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BBC sports presenter Clare Balding has filmed a series rediscovering Britain using Harold Briercliffe’s Cycling Touring Guides.
Briercliffe was the editor of Cycle Trader magazine in the 1960s and 1970s. This magazine – with 100 years of publishing heritage – was later absorbed by Cycle Industry magazine.
Balding rode Briercliffe’s own bike in an effort to encapsulate the 1940s and 1950s atmosphere of the guide books.
The six-part series will be shown on BBC Four, starting tonight at 20:30. It takes a cycle tour from Lynmouth to Ilfracombe via Little Switzerland.
The Lion TV-produced series PR reads: "Clare follows the wheeltracks of compulsive cyclist and author Harold Briercliffe whose evocative guide books of the late 1940s lovingly describe by-passed Britain – a world of unspoiled villages, Cycle Touring clubs and sunny B-Roads…
"Carrying a set of Harold’s Cycling Touring Guides for company – and riding his very own bicycle – Clare embarks on six iconic cycle rides to try and find the world he described. If it’s still there."
