Episode 4 Normal for Norfolk

ROOSTER CROWS

These are the ears of a pixie that we got

on one of our hunting expeditions.

Who did those ears used to belong to?

Pixie.

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...

Kenny! Come on.

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

Nice shirt you've got on today. Where did you get that from?

-I think London.

-London?

..and children Isobel and Edmund.

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

Yay!

ISOBEL LAUGHS

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.

After a busy summer season trying to make enough money to keep

his farm afloat, attention turns to the winter months.

Look, that's nice.

As Desmond says goodbye to his staff

-until the spring...

-Wow!

-..he has more time for country pursuits.

-Rather a pretty girl coming.

-Oh, yes?

-Look at that.

That's astonishing.

-Hey!

-..before one of the great Wiveton Hall traditions begins.

-Oh, look.

-GUNSHOT

Oh, my God. That is very keen.

-GUNSHOT

-Oh, so's Edmund... Ooh.

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.

It's late October

and Wiveton Hall Farm is preparing for the winter months.

ROOSTER CROWS

The barley and fruit crops have been harvested,

while the farm shop and cafe will soon go into hibernation.

While winter brings a slower pace to the farm, it marks the start

of the shooting season

and Desmond's greatest passion.

That is the spot I stood the last day of the Christmas holidays

when I shot and hit

and killed the first bird that I ever shot.

A woodcock. And it fell over there in the wood.

I was overjoyed.

How old were you?

-I think about 12.

-And how did you feel?

-13.

My parents were out at the time.

They came back, I rushed up the with this dead bird.

I can't remember if it was plucked and eaten at night.

Probably I gave it to my grandfather.

Desmond has been organising days out for shooting parties

at Wiveton Hall for over 30 years.

The shooting season can provide extra revenue for the winter months,

so it pays to look after the game birds on the farm.

Lots of farmers now manage bits of their land

to create habitat and diversity.

Some people do it just for the love of the nature,

quite a lot of people do it

because they also love country sports, such as shooting.

This year, the responsibility for maintaining the pheasant population

belongs to new gamekeeper Mark.

Good dog. Good girl, Dot. Good dog.

He's cutting the maize down for the feed rides,

so when the pheasants come in here

they eat on all this chopped-up maize

and just scrap about after the corn.

After the maize, look.

And they eat them. They love them.

Mark's very enthusiastic. His father is a keeper.

His family have been keepers

in this area for a long time -

it's kind of in his blood a bit,

this love of guns and all that sort of thing.

It sounds a bit redneck, but it's not.

In a week's time, Mark's hard work will be put to the test

when Wiveton Hall holds its first shoot of the season.

So how are you feeling about the shoot, Mark?

-Fine.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, absolutely fine.

-Yeah?

-What will be, will be. Can't do any more.

-From your point of view,

what will make it a successful day?

Pheasants.

Plenty of pheasants.

With the help of his dog Dotty, Mark must check each day that

the pheasants don't wander too far from home.

HE WHISTLES

-Is there any pressure as a gamekeeper?

-There's always pressure.

If there is no birds there, there's a lot of pressure.

You'll get your P45 at the end of it, you know?

Nearly all the staff at Wiveton Hall work on a seasonal basis.

As winter approaches, Desmond's Eastern European farm hands

will soon be leaving until the following spring.

Will Pavel be coming back next year?

Pavel has been allowed to come back.

He's very...

He's very pleased.

-Yeah.

-Partly to do washing-up...

-Yeah.

-..and helping with the tunnels.

-Yeah.

-And he's quite good at picking fruit.

-Yeah.

And he knows the farm.

-But he does spend quite a lot of time hiding from me.

-No.

No?

All these lovely people who work here

and try to keep the show on the road are going home.

Every time I see Carolina, she goes like that - that means four weeks.

And then last week it was...

And there's a bigger and bigger smile.

She's longing to go home now.

Three weeks, I'm just like, "Oh!"

Three weeks, it's not three months.

It's like, "Wow, come on, time, quick, quick!"

Will you miss Desmond when you go home?

Yes, I miss him. Really, yes.

-Do you think Desmond gets lonely?

-Probably.

He stays on his own, it will always be quite sad for him, as well.

Every year he is sad when everyone goes home. You can see this.

He tries not to show us, but I know him.

Does it get quite lonely here once everyone leaves?

I don't think so, but it is very nice having them here.

But it's a bit odd to have all your friends actually be on the payroll.

To say thank you to his staff for their hard work over the season,

Desmond and his son Edmund are throwing a bonfire party.

Dad's obsessed. He's definitely verging on the pyromaniac.

Really? He likes fires?

You missed the reed burning.

-That's in February.

-No expense spared.

I love the silver flowers.

These are from Kimbolton, the famous Reverend Lancaster.

