Dan & Helen's Pennine Adventure S01E01 - Episode 1

The adventure begins in The Peak District, Britain's first national park. From the stunning Bamford Edge, Dan and Helen survey The Pennine Way, stretching all the way to Scotland, and discuss The Kinder Trespass, in which defiant protesters won the right to roam.

In the village of Edale, the official gateway to The Pennines, Dan and Helen shear a sheep with third-generation farmer James Metcalfe. After a night under canvas, Dan goes rambling with Mosaic, a group encouraging people from ethnic minorities to access the peaks, then reunites with Helen to mine for Blue John, one of the rarest minerals on the planet.

They cycle along the stunning, serpentine Snake Pass, the first road through The Pennines, and Dan reveals how his recent bike accident saw him escape death by 50 centimetres. They travel to the valley where The Dam Busters trained for their game-changing World War II raid, and they venture out onto the beautiful Ladybower Reservoir in a pair of specially adapted lorry tyres to learn float fishing.

Finally, Dan and Helen become the first members of the public to canoe along Standedge, Britain's longest, deepest, and highest canal tunnel. Running from West Yorkshire to Greater Manchester, the 200-year-old tunnel is as spooky as it is historic, and Dan and Helen marvel at the audacity of hacking through a Pennine by hammer and chisel.

The friends reflect on the first stage of their adventure and conclude that the people of The Pennines are even more memorable than the landscapes.