The Plodcast
BBC Countryfile Magazine brings you The Plodcast - a weekly escape to the British countryside with fascinating guests and the wonders of the great outdoors. Enjoy a new escape into the countryside every Tuesday and wind down with our Sound Escapes on a Friday. Find out more about us at www.countryfile.com/podcast Subscribe to the print version of BBC Countryfile Magazine at https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/bbc-countryfile-magazine-subscription
Episodes
July 3, 2025 • 12 mins
This week's Sound Escape was recorded in Kent by Plodcast listener Jeanette Sharples. Jeanette was up early, walking along the edge of a field when she heard this wonderful male nightingale in full voice.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Jeanette Sharples, introduced by Hannah T...
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June 30, 2025 • 64 mins
Enjoy a walk in Devon with Sophie Pavelle and discover the most unexpected relationships in the animal kingdom. In her new book, To Have or to Hold, Sophie explores why some species work together, while others exploit host animals as parasites. It's a fascinating world full of surprises – and even horrors.
Plodcast host Fergus joins Sophie for a meander along the River Otter – with a cast of wildlife turning up along the way.
To...
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June 26, 2025 • 18 mins
As you wander through an old farmyard, the incessant happy chatter of sparrows greets you. Nesting in the crumbling eaves, the colony has had a good year and the walls, shrubs and gutters teem with noisy fledglings and harassed parents.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Fergus C...
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June 23, 2025 • 63 mins
Britain's wildlife is often extremely elusive and many species are rarely seen. Unless, of course, you head to the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey. Here, David Mills has an unrivalled collection of mammals, reptiles and other creatures that you can watch and photograph in semi-natural surroundings.
Join Annabel Ross who visited David and enjoyed a fabulous tour and some unique insight into our native wildlife.
For more about th...
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June 19, 2025 • 21 mins
A male blackbird sings so seductively, you have to stop to listen. Perched deep in an elder tree, and with his mate snug on a second brood of eggs this year, he has time to croon, his notes sweet and lazy as the scent of the elderflower around him.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded...
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June 16, 2025 • 82 mins
Jason Ingram has photographed some of the world's finest gardens and is regarded as one of the very best in the business. His images of famous gardens, from the National Trust to those belonging to royalty have graced hundreds of magazines and books – and won numerous awards.
This week, he shares tips for taking better photos and for getting into the world of photography - with Plodcast host Fergus on a wander through the extraor...
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June 12, 2025 • 15 mins
You're walking in the ancient kingdom of Wessex, across a stretch of wild downland that might have looked no different when Saxon warbands passed through 1200 years ago. The intense serenades of skylarks and the spring-loaded whirrs of corn buntings have replaced the clink of mail and swords.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere bea...
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June 9, 2025 • 54 mins
Come with us to explore the magic of Martin Down, a glorious stretch of largely unspoilt chalk downland on the borders of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. It's Plodcast host Fergus's favourite place to escape to – and he's joined by Plod regular, naturalist Kevin Parr.
Join the pair for a gentle afternoon's adventure – some incredible birdsong and one extremely unusual sound captured on the recording.
And now you can get in touc...
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June 5, 2025 • 19 mins
Overlooking the vast escarpment of Watership Down, you pause for thought. The sound of gently swaying beech trees is welcome relief from the hustle-and-bustle of daily life.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team...
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June 2, 2025 • 47 mins
To commemorate D-Day and the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we met with historian Julian Humphrys at Lepe Beach in Hampshire. Lepe was one of the launchpads of Operation Overlord, the daring plan to open a western front and liberate Europe from the Nazis. BBC Countryfile Magazine editor Paul McGuinness is your host.
Julian works for the Battlefields Trust, a charity dedicated to the protection, research and interpretation of Britai...
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May 29, 2025 • 17 mins
Climbing a Peak District moor, you fall into step with a small stream tumbling down the hillside. As you walk, the song of the stream changes – from roaring chorus to trickling solo. Meanwhile, meadow pipits call from heather and willow warblers add their own liquid song to the morning.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautifu...
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May 26, 2025 • 69 mins
It's episode 300 of the Plodcast! To mark this momentous occasion, Plodcast regulars Hannah, Jack and Lewis join host Fergus for a return to the scene of episode one: Watership Down in Hampshire – setting for one of the best loved novels about nature, written by Richard Adams.
Back in that first episode, Fergus ventured alone in early January – this time the team are seeing what wildlife turns up in early spring.
Thank you so...
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May 22, 2025 • 22 mins
A morning's walk leads you to a ramshackle farm where a bench has been left out for walkers. As you take advantage of this kindness and drink tea from a flask, chiffchaffs, swallows and collared doves compete for your attention – like a parade of avian buskers.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to...
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May 19, 2025 • 60 mins
Plodcast host Fergus Collins returns to his Somerset roots this episode to explore a country house that he used to explore as a child. Now it has been transformed into The Newt, a world-famous country house hotel, garden and farm with innovation and environment at its heart.
In this part one of the visit, Fergus explores the farm, meets its livestock and gain insight into its ethos with The Newt's Arthur Cole. In part 2, to be ...
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May 15, 2025 • 16 mins
A wander through a scrubby wooded cwm brings you out into a glade with a view towards the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire. But at your feet is a calm pool, tadpoles squiggling in the margins. Chiffchaffs, blackcaps, robins and others provide a dizzying spring soundtrack.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you ...
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May 12, 2025 • 92 mins
A special extended edition of the Plodcast this week as we embark on an adventure with celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane to walk the length of a chalk stream from the centre of Cambridge to its source.
Rob has long campaigned to tackle our polluted and degraded rivers and his magnificent new book Is a River Alive? explores inspiring ways to look after our waterways better – through a series of encounters and adventures. But w...
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May 8, 2025 • 16 mins
Is there a more peaceful way to travel than by canal boat? You sit back and relax as you potter slowly along the Monmouth-Brecon canal. But what's this? It's action – you've got to operate the lock in order to continue your journey.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Mark Turner,...
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May 5, 2025 • 76 mins
Come to the centre of Cambridge to walk along the River Cam with Tony Juniper. Conservationist and chair of Natural England, Tony is one of the world's most influential environmental campaigners and he has written a book, Just Earth, that addresses the critical and drastic change society needs to embrace to counter climate change and biodiversity loss. Listen on to find out more. Fergus Collins is your host.
Tony's new book, Just ...
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May 1, 2025 • 21 mins
You pause beside the river, watching sunlight play on the rapids. Above the rush of the water, you hear the excitable snickering of common sandpipers – a pair are flying in wide circles, low over the water, their wingtips skimming the surface in a daring courtship flight.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you h...
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April 28, 2025 • 56 mins
Poppy Okotcha explains how to garden for contentment, health and deeper connection with nature and community. Plodcast host Fergus Collins met the fashion model-turned-horticulturalist at her beautiful spring garden in Devon to learn a simpler way to be.
Poppy's new book, A Wilder Way: How gardens grow us, is published by Bloomsbury.
And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast g...
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