Surrey Hills
To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, violinist Pekka Kuusisto performs The Lark Ascending, and Charlotte Smith finds out how farmers could help to save the skylark.
Just a few miles from London, Matt Baker and Charlotte Smith revel in the serenity and beauty of the Surrey Hills - a landscape that was home to one of Britain’s best-loved composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. This year marks the 150th anniversary of his birth, and world-renowned violinist Pekka Kuusisto treats us to a very special performance of The Lark Ascending. Charlotte finds out how farmers could help to reverse the fortunes of the skylark, one of our favourite songbirds, while Matt sniffs out some fabulous local produce, including a cheese called Dirty Vicar. There’s also a visit to 3D embroiderer Amanda Cobbett, who creates incredibly lifelike masterpieces of local nature. Tom Heap investigates why saving our trees could mean declaring war on grey squirrels, and Adam Henson meets Pat Quinn, one of the driving forces behind saving longhorn cattle and Cotswold sheep, who swapped a life of rally racing for farming. Now in her nineties, she’s hanging up her wellies.
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