Famous for his jumpers and his relaxed, unpatronising demeanour, John Craven is one of the best-loved presenters on British television. He can be seen on BBC Four in Time Shift's documentary about news for children on Tuesday 3 June 2003.
In addition to his 17 years as host (and from 1986 onwards, editor) of Newsround, he was a familiar face on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore. In 1996 the Royal Television Society made John Craven a member of its Hall of Fame and he currently presents Countryfile on BBC One.
Francis Roberts: Is it true that you only ever missed one episode of Newsround and that was because your wife was having a baby?
John Craven: No, that's not exactly true. The first edition I missed was in the very early days, in 1972, when my first daughter was born and the newsreader Richard Whitmore took over for me. Later, I did miss two or three editions through illness and when the programme went daily round the year, every week, I did take some holidays!
Norman: What is your academic background?
JC: I went to grammar school but left at 16 and got a job with ICI as a commercial apprentice. But I was really more interested in writing for the works magazine than in studying to be a company secretary so after three years the firm released me from my indentures and I became a junior reporter on a local newspaper, The Harrogate Advertiser. Maybe I should have studied harder and tried to get to university, but in those days you didn't need a degree to get into journalism and I had a great time in my late teens and early twenties learning my trade - and friends I made in the business then are still my friends today.
Freddy Higgins:
Are there any decisions you regret as editor of Newsround? Did you ever feel that you went too far with a story, or not far enough?
JC: No, I don't regret any editorial decisions I took on Newsround. Sometimes we did push the boundaries, such as the first time we reported AIDS. It was during the first National Aids Week in the late 1980s, and I was told there was a great deal of misinformed playground gossip. Children were being told they could catch AIDS from toilet seats, from kissing dad, things like that. So we decided to correct all that by devoting a whole edition of Newsround to AIDS and putting it into a proper perspective. I thought we might get lots of complaints, but we had only two, and one of them said we had not gone far enough.
Kate: Do you think your appeal was as much to do with the parents who were watching as the children?
JC: It was very important from the very start to get parents on side. After all, they were trusting me to tell their children about events in the world that could often be tragic or disturbing and it was my job to explain them in a way that our audience could understand and appreciate. Often children were watching with no adult in the room to turn to for help and guidance - they had to rely on me. I will always be grateful that the parents of this country had, and still do have, faith in Newsround to the job. Parental approval is vital - but I don't think it has much to do with Newsround's appeal to its target audience. They watch it because it is interesting.
Nigel: Do you still watch Newsround? If so what do you think of its current incarnation?
JC: I rarely get chance to see Newsround these days but when I do I'm impressed. Times change and so do styles in television presentation and it's much snappier, much more visual than it was in my day. We had to persuade BBC correspondents around the world to send reports specially for the programme and very occasionally I would go abroad to make 'specials', whereas today the programme uses their own team much more, something we couldn't really afford to do. I particularly admire the Newsround Extras and the use of children as reporters - we pioneered the idea but later teams have really perfected it. I made a brief re-appearance, co-presenting the 30th anniversary programme in 2002, and I found that the core values were still there, and so were the journalistic disciplines required to explain complicated issues to young people. On that programme there was a background explanation piece about the Middle East which I would have been proud to have written.
Adam Smith: What was the strangest thing that ever happened on Saturday Swap Shop?
JC: Lots of strange things happened to me on Swap Shop, a three-hour Saturday morning show which was such a huge contrast to my daily job. I still did many serious, important items on Swap Shop - I was supposed to be the 'grit' in the mixture - but I was also given the chance to lark about as well. Things that spring to mind include dressing up as an Ugly Sister for the pantomime (Noel Edmonds was the other one!) and putting on an enormous black wig and trying to be a BeeGee singing Massachusetts.
Louise Ruffell: Why did you decide to work on Countryfile rather than staying with a broader news agenda? Was it a difficult decision? Do you have any regrets?
JC: I moved to Countryfile from Newsround because the job was offered to me and, after many years in the daily news business, I thought that presenting a weekly programme about rural affairs would be a very pleasant change - and so it has proved to be. I had no real interest in working in adult news (though I did later make a guest newsreading appearance on The Big Breakfast!) and was looking for a new direction. I have always had a great affection for the countryside, and my years on Newsround had developed my interest in the environment and conservation, so Countryfile was for me the perfect path to take. Like Newsround, it's the only programme of its kind on the network and it has a loyal and responsive audience but in every other way it couldn't be more different. And I have no regrets whatsoever. I see some of the best bits of Britain on my Countryfile travels and in the past few years rural issues have climbed much higher up the national agenda, which makes the job even more rewarding.
Sam Coles: Are there any jobs in television that you would still like to do?
JC: I would love to work on a programme that has a really big budget, just for once!
Jonathan Wilson: Children and teenagers are often lambasted for their lack of interest in anything other than trivia and pop stars, do you think that is a fair criticism?
JC: Not in my experience. During my time on Newsround, I got thousands of letters from children expressing forceful views on a huge variety of issues. Judging by the responses we got when we reported abuses of nature, it's easy to believe that children were the footsoldiers of the green revolution. They have high ideals, they want to prevent the world from destroying itself - the problem has always been in retaining those ideals when they grow up. And anyway, what's wrong with being interested in pop stars and trivia - as long as it's not a total diet?
Liz Ryder: What do you think of the way news programmes have developed? Do you think for instance that instead of illustrating a story graphics often become an end in themselves?
JC: Because television is THE visual medium, I think there can be a tendency for television newsrooms to say: "We've got a great graphic here, now what's the story to go with it?" It was not a problem in the early days of Newsround, when our graphics were made from bits of cardboard. But computer graphics changed everything - as did the entire electronic and digital revolution in television news - and almost every story seems to need an eye-catching graphic. Some can be extremely helpful in comprehending a subject as well as being entertaining to watch, but I often ask myself if some of them are really needed. We manage to get through entire editions of Countryfile without using any!
Adult news bulletins do give much more background information than they used to - maybe they learned that from Newsround! But I get annoyed with the current vogue for newsreaders to speak "live" to correspondents immediately after their reports have been shown. Unless they are revealing some late-breaking information, why can't they put it all into their reports?
Nina: Who do you rate as a presenter and where do you get your news from?
JC: There are so many good presenters I hate to pick out individuals, but my favourites include David Attenborough (my long-time hero!), Jeremy Paxman - and the entire Countryfile team! I get my news from a selection of daily papers, at ten o'clock on BBC One and from what I think is the best source of the latest news anywhere in the world, the six o'clock evening news on Radio 4. If I were to read any news bulletin now, I would like to read that one.
Penny Holder: I believe that you presented Newsround for about 17 years. Do you have any plans for how long you'll stay on Countryfile and do you think you'll stay in television for the rest of your working life?
JC: Yes, I was with Newsround for 17 years and I've been with Countryfile since 1989 so I have spent almost all my broadcasting years as lead presenter on just two programmes. Many people are remembered for programmes which they personally might prefer to forget but I am proud to be associated with Newsround and Countryfile. They are programmes which, within their specific brief, are constantly changing - at the moment, for example, Countryfile is running at an hour instead of 30 minutes every Sunday, which means yet another new challenge. I hate the thought of retiring and hope to keep broadcasting for as long as people will have me.
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