We Are England

19-year-old Mia is a talented dancer, training at Caroline Flack's former performing arts school. But like thousands of other young women in England, she faces her own mental health challenges. With just two weeks to learn a new routine for the school's annual show, can Mia pull it off or will her anxiety and panic attacks get the better of her?

Mia and her friends open up about the mental health challenges they and many other girls face in the age of a social media society, and we explore how the school Caroline Flack attended in the 1990s is working hard to destigmatise ill mental health and encourage students to seek support if needed. TV personality Vicky Pattison meets Mia and her friends to talk about the realities of social media and opens up about her own mental health struggles.

The Bath Romans are a wheelchair basketball team set up in 2019. Since pandemic restrictions have lifted, their numbers have more than doubled. They are gearing up for a match against one of the best teams in the country, the Exeter Otters, but with so many new and inexperienced players, do the Romans stand a chance?

Leighton is the team's newest player, having only played for a few weeks. He was on track to be a professional footballer when he was younger, but a lifelong condition resulting in chronic pain forced him to find a new sport. Keen to build friendships with his new team, Leighton also opens up to manager and club founder, Alex, about his past.

Kayleigh is the Bath Romans' queen of banter, and club manager Alex, who finds her hilarious, is often at the receiving end. Kayleigh jokes that Alex is the worst player on the team despite being one of the only players without a disability. She is one of the more experienced players and started using a wheelchair after having an injury when she was 11. With the game just around the corner, a recent shoulder injury means Kayleigh's aim of scoring in her first match in over two years might be out of reach.

Professional women's boxing is a fast-growing sport. According to the British Boxing Board of Control, in 2016 just two women got professional boxing licenses in the UK; in 2021 28 women did. One of those women is 23-year-old Ebonie Jones from Portsmouth.

When we meet Ebonie, it's been three years since she was fighting in the boxing ring. At one point she was tipped for stardom: she was on Team GB, travelling the world and sparring the likes of Nicola Adams, heading to the Olympic qualifiers. But then her world fell apart.

Ebonie got her first punchbag when she was a six-year-old. She sacrificed a lot to try and make it in the sport she loved but, despite her efforts, Ebonie couldn't make the weight set for her and she was taken off Team GB. She says it felt ‘like my whole world had ended'. Not only did she lose her place on the team, but she was also in a relationship which she describes as physically and mentally abusive.

Ebonie's confidence was destroyed and she stepped away from boxing and says she felt that there was no purpose to her life.

Then she heard about Guildford City Boxing gym where trainer John Edwards was training a group of women. She realised she could still become the champion she dreamt of being, so she applied to become a professional boxer.

As a professional, Ebonie will get paid per fight and get a percentage of ticket sales. With an extraordinary amateur record of 60 wins out of 65 fights, Ebonie prepares for her ‘comeback' to the sport. Can she make a career out of the sport she loves? And, more importantly, can she fight her way back to herself?

This film follows her journey to the big fight and looks at what it takes to make it, in sport and in life.

Mitch, Brian and John are three overweight men in Carlisle who have a love of the fine things in life - football and food. But after lockdown, their football shirts are too tight, and they want to get back in shape. With the help of their coach Bev they are donning their boots and taking to the football pitch every week. They don't just need to score goals in the back of the net, they need to score weight loss goals off the pitch to bring down their waist size and BMI.

Khadijah Mellah was just 18 years old when she became the first British Muslim woman in the UK to win a competitive horse race, at Goodwood in 2019. Growing up in London, Khadijah had always wanted to ride horses, but didn't find an inner-city riding school until she was a teenager. Now she is determined that other young aspiring jockeys from diverse backgrounds take the reins and get access to opportunities she never had.

She helps launch week one of a year-long scholarship named after Khadijah at the Riding A Dream academy, at the prestigious British Racing School in Newmarket. We meet Grace and Eesa from Leicester - two of the talented young riders selected for the programme - who currently train at a social enterprise urban riding school. It's an exciting and intense first week, with the young riders handling racehorses for the first time. Like many of the students, 14-year-old Eesa has never lived away from home. It's daunting, but being a jockey is his dream and his sights are firmly set on becoming the next Frankie Dettori.

Mick, a man from Liverpool who was addicted to drugs and alcohol for 20 years, walks 2,500 miles around Britain in his swimming trunks to raise money and give back to independent charities who specialise in addiction, homelessness and helping deprived children. He wanted to give back to those who helped him through his darkest days. Speaking about his own issues with addiction and homelessness, Mick inspires people who have gone through similar issues to him.

Londoner Annalize Butler has been teaching swimming since 2006 and in that time she's noticed something – she's one of the only black swimming instructors around. It's not just the instructors – statistics show that only 2% of regular swimmers are black, something Annalize is determined to change.

BOSS – Black Owned Swim School - was born after Annalize posted an advert on social media and met up with a group of parents in the West Midlands. They were all keen to have her teach their children how to swim. She now runs lessons in and around Birmingham and Wolverhampton for children and adults from all backgrounds.

In the film, Annalize meets Noe whose 15-year-old son Thando tragically drowned last July. She gives Gugu, Thando's brother, some vital lifesaving lessons and tips on swimming in open water.

Now, Annalize is determined to grow BOSS and has set herself the target of teaching in 100 pools. She also wants to start offering open water swimming lessons and raise awareness of water safety in the black community.

With a unique product, legions of fans, and deep roots in the communities of west London, Brompton Bikes is the largest bike manufacturer in the UK. In this film, we see what life is like on the factory floor amid unprecedented demand for the folding bikes.
A pandemic-driven surge in the popularity of cycling has led the company to recruit hundreds of new workers in the past year. It is now training them in everything from engineering to the dying art of ‘brazing', a specialised form of welding.

Rolls Royce has been in Derby for over a century. They don't make cars here though, they make jet engines. Dennis, the manager of the department that assembles the engines says that they breathe life into metal and make people's dreams come true. He's been with the company since 1976 and is currently overseeing the assembly of the 1000th Trent XWB jet engine.

Things are looking good for the business at the moment but after the pandemic brought the aviation industry to a standstill, no one is taking anything for granted. This film looks at how the Derby branch of a global business is investing in the future in terms of its technology and its people.

