(music)
Britain's great outdoors
Breathtakingly beautiful
It's just absolutely incredible.
Dazzling in it's diversity.
It really is a beautiful part of the world.
There's no better way
to explore it then on foot.
Come Milo
With a faithful four legged friend.
Come on!
(laughs) You don't want to get your paws wet.
What are the dogs seeing?
Can we get a dog's eye view.
(music)
Go in the water, go in there.
Yeah!
From stunning mountain treks
Look at that view, it's just extraordinary here.
To meandering country walks
Are you enjoying your day in Sussex Billy?
It's nice isn't it, lovely.
And rugged cliff top rambles.
Oh boy look at that.
Join us and our best canine pals
as we experience some incredible
and unique walks with our dogs.
I find this place surreal but incredibly beautiful.
This is as near to heaven as I'm likely to be.
(music)
Stella, come on, come on, come on, come on,
and go, go, go, go, go.
I'm rediscovering a childhood favorite,
The Isle of Arran with my Labrador, Stella.
Stella don't leave the ball in there, bring the ball out.
Bring it out
Our walk today is through a landscape of wild beauty.
A place I visit to wind down and relax.
If you live life in 5th gear and 6th gear,
I would say this is about 2nd or 3rd gear
and that is just perfect.
Wait for me.
(music)
At the other end of the isles,
Julian Clary steps lightly through the stunning South Downs.
Hello boys, try a bit of pasta.
Here Albert, my Jack Russell and I,
indulge our taste for unusual food in unusual places.
Bit like a strange sort of date night, isn't it?
(laughs)
Don't look so worried.
And delight in some fruity language at an old queen's house.
The French name for it is called des chiens
which translates as dogs bottom.
Oh
(music)
But before all that, my fellow comedian, Bill Bailey, is
getting all nostalgic in one of his favorite wild places.
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There's a timeless beauty about the richly
patterned landscape of the west of England.
Come on
I grew up here so it's a place especially dear to my heart.
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Today it's my dog Louie's chance to see it at it's very best
and as a pup who didn't have the best start in life
I'm hoping she'll love it as much as I do.
Come on
This is Louie, she's about three years old
and she's a rescue dog.
She was abandoned at the side of the road
in a plastic bag as a puppy in Indonesia.
She was in a bad way, had all sorts of health problems
and at one stage we didn't think she's actually make it
but, you know, three years on she's grown into this
fantastic little dog but she's pretty feisty,
she's pretty tough and she loves these country walks.
Today, Louie and I are on a five mile circular walk
in Exmoor National Park.
Exploring just a small part of it's epic 267 square miles.
(music)
We're setting off by a bizarre and ancient monument.
From there we'll head up into the wilds of Exmoor
stopping off at the village of Liscombe
for a well earned treat
before ending up near where we started.
I'm really looking forward to this walk today because
some of my fondest childhood memories
were spent growing up around here.
You have these wonderful wooded valleys, meadows
and not least of all the glories of Exmoor.
The woods on the first section of our walk
are typical of Exmoor's natural beauty.
(music)
But it's a man made structure that I've come to see.
One that has origins clouded by the mist of time.
As the grandson of a stone mason, I'm pretty impressed.
Hello
Hi you must be Rob.
Hi Bill, good to me you.
Good to meet you.
In fact it's so remarkable, it even excites archeologists
like Rob Wilson North who's seen plenty of ancient wonders.
What a stunning place this is.
It's amazing isn't it.
Tell me the story of Tarr Steps.
I suppose the clue to start with is in the name
cuz Tarr means noisy or loud so this is a really
noisy part of the river body to be in.
Yeah
And of course we're here looking at Tarr Steps
which is this extraordinary, unique really clapper bridge.
What's a clapper bridge?
Clapper bridge is the simplest form of bridge,
you just layer stone across the river
but in this case we've got a number of stones,
17 spans and it's about 40 meters long.
These stones, I mean they must weigh well how much worth
Two tons the biggest one, yeah
So heavy stones.
And how old is it?
We think it was built sometime
in the 1600's or just before that.
And it was built at that time because
there was a corn mill just on the side of the river.
