Wartime Farm
[3] Goodman, Ginn and Langlands began their collaboration with Tales from the Green Valley (2005), a programme exploring life on a small farm in Gray Hill, Monmouthshire, Wales, in the 17th century.
However, with time running out and their improvised subsoiler literally buckling under pressure, they are forced to plough and sow through the night without draining the field, despite warnings from the local "War Ag" over potential water damage.
Alex and Peter are introduced to guerrilla fighting tactics in late night training sessions, while Ruth relays top secret messages for the Special Duty Sections from her potting shed.
Winston Churchill's "Fight on the Beaches" broadcast and an unwelcome visit from the ARP warden see the episode end on a sombre note, as the team take stock of the huge undertaking ahead of them.
They first obtain sugar beet tops and nettles as raw materials, and then construct a small silo out of corrugated steel, with the help of two volunteers from the Women's Land Army (Nicola Verdon and Caroline Bressey).
Rationing leads her to investigate the black market, as she and a shady visitor filter red diesel using a loaf of bread, and get familiar with a butcher who sells spare chops under the counter.
A radio broadcast about the sinking of HMS Jervis Bay puts Ruth's black market flutter into perspective, and she instead decides to spend her time working with the local Women's Institute to pick and preserve fruit and vegetables, using a novel hand-operated canning machine from the United States.
[8] With German air raids causing unprecedented damage to Britain's major cities in the winter of 1940, the residents of Manor Farm are instructed to make preparations for an influx of evacuees from London, Portsmouth and Southampton.
Ruth spends an evening with a veteran of the Royal Observer Corps, learning how to track enemy aircraft and relay their locations back to the control centre in Winchester.
In the woodland further away from the farm, Alex and Peter construct decoy fire beacons to lure enemy bombers away from Southampton, as part of Operation Starfish.
Spurred on by a promotional film from the Ministry of Information, Peter starts a rabbit concern with the dual aim of impressing the War Ag and efficiently producing extra meat for the family and for Britain.
The Ministry of Food has demanded an extra 840,000 tonnes of wheat be produced and, to do their part, Alex and Peter lease specialist equipment from the wartime government to turn every last scrap of ground into arable land.
To combat this, Ruth creates fertiliser with dung and spare straw from the farm's cereal production, while Alex employs a specialist rat catcher to stop rodents eating into the upcoming harvest.
Later in the episode, Alex and Peter build a straw-bale outhouse for visitors and evacuees, complete with a thatched nettle roof; harvest grass from the local churchyard to make hay for their dairy herd; and start their own bee-keeping concern.
They camp in the woods nearby, and pick herbs and medicinal plants like goose grass and foxglove which can be sold on to Britain's pharmaceutical industry.
Ruth makes her own dress out of cotton flour sacks (purposefully designed, she says, to be re-used by industrious housewives), and curls her hair using sugar water.
Alex and Peter train some pigeons by releasing them from a 1930s fishing boat which saw service in World War II in the English Channel—and within half an hour, the birds have completed the 30 mile journey back to their loft.
He interviews the local pigeon fancier on his memories of the preparation for D-Day in Southampton, and produces a detailed painting of Ruth, Alex and Peter working the land while German Messerschmitt Bf 110 and RAF Hurricane aircraft hurtle overhead.
The episode ends with Alex singing and playing As The Boys Come Back From War on his ukulele, for the troops, following in the footsteps of past ENSA entertainers such as George Formby, Tommy Cooper, Laurence Olivier and Spike Milligan.
With the danger of aerial bombardment resolved, they instantly remove Manor Farm's blackout precautions, and set about planning a Victory in Europe Day party.
As summer progresses, and victory is announced in the Pacific, Alex and Peter call in a brand new invention, the combine harvester, to make light work of their wheat crop.
