I've just sat in a meeting with someone from another magazine based in our building and he was talking about an article he had written about his top five fictional builders (I think we're thinking Bob the Builder etc). He has challenged me to come up with the top five fictional farmers, so here is my list. If anyone can came come up with some better ones, then please let us know:

1) Old Macdonald (Popular with young and old alike and I like his very mixed enterprise. He has cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses....)

2) Jack Sugden (I'm not sure he's a good farmer, but he's one of the longest serving characters on Emmerdale so he deserves some acknowledgement. And at least he's stayed around, not like his brother Joe [or is he dead?]).

3) David Archer (much nicer than Brian Aldridge. I also think Ruth is lovely.)

4) Farmer Palmer (just to show that people in the farming industry can laugh at themselves. Get orff moy laand!)

5) Farmer Frank (OK this is a bit of cheat but we love him!) 

Wasn't there a fictional Farmer Brown in a childrens story or so my time scrambled memory seems to think?

Oh and not sure if he qualifys as a farmer but maybe Pop Larkin (Darling Buds Of May). He certainly lived on a farm and had various motley looking livestock about the place.

I'd forgotten all about Pop Larkin... Good one.

How about:

Bathsheba Everdene (sheep and cereals), played in the 1960s film by Julie Phwooaaarrr Christie, who ends up with salt-of-the-earth yeoman Gabriel Oak, after going through dashing bounder Sergeant Troy and Mr Boldwood (the sort of man who employs farmers) in Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy;

Farmer Giles of Ham (mixed and mythical) by JRR Tolkien;

Tom Joad (alfalfa, probably - it's usually alfalfa), forced off his farm and onto the road by the dustbowl in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck;

Farmer Jones, the rightful owner of Animal Farm, in the book by George Orwell;

and last but not least, chicken pie entrepreneurs Mr & Mrs Tweedy in Chicken Run (the worst thing Nick Park ever did IMHO)

1) Alf Thompson from Postman Pat? Or the Tractor Driver Ted Glen

2) Jimmy from Jimmy's Farm....he's not for real is he?!

3) Farmer Fi from Tractor Tom

4) Farmer Pickles from bob the builder

Caleb Major, father of Major Major Major Major in Catch-22, a wise and wily old midwesterner who makes a living not growing alfalfa.

How about Sep, created by Henry Brewis (cartoonist- see books 'chewing the cud' and 'funnywaytmekalivin') He says all the things i'd like to say, but i'm too polite!!! 

My top fictional farmer (well ok rancher) would be Wil Andersen (John Wayne) in The Cowboys and then maybe Jean de Florette but Sep has to be in the top 3

What about Farmer Hogget from the Sheep-pig by Dick King-Smith (filmed as Babe)? 

But like Honest John, I would jump at (probably not the correct preposition) Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdine!

What do you mean - Farmer Frank's not real? It can't be true! That's a deadful thing to say. Saying Farmer Frank isn't real is like saying that neither is the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Father Christmas, The EU treaty, Gordon Brown and Dave3. I am heartbroken.

Don?

Darling:

 

What do you mean - Farmer Frank's not real? It can't be true! That's a deadful thing to say. Saying Farmer Frank isn't real is like saying that neither is the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Father Christmas, The EU treaty, Gordon Brown and Dave3. I am heartbroken.

Thanks for your faith in me, Darling. I am real. I'm here aren't I...

I'm also going to be holding another 'live surgery' on the forums soon - I'm going to do it one Friday night from my local!

So, get your questions ready. Remember, no problem is too big or too small for Farmer Frank.

Jacobus:

But like Honest John, I would jump at (probably not the correct preposition) Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdine!

I was hopelessly casting around to remember some fictional farmers, but sadly in most of the literature I've read the farmers seem to stay somewhat anonymous; they rarely rise to the status of named characters.  Perhaps there is a gap in the literary world for farmers as subjects.  Or maybe we're just not interesting enough?  But then how is the popularity of the Archers explained?