These are the best you can get in the world.

None of this Chinese stuff. Hello.

Desmond's mother Chloe recently turned 100,

but still wants to be a part of the action.

-You remember, Daddy used to set them off?

-Yes.

-And will you walk up quietly with Andrew?

-And we'll follow.

Hold Andrew's arm.

She hates missing out.

She suffers from FOMO madly, and I think that's where I got it from.

Do you know FOMO? Fear of missing out.

It's a family-inherited trait.

-Plenty, plenty, plenty. More, more.

-More?

-Come on, plenty.

-Stand back. It is diesel, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

Well done, Jess. Well done, Jess.

Now they can come and watch. I think they'd like to come and watch.

Come out!

They're terribly slow-moving, all these people.

Never mind.

Get closer.

Look, that's nice.

-Well done, Jess.

-Well done, Jess.

Look at that.

Now, it's very nearly

the end of our season.

I'm beginning to feel a bit like a bear.

I'm about to enter my cave for the winter,

and live off my hump.

Anyway, I am sure I will appear in the spring, more bad-tempered.

They're always very bad-tempered in the spring.

But anyway, I'll try and curb that.

And I hope you're all going to be here again

to join us and work here.

Wow!

FIREWORKS BANG AND SCREAM

Bloody hell!

The farm staff are not the only ones bidding farewell to Wiveton Hall.

-OK.

-Fromage.

Edmund is leaving for university in Newcastle, and his mum

and Desmond's ex-wife, Tina, has come to say goodbye.

I can tell he's nervous. It's a whole different world.

I think that's beginning to dawn on him.

My jacket.

I think it will be a shock living in the city.

The people all around.

No woods or trees everywhere.

What was it like growing up here?

Brilliant fun. Absolutely loved it.

I had all my friends over.

Always people here. Always something to do.

Right. Bye-bye, room.

He's going to study hopefully something

to revive his fortune.

Well, that would be good.

-Good thing, wouldn't it?

-Yes.

-Cos I've...

..slightly let the family down.

-Oh, shut up!

-By what?

Just holding on.

Yes.

Anyway, but Edmund, it's all in his hands now.

One day, responsibility for the farm will fall to Edmund.

I hope that he gets a fantastic career

under his belt before he comes anywhere near here,

and hopefully he will make a success of whatever he does

and to be able to run this without the stress

that Desmond always has running this,

cos there's never quite enough money, really.

It's such a soaker-up of money.

With less activity on the farm and time on his hands,

Desmond is able to hang out with childhood friend Willy.

-A nice lot of teal.

-That's a lovely sight.

Yeah, very good.

Bird-watching on the nearby marshes

is one of their many shared passions.

So you've known each other for a while, the pair of you?

-Yes. We've known each other since 1963.

-It's quite a long time.

Quite a long time.

-Cos we used to see each other...

-Every day.

..when he came back from school.

And so it was great excitement, holidays were great excitements.

-We did things every day.

-Yep.

This is the Cley marsh, which is about 400 or 500 acres.

Basically grazing marshes and reed bed,

which are marvellous for wildfowl, ducks.

And this was bought, I think in 1926, by a group of enthusiasts.

They loved wildlife and wild fouling,

and we love, when we get the chance...

Look, golden plover!

Golden plover.

-Hold it.

-That is exciting, lovely sight.

-What's that coming across? Egret?

-Where?

-Egret.

What is it about birds?

Well, they are just very... They're interesting, they've lovely colours.

They sometimes make nice noises.

Some of them are good to eat.

Incredibly beautiful. And they're a symbol of the changing seasons.

-You're quite happy to shoot birds, as well?

-Oh, yes.

Well, we don't shoot, sort of, endangered species.

No.

When we started shooting you could shoot curlew,

and they've become protected.

They were never very good to eat.

They were never good to eat. We shot them.

We got a few.

My father used to make us eat them.

-Yes, if you did shoot one.

-If you shot one, you had to eat it.

We soon learned not to shoot them.

-Rather a pretty girl coming.

-Oh. Oh, yes?

Very smart running clothes.

She looks more like she's running in her lingerie.

Look at that. Astonishing.

-Very good.

-Astonishing.

Every year, Desmond hosts a pheasant shoot for friends and family

to mark the beginning of the shooting season.

With his guests arriving tomorrow,

he's asked the cafe chef, Ben, to prepare a fitting meal.

I'm just knocking up a little game terrine.

We've got a little bit of pigeon, a few partridge.

Mainly pheasant, though.

Desmond just likes to make sure... I think all the people

he takes on the shoots, as well,

make sure they eat what they're shooting.

Pheasant for starter and maybe a pheasant for dessert, as well!

I've got to go through these breasts just to make sure all shot is

removed, cos there's nothing worse than biting into a piece

of pheasant breast and getting a bit of shot in your mouth.

