fangedwolf
3rd March 2009, 01:57
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hzprs
Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.
I turned on this programme on the bbc iplayer as a way of filling time while I was otherwise up at a late hour and with very little to occupy myself, and found I was pleasantly surprised by the series. Intending on perhaps only watching part of it, I sat through all of the first four episodes in a line.
What I liked especially about this series (and it is by no means finished yet, still a couple more episodes to be released), is that there are different facets to it. There is a look into the day-to-day running of a national trust property that not many people actually know about. There was also the insight into how the national trust as an organisation runs, and runs its properties, and how it views its properties, how the people on the estate view it, how the residents living on the estate view it, and how the general public view it. All very different and interesting. Then on top of that you have the overarching story of the person who lived there that made it famous: Vita, and each episode delves more into her life and how she grew up and how that growing up made the foundations for how the building ended up being used and changed, and how that differs from how it is now used. Then lastly we have the current residents, who are decendants of Vita, who still live on the estate despite it now being owned by the national trust property, and their struggle to try and bring the property back to more as they remember it being as children, and how it was before then, which is different to how things are now.
As you can see, there is a great deal going on in these episodes, and its more than enough to keep me entertained for the couple of hours it took to watch them.
I really have very little ill to say about this series. Made by the people that brought us River Cottage (keofilms.com) it was bound to be pretty good.
If I was being really nit-picky, I would say that sometimes there are times when they talk about vita and the family, where it seems a little bit staged, but of course it was staged for the camera to tell the story as well as the family hearing it from each other. There has also not been very much indicated about the costs of running the estate and that can have a huge impact on what can and cannot be done with it. Perhaps they will touch on this in future, but often many national trust properties are so desperatly underfunded that almost nothing large can get done as a result.
Overall it is an extremely worthwhile programme to watch for a lot of people because it has such a range of topics it delves into while still being coherant and interesting. The photography and filming is good, the backdrop is lovely, the film really gets to know the people there and their viewpoints. An all round great series.
Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.
I turned on this programme on the bbc iplayer as a way of filling time while I was otherwise up at a late hour and with very little to occupy myself, and found I was pleasantly surprised by the series. Intending on perhaps only watching part of it, I sat through all of the first four episodes in a line.
What I liked especially about this series (and it is by no means finished yet, still a couple more episodes to be released), is that there are different facets to it. There is a look into the day-to-day running of a national trust property that not many people actually know about. There was also the insight into how the national trust as an organisation runs, and runs its properties, and how it views its properties, how the people on the estate view it, how the residents living on the estate view it, and how the general public view it. All very different and interesting. Then on top of that you have the overarching story of the person who lived there that made it famous: Vita, and each episode delves more into her life and how she grew up and how that growing up made the foundations for how the building ended up being used and changed, and how that differs from how it is now used. Then lastly we have the current residents, who are decendants of Vita, who still live on the estate despite it now being owned by the national trust property, and their struggle to try and bring the property back to more as they remember it being as children, and how it was before then, which is different to how things are now.
As you can see, there is a great deal going on in these episodes, and its more than enough to keep me entertained for the couple of hours it took to watch them.
I really have very little ill to say about this series. Made by the people that brought us River Cottage (keofilms.com) it was bound to be pretty good.
If I was being really nit-picky, I would say that sometimes there are times when they talk about vita and the family, where it seems a little bit staged, but of course it was staged for the camera to tell the story as well as the family hearing it from each other. There has also not been very much indicated about the costs of running the estate and that can have a huge impact on what can and cannot be done with it. Perhaps they will touch on this in future, but often many national trust properties are so desperatly underfunded that almost nothing large can get done as a result.
Overall it is an extremely worthwhile programme to watch for a lot of people because it has such a range of topics it delves into while still being coherant and interesting. The photography and filming is good, the backdrop is lovely, the film really gets to know the people there and their viewpoints. An all round great series.