That's great and it's a great theory
and it fits all the facts but still
why build a bridge like this
when you could've built a proper bridge as it were.
This is a bridge that requires a lot of maintenance.
It gets washed away regularly and has to be put back
and even today that is a huge under taking but two, three,
four hundred years ago it would have been an enormous
amount of work for most of the population in a tiny village.
Yeah
So it's still a mystery I think.
Yeah
(dog barking)
I know the dog so excited.
Right, yeah, wants to get in the river I think,
No no, that's right (laughs)
There's a sort of practical pleasure about walking
up and down on stepping stones across a river.
That's probably drawn people to it for hundreds of years.
You're so right, I mean people have really good memories,
childhood memories often of this place
and when it did get washed away at the national park
we had people phoning up offering us money
for it to be put back because they have such
a strong sentimental attachment with the place.
And it does the job you know, I'd live over there, the pubs
over there and it still does the job, I can get there.
Thanks Rob.
It's a pleasure, good to meet you.
Thanks so much.
Cheers
(music)
Thankfully today's walk is a circular one
so we will end up at that pub.
But first we still have more than four miles to cover.
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Way up north Kirsty Wark is swapping the
intrigues of Westminster for a far simpler place.
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If there's one location,
one highland or island that captures Scotland
and all it's glory, I think it has to be Arran.
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It's just two hours away from my home in Glasgow
but a world away from the pace of city life.
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I've loved Arran since my parents brought me here as a child
and now I have a chance to share it with
the newest member of our family.
I brought Stella with me, 20 months old, small,
reasonably well behaved Labrador but loves a good walk
so we're off to start our adventures on the island
and we've got a lot of walking to do.
Come on
We're tackling a seven mile walk
based on a section of the Arran coastal way.
Starting at Brodick Bay going up to more than 500 feet
above sea level for spectacular views
before finishing in the village of Lamlash.
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We will be venturing into the wilds
but first at the manicured magnificence of Brodick Castle.
In the 19th century the Hamilton family transformed a
fortress into this, one of Scotland's most beautiful houses.
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We're wondering through the wonderful gardens laid out
by the Duchess of Montrose a century ago and now pristinely
maintained by the National Trust for Scotland.
A walk here is enthralling partly thanks to Sarah Earny
who revels in the title of First Gardener.
Sarah, I absolutely love these gardens
because they're always beautiful
and there's always things I know absolutely nothing about.
We're on the gulf stream
so obviously we've got a fantastic climate.
It's very mild, we get very few frosts
and quite high rainfall.
We get about 1900 mm of rain
Tell me about it
Yeah (laughs)
In the early 1900s the doctors sponsored
expeditions across the empire and beyond
to collect new specimens of flora
turning a Caledonian corner into a global garden.
They brought back seeds and plants
from the Himalaya, China, India, Nepal.
There's Echium Candicans in the royal garden with tons of
big blue flower spikes that's from the Canary Islands.
What about these small palms?
Yeah, they're from Mexico and
There so pretty.
I do think it's funny though, you tell someone in Scotland
I'm going somewhere to see the palm trees they go
don't be ridiculous and yet there's palms everywhere.
There are in fact if you talk to the gardeners
they find them a bit of a pain because they drop their
leaves everywhere, you spend a lot time picking them up.
Well I'm going to go around and look
Thank you very much, it was lovely to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
(music)
The castle and it's gardens
are a stunning start to our walk.
The passion the duchess showed for her plants shines on
through the generations and the result is something truly
amazing for us all to enjoy from aristocrat to commoner.
And it's clear she didn't just love her garden,
she's got a headstone for remembrance
many good friends, May, Quito, Patsy, Sammy,
Tramp, Meg all much loved dogs.
Come on Stella.
So far Stella's had to stay on her lead
We're headed for the beach next,
a place where I used to run free as a child
and where Stella will have the chance to do the same.
Oh this is lovely.
Next, Julian Clary and his dog Albert
get familiar with an old queen in the South Downs.
To cut to the chase, on the wedding night
he wasn't pleased.
And Bill Bailey's walk takes him to meet
Exmoor's most famous four legged friends.