In the 1960s there were tens of thousands of ice cream vans in England. Today there are just 5,000. Most of them are hand built at a factory in Crewe. The family-run business is 60 years old, but tough economic conditions mean that the company are now having to innovate to keep the business going. As the father hands over the reins to his sons, we'll also meet the workers behind the vehicle that puts a smile on everyone's face.

Worn by everyone from fishermen to fashionistas, waxed jackets are an iconic fashion item part of the fabric of England. In a factory off the north east coast, a team of high-skilled workers handmake 650 waxed jackets a day. It's been in the hands of one family for over a hundred years and is run today by Dame Margaret Barbour. We meet the team of workers keeping these traditional skills alive and bringing old jackets back to life.

Crockett and Jones is one of only five remaining family-owned and run shoemakers in England, still manufacturing its shoes entirely in England. It is an official partner with the James Bond franchise, dressing 007 in the last three films.

But there's no time to waste in coming up with the next big design. Their mission is to stay traditional, while fighting the growth of the casual market and keeping the business going for the next generations of their family and of the shoemakers who rely on them.

In the 19th century there were over 250 shoemakers in Northampton. Now there are just seven shoe factories left in the town. This fifth-generation firm is one of them. It employs specialist workers, some of whom have been with the company for decades, meaning a family atmosphere runs through the whole factory.

Everyone loves the Mini, but the iconic car company is not just a job for the thousands of people who work there, it's a way of life. Made across two factories in Swindon and Oxford, highly skilled workers make around 1,000 cars a day. We'll see the car being built from the ground up, from the steel plates being made into body parts in the press shop, to the multitude of colours in paint shop to final checks.

Along the way, we'll meet generations of the same family who work at the plants, and learn how the company has given opportunities and careers to thousands.

With knife crime on the rise, this documentary follows Barney, a surgeon, as he responds to another stabbing on Teesside. Statistics show the north east is one of the worst areas of the country for knife crime. That's why the Madgin family, whose daughter Samantha was stabbed to death, are campaigning to turn young people away from knives. This moving documentary follows their efforts to make a change for the better and demonstrates the devastation the use of knives on our streets can cause.

Four years ago, Adam Ellison was killed on a night out. No-one has ever been convicted of killing him. We follow his family as they continue to raise awareness about his case in the hope that they can finally get justice. Adam's sisters Joanne and Nicola revisit the spot where Adam was killed and DCI Cath Cummings from Merseyside Police shares new information in the hope that someone will come forward.

It has been 20 years since the discovery of Michelle Bettles' body. She was murdered and left in woodland, some 20 miles from her last known whereabouts. Two nights before, she had been seen walking the streets of Norwich's once notorious red light district. Norfolk Police launched one of the biggest investigations in its history, but no-one has ever been convicted of the crime.

John Bettles, Michelle's father, and her mother, Denise, are now in their sixties and ill-of-health. John fears time is running out for them to see justice for their daughter. As the 20th anniversary of Michelle's death approaches, John travels back to Norwich to meet with Norfolk Police ahead of a new public appeal for information.

On 28 April 2010, 68-year-old grandfather Barry Rubery returned home from an evening out at a Masonic dinner. After letting himself into his property in Iron Acton, a rural village in south Gloucestershire, he was subjected to a violent and sustained attack.

The next morning Barry was found dead in the conservatory of his home. He was found face down, tied up with electrical flex and cable ties. Twelve years on, Barry's murder remains unsolved.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Almond is now the eighth senior investigating officer in the investigation into Barry's murder. He revisits the scene of the crime and various lines of enquiry in the hope of making new ground.

On April 22, 1986, Peter Thurgood and Lindy Benstead were found dead near their car just off the A3 in Rake, Hampshire, near the Sussex border. They were shot at point-blank range. Peter, a 47-year-old bricklayer, was shot twice, in his head and chest. He was found just outside the car, whilst 49-year-old Lindy was laying on the ground nearby.

Peter and Lindy were having an affair, which was common knowledge amongst the locals. Peter had just divorced his wife and moved out. Lindy, a mother of three, was still living with her husband, Micky.
The bodies were found by a salesman driving by who had stopped for lunch. The police enquiry immediately focused on Micky, Lindy's husband, as the most obvious suspect. But he was soon cleared because he had an alibi.

Hundreds of locals were interrogated as part of the original investigation, but the killer was never found. David and Terry were only teenagers when their father was killed. 35 years later, they are still searching for answers and seeking justice.

In 2001, Damean Vernon was found dead by his mother near a Birmingham canal. He was frozen, half naked, with multiple superficial cuts and abrasions around his body. The previous night, he had fled a police raid at the club where he was socializing with friends and family. The police failed to find him and gave up the search. He was wanted on a charge of robbery and had a history of crime including a prison term.

The inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, with the cause of death being hypothermia. The verdict is rejected by his family and 20 years later, his younger brother, Luke Vernon, searches for answers.

Kema Kay, star of I Daniel Blake, moved to Newcastle from Zambia aged three for his father's education. He calls the city home, but has always struggled with a sense of belonging. Despite Kema and his family entering the country legally, he faced years of delays to his immigration case, leaving him in limbo for most of his adult life. Kema is retracing his steps, talking to the people who impacted his life, his closest friends, his surrogate family and Ken Loach, the person who gave him his big break, to understand what made him the man he is today.

Observational comedian Jayde Adams has spent the last 20 years carving out a successful career in comedy for herself. Most of that has been in London, but now she is moving back home to Bristol, to the place that made her who she is. It's a chance to reconnect with old friends and family. It's also a chance to re-visit some of the emotional events that dominated her younger years, including the death of her older sister.

She meets the key people who helped her navigate those early years and takes us to the vibrant working-class parts of south Bristol that made her who she is today. In this emotional and at times hilariously madcap journey, Jayde goes on a trip down memory lane to answer the question: what made her.

Actor, director, and writer Jassa Ahluwalia has mixed heritage. His father is Indian, and his mother is Anglo-Saxon. Jassa has white skin, and speaks fluent Punjabi. Jassa and his sister Ramanique spent a large amount of their childhood living with and next door to their paternal grandparents in Leicester, where they were deeply immersed in Punjabi culture. Jassa speaks fluent Punjabi, and has visited India several times.

As a young adult, he began to struggle with his sense of identity, and his place in a world which sees him as white, yet he found himself frustrated and unable to express his Indian heritage fully as an actor and performer. Jassa successfully landed acting work on top broadcast dramas and films, including notable theatre roles, as well as appearances on BBC's Peaky Blinders, and Some Girls.

