Abroad in Britain Season 1

Season 1

Series in which Jonathan Meades considers unusual homes or architecture around Britain.

Air date: 1990-10-29

Episodes: 5

Episodes

E1: Severn Heaven

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.

Air date: 1990-10-29

E2: Right is Wrong

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.

Air date: 1990-11-05

E3: House Ahoy

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

Air date: 1990-11-12

E4: Brick and Mortars

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

Air date: 1990-11-26

E5: In Search of Bohemia

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.

Air date: 1990-12-03