John Burland

Living in a valley where it is impossible to obtain BBC4 or any other freeview channels, and due to the fact that, unlike series one at the time of writing (January 08), these walks have not yet been repeated on BBC2 terrestrial television, I therefore had to wait until the DVD of series two was available to catch up on these next six walks. The first series which I thoroughly enjoyed last year contains four walks; Blencathra, Castle Crag, Scafell Pike and Haystacks plus also the hour-long documentary about AW including interviews with Betty Wainwright, Hunter Davies and others that knew him. The delightful Julia Bradbury presents the walks in both series, and it is good to see that on the second DVD she has progressed from a somewhat novice fellwalker that came across in the first series, to tackle some of the Lake District’s more challenging walks in the second series. (Not that Scafell Pike from Borrowdale in the first series can ever be classed as a “lightweight walk’). Striding Edge on Helvellyn, Rough Crag on High Street, the ‘Bad Step’ on Crinkle Crags, the Climber’s Traverse on Bowfell and Pillar’s High Level route are all completed easily as Miss B makes her way to the summits of these particular fells in series two. In both series, the camera work by Janusz Ostrowski is outstanding and as would be expected from the BBC, the production values are consistently high. The aerial filming is also fantastic! As I know, from when I joined the team on High Street last summer, not every day set aside for the filming was blessed with fine weather, and Striding Edge in particular gets an ‘atmospheric’ effect from being filmed in driving rain and drifting mist. But this all adds to the beauty. Serious fellwalkers know that our beloved Lake District is delightful whether it be in sunshine or showers. From what she told me at the Wainwright Society (www.wainwright.org.uk) AGM in January, Julia and the Skyworks team are planning the n ext series around AW’s Coast to Coast walk before, it is hoped, returning to film a third Lake District series. I for one will look forward to seeing how they tackle what has been voted ‘the second best walk in the world’ this summer.