{"id":688598,"date":"2026-07-13T03:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688598\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T03:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:10:17","slug":"countryfile-legend-john-craven-85-in-scary-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688598\/","title":{"rendered":"Countryfile legend John Craven, 85, in ‘scary’ moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The 85-year-old has presented the popular BBC rural affairs show for 37 years, having started in 1989.\n<\/p>\n

\n Prior to that, he had a 17-year stint on Newsround, which he helped launch on the BBC back in 1972.\n<\/p>\n

\n Away from TV, Mr Craven lives in a village near Banbury with his wife Marilyn, where the couple brought up two daughters.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Also on the show since 2001 is presenter Adam Henson, who lives in the Cotswolds, just across the Oxfordshire border.\n<\/p>\n

\n In a previous interview, the 60-year-old opened up about a “scary” moment on the show involving his colleague.\n<\/p>\n

\n He admitted he feared the worst when Mr Craven took a tumble while the pair were guiding oxen and a cart during a segment on the programme.\n<\/p>\n

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\n The presenter said his co-star was fortunately uninjured and carried on with the shoot, showing the calm professionalism he is known for.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo, the guys I work with on Countryfile, they understand that, but often they [animals] are doing the wrong thing, so they are either mating in the background or going to the toilet, you know, misbehaving in some way,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut, probably the scariest, most worrying moment, we used to have a pair of working long-haul oxen that if you yoke them together they could pull a cart.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was working with John Craven, and he was on the farm with me; this is going back a few years ago now.\n<\/p>\n

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\n \u201cWe were both leading an ox each; they are usually very well behaved; well, they are very well behaved, this oxen [was].\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cJohn tripped over a lump of dirt and fell in front of the ox, and this is a tonne of an animal, and the ox could\u2019ve easily spooked him and lurched forward, and then you would\u2019ve had the ox, and then the cart run John over.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The ox stood firm and stopped, which then allowed Mr Craven to get up safely, according to Mr Henson.\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cJohn, being the wonderful presenter he is, just laughed and got back up and carried on talking to the camera, but my heart was in my mouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 85-year-old has presented the popular BBC rural affairs show for 37 years, having started in 1989. Prior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-688598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}