Landscapes of England: An Exploration with W.G. Hoskins is a BBC television documentary series broadcast on BBC Two in 1976 and 1978. Written and presented by Professor W.G. Hoskins, the series was a televisual accompaniment to his seminal text The Making of the English Landscape (1955), examining how human influence has greatly shaped the landscape of distinct regions in England.
Hoskins's book The Making of the English Landscape had formed the basis of a 50-minute Horizon episode broadcast in 1972 presented by Hoskins and produced by Peter Jones. Many of the same crew returned for Landscapes of England, which focussed on individual landscapes within England.
Two series of six episodes were produced. Joan Thirsk characterises his presentation of the series as "standing out in all weathers, rubicund, benign, usually smiling, though he was once ankle deep in river water." Professor Hoskins also wrote two accompanying books; English Landscapes () and a series of essays One Man's England () derived from the twelve programmes. Both series were released on DVD by Simply Media in 2019 with the earlier Horizon episode as an extra.
Episode list
Series 1 Episode No. Episode Title UK Broadcast Date Description1 "Ancient Dorset" 16 January 1976 Professor Hoskins explores the heaths, valleys and villages of Dorset.Radio Times, Genome Project2 "Conquest of the Mountains" 23 January 1976 An exploration of the wilderness of the Lake District, looking into how the mountains, tarns and fells, far from being a natural landscape, were shaped by man.Radio Times, Genome Project3 "Marsh and Sea" 30 January 1976 On the north coast of Norfolk, W. G. Hoskins details how deserted ports and isolated churches speaks of the communities' former prosperity and a centuries-old battle between land and sea.Radio Times, Genome Project4 "Landscapes of Peace and War" 6 February 1976 The apparently peaceful hopfields and orchards of Kent reveal its secret as a former industrial landscape formerly used to construct Tudor armaments.Radio Times, Genome Project5 "Black Country" 13 February 1976 How the industrial landscape of the Black Country in Staffordshire has been exploited since the Middle Ages.Radio Times, Genome Project6 "The Deserted Midlands" 20 February 1976 From Upper Thames to Banbury, Professor Hoskins highlights a countryside which has been untouched for centuries.Radio Times, Genome Project
Series 2 Episode No. Episode Title UK Broadcast Date Description1 "Behind the Scenery" 3 May 1978 Seeing past its touristy beauty, Professor Hoskins looks at how the landscape of Cornwall is shaped by granite, the sea and the independence of its people.Radio Times, Genome Project In this episode Professor Hopkins reveals the location he desired for his "appointed time" (an old quarry).Landscapes of England, DVD, Simply Media, Disc 2, Episode 1, T3 C2, minute 25.072 "The Fox and the Covert" 10 May 1978 How fox hunting shaped the countryside of Rutland and Leicestershire in central England.Radio Times, Genome Project3 "No Stone Unturned" 17 May 1978 Examines how two distinct industries played a vital role in creating the landscape of the Peak District in Derbyshire.Radio Times, Genome Project4 "The Frontier" 24 May 1978 From Roman times, skirmishes between England and Scotland have left the border landscape of Northumberland indelibly marked.Radio Times, Genome Project5 "Breckland and Broads" 7 June 1978 How a cold climate, the need for fuel, and man-made disasters of wind and water have played their part in the making of Norfolk Broads and England's only desert; Breckland.Radio Times, Genome Project6 "Landscape of Ancient Peace" 14 June 1978 Professor Hoskins talks passionately about his home county of Devon, eulogising its isolated farms and churches; villages and towns and the ancient city of Exeter.Radio Times, Genome Project
References
External links