Full Steam Ahead

About this Broadcast

Season 1, Episode 3

The historians reveal how the railways transformed the British diet, rescuing a nation that was struggling to feed itself. Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn discover how the mass transportation of livestock gave birth to the traditional British roast, and Ruth Goodman is in Whitby, which became a thriving fishing town thanks to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway supplying its kippers. Plus, Hampshire's watercress line, which brought nutritional salad to the masses, and how the use of steam-powered engines revolutionised production at Britain's oldest brewery

Education/Science/Factual Topics History

Cast & Crew

Ruth Goodman (Presenter)

Alex Langlands (Presenter)

Peter Ginn (Presenter)

Chris Mitchell (Director)

Nick Catliff (Executive producer)

Emma Randle-Caprez (Producer)

Georgina Stewart (Producer)

More Information

Did You Know..

Ruth Goodman (Presenter)

Best Known For: Victorian Farm.

Early-life: Ruth was born in 1963. She made her TV debut in Tales from the Green Valley, which saw her spending a year reconstructing and maintaining a 17th-century farm with archaeologists Peter Ginn and Alex Langlands.

Career: In 2009, Goodman was part of a team that recreated everyday life on a small farm in Shropshire in the mid-19th century in popular BBC series Victorian Farm. Her other TV projects on similar lines include Edwardian Farm, Tudor Monastery Farm and Wartime Farm. She has also presented Coast and 24 Hours in the Past. Away from her TV work, Goodman works with a range of institutions and museums such as The Weald and Downland, The Globe Theatre, and the National Trust.

Quote: 'We matter. How our ancestors - ordinary men, women and children - solved the nitty gritty problems of everyday life made the world what it is today.'

Trivia: In 2012, Goodman was awarded an Honorary Degree from Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln.