Episode 2 Normal for Norfolk

Look, look, look, look. Just down there, look. There's the mother.

She's looking up to see who's here.

This progamme contains some strong language

She's probably a wild pheasant.

We don't have herds of rare wild animals

like in East Africa here, but in our own way,

to see wild birds hatching is just always a great excitement.

Tucked away on the coast of North Norfolk

lies Wiveton Hall Farm,

a 17th-century manor house surrounded by fields of fruit,

vegetables and barley.

HE WHISTLES

Come on, here.

It's home to gentleman farmer, Desmond MacCarthy...

Teddy, come on.

..who lives here with his 99-year-old mother, Chloe...

You've got a birthday coming up.

-Queen Victoria was practically on the throne.

-Not quite.

..and children Isabel and Edmund.

This is my home-made cannon that fires all sorts of fruit.

-CANNON POPS, SHE LAUGHS

-Yay.

'When you look at the house from here, what do you think?'

Well, I always think how beautiful it is.

With the marshes behind, leading to the sea,

it's a really special spot.

Throughout the spring and summer, Desmond relies on his cafe,

cottages and crops to generate enough income to

keep the farm afloat.

So the stall is where it's down a lot.

But after a disappointing start to the season,

Desmond is banking on his fruit farm to make amends...

Look, they're so ripe, they're falling off.

-Where are they all?

-They're over there.

..while preparing for the shooting season ahead.

They've got to be fed now, and make them grow

and be happy and strong fliers.

I've lived here all my life.

I've probably got arrested development

because I've never grown up properly

because I've never moved away.

As spring turns to summer at Wiveton Hall,

Desmond is hard at work in the kitchen garden.

It's beautiful, yes. It's always been here.

It was used as a compound for prisoners of war

in the Napoleonic Wars.

An awful lot of people built bungalows in their kitchen garden

or filled them with Christmas trees.

But anyway, we've managed to keep ours going.

My mother was always very keen on gardening.

Nice shirt you've got on today, where did you get that from?

-I don't, I think in London.

-London.

-I think so.

Now, oh, would you like a scything masterclass?

Responsibility for looking after the kitchen garden now belongs to

mother and daughter team, Amanda and Poppy.

Sharp enough to shave a mouse.

One of the good things today to come out of France is scythes.

And wine, obviously.

And garlic sausage. What else?

What else is good from France?

-Onions.

-Onions, berets.

-There's many things.

Not many, now. Not many now.

The dreadful socialist state has ruined itself.

My mother used to love France, didn't you?

-And we had lovely picnics, didn't we?

-Yes, lovely picnics.

-And Daddy always used to bring a scythe back.

-Did he?

-Yes.

It's rather like carving serrano ham. It's all in the hips.

-You twist your body like this, that's it.

-Like that?

You're not using your hips.

Twist, swivel, swivel

and I'll keep well out of the way.

Ah, lovely artichokes, we must eat artichokes tonight.

Summer at Wiveton Hall means one thing - selling fruit.

Over the next couple of months, several tonnes of strawberries

and raspberries will need to be shifted.

Such a peculiar business, having to grow all this

and then convert it to money.

It's a very fragile product, that you have a very short window

in which to get it to the shops or get it bought

by someone and then you have hot days like this and...

..it can all turn to jam quite quickly.

The strawberries are a popular dessert in the cafe,

with the rest sold on the roadside stall by Jilly,

one of Desmond's longest serving employees.

-INTERVIEWER:

-'So how long have you been working here, Jilly?'

About 28, 30 years.

Ever since he started it.

When I first came, I came to pick strawberries

and he found out I could add up. And he put me here.

I've got strawberries, asparagus, spinach, soup asparagus,

artichokes, jam and honey.

That's my kind of fruit on the farm.

'Do you ever take some home for yourself?'

Well, I don't eat jam because I'm diabetic.

'How about the strawberries?'

I don't touch them. Raspberries, I do.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Delicious. They really are good

and a nice size. Here, look at him.

There's a ripe one.

The raspberries are almost ready to go on sale.

Desmond and his farm hand Jez have come to check on their progress.

These were planted... Mm.

..about five years ago.

They've probably had about four or five seasons.

But the hardest thing is getting them all sold.

These want spraying, Jez.

-Look.

-Yeah.

-First pink fruit.

Fruit is available in the supermarkets 12 months a year.

It may have come from miles away

but it's still cheap enough for people to buy.

Around here most people do know that it's worth waiting for the season.

-Do you mind whether things are in season or not?

-Yeah.

