Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's Escape to the Country - Humphry Repton

Laurence Llewelyn Bowen explores changing ideas about the countryside; how, in the last two centuries, we've seen the countryside shaped for personal aggrandisement, for moral improvement, for the reflection of a new industrial wealth, as the creation of an 'ideal' landscape, as a place of health and healing and as a refuge from (and comment on) the pace, nature and stress of contemporary urban life. Our tendency to idealise the countryside hasn't always reflected the reality of rural life, but it provides a fascinating glimpse into our dreams and fears as a society. In the first programme he turns to the work of the landscape gardener, Humphry Repton, who reinvented the countryside for our modern times. Producer: Kate Bland A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.