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BBC Radio 4 - 92 to 94 FM and 198 Long Wave

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OPEN COUNTRY

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	PROGRAMME INFO

	Saturday 6.10-6.35am Repeated Thursday 1.30-2.00pm


	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: [email protected] Postal address: Open Country, BBC Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.


	LISTEN AGAIN


	Listen to Open Country for 26 March 2005


	PRESENTERS

	HELEN MARK and RICHARD URIDGE



	More about Helen Mark




	More about Richard Uridge


	PROGRAMME DETAILS

	Saturday 26 March 2005
Village life for some people is ideal, they enjoy their neighbours dropping in and love the intimacy of living in a small community. But what is the reality of living in a small community? Does the intimacy come at a price? What happens if you have a secret, a secret you don't want to share with your neighbours? This week's programme explores the good and bad of village life. Farmer Fran Evens first came to the countryside with her parents in the early 1950s. Her father craved the good life and wanted to run a little farm and live off the land. He bought a small holding in Suffolk and for a while was successful but his ambition increased and he moved to a bigger farm on Exmoor - things started to go wrong. The locals, sensing his inexperience, used him in Fran's words as "sport". They sold him diseased cows and pigs that were blind. It all took its toll and after seven years of trying, Fran's father finally admitted defeat and moved out of the farm. She says he was naïve and that the locals actually did him a favour by exposing his inadequacy at farming but it is behaviour that could be seen as both cruel and unnecessary. Fran toughened up and bought her father's farm, the experience made her determined carry on to make it work and despite the untimely death of her husband, she succeeded. Major Chris Lincoln-Jones served as an officer in the first Gulf war. He remembers coming home, seeing the green fields of Devon and filling up with tears. Home was safe and welcoming, he felt the warmth envelope him and the process of healing had begun. Chris says the community and the letters of support they sent were important to him. He feels it is the unchanging nature of his village which gives him comfort, it provides predictability and consistency in a chaotic world. Jane (not her real name) is HIV positive. She looks and feels as healthy as she has ever felt in her life. She loves her part of the world and really values the restorative nature of nature. The changing seasons heralded by the coming of the swallows and the movement of the heavens has given her inspiration, energy and a peace of mind she just wouldn't have in the city. However, living in a village can have its drawbacks and Jane feels unable to tell her neighbours that she is HIV positive. She fears the negative attitudes about HIV harboured in rural areas would make her childrens' lives very difficult and she is not prepared to take that risk. She finds it sad that in Britain in the twenty first century and decades after the education programme informing us of the facts about HIV, people still choose to live in ignorance and have extremely prejudiced views about HIV. National AIDS Trust is the leading HIV policy and campaigning organisation in the UK. International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS Email Open Country: [email protected] The BBC is not responsible for external web sites

	RELATED LINKS BBC Holiday Category BBC Country file