After Jassa was invited to speak at Tedx in India, he started a journey of exploring his identity on social media. He portrays himself, and other characters and makes satirical comment on Indian and English identity issues. Recently he has started writing a book based on his experiences exploring identity. This programme follows Jassa as he visits family members, his father, mother, and sister, and the influential writer and presenter Sathnam Sanghera. He discusses their experiences as well as his own, to discover more about how his upbringing, and his experiences have shaped his own sense of Englishness.

Drag queen Bimini Bon Boulash rose to fame on series 2 of Rupaul's Drag Race UK. They didn't win the drag competition but the have since been walking the catwalk at London fashion week, publishing an autobiography, posing for high profile photo shoots and launching a music career. But their journey to success as an artist and LBGTQ+ icon has humble roots.

Starting at their mum's hair salon in Great Yarmouth, Bimini goes on a trip down memory lane of their childhood hometown, which takes them to some of Great Yarmouth's most historic and iconic venues such as St George's Theatre, The Hippodrome Circus and The Empire. Along the way Bimini meets the people and relives the events that have helped shape their identity and their career. There's fun and laughter with family and old friends but also poignant introspection as Bimini recounts the difficulties of growing up when social attitudes to LGBTQ+ issues and gender were vastly different to that of today.

Bimini was born in 1993. At that time 64% of British people took the view that same-sex relationships were wrong. The negative attitudes to homosexuality and strict social gender roles of Bimini's youth led to bullying which forced them give up the things they loved – acting and dancing. Bimini moved to London aged 18 to explore the LGBTQ+ scene and to lead an authentic life. It's a move that allowed Bimini to discover drag, discover their non-binary identity and eventually led to Bimini being cast on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Back in Great Yarmouth Bimini explores how the local gay scene has changed over the years which leads Bimini to undertake their most nerve-racking project to date – performing in drag, in their hometown, for the first time.

Growing up in Leeds shaped rapper Graft's music and after a rapid rise to fame, he was crowned the winner of BBC's The Rap Game. Now he has embarked on a new journey to fuse his music with his true identity. With a lifelong desire to know more about his family history, Graft is now on a mission to trace his ancestral roots whilst pursuing even further heights in his music career.

Livvy Haydock is known for documenting crime and interviewing violent criminals. In recent years she's tracked down kidnappers, drug smugglers and moped gangs robbing people on London's streets – to name a few. She's used to uncovering secrets, but for the first time she's turning the tables and sharing her own story – revealing where her fascination with crime began.

Growing up in an army family, Livvy spent part of her childhood in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, where she became used to patrols and bombings. Livvy says growing up in that environment made her comfortable with threats. Later, she moved to Kent and spent a lot of time in Folkestone. Here, Livvy witnessed close friends go through difficult experiences, eventually writing her first published piece of journalism about one of them.

It was in London, though, that Livvy began to grow her book of underworld contacts. She met self-confessed ‘ex-villain' Dave Courtney, who introduced her to gang members and helped prepare her for her life of chasing criminals. Her desire to understand why some people choose such a painful path through life has never left her.

We pass construction sites every day, but most people don't know that behind the flurry of activity and noise, the industry has the worst suicide rate of any job in the UK. We meet the people building our cities and towns, doing a physically and mentally draining job, often while struggling with their mental health.

Alfie and his scaffolding gang have seen first-hand the mental health struggles of colleagues working in construction, now they're joining forces with a worker-led initiative to make a difference. Through their stories, we explore why the industry is in such bad shape and witness a change in a group of young construction workers who have struggled to discuss mental health issues before now.

We also meet those who have suffered while working on a building site but who are now trying to effect fundamental change in the industry, and see how their efforts are finally gaining ground.

Run by professional player Jamie Caven, the junior darts academy in Derby is helping to improve teenagers' mental wellbeing, as well as shaping the stars of the future, like Henry from Darley Dale in Derbyshire who's battling it out to be world number one.

In Coventry, psychotherapist Sean Casey Poole set up an academy to help change the image of the sport, with less focus on alcohol and an unhealthy lifestyle and more focus on mindfulness and professional playing. It's proving popular, with around 40 regular junior players. We meet Ben, born with half a heart, who struggles with physical exercise. He says darts and the academy has helped him through the toughest of times of his life.

The two teams meet in a friendly match - but will it be the east or west Midlands who reign victorious?

Go behind the scenes as we step into the ring at the Bradford Church of Wrestling. Gareth ‘Angel' Thompson set up one of England's only wrestling churches in Bradford in 2021. After overcoming his own experiences of abuse and homelessness, he wants to help others build positive mental health through wrestling.

We follow the extraordinary group as they share their inspirational stories of recovery and mental health battles. One of these stories is Cris who is training to step in the ring for the very first time as his LGBTQ character ‘Pride'. Will Cris have the confidence necessary for his wrestling debut to be a success?

Toby G founded Street Factory in Plymouth 17 years ago with his wife Jo. They use hip-hop to bring people together, boost confidence and improve mental health.

Toby, a Roma Gypsy, came to England when he was 14 to flee racism that he and his family faced in Poland. Understanding what it's like to have a tough start in life, Toby wanted to help others in difficult situations.

They offer a variety of classes and hope to help people ‘discover their genius'. They host showcases as a way for people to show off their progress and to also test their confidence.

With their biggest show just days away, we follow two performers as they prepare to share their stories in front of an audience. Tash, a young mum and dancer, practices her routine about a very personal mental health battle that very few people know about, whilst Ben steadies his nerves ahead of reading a poem about his progress since being homeless and suicidal.

In September 2021, Bedford barber Fabio Moliterno took his own life after years of struggling with his mental health. In this deeply personal and powerful story, Fabio's family and some of the staff from his barbershop have embarked on a campaign to raise mental health awareness. We follow them as they undertake suicide intervention training to help tackle the issue of male suicide.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 75 per cent of people who take their own lives in the UK are men, a consistent trend going back at least to the mid 1990s. The Moliterno family's training is organised by a gym charity that is working to get mental health awareness into male-dominated spaces such as sports clubs and barbershops. The project is close to gym owner Dorian's heart, as he was friends with Fabio.

