Abroad in Britain

Episode 01

Severn Heaven

Oct 29, 1990

Just north of Bewdley in Worcestershire, beside the Severn Valley Railway, is the largest surviving interwars 'plotland' settlement in Britain. This is a village of dwellings built by their owners from improvised materials: old railway carriages, chicken coops, the fuselages of gliders etc. Decried as an instant slum and opposed by planning authorities it is today regarded as a valuable manifestation of working class history.

Episode 02

Right is Wrong

Nov 5, 1990

Meades investigates a new age community beside a Scottish air base, a furniture factory in a Dorset wood, and an experimental school in East Grinstead, all of which are geometrically linked by buildings that shun the orthodoxy of the right angle.

Episode 03

House Ahoy

Nov 12, 1990

Meades investigates unusual houses, houseboats and lifestyles of people on the Solent.

Episode 04

Brick and Mortars

Nov 26, 1990

Jonathan Meades considers the style of army and military buildings and architectural styles.

Episode 05

In Search of Bohemia

Dec 3, 1990

There are a surprising number of places in Britain called Bohemia. Even more surprising is the fact that two of them - in Hastings and the New Forest - have connections to the artistic bohemia of such painters as Augustus John, two of whose studios demonstrate how much domestic design would take from this type of building. Features a red Lada that's a mobile tip.