Wartime Farm is a British historical documentary TV series in eight parts in which the running of a farm during the Second World War is reenacted, first broadcast on BBC Two on 6 September 2012. The series, the fourth in the historic farm series, following the original, Tales from the Green Valley, was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television in association with the Open University, and was filmed at Manor Farm Country Park, now Manor Farm and River Hamble Country Park respectively, close to Southampton. The farming team consisted of historian Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn. The Wartime Farm commissioning executives for the BBC are Emma Willis and James Hayes, and the Executive Producer for Lion Television is David Upshal. An associated book by Langlands, Ginn and Goodman—Wartime Farm: Rediscovering the Skills and Spirit of World War II—was published in 2012. In addition, a free booklet was made available to viewers in the UK and Ireland, by the Open University.
The team Goodman, Ginn and Langlands began their collaboration with Tales from the Green Valley (2005), a programme exploring life on a small farm in Gray Hill, Monmouthshire, Wales, in the 17th century. They lived for a full calendar year as 1880s tenants on the Shropshire estate of Acton Scott in the programme Victorian Farm (January 2009), followed by Victorian Farm Christmas (December 2009), which picks up the narrative a year later. The historians went to Morwellham Quay in Devon for Edwardian Farm (2010). Tudor Monastery Farm (2013) explored what farming was like near the end of the reign of Henry VII, at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. They explored 13th-century life and work in Secrets of the Castle (2014), filmed at Guédelon Castle in Treigny, France. Victorian Pharmacy (2010), on which Goodman was a presenter, is sometimes listed as part of these documentaries.
Episodes
Episode 1
First broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD on Thursday 6 September 2012 at 8pm. As with the previous series, the first episode begins with the team moving into a cottage on a farm, this time in Hampshire. With a second European war looming on the horizon, the team set about making a number of improvements to the farm. The installation of electric lighting via a generator driven by a Lister D engine allows them to work later into the evenings, while household labour-savers like a Hoosier cabinet, paraffin range cooker, electric clothes iron and linoleum flooring mean Ruth can spend more time aiding the war effort and less time on household chores. Alex and Peter, meanwhile, set about constructing a mole subsoiler from scrap farming equipment, to drain their waterlogged clay fields. However, with time running out and their improvised subsoiler literally buckling under pressure, they are forced to plough and sow through the night without draining the field, despite warnings from the local "war ag" over potential water damage. In addition to running the farm, the team are soon recruited into the government's secret Auxiliary Units. Alex and Peter are introduced to guerrilla fighting tactics in late night training sessions, while Ruth relays top secret messages for the Special Duty Sections from her potting shed. The situation becomes all the more serious as war is officially declared and, soon after, France falls under German occupation. Winston Churchill's "Fight on the Beaches" broadcast and an unwelcome visit from the ARP warden see the episode end on a sombre note, as the team take stock of the huge undertaking ahead of them.
Episode 2 Broadcast on 13 September 2012 at 8pm, the second episode focuses around food rationing and preparations for the winter of 1940. Under growing pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Food, the team has to make tough decisions over which livestock (if any) the farm should continue to rear. While the pigs, sheep and beef herd are removed, and the oldest chickens slaughtered and turned into feather dusters, Ruth manages to keep two pigs on as part of a "Pig Club" with their neighbours. Alex and Peter spend much of the episode generating silage to feed their remaining animals over winter. They first obtain sugar beet tops and nettles as raw materials, and then construct a small silo out of corrugated steel, with the help of two volunteers from the Women's Land Army (Nicola Verdon and Caroline Bressey). Ruth, meanwhile, explores the beginnings of rationing, and uses the family's meagre meat ration, and a bounty of vegetables and foraged mushrooms, to make stew in an improvised haybox. Rationing leads her to investigate the black market, as she and a shady visitor filter red diesel using a loaf of bread, and get familiar with a butcher who sells spare chops under the counter. A radio broadcast about the sinking of HMS Jervis Bay puts Ruth's black market flutter into perspective, and she instead decides to spend her time working with the local Women's Institute to pick and preserve fruit and vegetables, using a novel hand-operated canning machine from the United States. The episode ends with Ruth and the WI members giving a rendition of the official Women's Land Army anthem, Back to the Land.
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