- 7 hours ago
- #realityinsighthub
Sailing The Shipping Forecast With Rev Coles S01E02
#
#RealityInsightHub
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt
👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
#
#RealityInsightHub
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt
👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Now it's time for the Shipping Forecast.
00:05Shannon, West Veering, North West, 3 to 5.
00:09For over a hundred years, sailors and fishermen have received daily life-saving warnings from the Shipping Forecast.
00:16Occasional rain, good, occasionally poor.
00:19It's now a national institution and its soothing tones have become a recognisable comfort to all.
00:26Good, occasionally moderate.
00:29Dividing UK and surrounding waters into 31 areas,
00:33it predicts wind, weather and visibility for those venturing out to sea.
00:43With modern technology now providing 24-hour forecasting,
00:47the twice-daily Shipping Forecast is no longer the only safety guide for those at sea.
00:54Hello. I wish I was on yours.
00:58But for me, the Shipping Forecast is timeless.
01:02It's like almost a prayer.
01:04Yeah, it's comforting.
01:06I'm going to make those poetic words,
01:08The Faroes, White, Thames, Lundy.
01:12The blueprint for an epic journey around some of our beautiful coasts.
01:16We're sort of on a collision course.
01:20Meeting the people on and offshore.
01:22This is amazing. This is beautiful, huh?
01:24Who's lives depend on the weather and the sea.
01:28Oh, my goodness. Look at that.
01:30I'll do one of my famous engine prayers, if you like.
01:34We've got some fish, yeah.
01:36We've got some fish, yeah.
01:37With the most amazing views.
01:40May the Force be with you.
01:42The general synopsis has run H double O.
01:52Atlantic low, moving rapidly north-east, expected 200 miles west of North Shand...
01:56Welcome to the Faroe Islands.
02:01Windswept and rugged, they're situated in the wild North Atlantic,
02:05halfway between Scotland and Iceland.
02:08The 18 islands are a self-governing part of Denmark
02:11and are home to 54,000 people,
02:1440% of whom live in the capital, Torshaven.
02:17The islands were added to the shipping forecast in 1932
02:27to aid the increasing number of British fishermen
02:30venturing into Faroe's waters.
02:34Because, with over 271,000 square kilometres
02:37of clean and abundant seas,
02:40these waters are ripe for fishing.
02:44In the Faroes, you're never more than a few kilometres
02:46from the sea.
02:47And so, naturally, fishing is a way of life.
02:49But it's a way of life that comes with the most amazing views!
02:57With 200 times more sea than land,
02:59it's not surprising that the Faroes have come
03:01to rely upon the sea to survive.
03:05From his home base in the port of Klaxveig,
03:0735-year-old Andrew has been fishing these waters since childhood.
03:11Are you ready?
03:12I'm ready.
03:13And, rightly or wrongly,
03:14he's agreed to bring me along.
03:17We'll put the long line out.
03:18Yeah.
03:19I will sail a little bit farther north.
03:21Yeah.
03:22Then we'll put the boys and long line out,
03:24and we will try to bait it.
03:27From his 42-foot motorboat,
03:28Andrew uses the traditional Faroese method of line fishing.
03:33First, a marker buoy and anchor are thrown in,
03:36as demonstrated expertly by me.
03:39Let's go!
03:46And Richard?
03:47Yeah.
03:48When you see the line is, like, finished?
03:49Yeah.
03:50All this?
03:51Yeah.
03:52Like that?
03:53Yeah.
03:54Then you will throw that one also out, okay?
03:55Okay.
03:56Yeah.
03:58When I say, you'll throw.
03:59Okay.
04:01Throw it long.
04:02Yeah.
04:03Really good.
04:04They are attached to a long line with hundreds of baited hooks.
04:08It's a method of fishing that goes back generations.
04:13That's a really good machine.
04:14Good machine.
04:15You like that?
04:16Very good.
04:17Yeah.
04:18How many hooks, Dad?
04:20Almost one?
04:21Yeah.
04:22Uh, 370, 80.
04:26So you do get 380 fish.
04:30Very good, though.
04:32Until the mid-1800s,
04:33the Faroese relied mainly on sheep farming
04:36and small-scale rowboat fishing.
04:39But a change in the law and a shift to decked sailboats
04:42meant fishermen could sail further and carry larger catches.
