Just thought I’d highlight this programme tonight.

It’ll give some an insight as to what us Southern Softies have on our doorstep.

You are welcome, Obvz.

Cheers fella. Don’t know it at all, so that’ll be interesting.

I’ll be sat in a flat cap, stroking a whippet, and tutting obviously 😉

Obvz, we’d expect n’owt else w’od w’e.

😆

Genuinely interested as I’ve recently illustrated the Downs, and it’s the first time I’ve done a landscape I don’t really know, purely from photographs. So I’m really interested in seeing it and getting a feel for it

Hopefully I’ll get down to ride it in person soon

The South Downs are beautiful.

However, to call them “mountains” is just so Southern. Soft ****! 🙂

Agreed, I didn’t write that title.

If I did it’d be:

“South Downs, a few bumps along the way to the Sea. Wrap your shawl Edna, and drink up your tea dear”

Image link Binners?

Cheers OP. Watching from my living room. Saw a yellow van with cherry picker up at Chanctonbury Ring last summer, suspected it might be part of film crew.

Did you see the caterpillar feeding ants it’s sugary dumps?!

Riding rubbish, it’s really flat and boring and there’s no Singletrack in Friston or Stanmer.

Though there is a school of thought amongst the locals that a 160mm gnarrpoon will be faster than a 100mm HT.

He speaks really, really oddly.

He speaks really, really oddly.

yeah, turned it off 😕

I like the riding. Bimblers Paradise.

It’s a great show so far

great riding, but what i think of as ‘big sky’ – long climbs with great views rather than gnarly singletrack.

Agreed. panoramic sky’s on every ride. It’s makes for great rambling cathartic riding.

Did anyone catch the name/location of his local pub?

Well, Wow.

I am honoured and humbled to be part of this landscape. To live and breath the seasons, to see and feel the land and waters that flow.

Each day goes by I see those hills and people who make this land our home.

The presenter gave a simple and touching feel to the programme, a man I’d share a pint with.

Utterly brilliant.

Ride the shit out of the SDW, grumble and strain as you ride along the backbone of my Soul.

Well, Wow.

I am honoured and humbled to be part of this landscape. To live and breath the seasons, to see and feel the land and waters that flow.

Each day goes by I see those hills and people who make this land our home.

The presenter gave a simple and touching feel to the programme, a man I’d share a pint with.

Utterly brilliant.

Ride the shit out of the SDW, grumble and strain as you ride along the backbone of my Soul.

& you are a poet, but ya didn’t even know it.

I didn’t see it BTW.

Well said bikebouy. Also made me feel very proud, and I enjoyed Nicks honest delivery.

slimjim78 – Member

Did anyone catch the name/location of his local pub?

that was The Ram in Firle

Bugger, didn’t realise this was on. One of my favourite stretches to run/ride/walk. iPlayer to the rescue. Ta for the PSA.

Still haven’t watched the Blencathra one 😳 will download this later

He grated on me slightly to start but I warmed to him after a while, beautifully put together programme.

Mint Sauce captures the essence of mountain biking and it was all set in South Downs.

There’s no ‘big sky’ feeling like the SDW over 2 days in June.

Ditchling Devil last summer was epic.

South Downs are an under-appreciated jewel of SE England

Easy now, we don’t like folks not from round here round here.

Sorry, but that was full of technical inaccuracies and some footage of stuff that was not where they said it was. This place is where I work and play. I spend a great deal of my time in the places that he was spouting tosh about and there are far better stories to be told than those they glossed over here.

The photography was great, but they obviously were limited on their filming days. The stories that can be told are limited but so few days in the field. That was a collection of a few days out at specific sites strung together with some shots without the presenter showing the Downs with varying degrees of success.

I suppose I am disappointed by such a lacklustre production of such an amazing place. There was also no reality check on the pressures on the environment and the amount of effort that goes in to protecting, managing and putting right some of the practices that have destroyed much of the downland’s fragile ecosystem. For example the spread of the otter population is as much down to the decrease in persecution as it is to anything else. I have been lucky enough to see otters, see spawning salmon in winter streams, found out how the whole downland ecosystem is linked. It is a very rare type of habitat and this barely scratched the surface. As mentioned by brooess Mint captures the essence of the Downs far better than that hour did. Jo captures the small things that change on the downs very well indeed.

Definitely a sense of a missed opportunity.

