The Lakes unzipped

Anyone caught Rory McGrath’s new TV series giving the inside story on the Lakes? Too often, the Lake District is presented in picture postcard terms. That’s okay for tourism but it’s not great for the people who live here. We know there’s more to this place than another romantic vista snapped from a car window. What about its inhabitants? The farmers? The people who live here 24/7 365 days per year?

Keswick town centre
Photo courtesy of magnusfranklin

So it’s good to see TV tackling a more fly-on-the-wall look at the Lakes. Following in the footsteps of Millican Dalton, the series also looks set to introduce some great local, eccentric characters.

Of course, it’s not a new idea, unzipping the Lake District and freeing it from the mothballs of Romantic poetry. Ten years ago, crack Liverpudlian TV writer, Jimmy McGovern, penned a drama series called The Lakes. Fans of John Simm, Dr Who’s recent nemesis as The Master, may remember that this was the series which first catapulted Simm to fame. Okay, with its lurid melodramatic plot lines and steamy sex scenes, it may have been a somewhat in-yer-face way of de-romanticising the Lakes. But at least it showed that the inhabitants are a many and varied breed! Not simply living their lives on hold until another tourist summer comes round.

When we started Millican, we chose to name our different bags after our friends in this area. This came from a similar desire – to use their true life stories to show another side of life in the Lakes. We wanted to celebrate our motley bunch of local friends, all of whom are busily getting on with their lives but who are also an essential part of the life we’ve made since moving from the city to Keswick.

Dave on his land by the Tewit Tarn, Burns Farm

So in our own homage to both these documentary and drama TV series, about the Lakes, we’re going to be trailing some of these friends in the coming months on this blog. As we move into Spring and the start of the new farming calendar, we’ll be following our mate, Dave, as he tends to his cattle and sheep farm, attends auctions, and deals with the lambing season, all the time running a busy camping and caravanning site with his wife and family.

And to break the myth that the Lakes are about sleepy rural life, we’ll be dropping in on Mark, urban man par excellence in Keswick. Mark owns Keswick Collectables, a shop with an eclectic collection of antiques, books and vinyls. Mark is the joker in our pack of friends, always guaranteed to attract the “nutter on the bus” as he goes on his travels. Mark will be regaling with some of his stories about these meetings, besides offering his wise advice on the vinyl of the week. Roll over, William Wordsworth.

Mark with Mark outside his shop, Keswick Collectables

As we’re also in the process of developing new products, hopefully for release late Spring, we’ll be introducing further new namesake friends and adding to our gallery of rogues on the Millican website. Heck, maybe Jimmy McGovern will even pen a new drama about the couple running a local company and their steamy love affair with vintage bags.