said yes.’ ‘But this was the , X I P But a few weeks later, opportunity real thing,’ she R O R knocked when she spotted a local recalls, ‘standing, R I M newspaper article about the BBC starting a listening, with my , Y E L radio station in England’s North East little tape recorder, E D A region, based in Durham. She applied, got to people talking R F the job, and in 1968 started her about sheep, about M UNFLAPPABLE : Kate A D broadcasting career. managing the farm, has covered some of A : S ‘It was at the lowest level, as a station about prices, about the top stories from E R U assistant in local radio, and I learned the animals around the world T C I P business from there,’ she says. themselves. I was 16 | September 2014 Countr yside Countr yside September 2014 | 17 Countryside interview you were inside Downing Street; then you got on a plane to fly to Northern Ireland to NFU Countryside cover riots. It was the most fantastic job, and and Farm Africa – that is why I stayed with it.’ Kate decided to end her time as BBC’s working together chief news correspondent 11 years ago. This came as television news reporting was This autumn, NFU Countryside is ‘changing out of all recognition’ to a more supporting Farm Africa’s ‘Give presentational and streamed style with the Hunger the arrival of 24-hour news channels and social Boot’ media, she says. campaign, which combines THE NEWS REVOLUTION enjoyable ‘There is much less time spent on finding group information and background, and making fundraising what we call the ‘package’ with your own activities cameraman. It is much more someone with an standing in front of a live (satellite) dish and opportunity to saying hello to a newsreader. reflect on and ‘And if you are with the dish you can’t be understand the many challenges where the story is, particularly if it is violent, local people to make a sustainable living facing African farming families. The or difficult, or on the move.’ from forest areas without cutting down trees appeal is a chance for schools, Kate has continued to travel to the story to clear land for farming or making charcoal. churches and communities to come as part of her links with charity Farm Africa. This includes activities such as beekeeping together to take part in fun welly- ‘If you spend a long time going to natural and processing wild coffee, and is directly themed activities and fundraise to disasters, which does happen to a lot of benefiting some 21,000 households. help Give Hunger the Boot. reporters, you become quite involved in the By supporting Give Hunger the whole business,’ says Kate. KNOWLEDGE IS KEY Boot, communities can come This includes asking how disasters like Kate feels very strongly that local people together to make a real difference famines happen and what ought to be done. should not be told what they should do. to the lives of African families. ‘Scattering loaves might seem the right ‘You go in and say: ‘We have some thing at the time in an emergency, but knowledge here and some advice. Would you How can you get involved? I think that nearly all the aid agencies now like it?’ And then you can watch them All you have to do is organise a know that you have to look at the long term,’ through the early period and it takes wings welly boot-themed fundraising she says. and flies. I think it is hugely important if the activity, for example a sponsored West can do something like that.’ welly walk with your friends, in FARM AFRICA WORKS She adds: ‘I think that is the sort of aid your school, church or workplace or Her first link with Farm Africa’s long-term that works.’ a welly-themed cake sale.