DW Travel (May 20, 2023) – Are these great London sights really as great as they look in all those Instagram photos? We check out the London Eye, Tower Bridge and the National Gallery for you. How much is the entrance fee and is it worth the money? Which of these would be your favorite?
Video timeline:00:00 Intro 00:32 London Eye 02:08 Tower Bridge 04:25 National Gallery
DW Documentary (May 19, 2023) – Human pollution is increasing worldwide. The overexploitation of nature is endangering biodiversity and plastics and chemicals are destroying many of humanity’s nature-based livelihoods.
But there is hope. The UK is not exactly known for its stringent environmental policy and following Brexit, many fear that standards are likely to deteriorate. But the UK is also home to coastal regions and islands characterized by wild beauty — and breathtaking diversity. The documentary takes us through some of the most remote landscapes of the country, from the Shetland Islands to Cornwall, the Hebrides and many other areas.
In each location, the film shows the amazing biodiversity of fauna and flora present. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales is known for large breeding colonies of many seabird species. Few people live on the Hebrides, located off Scotland. These wild islands are still a natural paradise of rocks, sand and moor. As such, they are biotopes for exotic species such as puffins and guillemots.
In this cinematic journey to the most beautiful natural sites in Britain, viewers meet the people who are trying to protect species threatened by extinction by preserving their habitats. It is a story of hope, one that indicates that a change in people’s thinking is taking place.
House & Garden Films (May 19, 2023) – House & Garden presents Houses with History from Castle Howard, home to Netflix’s hit series ‘Bridgerton’.
Join interior designer Remy Renzullo as we tour Castle Howard, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and home to the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for over 300 years. Remy takes us on a tour of the castle that is featured in popular TV shows — most notably as Clyvedon castle in Bridgerton — showing us private spaces usually unseen by the public, including the beautiful Temple of the Four Winds, as well as giving us his take on the spectacular 18th-century state rooms.
The Modern House Films (May 12, 2023) – This extraordinary Grade II*-listed modern masterpiece, set in 25 acres of gardens and ancient woodland, was designed by Peter Harland in 1935 as a home for the leading British composer Sir Arthur Bliss.
Rooted in its peaceful setting, the house was designed for family life, for creating and communing, and as a retreat for self-reflection. The music room where Bliss created some of his most revered works, Grade II*-listed in its own right, is set deep in the ancient woodland; itself a scheduled monument. A four-bedroom guest cottage and its gardens lie due west of the main house.
While retaining an overwhelming sense of quiet and seclusion, this remarkable home lies some seven miles south of Bruton and two miles from Stourhead, within easy reach of the open countryside and Somerset’s many cultural highlights.
National Trust (May 10, 2023) – The gardens surrounding Wightwick Manor, cared for by the National Trust, are influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, which started in Britain during the late 19th century.
This means the garden design extends into the house, where visitors can see flowers such as roses used as motifs for interiors and artworks. Watch this video to discover how politics has also left its mark on the gardens that are still enjoyed by visitors today. You’ll see architectural artefacts from the Houses of Parliament and a tree planted by Clement Richard Attlee, the Labour Prime Minster who served from 1945 to 1951.
You’ll also learn about the history of the estate and its planting schemes and find out more about what the National Trust is doing to make the gardens more accessible for visitors.
DW Travel (May 6, 2023) – Liverpool is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2023 – in place of Kyiv. We check if the city is worth a visit, and not just for the Eurovision. Let’s explore the rich history of Great Britain’s musical city that birthed one of the most iconic bands ever – The Beatles!
From the famous Cavern Club to the Beatles Story Museum – Hannah introduces you to Liverpool and shows you how the city pays tribute to Ukraine.
Aeon Video (May 2, 2023) – With a deep view of time, a regenerative forester extracts resources to cultivate growth in an ancient English rainforest.
Living and working in the woodlands of the Teign valley in Devon, England, the regenerative forester John Williamson has cultivated a deep connection to and unique understanding of this rare patch of English rainforest. This includes knowing that a healthy ecosystem means an eclectic variety of landscapes rather than perfect tree cover; that no parcel of land in Great Britain has gone untouched by humans; and that, while storms can mean devastation for people, for woodlands they’re simply another phase in an ancient cycle.
In this short documentary, Williamson explains how, through viewing these woodlands in terms of the deep past, present and future, he’s developed a sustainable method of extracting wood and creating charcoal that actually encourages biodiversity.
When in 1960 I first came across Osip Mandelstam’s poetry, nobody in the USSR had enjoyed access to his work since the early 1930s and few even knew of his existence, let alone of his death, as he had predicted, in Stalin’s Gulag. His books had been removed from libraries and bookshops.
‘Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage’ By Jonny Steinberg
Under apartheid, aspiring South African writers frequently marketed themselves to the world as committed and heroic anti-apartheid activists. The enormous success of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country (fifteen million copies sold and counting) showed the way, though Paton was the real McCoy, a committed liberal who suffered for his beliefs.
National Trust (April 27, 2023) – Based on the bestselling novel by Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton is exclusively in cinemas from April 28 2023.
Recently retired, Harold Fry is an unremarkable man who is content to fade quietly into the background of life, until one day he learns that an old friend is dying. He sets off to the post office to send her a letter and decides to keep walking: all the way to her hospice, 450 miles away.
The Bath Skyline in Somerset and Minchinhampton Common in Gloucestershire were both used as locations for the film, which was shot sequentially across the UK over several weeks, mirroring Harold’s own pilgrimage through England’s many varied landscapes – from bustling cities to wild moorland.
Here Jim and Rachel tell us how being on location helped bring to life story’s themes of reconnecting with the land and embracing the unknown. Filming at National Trust places helps provide our charity with income which we use to keep those houses, gardens and landscapes in good condition for everyone to visit and enjoy.
COTSWOLD LIFE MAGAZINE – MAY 2023: The issue features the folklore, sayings and celebrations of Maytime; 24-hours in Burford; @Benfogle on health scares, hope & homesickness; from Elgar to Beatlemania at @AbbeyRoad; an illustrated guide to #Uley; a folkloric walk by the River Severn.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious