It's Not Easy Being Green

Released: 2006-03-28

Runtime: 30 minutes

Episode Overview

The family move into the house, and with the help of friends - beer guzzling students and local businesses, they plant crops, re-tile the roof and construct a wooden aqueduct from a stream to a water wheel, which it is hoped will provide enough energy to power the lights of the house.

Series Overview

It's Not Easy Being Green is a television series on BBC Two starring Dick Strawbridge and focusing on how to live an environmentally friendly, low impact life. To date there have been three series. Series one followed former Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Strawbridge, his wife Brigit, son James, and daughter Charlotte as they moved into Newhouse Farm, a 400-year-old listed building in Cornwall, England from Malvern, Worcestershire. The series documented the family's attempts to convert the building and garden into a comfortable yet entirely ecologically friendly place to live. The show was perhaps unique in that the family did not want great sacrifices in achieving their goal, and Dick Strawbridge said "I don't want to wear a hemp shirt and hairy knickers, I want a 21st-century lifestyle with a coffee machine". In the first series they received advice from permaculture expert Patrick Whitefield and green auditor Donnachadh McCarthy. They were also helped by friends Jim Milner and Anda Phillips as well as at points a small army of friends and relatives. A book entitled ‘It's Not Easy Being Green: One Family's Journey Towards Eco-Friendly Living’ ISBN 0-563-49346-1 by Dick Strawbridge was released to accompany the series and is still available to buy.