Rural Life

When Brid Harcus is sent to the Orkney Islands, in the far reaches of Scotland, she has high hopes for her trip being short, straightforward and lucrative. Her mother has inherited a cottage from her Great Aunt Jennet which has been unlived in and unloved for decades, and the time has come to make it habitable and saleable. Easy, right? But Midness Cottage has other ideas. For one thing it’s rather more ‘fixer upper’ than Country Living. And Brid definitely hadn’t planned for the strongly held local belief that the cottage is meant to be the home of the Orkney Witch.

Maggie and Liz may be sisters (and yes, named after a pair of much more famous siblings) but that's about all they have in common. Maggie is a free spirit - travelling the world, flitting through life and relationships without ever really having to connect. Liz, meanwhile, is the lynchpin of Little Martin village society and determined to be the perfect wife, mother and homemaker - even if she does live in a new build. When Liz and Maggie's beloved grandmother, Queen Vic, dies in a characteristically flamboyant fashion, they are left to deal with the aftermath - inheriting the family home.

Edward Jenkins dreams of opening a sports shop in the Welsh town of Pendragon Island. Then his ambitions become a possibility through his and his sister Margaret's inheritance, but Margaret has plans of her own. Can Edward stand up to her for the very first time? Rhiannon and Charlie Bevan want to start a family, but her father Lewis is living with them, refusing to accept the happiness of their marriage. If only they could find a way to reunite him with her mother Dora, they could finally have the home they've dreamed of.

When Maisie Vasey leaves her husband and brings her daughter to live on Pendragon Island, she causes unrest within more than one family. Underneath the happy surface of this Welsh seaside town, relationships can seem fragile and easily destroyed. When Maisie comes to work for Edward Jenkins at Montague Court, he soon makes his intentions clear, but she has very different ideas about where their friendship is heading. Lewis and his fiery wife Dora continue to row with each other, even though they both know that love still binds them together.

Janet and Hywel Griffiths dream of seeing their son Frank happily married, but Mair, the daughter of the local police constable, does not seem to be the wisest choice. And anyway, she is far more interested in the secretive Carl Rees, who refuses to even be seen with her in public. Elsewhere in Pendragon Island, Jennie Francis must rethink her life as she is forced to say goodbye to her business and her marriage. All she ever wanted was to run a successful shop, but now she will have to start again. How can she manage if she is completely alone?

Poachers and dealmakers, the Griffiths family have always managed to scrape by on the edge of the law. As rationing finally draws to an end, the tight-knit community finds itself coming to terms with a new world in which social boundaries are being eroded and opportunities are growing for all. Heartache remains a constant though, with Caroline Griffiths trapped in a sham marriage to Barry Martin, and Rhiannon Lewis still mourning their broken engagement.

The summers spent at Roseland, the sprawling ancestral home of her best friend, Eloise, were among the happiest of Cathy's life. Tucked away on the Cornish coastline and brimming with history, Roseland seemed to belong to another century. Cathy has barely been back since Eloise's death a decade ago. So she is shocked when Jack, the love of Eloise's life and father of her children, announces that he is getting married, and that the wedding will take place at Roseland.

Pendragon Island is the perfect place for holidays, with a stretch of clean golden sand and a glorious funfair nearby. Yet for one local family, the happy holiday atmosphere risks becoming a cruel joke, as the unusually named Lewis Lewis's affair with close friend Nia Martin threatens to tear his marriage apart. The irritation of Lewis's wife Dora is channelled towards their daughter, Rhiannon, who works at Nia's sweet shop, Temptations.

Anna and Matt Butler were childhood sweethearts with a dream of owning their own land, a dream they achieved through hard work and determination. But as the seasons conspire against them and Matt is involved in a terrible accident, the couple face financial ruin and the loss of their farm. As they fight for everything they hold dear, they suddenly find themselves caught up in events much bigger and more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

Gordon and Maxine's dreams of a blissful life of gardening, pub lunches and quiet retirement in the charming market town of Little Woodford are ruined when three very demanding members of their family come home. First up is daughter Abi and her unassuming partner Marcus. Abi is determined to move back to Little Woodford and only the perfect house will do. What could be better than parking with Mum and Dad, while she drives local estate agents and builders mad? Then comes Judith, Maxine's high-flying sister. A crisis has driven her, sobbing, to Little Woodford.

For Eve Nicholls, walking up the driveway of her childhood home stirs up a whirlwind of emotion. The horses she loved still dot the paddocks, but the house is empty and the silence allows the past to come flooding back. She’s glad to have her best friend Banjo the kelpie with her, along with a bottle of bourbon. Her plan is simple – sell the farm, grab the cash and get the hell out. Within days of her return, Eve runs into all the people she hoped to avoid: the uncle who can't forgive, the ex who moved on, and the best friend he moved on with.

