Meet the boss

Ever wondered who is behind the scenes, bringing the nation’s most popular factual programme to our screens every week? Annabel Ross meets Countryfile’s series editor Jane Lomas

- By Jane Lomas. Photographs by Oliver Edwards

Choosing a new series editor for Countryfile can’t be easy, but when Jane Lomas was chosen, just weeks before we went into Covid lockdown in 2020, the BBC must have been pleased to know the series was safely in her hands, because Jane is an eternal optimist and turns a potential problem into a creative challenge. While many other BBC programmes fell off air and fumbled around wondering how to cope, Countryfile didn’t miss a beat. Jane’s positive attitude to work and to life in general was very obvious during our walk and talk in the beautiful autumnal Bourton Combe woods in north Somerset.

Q: We’ve come to walk in Flax Bourton because we both live not far away, but if you could have chosen anywhere in Britain to go for a walk today, where would you be?

A: Oh, I know exactly where I’d be. I would be on the coast of Northumberland, walking from Craster to Dunstanburgh and beyond because there is a very good little pub that does crab sandwiches. And that, for me, well, it’s God’s own country. I think I was probably a Northumbrian in a former life, I just have this extraordinary pull to it.

Q: You are the present series editor for Countryfile. What does that actually mean?

A: Good question. Put the tin helmet on every day and wait for the flak to fly (laughing). Really it’s never me on my own because I have a lot of fantastic help. It’s about looking after the team,it’s the editorial direction of the programme, what you can do, where you can go and obviously how we can film, particularly during Covid. We are still filming with restrictions because we’re very careful. So it’s a big job for everybody, it’s relentless and it’s week-in week-out. But what I love is that all the time, I’m learning.