Conservationist and adventurer Sacha Dench tells Martha Kearney about her love of the natural world. She explains how she came to fly a paramotor along the whole length the 4000-mile route that migrating swans take from the Russian tundra to the UK – leading to her acquiring the nickname ‘The Human Swan’. As they watch birds together at the Fernworthy reservoir in Devon, Sacha talks about her childhood growing up in Australia, where she says the beach and the bush were her playgrounds. She tells Martha about the paramotor accident which left her seriously injured and from which the sights and smells of the natural world proved a powerful aid to recovery. She describes her plans for the future and talks about what brings her hope.

Producer: Emma Campbell

Sir James Dyson is one of the UK’s best known inventors and businessmen. His Dyson vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and air purifiers have sold in their millions, both in the UK and around the world. In 2013, Sir James turned his attention to farming. He now runs the biggest farming business in the country, and owns 36,000 acres on which he produces potatoes, peas and strawberries. In this programme, Martha travels to his farm near Bath to find out more about his love for the natural world. She learns of how his early years growing up in Norfolk helped inspire him not just in business, but also in farming. He talks about the impact losing his father at a young age had on him, his experience of working on farms as a teenager and his hopes for the future of farming in the UK. Martha also gets to see the Dyson approach to farming, where robots are being taught how to identify and pick strawberries which are grown in one of the UK’s most technically advanced greenhouses.

Producer: Ed Prendeville

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a chef, broadcaster, author and campaigner. His 'River Cottage' series ran for more than ten years on Channel 4 and he has written more than twenty food and cookery books. In this programme Martha Kearney catches up with Hugh at an event at the Abergavenny Food Festival. He tells her how his love affair with the countryside started at the age of five when his parents left London and moved to a farmhouse in Gloucestershire. He recalls a fascination with the natural world in his early years, remembering a childhood spent roaming the fields and collecting birds' eggs, and recounting an incident in which he accidentally squashed a lizard while trying to put it into a biscuit tin. As a student he intended to work in wildlife conservation and had hopes of becoming the next David Attenborough, before a job at River Café set him on a different path. The natural world still fascinates and inspires him today. He tells Martha about the emotional hold it has over him, describing a time during lockdown when he was moved to tears of joy by seeing the blue flash of a kingfisher.#

Photo copyright Abergavenny Food Festival, photographer Tim Woodier.

Producer: Emma Campbell