Press Releases

BBC Radio 4 has been given exclusive access to the behind-the-scenes story of the demise of Britain's most prestigious agricultural event – The Royal Show.

In The Royal Show In Crisis (Sunday 5 April) presenter Tom Heap charts the show's ups and downs over the past few months which have culminated in today's announcement that this year is to be its last.

Tom has been given exclusive access to the show's organisers who have attempted to pull the phoenix from the ashes.

The show has recently been blighted by dwindling attendance, the foot-and-mouth outbreak and atrocious weather, but this week they accepted that this bastion of the summer season has had its day.

In an interview with Radio 4's Farming Today This Week (Saturday 4 April, 6.30am) Hugh Oliver-Bellasis, Chairman of Council at the Royal Agricultural Society of England, said: "I think our greatest sin was to react too slowly to changes in the industry. We weren't sufficiently agile at a time when the industry itself was agile."

In Sunday's documentary, Tom, who was there when the decision was made to close the show, gives Radio 4 listeners an insight into this difficult period in the Royal Show's 170-year history.

Notes to Editors

The Royal Show In Crisis is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 1.30pm, Sunday 5 April.

Farming Today is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 6.30am, Saturday 4 April 2009.

Radio 4 Publicity