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
August 7, 2025 • 13 mins
Following the South West Coast Path through North Cornwall, you chance upon the ruins of Wheal Coates tin mine at the cliff's edge. Below, the sea seethes and surges, a wall of salty sounds rising up and through the mine's towering engine house. Any stray cobwebs you may have had hanging around are blown clean away.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and tran...
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Monsters haunt the myths and legends of almost every culture in the world. Take a walk along the Dorset coast with Nicholas Jubber looking for the footprints of ancient monsters, to explore why humans have felt the need to invent frightening beasts and beings to scare us from the shadows. Kevin Parr is your Plodcast host this week.
Nicholas's book, Monsterland: A Journey Around the World's Dark Imagination, is published by Scribe ...
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July 31, 2025 • 13 mins
It is late morning, the sun is high and the heat brings out butterflies, bees and, as your ear becomes attuned, grasshoppers fizzing and buzzing in the meadows. You lie down letting the sounds wash over you as you realise you can hear no human sounds at all.
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.
...
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July 28, 2025 • 63 mins
Discover how nature helped author Nic Wilson navigate chronic illness and childhood trauma as well as enabling her to develop a crucial sense of belonging. Plodcast host Fergus met with Nic on a walk through a wild park in North London where they discuss the life challenges that we can all relate to and learn how Nic coped with them.
Nic's book is called The Land Beneath the Waves and is published by Octopus
And now you can get i...
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July 24, 2025 • 17 mins
It's one of the hottest days of the year and you are glad to find respite in a woodland beside a fast flowing river. You rest on the shady bank, watching trout pluck flies from the water's surface.
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.
Em...
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July 21, 2025 • 61 mins
Be inspired to join the Big Butterfly Count with a walk on the Dorset coast with Richard Fox, Head of Science at the charity Butterfly Conservation. Britain's butterflies are in trouble but you can help.
Richard leads this week's Plodcast host, Kevin Parr, on a magical butterfly walk at Bindon Hill on the Dorset coast – and shows how you can embark on your own Butterfly Count where you live.
Join the Big Butterfly Count at: bigb...
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July 17, 2025 • 16 mins
After many dry weeks, heavy rain falls and the oak woodland thirstily drink in the live-giving water. You pause at the base of a particularly magnificent tree and listen to the gentle fall of raindrops.
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....
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July 14, 2025 • 45 mins
Take a springtime wander along the River Test, near the pretty Hampshire town of Stockbridge. Plodcast host Fergus Collins joins regular Plodcast listener and children's author Andrew Hussey to explore the wildlife along this most famous of trout fishing rivers. Listen on for some rare wildlife encounters – and some curious and disturbing tales from the river.
Andrew runs a small independent publishing company called Muddy Little ...
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July 10, 2025 • 19 mins
The sun is sinking low in the sky, its golden light glowing through the meadow grasses. As young swallows twitter in their maiden flights and a blackbird sings a lullaby, the eerie bubbling calls of curlews rise to meet the dusk.
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,...
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About 1150 years ago, on a ridge on the edge of Salisbury Plain, the Saxons defeated the Vikings in a battle that had a profound impact on the history of the English people and their language. And yet, the battle is surprisingly little known.
Discover what happened and why with writer and cultural historian Rupert Gavin. Rupert joins Plodcast host Fergus to explore the battlefield and discover how the English language, character ...
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July 3, 2025 • 11 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 • 62 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 • 17 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 • 61 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 • 20 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 • 80 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 • 14 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 • 52 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 • 18 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 • 45 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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