Countryfile: Anita's East Coast Road Trip: Mersea Island


7:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Sunday, July 12 on BBC Two England (2)

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About this Broadcast

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Anita's East Coast Road Trip: Mersea Island
Season 2026, Episode 1

Next stop on Anita Rani's east coast road trip is West Mersea in Essex, where oysters have been harvested for more than 2,000 years, cultivated in the creeks around Mersea Island. Anita heads onto the brackish waters to meet the people farming oysters and talks to a team investigating how the non-native Atlantic rock oyster is affecting the local ecosystem, and whether it could play a role in helping coastal habitats respond to rising sea levels. Along the way, Anita looks back through the Countryfile archives at the people and projects shaping life around the coastline


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Education/Science/Factual Topics Nature/Animals/Environment Rural/Agricultural

Cast & Crew

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Anita Rani (Presenter)
Matt Baker (Presenter)
John Craven (Presenter)
Charlotte Smith (Presenter)
Joe Crowley (Presenter)
Mark Beech (Series editor)
Becky Pratt (Series producer)

More Information

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Did You Know..

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Anita Rani (Presenter)
Born: October 25, 1977 in Bradford
Best Known For: Various presenting roles.
Early-life: Born Ahita Rahi Nazran in Bradford on October 25, 1977. Anita enjoyed an early taste of broadcasting when she hosted her own show on Sunrise Radio at the age of 14. She went on to attend the University of Leeds before landing work as a TV researcher for the BBC and various independent TV companies.
Career: Rani soon began to make a name for herself in front of the camera on shows such as The Edit on Channel 5, The State We're In and Poetry Slam on BBC Three and Desi DNA on BBC Two. In 2005, she was a regular reporter on The Cricket Show on Channel 4 and a year later, she co-presented Cricket AM on Sky Sports. In 2009, she began co-presenting Watchdog on BBC One. She took on the role of presenting Four Rooms on Channel 4 in 2011. She has also collaborated with Justin Rowlatt on the documentary travelogues India on Four Wheels, China on Four Wheels and Russia on Four Wheels. In August 2015, it was announced that she would be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.
Quote: 'To get to experience a different country in any way is a pleasure and privilege.'
Trivia: In 2012, Rani won the BBC's Great Sport Relief Bake Off.
Matt Baker (Presenter)
Born: December 23, 1977 in Easington, County Durham
Best Known For: Blue Peter, The One Show and Countryfile.
Early-life: Matthew James Baker was born in Easington, County Durham, on December 23, 1977. He grew up on his family's sheep farm and developed a love of the countryside and animals. He was obsessed with gymnastics as a youngster and was told he had enough ability to compete at a high level but he was forced to give up the sport after being diagnosed with anaemia aged 14. He went on to study drama at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh.
Career: In the late 1990s, Baker toured around the north of England with a 1970s comedy disco-dancing revival show called Disco Inferno. He did freestyle routines with back flips and juggled wooden clubs. After finding out that Blue Peter were looking for a new presenter, he sent the BBC a showreel and managed to secure an interview. During his seven years as a Blue Peter presenter, he won two Baftas for Best Children's Presenter. He left the show in 2006 and went on to co-present Countryfile Summer Diaries, Open Country, Animal Squad, Countryfile, Secret Britain and One Man and His Dog. After a stint as a guest presenter on The One Show, he became a permanent host alongside Alex Jones in early 2011. He participated in Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, partnering professional dancer Aliona Vilani, and finished runner-up.
Quote: 'If you dedicate yourself to something, you get a result. That's a formula I've stuck to all my life.'
Trivia: He raised more than £1.9million for Children in Need in 2012 when he travelled around the country in a rickshaw. Wed childhood sweetheart Nicola Mooney in 2004. They have two children, Luke and Molly.
John Craven (Presenter)
Born: August 16, 1940 in Leeds
Best Known For: John Craven's Newsround and Countryfile.
Early-life: Born in Leeds on August 16, 1940, and was educated at Leeds Modern School; other famous pupils include playwright Alan Bennett and actor Bob Peck. Craven started his professional life in print journalism as a junior reporter on the Harrogate Advertiser before working for the Yorkshire Post and as a freelance correspondent and writer for national newspapers. He joined the BBC staff in Newcastle upon Tyne, to work on local radio and TV, before moving to the BBC in Bristol.
Career: From 1972 he was the eponymous host of a regular children's news programme, Newsround, often called John Craven's Newsround. The first such programme ever produced by British TV, it drew on the full journalistic resources of the BBC, and featured a number of news scoops, it being the first news programme of the day on TV during its early years. In 1989 he left the Newsround programme and began to present what was then the BBC's new rural affairs programme, Countryfile; although no longer its main presenter, he remains a fixture on the show.
Quote: 'The reality is that country people now have to fight to keep the things that once were taken for granted.'
Trivia: He was awarded an OBE in 2000.
Charlotte Smith (Presenter)
Joe Crowley (Presenter)
Mark Beech (Series editor)
Becky Pratt (Series producer)

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