Stalking on TV

paul k

Well-Known Member
I was watching one of the "Tales from the Country" series (presented by Tony Francis) on Sky Channel 280 and one half of the programme focussed on Mike Robinson, Chef Patron of the Pot Kiln pub near Thatcham just off the M4.

Mike is a huge proponent of using wild produce and shoots or catches a large amount of the produce featuring on his menu. The programme saw him out looking for a roe doe and they actually shot a muntjac buck and a roe doe. You then saw the roe in the last ten seconds of the skinning process and then the haunch and liver being cooked but what surprised and really disappointed me was that any film of the animal being shot or even the dead animal was completely avoided.

On the other TV programmes that have featured Mike there have been no such qualms and the shot and the carcass were happily shown on camera so I can only assume that it is the producers of Tales from the Country that feel that a sector about harvesting wild animals for food should be sanitised to the extent that you were not allowed to see the result of the shot.

I had better hopes for this programme but it was too much like the heavily sanitised BBC Countryfile output which would have you believe that no animal dies in the countryside or in course of farming other than at the hands of badger baiters or illegal coursers.
 
Channel 4 tends to be a bit more adventurous as we've seen Gordon Ramsey shoot a deer as well.
 
I've found the latest of the River Cottage programmes very interesting. Not only does he go out with his mates and shoot some Rabbits, but as well as cooking some nice stuff with them they also used the skins to make hats etc. That's first class to me. It's a true picture of how country life works without hiding anything. I'm sure if the public could see in detail how what we do actually happens they may accept it more. It's only because they have a mental picture of fieldsports being brutal that they oppose them. If people aren't shown the reality they make up their own fictional version which is often a lot worse than the truth.
 
Always worth a go sending them an e-mither stating "our" collective views. I spoke with the programme producers when Hugh shot the deer for the wedding feast, after the deliriously dangerous portrayal of preparing for the shot. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
paul k said:
what surprised and really disappointed me was that any film of the animal being shot or even the dead animal was completely avoided.

What really disappointed me was when I visited the pot kiln a while back!! :lol: :lol:

Food was meadiocre at best and the price was hefty to say the least. If that was the first time I'd ever tried venison, then I'd not have bothered again! Tough, virtually raw pave of wild fallow on a sloppy bed of mash - and the fallow turned out not to be wild anyway, but out of a park :evil:
 
Back
Top