This film is part of Free
A Hill, Some Sheep and a Living
A deft TV documentary portrait of the life of a shepherding family during lambing season in north-east Lancashire.
Overview
Part of the superb Granada series This England, this documentary takes a close look at both the hardships and pleasures of tenant farming for the extended Gill family of Pendle Hill, Lancashire. Lambing season requires constant hard work and there can be fatalities for both lamb and ewe, as some potentially upsetting scenes show. The practicalities of living and working on the hill are sharply drawn, but the stark beauty of the landscape also moves one family member to poetry.
Using a mixture of observational scenes and testimonies from the family, the programme is very much in the style associated with veteran documentary producer Norman Swallow and his frequent collaborator Denis Mitchell.
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