04:46Suddenly, fishing was a viable commercial opportunity.
04:50Baiting the lines used to be done by hand,
04:52but today, thankfully,
04:54the only handiwork involves a bit of stirring.
04:58It's really quite chef-y.
05:00Actually quite like the look of these shellfish.
05:04Quite a bit.
05:05I'm a celebrity, get me out of here.
05:07I spend a lot of time with fish guts on that programme.
05:10So this is much nicer.
05:12I think we will get some fish today.
05:14I think so.
05:15He's doing it proper.
05:16It's really good.
05:17Do you need some more bait?
05:19We need some more bait, he said.
05:21We have to do like the captain said, you know.
05:28Sorry, Richard.
05:29Yeah.
05:30This was good, right?
05:31I loved it.
05:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:33And you were really good to it.
05:34I think so.
05:35So I think we will get some fish today.
05:36Excellent.
05:37If you don't get fish, it's not your fault.
05:38It has to be mine.
05:39It's your fault.
05:41And now we play the waiting game.
05:46You are a Faroese fisherman.
05:48Yeah, I'm a Faroese, that's true.
05:49That's a very traditional thing for a Faroese person to be, right?
05:52It is, but it used to be better.
05:55Now it's like a culture is more down now.
06:01Much fewer people are fishing.
06:03It's really few people now, right.
06:04But how did you become a fisherman?
06:06Everyone in my family were.
06:08My dad was a fisherman and my granddad was also a fisherman.
06:12And, I don't know, I think it's like in our nature.
06:17It's in the blood.
06:18Yeah, you can say.
06:19And do you think there will be generation after you
06:21that will also be a fisherman?
06:23I wish so, but I'm afraid that there will be no generation after us.
06:28Why?
06:29Because this is a really tough job.
06:32It's really hard.
06:33And today, it's like everyone wants to go with the bigger boats,
06:37with the trial lines.
06:38They make more money there.
06:39Yeah.
06:40Definitely.
06:41But it's like better work there.
06:44Right.
06:45We work, like, maximum, like, for eight or 12 hours in a day.
06:48OK.
06:49Here, when you are here, you work, like, 15 hours.
06:51And how's the weather here?
06:53The weather is really good today,
06:55but when you fish in the winter, January and February,
06:59it can be a really rough sea.
07:01You get sick?
07:02Sometimes I do, yeah.
07:03Really?
07:04Yeah.
07:05If it's going to be rough sea, I will get seasick.
07:07Really?
07:08So this is a good start for me.
07:10Let's keep it that way.
07:11Yeah, let's keep it that way.
07:12Well, let's catch some fish.
07:14In 1964, the Faroes widened their fishing grounds,
07:18meaning large trawlers became more common
07:20than the family operations like Andrew's.
07:23It's the moment of truth.
07:24It's the moment of truth.
07:28It's time to start hauling in the lines
07:30to see what we've caught.
07:32Come on, fish.
07:33It'll be so fun to get some fish.
07:35It would be great to get some fish.
07:36Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:37Oh, there'll be seaweed.
07:39Not a lot of fish so far.
07:43No fish.
07:44No fish.
07:45No fish.
07:46No fish.
07:47No fish, yes.
07:48I don't think we're going to make a lot of money on this trip.
07:51No, this trip will not fit so well.
07:54No.
07:55Does it make you philosophical?
07:57It's a hard job, right?
07:59Yeah, yeah.
08:00You work really hard.
08:01Yes.
08:02You definitely know what you're going to get.
08:03Well, you never know.
08:04Does it make you sort of...
08:05You have to just not let that do your head, yes?
08:07Yes, yes.
08:08And, um...
08:09But what makes this job, um...
08:13What makes this job also, uh...
08:16That, uh...
08:17That, uh...
08:18You never know what you get.
08:19But what about...
08:20Look now.
08:21Yeah?
08:22It's like a big one.
08:23Oh.
08:24Ooh, big cutfish.
08:25What have we got?
08:26Do you want to take him?
08:27Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:28Here I come.
08:29Oh, look at that.
08:31Ooh, big cutfish.
08:33Big cod.
08:34Another one coming.
08:36Another cutfish.
08:37Ooh.
08:38Here we go.
08:39Now we're fishing.
08:43I told you I'd bring you good luck.
08:45So, Richard.
08:46Yeah.
