It's Christmas Eve and the Plodcast team of Hannah, Jack and Lewis have gathered at host Fergus' cottage on a farm in the Monmouthshire countryside. The fire is lit, the mulled wine is poured and guest Kevin Parr is about to deliver the infamous Plodcast Christmas Quiz. Plus, we take a look back at highlights from 2024.

So pour a drink, grab paper and pen, make yourself comfortable and join the festivities. And from all the team, have a wonderful and merry Christmas.

The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews.

Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs.

The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's nearly Christmas, and you've escaped the preparations and the bustle to find a moment's peace on a short walk to your local woodland. In a tangled copse, a stream sings merrily, its waters cold and clear.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The siege of Ludlow in Shropshire was one of the earliest skirmishes in the vicious 15th-century civil known as the Wars of the Roses. It was also home to Cecily, mother of two kings and protagonist of Annie Garthwaite’s celebrated novels about the period.

Podcast host Fergus Collins meets Annie at the gates of Ludlow Castle to hear tales of betrayal and bloodshed - and the important, little-told stories of the powerful women at the heart of the action.

Cecily and The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite are published by Penguin.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When snow falls, all other sounds recede. All you can hear is the soft pattering and gentle hiss of millions of snowflakes falling onto the track ahead of you. For once, you stop to listen, to really listen, to the song of snow.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet brothers Ben and Ethan who farm sheep and beef on the edge of Cardiff in harmony with nature. Annabel Ross is your host this week, learning how the farmers are making their land more welcoming to the local wildlife – and better for their livestock.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a cold night, the sun rises brightly in a brilliant blue sky. You take advantage, walking across the nearby fields, wellies swishing through the long, dewy grass. The low dawn light makes long shadows of your footprints.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we return to a summer Plodcast hosted and recorded by historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. Here Eleanor visits the National Forest, a project transforming 200 square miles of the Midlands from industrial landscape into wildlife-rich habitats.

Eleanor meets Stuart Dainton, head of land management and estates in the National Forest, who explains the importance of this incredible transformation. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio for listener messages and other nourishing nature chat.

Find out more about the National Forest at www.nationalforest.org

The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews.

Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Image by Getty

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a foggy, gloomy day on the hill and you've strayed into a quiet farmyard - quiet that is except for the mutterings of starlings. The gang's dark silhouettes are scattered across the rooftops of the cow shed and farmhouse. Their earthy conversations of whistles, rattles, whoops, cackles and chuckles helps dispel some of the heavy atmosphere.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus walks with campaigner Guy Shrubsole in the Chilterns' woodlands that inspired Roald Dahl's famous children's book: Danny Champion of the World.

And rather like Roald Dahl's characters, Guy uses the issue of pheasant shooting to challenge conventional ideas of how land is owned and managed in Britain today and suggests that things need to change if our wildlife and wild habitats are to survive.

Guy's book, The Lie of the Land is out now and is published by William Collins.

The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs.

The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the sun is setting over the Welsh coast, we’re sitting above a cleft in the cliffs. Rhythmically, the waves rush and recede in this open-roofed cave. The mist throws up the scent of salt and cold water. As the daylight fades, a blackbird scolds us to go home to bed.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a walk though the leafy suburbs of south Birmingham with historian Corinne Fowler.

Corinne's studies of how the British Empire impacted rural Britain and her report into how some National Trust properties are linked to slavery drew a chorus of protest from some quarters. Here she explains her work to Plodcast host Fergus Collins and reveals why an honest understanding of rural history is so important.

Corinne's book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain is published by Allen Lane

The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices