Nearly half the population of Britain lives within 60 miles of the Peak District National Park. Millions visit the Park each year. Yet how many know of the battles that took place for the right to walk and climb there? Ewan MacColl - folksinger and rambler - returns to Kinder Scout and tells the story of one that he remembers.
'An average day's fishing depends on what river you are fishing. I was on the Spey last week and I was averaging 11 pearls a day - 11 saleable pearls I mean - some of them worth £5. You never lose the thrill of getting a pearl that's perfect, unblemished, you know it's a thing of beauty. It's not really the money, it's the beauty and the challenge because it takes you a long time and experience before you can get a pearl like that out of the river.' The tools of his trade are a glass-bottomed bucket and a cleft ash stick, his job is an eternal treasure hunt - he is Bill Abernethy, the only man in Britain to have on his passport, 'Profession: pearl fisher.'
'Marathon running has an almost masochistic attraction, it is a question of how far can you push yourself. I feet that I can accept more pain than the average person; I have learnt to, over the years, physically and mentally.' Jim Alder, reigning champion of the Commonwealth Games, describes his thoughts and feelings about Marathon running, and how it has affected his life. In the end it is a question of how hard you drive yourself, and for sheer guts and dogged perseverance Jim Alder will take a lot of beating in the Commonwealth Marathon Championship in Edinburgh on Thursday.
Eriskay is a remote Gaelic-speaking island in the Scottish Hebrides - best known from 'The Eriskay Love Lilt.' But it has more romance: here on the white-sand beach Bonnie Prince Charlie set foot on Scottish soil, and here they romped through the real-life 'Whisky Galore' story. Duncan Campbell is back living on this barren and beautiful island with his wife and eight children. Like so many Eriskay boys he had to leave, for there was no work. Now, after half a lifetime away, he has returned to a different Eriskay - still romantic, but stirring with a new prosperity from the sea. (from Scotland)
Countryman, businessman, councillor, musician, and conductor of the Godre'r Aran Male Choir. To him the best place on earth is his home village - Llanuwchllyn, on the shores of Bala Lake in Merionethshire. With the help of members of his choir he gives us a glimpse of the way of life of this rural Welsh community, and tells us why its preservation means so much to him. (from Wales)
"I fly because I enjoy it; it is freedom in the sky Teaching is jun; children are infinitely variable; full of possibilities - and they matter." The two worlds of Miss Frances MacRae, aerobatic ace and London schoolmistress This film looks at a woman who is equally at home taking classes in Highgate and weaving patterns in the sky over the Surrey countryside. The first woman to join the British team in the World Aerobatic Championships, Frances MacRae started flying ten years ago. On a demonstration flight, the pilot asked her to take the controls and she was immediately hooked. In eight years, she had mastered her little yellow and red biplane and was taking part in International Championships. She became a teacher just after the war after leaving the Civil Service; she quickly realised that it was what she wanted to do and 25 years later is assistant head of the same school in Highgate. (Patterns in the sky: page 8)
A voyage by narrow boat with Ken Dunham and his family to the centre of Birmingham along the once flourishing Canal Navigations of the Black Country. Today this great waterway system has served its purpose - industry has turned its back on the 'cut'; but, with 'just a touch of Venice,' Park Head Locks, Gas Street Basin, and Pudding Green Junction may come alive again - inland ports along a colourful cruiseway for voyaging into England. Written and directed by Peter Bale (From Bristol)
At least, whatever human beings feel about Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, there's no place like it for its 3,000 racing pigeons. Every Saturday throughout the summer they're transported to the South of England, or over the sea to France. But they fly straight back -and the fastest home means money. Skinningrove's pigeon passion is seen through the eyes of the Rawson family - Cecil, Jean, Ken, Louie, George, and grandfather Charles. Written and produced by David Bean
In 1720 Gilbert White, naturalist, was born in the Hampshire village of Selborne. His Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, a classic work of observation, gives us a detailed account of the seasonal changes of our countryside and a vivid insight into rural 18th-century England. Today Selborne - only 50 miles from Hyde Park Corner-rides the 20th century with disarming ease. White's Selborne survives. Anthony Rye, who has lived there all his life, shares with us the secret of Selborne's success. Written and directed by Peter Crawford (from Bristol)
They may not have managed their 11-plus, but the children of the South Shields Secondary Schools Brass Band can make magnificent music. During the summer holiday they were invited to perform at Durham University, and tonight we learn their story from the man who brought brass back to schools of South Shields and from one of the performers on this great night - the boy who bangs the gong.
