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PROGRAMME INFO |
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From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
大象传媒 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
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More about Richard Uridge |
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Richard Uridge travels to Somerset to hear the personal stories of three different kinds of writers - a travel writer, a farmer and a TV script writer - whose work is greatly influenced by the local landscape.
His first port of call is the tiny village of Barrow Gurney, just a 10-minute drive from Bristol. This is where travel writer Alastair Sawday runs his publishing company in a converted barn. Alastair is one of Britain's foremost travel writers, known for his Special Places series of accommodation books, and Barrow Gurney is a special place for him - he's known the area for 20 years. His books sprang out of his frustration with the write-ups of other guides which seemed more about trouser presses than atmosphere. He says he's more interested in those indefinable qualities that make for a real holiday, rather than counting appliances - and he abhors "pretension, pomposity and bad taste." He's also very pro-active environmentally - the company is moving to new eco-offices soon which will be as "green" as they can be. His is the first carbon-neutral publishing company, planting trees to offset air travel and he's hoping to convince his readers to do the same.
Richard sets off down the road to Castle Farm to meet Mary James, farmer and author of the "Life with Mary" column in the Somerset Farmer magazine. She's been farming since she was born - once known for her Guernsey herd, she now specialises in Aberdeen Angus cattle. Her column was a light-hearted look at life on the farm, but with a serious educational message underneath - Mary thinks there are fewer and fewer ways for people to learn about farming and she thinks it's very important that contact between the farmer and the consumer isn't lost. She's very aware of the changes in farming (she and her father used to deliver the milk themselves) but still thinks that rural life is the best way to live. She's now writing her autobiography.
Finally, Richard visits the Orchardleigh Estate at Frome. This was where TV scriptwriter Ashley Pharoah filmed his graduation film, Water's Edge, which was about kids growing up in a Somerset village and which was nominated for a BAFTA. Since then he's written for programmes such as EastEnders, Casualty, and Silent Witness, and created Where The Heart Is for ITV and Down To Earth for the 大象传媒, about a family relocating to Devon. Ashley grew up in Nailsea in North Somerset and says he was mildly obsessed with novels set in the West Country, especially Lorna Doone and all of Hardy (his adaptation of Under The Greenwood Tree starts shooting in May). The Somerset landscape permeates his work and has drawn him back to live there. He says the best advice he can give aspiring writers is trust your voice - trust your own life and your own passions - write what you know and care about. He says his most personal work is probably Anchor Me, about a London architect who goes home to his Somerset Levels new town to spend the summer with his dying mother, where he built his own experiences into the fabric of the drama.
Orchardleigh
Email Open Country: open.country@bbc.co.uk
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Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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