大象传媒

Keen to escape the trappings of a modern Christmas, Charlie wraps up warm and heads to Devon to start an investigation into alternative winter celebrations. Lots of wild winter festivals survive across the country, drawing crowds and followers on social media. Many have their origins in our ancient pagan past.

The barrel-burning festival in Devon鈥檚 Ottery St Mary is held every November. Its origins are a bit of a mystery, but one theory is that it鈥檚 a ritual to scare evil spirits from the streets. Charlie seeks out Mike, a local publican who has three generations of his family running the streets with burning tar barrels, the youngest being his seven-year-old granddaughter. It is a rite of passage and a privilege for locals, with only 63 people in the world eligible to roll the barrels.

Winter solstice celebrations go back to prehistory and certainly from before Christianity reached our shores. Charlie decides that he wants to celebrate not with Druids but with Boss Morris, a local group of Morris dancers. He鈥檚 surprised to find that Morris dancing is actually growing in popularity and that dancing with the side on Rodborough Common is the perfect way to reconnect with the seasons.

Charlie admits to having become a little despondent with the modern Christmas and is looking at alternatives, but throughout the episode, he鈥檚 badgered by his dad, who wants the Coopers to spend Christmas together as a family. Charlie is adamant - after last year, there鈥檚 no chance. But will having such a positive experience at these two festivals soften his entire position on a family Christmas?

Charlie enthusiastically investigates both seasonal rituals that he's delighted to find thriving, despite being in the shadow of the biggest most sparkly festival of them all, Christmas.