This week's best TV & radio: 17 - 23 April

WHAT'S ON TV

Countryfile

Sunday – 7:00pm – BBC One

Julia Bradbury heads to Ennerdale in the Lake District to find out what is being done to make the landscape wilder than it already is while Matt Baker gets his head around hound-trailing - one of Cumbria's oldest and most popular sports. John Craven investigates predictions that we are going to need 60,000 new farmers and workers to keep British agriculture going, and looks at whether anyone can become a farmer.

Escape to the Country
Monday to Friday - 2.15PM - BBC1
Series in which prospective buyers are helped to find their dream home in the country.

Escape to the Country
Sunday - 11.30am - BBC2
A series in which experts help prospective buyers to find their dream home in the country.

Monty Halls' Great Hebridean Escape
Wednesday - 9pm - BBC2
After a year of city living, marine biologist and professional diver Monty Halls returns to live the good life in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. This time, he and his canine companion, Reuben, are sharing a rennovated crofter's cottage on the Hebridean island of North Uist. Volunteering as a wildlife ranger, Monty finds himself trying out Highland Games, fishing for salmon and trout, and exploring the wildlife and remote reaches of his new domain.

Grow Your Own Drugs
Tuesday - 8pm - BBC2
In the penultimate episode of his ethnobotanical guide to the medicinal property of plants, James Wong uses trees and shrubs to tackle minor everyday complaints. He shows one shaving rash sufferer how to grow witch hazel and turn it into a cooling gel, and offers three sinusitis sufferers some relief with a fragrant eucalyptus rub that takes just moments to make. He meets expert growers and turns St John's Wort into a skin balm for cuts and wounds.

Countrywise
Monday - 8pm - ITV1
The Yorkshire Dales are known as the TV setting of Emmerdale and perhaps Britain's best known farming landscape. But the Dales have their own dramatic tales to tell. Bettany Hughes uncovers 800 years of history hidden in dry stone walls, and Paul Heiney turns underground explorer with the cave rescue team that is celebrating 75 years of saving lives.

Country House Rescue
Thursday - 12.35pm - Channel 4
Businesswoman Ruth Watson advises the owners of British stately homes how to diversify and finance the future of their properties. Ruth helps the reluctant family owners of Cothay Manor House in Somerset to turn their home into a sculpture park.

Highland Emergency
Friday - 7:30pm - Five
Documentary series following the work of the emergency services in the Highlands of Scotland. The RAF races to save a woman missing on Ben Nevis and a helicopter has to bypass dangerous power cables to save an injured man.

WHAT’S ON RADIO

Open Country

Saturday - 6.07am - BBC Radio 4

Matt Baker pays a visit tp the Brecon Beacons and learns some survival skills with the aid of an ex-military trainer who teaches him how to light a fire and set traps. He meets some of the villagers in the National Park who are aiming to be carbon negative in five years' time by involving the whole community in several green schemes that make use of some of Wales's greatest natural resources, its rivers, waterfalls and woodlands. Matt also finds out why the Welsh hill pony is under threat and finds out how well the locals are doing so far in participating in a new scheme to use public transport instead of their cars to try and reduce carbon emissions in the area.

Farming Today This Week
Saturday - 6.30am - BBC Radio 4 News and issues in rural Britain with Charlotte Smith

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This week's best TV & radio: 17 - 23 April

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