Well clearly
Here we have it, it's more ponies.
It's more ponies.
(music)
We're roaming Britain's coast
and country side with our canine companions.
While I revisit my childhood with my Labrador,
Stella, on Arron
[Bill] Louie and I are returning
to my west country roots on Exmoor
and Julian Clary is adding color
to Britain's newest national park.
I've come to have a poke around somewhere
delightful, the quintessentially English, South Downs.
It's a wonderful place for a mince and a cheery chat.
And sure fire way to get tongues and tails wagging
is to bring a dog.
This is Albert who I took home
from the poor low grady tea times chair on the understanding
that he was a Jack Russell.
Yet there's something gone over the fence,
there's a bit of stuffy involved here but as far as
I'm concerned he's a thoroughbred Jack Russell
and I won't hear anything else.
We're starting our walk at the historic town of Lewes
before a wander across the lush rolling heals
of the national park ending up with a restorative stiff one
at England's answer to ebony.
As a chap named after a monk of my mother's acquaintance
a stroll through Lewes' magnificent priory
which has been ruined since the 16th century is a must.
Albert come here.
But there's no time to linger
because just ahead on my route
there's an ancient home that was once fit for a queen.
This is Ann of Cleves house.
Ann was the fourth of Henry VIII six wives
and she was one of the lucky ones, she kept her head.
Hello
You must be Martin
Yes
I'm hoping Martin Pet can fill me in.
You're the visitors services assistant.
That is my official job title.
I'm a visitor and I would like you to service me.
Alright, okay I can do that.
The questions we normally get when
people come into the house is what number was she,
well she number four and was she the ugly one
She was
That sounds a bit, that's opinion
She was big boned.
Yes
Apparently he agreed to marry her
just from seeing the painting.
That's right
On the wedding night, he wasn't pleased.
On that night he said well
I'd like to not to start with her, I like her even less now
Oh really
So this wasn't a marriage made in heaven.
No, no but by this time he's
got his eyes on Catherine Howard so
It's best to move on isn't it
So they got divorced
Yes and this house was one of nine manors
in Sussex that she got as part of the divorce settlement.
She did very well.
And it's great that it survived all this time.
The house is really rather gorgeous.
But if we're being honest,
it's a bit of a come down from a palace.
And although the gardens are exquisite,
there's something risque lurking amidst the shrubbery.
Something that's particularly interest
is this tree here which is a Medlar Tree.
It's a fruit that was popular in Tudor times.
The French name for it is called des chiens which translates
as dogs bottom the English name for it is openarse.
You're emersed in the whole Tudor world
aren't you
Yeah, absolutely
Well they didn't have fleeces in those days.
No no they didn't
Keeps the chill out
It does and you need that here in the winter
it ges a big cold
Well I've been absolutely gripped, Martin,
thank you, you can have your bottom back.
It's nice to meet you
And you
Come on
Bye Albert
There's plenty of titillation still to come
over the next four miles as Albert and I head
into the glorious Sussex country side.
But first on Arran, Kirsty and Stella
are on the next leg of their island expedition.
We're leaving the Brodick estate
and putting our best foot and best paw forward
as we stroll to the sea a mile into our walk.
I'm very used to seeing Arran from my perspective
but I'd quite like to see it from Stella's perspective.
So this is your turn Stella, ladies and gentlemen
presenting Stella vision, here we go,
let's go come on Stella let's go to the beach,
come on, come on
Time to have some fun and all with a dog's eye view
thanks to the camera on Stella's back.
Stella, come on, come on, come on, come on,
and go, go, go, go, go
For Stella this is a new experience
and she certainly seems to like it.
Stella don't leave the ball in there,
bring the ball out, bring it out.
But I first came here with my parents when I was just two.
I have very very happy memories of being
on this beach in all weathers.
I've been on this beach with raincoats and wellingtons on
but I've been in this beach swimming
so it's just a very very special place for me
and look a friendly oystercatcher
look Stella friendly oystercatcher
no your not interested.
You don't need to have a dog to enjoy this beautiful spot
but it's a great excuse to come down here.
Oh hello, your lovely.
Looks like Stella has a new friend, meet Layla.
