Simon Reeve: “Let’s save our countryside from the middle classes”

From the Telegraph newspaper:

“Simon Reeve went from civil wars in Colombia to class wars in Cumbria. Anita Singh hears why

Simon Reeve has dodged bullets, survived malaria and been detained by the KGB; his television travel shows have sent him to far-flung and sometimes dicey destinations that don’t feature on standard bucket lists, from Somaliland to Haiti. His first series was called Holidays in the Danger Zone. His latest adventure? Touring the Lake District. It’s not exactly war-torn, but it is divided, the 49-year-old has found. “The biggest realisation for me in the series was that there is a great risk of the countryside becoming a place primarily, or just, for the middle class. It’s definitely getting harder to be poorer in rural Britain,” he says.

The Lakes may not have quite the celebrity cachet of the Cotswolds, where Kate Moss and co have been buying up every honey-coloured house in sight, but in one village near Ambleside only two of the 28 houses are lived in full-time. Properties within national parks cost, on average, 20 per cent more than those outside. The show’s promotional image features Reeve and his trusty rucksack in front of a picture-postcard vista. But this is no light travel guide. Reeve investigates the plight of hill farmers struggling to make ends meet, speaks to villagers disgruntled by the spread of second homes and holiday lets, and visits towns outside the national park – Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness – where jobs are scarce and young people have few prospects.”

Read the rest of the article here and more about the production here.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/simon-reeve-save-countryside-middle-classes/