The Dales   Presenter: Adrian Edmondson ITV Studios Home Entertainment RRP: £24.99 3711534703 Certificate: E Available 20 June 2011

Adrian Edmondson reaches back into his childhood and take us in to the heart of Yorkshire in this 12-part documentary. Experience the essence of one of Britain’s most captivating and poetic landscapes. With its rolling hills, tone-built cottages and warm hearted people, Edmondson travels to its most isolated communities, conjuring memories of childhood summers spent with his family in this rural idyll and discovering what life is really like for the people who live there all year round. Throughout the series, we are introduced to the different characters and ways of life that take place on the hills, including preparing cows for competition, meeting the real life Vicar of Dibley and following a sixteen year old who has taken on responsibility for the farm after his father’s death...

The Dales is an interesting 12-part documentary series that sees comedian Adrian Edmondson rediscovering the Yorkshire Dales, a region that he spent a great deal of his childhood exploring.

I'm assuming that The Dales is produced by the same company that was responsible for bringing The Lakes to TV. The format is almost identical, however Edmondson makes a much better presenter than Rory McGrath. For a start we see Edmondson on camera quite a lot talking to the people we meet. And he is a pretty good interviewer too. He comes across as the sort of bloke who everyone would instantly get on with - laid back, funny and genuinely interested in the people he meets. In addition he really does have fond memories of the areas he visits and on a couple of occasions we are shown family pictures of a young Edmondson at the location he is now revisiting.

As with The Lakes, while the scenery and locations are interesting, it's the people we meet that really make this show enjoyable. Of all of these the most engaging is the young lad called Philip who is taking over the family farm at the age of 16. The year before, his father died leaving Philip's mother running everything. Now we follow Philip leaving school and slowly taking over the running of the farm. It's genuinely moving, watching as they decide to stop dairy farming, which they've been doing for years, and start a new venture.

Other notable personalities include the owner of a castle who is eager to introduce new ideas to attract tourists; a family that live in an isolated farm; a female vicar who is responsible for four churches; the locals of a village owned pub; a lady blacksmith; and a local vet.

This is an enjoyable series, made all the more entertaining by Edmondson's skills as a presenter.

8

Darren Rea