This week's best TV & radio: 15 - 21 May

WHAT'S ON TV

Countryfile

Sunday – 7.10pm – BBC One

Matt Baker heads to Snowdonia National Park, where he hitches a ride on a train that relies on the laws of gravity to move it, and finds out about the challenges of farming on the side of the highest mountain in Wales. Joining him is Ellie Harrison who meets the man who's come up with a novel way of growing mushrooms and discovers what's being done to control the foreign invaders threatening our native wildlife.

Springwatch Signs of Change with Chris Packham
Monday – 8pm – BBC Two
Chris Packham shows us how changes in nature around us provide solid proof that climate change is already happening. Some of the most powerful data has come from amateur naturalists and recorders. Chris investigates what climate change means for UK plants and animals and predicts the winners and the losers.

Springwatch City Living with Simon King
Wednesday – 8pm – BBC Tw

Simon King is on safari again, this time in the urban jungle. Cities can be great places for wildlife - home to otters, peregrine falcons, badgers, foxes, bats and more. To really appreciate our natural neighbours and the extraordinary ways they've adapted to city living, you need to re-tune your senses and enter their world. Super-sleuth Simon shows where and how to find our wildest city dwellers.

Monty Halls' Great Hebridean Escape

Wednesday - 9pm - BBC Two

Marine biologist and professional diver Monty Halls is back in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, living the good life and working as a volunteer wildlife ranger in the Outer Hebrides. As November starts, Monty realises that he has loads of work to do and little time left. To help open up the islands to tourists, he is writing a guide book to a series of trails.

Springwatch High Seas with Gordon Buchanan

Thursday – 8pm – BBC Two

Join Gordon Buchanan on his adventurous journey into the UK's high seas, where he discovers the world's top ocean predator and a whole lot more. From seabirds to seals and sand-eels to basking sharks, discover the creatures that make this alien environment their own.

How to Live a Simple Life

Friday – 9pm – BBC Two

Sussex vicar Peter Owen Jones has been struggling to lead a simpler and more meaningful life. In a radical experiment following the Rule of St Francis of Assisi, he has travelled across southern England without money. On the road, Peter glimpsed the secret of a simple life. But how long can he live without money?

Sea Fever
Tuesday – 9pm – BBC Four
The story of Britain's fishermen during the 20th century, captured in amateur home movies. Hull skipper Ken Knox and filmmaker Alan Hopper talk about the sophisticated technologies companies used to send crews to distant Atlantic waters in the 50s and 60s in the hunt for white fish. In Peterhead, Donald Anderson filmed the exploits of his crew, including his young son, as the fleets hunted herring shoals.

The Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh
Sunday - 7pm - ITV1
In his second programme about the seasons, Alan Titchmarsh examines summer. For humans it can be a relaxing time, but for smaller creatures who stray too far from home it can be very dangerous indeed. Joining children pond-dipping, Alan explores the strange life of our rockpools and goes to the beach. He also takes a look at some of the less enticing aspects of the season, including midges, flies and hayfever.

Countrywise
Monday - 8pm - ITV1
Paul Heiney and the team travel to Guernsey to help the islanders celebrate the 65th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis. He meets up with a man who has an incredible collection of war memorabilia, amassed over a lifetime of collecting.

The Landscape Man
Sunday - 7pm - Channel 4
Six couples strive to create bold and beautiful gardens with the assistance of expert Matthew Wilson. The landscape gardener helps Anne and Geoff Shaw renovate their wrecked garden in Sussex.

The Restoration Man
Sunday - 9pm - Channel 4
George Clarke travels the British Isles meeting people hoping to restore architectural treasures. Simon and Victoria Hooper wish to convert a Grade I listed medieval hall into a unique home, while the Edwards family have their sights set on a neglected 70-room mansion.

Highland Emergency
Friday - 7:30pm - Five
The coastguard conduct a daring cliff-top rescue on the Isle of Lewis. A man on the Isle of Iona is struck down by deep-vein thrombosis, and a woman suffering seizures has to be rescued from a yacht.

Sea Patrol UK
Friday – 8pm – Five
An RAF rescue crew races to the aid of an injured climber trapped in a narrow gully, a Royal Navy bomb-disposal unit tackles an unexploded World War II mine at a popular seaside destination and the UK Border Agency clamps down on a tanker's tobacco stash.

WHAT’S ON RADIO