The Cambria is the last coasting barge in Europe still working under sail alone. She carries anything you care to put into her hold, from coal to cattle cake. Her skipper Bob Roberts has never served in a ship with an engine, and never intends to. He's preserved his way of working and endeavours to preserve the charm and traditions of Pin Mill, the Suffolk hamlet in which he lives.
There is a legend that sometime during the years which followed the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea brought the teaching of Christ to the Druids in Glastonbury, and built there the first Christian church in the world. A week in June this year began with a hippie gathering to celebrate the Summer Solstice on Glastonbury Tor, and ended with the Church of England pilgrimage to the Abbey ruins-within virtual earshot of the Pop Festival at neighbouring Shepton Mallet. John Shelly is a potter who lives and works at the foot of the Tor. For him, Glastonbury is the heart-centre of England - the place where a new spirit took root at the dawn of the Christian era. Among the hippies, 'the angelic generation,' he finds signs of the birth of a new spirit for a new era - as we enter the Age of Aquarius. (from Bristol)
Joss Naylor is a Cumberland hill sheep farmer who was nearly crippled when young, and had three discs removed from his spine when he was 21. To get himself fit he used to run up and down the mountains - 30, 40, 50 miles a day - until today he is one of the champion fell runners in the Lake District. His farm borders Wastwater, awe-inspiringly sombre in twilight, breathtakingly Beautiful in sunlight. In the neighbourhood they boast 'the deepest lake in England, the highest mountain, the smallest church.'
George Mackay Brown was born in Stromness, Orkney, in 1921. He read English at Edinburgh University but poor health forced him to cut short his studies. He returned to Orkney - to die or to live by his pen. Fortunately the latter course has succeeded magnificently and has led to many literary awards. In this programme Mackay Brown creates a tapestry of the Orkney Islands. (from Scotland)
If you take a boat up the river from Abingdon to Oxford you cannot fail to notice one very large house, standing apparently alone on the rising ground to the east. Two hundred years ago Oliver Goldsmith published The Deserted Village, and it is now claimed that the building ten years earlier of this house - Nuneham House - and the replanning of the estate around it, caused him to write his lament - 'The country blooms - a garden and a grave' Written and directed by Brandon Acton-Bond (from Bristol)
"I often used to say that my ambition in life would be to get a little greyhound. If he only ran in one race, never mind winning - I would be quite happy." Few people can have had a wish so completely fulfilled as Hugh and Winnie McRandal, who live on the coast at Carrickfergus, about six miles north of Belfast. Their greyhound, Meadowbank Joe, has proved a real money-spinner. He has won well over £1,000 in 18 months. (BBC Northern Ireland)
The three Cadzow brothers had an idea of producing large and tender fillet steaks from animals tough enough to survive wintering on the hills of the Scottish Highlands. It has taken them 25 years and to do it they had to create the first new beef cattle breed for nearly two centuries - Luing cattle. To accomplish their task they turned the Hebridean island of Luing into a huge experimental ranch - and changed its people's way of life. Written by Clifford Hanley From BBC Scotland
Dartmoor became a National Park in 1951. Sylvie Sayer has fought ruthlessly to prevent the wild moor being tamed. Rene Cutforth looks over her field of battle and adds his own comments.