Steady now, you’re stamping on the soul of bikebouy’s backbone. Or something.

Manton, are you attempting to steal my crown of negativity?

The programme has encouraged me to head further afield, seek out those blue butterflies, see the view from Black Down for myself, search for that writers/artists meeting house, sample the best of the fizzy English wine, visit Seven Sisters again, and we even plotted the walk to Cissbury Ring (under 2 hours away, brilliant!). Above all, I soaked in the camera work, which well captured the beauty of the rolling hills.

Not bad for an hours work.

Definitely a sense of a missed opportunity.

Well, how much can be shown of such a broad area in a one hour programme? What it can do, much like the Blencathra film, is show, in its own small way, just what a beautiful country we live in.

Agreed.

We should do more of these “regional” programmes. The UK needs showcasing, bringing all the beauty and local knowledge out to the masses.

I’m certainly looking forward to a Welsh one (olo did a good one not so long back) what about the north west, say the Morecambe coastline up to the lakes? Or an Essex one like Robson Green just did ? Or Northamptonshire or Berkshire or flipping ek, anywhere of natural interest…

Whilst it’s blowing it’s tits off down here, I’ve gathered a couple of mates together and we’re riding the eastern Downs tomorrow..

i tried to watch it but had to turn it off – so much pretentious claptrap.

We should do more of these “regional” programmes. The UK needs showcasing, bringing all the beauty and local knowledge out to the masses.

The BBC should be spending more of our money on stuff like this and less (ideally zero) on sleb bollocks, Bargain Hunt, etc. Leave that nonsense to ITV.

Save £10m+ not having Graham Norton Friday nonsense or Lineker host MOTD

One thing the TdF does is showcase France, it was one of the founding objectives. Yes agreed we need much more of this. Coast did it a bit as did Dimbelby’s Art related tour years ago.

I’m sure more can be done with the “slow TV” idea to show off the wonderful natural environment we have. Just leave out the music OK?

Oh and jambalaya is dead right about the TdF and the French countryside. The Yorkshire Grand Depart did the same for ours.

I Can’t Emphasize Enough How Much The Presenter Irritated Me.

I really enjoyed it.

Learnt a few things got to see some familiar places from unfamiliar angles.

I walk the dog on the Downs around Brighton for a couple of hours every day, cycle on them a few times a week. I love them.

I know Terry Pratchett was talking about a different chalk in the Tiffany Aching books but there’s a solidity and strength under that gentle rolling countryside – an assertion that there’s a welcoming exterior that will bend to an extent but a flint core that will resist beyond that point.

The Sussex phrase ‘We wunt be druv’ maybe sums it up for me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_wunt_be_druv – I think it applies to the Downs too.

Watched first two thirds this morning whilst doing other stuff, enjoyed what I saw, it was more non chalk ridge based than I thought it would be.

Think I’m quite lucky as Black Down, Marley Common, Fernhurst, Selbourne and even Kingley Vale are all on mtb routes from my doorstep, Ebernoe aint far either and features on road rides out on to the Weald too.

He spoke in a weird way.

Good to see some bits of the downs I’m not familiar with (being at the western end).

Riding rubbish, it’s really flat and boring and there’s no Singletrack in Friston or Stanmer.

Though there is a school of thought amongst the locals that a 160mm gnarrpoon will be faster than a 100mm HT.

Or some weirdy belt drive singlespeed nonsense. And the people are peculiar and say things “We wunt be druv”.

FWIW I thought the presenter was good. Quirky, interesting way of speaking, genuine enthusiasm, different. Do we really want sanitised Middle England voice-overs for everything?
I grew up on the South Downs, so it’s a special place to me, and I think he distilled some of the “specialness” 8)

I didn’t watch it, but I’ve recorded it. Will probably give it a viewing this evening

pictonroad – Member

Image link Binners?

there tha goes….

[url=https://flic.kr/p/P6B2PA]Leith Hill[/url] by bin lid, on Flickr

Done for Peekay, of this parish, as its his playground, and features himself and his better half. The North Downs, not South, specifically Leith Hill. Interesting to do somewhere I don’t know, and have never ridden. I generally take a somewhat ‘loose’ attitude to geography with my pictures, and instead try and capture a ‘feel’ of it instead, which can quite often be very different. So watching this should be really interesting

We all speak like that down south 😉