Jack Hargreaves - Published Film, Tapes and DVDs

Published Film, Tapes and DVDs

Hargreaves had worked with Steve Wade on How before Southern Television lost its franchise. After Southern Television was no more, Hargreaves worked with Wade to make twenty-seven new Out of Town episodes. Instead of the studio 'shed' that had been a mainstay of the Southern Television series these episodes were made in Jack's real shed at his last home beside Raven Cottage, Belchalwell, in Dorset. Using original cut film inserts he had bought from Southern Television, Hargreaves acquired a Steenbeck editing machine and, with Steve Wade, selected films to be inserted into the new series. These films were tele-cined at Bournemouth Film School and copied to VHS tapes. Steve Wade (director), Phil Wade, his son (sound), and Steve Wagstaff (camera) with Brian Mathews (production manager), shot new links in the shed. Jack then sat in his front room at Raven Cottage and did a new voice-over to the VHS of the film inserts. Brian Mathews and Steve Wade took these component parts to London where they were assembled as the final programmes for distribution by Primetime, later Endemol, as VHS tapes and later DVDs for home viewing. They comprise:

1. Appleby Fair/Ramming Time, New Forest Point to Point/Apple Grafting and Kingfishers/Model Carts
2. Sheep Shearing/Sea Bream, Sweetheart Story/Tyring a Cart and Farm Sale/Fishing in a Gale/Forest Fire
3. Market Day/Minnow Trap/Lobster Boat, Iron Ponds/Lobster Breeding and Romney Marsh/Pumpkins.
4. Lambing/Mayfly, Mole Catcher/High School Horse and Rake Maker/Stage Coach.
5. Bee-Skips/Pheasant Shooting, Tidal Mill/Ice Fishing and Fly Casting/The Log Splitter.
6. The Hidden Stream/Deer Shoot, The Shooting Master and British Finches/Yerro’s Operation.
7. Stour River, Hacienda/Bullfight and House Building/Trout and Grayling.
8. Freeze Branding/Cider Making, Trammel Nets/The Coach Builder and Big Skate/Pannage.
9. Cod Fishing/Centenarian Angler, Charcoal Burners/Pigeon Shooting and Long Distance Ride.

In the early 1980s, after the demise of Southern Television in 1981, Hargreaves teamed up with Lacewing Productions, a small company founded by David Knowles (ex-Southern Television). Lacewing, based in Winchester, were commissioned by Channel 4, via Limehouse Productions in London, to make a series similar to Out of Town. Setting up a studio in the village hall at Meonstoke, Hampshire, Jack worked with Steve Wade, Phil Wade and Steve Wagstaff (location cameraman), to sort, edit and rework a new version of Out Of Town called Old Country. Over two years Lacewing produced approximately sixty Old Country episodes, broadcast nationally on Channel 4. Hargreaves also authored a number of audio-tapes and long play records on his favourite subjects. As of 2011 none of the broadcasts Hargreaves made for Southern Television nor the series of Old Country on Channel 4 have been published in any format. The only form in which such material may currently be seen is via recordings made by viewers at the time they were broadcast - with extracts being streamed on the web.