We spend millions in keeping out the sea, particularly in places where people should never have chosen to live. We are Canutes, and occasionally suffer the consequences, as in the floods of 1953. We are perpetually threatened by the sea, and yet have no national plan whatsoever for dealing with the invader. The Britain we live in is quite a different shape to all its former outlines and, despite our money, it will continue to change, inexorably, unceasingly. Filmed on Operation Seashore
Cameron MacDonald is five years old, and lives at Glenfarclas, on Speyside, where his father manages one of the 50 famous distilleries in that beautiful Highland valley. An only child in a glen where the other boys and girls already attend school, he has created a busy world of vivid imagination and hard work.' On his first day at school he meets, behind a closed door, the world of facts, 'reality,' and competition. (From Scotland)
Place where nothing happens but it happens all the time. Elma Williams came to Pantglas in North Cardiganshire to write romantic novels but, she says, the animals here have taken her over and her life is now theirs. They farm the valley, she claims, run their own society and attend their own chapel. It is not the local farmers' idea of Paradise but, for Elma Williams, Heaven is on her doorstep. (From Wales)
The Chilterns are 500 square miles of beautiful countryside, only about one hour's drive from London. Kevin Fitzgerald looks beneath the thatch of the pretty cottages, the uniform roofs of the housing estates, and sees the countryside as a place for the benefit of people who live there. In the last two decades more than a million people have come to live in the Chilterns. How has the area absorbed them, and how many more can it absorb before the countryside that they have all moved away from London to enjoy, is destroyed by their own enthusiasm for it?
Exactly 70 years ago this week, three lighthouse-keepers vanished mysteriously from the remote Hebridean Flannan Isles. The islands have generated mystery ever since St Flannan, according to legend, landed there in a stone boat 1,300 years ago. Tonight Finlay J. Macdonald tells his story of the Flannan Isles. (From Scotland)
In 1928, a small community of Benedictine monks journeyed from the remote Pembrokeshire island of Caldey to return to their traditional home at Prinknash. They adopted the old manor house as their home, but dreamt that soon they would build a fine new abbey. Only four of the original Caldey monks survive, but next year they and 40 others move into a new abbey half-a-mile away. It will have cost nearly £1400,000. This week's Look, Stranger gives a glimpse of the old monastic life at Prinknash, and the community's hopes for the future. (from Bristol)
The island of Rhum in the Inner Hebrides has been given back to its original owners - its wildlife. The Nature Conservancy has turned Rhum into Britain's largest conservancy area - an area as big as Jersey. The only people on the island are the Conservancy staff, and visiting scientists come to watch nature asserting itself again. From BBC Scotland
Ian Niall, writer and angler incorrigible, fishes a deserted upland landscape. It is a place where memory feeds legend and where the native people themselves have become intruders in a new wilderness - and all within 50 miles of millions who couldn't care less.
On the last Saturday of September streams of cars lined the narrow country roads around Blandford in Dorset, bringing some of the 40,000 people who came to enjoy this 'steam spectacular' - a gathering of some 200 working steam tractors, show-man's engines, roundabouts, organs, threshing machines and resurrected vintage farm machinery of all kinds. Mike Oliver is the organising secretary of this unique charity show. We join him on a tour of the showground as enthusiasts raise steam to show the children and remind old-timers of that special combination of smoke, smut and polished metalwork which, barely half a century ago, was a familiar part of the country scene. (from Bristol)
We like to make legends into fact - to believe in King Arthur, Lorna Doone, or Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Tess haunts the Dorset countryside that Hardy wrapped around her sad, beautiful life. The cottage where she was born, the byre where she worked as a milkmaid - it's all there, as if she had lived. In this week's programme Desmond Hawkins looks at Dorset from her point of view and his own. (from Bristol)
John Webb, 32, is a professional treasure hunter, using a beat frequency detector whose 'note' changes when it passes over metal, Roman coins, silver paper, shrapnel and dustbin lids. His first clues to hoards, lost treasure, highwayman's booty, come from old books. What drives him on is the big find - like Mildenhall and Sutton Hoo.
Not since Dick Whittington has a countryman caused such a stir in the City of London. First, a tradition of 600 years was broken to honour him; then cameras were allowed at a ceremony which, since the Middle Ages, only members have witnessed. His name is Eric Arthur Stevenson, and for 40 years he has been a village blacksmith in Wroxham, Norfolk.
"The isolation the ancientness the changing light on hills and valleys. In this Celtic-Scandinavian kingdom time does not matter." In this programme Sir John Betjeman revisits Ellan Vannin (Isle of Man) which he has known and loved since student days, and finds that the magnetism of the past is still very much present.