I refuse to buy any strawberries from supermarkets...

Well done. Yes.

..when I can just take them from here.

-LAUGHS:

-OK. Yes.

As evening falls, Edmund and the

family gun dog Teddy have been sent

to the strawberry fields to protect the fruit from unwanted visitors.

We are trying to shoot some pigeons to...

..make sure they don't eat the strawberries.

Otherwise they get all peck marks on them.

People don't particularly like eating

strawberries full of holes.

Here's one coming in.

GUN FIRES

No luck.

19-year-old Edmund is hoping to go to university later this year.

But he'll need a good result in his A-level retakes first.

'Shouldn't you be revising, Edmund?'

Well, I probably should be revising. I've got my exam tomorrow.

But you can't revise all the time.

I'm retaking my maths A-level so hopefully, get me to an A.

And then, straight into university.

Stay still.

GUN FIRES

Bugger.

'What is your future as you see it at the moment?'

Hopefully, go to university and...

..find a job somewhere. But not here at the moment.

-'You don't want to take over the farm?'

-Not, not at the moment.

I don't want to live here all my life.

'Is there not another way to get rid of pigeons?'

I don't think so.

Good boy, Ted.

GUN FIRES

Oh, my God.

GUN FIRES

Pigeons around me everywhere.

-Could you come on?

-HE WHISTLES

Here we go. Proper gun dog, Teddy is.

Retrieved it perfectly.

Proud and pleased, I got nine.

-'Will you take your gun to university?'

-Oh, I think so.

Good grouse shooting up north.

OWL HOOTS

The next morning, and the day of Edmund's exam.

-'Nervous?'

-Yeah.

I just don't want to mess it up again.

Home-made granola.

Guaranteed brain food.

I hope so.

If he wants to do the course at university he wants to do,

he's got to get an A.

He can't do any more now other than not lose his head during the exam.

-Good luck. I'm sure it'll be all right.

-I hope so.

All right, bye.

'He's quite keen to go to university.

-'Are you keen for him to go to university?'

-Well, I think yes,

it would be interesting. Meet lots of new people.

And possibly pathway to a great career

which would be, you know, he might as well have an interesting life

rather than a life of regrets for not going.

Desmond grew up at Wiveton Hall, inheriting the house and farm

when he was still in his teens.

My grandparents and my father all died

within three years of each other.

I was 15 or 16, I was never good at doing the sums

but I was at boarding school so it was all pretty strange.

I suppose in my grandfather's will, it was left to me.

Um, and I suppose that dawned on me slowly.

My mother kept the farm going.

There was no pressure to take it on.

There was also no pressure to go off and...

..become a solicitor or

become a businessman or do some job.

There was plenty to do here.

But it was a mistake in some respects.

Perhaps it was probably an easy way out.

Table 42. Four soup, two brown, two white.

Service, please.

The school holidays have begun and a spell of warm weather

has produced a glut of raspberries in the "pick your own" field.

Look at this, weighed down with fruit.

So ripe, look, so ripe they're falling off.

Hefty good, we've grown too many.

Mmm. Look, there are masses and masses of raspberries up there.

-Yes, I know.

-Absolutely masses. So we've got to tell people.

The "pick your own" business is the responsibility of

Desmond's shop manager, Verity.

-Plan it first before you write.

-OK.

Because otherwise you get it wrong.

Delicious rasps.

Very easy picking.

We're all the same. What are we? Lazy.

And it's getting so ripe and there's lots of it

-and I want all these people to pick.

-And experience it.

And experience it and turn it into money.

It's a weird experience but that's what the objective is.

-Now, would you like to pick some?

-We would, please.

-Oh, good.

Now, the idea of this is so you pick with both hands.

Now, you tie this on around your... I'll do it round this lady's middle.

-Ah, one moment.

-There.

Now you've got both hands, it's rather like typing.

We'll be back soon.

-Yes, good. Did you see that?

-What's that?

-The basket.

-How did you manage to do that?

-Yes. Oh, write rasps, I said.

We just want the message across. That's all we wanted to do.

And I added to your frustration.

-Well, a tiny bit but I did say rasps.

-I know you did.

-Yes, well, OK.

-I'll copy it word for word.

-No, delicious rasps.

-Delicious rasps.

-Very easy picking.

That's all, that's all you need to say at the moment.

-You'd recommend it...

-And then they come to me.

Then they come to you and you direct them to the right place, please.

-Yes.

-OK, you start writing.

-OK.

-Desmond's frustrated today.

-'Is he?'

-Yeah.