Great beach walk isn't it.
Fantastic, we're down here all the time.
Are you?
Yeah and I love it here,
absolutely love it we stay here and let him frolic.
If I throw this and they both go for it,
is that a problem?
Let's see what happens, she's bossy.
Well let's see what happens.
Oh Stella,
Is she still a working Collie?
No, she doesn't like sheep
She doesn't like sheep
No, doesn't like them, not at all.
Come on it was straight to you, got it
Come on Layla.
(music)
I think why I love Arran so much
apart from the landscape and the weather is because
when you get off that boat you've dropped about two gears.
If you live life in 5th gear and 6th gear, I would say this
is about 2nd or 3rd gear and that is just perfect.
Let's go, let's go, let's get the ball,
let's get the ball, let's go come on.
(music)
Good girl!
In Somerset, Louie and I are winding our way
through the ancient woodland of the Barle Valley.
It's beautiful and full of wildlife.
Oh there's a Dipper, huh
You can see his little white breast singing away.
This is perfect Dipper country,
this fast flowing shallow rivers
That's what I love about the countryside,
never lets you down.
Just walking up this path, I'm just struck by this woodland.
It's so beautiful, so peaceful.
Exmoor, it's such an old part of Britain.
I mean it's ancient and when you walk these paths
paths that so many other people have walked
throughout the centuries, I don't know,
you get a real since of being connected to the past.
As a west country lad, I love the transformation here
from calming woodland to a wild exposed landscape.
Because it's such a huge area and it's pretty much untamed,
Exmoor is a fantastic haven for wildlife.
With everything from red deer,
which is the largest of the native species,
to all kinds of rare plants and butterflies
but I'm on the trail of one particular animal
you can only find here and that's the Exmoor pony.
These ponies are much loved feature of Exmoor.
But they might be extinct if it weren't for the efforts of
the Exmoor Pony Society that's people like Dr. Sue McGeever.
And so we don't spook the horses,
Louie's staying firmly on her lead.
They're like an icon of Exmoor.
They are
I imagine it's one of the big draws
for people coming here.
Oh it is yeah
Is to come and see these
Is to come and see the ponies,
I mean they're absolutely fantastic.
Are they endangered at all?
The numbers went down
to about 50 at the end of the second world war,
there's now about 600 on Exmoor itself.
So some quite good numbers really.
They've quite good numbers now
but obviously because we went down to such a small number
it's very important that farmers keep breeding
and they breed from different blood lines all the time.
Because they'd be vulnerable to disease
Yeah vulnerable to disease.
I love the fact that there's still space in Britain
which is so overcrowded really,
you know, we have a large population,
there's dwindling amounts of wild spaces, the fact that we
do still have this wild space and wild ponies is wonderful
It's terrific.
Thank you, thanks very much.
Good to meet you, cheers.
Thanks
There's lots more to come as Louie and I
continue a journey in which you never know
what splendors lay around the corner.
And then you come over a rise and suddenly you see this.
Spectacular isn't it.
And Kirsty enjoys the high life
and Arran's most sensational views.
Wait for me
While I meet two men for a forage in the long grass.
Gonna kinda try a bit, see what you think.
Quite tough, oh
The apple peel taste you get from it.
(music)
I'm walking with my 20 month old Labrador,
Stella in a place that never fails to sooth me
the glorious Isle of Arran.
While Bill Bailey is revisiting his old stomping ground,
Exmoor with rescue dog Louie.
And Albert and I are rambling in the
chalk hills of the South Downs National Park.
Good boy
I've had Albert for seven years.
He is a lovely dog, he's a very laid back dog
and very bright and very good company.
And very happy to do whatever I want to do, aren't you.
We put up with each other.
There, are you meditating.
(music)
The South Downs National Park is
Britain's newest dating from 2011.
This is fertile farming country
and along with golden fields of ripening corn,
the meadows and hedge rows have a felicitous fecundity too
as Steven Fry would put it.
Wait for me
Three miles into our walk I have a rendezvous
with two men promising an oral treat and all for free.
Hello boys, hello must be a couple of foragers.
It's a lovely field but I can't believe
there's anything to eat here.