London's new Shaw Theatre, home of the National Youth Theatre, received a Royal opening last week. Outside the theatre in the Euston Road a sculptured 'St Joan' stands like a beacon. Keith Grant, one of Britain's busiest artists, talks about what led up to the making of his sculpture and the involvement of the community in its creation.
McKenzie Thorpe, half gypsy, stole his first shotgun at the age of 13 and went poaching full-time for the next 35 years. He scored 29 convictions, £150 in fines, had four guns confiscated, and did two months in Lincoln Gaol. Now reformed at 61 he lectures on wildfowling to gamekeepers and police, and cares for the geese he once hunted.
'Skylark'- Cecil Duston - is a stonemason who works the cream-white building stone from quarries which scar his home of Port-land at the southernmost tip of Dorset. Years ago he helped to reface London's Regent Street, more recently to create our new city centres. 'Skylark' is a craftsman, his tools are basically the same as those used centuries ago by the men who first learned to fashion stone He believes that there will always be a place for the mason in spite of new methods. (from Bristol)
Malcolm Appleby works in a derelict railway station where he puts 'scratches' on metal and is surrounded by nature. (BBC Scotland)
For over, 100 years the River Avon from Evesham to Stratford has lain silted up and derelict. No boats could travel along one of Britain's most beautiful waterways. David Hutchings of the Upper Avon Navigation Trust is bringing it back to life. Every single day of the week he works with prisoners and volunteers to build new locks, weirs and bridges and dredge the river. Soon a new leisure waterway will be open. (from Birmingham)
While the valleys grow green again some of the colliers of South Wales colour-match their jackets to their politics as they follow hounds over tip and dale, through undergrowth and open cast. Val Howells spends a day with the Banwen Hunt whose members pass the morning with their feet firmly under the ground and the afternoon with their heads in the clouds. (from Wales)
Few islands off the west coast of Scotland have survived depopulation - the Isle of Gigha is an exception. A sprightly 80-year-old, Donald Macdonald, still a skilful fisherman, shows why 'his' Gigha is now a place of beauty and prosperity.
Set between the Mourne Mountains and the Irish Sea, in the South East corner of Co Down, this kingdom was first ruled by the legendary King Boirche from the summit of Slieve Binnian. He and his line are long since gone, but the mountains remain-and the people. People like Stanley Archer who farms on the foot-hills of Glasdrumman Mountain. (from Belfast)
In this case, amongst the foothills of Snowdonia, in and around Portmadoc. For Jonah Jones, sculptor, these hills provide the raw material, slate, for much of his work, and a great deal of his inspiration.
For 800 years reindeer, which once flourished in the Highlands of Scotland, were not seen in this country. It tooK Mikel Utsi, a Laplander, to reintroduce them. In this week's programme he tells of the trials and tribulations of his efforts during the past 20 years.
'Ireland's leading children's entertainer - not just an act but a complete novelty programme...' He lives on the north Antrim coast surrounded by the essential tools of his trade - motor bikes and make-believe. (BBC Belfast)
Tucked away down a Victorian back street in Durham City is an old factory whose outside looks would never betray the fact that it has built some of the world's greatest church and concert organs. At the head of this 'organorganisation' is Cuthbert Temple Lane Harrison, third generation of a dynasty which always worked by hand to 'near perfection'. (from Manchester)
London's new Shaw Theatre, home of the National Youth Theatre, received a Royal opening last week. Outside the theatre in the Euston Road a sculptured 'St Joan' stands like a beacon. Keith Grant, one of Britain's busiest artists, talks about what led up to the making of his sculpture and the involvement of the community in its creation.
It is hard to imagine trees spoiling a landscape. But Christopher Harris, a local forester and conservationist, says it is happening in the Cotswold Hills today, and if we are not careful, this area of outstanding natural beauty could lose its traditional appearance completely.
What terrible truth was revealed when Achilles lost his leaf? How do you polish a bronze bust? Why do they always steal it from Queen Victoria? The extraordinary answers to such burning questions are revealed as John Lake, in charge of cleaning statues that belong to the nation, describes his work to Philip Howard.