For Fabio's loved ones, the training is a difficult and emotional journey. His older brother Franko, a DJ and music producer, has found solace channelling his grief into a song for Fabio. The track, featuring lyrics by some of Fabio's friends, promotes mental health awareness and aims to spread a message to men that it's OK to talk.

Peter had battled with his mental health from a young age. Unhappy with his body image and low self-esteem, he turned to alcohol and drugs. At age 21, weighing 17 stone he suffered a heart attack after overdosing on cocaine.

He took up skydiving as an incentive to lose weight and get off the drugs. Now he's a professional formation skydiver and instructor, has represented Great Britain and won two gold medals at national championships.

In 2020, he teamed up with three friends to buy a skydiving business in Peterlee, County Durham. Three days after they signed on the dotted line, Covid struck and forced them to close over lockdown. The financial pressure pushed Peter into attempting suicide.

Peter began counselling sessions and hired a personal lifestyle coach. Health, fitness and positive thinking are now the tools he is using to overcome the depression that nearly took his life.

He has been drug and alcohol free for 18 months and has vowed to help as many people as he can by sharing his story and sharing the techniques that help him maintain mental wellbeing.

Bristol poet Lawrence Hoo struggled at secondary school. He was thrown out of six and remembers looking in the pages of textbooks and thinking that out of everyone who achieved things, who were ‘great', no one looked like him. They were all white.

Now, with children of his own, he's teamed up with visual artist Chaz Golding to address this lack of representation in schools' curriculums. They hope these will counter the skewed versions of Black history, which they see as being responsible for reproducing inequalities in society.

We're given rare access to the recording studios of one of Bristol's most iconic bands, Massive Attack, who are long-time supporters of Lawrence and Chaz, to see them record some of the material for their lessons. We follow them as they host a training day for secondary school teachers in a disused warehouse on the outskirts of
Bristol. It's all intended to take them out of their comfort zone and put them in a place that will make them sit up and listen.

They're taught about Nanny of the Maroons, Queen Nzinga and the Haitian revolution, among a plethora of other historical events and people that are not taught in mainstream schools. We then follow teachers who take what they've learnt back to their own classrooms. What will their pupils think about the lessons? Will they engage with the material?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, schools closed for prolonged periods across the country, leaving parents to home educate their children. For some parents this proved difficult, with 47% of employed parents reporting their job being negatively affected by home educating.

But not all parents felt that home educating was a bad thing. The latest figures estimate that as of October 2021, there were 81,196 children being home educated across England, an increase of 5,528 (7.3%) from the previous year.

With home educating on the rise, this film pulls back the curtain on the home education community, following the stories of two families who chose to home educate their children years before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The Roberts family who live in Birmingham have five children all under the age of 10, and another on the way. Their children have never been to school. Parents Simone and Mark say they live a ‘lifestyle of learning', where national curriculum subjects such as maths and English are brought out in things that they do day-to-day, such as writing a birthday card or measuring materials for sewing.

Alice and Kaushil Khimasia who live in Coventry, have already been through the home educating journey with two of their children. They met at Warwick University where they both trained as teachers. They have four boys and have been home educating over a decade.
Like the Roberts, the Khimasia's home education method is referred to as ‘unschooling' - they don't follow a set curriculum or structure.

Paramedic science degree courses were introduced in the UK in 1998 and the training has developed over the last two decades. In Make Me a Paramedic we follow two students striving to achieve their dreams of becoming fully trained paramedics. As well as looking at their time on
campus, a core part of the degree is going out on placement shifts with the North West Ambulance Service.

Hina is a 24-year-old first year student from Darwen, who started to dream about becoming a paramedic whilst working as a carer. Originally from Pakistan, Hina left education behind at 18 to support her family. Now it's time to focus on her own career and she's eager to grab the opportunity with both hands.

Sarah is a mature third year student from Warrington retraining after a career in hospitality. As a single parent, she juggles childcare with the rigours of full time study and twelve hour shifts on the ambulance. With just ten placement shifts left with the ambulance service, she's nearly completed the degree and is facing up to the reality of becoming fully responsible for patients at some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

Six Luton teenagers are taught how to handle animals, and themselves, at England's largest zoo.

Whipsnade Zoo has more than 10,000 animals living in 600 acres of land. For the last ten years, students from The Avenue Centre, a Luton
school for children unable to attend mainstream education, have been taking part in a course designed to improve behaviour and learning through engaging with animals.

18-year-old Blake Recardo was inspired to study animal care at college following his time with Zoo Academy and is now volunteering at the zoo to further his aspirations for a career in animal care.

Fleeing war, violence and persecution abroad, young refugees from Ukraine and other countries restart their educations in England, finding a new life through new schools. We meet three refugee students who fled their homes to seek safety in the UK - and also meet the Britons who are welcoming them into their homes.

8-year-old Sofiia and her mother Hanna left their home in Kharkiv to make a new life in Farnham. They were sponsored by Kate and Charlie, a retired couple who became their hosts and helped to get Sofiia into a local school. We see Sofiia become the first Ukrainian to find a school placement in the area.

Also in Farnham is Ukrainian teenager Ivan. We follow Ivan on his first day at a new secondary school, trying to fit in with his English classmates who've grown up together. His new peers are confronted with the realities of war as they meet Ivan.

Salma fled war and violence in Afghanistan when she was 16. Despite learning English and passing all her exams, Salma couldn't secure a place at university – until she found help from a specialist charity that works with young refugees to help them rebuild their education. Now 23, Salma studies, and thrives, at Brunel University in bio-medical sciences.

At Refugee Education UK, we meet Moses, a young Jewish man who feels compelled to help displaced individuals because of his own people's history of persecution and expulsion. Moses' work helps refugees find their own place in British society through mentorship and practical support with getting their disrupted educations back on track.

Aaron, Kate, Kaya and Zaki are four engineering students at Bede Academy, Blyth. Despite being at differing stages of development, they are all convinced they will leave school as engineers.

In September 2009, Bede Academy opened in Blyth. The school was formed with an engineering and enterprise specialism in mind, to
complement Blyth's historic industrial roots. Business leaders, such as those working at the Port of Blyth, reach out to Bede Academy and partner up to secure the best and brightest engineering students, who can work on anything from wind turbine installation to subsea drilling.