My new chums are wild food experts,
Eric Begain and Marlow Renton
and hopefully Albert will learn how to sniff out a few
hidden gems from Marlow's collie, Alfie.
There's plenty of lovely
tasty things around here.
Surprise me then.
Start you off with a salad leaf.
It's a really common plant, it's just common sorrow.
It's got a very sharp taste to it
so gonna kinda try a bit, see what you think.
Quite tough, oh
Apple peel taste you get from it.
How'd you get into all this,
are you a sort of pagan naturist type?
Not at all, no,
my grandparents were very into foraging,
it's just something I picked up
from going for walks with my grandad.
I see
Some of it is really really tasty you know.
We don't go foraging to survive.
That's not what we do, we're foodie foragers.
We like picking plants that taste good.
So what else do we have?
We've got this lovely little flower here.
You might recognize it.
I have it growing on my lawn at home.
Well most people do because it's a clover flower.
Yes
Right, now this is a pink clover flower
and what foraging is, you know, it's knowing when the plants
are tasty and which ones are tasty.
That ones nice
Yeah they do actually,
some of them are sweeter than others
because you've got to get to them before the bees do.
The sweetness comes from the nectar
at the bottom of the flower
and if a bee gets there first he takes all the sweetness.
Well I'm still peckish what else can we eat?
Still a little bit further down
is a mushroom that I'd really like to tell you about,
If you like mushroom Julian: Now we're talking.
Have you seen the mushroom?
I have, yeah.
Have you seen his mushroom?
(laughs)
That'd be telling I'm afraid.
Of course munching on a mushroom can be fatal.
So I'd hope the boys were paying attention
when they prepared our midday snack.
Oh isn't this lovely and where do we start.
Well I think most meals start with a good drink
so shall we start there?
Okay
And with a flower champagne.
Oh I say you spoil me.
It's a bit like a strange sort of date night isn't it?
(laughs)
I wasn't planning on a date night tonight,
Julian, I've got to say.
Couple of glasses of this, cheers.
I've had a nice time foraging with you two.
You never know what the day's going to throw up do you?
You don't, no.
So, I'm quite peckish.
Well the main course, Eric's prepared.
It's wild mushrooms, these lovely
chanterelle wild mushrooms.
Chanterelle
All that's actually in here is chanterelles,
butter, tad of olive oil and then pasta thrown through it.
It's the simple life, isn't it.
It is yeah.
They're one of our favorite mushrooms
and it's just coming into they're season right now.
Albert try a bit of pasta.
Marlow
Thank you very much.
Well do know, I think I'm going to go foraging
from now and I'm going to see what I can find
in my back garden.
It's best place to start.
Or if I can't find anything out in the back,
I'll come and stay here with you two.
You'd be welcome.
Don't look so worried.
(laughs)
(music)
One thing about having a 20 month old pup
is that they have lots of energy.
And Stella will need it on this, the next section of our
hike on the beautiful Island of Arran.
Oh Stella, come on darling.
We are now three miles into our walk
and have left the seashore behind
and are climbing Dontheon, a steep hill
with some major views across the north Arran hills
some of which are known as the sleeping warrior.
That was quite a climb
but it was worth it.
Goatfell looks fantastic and beyond Goatfell
you can see the sleeping warrior with it's mouth wide open.
And the bend looks so perfect
but there's better to come.
(music)
Good Stella
Good girl
This is a good work out for me, there we go.
Look we're the trig, come on.
We're there Stella, come on, we're there.
We're over 500 feet up and it's hard
not to feel on the top of the world.
All the way up there,
I can just see in the distance Ben Lomond
and all the way down there I can see the Galloway hills.
Just the faintest outline of the Galloway hills.
And sitting right here, Holy Isle.
Isn't that just fantastic it just kinda
comes right up out of the water.
It's magical.
Arran feels like it's part of my DNA.
This is a breath taking place.
You can see why iron age inhabitants of Arran
built a hill for it here.
(music)
But our next stop recalls a tale
from the island's more recent history.
(music)
Together with my dog Louie, I'm turning back time
in the magnificent National Park of Exmoor.