08:47Just put it in your hands.
08:49Yes?
08:50Yes.
08:51You hold it like this.
08:52Like that.
08:53And then I cut here.
08:54Yes, you cut there.
08:55Yeah.
08:56It's perfect.
08:57And then...
08:58And then you just cut it on stump.
08:59Yes.
09:00Exactly.
09:01Like that.
09:02It's perfect.
09:03And just like buses, you wait all morning for one, and then two come at once.
09:08How come?
09:09Oh, look at that.
09:10Or three.
09:11Or four.
09:12Really good.
09:13It's a big one.
09:14Beautiful.
09:15Oh, there's another one.
09:16Oh, yes.
09:17How was that?
09:18It was fine.
09:19Yeah, I mean, it's very hands-on.
09:20But I like fish and chips, and that's what you do to get fish and chips, right?
09:35It's only sensible if you're going to eat this stuff, to be prepared to catch it, kill
09:39it and clean it and clean it, yeah?
09:41I've never done anything like this, ever.
09:44I've only ever caught one fish before.
09:46Yeah?
09:47Five-inch gudgeon.
09:48I think that's a haddock.
09:49That's a haddock?
09:50It's actually a haddock, yeah.
09:51All right.
09:52Fish and chips for you, my friend.
09:53Caught some fish?
09:54Caught some fish, yeah.
09:55Captain.
09:56Really good.
09:57Oh, yeah.
09:58I will not go hungry in bed tonight.
09:59That's good.
10:00Neither will I.
10:01It's not just locals that benefit from the bounty found here.
10:04In March 2025, Britain and the Faroes struck a deal that gave UK fishermen 2,000 tonnes
10:10of fishing opportunities in these waters.
10:13So, it's very possible that one way or another, your dinner tonight might have been plucked
10:18from shipping area Faroes.
10:21Well, that was a great morning, Al.
10:23Fishing from the Faroes, catching cod and haddock.
10:26Well, I didn't know we weren't going to get any cod and haddock.
10:28It looked like we were only going to get seaweed for a bit.
10:30But that's just everyday stuff for these people who battle against sea and elements and the
10:35elusive fish itself.
10:37We're going to have fish and chips for lunch.
10:40Fishing teaches patience and resilience and a faith that tomorrow will be a brighter day.
10:58For many in the Faroes, where over 80% are members of the National Church,
11:03Christianity has been a guiding light when the seas has turned stormy and the sky is dark.
11:09There are 62 churches across the islands, most of them located right next to the sea,
11:16so that sailors could easily find them.
11:18A bit of a busman's holiday for me, I've come to the magnificent Christian Kyrkjön in the town of Klaksvik.
11:28Consecrated in 1963 and seating 1,000, it's the largest church in the Faroes.
11:39Inspired by ancient Viking halls, it features an enormous fresco of the great banquet.
11:46Marian is the minister here and she's given me the best seat in the house for her Sunday service.
11:52Enjoy the service, I hope you'll have a good time.
11:59It's so nice not to have to do anything.
12:01No, even if you might not understand everything in Faroes.
12:04And I will hear it and I love the Psalms.
12:06Yeah, and it will be a good experience.
12:08Sure.
12:09Yes.
12:10Thanks.
12:17Despite understanding absolutely nothing of the service,
12:19I was still able to take comfort in the cadence and rhythm of Marian's words.
12:38It is heartening to see such a good turnout on a sunny Sunday morning.
12:44Thank you, Marian, for your hospitality.
12:57Was this a typical Sunday service?
12:59Yes, you can say so.
13:01Yeah.
13:02In lots of communities all around the world where people go out to sea,
13:06often religion is important.
13:08Is it because it's a dangerous life to go to sea and people want something to speak to that sense of danger?
13:15Where you go on the Faroe Islands, you will always see the sea.
13:19You'll always be reminded of, you know, nature and the islands are very small compared to the huge ocean around us.
13:27When the weather is really bad, there's nothing we can do.
13:31We can only seek shelter.
13:33Yeah.
13:34The safe harbor.
13:35One thing I've noticed in Faroe's churches, well, Scandinavian churches, Nordic churches,
13:40there's a boat hanging from the ceiling of the nave.
13:43Yeah.
13:44When the architect was throwing this church, he knew that the Faroe Islands was very close to the sea, of course.