It is the summer term, with exams looming. We follow Aaron, Kate, Kaya and Zaki, at home, at school and at the workplace, as they endeavour to become the engineers of the future and contribute to Blyth's resurgence as a modern industrial powerhouse.

James is a sheep farmer with a big vision: he's taken over the family farm and is making exciting changes using modern breeding and farming techniques.

Just outside of Alnwick, Northumberland, the farm has been in his family for three generations. Now, James has taken over from his dad Tony and has decided to do things differently.

For years sheep have been bred traditionally, with farmers judging by their look and weight. But James has partnered with a selective breeding company and is using data capture and technology to produce sheep with desirable genetic traits.

Alongside this, he's growing a unique mixture of plants and herbs for the sheep to eat and planting rows of hedges to keep them protected. He wants to farm with nature in mind and use new technologies to create a profitable and sustainable farm for the future.

October 2021 saw the beginning of an environmental catastrophe on the north east coast, as thousands of crustaceans washed up dead along numerous beaches. Fishermen from Hartlepool to Whitby reported plummeting catches as their livelihoods became seriously threatened. We follow the local community as they deal with the fallout from this ecological disaster and try to understand how it came about.

Lea Valley normally produces more than 80 million cucumbers annually, over 65 per cent of the UK's production, according to Lea Valley Growers Association. This year the association, which represents local growers, estimates the area will produce just half of that. Some growers say it's been their toughest season yet, and there are concerns their future hangs in the balance.

Tony Montalbano's Sicilian grandfather founded his family cucumber growing business when he first came to Lea Valley in the 1960s, and it was later passed down to Tony by his father. Tony wanted to make his family proud, but when gas prices rose sharply this year, he couldn't afford to heat his eight acres of glasshouses.

We follow Tony through his season as the weather warms up and he plants his crops, facing unexpected challenges and trying to find out what the future of the English-grown cucumber will be. Tony's biggest fear is failing his family. Will his family farm survive?

The large country estate handing hundreds of acres back to nature. But can rewilding secure its future?

Nestled among the rolling hills of West Dorset is Mapperton Estate: an 11th-century historic house surrounded by 1,900 acres of countryside. It's the seat of the Earl of Sandwich, a noble title dating to King Charles II, whose lineage includes the supposed inventor of the sandwich itself. It's also the family home of aristocrats Luke and Julie Montagu. But running an historic estate comes with its own set of challenges. Waning agricultural revenues, a repair bill that regularly runs to six figures, and a global pandemic have meant the couple have had to constantly look for new ways to generate income.

These days not only is the house open to visitors, but weddings and yoga retreats take place on site, and Luke and Julie even run a successful YouTube channel, sharing the ups and downs of running the estate.

Now they're embarking on a journey that will see them hand hundreds of acres of the estate back to nature, all in an effort to ‘rewild' the land, create space for wildlife and store carbon. But transforming the rural estate into a wilderness is no small task. And with a host of animals being released onto the estate to shape the landscape in a natural way, there's a lot to get done.

For decades, Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk was a traditional dairy farm. But in 2012, the price of milk dropped across the dairy farming sector, and many farms in England were plunged into crisis. Third-generation farmer Jonny decided to make a drastic change and bolster his business by diversifying into cheesemaking - using raw milk, straight from his cows, to create a French style cheese.

Jonny says he 'didn't have the foggiest' about making cheese – so he enlisted the help of a French cheese expert and travelled to France to buy 72 Montbéliarde cows, a breed highly prized for their milk in cheesemaking.

In the first week of production, 20 wheels of cheese were sold. A decade later, Jonny's team dispatches 150 tonnes of cheese around the world every year – and demand is still growing. But such rapid growth brings challenges. In this film, we meet Jonny, his wife Dulcie and the rest of the team on the farm, responsible for everything from herding and milking the cows to making and wrapping the cheese. They are determined to stick to their principles while managing a growing business, but it's not easy.

Shot over the summer of 2022, this fascinating film follows the working life of Cotswold farmer and culinary oil producer Charlie Beldam.

An international cooking oil shortage sparked by the war in Ukraine creates a busy summer for this family-run business. Charlie battles increased commodity costs, a factory working flat out and a record-breaking heatwave that delays the summer harvest of his oilseed rape. With a young family to juggle, this could well be Charlie's most challenging year yet.

Bassam, Henry and Viktória all rely on food courier work to financially support them, and lift the lid on how hard it is to earn a living in this fast-growing industry.

In England and Wales, 4.4 million people work on gig economy platforms at least once a week, with many of those working on the fast-food delivery platforms we all use. Like Bassam, 18.3% of gig economy workers rely on this type of work as their primary source of income. Most food couriers are self-employed and are paid for each delivery they make, so the more orders they deliver, the more money they make.

In Liverpool, Henry works as a food delivery cyclist. Despite already having a full-time apprentice job, he puts in extra work during the evening as a courier to top up his wages. He is one of 1.2 million people in the UK who have a second job.

Despite the majority of couriers being self-employed, in Manchester Viktória works for an organisation who do things a little bit differently. As an employee of the delivery firm, she is paid a guaranteed wage of £10-an-hour. She can also earn more if the value of her orders tots up to more than her hourly wage.

Stacey Sowden is a steel fixer at Hinkley Point C, joining the construction site as an apprentice 2 years ago. Every day, her job involves heaving huge, prefabricated steel bars, tying them together into the colossal frames that form the backbone of the concrete city that is Hinkley Point C. It is back-breaking work, and not for the faint-hearted.

Most of Stacey's work ends up in Nuclear Island One, one of two 32-metre high reinforced concrete shells that in less than four years they will contain one of Hinkley's nuclear reactors. The finished buildings will be strong enough to withstand tsunamis, earthquakes and even the impact of an aircraft.

Steel fixing is physically gruelling work, probably one of the toughest in the building industry, which perhaps explains why so few women chose it as a career. In 2014, a study by the Smith Institute found that women made up just 1% of workers on construction sites. It identified multiple reasons and recommended changing the culture throughout the industry.

Stacey's choice to tackle one of the toughest of jobs in a notoriously tough industry might suggest that the culture of construction is changing. But, as Stacey is quick to point out, changing the culture of construction doesn't mean the banter is gone. The atmosphere is jocular, at times bawdy. Nicknames are as prevalent as ever.

