Kent: The Garden of England - Season 1

The first episode takes in a Spitfire flight over the white cliffs of Dover with veteran 'Parky' Parkinson; Margate; the hills above Folkstone where 30 retired Gurkhas and their families created a community garden; and Kent's 'little railway' which, at one third the size of a mainline railway, runs for over 13 miles along the coast.

We start our day as the mist rises over Larkins Farm near Chiddingstone. As they have done for centuries, the hoppers arrive to harvest Kent's quintessential crop - the hop. In Whitstable, we join Terry Braine as he harvests another famous Kentish crop, the oyster. We meet boatman James Matharu as he poles his punt along Canterbury's beautiful River Stour, while at Canterbury Cathedral we spend time with mason Benn Swinfield as he shapes a stone for one of its flying buttresses. We also join the annual Weald of Kent ploughing match, and explore the Samphire Hoe nature reserve. 

We open our journey through Kent on Swimmers Beach in Dover. With 34 channel swims under his belt, Kevin Murphy has been crowned The King of the Channel. At the age of 74, his own swimming days are over, so today he is training accountant Rob Sisley, who hopes to make the crossing next week.

On the River Medway, we race Dragons. Once an Olympic class racing yacht, Dragons still attract some of the world's best sailors. Today we join Quentin Strauss on board his boat, Whisper. Meanwhile, in the old Chatham Dockyard, Leanne Clark is ropemaking, a tradition that goes back to before the days when HMS Victory was rigged in the dock. The 1300-foot-long rope walk uses machinery installed in Nelson's day and still produces thousands of feet of rope a week.

A few miles inland we meet plant collector Tom Hart Dyke at Lullingstone Castle, a stately home that pre-dates the Normans. Today Tom is tackling one of the most dangerous jobs any horticulturalist can do, re-potting the world's most venomous plant, Dendrocnide Moroides, also known as the Queensland Stinger. A relative of our Stinging Nettle, the pain from its stings can last a year, something, sadly, Tom can attest to.

Having survived our encounter with a stinger, we head to the Isle of Sheppey and the Elmley National Nature Reserve. Here, 200 hungry residents are waiting for their tea. Herding those sheep onto new pastures is Reserve Manager Gareth Fulton, who is in charge of one of the most important wetland habitats in the South of England, a wild area just 40-miles from the centre of London.

We start our day aboard the Portia, leaving Dover with a party of sea anglers. At the helm is Matt Coker, who can trace his family's fishing lineage back to the 19th century. Hever Castle was once home to Anne Boleyn. In its incredible gardens, we learn the ancient art of topiary as Head Gardener Neal Miller clips away at a 100-year-old Yew tree shaped into a tortoise. We also climb to Kent's highest village, Ide Hill, and visit the fields near Biddenden at Kent's oldest 'modern' vineyard.

We visit the kitchens of the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Gravesend. Every day the kitchens produce Langar, hundreds of meals given free to anyone, regardless of religion. At the Gravesend docks, the paddle steamer Waverley prepares to head along the Kent coast to London's Tower Pier. Away from the waters, we head to the Lost Village of Dode. Once a thriving medieval village, it was abandoned in the 14th century due to plague. And we explore the Victorian walled gardens of Water Lane.