Alison learns how to extract orchid essence, visits a unique fish farm, meets a bee keeper and sinks a few drams on beautiful Gigha, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay in Scotland's Inner Hebrides
Britain is made up of over 6000 islands and 267 of them are inhabited. Acclaimed film actress Alison Steadman OBE has always been fascinated with idyllic island life since holidaying on the Isle of Man as a little girl. In this series she celebrates the wild remote beauty under our noses and meets the people who call these hidden jewels their home, to discover what island life is really like. At their closest point, the Channel Islands lie just eight miles from France. Alison wants to know how they're holding onto their unique identity in a changing world.
Alison's trip around some of the many smaller islands that surround mainland Britain concludes with a visit to the Isles of Scilly. Her attention falls on Tresco, Bryher, St Martins and St Agnes, collectively known as the Off Islands, where she discovers a Robinson Crusoe-style desert island, and one of the finest examples of a sub-tropical garden in the northern hemisphere. She also gets some hands-on experience at one of the world's smallest working dairy farms, and reveals how the tourist-friendly locals have found inventive ways to maintain their slice of island life.