Countryfile star Adam Henson has addressed viewers’ “frustrations” as he fears they could switch off the show. The 60-year-old has fronted the popular BBC One series for almost 25 years now.

He juggles his role as presenter with running Bemborough Farm near Guiting Power. The site doubles up as the hugely popular Cotswolds Park Farm, which welcomes around 180,000 visitors each year.

The attraction was founded by Adam’s dad Joe in 1971. Adam however took over the operation of the site in 1999 with his business partner Duncan Andrews.

• Emmerdale Joe Tate's future on ITV soap 'confirmed' after announcement


• Who is Judy Ann Prachyl in Landman as show pays tribute?

And while Adam might be familiar with the ins and outs of rural life, he admits he often finds himself “dumbing down” the way he discusses farming when presenting Countryfile. However he admits this can lead to some viewers getting “fed up”.

Speaking on the FarmED podcast in December, he said: “I am quite Marmite I think. Mainly because I work for Countryfile, and have done for 24 years, we are a magazine show that has a whole array of topics and we’re a countryside show, not a farming show.

“It used to be the farming programme and farmers watching it get frustrated that we’re not robust enough in some of our communication about farming, the technology, the finances, the struggles. And we’re not championing British farming enough.

“There are others who congratulate me for everything I do on the programme and talking about what I talk about, so there’s a bit of both. What I say to those who are critical or don’t quite understand what we’re trying to deliver is that the BBC aren’t making a programme to champion British farming, they’re making a programme to get viewing figures, and whatever drives that viewing figures they’ll make more of.”

Adam highlighted the format of The Great British Bake Off, which has since been replicated with the likes of The Great British Sewing Bee and The Great Pottery Throwdown. He explains that Countryfile is the “most watched factual programme” on TV.

He continued: “When I’m doing my little farming piece if I say, ‘Right, I’m going to move bunch of steers up the paddock, we’re going to put them into the handling pens, then down the race into the crush and we’re going to TB test them’, my producer will say to me, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, what do you mean?’”

Adam says he has to make sure he explains fully so his audience understands, although admits it can leave farmers disenfranchised. He said: “I have to say, ‘Right, I’m going to move this bunch of cattle, they’re steers, castrated males. We’re going to put them into a handling system so we can handle them safely, we’re going to put them down a race, which is a narrow corridor so they’re going to go in single file into what we call a crush, which is a machine that holds them nice and still so that we can TV test them, which is about Bovine TB’, and then I’ll explain all about it.

“The farmer who understands the first way I said it listens to me saying it in a much more simplified dumbed down way and turns over, that’s the frustration. That farmer has forgotten there’s a kid in a flat in Birmingham who has never seen a sheep before, and those are the people I’m trying to reach.”

Adam has previously revealed he “gets a bit of stick” from farmers but has to remain unbiased when presenting Countryfile. Speaking on The Tweedl Pod in 2024, he said: “It is difficult and what you have to remember as a presenter is to not be biased about anything, within the BBC you have to be balanced with your view point, you can’t campaign for anything particularly.

“But also, we’re talking to an audience of three-and-a-half million people, some of which are farmers, countryside people, gamekeepers, others are living in a flat in Hackney or Coventry, wherever it is.”

Adam will be presenting Countryfile from 6pm on BBC One tonight (January 18). Alongside Charlotte Smith he will be speaking to communities wanting to protect Devon's Exe Estuary as well as visiting a brand-new nature reserve.