Featuring the evocative memories and unseen archive of generations of enthusiasts, Britain Goes Camping tells the intriguing story of how sleeping under canvas evolved from a leisure activity for a handful of adventurous Edwardian gents to the quintessentially British family pastime that it is today.

“I think the British camper has always been stoic, someone who has a wry smile and the ability to carry on in the face of adversity.”

Camping has been at the heart of our nation’s holidaymaking for a hundred years. Leaving our towns and cities behind, to sleep under canvas and to cook over a campfire, has been at the heart of British holidaymaking for over a hundred years.

Now Britain Goes Camping, a new documentary for BBC Four, tells the story of how camping evolved across the generations, inspired by a series of ingenious innovations and influenced by social and cultural change across the twentieth century.

“The story of camping in Britain is actually a revealing social history,” says the director of Britain Goes Camping, Brian Henry Martin of DoubleBand Films. “It charts a century of social and cultural change and our struggle to get away from the rules and regulations of modern life, to replace them – even for a short time – with a life under canvas.”

As the documentary explores, camping also gave British people the opportunity to escape our sprawling cities and to experience the simple pleasures of the British countryside. One such enthusiast who features in the documentary is 86 year-old Alec Law from Woolwich in London, who explains how camping offered the only affordable holiday for his family:

“I had eight sons and to take eight sons on holiday anywhere cost the earth but to take them into a field and to give them a tent, feed them on baked beans, fried eggs and bacon don’t cost a fortune,” says Alec.

“Britain Goes Camping explores how camping has changed across the generations,” says Brian Henry Martin. “But it also shows how the appeal and challenges of camping have remained largely the same over the years. It has always been a story of adventure, resourcefulness, adversity in the face of the British weather, strange gadgets – and tinned meat.”

In addition to Alec Law, contributors to Britain Goes Camping include:

Stephanie Hilhouse from Uxbridge – who explains how her first foreign camping trip, aged thirteen with her family back in the 1930s led to a bizarre encounter with Nazi Germany.

Novelist and actress Emma Kennedy who reveals the many curious experiences of her first foreign holiday under canvas, a camping trip to the seductive south of France in the 1970’s.

Dixe Wils, a camping enthusiast from London, who enjoys wild camping in Britain all year round, whatever the weather. Dixe takes us on his most recent winter camping trip in the Welsh Mountains with below zero temperatures and Arctic conditions.

Britian Goes Camping

A DoubleBand production for the BBC.

Executive Producer – Michael Hewitt

Produced by Diarmuid Lavery

Directed by Brian Henry Martin