Countryfile viewers blast BBC for ‘rip-off’ episode – and are seriously distracted by guest’s ‘fake’ appearance

COUNTRYFILE viewers have blasted the BBC for a 'rip-off' episode - before becoming seriously distracted by a guest's 'fake' appearance.

Sunday's episode of the BBC series saw John Craven in Oxfordshire, where he learned about the signs provided by clouds, the behaviour of birds and a canon of country lore that might be of use at this time of year.

As well as speaking to a range of experts, John also dipped into the Countryfile archive including when Matt Baker went wassailing, but the move didn't go down well with some viewers.

Taking to X - formerly Twitter - one wrote: "more old clips."

Another added: "Tonight's #Countryfile budget seems to have been about 80p. Get John to talk to a couple of people about some nonsense or other and pack in a few repeats, sorry "gems from the archives"."

A third commented: "old repeated clip klaxon."

Meanwhile a fourth raged: "Here we go again: "Looking into the archives ...." So, more repeat content."

However, there were a number of new segments in the programme as John spoke to the experts about how nature isn't as dormant as you might think in winter.

One of the experts was Phil Bruss of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, who revealed the elusive signs left by countryside creatures and what that tells us about the behaviour of winter wildlife.

But some viewers were distracted by Phil's bushy beard as he spoke to John.

One wrote on X: "Is that a stick on beard?"

Another thought the same, writing: "Stick on beard."

A third commented: "We had a teacher, at school, with a beard like that. He was known as Bogbrush."

Countryfile airs Sundays on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.