Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers

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2023
Season 1
2 episodes

Nature
Documentary

Summary

What is going on beneath the surface? Paul Whitehouse travels around England and Wales to explore why rivers and waterways are in decline and what needs to be done to protect them.

Episode 1: The North

Summary

Part one of two. The actor, writer and comedian travels around England and Wales looking at the issues that their rivers and waterways are facing. He begins by visiting the north of England to find out the impact water companies have on rivers, exploring the change in the industry since privatisation in 1989 and what regulations are in place when it comes to sewage discharge. He meets concerned locals looking to highlight the health of the River Wharfe, a conservationist who warns of the ecological decline in iconic Lake Windemere, and singer Feargal Sharkey, who has become a figurehead for the campaign to prevent water companies dumping sewage into UK waterways and seas

Review

Gabriel Tate

Thanks to his angling adventures with Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse has become the unwitting face of Britain’s riverbanks. As this two-part series makes clear, he takes the role seriously: occasional wisecrack aside, this is a sober, distressing call to action over the state of our waterways, “the closest thing to paradise that we have”.

As all manner of horrors are pulled from Lake Windermere and the Rivers Wharfe and Thame, Whitehouse accepts we all bear some blame for the microplastics, sanitary towels and wet wipes. Stomach-churning evidence of human waste (“a turd’s-eye view”) is a different matter, however, and he meets campaigners such as Feargal Sharkey, who claims water companies are dodging their responsibilities. Their boilerplate responses feel desperately inadequate for this diligent interrogation of a broken system where profit is put before the environment and public health. In the words of conservationist Matt Stanton, “Why does it take something terrible happening for us to say ‘no’?”

How to watch

Next showing

There are no live broadcasts scheduled for this show. But it is available via the streaming provider below.

Streaming

BBC iPlayer

Details

Languages

Formats

Colour

Credits

Crew

rolenameDirectorSamuel PalmerExecutive producerMike Radford

All episodes

Episode 2

Episode 2

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Episode 1

The North

Summary

Part one of two. The actor, writer and comedian travels around England and Wales looking at the issues that their rivers and waterways are facing. He begins by visiting the north of England to find out the impact water companies have on rivers, exploring the change in the industry since privatisation in 1989 and what regulations are in place when it comes to sewage discharge. He meets concerned locals looking to highlight the health of the River Wharfe, a conservationist who warns of the ecological decline in iconic Lake Windemere, and singer Feargal Sharkey, who has become a figurehead for the campaign to prevent water companies dumping sewage into UK waterways and seas

Review

Gabriel Tate

Thanks to his angling adventures with Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse has become the unwitting face of Britain’s riverbanks. As this two-part series makes clear, he takes the role seriously: occasional wisecrack aside, this is a sober, distressing call to action over the state of our waterways, “the closest thing to paradise that we have”.

As all manner of horrors are pulled from Lake Windermere and the Rivers Wharfe and Thame, Whitehouse accepts we all bear some blame for the microplastics, sanitary towels and wet wipes. Stomach-churning evidence of human waste (“a turd’s-eye view”) is a different matter, however, and he meets campaigners such as Feargal Sharkey, who claims water companies are dodging their responsibilities. Their boilerplate responses feel desperately inadequate for this diligent interrogation of a broken system where profit is put before the environment and public health. In the words of conservationist Matt Stanton, “Why does it take something terrible happening for us to say ‘no’?”

How to watch

Next showing

There are no live broadcasts scheduled for this show. But it is available via the streaming provider below.

Streaming
- BBC iPlayer
Details

Languages

Formats

Colour

Credits

Crew

rolenameDirectorSamuel PalmerExecutive producerMike Radford

How to watch

Next showing

There are no live broadcasts scheduled for this show. But it is available via the streaming provider below.

Streaming

BBC iPlayer