13:54He wanted to have that expressed somehow in the church, as we can see in the window gables.
14:01And with the organ, it's like drawn as the boathouses, as we can see down by the shore.
14:08But this one is very particular.
14:10It belonged to the rectory in Via Raya, and that rectory had two boats.
14:16One poor people who didn't afford to have a boat so they could go out and fish.
14:21And then there was this boat that was for the priest to be transported in around the islands.
14:29But nowadays, we drive around in our cars, much more convenient.
14:33But this was before the tunnels and all the cars.
14:35So that was really important.
14:36That was a sign not only that the priest could get around, but also poor people could come.
14:41Two.
14:42That's very practical.
14:43I love that.
14:44That it's for the spiritual needs, but also for the material needs as well.
14:47Exactly.
14:48It's also within the churches, you know, usually a metaphor about the church is the ship.
14:52Yeah.
14:53And the ship is like sailing across the sea and the great ocean in all kinds of weather.
15:00And sometimes we also use the metaphor for the humans that we are sailing over this great ocean of life in all kinds of weather.
15:09That's a very moving experience for me to be part of the service here in the Pharaohs.
15:25And also as a parish priest myself, but of a landlocked little parish.
15:29It's so different here because of that interaction with water, with waves, with storms, with turbulence,
15:35and the way that shapes life and indeed takes life.
15:38It's why I think the church plays such an important and continuing part in the lives of the people who live here.
15:44Faith is a spiritual armour here in the Pharaohs.
15:58Protection against whatever the ocean may throw at you.
16:01But this is a practical nation too.
16:05And unsurprisingly for a land whose very name means sheep islands, wool has been vital in the battle against the elements.
16:14I've come to the capital Torshaven to discover how the woolen fisherman's jumper made the leap from survival gear to style statement.
16:22Oh, wow. Well, knitwear shop in the Pharaohs.
16:30It's not surprising it's a great centre for knitwear, but this is just extraordinary.
16:35Look at that. Blimey.
16:37It could be Paris. It could be Milan.
16:40It could be New York, but it's Torshaven.
16:43Extraordinary to see this sort of thing in, well, you know, an island in the North Atlantic.
16:49It's not the kind of place you expect to see work of this originality.
16:57Oh, this is the stuff. Here we go.
16:59Traditional Pharaohese knits. You've seen it all.
17:01Sarah Lunt in The Killings, you were, do you remember?
17:04Um, this is what I'm looking for, I think.
17:08When hit Danish crime show The Killing clothed their main character in a Pharaohese fishing jumper from designers Guren and Guren,
17:15it catapulted them onto the world stage.
17:19Guren Rokva Dotir is one half of the company.
17:23Hello, Richard. Hi, Guren. How are you?
17:25Hi. Nice to see you. Nice to see you.
17:27Um, amazing shop, amazing designs, amazing colours, amazing techniques.
17:32My eye was immediately drawn to these.
17:35And are these the more traditional kind of Pharaohese knitwear?
17:38It is.
17:39And made in 100% Pharaohese wool.
17:41You can call it, uh, dry.
17:44Some will call it itchy. Yeah.
17:46But this is like the natural Pharaohese yarn.
17:48This is how it behaves.
17:49And, uh, and we just love the quality and the colours.
17:53Some would say a white is a white and a brown is a brown.
17:56But for us, it's the white of the Pharaohese sheep.
17:59It's the, uh, dark brown of the Pharaohese sheep.
18:02It's very special with the colours.
18:04There are 70,000 sheep in the Pharaohes.
18:08That's 16,000 more than people.
18:10And they've been bred over centuries to make the wool warm and water resistant.
18:16It truly is an iconic garment, isn't it?
18:18A Pharaohese jumper sweater.
18:20Yeah.
18:21And were they originally knitted for people who were seafarers working at sea?
18:24The original Seamus sweaters, they were made to survive on sea.
18:27Exactly.
18:28Uh, so they're really, really dense and really thick.
18:31And, uh, and actually water repellent because, uh, there's a lot of lanolin, natural oil in it.
18:38So, uh, you can actually smell, you can actually smell the lamb in it still.
18:42I love that smell so much.
18:43Yeah, yeah.
18:44So it's completely natural.
18:45It's not, uh, no chemicals.
18:47It's not dyed or anything.
