Tales from the Green Valley
Tales from the Green Valley is a British historical documentary TV series in 12 parts, first shown on BBC Two from 19 August to 4 November 2005. The series, the first in the historic farm series, made for the BBC by independent production company Lion TV, follows historians and archaeologists as they recreate farm life from the age of the Stuarts; they wear the clothes, eat the food and use the tools, skills and technology of the 1620s.
| Tales from the Green Valley | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary series |
| Directed by | Peter Sommer |
| Starring | Stuart Peachey, Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands, Peter Ginn, and Chloe Spencer. |
| Narrated by | Owen Teale |
| Composer(s) | David Poore |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Richard Bradley |
| Producer(s) | Peter Sommer David Upshal (series producer) |
| Cinematography | Peter Harvey Pete Hayns |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Lion Television |
| Distributor | All3Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 16:9 576i |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 19 August – 4 November 2005 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The series recreates everyday life on a small farm in Gray Hill, Monmouthshire, Wales in the period, using authentic replica equipment and clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques. Much use is made of period sources such as agricultural writers Gervase Markham and Thomas Tusser.
The series features historians Stuart Peachey and Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Alex Langlands, Peter Ginn and Chloe Spencer.
The series was released on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK. An associated book by Stuart Peachey – The Building of the Green Valley: a reconstruction of an early 17th-century rural landscape – was published in 2006.[1]
The sequel to this series is Victorian Farm, with Goodman, Langlands and Ginn returning as TV hosts.
Episodes
| # | Title | Directed by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "September" | Peter Sommer | 19 August 2005 | |
| Ploughing with oxen, baking in a hearth. | ||||
| 2 | "October" | Peter Sommer | 26 August 2005 | |
| Gathering pears, thatching the cowshed roof with a bracken undercoat and a wheat thatch, period clothes and boots, driving pigs to forage. | ||||
| 3 | "November" | Peter Sommer | 2 September 2005 | |
| Slaughtering and butchering a pig, building a daub and wattle wall, harvesting meddlars, salting a table, combing thatch and pegging it down, making hog's liver pudding. | ||||
| 4 | "December" | Peter Sommer | 9 September 2005 | |
| Building a hovel (a woodshed), period clothing, peas, preparing for Christmas. | ||||
| 5 | "January" | Peter Sommer | 16 September 2005 | |
| Preparing period medicines, wood gathering, hedge laying, ink-making, and home pharmacy. | ||||
| 6 | "February" | Peter Sommer | 23 September 2005 | |
| A heavy fall of snow, rebuilding a lavatory, checking the sheep in preparation for lambing, musical instruments, preparing a meal of fish and bagged puddings for lent. | ||||
| 7 | "March" | Peter Sommer | 30 September 2005 | |
| Preparing the garden for sowing, wheat threshing, brewing March beer, pig yokes, fun and games, egg and pear pie with stewed salt cod. | ||||
| 8 | "April" | Peter Sommer | 7 October 2005 | |
| Spring cleaning, rebuilding a dry stone wall, a new baby calf. | ||||
| 9 | "May" | Peter Sommer | 14 October 2005 | |
| Preparing a new field for spring sowing, making charcoal, and butter. | ||||
| 10 | "June" | Peter Sommer | 21 October 2005 | |
| Washing and shearing sheep, cheese making, and mid-summer revels. | ||||
| 11 | "July" | Peter Sommer | 28 October 2005 | |
| New harvest from the garden (beans and gooseberries), making hay, clothes washing. | ||||
| 12 | "August" | Peter Sommer | 4 November 2005 | |
| Fattening geese, goose pie and carrot puree, wheat and straw harvest, reed lights. | ||||
Sequels
A Tudor Feast at Christmas – a "spin-off" from the series, broadcast in December 2006 – showed the team recreating a Tudor banquet at Haddon Hall.[2][3]
A new series set in the 19th century, entitled Victorian Farm, was screened on BBC Two in January 2009 and was followed by Edwardian Farm in November 2010. A series set during the Second World War entitled Wartime Farm followed in September 2012, with Tudor Monastery Farm then premièring in November 2013.
References
- Heritage Marketing & Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905223-13-8
- BBC: "A Tudor Feast at Christmas"
- Blogspot: A Tudor Feast at Christmas
