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During World War Two, Dartmoor was the site of countless tragic plane crashes and this wild and unpredictable landscape hasn’t easily given up its secrets. But former RAF police officer John Lowe has adopted one particular crash site, making it his mission to discover and retell the victims’ stories. Matt Baker meets John at the memorial to the four men who lost their lives in 1941. He then gets an emotional insight when a relative of the navigator, Richard Ellis, reveals a scrapbook made by his mother. Matt then teams up with Ross Dean, who is surveying the crash site with special equipment, to find out where the main impact happened and what the cause of the tragedy could have been.

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The River Dart has its source in the soil of Dartmoor. Thousand-year-old rain seeps from the peat before carving its way across South Devon to reach the sea. Halfway along its journey it flows through the town of Totnes. Anita Rani meets Alarik Greenland who is an artist born and bred in the area. He sculpts trees by intricately weaving up to a mile of metal wire and many thousand semi-precious gems. His inspiration is the relationship between trees and the relics of human architecture. Anita attempts to weave her own metal branch in the ruins of the 15th Century Berry Pomeroy Castle. There’s one final ingredient to Alarik’s sculptures, something which may have lain hidden for hundreds of years. To track that down Anita must go face first into the River Dart!

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There are more than one and a half million second homes in the UK and, in popular areas like Cornwall, as many as 2 in 5 houses are holiday retreats. But is this a good thing? Charlotte Smith meets local residents who say they cannot afford to stay in the area where they grew up because second homeowners have dramatically increased house prices. However for many local tradesmen the income that comes from second homeowners, especially in the summer months, is a vital part of their business. So is there a way of keeping everyone happy?

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Dartmoor is vulnerable to extremes of weather, making farming an unpredictable and challenging business. Matt meets three generations of the Retallick family, who have a long tradition of farming on Dartmoor. They are among fifty Dartmoor farmers who have formed a co-operative. Ed Williams, one of the co-operative’s directors, explains how he and others were inspired to create their own after witnessing a hill-farming co-op in action in the Swiss Alps. Matt then hops onto a Dartmoor pony to help the Retallick family round up cattle which need moving to a lower pasture. Anita opts for a different kind of horse-power as she joins Ed to assist with the round-up.

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As the prestigious One Man and His Dog competition edges ever nearer, Helen Skelton travels to Lancashire to meet this year’s English contestants, whilst Shauna Lowry visits counties Donegal and Kilkenny to see whether the Irish team has what it takes to retain the title. Next week, the most skilful senior and young handlers, alongside their incredible sheepdogs, will meet in Yorkshire to determine the team that will bring home the trophy in 2014.

Anita is at the Dartington Hall Estate in South Devon to find out about a project which is giving former offenders the opportunity to do work-based training and engage with the rural environment. Anita meets Chris Parsons who set up the project and explains why he was inspired to do something. Almost 46% of prisoners re-offend within the first year but, at the LandWorks project, Chris is hoping that through gaining new skills, experiencing the satisfaction of a hard day’s work and physically engaging with the countryside, the trainees will go on to find work within the community, and not reoffend.Ìý

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