What's coming up on this week's Countryfile - Sunday 7 June

Don't miss Countryfile, this Sunday 7 June 2009 at 7.30pm on BBC One, when Matt and Julia head to the Chilterns

This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most successful wildlife reintroduction programmes ever carried out in the UK. In 1989 there were only 50 breeding pairs of red kites left. Matt talks to the people behind the project, and hears how birds from the Chilterns are now used to restock other parts of the country.

FIND OUT MORE

Animal hospital
St Tiggywinkles is world renowned for its work rescuing and rehabilitating hedgehogs. But, as Julia discovers, they don’t just work with the animals that gave them their name. In fact, as numbers of red kites rise, more and more of them are finding their way into the local wildlife hospital. So many in fact that St Tiggywinkles is now making plans to build bigger pens to accommodate them all.
FIND OUT MORE

Chalk streams
The crystal clear streams that lace the Chilterns form some of the most important wildlife habitats in the whole of the country. But a combination of dry summers, and huge household demand for water, means that some have dried up and many more are under threat. However Julia discovers that all is not lost, when she visits a project designed to keep the water flowing and helps local schoolchildren restock a restored stream with fish.
FIND OUT MORE

RAF Halton
The Chilterns are a marvellous place to relax and unwind, and as Matt and Julia find out, the military have been quick to recognise this. Matt experiences for himself the relaxing effects of gliding silently in the skies above the Chilterns. Meanwhile Julia meets the men and women who’ve returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, and are enjoying a unique form of therapy provided by the RAF.
FIND OUT MORE

Woodland Bodgers
For centuries people known as bodgers have been working with wood taken from trees growing on the Chilterns. They produced chair legs and spindles on simple pole lathes for the chair-making industry of nearby High Wycombe. Sadly this ancient art all but died out with the industrialisation of the furniture industry, but Matt meets some modern day bodgers who are fighting to keep an ancient tradition alive.
FIND OUT MORE

Show of Hands
This week Countryfile meets the Devon folk group Show of Hands, once described by Peter Gabriel as 'one of the great English bands'. Songwriter Steve Knightley takes inspiration from his rural surroundings and the market towns and villages where his group performs.
FIND OUT MORE
 
John Craven Investigates: Food waste
In the UK we spend more than ten billion pounds every year buying and then throwing away perfectly good food. Currently most of that waste goes directly to landfill where it contributes to climate change. But there could be a way of putting it to good use. John Craven finds out how the use of modern technology can produce electricity from the rubbish in our bins.
FIND OUT MORE

Adam’s farm
Every Sunday, Countryfile visits Adam Henson on his Cotswolds family farm to find out what life is really like for the working farmer. This week Adam is shearing his flock of 800 sheep, and his rookie sheepdog Millie makes her debut. He also refreshes his sheep shearing skills with the help of an expert sheep shearing gang on a visit from New Zealand.

Human folly
There are over a thousand follies dotted across Britain.  These strange structures have often been built by eccentrics, with no particular purpose in mind. Jules Hudson gets his hands dirty helping to restore a folly and meets a man who has built a neo-gothic one on his lawn.  He says it's a better garden feature than a pond.
FIND OUT MORE
 

WATCH COUNTRYFILE ON BBC iPLAYER

FIND OUT WHAT ELSE IS ON WITH OUR GUIDE TO THE BEST RURAL TV & RADIO FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

DISCUSS THIS WEEK'S EPISODE ON OUR FORUM

ENTER THE BBC COUNTRYFILE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Sorry, there were no results for your search. Please try again.