-And when Desmond has shooting parties...

-Yeah.

-..and obviously the cafe is open...

-Yeah.

What's it like?

Yeah.

It's quite nerve-racking.

I think it was last year we were working,

and all of a sudden we could hear a little tinkling on the ceiling.

And there was just a barrage of shot fired in this direction

from way over there, obviously,

but it's normally quite entertaining.

I don't think we've ever had anyone complaining about people

marching around the farm with guns.

In the gun room, Desmond is making last-minute preparations of his own.

Oh, look, we've got masses of 20-bore cartridges.

That's extraordinary.

He prefers his guests to shoot with small-calibre guns

to give the pheasants a sporting chance.

You provide the guns, do you?

Well, only because some people only have 12-bores and they're too big.

They can use them on the marsh later, in the evening.

But I like to make it harder for them

by giving them children's guns...

..to start with.

Make it harder for them.

What is it about shoots?

-Why'd you do it?

-It's just odd, isn't it?

It's rather a lot of effort.

Like a lot of sport,

why do people kick a round ball into a net?

I mean... No, it's fun.

It's exciting, we don't know quite how it's going to go.

There may not be anything about.

And how many peasants would you be happy...

What would be a good number?

25.

-In total?

-Yes.

And where would they go?

To heaven, I think.

Tomorrow's shooting party will be staying at Wiveton Hall

for the weekend.

Have we moved that table?

-Yes, we have.

-The card table? Let's put it...

Housekeeper Deborah is at the receiving end of Desmond's

attention to detail.

Can we move it aside? That's it, that's much better. You see?

-Mm-hm.

-I just sometimes find lapses.

The bath wants a good clean.

Look at this, in the door!

-Yeah, I know.

-Look at that.

DEBORAH LAUGHS

I don't think that was actually a place for the chair.

-You love to push things into the corner, Deborah.

-I know.

-Have you talked to your psychiatrist about this?

-SHE LAUGHS

I think he's all right. I think he's OK.

He probably is a bit stressed,

but he's got a lot of people coming, hasn't he?

So everything's got to be just right.

Another important detail is to make sure gamekeeper Mark

has all the help he needs on the day driving the pheasants.

Who have you got coming?

There's you, the lady with the dog.

Helen. Me.

-And...

-Me, Helen,

Jez, Carolina...

-No, no, not Carolina.

-No?

No, no. She's in the cafe.

-It's all right.

-Right, OK.

-We want about six.

-So no Shaggy?

Yeah, I hope Shaggy.

-You...

-Me, Jez, Helen, Tuckey...

Me, Jez, Helen, Tuckey...

Um...

Shaggy.

What about...Sue?

Sue and Jack.

With the shoot just about in place for the morning,

Desmond has one last check on the pheasants as they go to roost.

PHEASANTS CHATTER

I think they're saying goodnight to each other.

CHATTERING CONTINUES

Isn't it lovely? Very exciting?

Do you think they know what's happening tomorrow?

I think it'll be a surprise for them.

Listen to them all!

Too many.

There are far too many.

Oh, Teddy!

After months of preparation,

its the morning of the first Wiveton Hall pheasant shoot

of the year.

No, dogs. No. Don't behave badly.

With the guns, beaters and dogs assembled,

the briefing can begin.

..pulling Mark.

So go easy on anything

that doesn't have a long, fine tail.

Try and go, if you can, for the male bird.

And you know the difference

between the cock and the hen, don't you, Frank?

The hen is the brown one. Very wild, the birds.

So do go quietly.

To avoid hitting the beaters or each other, the guns must only

shoot up into the air.

Frank, would you like to stand here?

Lovely bit of sky there.

I've known Desmond most of my life.

Well, since I was about 13, I suppose.

So, yeah.

I've probably been here at least once a year.

I mean, it's the place that Desmond knows like the back of his hand,

so he knows every single blade of it.

Kate, would you like to stand here?

This has been what you might call an unchanging kind of a place,

which is good.

We like that.

Mark is in charge of driving the pheasants

through the undergrowth towards the guns.

We'll stop the bottom beaters and then we'll bring the top round

so we'll congest in a line when we get to the top of the track.

'Are you ready to start? Over.'

Yeah, we can go.

If we go up first.

Righto, Helen.

Good girl, Moll.

Come on. Good girl.

When the beaters have gone round, they'll hopefully find the place

where the pheasants are spending their morning feeding.

-HE FIRES

-Ooh, my God. That is very keen.

GUNSHOT

Oh, so's Edmund. Ooh!

Come on.

Not one to miss out on a shoot,

Edmund has returned from university for the weekend.

HE FIRES

I'm walking down along with the beaters

and hopefully as anything...

..flies out the back or up the side.

