It's Not Easy Being Green
It's Not Easy Being Green
TV ShowEnded

It's Not Easy Being Green

2006
3 seasons
23 episodes
Documentary

It's Not Easy Being Green is a television series on BBC Two starring Dick Strawbridge and focusing on how to live an environmentally friendly, low impact life. To date there have been three series. Series one followed former Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Strawbridge, his wife Brigit, son James, and daughter Charlotte as they moved into Newhouse Farm, a 400-year-old listed building in Cornwall, England from Malvern, Worcestershire. The series documented the family's attempts to convert the building and garden into a comfortable yet entirely ecologically friendly place to live. The show was perhaps unique in that the family did not want great sacrifices in achieving their goal, and Dick Strawbridge said "I don't want to wear a hemp shirt and hairy knickers, I want a 21st-century lifestyle with a coffee machine". In the first series they received advice from permaculture expert Patrick Whitefield and green auditor Donnachadh McCarthy. They were also helped by friends Jim Milner and Anda Phillips as well as at points a small army of friends and relatives. A book entitled ‘It's Not Easy Being Green: One Family's Journey Towards Eco-Friendly Living’ ISBN 0-563-49346-1 by Dick Strawbridge was released to accompany the series and is still available to buy.

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Cast

Seasons

  • Episode 1

    1.Episode 1

    28-03-200630m

    The family move into the house, and with the help of friends - beer guzzling students and local businesses, they plant crops, re-tile the roof and construct a wooden aqueduct from...

  • Episode 2

    2.Episode 2

    04-04-200630m

    A greenhouse is erected with a unique heatsink designed by Dick and made from recycled bottle glass to keep it warm, and the family acquire two pigs, ominously named 'Christmas' an...

  • Episode 3

    3.Episode 3

    11-04-200630m

    Dick attaches a generator to the water wheel that powers all the lights in the house and the family enjoys a bumper first harvest.

  • Episode 4

    4.Episode 4

    18-04-200630m

    A heating distribution system is installed to help spread the warmth from the efficient wood burning stoves to the rest of the house and to clear the house of damp. Dick and Jim ma...

  • Episode 5

    5.Episode 5

    02-05-200630m

    Winter is closing in, but the heating distribution system is not working as well as intended - the wood burners can't quite keep up with the cold Cornwall winds. The children are o...

  • Episode 6

    6.Episode 6

    09-05-200630m

    Both the heat sink and the water wheel have proven reliable. Dick installs a solar hot-water panel to complement the wood burners in the spring and autumn. December 28 arrives, and...

  • Episode 7

    7.Episode 7

    16-05-200630m

    A second wind turbine is erected, and a composting toilet is installed. Brigit gets into the cosmetics business by making her own moisturiser. Donnachadh McCarthy returns for a new...

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