Wakehurst, Kew’s botanic gardens in West Sussex, is the location for judging this year’s Countryfile photographic competition. John Craven and Charlotte Smith are joined by presenter, journalist, author and avid nature lover Vick Hope to pick the final 12 images that will grace the 2025 Countryfile calendar in aid of BBC Children in Need.

Charlotte also explores Kew’s millennium seed bank at Wakehurst, looking at the work being done to support our native meadows. She meets the high-tech team using robots, drones and LiDar to unlock the mysteries of trees and plants. We also catch up with Wakehurst’s nature reserve warden as he repurposes an area felled due to ash dieback, as well as meeting a bee expert deciphering the DNA of pollen.

Matt Baker welcomes new presenter Vick Hope to Countryfile. Together, they explore England’s largest forest – Kielder in Northumberland – where they meet the people protecting its ecosystems and preserving its future.

Matt joins a landscape-scale project looking to diversify the woodland’s make-up by collecting the seeds of the country’s rarest native trees. He also helps a team construct one of England’s longest mountain bike trails and sees how they are being made accessible to adaptive cyclists.

Vick helps with a project aiming to restore critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels to Kielder’s waterways, and in the Cotswolds, Adam Henson looks at using woodland on his farm to graze livestock and benefit wildlife.

John Craven and Vick Hope celebrate new life on the Wembury Coast, from high up on the clifftop to the bed of its natural harbour.

Charlotte Smith and Matt Baker are in Shropshire, where landscapes are being brought back to life - floodplains are being rewilded, meadows restored and ancient woodlands reimagined.