The countryside matters hugely to us all as a nation, whether we live in it or not...

ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY PRESENTER JULES HUDSON TELLS ALISON JAMES ABOUT THE TV SHOW'S APPEAL, HIS 14-YEAR FARMHOUSE RESTORATION AND THE 'CATHARSIS' OF WRITING HIS MEMOIR AFTER THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER

- ALISON JAMES

Julia Bradbury says the countryside is good for our mental health

(Julia Bradbury/ Instagram)

TV PRESENTER Jules Hudson is standing against the kind of backdrop that has helped make him a household name.

We're talking quintessentially English rolling countryside, abundant spring greenery and that unmistakable stillness of a bright day in May.

In his pink shirt, well-worn Barbour jacket and faded denims, he looks every inch at home in it, too, with the relaxed stance of someone who belongs exactly where he is.

But when I suggest that his life - 30 years in television, his own lovely home in the country and a TV career built around celebrating rural Britain - has been carefully planned for years, he bursts into laughter.

“You might well presume that but actually you'd be very much mistaken,’ he says. “There was never a great strategic plan - rather a case of recognising opportunities and running with them.

“Often they've been opportunities that have taken me out of my comfort zone - a kind of, ‘Oh well, let's just see where this goes”

I’m speaking to the presenter of BBC's Escape to the Country about his new autobiography, Wild at Heart: My Journey to a Country Life.

Jules, 56, says his opportunistic approach to life gave him the book’s name. He explains: “We spent ages discussing the title and one of the options I favoured was Unplanned, because I think that’s very much been the way of it.

“I went to university after school and studied archaeology. I briefly flirted with the army, then I did a post-grad in archaeology. I still hadn’t found my niche, though”

‘This is when the idea of getting into TV first entered his head.

A friend of his had taken a course in broadcast journalism and was enjoying the medium so much that Jules thought television could work for him, as a creative soul with an interest in history.