Bill Houston is the kind of cyclist who would abhor the Tour de France race almost as much as he abhors the motor car - he prefers exploring back roads and goat tracks. When he came out of the army in 1946 he vowed that no one was going to order him about for 20 years. Twenty-five years later he is still living for the bicycle. That is, 25 years, 34 countries and 400,000 miles later. And he can say, with modesty, that he envies no man - and few would disbelieve him. (BBC Scotland)
Not since Dick Whittington has a countryman caused such a stir in the City of London. First, a tradition of 600 years was broken to honour him; then cameras were allowed at a ceremony which, since the Middle Ages, only members have witnessed. His name is Eric Arthur Stevenson, and for 40 years he has been a village blacksmith in Wroxham, on the Norfolk Broads. He tells his story of how a country craftsman came to be honoured by the City. Contributors Presenter: Eric Arthur Stevenson Director: Sandra Wainwright Executive Producer: Bridget Winter
Once a year the remote dale of the River Coquet up in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and Scotland comes alive for the local shepherds' show. For the past 15 years sheep farmer Bobby Dixon has been its secretary. With his wife Maisie and help from their neighbours from miles around they turn it into the border's big day. (from the North)
Leo Beskeen fell down a ventilating shaft, caught malaria while mining in Zambia and several times has only narrowly escaped being blown up by blasting operations. But he still says: 'When I go across there and smell the fumes of the dynamite smoke and the funk coming up from underground, it makes me long for my youth to go back again.' Now semi-retired Leo Beskeen acts as a summer guide for visitors to the old engine house near Redruth where he once worked. When he started there as a boy of 13, Cornish tin mining was going into decline. Now it is about to enter what some believe will be its greatest boom ever. (from Bristol)
Mary Davies operates single-handed from the Lake District to the Scottish Border, seeking and sifting evidence and compiling detailed dossiers. The outcome of her investigations is the arrest of alteration and destruction: she is an Investigator of Historic Buildings.
'I could have gone to the devil very, very easily when I was young. I had quite the wrong impulses.' But at 77, Mrs Dorathea Woodward-Fisher has gladdened many a heart; and to everyone on the river she is known affectionately as 'Mother Thames.'
He gave up his job at MI5, she resigned as PRO for the Savoy, and they set off to live in a derelict cottage and earn their living growing potatoes. Derek and Jeannie Tangye describe how they survived their own wild schemes and made their home on a Cornish cliff together with a cat and two donkeys. Contributors Presenter: Derek Tangye Presenter: Jeannie Tangye Director: Sandra Wainwright Executive Producer: Bridget Winter
The ingredients for magic brews in Durham aren't bat's blood and toad's warts but farm manure and Epsom salts. They seem to work nevertheless. The prize-winning leeks they nourish make southern leeks look like shallots. Those southerners who know about the North East leek contests regard them as just a joke. But there is more to them than that. For men like Brian Shave of Lyton Leek Club, leek growing is a tie with a traditional culture that is still firmly held on to despite social change. (from Bristol)
Before Mrs Sarah Pell was admitted to her modern flatlet in St Mary's Hospital, Chichester, she had to satisfy the trustees that she was of good character and would give 'no cause for scandal.' She is now 93 and has a vigour and sense of humour that belie her years. The 700-year-old charity she depends on may be the relic of a bygone age but she is certainly not. (from Bristol)
In parts of South Wales sheepdog trials are as popular as rugby matches. To their oddly assorted masters, working collies are the only dogs worth owning. Roy Saunders, a schoolmaster turned sheepdog handler, reflects on the men and animals 'whose looks don't matter - it's what's in their heads that counts.' (from Wales)
Major Peter Wood had a chance to realise a dream when he bought the lease of Herm island, near Guernsey, in 1949. He wanted to shape a community who would work together to make their living from this tiny paradise.
Dragons, princes, giants and wizards, elephants, piglets, butterflies and giraffes - they all live together in a converted warehouse in Cardiff and belong to someone who, because of her dedication to an ideal, has created a professional puppet theatre in her native Wales. The world of Jane Phillips is the world of the 'Caricature Theatre' and her story is the story of an obsession. BBC Wales
Foula, lying 20 stormy miles west of Shetland, is Britain's most remote inhabited island. In less than a century the population has dwindled from 200 to only 30-but those 30 hold out happily.
