Press Release

The Trees That Made Britain

Series Two

The first series of the quirky series The Trees That Made Britain made unlikely stars of Kew's tree men Tony Kirkham and Jon Hammerton. Now they are back for a second run.

Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is responsible for 14,000 trees. Last year (in the first series), together with his best climber Jon Hammerton, Tony went on a year long journey to all corners of the country to discover how trees shaped Britain. This year the Kew boys are off again, but this time Tony is determined to bring the story bang up to date. In an age of steel and plastic, do we still need the Trees That Made Britain?

“This time it feels personal” says Tony “I want to see what is happening with trees today. I want to find out how we are using them – what they are doing for us – and whether we still have a place for them.”

Tony is a northerner in his forties and Jon is a wiry Londoner in his thirties. Tony and Jon are enthusiasts, passionate about trees, childishly competitive and always up for a laugh. The series is engaging, deeply felt, informative and funny.

Jon is again very hands on with the trees “I'm always saying ‘get me in them trees', the higher, the better. When I am in the top of a massive tree, it's my world and you can look down on everything…”

The new six part series sees Tony and Jon meeting some amazing trees, trying their hands at driving the massive super-machines that work modern forests, training with the army in a forest, rowing to an island to save a tree under threat and asking the question “Can trees save the world”.

Tony and Jon discover the vibrant role that trees are still playing. They journey from Sweden where a town is powered by trees, to Scotland where husky dog sledding in the forest is a top leisure pursuit. They get scientific as they ‘count' carbon cycles with leading experts and meet a variety of people across Britain from passionate tree-fighters who are saving their trees for future generations.

This is a passionate, often funny series from two of TVs most unlikely stars.

The Trees That Made Britain 2

BBC2

Fridays 7.30

From September

For DVD requests please contact:

Emily Douglas: emily.douglas@bbc.co.uk or call 029 20 322048

High resolution images can be downloaded from www.kew.org/press/images . Please contact the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew press office for a username and password pr@kew.org / 020 8332 5607.

For any other enquiries please contact:

Mish Evans mish.evans@bbc.co.uk or call 07870 398555 or 029 20 322876

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