What’s it like living next door to Britain’s most notorious rewilder? The new movie, Derek vs Derek investigates.
In this programme Ffinlo Costain meets the two Dereks – rewilder, Derek Gow, and dairy farmer, Derek Banbury – alongside the film’s director James Dawson.
Listen on your preferred podcast platform – search Farm Gate wherever you get your podcasts.
A special bonus episode ahead of the official relaunch of This Might Just Work: Ideas for a Tired Planet in January.
Rob chats with filmmaker James Dawson, director of Derek vs Derek, a documentary built around an unlikely pairing: two neighbouring farmers with very different views on what the countryside is for. On one side is Derek Gow, a maverick rewilder in Devon digging ponds, reintroducing species, and letting nature get noisy again. Over the hedge is Derek Banbury, an arable farmer focused on food production, tight margins, and the reality of making a living from the land.
They disagree, sometimes spectacularly (wild boar and beavers included), but they do not hate each other. Which makes this film feel like a rare thing: a genuinely human conversation in a polarised debate.
