The attractive side of television and a twinge of Cornish patriotism

Quite appropriate I guess. I have been away for a long holiday in Cyprus and am just back and feeling nostalgic for the UK in Autumn.

One of the things I was keen to do now I am back was catchup up on a few essential television programmes that I had missed while away. First was the series Stephen Fry is fronting about the states of America, named naturally enough Stephen Fry in America.

What I hadn't realised but, much to my delight, I could see more than the last programme. For some reason I had it in my head that I could only watch the last 7 days; whereas the reality is that I can watch more than this - a month's worth at a guess. Just as I went to click on the link to see the first show New World my cursor passed over another show that mentioned Cornwall.

The show was Railway Walks presented by the very attractive Julia Bradbury, seen in the picture on the left. (I just had a peek at her bio and see that her beauty comes in part from Greek origins, very understandable). To give balance to this piece, I want to point out Julia's professional approach as demonstrated through a bunch of programmes across several channels, see her website www.juliabradbury.com for the list.

The episode that my cursor ran across was the broadcast from 16 October on BBC4; this invlolved Julia walking from Portreath on the Atlantic Coast of Cornwall to Devoran, that sits on an estuary which runs to Falmouth on the southerly side of this wonderful home country. I felt a quickening of my pulse at the prospect of a programme about God's wonderful country. I put this feeling down to a surge of patriotism brought on by my sojourn on foreign shores. I am a patriotic sort of chap and love this country of Cornwall, (even if I can't see how it could be economically independant - no dwelling on politics here), but my reaction to a programme would not normally be so pronounced.

I have just watched the show and can thoroughly recommend it to any who gets the chance to see any episodes, I do hope the BBC has the foresight to broadcast this internationally. I certainly learned new things about my country.

This show follows her previous excellent series, Wainwright's Walks, where Julia followed in the footsteps of Alfred Wainwright reclusive chronicler of walking in the Lake District here in the UK.