These days when I think of Clare Balding I can't help also thinking of W1A, the close-to-the-knuckle BBC sitcom about life at Broadcasting House in which the presenter appeared as herself.
A sequel of sorts to the award-winning 2012, it presents Balding as the putative presenter of a programme called Britain's Tastiest Village - a send-up of a genre of programmes of which Ramblings is very definitely one.
It returned for a 29th series this week (BBC Radio 4, Thursday, 3pm) and if you've never tuned in, the idea is that Balding (or "lovely Clare" as she's referred to in W1A) goes on a walk, usually with a group of people, and as the wind buffets her microphone, she talks to them. It's posh, gentle, soothing and ruminative and for three of those four reasons I've tended to leave it well alone.
But these days walking is becoming a bit of a "thing". If it isn't the Today programme interviewing psychogeographer and author Iain Sinclair about the link between walking and creativity, it's stories about how the simple acting of politicians walking alongside each other can be useful in conflict resolution. Suddenly, Ramblings seems like it might have more to offer than just a tramp up a hill.
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who does walk, either alone or as part of a group such as the one Balding joined in this first episode. Formed 20 years ago by a bunch of men whose kids had all just started primary school, it meets once a year in the pre-dawn of the winter solstice to climb the Stiperstones in Shropshire and watch the sun rise from the top.
The group is run by Quentin Shaw and now numbers around 50 men. Balding is the first woman to have ever joined the walk, a fact which causes some debate among the members. A breakaway group including wives and girlfriends has recently started up, but the rivalry is friendly. Some of the men are now grandfathers, many undertake the walk with their now grown-up sons, and all remember those among their number who have died. So the walk now also functions as a memorial.
The physical endpoint was specific: a local pub. The spiritual endpoint would be much harder to stick a pin in, but I guess that's what keeps these solstice walkers coming back for more.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article