The Cotswolds has a lot to be famous for, best kept villages in every direction, picture postcard landscapes criss-crossed with crumbling stone walls, and celebrities ad-infinitum!

But there’s far more interesting things going on, if you just look a little closer…

The Wild Cotswolds is where the drama is really at!

Otter, badger, fox and owl, mole, water rat, dormouse and weasel to name a few, make their home in the ancient beech woods and water meadows, flower rich pastures and miles of hidden canals of the Cotswolds hills. From the River Thames in Oxfordshire, to the dramatic escarpment above the Severn Valley, this might be the most charming place in England, but it’s also the most fun!

As the seasons pass before our eyes, the lives of these little creatures play out, and we follow them closely as they fight for survival beneath the noses of their human neighbours. As the animals lives unfold, the people go about their business too, traditional farmers with Cotswold dialects, modern rewilders, river keepers, artists, foragers and crafters, all deeply connected with this landscape, they show us the ways of the real Cotswold people.

This series is a beautiful mix of the finest British wildlife favourites, alongside some surprising human stories. As time passes we come to realise that this most ancient and traditional of landscapes will have to change eventually, but for now it remains wild and free…

Nearly ten years of filming these iconic animals is finally coming together, in the most detailed and comprehensive wildlife series on The Cotswolds that we’ve ever seen.

With interest in the middle of Southern England sky rocketing recently, we felt it was time to show the world where the real drama is happening! As the animals fight their way through the seasons, stealing, scrapping, falling in love, suffering sadness, having (sometimes rather too many!) babies and trying to find and keep their place in the world, the bluebells rise, the meadows hum, the leaves fall and snow freezes the landscape in the way it’s all been done for centuries.

By spending time out in the countryside, we realise that animals and people are more closely connected than we might think.. Owls use old stone barns to raise their young, harvest mice depend on farmers leaving them long grass to weave nests in, otters raid the trout farms at Bibury, and watervoles move in to a new wetland just outside of Stroud. Stone circles still track the relentless passing of time, and artists try to capture the beauty of the landscape, lunatics chase cheese down deadly slopes, pagans reenact old rituals and progress struggles to find it’s way into the last nooks and crannies of the hillsides.

Each season could fill it’s own series, but we’ll squeeze the highlights into one episode for each!