Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages

Cream teas, bunting, thatched cottages swathed in roses. For generations this rural idyll of the village has conjured the very best of Britain. Penelope Keith explores our relationship with the village, discovering traditions under threat and communities undergoing huge changes, as she looks at what the future holds for rural communities.

Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages Season 1 release dates →

1. S1 E3

   E3

   3. Wessex

   Finale 11 years ago

   Penelope follows her guidebook through Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

2. S1 E2

   E2

   2. North Wales, Cheshire and Staffordshire

   11 years ago

   Penelope explores the rugged hills and valleys of north Wales.

3. S1 E1

   E1

   1. East Anglia

   12 years ago

   Penelope attends a traditional village regatta on the Norfolk Broads.

Penelope Keith explores the nation's villages and rural life as she returns for a second series

Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages Season 2 release dates →

1. S2 E4

   E4

   4. Sussex and Kent

   Finale 11 years ago

   On a trip across the South Downs and The Weald, Penelope visits the Cuckfield Donkey races, Rudyard Kipling's home and a cricket bat maker.

2. S2 E3

   E3

   3. Royal Deeside

   11 years ago

   Penelope travels through Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, exploring its considerable links to the royal family. She also goes gamekeeping and takes to the skies in a glider.

3. S2 E2

   E2

   2. Cumbria

   11 years ago

   Penelope finds out about life amidst the renowned landscape of Cumbria. She finds out that there is much more to life in a Cumbrian village than tourists and tea shops. She begins in Coniston, a village that has tackled everything from copper mining to hill farming and high-class Victorian tourism to the speed records of Donald Campbell. The northern areas of Morecambe Bay show her yet another astonishing and influential landscape before she returns to the Lake District and the village of Grasmere.

4. S2 E1

   E1

   1. Devon and Cornwall

   11 years ago

   Penelope is in the land of rugged coastal communities and huge numbers of holiday makers.

Penelope looks back at the hidden villages she has visited across Britain

Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages Season 3 release dates →

1. S3 E5

   E5

   5. Penelope Keith's Favourite Villages

   Finale 10 years ago

   In this beautiful one-off, Penelope puts together a selection of her favourites - from Devon and Cornwall to the stunning shores of the Lake District and the wilds of Scotland

2. S3 E4

   E4

   4. Pembrokeshire

   10 years ago

   In the final episode of the series, Penelope travels coast to coast across the stunning Welsh peninsula of Pembrokeshire. Although remote, this area is nonetheless a magnet for fascinating villages, clinging to cliffs and estuaries, or nestled beside beaches, farms and castles. Penelope visits Manorbier, with its tea shops and connections to both Virginia Woolf and Narnia. Then it's the waterside villages of the Cleddau Estuary, from Llangwm to Lawrenny. In the wild Preselli Hills to the north, Penelope encounters the Welsh-speaking villages of Cwm Gwaun and Mynachlogddu. There is also St Dogmaels, home of one of Britain's best food markets, and Abereiddy, one of the venues for the cliff diving World Series.

3. S3 E3

   E3

   3. North Yorkshire

   10 years ago

   Penelope Keith travels to North Yorkshire, England's largest county, and the heart of a region that's long been billed as 'God's own country' - with its dales, moors and rugged coastline. In the remote villages of Upper Swaledale, Penelope delights in the local dialect. She then visits Cracoe, the village featured in the film Calendar Girls. On the North York Moors there are Viking sword dances in Goathland, the failed seaside resort of Ravenscar, and the mystery of Captain Cook's childhood in Great Ayton. And Penelope takes to the skies over Brompton-by-Sawdon before finishing her tour at the artist's retreat of Staithes.

4. S3 E2

   E2

   2. Argyll and Bute

   10 years ago

   In this episode, Penelope visits some of the most extreme villages in the show, as she indulges her love of ferries, mountains and lochs galore in seeking out some of the remarkable communities of Argyll and Bute. In Mull, she learns about the local Viking saga, celebrated by the villagers of Tarbert; before venturing north to see how the Crinan Canal created Scotland's most beautiful short cut. She visits the marble-filled Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute and watches a game of shinty in Tighnabruaich. There is also a visit to the island of Easdale, a place without roads, cars, and just one tiny ferry, that also plays host to the World Stone Skimming Championships.

5. S3 E1

   E1

   1. The Cotswolds

   10 years ago

   Penelope Keith, one of Britain's best loved actors and a villager herself for 38 years, goes in search of more Hidden Villages in a new series that takes in North Yorkshire, Argyll and Bute, Pembrokeshire, and starts with the Cotswolds. Penelope's Cotswold journey starts in the celebrated village of Bibury, and an area that her old friend Jilly Cooper describes as a magnet for some of the most famous faces in the land. The tour also includes Kelmscott, the home of William Morris; Slad, the village setting of Laurie Lee's book Cider with Rosie; Down Ampney; and Hook Norton, where beer continues to be delivered by horse-drawn dray. And in Ebrington, Penelope visits a perfect village fete.