A man ploughs with a pair of horses, and farming is turned back 1,000 years. The farm horses have virtually left the land, but if they have been part of your life it's not quite so easy to send them away forever. And that's exactly how it is for East Anglian farmer Edward Sneath and his groom Charlie Cooke. (from Birmingham)
Bill Houston is the kind of cyclist who would abhor the Tour de France race almost as much as he abhors the motor car - he prefers exploring back roads and goat tracks. When he came out of the army in 1946 he vowed that no one was going to order him about for 20 years. Twenty-five years later he is still living for the bicycle. That is, 25 years, 34 countries and 400,000 miles later. And he can say, with modesty, that he envies no man - and few would disbelieve him. (BBC Scotland)
Norman Nicholson is a poet who has lived all his life in the house he was born in at Millom, a small iron town between the Lake District mountains and the sea. Now Millom's iron mines and blast furnaces are finished, but Norman Nicholson writes on about the area he never wants to leave. (from the North East)
Under the Forest of Dean there is coal, and certain men have the right to mine it. It is an ancient privilege, continued in spite of nationalisation. The mines are tiny - one man working underground by and for himself is common; ten is a large mine. (from Bristol)
This is the story of a young man, Peter Macaskill, who decided to restore its ancient past to an unexploited area of the Island of Skye. He rebuilt an ancient family house, the old whisky still and, finally, the old water mill which is now grinding corn after half a century of inactivity.
Farmer John Cox is lucky - his farm is just a tractor-drive from one of England's busiest country markets. For 12 hours on a Monday in October we follow his progress on the farm and at the market among the people who make the business of buying and selling one of the most colourful events of the week in Dorset. (from Bristol)
The ingredients for magic brews in Durham aren't bat's blood and toad's warts but farm manure and Epsom salts. They seem to work nevertheless. The prize-winning leeks they nourish make southern leeks look like shallots. Those southerners who know about the North East leek contests regard them as just a joke. But there is more to them than that. For men like Brian Shave of Lyton Leek Club, leek growing is a tie with a traditional culture that is still firmly held on to despite social change. (from Bristol)
Stanley Wilson expected that if anything in Saffron Walden were named after him it would be the public lavatory. A lifelong rebel, he fought for political causes because he cared deeply about people. At 50 Stanley married Kitty Edwards. His opponents hoped he would mellow and named an Old Folks Home after him. But the real Wilson monument is their own home for children in care where they are bringing up the last of their unlimited family.
Stanley Wilson expected that if anything in Saffron Walden were named after him it would be the public lavatory. A lifelong rebel, he fought for political causes because he cared deeply about people. At 50 Stanley married Kitty Edwards. His opponents hoped he would mellow and named an Old Folks Home after him. But the real Wilson monument is their own home for children in care where they are bringing up the last of their unlimited family.
Not all craftsmen are old men. Adrian Hodgson is 33 and specialises in the removal and restoration of timber-framed houses. Whether he's carving an elaborate chair leg or restoring a half-timbered church, he has the same sensitive approach as craftsmen of another age. (from Manchester)
Not all craftsmen are old men. Adrian Hodgson is 33 and specialises in the removal and restoration of timber-framed houses. Whether he's carving an elaborate chair leg or restoring a half-timbered church, he has the same sensitive approach as craftsmen of another age. (from Manchester)
'You had to sleep with a thatcher's daughter.' In Ern Anstey's day a thatcher was born to the craft and trained in its mysteries by his father. Rodney Cruze chose thatching as a profitable business for a fit young man. The material and the methods are traditional, but the men who thatch today are a new breed.
'You had to sleep with a thatcher's daughter.' In Ern Anstey's day a thatcher was born to the craft and trained in its mysteries by his father. Rodney Cruze chose thatching as a profitable business for a fit young man. The material and the methods are traditional, but the men who thatch today are a new breed.