So far we've walked two and half miles on a route that
includes some of the west country's finest landscapes.
Another one of the great things about Exmoor is
the surprise that the terrain sometimes throws up.
And then you come over a rise and suddenly you see this.
Spectacular isn't it.
(music)
This is the Devil's Punch Bowl
and so called because of the legend
that the devil was thirsty, needed a drink of water and he
scooped out a well and chunked the soil over his shoulder.
I don't know why it ended up being called the punch bowl
it seems like the devil was quite middle class.
But to me this looks more like the effects
of glaciation from the ice age.
And if my geography teacher is watching,
yes I was listening.
(music)
For a west country lad like me,
this is a journey into the past.
And now we're heading off the moor towards Lipscomb
and a chance to sample something
that smacks of hot summers and childhood.
(music)
Fed up with plummeting milk prices,
farmer's wife, Zoe Rose, has diversified the couples dairy
heard to become the queen of ice cream round here.
But this is not your average sugar rush parlor.
Come on Louie, come on.
Ah, hello, you must be Zoe.
Hello I am.
Hello, Bill
Hi Bill
Nice to meet you
And you
So I was slightly distracted
you know there's a cow through that window.
There is (laughs) right there.
And it looks like it's being milked
by some extraordinary contraption.
By the robot, 24 hours a day it's on.
The cows come and go as they please.
If there's a problem, the robot phones the house
and tells us.
Wow
So we just go in and sort it out.
Pretty high tech operation.
It's a long way from a milking stall.
Yeah (laughs)
That's brilliant.
Straight cow to cone.
Cow to cone.
While Zoe's husband, Oliver,
looks after their 70 brown Swiss
and three Holstein cows, she's responsible for dreaming up
over 30 flavors made to a traditional Italian recipe.
Salted caramel, I think.
(music)
That's wonderful, thank you very much.
Enjoy
Thank you so much, cheers.
Thank you
Nice to meet you, bye.
Bye
This is going down great.
Now Louie, I would share it with you
but unfortunately it's no good for dogs,
I'm sorry so more for me.
Hey come on
But as we continue our walk,
Louise gets her own bait, oh God.
Meanwhile, Kirsty recounts a
little known story from World War II.
I wanted to ask you
what it was like that night the plane came down.
And in a sumptuous Sussex vineyard,
Julian's dog Albert gets a hostile reception.
(cat hissing)
Stella and I are on the
final leg of our island tour.
Come on, go, go, go, go
We're headed towards the cemetery in Lamlash
for something of a personal pilgrimage.
Arran is so close to my heart,
I wrote a novel set on the island
and in it I retell a tragic story from World War II.
In August 1941, a plane carrying 22 allied airmen
crashed into the Arran hills, no one survived.
These war graves are now the only tangible evidence of the
crash but for one man memories of the disaster remain vivid.
Dr. Buchanan hello.
Hello
Hello there.
Now 92, Dr. Robert Buchanan was just a teenager at the time.
I wanted to ask you, what it was like that night
the plane came down, what happened?
It was complete shambles.
It was engines lying, guns lying,
the oxygen masks lying
all sorts of bits and pieces.
I was actually very sad because when it the hill
if it'd just been 20-30 feet higher
it would've managed to get over it.
Dr. Buchanan do you come here
to look at these graves sometimes?
Yes
Does it mean quite a lot to you.
Well I'm very sorry that it is proof
that our allies tried to help us.
All those captain's radio officers
Yep
Very sad.
Well thank you very much for telling us about it.
Not at all
Very nice to meet you.
I'll get away with my dog
Well I'll get away with my dog
but I don't think she's interested in going.
She's going to have get in a long walk today.
We've covered a lot of territory
and it looks like I've worn Stella out.
Come on let's go
(music)
Our final port of call is Lamlash itself.
With it's stunning location,
the village is the perfect end to our seven mile trek.
It's beautiful but there are echos of past hardships here.
This is where crofters expelled and the clearances made
their heartbreaking departure from the island.
So here we are in the pier in Lamlash
from this very pier, generations of scotts immigrated
to Canada, to Australia, to South America.
