The Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh

Autumn (1x3)

: 23, 2010

Episode Three - Autumn In this brand new four part series for ITV1, everyone’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, goes back to his roots to find out how our changing seasons affect everything around us. The series reveals the profound and far-reaching impact that each season has on our wildlife and landscape, and how they shape the way we all live. In the third programme Alan leads us through autumn, as it tracks slowly across the country from North to South. It is a season when wildlife stocks up its larder for the winter and trees brighten the landscape with a kaleidoscope of colours. Alan tells the programme: “There’s one day in every year when I know that autumn has arrived. I can’t predict when it’s going to happen, but I’ll walk out one morning and I’ll be able to smell it. It’s a kind of tang and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.” The programme’s broad scope encompasses how nature ensures our wildlife will survive the coming winter, the mysteries that lie at the heart of our great autumn festivals and just where our insects disappear to as the days get colder. Autumn is the climax of the farming year, when traditionally whole communities would help gather in the harvest. The harvested fields were an important part in the food chain for many creatures but in recent times pesticides have had a detrimental affect on our wildlife. However Alan explains that this has improved in recent years due to the rise in organic farming and meets organic farmer George Heathcote who farms according to the seasons and delights in the wide array of wildlife this encourages. The Seasons shows that autumn is a time when many of the birds we are used to seeing during the summer depart our shores for warmer climes. But Alan explains that millions more arrive back, including wading birds who feed on the protein and mineral packed mud of our estuaries. The programme meets Cornish oyster fisherman Tim Vinecombe, who is h