Righto!

SHOUTING, WHISTLING

-Oh, look.

-HE FIRES

Well done! Good girl.

That's too low. Too low, too low!

SHOUTING

Go on!

Go on, Dot. Good dog.

GUNSHOTS

DOG WHIMPERS

Ssshhh!

The first drive of the day has produced fewer birds

than Mark had been counting on.

It's OK, it's all right. It's OK.

-OK. I'm stressing.

-Honestly, don't stress. It's all fun.

-I know, I know.

-It's all fun. Don't you worry, Mark.

I want you to have a nice time.

One day you'll come and you'll see pheasants everywhere.

Another day you'll come, you won't see any.

They'll be in the woods, or hiding in the undergrowth.

And you automatically think, no,

I hope they haven't disappeared, or I hope they haven't cleared off.

Or, you know, gone somewhere else.

The guns and beaters reposition in the hope of flushing out

the pheasants.

I've got to push this one up to the wood and over the wood,

through the wood and then down onto the other cover strip.

And through onto the guns. The guns are the other side.

Go on.

Desmond is a firm believer that running a pheasant shoot

also helps preserve wildlife.

Hey!

The side effect of managing land

for shooting is that you have far greater diversity of species

because you've managed the habitat, you've managed the woods,

you've managed the ponds, managed the marshes,

you've managed the edges of the fields,

you've managed the hedges.

And you're going to have a far greater diversity

of other birds and species.

And then you've got the added benefits of very great excitement

shooting preferably a wild... a wild pheasant or partridge.

GUNSHOT

Desmond, I've just realised how close to the cafe we are.

You don't think we'll put any of your cafe customers off?

I don't think so.

I mean, if they want to eat pheasant,

how do they expect to get it?

The majority of the pheasants will survive the day,

and some might even make it to the end of the season.

Later in the year, when the birds are cannier,

they get good at avoiding the guns at the front of the drive.

So this is very good.

But at the moment they'll probably just do as they're told

and go forward.

They smarten up, then, the birds?

They smarten up, cos after they've been shot two or three times

they...

I don't know, I'm sure they don't know what's going on,

but I'm sure they know to avoid...

..people, and if they... I don't know...

I think they do smarten up a bit, yes.

HE FIRES

Come on!

-Not smart enough.

-Not smart enough in that case.

HE BLOWS WHISTLE

No, that's the whistle. So that's what we've got.

Yeah, that is it.

The spoils will be divided up among the party

and anything left over will be used by the farm cafe.

-How's it's looking, then?

-OK. OK. Not too bad.

For a small-bore shoot, that wasn't too bad.

There's 40 - 40 pheasants there.

You know, that's a good day. They're all pleased. They're all happy.

I think probably less happy for a few of the birds,

but they've had a good life.

And they're going to be very delicious to eat soon.

All's good, and we did it all before the rain.

So what is this, Ben?

Wiveton game terrine, Wiveton chutney.

Lovely fitting food for a Wiveton shoot, really.

Move along.

Oh, no, they shouldn't sit together.

Days like today are why you've got such a special tie to this place.

Yes, it is. I'm really lucky.

And there are a lot of agreeable people working here,

and a lot of very nice people come and visit.

And I have lots of nice friends, so pretty good.

Is Desmond a good host?

Lovely host, yes, of course.

He's just put on very, very smart green velvet.

What more could you ask for in a host?

It is nice to be silly.

There's an awful lot of...

seriousness, you know?

There's seriousness around the corner at every turn.

SHOUTING

Frightening the pigeons off. Pigeons and crows.

We're always up against something.

Cafe's shut, as you can see.

Nothing but the CCTV working.

There we are.

But it is quieter now. Everyone's gone.

Pruning's been done, a few branches to be collected up.

And it's very nice, it is quiet for a bit.

-Did the year go as you expected it to?

-Well, it was not a good summer.

This is a rather weather-dependent business.

Not much... Other than turn it into a Centre Parcs-style dome

over the whole place, control the weather.

Which is not a bad idea, but anyway,

we haven't gone down that route.

But we're not giving up, you know?

There won't be the "for sale" sign up this year.

So that's good.

Go on, Ted. Ted! Heel!

Go on.

Gathering a bit of winter fuel.

We'll put them over here.

They'll dry out.

I planted most of these trees,

and from my point of view,

I enjoyed growing up here because I was quite closely connected

to nature, which is, today, a massive treat.

This is my world.

And I want to keep it going, so it's not too much of a struggle.

So where do you see yourself in ten years' time, Desmond?

I don't think that far ahead, really.

Isn't the fashionable thing today to live for the moment?

And anyway... Well, I suppose...

Yeah, I could be living here.

It wouldn't be so bad.

Here.

Come on.

Here, heel.

Heel.

Come on.