Coast

We have been gripped to this programme. Unfortunately, we missed the first one, but since then there have been numerous gripping episodes.

We enjoyed David Dimbleby's Picture of Britain, but Coast is on a different plane altogether. I wonder how many people are watching it. It's on BBC2, and, for some bizarre reason, people are less likely to watch programmes on BBC2 than BBC1.

(I don't understand this, have never been able to do so; I look through the Radio Times and I select what programmes I want to watch. The Channel only matters when the decision is borderline - I'm less likely to watch a ITV than any other terrestrial channel, but there are numerous exceptions to this rule. Are people scared of BBC2? Don't they have remote controls that make channel changing effortless).

I really can't praise this programme highly enough. It's presented by a non-celebrity nobody, ably supported by a bunch of nobodies. It's not a star vehicle, it's not a personal and idiosyncratic look at anything. A very simple concept, travelling the entire coast of the UK. Now, if I had come up with this concept I think it would have ended up like a glorified 'Holiday' programme.

This is so much better. We have some amazing photography. We have anthropology, geology, archaelogy, zoology, mythology, folklore, history. An hour twice a week of completely gripping TV. Well, I say gripping, but we have to keep pressing pause because of the conversation it stimulates.

I suspect that viewing figures are tiny. It's not glamorous. Arguably, it's not escapist, although it keeps showing places we want physically to escape to. The only cliffhangers are people literally hanging off cliffs. For me, it's worth the licence fee in itself.