So this is a place which has had amazing different lives
century by century but for me I've always come here
when I just wanted a bit of peace and quite
and some partying too and it's a place
I'll always return to because for me
it's one of the most magical places on earth.
(music)
Come on Stella, let's go
(music)
Albert and I are also finishing off
our four mile enjoyable romp across the South Downs.
It's a beautiful corner of England
with an unexpectedly Gaelic flavor.
Because after years in the shadow of our French cousins,
Sussex vineyards are now producing
prized vintages of their very own.
I'm heading now to see one of the vineyards
that's led the way in this new trend and it's called,
rather delightfully, Breaky Bottom.
Peter Hall planted his first vines in 1974
and his grapes have now become the toast of English wine.
So how long have you been here?
I've been here for 49 years,
I planted the vineyard 42 years ago.
But there were only a
handful of vineyards in those days.
For bit of a joke for awhile wasn't it,
English wine?
Yeah, but there are a lot of very good wines
made in the UK both still and sparkling
but the if you like the graph which has shot up
in the last 15 years or so is for sparkling wine.
Is this a good year?
It's a difficult year
because the weather this summer has been very difficult.
Did you have whole years where it's just no good?
I've done zero, not a parcel, not a bottle.
On the other hand, a good year would be 20,000 bottles.
Really
These are shaldanew vines
and it will be carefully plucked off these basal leaves
So that the air can circulate and the sun can get in.
So an Indian summer is just the thing for you.
Just the thing.
Yeah
As well as poor weather, mice can play havoc with vineyards
too gnawing at the bark and roots and Albert's introduction
to the resident terminator comes as a nasty shock.
(cat hisses)
Clearly it's not just the wine that's go plenty of fizz.
Tell me about the name Breaky Bottom.
Well there's lots of bottoms in Sussex,
long bottom, dings bottom, cricket and bottom
but I've now worked up "break" is old english for "scrub",
so it's a scrubby bottom.
Scrubby bottom
I feel as if we're France working along here with you.
Yeah
Your wearing stripes
Yeah
You've got a bit of a French twang with certain words
(speaks French)
Of course the proof is always in the drinking
and Peter's promised to dig out something special for me.
And it's such a lovely day, I've been around South Downs
and now here I am with you.
Yeah
I know nothing about these things but a lovely color
Good
Oh look how good it with the sun going through.
Well you look first if it's cloudy
and that's bright and then the color
so there's pale gold and a little touch of green almost
and then the quality of the bubble.
Well my bubbles are very good quality, are yours?
It tastes so marvelous but this is decades of hard work
gone into this delightful glass of bubbly so
oh (laughs) watch out Albert,
your friend, what do you think of that.
Well cheers, here's to Breaky Bottom,
(speaks French)
I know where you live now, I'll be back.
You can come back whenever you like.
(music)
On Exmoor, Louie and I have rejoined the river
Baul as we approach the end of our five mile hike.
Time to give Louie the chance
to carry on some of this filming on her own
and she's normally up for a bit of wild swimming.
We've just attached this harness to her
so we got the camera, let's get the camera working okay
alright I think your up
Go on Louie, off you go, your on.
Go on
Look what about a stick
Come on
Well don't just look at it,
you're supposed to get it and bring it back.
It's the whole point of the man and the dog relationship.
I don't know why but it's always been like that.
Go on
I could do this, I could strap it to my leg
and get the same shot, go on out there.
By the way I'm not putting it on.
That's plan B wasn't it, yeah Phil you put the harness on
and crawl through the river if the dog doesn't do it.
No, it's not happening.
Just looking at the river, that's not what we want Louie,
we want you to get in it or chase off after someone else.
Hey come on
(whistles)
(laughs) Oh God
Come on
It's been a long day for both of us
and I think the best place to sort this all out is the pub.
Come on Louie
Enjoy the end of the day
Here, that's it, now you sit there.
Exmoor has yet again proved itself
to be one of the great places on earth.
We've had a great day, Louie's had a well of a time
and I'd like to thank the gradual process of planetary
change which has brought about this natural wonder
and whoever's responsible for this.
Anyway I will now be lost in a moment of pure revelry.
Cheers
(music)