Hinkley Point C's reactors are due to start generating electricity in 2026, supplying six million homes. But, much like construction, the nuclear industry has a poor record when it comes to gender diversity. A 2017 report by the Nuclear Skills Strategy Group, supported by all the main industry players, found 28% of the civil nuclear industry were women, but this fell to 15% for engineering roles.

Janaan Hussain is one of 10 trainee reactor operators, chosen from a field of 400 applicants. When fully qualified she will be responsible for the supervision and control of the reactor, a technically complex role that carries with it huge responsibility.

Janaan attributes her success to schooling, specifically the encouragement for her to take up a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subject, which have been traditionally avoided by women. That, and a chance meeting with an astrophysicist whilst on holiday who blew her mind. Janaan believes that, despite the encouragement she had, the nuclear industry still suffers from a lack of women applicants.

Janaan's first job in the nuclear saw her as one of only 3 women among a workforce of 200, but she believes the industry target of 40% women feels possible at Hinkley Point C.

Both Stacey and Janaan long for the day when Hinkley Point C is finished, but for very different reasons. For Stacey, it will mark a moment when she can look back with pride at what she has achieved. For Janaan, it will be the first day of her new job as the controller of a fully operational power station. That's when her work really begins.

Handling everything from cardiac arrests to road traffic accidents and even a wasp attack, the unique work of the dedicated team of the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) saves lives round the clock.

The EAAA gets well over 1,000 helicopter call outs a year. The life-saving charity works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This courageous team of aviators and medics launches from a Norwich airfield to respond to the most urgent medical cases in the area. It takes a lot to be part of this elite team, as the difficult cases they encounter leave a mark on even the toughest of responders - marks that would undoubtedly be deeper were it not for the immense camaraderie and sense of family that keep everyone going.

Henrietta Davies wanted to fly since she was 12, and now as a HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) pilot she's one of only 39 female commercial helicopter pilots in the UK compared with 1014 male pilots. Women make up just 3.7% of licensed helicopter pilots in the country. She juggles her 12-hour shifts around her three children – all aged below six.

Critical care paramedic Luke Chamberlin lives in a household that literally revolves around the HEMS team- his wife Paige is also a paramedic on the service. They balance their shifts with raising their 2-year-old son. Luke believes becoming a father has made him a better paramedic, empathy which becomes frighteningly useful during a daunting 2am deployment, when Luke is called to treat a teenager who has been involved in a road collision.

Working closely with Luke and Henny is Doctor Halden Hutchinson-Bazely - or Hutch, as he's known to his HEMS team – a medic with a background in the armed forces. He served in the RAF for 12 years and his dad, uncle, grandad and even great grandad were all in the Air Force.

Hutch is driven by a strict sense of duty to serve the public, but must balance that with the emotional demands of treating the most severe medical cases in testing circumstances.

Night workers adding an extra lane to the A1 battle machine breakdowns, tiredness, and danger traffic as they race to get the road open by 6am.

The A1 is Britain's longest road and a major route through Newcastle, but parts of it need an upgrade. The stretch of the A1 that runs from Scotswood to North Brunton in Newcastle sees 50,000 cars pass through it every day.

A project to add an extra lane northbound and southbound to this stretch of the road is under way, with the end goal being more space for traffic. We follow Shaun Lee, part of the team that closes the road, and David Lynn, the construction manager on the scheme, who knows all about the frustrations of being stuck in traffic..

While construction teams are working to get the building work done, environmental advisor Becka has an important, but quite different, role on the night shift. Her job is to make sure that environmental rules are being followed, to protect the natural world while construction is taking place. As 4am rolls round, the teams must be off the road to allow traffic management to reopen the A1. Will they make their deadline?

On the banks of the River Thames, in the shadow of Battersea Power Station, sits New Covent Garden Market - the UK's largest wholesale fresh food market. This sprawling wholesale market is the centre of the supply chain of fresh fruit and veg to the capital and beyond.

As night falls, more than 2,000 workers make sure everyone, from Michelin-starred chefs to those working in prison kitchens, have the best quality fresh food available in the UK.

With 152 wholesalers, 35 acres of land, and an annual turnover of £650 million, the market deals with thousands of tonnes of produce every night.

The Market's history can be traced back 1670, when it stood at the original Covent Garden site. In 1974, it was moved to a purpose-built facility the size of nearly seven football pitches.

Brexit, Covid and the recent cost of living crisis have meant tough times for the market over the past few years. As European imports are more difficult to manage, the industry has reshaped itself and the power balance has shifted. Traders now deal with farms directly, and tell chefs what's available and work with them to set more seasonal menus focusing on local British produce.

The stakes are still high, with market wholesalers competing with supermarkets for their orders while ensuring their highly perishable fruit and veg remain in tip top condition for their customers.

For the West Midlands Fire Service and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, having a diverse workforce is integral to serving their communities effectively, and the people behind the uniforms work tirelessly day and night to keep us safe.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service has 25 fire stations with 41 fire engines. Frontline response firefighter Leanne joined the fire service when she was just 21 years old. Keen to follow in her uncle's footsteps, Leanne joined when there was a demand for on-call firefighters at her local village station in Eardisley, Herefordshire. Now, Leanne works full-time at Bromsgrove Fire Station on White Watch and also works on-call at Eardisley Fire Station.

Samantha is a group commander at West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS), who manages eight fire stations across her patch. Samantha was the first Black female officer when she joined in 1990. She encountered some tough times when she first joined, but sees herself as a trailblazer and has since risen through the ranks. She is outspoken and passionate about encouraging more women and more recruits from ethnic minorities into the service.

Finally, Simon is station commander at Bromsgrove and Tenbury Fire stations. In 2004, Simon had a high-speed motorcycle collision that resulted in him being airlifted to hospital and having his left leg amputated below the knee. Determined to get back to the job he loved, he battled his way back to fitness and returned to work just 18 months later as Europe's first amputee firefighter. In 2010, Simon won the prestigious Firefighter of the Year award. He is passionate about being in the fire service and is proud to call himself a firefighter.

Having hung up his boots for good, ex pro-footballer Scott Golbourne (Bristol City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Barnsley, Exeter City) was looking for a new challenge. For the past few years, he's been running a property development company with his best mate and business partner Cameron Wright, a former teacher. They now own 20 properties in Birmingham with a particular focus on the social housing end of the market.

