Rick Stein's Cornwall

Rick delves into the stories of those who worked in Cornwall's mines, from the men who laboured in extreme heat a full hour's journey beneath the earth's surface to the young women known as 'bal maidens', who earned their living breaking rocks with heavy sledgehammers.

In the heart of mining country, he discovers a church with some astonishing 600-year-old wall paintings, which rank amongst Britain's greatest church treasures. And after a merry visit to a maker of botanical spirits, he adds a cheeky nip to his version of the 'platinum pudding' created for the late Queen's platinum jubilee.

Rick's idea of bliss is to spend an afternoon scaling and gutting a freshly caught sea bass before using it to make a simple yet delectable dish which ranks amongst his absolute favourites – steamed sea bass with garlic, ginger and spring onions.

He travels to the far west of Cornwall to meet a potter whose work captures the rugged beauty of her surroundings, before heading to the far east of the county on the trail of the poet Charles Causley, who spent his entire life in the Cornish border town of Launceston. There, Rick meets another illustrious Cornish writer, Patrick Gale, who has written a book on Causley's fascinating life and considers him this country's greatest Second World War poet.

Rick drops in on the fishing port of Boscastle and finds a fabulous seafood restaurant in a building which once housed rockets used to fire safety ropes out to sinking ships. A trip to Cornwall's only dedicated organic mushroom farm inspires him to cook a stir fry with lion's mane mushrooms, which are said to regrow neurons!

After a surreal afternoon spent watching a German film crew at work in the fishing village of Mousehole, he discovers that a major reason so many Germans love Cornwall is a long-running TV series, watched by millions, that is based on the romances written by Rosamunde Pilcher and set in Cornwall.