Category: Others

Update on the  ‘Britain by Bike’ series being showing on BBC4. Clare Balding sets out on a two-wheel odyssey to re-discover Britain – from the saddle of a touring cycle.

The first four are still on the BBC iPlayer:-

North Devon
First broadcast BBC Four, 8:30pm Tue, 20 Jul 2010

Her first journey takes Clare to the rugged and beautiful Atlantic coast of north Devon – from Lynmouth, scene of Britain’s worst flood disaster in the early 1950s, to Ilfracombe via Little Switzerland, and a hidden silver mine whose riches probably helped England win the Battle of Agincourt.

URL: http://beta.bbc.co.uk/i/t4lqf/ (Available until 8:59pm Tue, 31 Aug 2010)

The Welsh Borders
First broadcast BBC Four, 8:30pm Tue, 27 Jul 2010

Clare’s journey into Wales is rich in literary connections to both Bruce Chatwin and AE Housman. She reveals how a cycle factory went to war and finds out about the Bride’s Tree – a bizarre village ceremony with a dark secret.

URL: http://beta.bbc.co.uk/i/t6yhb/ (Available until 8:59pm Tue, 31 Aug 2010)

The Isle of Wight
First broadcast BBC Four, 8:30pm Tue, 3 Aug 2010

Her journey to the Isle of Wight explores its unique sense of otherness – a strange power which could cure Dickens’s writer’s block, repel the deadly attentions of the Luftwaffe and give Victorian poet laureate Tennyson a comforting sense of his own death.

URL: http://beta.bbc.co.uk/i/t9r0n/ (Available until 8:59pm Tue, 31 Aug 2010)

West Yorkshire
First broadcast BBC Four, 8:30pm Tue, 10 Aug 2010

As she cycles through Bronte Country on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, Clare uncovers a unique photographic collection depicting the hidden daily life of a Yorkshire mill town, a string of truly remarkable women and a secret club for henpecked husbands.

URL: http://beta.bbc.co.uk/i/td4sg/ (Available until 8:59pm Tue, 31 Aug 2010)

Here is the information for the ones that are still to be showing on TV:-

The Cotswolds (Tuesday 17th August 2010)
Time: 08:30 PM to 09:00 PM

Clare explores why the Cotswolds countryside looks the way it does, examines how post-war social change opened the doors of private houses like Blenheim to a paying public and reveals how two men – both called William Morris – helped change the face of heritage tourism.

The Scottish Highlands (Tuesday 24th August 2010)
Time: 08:30 PM to 09:00 PM

In the Scottish Highlands, Clare charts how a series of incomers have changed our view of the area – a diverse group which includes Dr Johnson, an English army of occupation, a North American spruce tree and author Gavin Maxwell, plus otter.