大象传媒

Lesley Curwen visits a part of Lancashire she has long known which finds itself once more at the centre of media attention. The Fylde coastal plain is where the energy company Cuadrilla has just resumed fracking activities amidst much controversy. But away from the site itself what, she wonders, do local people make of all that's happening?
From what claims to be the site of the solution to the UK's future energy needs to one that used to argue the same: Sellafield. On his visit, the 大象传媒's Business Correspondent, Theo Leggett, sees plenty of rust and weeds at the Cumbrian nuclear plant but also discovers that in this part of northern England which has long struggled for economic take-off there are burgeoning hopes for the future... maybe.
Sima Kotecha, the 大象传媒's Midlands Correspondent, tells a triumphant story of finally managing to pay off her student loans, some sixteen years after having taken them out - although she also explains that debt can prove a stubborn companion.
With 大象传媒 Children in Need's annual fundraising extravaganza just around the corner, Alison Holt, the 大象传媒's Social Affairs Correspondent, tells the story of one teenager in Wales who is coping with an especially demanding medical diagnosis - growing up as HIV-positive - and how one organisation supported by listeners' and viewers' donations seeks to help him and his family.
And we travel to Kent with Christine Finn as she unearths a coals-to-Newcastle story about how a lavender farming boom there has - quelle horreur! - managed to succeed in cornering the lucrative French perfume market. But for how long is this likely to last?

Producer Simon Coates