Charles Boden is a farmer's son who read English at Oxford University before becoming an agricultural journalist. Keen to capture what he saw as a vanishing way of life in rural England, he moved to Tyne Tees Television in 1985 to produce programmes about farming, nature and rural traditions in the region. He is best known for his film 'The Last Horseman' which followed a year in the life of the last farm in Britain to still use horse power instead of machinery.