The fourth edition of the Tyne Tees Television produced travelogue Tour's series transmitted 31st October 1972 in which Charlotte Allen and Kenneth Cope travel around County Durham exploring what the county has to offer. The programme features the lions of Lambton Lion Park, the majestic High Force waterfall in Upper Teesdale and the recently opened Beamish Museum inside Beamish Hall. Charlotte and Kenneth also travel to Durham to attend that years graduation ceremony for students of...

The fourth edition of the Tyne Tees Television produced travelogue Tour's series transmitted 31st October 1972 in which Charlotte Allen and Kenneth Cope travel around County Durham exploring what the county has to offer. The programme features the lions of Lambton Lion Park, the majestic High Force waterfall in Upper Teesdale and the recently opened Beamish Museum inside Beamish Hall. Charlotte and Kenneth also travel to Durham to attend that years graduation ceremony for students of Durham University as well as a wild-west themed restaurant set up in rural Weardale. In the distance Penshaw Monument in what was at the time of production part of County Durham with presenters Charlotte Allen and Kenneth Cope climbing towards it. The two wonder around the monument built in the style of an ancient Greek temple, the stones blackened by years of dirt. They talk about its history and prevenance of the monument built by John George Lambton and his connection to Canada from where Charlotte originates. Leaning against one of the columns Kenneth asks Charlotte why they are exploring County Durham as it has nothing to offer but shipyards, coal mines and ‘grotty back streets’. Charlotte explains that this isn’t true with the county having some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. As she speaks a coal mine in the distance and the back alley of a terraced street. Hand-in-hand Kenneth and Charlotte race down the hillside away from the monument with Charlotte promising Kenneth he won’t see another industrial site. She explains to Kenneth the legend of the ‘mythical Geordie beasty’ known as the Lambton Worm, which is believed to have lived on this site, Kenneth looks worried but dismisses the story. Two male lions resting on the ground at Lambton Lion Park near Chester-le-Street. Kenneth drives a distinctly stripped Land Rover to a gate leading into an enclosure waiting on it to open. He drives into the park past a guard tower and a sign advising drivers they are entering ‘Lion Country’. One of the lions seen previously gets up and begins to scratch at a tree with its claws, the other male walks in the road while beside the fence the females and young sit watching. In another enclosure the car drives past wildebeest and zebra. Kenneth stops the car beside a journey or tower of giraffes and he and Charlotte watch as they wonder past. As sign asks drivers not to feed or try and touch the animals. The journey through the past continues driving past a herd of antelope and a sign that reads ‘Monkeys are Dangerous. Keep Doors and Windows Closed’. A baboon jumps up onto the bonnet of a keepers Land Rover while a baby sits nearby on the grass. A troop of baboons sit picking seeds off the ground. Another sign warns drivers not to get out of their vehicles if they get into trouble but sound the horn and ‘wait for Whitehunter’. Charlotte and Kenneth speak with said ‘Whitehunter’ named Mike who carries a rifle across his shoulder as he speaks. He is asked about how well the animals adjust to live if County Durham and explains that they go through a period of acclimatisation. As he talks about how lions were once indigenous to Europe, the male lion walking around his enclosure and the females sitting under a tree. As Mike talks about the lion’s diet of meat-on-the-bone a Capri drives slowly past the animals most of whom are resting on the grass. In another enclosure a keep cleans the teeth or mouth of a baby elephant, around him several other young elephants one of whom pushes the keeper forcing him to slip. Standing beside their Land Rover in a car park Charlotte shows Kenneth a little ‘souvenir’ of their trip, a baby lion which she holds in her arms. When Kenneth asks what's his mother going to say, the head of a skinned lion appears in the Land Rover window with Kenneth jokingly placing his arm into its mouth. A striped Ford Capri drives along the B6306 past Derwent Reservoir arriving in the village of Blanchland; ‘the most perfectly planned village in England’ according to Charlotte. The car pulls up besides The Square, they get out and Kenneth complains they are in Northumberland not County Durham. Charlotte points out County Durham is in fact only 50-yards away. To camera Charlotte explains the reason for the visit to Blanchland and gives a history of the village which was built on a former monastery. As she speaks views of the houses around The Square which retain some of the monastic features. Charlotte and Kenneth cross the road entering the local public house, the Lord Crewe Arms. A small crowd at the bar chatting as Kenneth and Charlotte arrive and order drinks. In an upstairs bedroom standing beside her portrait Charlotte tells the story of Dorothy Forster who’s ghost is believed to haunt the pub. Downstairs sitting at a table Kenneth drinking a pint of beer from a tankard, beside him on the table a candle. A ‘ghostly’ voice is heard and the candle mysteriously blowing out startles Kenneth who runs away in fright. The Land Rover arrives at Beamish Hall to visit a ‘new kind of museum dedicated to preserving the recent everyday past’. Charlotte and Kenneth head inside passing a sign for Beamish North of England Open Air Museum. Beside the counter of a Victorian chemist’s shop Charlotte pretends to be a customer with a bad head cold looking for relief. Kenneth, playing the chemist, offers several historic devices and remedies which Charlotte rejects as being worse than the cold itself. Over views of the various powders and potions in jars Charlotte gives a history and origin of the shop which came ‘lock stock and tonic wine barrel’ from Stockton-on-Tees. A cobbler’s shop at the museum followed by other general views of other ‘everyday’ items on display at the museum. In a school classroom