Scott and Cameron have both seen people close to them suffer in poor housing, and as the cost of living gets ever worse, they're determined to find ways to help their tenants by keeping the bills down on their properties. To do this, they want to learn as much as they can about carbon-efficient properties so that they can apply their new-found knowledge to a set of properties they've recently acquired in Gravelly Hill, Birmingham.

First, they visit architect John Christophers at his home, ‘The Zero Carbon House', in Balsall Heath, Birmingham – it's the UK's first zero carbon retrofitted home. John and his wife Jo moved into the house, originally a Victorian terrace, 14 years ago. In that time, they've paid no energy bills at all by making the house 95% energy efficient.

Scott and Cameron also visit a new social housing project in Edgbaston, Birmingham. ‘Project 80', as it's known, is a new estate of flats built by housing provider Midland Heart. They've designed the flats to meet the new housing standards for efficiency, which will affect all new builds from 2025.

Scott and Cameron then head to the Forest of Dean to meet Nancy, a resident currently having her home retrofitted by the estate managers. Will the changes to her property help her to keep the costs down as winter kicks in, and will Scott and Cameron pick up enough tips to be able to use on their projects?

Danielle from Sheffield is a single mum of five, and like many she has struggled to put food on the table recently. Last year, she discovered an app on her phone that allowed her to get free food that has changed her and her children's lives.

After years of hardship, Ronnie has made a new life for herself as a chef at the Refuse café in Chester, where she teaches women to cook delicious soul food using ingredients that would have normally gone to waste. One of the women in Ronnie's class is Kamara, who Ronnie helps to prepare fresh meals as she strives towards getting back into work.

Richard and Tracey are food waste volunteers who pick up food waste from supermarkets and distribute it within the community.

Financial advisor Emmanuel Asuquo is on a mission to help people survive the current cost of living crisis - the worst in a generation. According to the Office for National Statics, around nine in ten adults have reported increased living costs. Single mum Emma, 35, from Bedfordshire, has felt the pinch of the soaring costs of goods and utilities and has had to give up her car as well as her cherished ‘date days' with her 11-year-old daughter, Jessica, to make ends meet.

Emma is working, but has had a tough time finding jobs that pay a living wage with hours that suit being a single parent. She is now in rent arrears for the first time in a decade.

Emmanuel also knows what it's like to struggle with money. Growing up in poverty to immigrant parents, Emmanuel shared a room with his two sisters and, at one point, lived in a flat infested with cockroaches. From the windows of his East London council estate, he could see the twinkling lights of Canary Wharf every night and dreamed of having enough money to leave the lights on all night.

He made this dream come true, getting a job in Canary Wharf at age 19 (though he doesn't actually leave his lights on all night!). Emmanuel soon became the youngest financial advisor for Barclay's in the country when he was 22.

Now, Emmanuel runs his own financial advice business and visits Emma, who is finding it hard to save money and start paying off her debt.

He gives her practical tips and a money-saving plan to help get her back in control of the family's funds. It's a plan that enables Emma to buy a new school uniform for Jessica without emptying her bank account, and even leaves her with enough left over to pay for a much-missed ‘date day' for the two of them.

For Emmanuel, it's important that Emma is a role model for her daughter when it comes to money issues. He wants to stop generational poverty in families by getting children involved in finances at an early age, so they can make smarter money choices as they grow up.

Ever wondered how lipsticks or nail paints are made? Or what it takes to compete - and thrive - against the cosmetics multinationals?

Our Big Beauty Business offers rare access into a major cosmetics factory, revealing the glamorous but tough-as-rocks world of the cosmetics industry. In this film, we join one of Britain's last family-owned beauty brands in their 40th anniversary year - and see how they're beating some of their big-name rivals.

Cumbria has a long-standing relationship with shoe manufacturing. Roy Bell started his career in the industry as soon as he left school in 1970 at Millers Shoe Factory in Cockermouth. Millers closed its doors in the early 1990s, but by then Roy had already moved to another company. In 1982, New Balance set up a factory in Flimby, a small village just a few miles down the road, and Roy has been there ever since. At that time, the Flimby facility was the only factory owned by the multibillion-dollar American business outside the USA.

The factory, located in a farmer's field, with cattle casually grazing the surrounding area, now employs 275 people to make around 7,500 pairs of trainers every week and is planning a ten per cent increase to its workforce over the next five years. Staff work four days per week on ten-hour shifts. Roy is called a clicker because that's the sound his machine makes when it presses down on a sheet of leather to cut the various components that go into a trainer. To an untrained eye it looks easy enough, but without the skill and experience that Roy has built up over the years, it could go horribly wrong very quickly.

For Roy, the day-to-day process of leather cutting is coming to an end. Balloons and banners strung onto his workstation wish him a happy retirement. Work stops for a brief moment as his team gather round to wish him all the best.

This year, New Balance celebrated 40 years of Cumbrian manufacturing by producing a special set of trainers to commemorate its milestone. The tongue proudly says 'Made In England', and the inside of the box pinpoints Flimby on a UK map. Eighty per cent of what they make in Flimby is exported all over the world, and the anniversary trainers will be no exception.

Moonpig print and send tens of thousands of cards from their Guernsey factory every day. We go behind the scenes meeting the characters who keep the factory running, ensuring cards are ready in time for the last plane off the island, sometimes when the odds are stacked against them.

McLaren cars are synonymous with speed. We enter the fast-paced world of supercar engineering, and get a sneak peek behind the scenes within the factories that bring these luxury cars to life.

In 2012, F1 team McLaren began mass producing road supercars. A decade later, we find out how the company have progressed. We discover what it takes to build a supercar through the people who make them. Although assembled in a state of the art factory in Woking, a brand-new plant in Sheffield is taking on the essential role of building their carbon fibre chassis, the foundations of the car.

Few boat builders can boast about being featured in a James Bond movie. But for Spirit Yachts in Ipswich, it's happened twice. The company's distinctive yachts marry classical wooden design with cutting edge sustainability.

Their journey hasn't been all glitz and glamour though, with the company starting from humble beginnings. Owner Sean McMillan built his first boat when he was just 12, before following his dreams and starting a boat building company in the 1980s. 20 boats later, he lost everything in the recession of the early 1990s - including his home.

