Out of Town, the hugely popular TV series originally made by Southern Television staring the late Jack Hargreaves, is making a comeback. The new series is currently being piloted by the Country Channel, with the first programme filmed last week. For the pilot, fly fishing expert Charles Jardine put Jack’s 1950’s split cane rod (an Ogden Smith Warrior fly rod) through its paces and compared its performance with Charles’ own carbon fibre modern fly rod (a Hardy Marksman) on Wallop Brook, a tributary of the Test, in Hampshire.
Said Charles: “Jack’s fly rod spins me back to my childhood when I used to use split cane fly rods; they – and this one is a prime example – seem to live in the hand and easy through the cast. Some might say ‘soft’ and ‘mellow’. I would just say ‘living’. The rods of today? They are faster; they’re greyhounds to Split Canes venerable Labrador. The current rods are precise and exquisitely efficient and so light…if a little impersonal; but they sure get the job done. I guess that both fly rods will take you on the fly fishing journey, it all depends how you want to travel – and arrive – at the trouty destination, I guess.â€
Presenting the new Out of Town series is modern day countryman and journalist, Paul Peacock, who is Jack’s biographer. Out of Town II is seeking to recreate the spirit of Jack Hargreaves with his passion and love of the countryside in an updated format relevant for a 21st century audience.
The Country Channel, which broadcasts to an audience of 31 000 a month via the Internet and Sky 167, has secured the rights to develop ‘Out of Town II’, and is filming the pilot series in collaboration with Paul Peacock.
Jack’s rod and the catch
Charles using both rods
