Countryfile - Season 31

Adam Henson looks at the harsh reality of being a rural vet in the depths of winter - a job that's often a matter of life and death. He also looks back at the trials and tribulations of one the country's largest practices - seeing first-hand the challenges they face treating all creatures great and small.

Matt Baker is exploring the magnificent Leeds Castle as it celebrates its 900th anniversary. He tries his hand at a spot of falconry with the castle's resident birds of prey.

Matt Baker discovers the incredible work of a care farm in Wiltshire which is changing children's lives. Anita Rani tastes a local cheese with a long heritage.

Turner Prize-winning artist Rachel Whiteread shows us her sculpture, commissioned to mark the Forestry Commission's centenary.

Winter is a tough time for wildlife, but at Lower Moss Wood nature reserve in Cheshire they pull out all the stops to help. Steve Brown meets the volunteers and the inspirational head of the reserve Ray Jackson, who was awarded an MBE for his services to wildlife. Steve is shown the specialist hospital unit where volunteers are busy tending to some poorly hedgehogs. Ray also helps injured bats build up their strength ahead of release in the spring. Steve gets to meet some of the reserve's permanent residents, including foxes tame enough to feed by hand and the owls who wouldn't survive in the wild.

Adam Henson launches this year's search for Countryfile's farming hero.

The team head out across the UK to reveal how the countryside is full of life even in the coldest of months. Matt Baker travels to the Norfolk Broads, lending a hand in one of the area's most ambitious environmental schemes, transforming water into new land for the area's plantlife. He then helps restore one of the Broads' historic drainage mills which used to maintain the landscape in years gone by, before joining in a project taking a snapshot of Norfolk's winter wildlife. Ellie Harrison explores the Scottish lifestyle concept of coorie, where getting in touch with the season involves a winter dip in a freshwater loch before sampling the taste of the Scottish landscape, courtesy of Michelin-starred chef Tom Kitchin. Steve Brown heads to Devon to discover the challenges faced by barn owls in making it through this harshest of seasons. Adam Henson leaves the mainland for the Isles of Scilly, where in winter the main economy turns from tourism to farming as islanders gather in the narcissi harvest. And John Craven has a heartwarming experience when he visits the village of Lover in Wiltshire, where residents are using their romantic name to regenerate their rural community with a Valentine's postal service.

Matt Baker and Margherita Taylor explore Devon in the snow, discovering the work of a local photographer and a scheme to provide winter fuel to those in need.

Matt and Helen are in Gloucestershire where Matt pays a visit to the world-famous Slimbridge wetland reserve to see how a massive multi-million-pound refurbishment is going.

Matt and Ellie explore Cheshire and a wildlife haven in the Wirral, and Hannah Cockroft travels to beautiful North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

Matt Baker and Helen Skelton are in Somerset, and in a special film for Comic Relief, Sir Tony Robinson visits a charity that's making a real difference to people's lives.

In north west Wales, Joe Crowley visits a sheep farm and meets its striking new arrivals. Margherita Taylor discovers the Welsh names for the local flora and fauna.

Sean is in Oxfordshire meeting farmers with a passion for our more unusual produce, from picklers to cheesemakers.

Countryfile is exploring Surrey, where Matt Baker meets the women who have inspired generations of conservationists and Helen Skelton visits a biodynamic vineyard.

Matt Baker, John Craven and Margherita Taylor mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of our national parks.

Matt meets the farmer using a no-till method of raising crops to help save our soils, while Ellie is on the trail of Shropshire's Clun sheep.

Matt is in Panshanger Park in Hertfordshire, seeing how an old quarry has become one of the best places for wildlife in the county.

Matt Baker is at Morecambe Bay to meet caravan enthusiasts celebrating 100 years of caravanning history, while John Craven tries his hand at sheep shearing.

With sea levels rising and ferocious waves battering our coasts, Ellie Harrison finds out what it's like living on the edge of land and sea all year round.

Anita Rani is in Aberdeenshire meeting a family with a passion for Highland cattle, and Joe Crowley investigates the rapidly falling number of wild Atlantic salmon.

This month marks 200 years since Queen Victoria's birth, so Countryfile is exploring the Victorian fascination with nature and the great outdoors.

The team are in Derbyshire. Matt Baker joins a group who have been restoring Chesterfield's canals, Anita Rani visits Tissington and Steve Brown learns how we can help pollinators.

Matt Baker learns about a scheme to create new structures from the fabric of the land, while Tom Heap asks whether our countryside has become a tax haven for the super-rich.

Anita and Matt are in Hampshire celebrating our chalk streams, while Adam and Charlotte meet the last of the three contenders for our Farming Hero Award.

Matt Baker visits the beautiful Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge, and John Craven launches this year's photographic competition.

In Lincolnshire, Ellie kicks back in a bar where it's not drinks on the menu but clouds! Meanwhile, Adam looks at what Brexit could mean for our farmers.

Anita Rani visits the Welsh town of Machynlleth, which has declared a climate emergency. She discovers how members of the community are coming together to protect the environment, visiting a repair cafe that finds new uses for items that would otherwise be discarded, picking vegetables at various help yourself plots, and cooking in a solar-powered oven at the Centre for Alternative Technology.

The team are at the Royal Highland Show celebrating the best that rural Scotland has to offer, including the Arbroath smokie and an award-winning Scottish gin.

John Craven visits the secluded Luton Hoo estate, once a training ground for land girls, and Tom Heap looks at new forms of environmental campaigning.

Anita Rani visits the Antony Estate on the Rame Peninsula, John Craven visits an off-grid camp in Truro, and Tom Heap meets farmers caught up in the bovine TB outbreak.

The team is in Gloucestershire to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Riding for the Disabled Association. Interviewed, Princess Anne talks of her long association with the RDA.

John and Margherita are in Norfolk, where John is up at the crack of dawn to help with a release back into the wild of one of our rarest birds, the corncrake.

Countryfile visits Perthshire, where Matt visits Cultybraggan, a former prisoner of war camp that is now a thriving community of artisans and food producers.

Sean is in the Lake District taking a look at some of the jobs working animals do, and we take another look at working animals we've featured in the past.

Matt Baker marks the centenary of the death of Joseph Arch, a farm labourer who founded the first national farm workers' union and later became an MP.

In this special programme, Steve Brown retraces his grandmother Rose's evacuation from Croydon to Cornwall. We also have a special film with former evacuee, and patron of the British Evacuee Association, Michael Aspel OBE. Sean Fletcher experiences life as an evacuee with some schoolchildren at Acton Scott Historic Farm, Margherita Taylor meets some evacuees who were relocated to Chatsworth House for safety during the war, Adam takes Gerry Emsley back to the farm in rural Shropshire that he was evacuated to as a ten-year-old, and Tom looks at how the UK countryside is still providing sanctuary to refugees of modern-day conflict.

This week the team are in Northumberland. Helen Skelton visits the Blyth Tall Ship scheme, where students from disadvantaged areas are taught traditional boat-building skills.