Open Country

Tiny Johnsons Island sits in contrast to the hustle and bustle of Brentford and West London surrounding it. At the confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent and the Grand Union Canal, the area was important historically for the barges that had carried goods from Birmingham. Nearby boat yards continue to repair and renovate vessels of all types while shiny new developments overlook the island - a mixture of old and new alongside one another. Helen Mark meets the community of artists who work on Johnsons Island and discovers how its nature and surroundings inspire them. A small gallery has been set up to exhibit their work but also to honour the late local character and 'naive artist' Barry Jones - an accomplished jazz musician who sold art works for beer money. The island is shared by one of the boatyards, complete with wet dock, chickens, bees and allotments. Yet many don't know of the island's existence, let alone its history. Helen explores the secrets of Johnsons Island.

Felicity Evans visits the Black Isle to hear how residents are collecting memories of the landscape, before they are forgotten forever. The Killearnan Memories Group meets to share their knowledge of this part of the Eastern Highlands in order to preserve it for future generations. Members of the group have grown up on the Black Isle and have memories and stories about the physical landscape which they are using to create a written archive. This movement has been inspired by a project run by Cait McCullagh from Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands (ARCH), in which Black Isle residents gathered together to remember buildings, sites and other aspects of their heritage, using old maps and photographs as inspiration.

Cley Marshes was purchased in 1926 making it the first Wildlife Trust reserve in the country. It's a fascinating place with inspiring international connections including a special link with the Middle East.

Producer: Nicola Humphries.

Thousands of historic buildings and monuments are at risk of being lost through damage or neglect. Jules Hudson tours sites in the West Midlands to assess the level of damage, to ask what's key to helping preserve or restore them and ask if some merit the cost and effort involved.

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Helen Mark visits the ancient town of Hastings to meet the people involved in the fishing community there. The fishing fleet is made up of small wooden boats which are all under ten metres long. This is important as, unusually, they are launched each day from the beach. This involves pushing them down the shingle bank, by tractor nowadays but traditionally by hand, and winching them back up again out of the sea when they return. Helen meets Paul Joy, a fisherman, who can date his family back as far as the 1000s, all launching their boats from the beach in Hastings as he does today. This is true of lots of the fishing families working there. But even with such a long and thriving history behind them the Hastings fishing industry is now in trouble. Their crews are in their seventies and there's no sign of new blood, and their wages are falling. Before 2006, under ten metre boats weren't subject to any EU fishing quotas as they were deemed exempt, but new legislation brought in six years ago changed all this. Since then the number of cod they're allowed to catch has dramatically reduced, and the fishermen are struggling.

Producer: Beatrice Fenton.

Helen Mark takes us on a journey to the real Never Never Land.

Peter Pan first came to life on the glittering stage of London's Duke of York Theatre on 27th December 1904, but he began life far away from the hustle, bustle and glamour of the West End in the market town of Kirriemuir near Dundee. Helen Mark visits the birth place of J.M. Barrie who immortalised this "wee red toonie" as "Thrums" in his popular (pre-Pan) novels Auld Licht Idylls, A Window in Thrums, and The Little Minister. Helen also takes us out into the landscape that is believed to have inspired Never Never Land and the adventures of Peter Pan himself.

Producer: Nicola Humphries.

Helen Mark is in Norfolk where preparations for Christmas are underway. In Great Hockham Helen meets Vincent Thurkettle whose life has been defined by a love of trees and the great outdoors. During the early part of the year, Vincent tends his fields of Christmas trees, which are allowed to grow with wild flowers at their roots, before spending his summers diving for sunken treasure off the coast of Britain. Returning to Norfolk later in the year, Vincent begins his Christmas tree deliveries and Helen joins him as he sets off.

Presenter: Helen Mark

A spectacular aqueduct hangs in limbo above the village of Coleford whilst deep green ridges carve their way through forest and fields. Tucked away at the eastern end of the Mendips in Somerset, Jules Hudson discovers the secrets of 'The Canal that Never Was'.

Started in the late 1700s, the Nettlebridge branch of what would have been the Dorset and Somerset Canal, stretches eight miles though a quiet valley between Edford and Frome. The canal itself was planned in order to link the Bristol and English Channels and to connect the counties of Dorset and Somerset into the canal network. The Nettlebridge branch was planned to have boat lifts instead of locks and in a feat of extraordinary engineering one balance lock was built by James Fussell as a trial. The site of Fussell's Trial Balance Lock was located and excavated by The Dorset and Somerset Canal Society who revealed an almost completely conserved masonry chamber.

The route was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1796 but unplanned factors including underestimated costs and inflation due to the Napoleonic Wars meant that the canal was abandoned. Today ghostly structures still rise and fall through the landscape weaving their trail of what might have been.

Helen Mark visits Brighton to find surprising wildlife in the city. She finds an urban flock of sheep grazing on ancient chalk downland areas in the city. Their gentle nibbling is kinder to wildlife than mowing and ensures that green spaces stay clear for wildlife and people. Helen meets a volunteer shepherd in charge of watching the sheep through the winter months.

Nearby, Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project works with excluded school pupils growing vegetables and gardening for wildlife. Helen is shown the project's tree house, outdoor clay oven, turf sofa, and traditional bee hive. Now a thriving garden run by an army of volunteers the original piece of land, hidden away behind Moulsecoomb railway station, had been left overgrown and derelict for nearly twenty years.

Producer Beatrice Fenton.

The 12th century St Donat's castle in South Wales was once home to media mogul William Randolph Hearst - subject of Citizen Kane. Fifty years ago it became the home of Atlantic College, a unique educational establishment bringing together students from around the world in the hope of promoting peace and understanding and to overcome the problems of the Cold War. Felicity Evans explores the campus grounds, meeting students past and present, to find out how an alternative education has influenced their lives. She asks how serving the community and working on the land - including running the organic farm and lifeboat unit - has helped shape their views and plans for the future.