Victorian Farm

Victorian Farm

2009
Victorian Farm
Victorian Farm

Victorian Farm

8.8 | en | Documentary

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year.

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Seasons & Episodes

1
EP6  Episode 6
Feb. 12,2009
Episode 6

The team's year on the farm is coming to an end. But first they have to bring in the wheat harvest, the most crucial part of the Victorian Farm calendar. Alex and Peter must get to grips with a contraption that was state-of-the-art technology in Victorian times, the reaper binder. Ruth explores the craft of straw plaiting and discovers the art of printing. The boys try their hand at a home brew. The team bring in the wheat harvest with the help of some extra labour, and celebrate with a raucous harvest festival.

EP5  Episode 5
Feb. 05,2009
Episode 5

In this episode, the team embarks on a trip by steam train, Ruth begins a tough task in the dairy, Alex tries his hand at beekeeping, the sheep get sheared using the latest time-saving technology, and the lengthening summer days allow Alex and Peter to try out the new Victorian sport of cricket. It is also time for the hay harvest, weather permitting.

EP4  Episode 4
Jan. 29,2009
Episode 4

It is spring and there are lambs and pigs to be delivered - which means Alex and Peter need to master animal midwifery. A prized ewe is in danger and a lame horse may jeopardise vital work on the farm. The team turns to Victorian science in a bid to save their struggling crops. If they succeed, they will have something to celebrate at the May Day fair. If they fail, all their hard work will have been in vain. It is make or break time on the Victorian Farm.

EP3  Episode 3
Jan. 22,2009
Episode 3

New Year arrives and the farm needs emergency repairs. So the team go back to DIY basics, with the help of the woodsman, the blacksmith and the basket maker. Ruth has a go at some traditional potions and remedies. When the wheat crop comes under attack, it is time for some pest control, Victorian style, as Alex and Peter join a pheasant hunt. Alex goes out catching rabbits with a team of Victorian poachers. And with spring around the corner, the first baby animals are ready to be born.

EP2  Episode 2
Jan. 15,2009
Episode 2

As autumn ends, winterproofing begins in earnest: essential work if the livestock and crops are to make it through the cold and frost. The team stock up on animal feed using a host of Victorian machinery. Peter faces his biggest challenge so far: building pigsties. Ruth tackles the laundry, a gruelling four-day process that Victorians tackled weekly. The ram arrives on the farm; ensuring he gets the ewes pregnant is the only way to produce lambs in the spring. The team take delivery of a Shire horse. There is a traditional Victorian Christmas to look forward to, including decorations, cookery and church carols. They celebrate Christmas Day with the friends they have made over the past four months.

EP1  Episode 1
Jan. 08,2009
Episode 1

The team move into a Victorian smallholding on the Acton Scott estate that has not been used in nearly half a century. Their first task is the restoration of the cottage. As incoming tenants, they help thresh the previous summer's wheat crop, their first experience of steam-powered machinery. Alex attempts to sow a wheat crop using horse-power. Ruth and Peter install a range in the cottage and take a trip to the canals to load up on coal. It's time for the apple harvest so Alex and Peter turn their hand to making cider. Ruth explores the challenges of Victorian cooking by making preserves ready for winter and cooks her first meal on the range. And the team must learn shepherding skills the hard way as the first livestock arrive on the farm - a flock of Shropshire ewes.

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8.8 | en | Documentary | More Info
Released: 2009-01-08 | Released Producted By: , Country: United Kingdom Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00grv47
Synopsis

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year.

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The tv show is currently not available onine

Cast

Ruth Goodman

Director

Stuart Elliott

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Reviews

Ms_Belladonna As both an animal lover and vegetarian I'd like to disassociate myself with another review on here claiming this series is "not for those who care about animals" I feel fortunate enough to live in a time that affords me a choice weather to eat meat or not...irrespective of when the "vegetarian society" was formed. People in the Victorian countryside would have had little choice, these times, in this location at this social standing it would have been about survival.The series itself is a wonderful journey into a time of change and invention. Ruth, Alex and Peter take us on their journey in at 19th century farm from hay-making, brewing cider and ale, ploughing, planting, laundry even toilet requirements.Fantastic cinematography and score it leaves you wanting to experience the time itself although leaves you under no illusions as how challenging these times were and how essential it was that every resource was utilised.A real educational series for all ages and if you like this check out the prequel "Tales from the Green Valley" (Tudor Times) and the various squeals starting with "Edwardian Farm".10/10 Fantastic viewing.
Robert There have been plenty of reviews of "Victorian Farm", so I don't feel compelled to review it on its entire merits. But for the following matter, I'd gladly give the show a 9. But I just want to focus on one aspect of the show: the hypocrisy of the actors about the animals on the farm, which pulls their rating down to a 5.Before anyone tries to excuse it with "yes, but they're just being historically accurate" -- I would suggest that they're not. I think that Victorian (and Edwardian, since the same thing afflicts "Edwardian Farm") farmers had a detachment from their "livestock" that Peter, Alex and Ruth don't share.That is why it's very disconcerting to see them at first treating (for example) the lambs, piglets, calves and chicks with affection, and hear them praising their intelligence and personableness one day, and then being fine with killing, butchering and eating them another day.Was this a reality in Victorian farms? Well, yes and no. Yes, most of the time. But the Victorian era was one of a burgeoning vegetarian movement. The Vegetarian Society was founded in Britain in 1847, early in Victoria's reign. By 1855, there were a thousand members in Britain. By the end of the century, still within Victoria's reign, it had over 5,000 members, and that doesn't count ALL vegetarians within Britain, just those who became members of one society. During the Victorian era such British luminaries as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Charlotte Bronte and Mary Shelley were all vegetarians, so it's not like it was a novelty.But there is something pathetically hypocritical about people demonstrating such affection for creatures -- to the point of naming them, petting them, and so on -- and then killing and eating them. If they carried on with a dog or cat the way that the cast of Victorian Farm do with their "livestock", no one would think it at all unusual. But if they killed, butchered and ate a cat or dog, 99.999% of their audience would be revulsed and outraged. How can a person feel like a pet guardian with a creature one day and kill and eat it the next? I seems to me that it would require a type of compartmentalization that would border on schizophrenia.I don't have a solution for such shows. I don't think it's likely that the BBC is going to make a show called "Vegetarian Historic Farm". But at the same time, I cannot watch these "reality shows" without feeling a sense of disgust and disdain for the cast who are either killing animals against their ethics, or are outright mistreating them.
Maedhros35 Three people of the team that made "Tales of the Green Valley" in 2004 came back and recreated the Victorian Age (2nd half of the 19th century). Just like in "Tales", the three reenact the period with the help of experts in the field, dressing like the period and mainly using tools from that age.If you liked Tales of the Green Valley, you will probably also like this series (which was broadcast on the BBC in the winter months of 2009). The protagonists, script and formula are about the same, which yields a fun and enlightening experience. It's a pity though, that Chloe is not working in this series. She was quite the fun note in "Tales".