Norfolk and Suffolk: Country & Coast

On the Norfolk coast, cameras following surfing instructor Duncan Borretton on Cromer Beach leads a group of beginners into the wild North Sea. Elsewhere on West Runton Beach, paleontologist Dr David Waterhouse unearths fossils dating back millions of years, and painter Ed Cooper hopes to capture the special Suffolk light that so captivated Gainsborough and Constable long ago.

At a Second World War airbase in Norfolk, 30 members of the Women's Institute take to the air with the Norfolk Gliding Club. Elsewhere at Thetford Forest, Geoff Scrivens and his team erect two giant tipis in time for a wedding, which takes place as the sun begins to set, and in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the 77ft fishing smack Excelsior is readying for sea.

At Shottisham campsite high above the River Deben in Suffolk, campsite owner Claire Norton is busy gathering eggs and milking goats for what will soon be breakfast for the snoozing campers. Up the coast, Bill Pinney is rowing out onto Orford Ness to dredge up oysters to serve up for lunch at his restaurant on the bank. At Norwich Cathedral, Andrew Fiddes and Daniel Rose-Jones near the end of a mammoth project to restore the organ, tuning the last of the 6,000 pipes that give the instrument its voice.

We open 70 feet above Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile with Doug and Mark as they do their morning inspections of a 91-year-old wooden roller coaster. A few miles north on the banks of the River Waveney, Jonny Crickmore is finishing milking his cows and starting the process of turning that morning's milk into an English version of French Brie.

We head to the fantasy village of Thorpeness with its Edwardian boating lake inspired by Peter Pan's Neverland. Here we join sisters Ash and Rebecca as they master the art of rowing and head out to Wendy's Island, almost a mile from the shore. Swapping rowing boats for a powerful motor launch, we next head to the Norfolk Broads, to spend time with rangers Adam and Jess, who have the difficult task of keeping tourism and nature in harmony on what are Britain's largest protected wetlands – home to over a quarter of our wildlife species.

Back on dry land we head south to the town of Newmarket, home of horse racing and the British Racing School. Saddling up ‘Big G', one of the largest racehorses in the stable, is Riley and his classmate Lockie.

Leaving those future winners to their training, we next take a ride on an Iron Horse in the form of a steam engine on the Mid-Norfolk Railway. As the train steams through the stunning Norfolk countryside, the passengers are served high tea and we ride on the foot plate where Stuart and Matt use the fireman's shovel to cook up their own tea: sausages and bacon roasted over the red-hot coals in the locomotives' fire box.