-'Can you tell?'

-Yeah.

-SHE LAUGHS

'Why do you need to write very easy picking?'

I don't know, have you got any other suggestions?

If you put an advert up saying - "Delicious rasps, hell to pick,"

only weirdos are going to pick.

Of which there are plenty, so you might as well try that.

One of Wiveton Hall's enduring traditions is the

Annual Pheasant Shoot when Desmond rents out his farm

to country sports enthusiasts.

I like the shooting.

I used to go with my grandfather and some terriers and stuff.

We hunted about. We had great fun.

It's just part of the thing we've always done here.

And I like keeping that going.

Throughout spring and summer,

gamekeeper Mark is employed to protect

the wild pheasants from predators, like foxes, crows and magpies.

-'I guess we're not shooting those.'

-No. Definitely not.

You've got to do your vermin control,

trap and snare and things like that.

Keep on top of it. Helps your population. Yeah.

These are carrion crows.

A couple of jackdaws, carrion crows and a weasel.

'And why do you hang them up?'

Just to show what you've got. People like to see them hung up.

Desmond likes to see them hung up.

But, you know...

'Does he pay you by the bird?'

Unfortunately, no.

HE LAUGHS

-You've caught one magpie here.

-I have.

-They're about.

There's another one about here, sure of it.

-Would you give him another egg?

-I will do, yes.

Today, Desmond and Mark are setting

a magpie trap using a live bird as a decoy.

This live one calls other magpies...

..into these small cages.

Sit on the perch like that and the doors

automatically close

and you got it.

No-one wants to create suffering for any animal

but you do need to use a field craft to manage the predators.

We don't want to kill every fox,

we don't want to kill every carrion crow,

we don't want to kill every magpie, we never will,

but done during the nesting period to benefit the pheasants,

that can make a huge difference. They will do better.

Or have more young.

Roly, here.

'Ostensibly, you're protecting pheasants' young

'so eventually you can shoot them.'

-Yes.

-Yeah. That's why we do the trapping.

-Yes.

Building up for next year's population.

I suppose for people who don't understand anything about it,

they probably find it horrifying to enjoy going out

with your gun, shooting a bird that's flying over.

And the harder it is, the more pleased you are.

-And we... Oh, look a barn owl.

-So Desmond says.

-(There's a barn owl.)

Roly, come here. Come on. Come on.

So, that's country life.

-Anyway, it's all very bucolic now, isn't that the word?

-Bucolic.

-It's not alcoholic.

-No, not alcoholic.

-It's bucolic.

The "pick your own raspberries" are proving to be a popular day out.

But overnight at the roadside stall, there's been an incident.

Oh, dear. Oh, Teddy. Come on, Teddy.

There's been a little break-in.

In the strawberry hut.

And they've stolen jam and stuff.

They broke in round here.

It's not the most hi-tech of security, but there we are.

What got taken?

-All that amount?

-Yes.

Gooseberries, honey, £22 worth of honey...

..£80 of jam...

..flowers, beans, it's just a nightmare.

-TELEPHONE:

-'You are connected to Norfolk Police.

'All our operators are currently busy.'

That's a bit tragic, isn't it?

-'What's that?'

-Being told to hold,

your call will be held in a queue.

I'm bleeding a bit, I'm just bleeding a bit.

-TELEPHONE:

-'Please continue to hold

'and we will answer your call as soon as an operator is free.'

It makes you hardly bother.

On the other side of the farm, another crisis.

Landscape gardener, Peter, has found a horde of honeybees which

have swarmed from one of Desmond's hives.

They came in across the field and they stopped right just there.

'So when you saw those bees, you were like, "Got to tell Desmond."'

Straight away.

-Is it still there?

-Yes.

Well spotted, Peter. It's so good.

There are few countrymen left.

You and I, Peter.

How amazing.

Bees have swarmed, meaning there are two queens in the hive.

So one, probably the old queen, has gone off,

bringing with her bees from the hive,

like taking an army and so splitting the hive.

But if you want to make honey at this time of year

when all the blossom's out, you want as many bees as possible.

-'You seem quite excited, Desmond.'

-Well, I am excited, yes.

I haven't taken a swarm.

Very often you get there and they've flown off.

Come and look. It's quite safe. I promise you.

I'll pay you a pound a sting.

Come closer, do you see them?

What do you think?

Scoop them into this?

You can try.

They're very angry now.

-'Does he know what he's doing, Peter?'

-Roughly.

-OK?

-Well, Peter, that was exciting.

I think we've got quite a few of them.

