Lives In A Landscape

Alan Dein goes to Boston, Lincolnshire to explore the simmering tensions caused by a large influx of migrant workers from Eastern Europe. On arriving in this traditional market town dominated by its vast church known locally as the Stump, Alan hears rumours of escalating crime, homelessness and enforced repatriations. Migration is without doubt the number one issue here - the population of this market town has swollen dramatically since the expansion of the EU, with workers drawn by the ready supply of agricultural work. Alan talks to Bostonians and migrant workers alike. He witnesses for himself the troubles in the town on a Saturday night, attempting to build up a balanced picture of the truth behind the rumours. Producer: Laurence Grissell.

In a 1930s art deco building on an industrial site in Edinburgh's Craigmillar estate, a group of evangelical travellers meets every Sunday and Thursday in the Life and Light church. Alan Dein meets Violet and other members of the church as they mingle with former heroin addicts, and joins them and Pastor Alister as they go 'witnessing' on Craigmillar. Once a thriving community, today Craigmillar lies two thirds empty, with promised re-development on hold. For the last twenty years Craigmillar has been in a constant state of flux as one housing project after another has been flattened and entire neighbourhoods moved from one end of the estate to the other. In contrast, the travellers' site has been isolated from Craigmillar's ever changing landscape. Through their church they have created a bubble in which to live. It's a small pocket of life, pretty much self contained and contrasts greatly with the fragmented estate next door. Venturing into the heart of a housing scheme rife, so say the travellers, wit

The village of Woodhouses is half-rural, half-suburban idyll. It has two pubs, a bowling green, a working men's club, a golf course and a thriving cricket club. Just ten minutes from the heart of Manchester, the village is full of excitement and anticipation because, as Alan Dein discovers, it's just won the semi-final of the 2011 Village Cricket Cup; the final - at Lords - is only a few weeks away. However this proud Lancashire cricketing village, once home to quarter of a million pigs, suddenly finds itself part of a broader national debate about Britain's threatened countryside, because Woodhouses is today in real danger of being consumed by bricks and concrete. Although the very, very smelly pigs have all but gone, a handful of horses remain, keeping the builders at bay. But how long will Woodhouses remain a village? Will the bowling green become a car park as the rumour has it? If the building does not stop will Woodhouses be eligible to enter the National Village cup? The future could be up to a few h

"Ten years work gone in one night". On Monday, 8th August, 2011, Siva's shop, "The Clarence Convenience Store" in the heart of Hackney, London, fell prey to looters during the riots that swept UK city centres. A Tamil refugee, Siva had spent a decade building up the small shop in Clarence Road, which was destined, one hot summer night, to become the 'front-line' in a battle between police and rioters. Over the days and weeks that followed, presenter Alan Dein talked to Siva and others affected by the turmoil in this area of north London, for this Sony nominated "Lives in a Landscape". Immediately after the attack, pictures of Siva's shop, a whirlwind of wreckage created by a dark carnival of looters, were circulated across the globe by social media. Siva was left devastated - his was no chain store selling trainers or electrical goods. This was a small business, with no contents insurance. Bewildered by the attack, he was left wondering how he'd ever get his life and business back together. But locals,