James Dawson, BAFTA winning Director
“Five years ago, I realised that the countryside was becoming central to the conflict around the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. I felt it was undervalued as a focus for films. And not properly understood. So I went in search of a story that would allow this conflict to be explored in real time. And yet wouldn’t easily drop into the cliches that seems to dominate so much of the debate in our polarised world.
When I found the two Dereks I knew they were a great way of crafting a story that could tease out the underlying issues in a funny and engaging way.
My hope is their story will at turns amuse, entertain and provoke audiences to think about the difficult questions the film poses and to catalyse tangible change for farmers and for nature.”
Often described by the press as ‘a maverick’ Derek Gow is a leading advocate for reintroducing endangered native species back into Britain. A former farmer turned nature conservationist.
Over thirty years Derek has been fundamental in bringing beavers back to our waterways. Because of his work, the law is about to change to allow more introductions.
Derek’s passion for animals started when he was given a Shetland ewe as a teenager. He started rearing a flock whilst working in the cattle market of his home town of Biggar on the Scottish borders.
Inspired by Gerald Durrell’s vision of captive breeding endangered species, Derek worked in zoos and wildlife conservation projects until - depressed by the slow pace of change - he bought the Devon farm in 2002 to return to his first love of sheep (all the while campaigning for beaver reintroduction).
Twenty years later he’s combining his animal husbandry skills with his farming knowledge to create a massive farm-scale conservation project.
Sitting on four hundred acres to the north of Derek Gow’s Ark project is Frankaborough farm owned by the Banbury family. Three generations live and work the land. Its patriarch is 69 year old Derek Banbury.
Wild animals running amok is not something any of the Banbury’s are happy about and Derek is the most anxious of all. Since he left school at 16 to help his father he’s grown the business into what is now an intensive dairy farm.
He’s watched aghast as a once productive farm is in his view “laid to waste”. Wild boar escaping and digging up his fields is bad enough, Beavers flooding fields is frightening. Now Gow wants to realise his white storks and the mole crickets he’s been breeding and tells him they’re going to end up on his farm.