In this new series, Martha Kearney explores the importance of the natural world in the lives of her guests. Each person she meets takes her to a rural location ...
Conservationist and adventurer Sacha Dench tells Martha Kearney about her love of the natural world. She explains how she came to fly a paramotor along the whole length the 4000-mile route that migrating swans take from the Russian tundra to the UK – leading to her acquiring the nickname ‘The Human Swan’. As they watch birds together at the Fernworthy reservoir in Devon, Sacha talks about her childhood growing up in Australia, where she says the beach and the bush were her playgrounds. She tells Martha about the paramotor accident which left her seriously injured and from which the sights and smells of the natural world proved a powerful aid to recovery. She describes her plans for the future and talks about what brings her hope.Producer: Emma Campbell
--------
24:54
James Dyson
Sir James Dyson is one of the UK’s best known inventors and businessmen. His Dyson vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and air purifiers have sold in their millions, both in the UK and around the world. In 2013, Sir James turned his attention to farming. He now runs the biggest farming business in the country, and owns 36,000 acres on which he produces potatoes, peas and strawberries. In this programme, Martha travels to his farm near Bath to find out more about his love for the natural world. She learns of how his early years growing up in Norfolk helped inspire him not just in business, but also in farming. He talks about the impact losing his father at a young age had on him, his experience of working on farms as a teenager and his hopes for the future of farming in the UK. Martha also gets to see the Dyson approach to farming, where robots are being taught how to identify and pick strawberries which are grown in one of the UK’s most technically advanced greenhouses. Producer: Ed Prendeville
--------
24:52
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a chef, broadcaster, author and campaigner. His 'River Cottage' series ran for more than ten years on Channel 4 and he has written more than twenty food and cookery books. In this programme Martha Kearney catches up with Hugh at an event at the Abergavenny Food Festival. He tells her how his love affair with the countryside started at the age of five when his parents left London and moved to a farmhouse in Gloucestershire. He recalls a fascination with the natural world in his early years, remembering a childhood spent roaming the fields and collecting birds' eggs, and recounting an incident in which he accidentally squashed a lizard while trying to put it into a biscuit tin. As a student he intended to work in wildlife conservation and had hopes of becoming the next David Attenborough, before a job at River Café set him on a different path. The natural world still fascinates and inspires him today. He tells Martha about the emotional hold it has over him, describing a time during lockdown when he was moved to tears of joy by seeing the blue flash of a kingfisher.#Photo copyright Abergavenny Food Festival, photographer Tim Woodier.Producer: Emma Campbell
--------
25:18
Adjoa Andoh
Adjoa Andoh has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, and is a familiar face to fans of Casualty and Doctor Who. She is probably best known as Lady Danbury in Bridgerton, the hit Netflix series. Her roots, though, are firmly in the countryside. She grew up in the village of Wickwar, just north of Bristol, where she and her brother were the only black children in the area. In this programme she tells Martha Kearney about her rural childhood and the lasting love of the natural world it instilled in her. She takes Martha on one of her favourite walks on the South Downs. Together they spot birds, stop to admire sweeping views of the sea, where Adjoa swims year-round, and talk about landscape, religion and the restorative power of nature.Producer: Emma Campbell
--------
24:54
Professor Kathy Willis
Martha Kearney meets Kathy Willis, Professor of Biodiversity at Oxford University, at Kathy's local stamping ground of Port Meadow, the protected common land in the heart of Oxford, to hear about how her love of the natural world has shaped her life. Growing up in London, Kathy has always been someone who spends a lot of time outdoors - whether in city parks, rural campsites or cycle trips abroad. Her mother instilled in her a deep respect for nature, teaching her the local names of plants from a young age. Kathy shares how she carried on this passion into her degree, and later PhD in palaeobotany at Cambridge. She's since researched how ecosystems help protect us from climate change and floods, and more recently has been exploring the relationship between nature and health in her book, Good Nature. Kathy chats with Martha about the scientific evidence about why interacting with nature really does make you feel better, from sight, smell, sound and the hidden sense - your microbiome. They wander around this special, wintery meadow close to where Kathy lives, with its glorious open views stretching into the distance, and reflect on the myriad of benefits it brings to both humans and wildlife.Producer: Eliza Lomas
In this new series, Martha Kearney explores the importance of the natural world in the lives of her guests. Each person she meets takes her to a rural location which means something to them, and describes the role nature has played in their life, explaining how it has shaped, influenced or fascinated them. In the process she gains surprising new insights into some well-known faces – from Cate Blanchett, who talks about her love of bee-keeping, to Martin Clunes, who takes Martha on a walk with his five dogs before rolling up his sleeves to scrub his horse’s hooves in preparation for the village show. Delia Smith, James Dyson, Ajoa Andoh and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are all on Martha’s guest list. This series celebrates the power and mystery of the natural world, and finds reasons to be optimistic about its future.
UK