When Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water in Cumbria in January 1967, attempting to break his own water speed record it was, to many people, the end of an era. Many would always remember where they were when the images of Bluebird K7, the jet hydroplane he was piloting, crashing and disintegrating on the lake appeared on TV screens and the story broke across the world.In March 2001, after 34 years underwater, Donald Campbell’s ill-fated craft was raised from the deep by wreck-finder and engineer, Bill Smith. Later that year, at the request of Donald’s daughter Gina, his remains were also recovered - and in September 2001 he was finally laid to rest in the churchyard at Coniston. A painstaking restoration project began and in 2026, over 20 years after she was raised from the depths, Bluebird is set to finally return to Coniston Water.Caz Graham visits Coniston Water to discover what Bluebird means to the Lake District as she returns to the water 70 years after Donald Campbell set the water speed record in 1956.Producer: Helen Lennard

Martha Kearney is in Norfolk to walk the heathland that is being returned to its ancient grassland habitat by Olly Birkbeck. The Society of Wildlife Artists is holding a year-long residency documenting the recovery of the land and the flora and fauna. Martha meets sculptor Harriet Mead, field painter of birds Darren Woodhead and painter Kim Atkinson to see how they observe and reflect the natural world.The Society of Wildlife Artists: https://swla.co.uk/Producer: Beth O'Dea

Britain's roadside verges rarely get much attention, but can play host to a whole range of plant and animal species. In this programme Martha Kearney finds out about this overlooked habitat. She meets a community group in East Sussex whose members grow plants at home specially to plant in the verges of their village, and talks to the charity Plantlife about the importance of verges as an environmental habitat. She goes out exploring with artist Nessie Ramm, who focuses on painting the tiny details of roadside verges, and who last year won the New English Art Club Climate Emergency prize for her work entitled 'Reduce Speed Now'. Producer: Emma Campbell

Britain’s deer population has surged to around two million. These iconic animals are well-loved, but their growing numbers are putting real pressure on the countryside - stripping young hedges and woodlands, damaging crops, preventing natural restoration and harming other native wildlife. To control the population, hundreds of thousands of deer are shot each year. Critics argue hunting in the name of conservation is inhumane, and a short-term fix. Others baulk at eating ‘Bambi’. Supporters argue that it’s the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly meat you can get. Mary-Ann Ochota heads into the field with a professional stalker to see what deer management really involves, from woodland to wild meat.Produced and presented by Mary-Ann Ochota

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’.Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand years. The idea is to recreate the primeval forest that proliferated back then. It will act as a carbon sink, a flood mitigator and a generator of biodiversity.The planting schedule is drawn from a catalogue created from evidence in the ancient peat bog. Unlike other ‘rewilding’ projects, Carrifran Wildwood aims to exclude human beings from this valuable space, an unusual step which the founders see as crucial to its success.Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire started as a way of raising money for a church roof in 1968. Nearly sixty years later, it is thriving. More than 40,000 bulbs are planted each year to create the incredible displays and a small village of just 250 residents welcomes more than 10,000 visitors over the weekend. Martha Kearney joins them to discover what’s involved, meeting the organiser Paul Earnshaw and ‘daffodil Tom’ who spends his winter planting the bulbs.Daffodils are ubiquitous in spring in Britain. We see them on vergesides and gardens across the country, but the flower is not native to the UK. Martha visits Cambridge Botanic Garden to find out more about the history and use of the humble daff. There are around 30,000 varieties of daffodil, or narcissus, grown - but some varieties are extremely rare. The Royal Horticultural Society is asking gardeners to log any pink blooms, to find out how many are left.Celebrated in literature and used for centuries in medicine, there is much more to the daffodil - as Martha finds out on her travels in Cambridgeshire.Producer: Helen Lennard

Martha Kearney visits Wallasea Island in Essex, the largest manmade coastal nature reserve in Europe. It was created from the 3 million tonnes of London clay that were excavated in the digging out of the Elizabeth Line. The RSPB project used soil from the Crossrail scheme to raise the land, and flood almost 170 hectares of arable land to create saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. This was to mitigate for land loss as sea levels rise and it’s the only place that has raised land in order to bring the sea back. It’s the largest complex of saline lagoons in the UK. The project tells an unusually positive story about adapting to climate change and coastal erosion before it happens, for the benefit of nature. Martha goes to see the waders and waterbirds that now over-winter there.Producer: Beth O'Dea

The Stroudwater canal in Gloucestershire was built in the 1770s. It brought coal to the mills along the Stroud valleys, which had become an important centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, but the arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century led to the canal's decline and eventual abandonment. A mile-long section of it was filled in when the M5 motorway was built in the 1960s, cutting the canal off from the rest of the inland waterways network. Now ambitious multi-million plans are underway to restore and re-open the "missing mile" and reconnect the canal.Martha Kearney visits the Stroudwater canal to see how the work is going. She talks to volunteers, and finds out what difference the work will make to the canal - as a local amenity, as a tourist attraction and as a wildlife corridor.Producer: Emma Campbell

Martha Kearney visits the unique cave dwellings at Kinver Edge that were lived in until the 1960s. Cosy cottages were built into the soft red sandstone with windows and doors and families lived in them for generations. Martha looks around a cottage which has been restored as it was when it was lived in and hears about the family that lived there. She also finds out about the heathland restoration project which is bringing rare wildlife back to this valuable sandscape. And she meets Brett Westwood to try and track some of it down.Producer Beth O'Deahttps://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/shropshire-staffordshire/kinver-edge-and-the-rock-houses

Hedges are such a traditional part of the British landscape that most of us don't give them a second thought. They're usually associated with the enclosures of the 17th-19th centuries, when the medieval farming system gave way to enclosed fields surrounded by hedges - designed to keep sheep in and people out. But, as Martha Kearney finds out, many hedges are far older than that - going back thousands of years in some cases. In this programme, Martha explores the history and future of the hedge. She learns that there are an estimated 400,000 miles of hedgerow in Britain, despite the fact that many hedges were grubbed up and destroyed in the years since the Second World War. She talks to a wildlife expert, who explains why hedges are so important for wildlife and outlines the vital role they have to play in the ecosystem. Martha visits a hedge-laying course in Devon, where trainees are learning this ancient skill, and tries her hand at the craft using a billhook. She discovers that Devon has a hedge style all of its own.Producer: Emma Campbell