Made up of wild coastlines, deep forests and rich farmland the series takes us far and wide in an area known as the breadbasket of Britain, but also famous as one of its most beloved holiday destinations.
EPISODE 1
We start our celebration of Norfolk and Suffolk as the sun rises, breaking through the surf onboard one of the last of the Cromer Crab Boats. Soon we begin hauling up Norfolk’s bounty, crab pots full of what skipper, Richard Mathews, hopes will be supper for 100 wedding guests at his restaurant this evening.
Inland, we spend time with another early riser - Coxy the Vegman, AKA Darren Cox, a trader in the Suffolk town of Sudbury. Like many others, Sudbury can trace its market back to Saxon times, so Darren is continuing a trade that’s lasted well over 1,000 years.
EPISODE 2
We start our celebration of Norfolk and Suffolk as the sun rises over Sheringham beach. Here, lifeboat man Chris Taylor is donning his flippers and heading into a an almost unknown world just feet from the land. An incredible 22-mile-long chalk ridge, nicknamed Norfolk’s Great Barrier Reef. It’s the reef that makes the North Norfolk Coast one of the best places for sea food in the country, and one of the best places to eat it is Wells-next-the-Sea, where we meet chef Scott Dougal as he picks up fresh crab for the lunch time rush.
Away from the sea, we head to Suffolk to meet Poppy Drury and Joe Hanks, shepherds at Shimpling Farm, as they do their morning rounds checking on lambs born overnight. Just down the road at St Peter and St Pauls in Lavenham we join the bell ringers for their morning practice.
EPISODE 3
It’s early morning on the river Stour where we join Fred Welham and members of the Sudbury Canoe Club as they paddle leisurely down a river immortalised by painters like Constable and Gainsborough. As Fred and his friends drift through the reedy shallows, we head for the Norfolk coast. Here we join Duncan Borrett, a surfing instructor on Cromer Beach, as he leads a group of beginners into the wild North Sea.
Inland, the residents of Kentwell Hall are still making breakfast. Here we join a group of Tudor re-enactors as they supp on their morning pottage, before preparing for the May Day celebrations that will take place that afternoon. With the sun now high in the sky, our next port of call is Pin Mill, where painter Ed Cooper is hoping to capture the special Suffolk light that so captivated Gainsborough and Constable long ago.
EPISODE 4
We start our celebration of Norfolk and Suffolk just after sunrise with a blaze of colour - the sight of 9 million tulips on Mark Evans farm. Today he and his team are gearing up to welcome 14,000 paying visitors to this once-a-year spectacle. Over the Suffolk border in Lowestoft, the 77ft fishing smack Excelsior is readying for sea. The last of thousands of smacks that once worked the east coast, she is now restored as a sail training ship and under the command of Charlotte Hathaway. Safely through the narrow inner harbor and swing bridge, the Excelsior breaks free into the North Sea and sets her sails as she has done for over 100 years.
As lunchtime arrives, we head to Holkham Hall, home of the Earl of Leicester, to play cricket on one of the most beautiful grounds in the country, before supping a pint of locally brewed beer in Admiral Lord Nelson’s local at Barnham Thorpe. Refreshed, we head to Thetford Forest to help Geoff Scrivens and his team erect two giant tipis in time for the wedding of Adam and Lucy, which takes place as the sun begins to set.
EPISODE 5
As the sun rises, we’re at Shottisham campsite high above the River Deben in Suffolk. As the campers sleep on, campsite owner Claire Norton is busy gathering eggs and milking goats for what will soon be breakfast at the campsites’ café. Food is also being gathered a little further up the coast, where Bill Pinney is rowing out onto Orford Ness, to dredge up the oysters he’ll be serving for lunch at his restaurant on the bank.
Less remote, but no less peaceful, our next port of call is Norwich Cathedral. Dating from 1096 it hosts one of the largest organs in the country. Today we join Andrew Fiddes and Daniel Rose-Jones as they near the end of a mammoth restoration project of this great instrument, tuning the last of the almost six thousand pipes that gives the organ its voice.
EPISODE 6
We open seventy feet above Great Yarmouth’s golden mile with Doug and Mark as they do their morning inspections of a ninety-one-year-old wooden roller coaster. A few miles north on the banks of the River Waveney Jonny Crickmore is finishing milking his cows and is starting the process of turning that mornings’ milk into an English version of French Brie. As the milk curdles into cheese, we head to the fantasy village of Thorpeness with its Edwardian boating lake inspired by Peter Pan’s Never Never Land. Here we join sisters Ash and Rebecca as they master the art of rowing and head out to Wendy’s Island, almost a mile from the shore.
Swapping rowing boats for a powerful motor launch, we next head to the Norfolk Broads, to spend time with rangers Adam and Jess, who have the difficult task of keeping tourism and nature in harmony on what are Britain’s largest protected wetlands – home to over a quarter of our wildlife species. Back on dry land we head south to the town of Newmarket, home of horse racing and the British Racing School. Saddling up ‘Big G’, one of the largest racehorses in the stable, is Riley and his classmate Lockie, who worries her name might harm her chances of becoming a jockey!