James Purvis is the oldest ships' pilot on the River Tyne. Son of a pilot, grandson of a pilot, he is proud of a piloting pedigree which began more than 300 years ago in the days when the Tyne was one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. Today the port is changing fast, but men who know the river as well as Jimmy does are still essential. (BBC North East)
James Purvis is the oldest ships' pilot on the River Tyne. Son of a pilot, grandson of a pilot, he is proud of a piloting pedigree which began more than 300 years ago in the days when the Tyne was one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. Today the port is changing fast, but men who know the river as well as Jimmy does are still essential. (BBC North East)
Ronnie Robson featured in Radio Times last week, is a rural postman whose daily round takes him to the Highside, a remote part of Yorkshire. He always wanted to be a postman - his father was one in the same area. Ronnie writes a weekly column in the Ripon Gazette about life on the Highside which most of his 'customers' read. Highsiders are used to a hard life. Ronnie is their link. He brings them post, news and, very often, a helping hand.
Ronnie Robson featured in Radio Times last week, is a rural postman whose daily round takes him to the Highside, a remote part of Yorkshire. He always wanted to be a postman - his father was one in the same area. Ronnie writes a weekly column in the Ripon Gazette about life on the Highside which most of his 'customers' read. Highsiders are used to a hard life. Ronnie is their link. He brings them post, news and, very often, a helping hand.
Jesse Chandler owes his living to the punters. Because of them, his family is still in business sewing saddles that sit on the backs of a fortune in horse-flesh. Neither he nor his son ride or back horses, but the only time a trainer ignored Jesse Chandler's advice, his horse ran off the course and lost the Grand National.
Jesse Chandler owes his living to the punters. Because of them, his family is still in business sewing saddles that sit on the backs of a fortune in horse-flesh. Neither he nor his son ride or back horses, but the only time a trainer ignored Jesse Chandler's advice, his horse ran off the course and lost the Grand National.
"I tolerate the tombstones because they let me keep the hounds." Since 1918 Harry Corr has been a reluctant monumental sculptor. For as long as he can remember he has been a passionate huntsman. In 1939 he formed his own pack, the Dungannon Harriers; and today, aged 73, he still walks many miles over the fields and hills of County Tyrone with them, hunting the fox. BBC Belfast
"I tolerate the tombstones because they let me keep the hounds." Since 1918 Harry Corr has been a reluctant monumental sculptor. For as long as he can remember he has been a passionate huntsman. In 1939 he formed his own pack, the Dungannon Harriers; and today, aged 73, he still walks many miles over the fields and hills of County Tyrone with them, hunting the fox. BBC Belfast
Glyn Hughes was born on a Manchester housing estate, but he was drawn 'by the magical world of the farms.' He became a small-holder and grew everything he needed on his land. But now he has become a poet, and most of his income is from readings in universities, schools or wherever he is invited.
Glyn Hughes was born on a Manchester housing estate, but he was drawn 'by the magical world of the farms.' He became a small-holder and grew everything he needed on his land. But now he has become a poet, and most of his income is from readings in universities, schools or wherever he is invited.
Phil Drabble abandoned a career in industry to establish a unique wildlife reserve at Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire. Now he manages badgers, herons and other threatened species in an undisturbed sanctuary that he plans to be a prototype for the future.
Phil Drabble abandoned a career in industry to establish a unique wildlife reserve at Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire. Now he manages badgers, herons and other threatened species in an undisturbed sanctuary that he plans to be a prototype for the future.
Phil Drabble abandoned a career in industry to establish a unique wildlife reserve at Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire. Now he manages badgers, herons and other threatened species in an undisturbed sanctuary that he plans to be a prototype for the future.
Phil Drabble abandoned a career in industry to establish a unique wildlife reserve at Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire. Now he manages badgers, herons and other threatened species in an undisturbed sanctuary that he plans to be a prototype for the future.
'He doesn't wave a Bible at them. He just offers a friendly face.' John Kao tells the story of his father, Rev Peter Kao, who is Chinese Chaplain at the Missions to Seamen. He and his wife Jenny provide a home from home in Ethel Road, E16, where students, nurses, and seamen can play Chinese billiards and Chinese chess, cook mountains of chop suey and imagine they are back home.
