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THE LAKES WITH PAUL ROSE BBC TWO, 4 X 30MINS CHECK RADIO TIMES FOR BROADCAST DETAILS
Having already explored some of the world’s most remote and hostile places, Paul Rose sets off on an adventure that’s closer to home but still holds the promise of new discoveries.
18 Million people visit the Lake District each year but there’s much the modernday visitor can miss. It’s these unexpected, unusual and under-appreciated experiences that Paul is seeking out over the course of the four half-hour episodes in this new series.
His journey begins in Windermere, where he uncovers a hound trailing event with a history that stretches back over 200 years and meets a Holocaust survivor who came to the Lake District to help Jewish orphans from the Second World War.
Paul’s trip through the region takes him to Derwentwater to join the crew of a Viking longboat and Borrowdale to meet members of the Keswick mountain rescue team. He also pays a visit to Coniston to meet Gina Campbell whose father Donald was killed on the lake in 1967 while trying to break the world water speed record.
The final destination on his trip is Eskdale, where he climbs Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak, meets a vulture at the area’s bird of prey centre and takes on the locals in bout of Cumberland wrestling. It’s a trip that should give Paul, a resident of the Lake District for 20 years, and us a new perspective on place we consider familiar. Rob Banino, production editor