In 1993, Sean started a new company with a boat building friend, Mick Newman. Their first site was a cow shed in rural Suffolk. Here, they began restoring old boats. Two decades later, the company is based in a large boat yard on the marina of Ipswich. They have around 80 wooden boats to their name, winning global awards for their designs and employing over 55 people.

A day with the factory workers, engineering staff, management and design team to get a glimpse of the challenges inside Denby Pottery's Derbyshire factory.

The ceramics industry accounts for £1.6bn in revenue every year, employing over 22,000 workers around the UK; the Derbyshire firm employs 472 people in their factory.

Innovative music therapy is helping families to not only live with dementia but to create new memories too. Keith was diagnosed with dementia when he was 53 and along with his partner, Joan, he has been attending music workshops with Manchester Camerata for over five years. They believe the groups ultimately saved them.

We follow their story as they and their friends not only perform music but write their own new song to sing on their first group holiday to Llandudno with other families impacted by dementia. These innovative workshops are spreading through people like Beth, a carer from Liverpool whose career drastically changed direction during the
pandemic. After volunteering as a carer she fell in love with the profession and now works full time in care homes. She feels inspired to roll out music workshops across all the care homes she works at.

Despite many recognising the positive impact of music on people with dementia, the influence of music is not fully understood. Dr Robyn Dowlen, who specialises in the study of music's impact on people living with dementia, attends one of Keith's group sessions to observe the class and study its impact on Keith in real time before chatting through the results with Keith himself.

Through learning from the attendees in the class, Dr Robyn
hopes to better understand this link between music and memories, the past and present but most importantly, the future too.

The mums on a mission to get back into work. We follow the unique 12-week course helping mums on benefits get back into employment. But can they secure a job?

As the cost-of-living crisis continues to put pressure on British families, we follow a unique free scheme in the west helping mums get back into work. All of the mums on the 12-week Women's Work Lab course receive benefits. 80% are single parents. All are determined to take their first steps back into employment.

We see two mums through the ups and downs of the transformative experience as they embark on a mission to try and get a job. From meeting other mothers with shared experiences, to getting help with new outfits, to undertaking placements in a busy office.

At 79, Nipper has led an incredible life. The head of East Anglia's largest family of travelling showmen, he is fairground aristocracy. His stock-in-trade is the ghost town ride, which he has toured for several decades.

Several younger generations of showmen from his family work alongside him. Schooled by Nipper and other members of the old guard since birth, they know this most traditional of entertainment industries inside out.

In this film, we follow Nipper and his clan from the first fair of the season in Kings Lynn as they embark on a new season of touring. Along the way, we hear how the industry has changed; from horse and cart to wagons with all mod cons, and from old-fashioned ‘exhibits' like the bearded lady to new attractions for modern audiences.

We meet Nipper's two granddaughters, Monique and Britney – two women in their 20s who have followed their family into the trade. This season, they are also arranging an 80th birthday bonanza for Nipper, inviting the great and the good of Britain's fairgrounds to come and celebrate with him.

We also meet John, on the road with his two sons. John is all too aware of how gruelling life as a showman can be. He travels by night, setting up rides when he arrives, and welcoming revellers come daytime. He's also trying to secure land for a permanent home to return to at the end of the season. His family may face homelessness if a solution isn't found, and it weighs heavily on John's mind.

Overheads are tight, and the whole family must pull together. Challenges range from the technical and the commercial to the bureaucratic, with even small challenges enough to throw a spanner in the works.

Ruben and Lewis have dreamt of having a place on the Formula 1 circuit for as long as they can remember. They've been racing since the age of four and have won hundreds of trophies between them. This year, they are stepping up a gear and entering a race that could make or break their careers.

Breaking into motorsports isn't easy. Motor racing is an exceptionally expensive sport, with annual costs in the tens of thousands just for go-karting – for cars, the sky is the limit. It is also notably lacking in diversity. Those financial and cultural barriers often stand in the way of new drivers coming onto the track. But Ruben and Lewis's fathers are dedicated to helping their sons achieve their dreams. They, and their families, are prepared to sacrifice everything to help them make it.

Now, they are stepping up from racing in go-karts to securing seats in professional race cars. It's time for Ruben and Lewis to deliver on track, get themselves noticed and do their dads proud. Can these determined young drivers beat the odds and prove to the industry that they're a force to be reckoned with?

Haroon is the founder of the largest online community in the world for Muslim outdoor enthusiasts. They meet up for monthly walks around national parks, hills and mountains. The marathon runner and mountaineer set up the group after discovering the lack of diversity in the English countryside. He became inspired to make a change by encouraging people from ethnic minorities to embrace the great outdoors.

Born and raised in Coventry to a large Muslim family, exploring the countryside was never something that Haroon got to do as a child. So it wasn't until his teenage years, when he went on a hike with his father, that he discovered he had a passion for nature. Following his father's tragic death some years later, Haroon devoted all his time to charity fundraising, marathon running, and encouraging his family and community to get out into greenspaces for mental wellbeing. As well as encouraging the countryside to have more representation from ethnic minorities. Haroon then set up a social media page which quickly grew in popularity, leading him to leave his full-time job to devote himself to running the online group, organising monthly events and creating content to inspire his community.

We meet Haroon, his mother and matriarch of the family, Saheda, and his sisters, Tayyibah and Husnaa, who take us on a journey of their family life and traditions and how they are trying to break down some of the barriers they face when trying to get outdoors. Tayyibah and Husnaa actively try to inspire other Muslim women to exercise through their own social media activity. We also meet Haroon's long-time friend, comedian Guz Khan - a mentor to Haroon - who offers friendly advice and a great deal of humour as Haroon and his family prepare for their latest hike. We then follow the group as they embark on the challenge of hiking to the summit of Scafell Pike - England's highest mountain peak - as they battle the elements to reach the top.

Nine-year-old Harry isn't like his friends at school. While they are playing computer games at home, he is down the allotment looking after his pigeons.

Harry from Newcastle is embarking on his first pigeon racing season. Inspired by his dad's love of the birds, he is going to see if he can rear a
team of winners and take on the more mature members of the South Gosforth Homing Society.

He has to learn about how to keep, train and nurture the birds ahead of their first race. With fewer than 200 young fliers in the UK, Harry and his dad Shaun hope to inspire the next generation of pigeon racers by giving a talk at his school. On race day, Harry is up at 3am with the excitement of seeing his birds come back. Will he have a winner?