18:49And the patterns, are they, do they tell you something?
18:52Would they tell you where in the Ferris ones?
18:54Uh, the patterns, there are a lot of different patterns and some from, from different villages
18:59and some kind of colors they use, uh, in different families and so on.
19:04Well, it would be rude not to at least try one on.
19:07That's beautiful.
19:08Yeah, this is beautiful as well.
19:09And those, I think this one is, this one's bigger.
19:12You should try this one.
19:13Yes, thank you.
19:14I smell the lanolin in there.
19:16Yeah, yeah, it does.
19:18And that's also why it's, uh, actually, it's, uh, self-cleaning.
19:24Yeah.
19:25Because it's, uh, it's so much oil in it.
19:26So you just hang it outside.
19:27You don't have to, you don't have to wash it actually.
19:30Very seldom.
19:31Yeah.
19:32So, I think it fits right here.
19:33Yeah, that's, yeah, that's, uh, uh, that fit is good.
19:36Yeah.
19:37Oh, good, I love it.
19:38Uh, yeah, that would be the good, that's a good size for you.
19:49Yeah, you can see.
19:50That's really lovely.
19:52The fisherman's jumpers have a long history, and they're closely sewn up in the tradition
19:58of Ferroese knitting circle.
20:00Gurun has invited me to join her group in her home on the outskirts of Torshaven.
20:07Hey!
20:08Hey!
20:09Hey!
20:10Hey!
20:11Hey!
20:12Hey!
20:13Hey!
20:14Hey!
20:15Hey!
20:16Hey!
20:17Hey!
20:18Hey!
20:19Hey!
20:20Hey!
20:21Hey!
20:22Hey!
20:23Hey!
20:24Hey!
20:25Hey!
20:26Hey!
20:27Hey!
20:28Hey!
20:29Hey!
20:30Hey!
20:31Hey!
20:32Hey,수!
20:33Hey!
20:34Hey!
20:35Hey!
20:36Hey!
20:37Hey!
20:38Hey!
20:39Hey!
20:40Hey!
20:41Hey!
20:42Hey!
20:43Hey!
20:44Hey!
20:45Hey!
20:46Hey!
20:48Hey!
20:49We'rehouse!
20:50Very close friends often.
20:52Yeah.
20:53Yeah.
20:54It's feels like you're kind of weaving friendships as well as weaving you on.
20:55Yeah.
20:56whose husbands and sons would be seen away at sea
20:58to come together and spend time together.
21:00Yeah, I suppose that those knitting clubs started a lot
21:05when the men started going fishing for longer
21:10than just when the sloops came in the late 1800s.
21:14I guess at that time there were more,
21:17there were like villages with almost just women and kids.
21:21There was no communication, of course,
21:23between home and the sloops when they were away.
21:28And the women could only look into the horizon
21:30and to see if the ship was approaching.
21:33And everybody was really fearful to see
21:36if their men or sons were there.
21:40And actually they could see the pattern of the sweaters
21:43before they can see their faces.
21:45Those patterns told a story of life or death.
21:49It's incredibly moving to imagine generations of Faroese women
21:54knitting jumpers for husbands and sons,
21:57and that these patterns were the first things they would see,
22:00or not see, when the boats returned.
22:03Today, these clubs play just as important a role.
22:08They're an excuse to see friends, share stories,
22:12and to simply just be together.
22:16This is high-speed knitting you're doing here.
22:18Yeah.
22:19When I was a little boy at school,
22:20I didn't want to play football.
22:21I wanted to knit with the girls,
22:22and I was allowed to for a bit.
22:23So years ago, I did do a little bit of knitting,
22:24but I've completely forgotten it.
22:25Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:26Yeah.
22:27Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:28Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:29Yeah.
22:30Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:31Yeah.
22:32Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:33Yeah.
22:34Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:35Yeah.
22:36Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:37Yeah.
22:38Can I have a little bit of knitting?
22:39Yeah.
22:40When I was a little boy at school, I didn't want to play football.
22:41I wanted to knit with the girls,
22:42and I was allowed to for a bit.
22:43So years ago, I did do a little bit of knitting.
22:44Yeah.
22:45But I've completely forgotten it.
22:46Can I have a go?
22:47Yeah.
22:48I don't want to ruin this.
22:49Huh?
22:50What do I do?
22:51If you do like me, under, around, together, and pull off.
