The Plodcast

We've gone fishing! The Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis plus angler-writer Kevin Parr are given a unique opportunity to spend a day fishing at at lake where anglers are seldom allowed. Sutton Bingham Reservoir is a vast body of water just south of Yeovil in Somerset and is only usually open to flyfishers going after trout. So what else lives beneath the waves?Under Kevin's mentorship, the team enjoy an extraordinary day... Listen on for magic and drama.Huge thanks to Wessex Water and Rich the ranger for allowing us access to Sutton Bingham Reservoir. To find out more about fishing at the reservoir, visit: www.wessexwater.co.uk/visit-and-learn/fishing-at-sutton-bingham-reservoirAlso to the Angling Trust for granting day rod licences to the team. Visit https://anglingtrust.net/The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walking in a wide vale of crumbling relics of a long-lost industrial age, you stumble across a small stream, caught in the act of tumbling over a waterfall. For a moment there is mesmerising movement and sound, then the water disappears down the brackeny slope.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 Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Macfarlane, a Cambridge professor and nature writer, teams up with Johnny Flynn, a talented singer-songwriter and actor, for an enlightening discussion. They share insights about their new children's book, 'The World to Come,' inspired by the vibrant ecosystems along the River Lea. The duo delves into the transformative power of nature on creativity and the heartwarming tradition of wassailing trees. Listeners are treated to a live performance of a song that sparked the book's inspiration, blending music and storytelling beautifully.

It's early afternoon after heavy rain and you've followed a small brook past waterlogged fields and a stand of willows. The trees' feet, submerged in the swollen water, are tickled by the current while their leaves are tousled by the wind's long fingers.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 Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wildlife cameraman and TV presenter Hamza Yassin joins Plodcast host Fergus on a walk through an urban oasis deep in the city of Manchester. Hamza talks about his new book, Hamza's Wild World, and reveals the extraordinary determination and sacrifice he needed to get a break in the world of wildlife film-making. It's a piece of Plodcast magic.Hamza's Wild World is published by Macmillan and available to buy now.The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a small, steep sided valley with a clear stream fizzing through it. Sheep graze among anthills, and while buzzards and crows call from the clear blue sky, the grass is studded with parasol and waxcap fungi, revealing that autumn has swept in.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 Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We welcome historian and BBC radio presenter Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough back to the Plodcast this week, with a walk through an ex-industrial landscape near Leeds in Yorkshire. With her historian husband John-Henry Clay, Eleanor looks for stories and echoes of lost lives in a landscape reclaimed by nature.The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs.The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're climbing a small mountain in the Bannau Brycheiniog – and it's hot. So hot, you stop early for your picnic. High on the peak, ravens, buzzards and a single red kite are enjoying the thermals, calling and mewing in the deep blue. From the moorland grass, meadows pipits peep and grasshoppers fizz.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 Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus Collins enjoys an autumn walk by the River Avon near Bath with Emma Brisdion of the Rivers Trust to take part in a Big River Watch. This citizen science project hopes to make an important difference to the health of Britain's polluted waterways. But it's also a chance to pause, watch the world go by and see what wildlife characters might turn up. Join them for a marvellously mellow adventure.For more on the River Trust and to take part in the Big River Watch, visit https://theriverstrust.org/take-action/the-big-river-watchThe Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's late morning on a quiet autumn day and you're sitting on a welcome bench beside a small lane that winds between wooded pasture and a small estuary. Cheerful robin, chiffchaff and sparrow song blends with the distant laments of curlews, while the sea murmurs in the distance. Even the odd passing car seems strangely soothing.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 Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices