Joanna Lumley to visit Whitby and the Yorkshire Dales in new ITV travel series Home Sweet Home - Travels In My Own Land

The first episode of actress Joanna Lumley's new travel series - which airs tonight - will feature her visits to Bradford, Whitby and the Yorkshire Dales.

Lumley's ITV series Home Sweet Home - Travels In My Own Land sees her explore England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, starting from Tilbury Docks in Essex, where her family disembarked when they returned home from living in the Far East.

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A large segment of the first of the three episodes, which are broadcast on ITV at 8pm on Tuesdays, was filmed in Yorkshire.

Lumley spends time in Bradford, where she meets a group of Muslim women who have set up an allotment gardening project to combat loneliness. Five of them originally took on the 'ladies' allotment' on Scotchman Road, a former pig farm now owned by the city council, and they now occupy three plots and their membership includes 25 women from a range of ethnic backgrounds. They grow fruit and vegetables including chillis and Kashmiri spinach, and Lumley samples chutney and rhubarb cake made from the ingredients grown on the allotments, which the women refer to as their 'green gym'.

Joanna Lumley in the grounds of Whitby AbbeyJoanna Lumley in the grounds of Whitby Abbey
Joanna Lumley in the grounds of Whitby Abbey

She boards the Staycation Express train service for a ride over Ribblehead Viaduct on the scenic Settle to Carlisle railway line, alighting at Appleby Station.

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In the Yorkshire Dales, she meets Sheffield Environmental Movement member Maxwell Ayamba, who runs a walking group called Black Men Walk, and explores Malhamdale and Gordale Scar with him.

She then visits Whitby, which was one of her personal highlights of her odyssey, wandering the grounds of Whitby Abbey and making purchases in Elaine Horton's gothic shop, Pandemonium, during Whitby Goth Weekend.

Speaking about her experiences of Yorkshire, the former Bond girl said: "I think Whitby surprised me most. I was captivated by Whitby. There was something about the geography of it, that deep cleft and then this little town. Such a hard-working fishing town with the magnificent abbey.

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"In 664 there was the Synod of Whitby and it was the most important part of the country, London didn’t count for a bean back then. They were building this vast abbey and clerics were coming from all over the place. I never knew that and it just gives you a more respectful look at the country. So that amazed me, I loved being there, all those steps and then you’re suddenly in this tiny, crowded ancient port, and I thought, ‘If I was an American or a Canadian, or somebody who had never been to Britain before and then I came to Whitby, I’d be thrilled and think this is exactly what I wanted it to look like.

"I loved meeting the women in Bradford who had started an allotment. Some of them were finding some days a bit difficult because of their religion, meaning they can’t always do certain things and they don’t want to offend their faith, and so they came up with this this lovely little outdoor thing.

"And it isn’t just meeting up with people, but doing something good, growing stuff, which, as you know, heals you and makes you feel miles better. Being in the open air, seeing things happen, hearing birds and watching flowers come out. I loved their story. And the food they made was fabulous!"

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Lumley also added that she felt she could live anywhere in Britain happily - including Bradford or Leeds.

"Me and my husband have our cottage in Scotland and every time I’ve been to Liverpool, Bradford, Manchester, Leeds or down to Canterbury or Exeter, the university towns, where you know there are lots of libraries and books and maybe a theatre, I’ve always thought you don’t need the giant size of London to have the most brilliant life in Britain. I could live easily, anywhere. I could live in the Midlands, the North, the north-east, the north-west. Scotland, Ireland, Wales. Anywhere."

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