Auntie is biting back. After 23 years, the BBC is to drop the programme beloved of city and country folk alike - One Man and His Dog. The mooted demise of the show devoted to the sport of sheep trials has sparked a huge campaign in Britain, spearheaded by the Daily Telegraph. As it has received letters in their thousands, the British Culture Secretary, Chris Smith has called on the BBC to rethink its position. Sorrowful bleating has been heard up and down the hills of the United Kingdom, and the situation has been worrying sheep farmers here as well.
Since it began in 1976, one quarter of the programme's teams of competitors have been Irish, competing against men and their dogs from England, Scotland and Wales. Irish devotees of the sport are, therefore, to join the British campaign and the matter was discussed at the Irish Sheepdog Trials Association recently at a meeting in Kilcash, Co Tipperary.
The association's chairman, Eamonn Egan of Co Galway, says he would be "very sad" to see the show end. "Good quality dogs are scarce and valuable and I feel a lot of these [dog trial] skills are going. One Man and His Dog shows the training and skill that goes into the communication between the man and his dog. It has also encouraged people to go into the sport."
Denis Birchall, a Co Wicklow sheep farmer describes the scrapping of the show as a "disgrace". He won the singles competition in the tournament in 1996.
"Everyone watches it," he says. "Wherever you'd go, whoever you'd talk to, people were always rushing home to watch One Man and His Dog."
The programme's presenter, Robin Page, has received more than 6,000 letters of support (sent via the Daily Telegraph), which he delivered to the BBC last week.
A One Man . . . veteran, Lionel Pennyfather, was runner-up in the third series - 20 years ago. Now in his 90s, the Cork-man still watches the programme.
"I am very sad it will no longer be shown. It is such a lovely spectacle, to watch man and dog working in harmony." Pennyfather, who was trialing dogs into his 80s.
Conor McGarry from Co Roscommon, who appeared on the show in 1995 - when the singles competition was also won by Ireland - feels the BBC is making a big mistake.
"The programme could be developed and made into something much bigger. The sport is getting more and more popular. It means an awful lot to sheepdog men and has a following both in the country and the city. It's a pity one of the Irish stations doesn't move in to take it over." David Lyttle, of Pettigoe, Co Donegal, was on Ireland's 1992 team to One Man and His Dog. "I had heard something about the show going off the air, but to be honest I hadn't watched it much in the last few years. It was on at too awkward a time."
The programme was moved from its Sunday evening slot in 1989, to Saturday evening. It rescheduled again to Friday evenings and finally, has been shown in recent years on Saturday afternoons - when most sheep farmers are out working. Its viewing figures have fallen from a high in 1981 of 7.8 million a week, to 1.5 million in the last few years.
Page believes rescheduling by the BBC was deliberate, "to reduce viewing figures to have an excuse to axe One Man. . .
"The end of the programme," he says, "is not only a pity for sheep farmers and dog trialers. It's a pity for the whole country. One Man and His Dog was just about the last rural interest programme left. Rural interests are being sidelined and this is just another example of how the agricultural community is being sold down the river." He is hopeful however, that Sky television may shepherd the programme onto its airtime. Failing that, there will be live performances by the men and their dogs at this year's Irish national sheepdog trial finals. Open to the public, they take place at Cork racecourse in Mallow on August 12th, 13th and 14th. The top 15 dogs and their men (or women) will represent Ireland at the International finals in Aberystwyth, North Wales on September 9th, 10th and 11th.