Interview with star of The Dales on ITV, Adrian Edmondson
You've just been seen on screen in Ade In Britain and now back for a second series with The Dales - are you on a mission to make us all fall in love with England again?
It's an accident - but I do seem to be doing a lot of programmes with the word 'Britain' in the title. I'm not overly patriotic, I just happen to think there's a lot more to Britain than meets the eye. Most of my adult life has been spent touring Britain with comedy shows, but I've mostly toured the big towns and cities. In 2008 I started touring with my band 'The Bad Shepherds', and, being a much smaller concern, and being a folk band, we were playing a lot of small towns and folk festivals and it was then I started to see a lot more of Britain. It was so refreshing to find that it's not just a typical High Street with all the same shops, it was also an eye-opener to find that there are lots of British people that are passionate about doing idiosyncratic things - keeping old customs and traditions alive, not in a 'museum curating' way, but because these customs and traditions are still relevant and still really good fun. Most of the feedback I've had has been people saying how pleased they were to find out that so many people were still doing such diverse things.
What do you think the appeal of The Dales is to viewers?
I think it's just a completely different world compared to where a lot of us live. The appeal lies in the families we follow, their lifestyles, the scenery and the remoteness. It's such a massive area and it's surprising the time it takes to get around it. I still haven't seen it all, and I even got lost a couple of times making this new series.
In this second series do we get to revisit any of the people we met in the first series and are there many new eccentric characters?
Yes we meet up with The Owens again - the sheep farmers who live in a very remote spot in the Yorkshire Dales - they're an outstanding family. I think a lot of us dream of living the simple life, and they seem to have won the 'simple life' lottery. They live a life that you feel could have been lived in pretty much the same way around 100 or 200 years ago and they seem unfettered by the modern world. Of course they've got machines and such, but it's a pretty rugged life, and yet it seems to bring them a lot of happiness - they're like the modern day Waltons! I've been up to see them a few times now and they're as lovely in real life as they are on the screen.
We also visit Phillip Mellin again, the young lad whose Dad had just died, he was helping his mum cope with the farm and was also starting a sheep dog training business. He's grown a lot in the last year, and his voice has dropped an octave, and he's still plugging away at it.
We do follow a new young lad, William Wildman who is only 15. He's unusual in that he spends all his free time raising prize winning sheep - he's already got a flock of 200! It's so fascinating to meet teenagers like him that aren't obsessed with consoles and the usual stuff that teens are in to. I also enjoyed following the Buckden Singers. They're a community choir and though they may not be the most gifted singers (although they do have a couple of brilliant voices) they make up for their lack of technical expertise with enthusiasm and a sense of fun. Buckden is quite a remote village and they have to make their own entertainment!
What were the highlights of this series for you?
I spent a night in a shepherd's hut that The Owen family rent out to walkers and it was fabulous. Amanda [Owen] even leaves a bottle of beer cooling in the stream for you - the best and most picturesque mini bar in the world! I was also lucky enough to go up in a helicopter in this series; we even managed to get lost in the remoteness of the Dales in that!
Would you say that The Dales are one of your favourite places in the UK?
I do like The Dales, I feel an affinity with them because they seem so familiar to me. I was born in Bradford, which is just on the border of The Dales, and we used to go into there a lot when I was a nipper - for days out and picnics and the like. It was where we used to go on all our school trips and as a teenager it became the place where me and my mates would go camping, hoping to get served in the pubs and meet girls... (not particularly successfully in either endeavour!).
But then I also like Dartmoor, The Malverns, The Peak District, The Lakes... why limit yourself to one area? I think what makes The Dales interesting as a TV programme is that it's a surprisingly remote, rural area that throws up some interesting people who are really up against it. It is shockingly photogenic too.
The Dales is on ITV1 from Monday 27th February