Desmond must now transfer the swarm

from the boxes into a new hive.

I've never known so many bees.

I mean, absolutely unbelievable.

They really are going crazy over here.

Oh.

-'You OK, Desmond?'

-Hm.

-LISPS:

-Yeah, I have been stung on the chin and it's

rather blowing up, but still...

I'm told it stops you having rheumatism.

It's slightly pulsating.

And the tip of my nose, I think I got a little bit of a sting there,

through the netting. Here they go!

No brave beekeeper bothers with cream but I'm not a professional.

'Why do you keep bees, Desmond?'

Oh, because we've always had some bees here since I was a child

and we have a fruit farm here and so it helps the pollination

and they are fascinating.

'Is it a hobby, Desmond, the beekeeping?

Like most things, yes, it's a hobby. It feels like a hobby.

The whole thing seems to be a hobby.

-Is there not a ticket, Jack?

-A what?

-What's on the new ticket?

After a summer making pizza in the cafe,

Edmund is about to find out if he's got the grades he needs

to study maths at university.

'How are you feeling?'

A little bit excited. And hopeful.

Anything less than an A in maths and Edmund must

settle for his second choice - a degree in sociology.

Hello.

-'Do you know what you've got yet?'

-No, I haven't looked.

I've managed to refrain.

-Shall we have a look?

-'Let's have a look.'

Right.

Fuck it.

-Never mind.

-'What did you get?'

-B again in maths.

(Bugger.)

What a bugger. Oh, well.

-'But you've got into university?'

-Yes, but to do sociology.

-I got into Newcastle.

-You've got into Newcastle?

-Yeah.

-Are you sure that you got that right?

-Yes.

-And what subject are you going to do?

-Sociology.

Oh, it's a lovely subject. Sociology?

You're going to be a sociologist.

Well done, Edmund. Oh, that is good, isn't it?

Yeah.

Well done.

First member of the family for generations to go to university.

-Edmund, that's good.

-Anyway, that's over.

Again.

With the shooting season fast approaching, a secure pen

has been built to house 250 reared baby pheasants, known as poults.

These are seven and a half weeks old

and we just take a few

feathers off the wing so that they

don't fly out of the pen too soon.

The wings we clip, the feathers are clipped off,

they'll regrow in the next two or three weeks and then they can fly.

-(Where are they all?)

-They're over there. I'll walk round the corner...

Oh, look, they're having a lovely time, look at them, pecking about.

-It's not a bad spot, is it?

-No, that'll be all right, yeah.

They're all trying to get out already.

We don't want them getting out.

'These ones aren't here to be shot, they are here to

'replace the ones that were shot last year.'

-Oh, no, they will, they'll grow up and a few will get shot.

-Yes.

No, but they'll be ready when they are about 22 weeks old.

So you've got another 14 weeks to go before they'll get chased about.

The poults will be kept in the pen

until they're big enough to join the wild pheasant population.

It's nice to have a few peasants to shoot other than shoot

the wild ones so that you don't deplete the stocks completely.

They've got to be fed now and we'll look after them.

And make them grow and be happy and strong

and then strong fliers.

As the fruit season draws to a close for another year,

business manager Kim has started crunching the numbers.

Actually, the "pick your own" and the shop is up £500.

-Unbelievable.

-That's good, isn't it?

But £2,000 down on the picked

and the stall is down £4,000.

-So, overall...

-It won't be down...

-..it's probably £15,000 down.

Right.

'Why are the takings down so much?'

-Erm...

-Price, possibly?

We, you know, we can't compete with supermarket prices.

Do you think, Desmond?

Our prices aren't the cheapest, but...

a few years ago we used to do a lot better.

It is a very small farm and we've grown fruit here

for 30 years which is labour-intensive, pruning,

picking and all that sort of thing

but it's not highly profitable

and it's seasonal, affected by the weather.

'So why do you keep it going?'

Well, it's terribly important to maintain small farms.

We don't want it all becoming agribusiness which would make

things very dull if we're all living in a sort of factory situation.

And I suppose when you've lived somewhere all your life,

you're very used to it. It's a lovely place to live.

It's lovely to have the space and the incredible luxury of privacy.

Thank you all for coming to celebrate

Chloe's very special birthday.

There has been communications from the palace.

So, it really is genuine the hundredth birthday.

-(Keep down, keep down.)

-GUN FIRES

Oh, my God! Oh, look at that shot of his.

-I'm getting into the rock promotion mood.

-OK.

I mean, it's just like how Glastonbury started.