Charlotte plays a teacher, the clock above her head reads 4pm and she rings a bell to end the school day. At the back of the class Kenneth is a pupil asking if he could leave this year being that he is 32-years old. Standing beside the fire and range inside a miner’s cottage a dummy of a local miner, sitting in the chair beside him Charlotte with a scarf over her head pretending to be his wife. She turns her head and laughs at the camera. Inside the Bobby Shafto bar Kenneth behind the bar cleaning a pint class, he calls time before pulling a pint of beer which he samples. He places on his head what he calls a ‘barman’s helmet’ which he then reveals in an old pitman’s helmet with a flap of leather or equivalent on the back which would prevent water dripping down the miner’s neck. The Ford Capri drives though rural Weardale towards the Rancho del Rio in the village of Ireshopeburn near Stanhope. Dressed as a cowboy Kenneth stamps out a cigar before walking cowboy-style towards the western themed restaurant built in the former High House Chapel, his hands twitch over his holstered gun. He pulls his gun on the camera and uses it to push up his cowboy hat and ring the doorbell with the barrel. [Break] Kenneth rings the doorbell again before banging on the door with the gun. Leaning against the door he falls over as Charlotte opens in. Behind the bar a woman dressed in a cowboy outfit cleans classes, around her pieces of Western paraphernalia including a wagon wheel hanging over the bar and a rifle hanging from a wall. Nearby two other young women in cowboy hats, denim skirts and plaid shirts set a table. Around a table Charlotte and Kenneth speaks with owner Ken Rowney and wife Iris about why he opened a wild-west restaurant in the wilds of Weardale. As he talks about his time living near the Mexican border around the restaurant other pieces of paraphernalia including as set of bison or buffalo horns and a sombrero. They all laugh as Iris remembers her first experience riding a horse. The Land Rover drives away from the Rancho del Rio past a field of cattle arriving at the Killhope Lead Mining Museum and its 40ft water wheel. They continue their journey through Teesdale driving along Galgate in Barnard Castle passing the King’s Head public house where both Oliver Cromwell and Charles Dicken’s once stayed. The nearby Bowes Museum built as a public art gallery by John Bowes for his wife Josephine Benoite Coffin-Chevallier with its large windows, engaged columns, projecting bays and mansard roofs typical of the French Second Empire. In the grounds of ruined medieval castle at Barnard Castle Kenneth spins on a playground roundabout, Charlotte races up a pathway leading to the castle and follows Kenneth as he continues to spin on the roundabout. He jumps off and pulls Charlotte away. A sign reads ‘To the Woods’ changes to the River Tees flowing over High Force waterfall in Upper Teesdale. Charlotte and Kenneth sit on rocks at its base watching the water flow over the 70ft drop. Near Bowlees and Low Force waterfall the Wynch Bridge crossing the Tees with Kenneth having to wear a blindfold and be assisted by Charlotte to cross. The Land Rover enters the city of Durham with the majestic Durham Cathedral dominating the view. On Palace Green family and friends of this year’s graduates from Durham University gather with Charlotte and Kenneth mingling amongst the crowds. In their gowns graduates appear from Durham Cathedral onto Palace Green making their way towards Durham Castle. On the River Wear below people punting or rowing gently in boats. Standing on Prebend Bridge with the cathedral appearing through the trees Charlotte and Kenneth look down on the peaceful river below, a view Charlotte believes hasn’t changed in centuries. Wearing a coat and hat and to play a violin badly, Kenneth stands beside the nearby Banks Cottage telling the story of Josef Boruwlaski, a Polish entertainer and musician who toured the European courts and retired to this cottage in the early 19th century. Kenneth now om his kneels with his shoes sticking out from his coat explains that Boruwlaski was a dwarf standing at only 3ft 3ins, inside Durham Town Hall a sculpture, portrait, clothing and violin bellowing to Boruwlaski on display there. Kenneth begins to play again, and items are thrown at him from off screen. At the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, now simply known as the Oriental Museum, a series of frightening Oriental faces followed by a family looking at a display of miniature figures in a case. Other visits wonder around the gallery look at the items on display. Charlotte speaks with Philip Rawson the Keeper of the museum while standing over what Philip calls ‘the sickest mummy in Britain’. He explains the many diseases and afflictions this Egyptian would have had in life including an artificial right hand. Philip also explains that the man was buried in a second-hand coffin being that it is several hundred years older than the mummy. Philip takes Charlotte over to a large decorative pot which Philip describes as a ‘personalised piece of Chinese central heating’. He explains what it is and how it works with Charlotte testing it out herself. In the grounds of Lumley Castle near Chester-le-Street Kenneth and Charlotte join the crowds watch as two men in chainmail fight using quarterstaffs as part of a Medieval games fair. Two others also dressed as Medieval knights ride on horseback attacks objects on poles with swords and lances. Another man fires crossbow arrows at a target. One of those in horseback knocks the head off a cardboard Sarasen warrior which is replaced with Kenneth’s head sitting on a plinth. The jousting continues, the crowd applauds. One of the knights offers Charlotte a ring, she blows kisses at him in thanks. Sitting on horseback with one of the knights is Kenneth, the knight removes their helmet revealing it is a woman. Kenneth looks on shocked. Back on the showground two men wrestling changes to Kenneth with his head and arms in a set of stocks. He complains to Charlotte about the Marshall and his colleague standing beside them. The programme ends with Charlotte walking away with two men and Kenneth shouting after her with people throwing food at him.