BBC Scotland’s Landward is to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting with a special anniversary episode next month.
The first episode of the rural affairs programme aired on 4th April 1976 from BBC Aberdeen, where it’s still produced.
That first episode ran for 25 minutes with items on the National Farmers’ Union conference and suckling cattle. At the start, it ran as a fortnightly show on Sunday lunchtimes ,appealing to audiences across rural and urban Scotland.
The anniversary show will take a deep dive into its archive from the last 50 years, including previously lost episodes, which have been digitised from the original film rolls.
Dougie Vipond, from the current presenting team, catches up with some of the show’s veterans, including the its first presenter, Ross Muir.
He also meets Arthur Anderson, the series producer who broadened the range of stories to cover all aspects of rural life in Scotland, expanding the content to include nature, wildlife, and the environment.
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Over the decades, Landward has widened its brief from a specialist farming programme, with the cameras capturing key moments from the big issues that mattered across rural Scotland such as land reform, historic land buyouts, animal disease outbreaks, renewable energy expansion and Covid.
“For fifty years, Landward has been at the heart of Scotland’s rural storytelling — shining a light on the people, landscapes and issues that shape our countryside,” said Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning, BBC Scotland.
“Its commitment to authenticity, depth and local voices has made it a constant in the BBC Scotland schedule, and a trusted companion for audiences across generations.
“We’re incredibly proud to mark this milestone and to celebrate the Landward teams and stories down the decades.”
Landward will continue to celebrate its fifty years throughout this Spring series by revisiting the archive.
The first episode of the new series of Landward airs at 8.30 pm on Thursday 2 April on BBC Scotland and iPlayer.