'He doesn't wave a Bible at them. He just offers a friendly face.' John Kao tells the story of his father, Rev Peter Kao, who is Chinese Chaplain at the Missions to Seamen. He and his wife Jenny provide a home from home in Ethel Road, E16, where students, nurses, and seamen can play Chinese billiards and Chinese chess, cook mountains of chop suey and imagine they are back home.
As an underweight 12-year-old, Buster McShane built a small gym in his home. Now, 30 years later, he owns one of the largest health clubs in Europe. Along the way he has been a shipyard apprentice, a British weightlifting record holder, an occasional cartoonist for the Daily Mirror, and an outstandingly successful athletics coach. (BBC Belfast)
As an underweight 12-year-old, Buster McShane built a small gym in his home. Now, 30 years later, he owns one of the largest health clubs in Europe. Along the way he has been a shipyard apprentice, a British weightlifting record holder, an occasional cartoonist for the Daily Mirror, and an outstandingly successful athletics coach. (BBC Belfast)
Harold Riley is an artist with an international reputation. He lives and works in his native Salford and his affection for the city and its people is strongly reflected in his work... The tiny corner shops, the cobbled streets and the old woman with the world in her eyes. Portraits commissioned by the famous pay him upwards of ã1,500, but Salford's city life and its city people will always be his first love. (from Manchester)
Harold Riley is an artist with an international reputation. He lives and works in his native Salford and his affection for the city and its people is strongly reflected in his work... The tiny corner shops, the cobbled streets and the old woman with the world in her eyes. Portraits commissioned by the famous pay him upwards of ã1,500, but Salford's city life and its city people will always be his first love. (from Manchester)
From January to March they practise, all 7,000 of them, to compete in the Hastings Musical Festival. Bill Dyer, its chairman, has seen the Festival grow and change since he persuaded the Fleet Street Choir to enter. Singing journalists have given way to dancing toddlers, to his great regret, but this year he hopes the tide has started to turn.
From January to March they practise, all 7,000 of them, to compete in the Hastings Musical Festival. Bill Dyer, its chairman, has seen the Festival grow and change since he persuaded the Fleet Street Choir to enter. Singing journalists have given way to dancing toddlers, to his great regret, but this year he hopes the tide has started to turn.
When a woman is left with three sons and 300 assorted animals to care for, the neighbours are bound to fear the worst. Margaret Jackson became, overnight, Managing Director of the Welsh Mountain Zoo, and since then her life has been dedicated to proving the prophets wrong by keeping her charges alive and thriving in their ark on a Welsh Ararat high above Colwyn Bay. BBC Wales
When a woman is left with three sons and 300 assorted animals to care for, the neighbours are bound to fear the worst. Margaret Jackson became, overnight, Managing Director of the Welsh Mountain Zoo, and since then her life has been dedicated to proving the prophets wrong by keeping her charges alive and thriving in their ark on a Welsh Ararat high above Colwyn Bay. BBC Wales
'We've only got to live so long and we might as well make best on it while we're here. Yer a good while dead. So they tell me. I never heard nobody come back.' Wilf Lancaster has been a miller for 50 years. He and his family run a water mill in Cheshire for them it is a power house and a unique way of life.
'We've only got to live so long and we might as well make best on it while we're here. Yer a good while dead. So they tell me. I never heard nobody come back.' Wilf Lancaster has been a miller for 50 years. He and his family run a water mill in Cheshire for them it is a power house and a unique way of life.
Dave Dawson and Pete Thompson are Somerset steeplejacks. For them, Truro Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor are jobs. A cathedral spire doesn't seem quite so elegant when worked on from two feet away and the world doesn't look quite the same when seen from 250 feet up above. (from Bristol)
Dave Dawson and Pete Thompson are Somerset steeplejacks. For them, Truro Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor are jobs. A cathedral spire doesn't seem quite so elegant when worked on from two feet away and the world doesn't look quite the same when seen from 250 feet up above. (from Bristol)
Until last summer seven Yorke's had been Squires of Erddig. Each had added to a unique collection of treasures, begun in the 17th century when the house was built near Wrexham in north-east Wales. But for seven years the present PHILIP YORKE has lived there alone and struggled to prevent the house from collapsing. Had it collapsed, a legend would have vanished with it. In this film he describes the legend and tells how his lifelong dream is soon to be fulfilled.