Band of Slugs

Alfred Wainwright And His Crazy Walks

At first it just seems like filler TV. But after watching last night’s Wainwright’s Walks: Coast to Coast, I soon realised this was another little corner of Britain I’ve never been to. I have to admit there was some pretty impressive countryside on this, the first leg of Julia Bradbury’s ramble from the Cumbrian west coast to Yorkshire and the east coast.

The show is based on the late Alfred Wainwright’s pictorial walking guides, and aims to cover his 190 mile walk across England from the Irish Sea to the North Sea.

The cynic might say that clearly, this is cheap TV. All they needed to do was get a helicopter and film the whole route, so they could intersperse the footage with Julia chatting away with jolly slate miners (see last night’s episode) and the like. On top of this they obviously just had one camera man, who was too lazy to run very far ahead of Miss Bradbury, judging by the close proximity of the shots. They should have hired a more athletic cameraman who could sprint up these delightful mountains, readying himself for Julia to swan past.

Despite these recession-friendly television production values, the show kept me gripped. They’ve tried to add a little sex appeal with Bradbury, but their success depends on your own taste in ramblers. Arguably the most attractive curves in the show are those of Ennerdale and the Lake District.

With the Euro costing us Brits so much, Alfred Wainwright’s rambles might provide us with just the excuse we need to explore our own back yard for a change.