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Episode Three - Autumn

In this brand new four part series for ITV1, everyone’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, goes back to his roots to find out how our changing seasons affect everything around us. The series reveals the profound and far-reaching impact that each season has on our wildlife and landscape, and how they shape the way we all live.

In the third programme Alan leads us through autumn, as it tracks slowly across the country from North to South. It is a season when wildlife stocks up its larder for the winter and trees brighten the landscape with a kaleidoscope of colours.

Alan tells the programme: “There’s one day in every year when I know that autumn has arrived. I can’t predict when it’s going to happen, but I’ll walk out one morning and I’ll be able to smell it. It’s a kind of tang and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.”

The programme’s broad scope encompasses how nature ensures our wildlife will survive the coming winter, the mysteries that lie at the heart of our great autumn festivals and just where our insects disappear to as the days get colder.

Autumn is the climax of the farming year, when traditionally whole communities would help gather in the harvest. The harvested fields were an important part in the food chain for many creatures but in recent times pesticides have had a detrimental affect on our wildlife. However Alan explains that this has improved in recent years due to the rise in organic farming and meets organic farmer George Heathcote who farms according to the seasons and delights in the wide array of wildlife this encourages.

The Seasons shows that autumn is a time when many of the birds we are used to seeing during the summer depart our shores for warmer climes. But Alan explains that millions more arrive back, including wading birds who feed on the protein and mineral packed mud of our estuaries.

The programme meets Cornish oyster fisherman Tim Vinecombe, who is helping to sustain oyster stocks, following the traditional fishing season and using a method of gathering oysters that has been used since Roman times.

Alan explains one of the great sights, and tastes of autumn are the thousands of different types of mushrooms, toadstools and other kinds of fungi, although he says that as there are some deadly poisonous varieties they should be picked with caution. There are many other seasonal foods available and Alan meets some allotment holders in Birmingham who grow a huge variety of seasonal fruit and vegetables.

The Seasons shows how our smaller creatures prepare for winter. Alan explains that only three British mammals truly hibernate, hedgehogs, bats and the dormouse. The dormouse is shown in its hibernation nest where it will survive the winter by lowering its body temperature and gradually allowing its heart and breathing rate to slow down.

Alan also looks at how the autumn festival of Halloween and he explains how it was originally celebrated by the ancient Celts.

As the season draws to a close Alan says there’s a sense of loss for the vivid world that was early autumn, and there is a new cold season upon us. He poses the question: “We wouldn’t really want to miss winter would we?” He continues: “Because winter is a magical time ... a time of festivals, a time of socialising. For most living things winter isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.”

Episode Four – Winter

In this brand new four part series for ITV1, everyone’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, goes back to his roots to find out how our changing seasons affect everything around us. The series reveals the profound and far-reaching impact that each season has on our wildlife and landscape, and how they shape the way we all live.

In the fourth programme Alan takes us through winter, when the scarcity of food means nature has to be at its most inventive to ensure wildlife and plants survive through until spring.

The programme’s broad scope encompasses how climate change endangers hibernating mammals, the history behind the year’s most magical festivals, and how the cold dark days affect our mood and health.

Alan explains that keeping warm is a constant requirement for all mammals in winter, and they use various means to achieve this. The programme shows sheep in Yorkshire who can survive buried in snow for two weeks by living off the fat they have stored in their bodies. Amphibians such as toads and frogs spend the coldest days submerged in mud at the bottom of ponds, while smaller mammals, such as bats and hedgehogs spend the winter months in hibernation.

The Seasons shows that of all the mammals we humans have taken the most radical steps to protect ourselves from the extremes of winter. We are cocooned in our centrally heated hermetically sealed homes and workplaces, but Alan reveals the downside to this comfort. We have created the perfect breeding ground for germs, which is why cases of flu, colds and bronchitis rise during the winter months.

Alan looks at the seasonal festivals of Christmas and Hogmanay, and he explains how midwinter festivals were held in Britain long before Christianity reached our shores.

Lerwick in the Shetland Islands is Britain’s most northerly town, and gets very little daylight in winter months. Every year, towards the end of January, the inhabitants hold a huge party, called Uphelier, in the belief it will help kick-start spring. The programme shows the awe-inspiring celebrations, as a torch lit procession culminates in the residents setting fire to a Viking long-ship.

Alan explains that for people who work on the land the closing days of winter are a chance to prepare for warmer days. Dry stone walls, damaged by winter frosts are repaired, and fields are ploughed in preparation for new crops.

As the season, and series, draws to a close Alan says: “The whole joy of the year. is its progress from season to season. A series of fascinating changes that makes up life on these islands.”