After the untimely death of their biological father, triplets Eva, Rosa and Hannah find themselves the unlikely owners of Heatherly Hall, the vast manor house overlooking their home village of Westenbury. But the beautiful house comes with almost as much baggage as it does land, not least high running costs and expectations. It's up to the sisters to find a way to keep Heatherly Hall going and, most importantly, in the family. But with drama in their private lives and secrets about to emerge, can the sisters stick together to focus on the task at hand?

Long before fracking ever came to Minden, Pennsylvania, the fissures in the Pierson family were developing into major fault lines. Green Energy arrives, offering the rural community of Minden the dream of making more money from their land by leasing natural gas rights for drilling. But orchardist, Jack Pierson, fears his brother, Wade, who now works for Green Energy, has returned to town after a twenty-year absence so desperate to be the hero that he'll blind their hometown to the potential dangers.

When Frank Woods at number 79 Primrose Square comes home to a surprise birthday party thrown by his wife and adoring children, it is his guests who get the real surprise. Finding himself alone, he befriends the cantankerous Miss Hardcastle, who hasn't left her home for decades, and Emily Dunne - fresh out of rehab and desperate to make amends. As gossip spreads through Primrose Square, every relationship is tested, and nothing in this close-knit community will ever be the same again....

Eine herzzerreißende Entscheidung - zwischen deiner Liebe und deiner Familie. Der 25-jährige Colby bewirtschaftet eine Farm in North Carolina. Bei einem Urlaub lernt er die Sängerin Morgan kennen. Sie verbringen eine wunderschöne Zeit miteinander – und wissen doch, dass sie bald in kaum miteinander vereinbare Welten zurückkehren müssen. Zeitgleich flüchtet eine Frau namens Beverly vor ihrem gewalttätigen Ehemann. Gemeinsam mit ihrem kleinen Sohn reist sie quer durch Amerika. Schließlich findet sie Unterschlupf in einem heruntergekommenen Haus in der Provinz.

Eine herzzerreißende Entscheidung - zwischen deiner Liebe und deiner Familie. Der 25-jährige Colby bewirtschaftet eine Farm in North Carolina. Bei einem Urlaub lernt er die Sängerin Morgan kennen. Sie verbringen eine wunderschöne Zeit miteinander – und wissen doch, dass sie bald in kaum miteinander vereinbare Welten zurückkehren müssen. Zeitgleich flüchtet eine Frau namens Beverly vor ihrem gewalttätigen Ehemann. Gemeinsam mit ihrem kleinen Sohn reist sie quer durch Amerika. Schließlich findet sie Unterschlupf in einem heruntergekommenen Haus in der Provinz.

Great Grimsby, 1912. After the death of his father and brother, newlywed fisherman Alec Hardy decides to make a fresh start with his young wife Letty and move from Lowestoft to the thriving fishing port of Grimsby in search of a brighter future. Young Letty is from farming stock and knows nothing of the hard life as a fishermen’s wife but is willing to leave behind her warm hearted and loving family and embrace the challenge. But where Alec goes, so does his widowed mother, Carrie and she has yet to come to terms with taking second place in her son’s life.

When Sky Terran returns to the village of Middledip after losing the job she loves, she anticipates a quiet Christmas getting used to her new life. However, the annual street decoration competition is coming up and this year, the residents of Winter Street are determined to win. As she is pulled into the preparations, Sky quickly grows to love the quirky, tight-knit community she is now part of. Including the extremely handsome Daz, who soon becomes more than just a friendly neighbour.

Tilly is overjoyed when an estranged relative comes to Heritage Cove wanting to make amends. But as she lets him in to her life and Tilly’s Bits ‘n’ Pieces—the shop she owns and loves—her friends aren’t so sure whether everything is quite as it seems. Benjamin’s parents run Mistletoe Gate Farm, selling Christmas trees, wreaths and mistletoe. Benjamin and Tilly have been falling for one another since the summer but will family complications put an abrupt stop to what is looking like a burgeoning romance?

Set in the bucolic town of Angie, Louisiana, The Lord’s Acre tells the story of Eli Woodbine, a young boy who watches helplessly as his fundamentalist parents give in to their increasing sense of desperation and paranoia, living in a world where they can no longer see any hope or reason for existing. When the family is at their absolute lowest, they come across a local, charismatic church leader, in whom they quickly place all of their faith. Yet this man—known to them only as “Father”—is unlike anyone they have ever encountered before.