23:01Yeah.
23:02You're going to have to do movement.
23:03Yep.
23:04So under.
23:05Under, yeah.
23:06And then...
23:07Around.
23:08Oh, stupid thing, get around.
23:09Sorry.
23:10Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:11Yeah.
23:12And then this one goes...
23:14Yeah.
23:15You will pick it up with this one.
23:17There.
23:18There.
23:19Yes.
23:20Just like that?
23:21Yeah.
23:22Hey.
23:23Can I just knit a stitch?
23:24Yeah.
23:25Well, now I'm motoring along.
23:26Yes.
23:27I think it'll be a while before my knitting is on the racks at Gurun and Gurun.
23:33But my younger self would be very happy at finally being allowed into the knitting circle.
23:39In shipping area Faroes, you'd be forgiven for assuming that with 54,000 people across 18 islands, boats are the main means of travel.
23:54But not so.
23:57In the 1960s, the Faroes began an ambitious tunnel project.
24:01Today, 23 of them connect the islands together.
24:05The longest is the Eyosteroy tunnel.
24:08It's a hypnotic seven miles long and contains the world's only undersea roundabout.
24:14At its deepest point, it's 187 metres below the sea and connects the islands of Stremoy and Eyosteroy.
24:27Which is where I now emerge from the depths of the tunnels.
24:33The weather seeps into every facet of life here in shipping area Faroes.
24:38Every path unveiling a dramatic landscape, a crashing sea, a mask of fog and mist.
24:45It almost begs one to write a song.
24:47But don't worry, not me this time.
24:50I'm meeting Yon, the lead singer of doom metal band Hamford.
24:55Singing entirely in Faroese, their songs are inspired by the dramatic landscapes of their homeland.
25:01Hi, how are you?
25:04I'm good, I'm good.
25:06By day, Yon is a biologist for the Faroe Islands National Museum.
25:13Oh, the fairy bridge, I should make a wish.
25:16Yeah.
25:17Well, there's not much to wish for on such a beautiful day.
25:20So lovely.
25:22And your home town?
25:24Yes, this is my backyard.
25:26Yeah.
25:27Where I grew up, more or less.
25:29Well, no wonder you became a naturalist, Yon.
25:31Well, that's right to the right leg, as they say in the Faroese.
25:41And as a naturalist, which is of course your day job, birds your specialism, I know.
25:46Do you see a natural world that's thriving and bird species that are doing well?
25:51Yeah.
25:52What we observe today, we're observing a loss of biodiversity and we're seeing populations
25:58dwindling here in the Faroese.
25:59We need to protect and be vigilant about our nature.
26:03You need to be tough, you need to be resilient to survive in the Faroese, whether that's nature
26:08or human culture, whatever it might be.
26:10It can sometimes be a harsh environment and you must adapt, yeah?
26:13Exactly.
26:14That's what people have done here.
26:16Of course, there's a certain amount of fighting the environment, fighting the climate.
26:21Well, I mean, you can see it's a landscape where Norse myths would fit very well.
26:26You have this dramatic scenery, you have that incredible force of dynamism and volatility
26:31of weather.
26:32It creates a certain kind of story, a certain kind of culture.
26:35Tell me about doom metal, right?
26:37I know about heavy metal, I know about thrash metal, I know about death metal.
26:40What is doom metal?
26:41Well, you know Black Sabbath, everybody knows Black Sabbath.
26:44I think we developed doom metal from Black Sabbath's early days, the really, really heavy, dark
26:51and mournful sounds, slow rhythms.
26:55That's the key of doom metal.
26:58And why does that resonate in the pharaohs especially, do you think?
27:14When speaking of the elements here, we've had the winds and the rains and the storms.
27:21And people who have braved these elements have really had their struggles and there's been tremendous losses.
27:27Our last album was focused on a wailing tragedy back in 1915, in February, where 14 men lost their lives.
27:36And these were all young men below 30 years of age.
27:40And the whole village was practically lame for years.
27:47To truly get to grips with Hamford's music style, I feel I need some inspiration.
27:52So Jan's brought me to one of the cathedral-like fjords that dominate the landscape here in the pharaohs.
27:59I want to know about the band.
28:01You're the lead singer.
28:02I mean, forgive me, my pharaohies, but I want to say Hamfer.
28:05Oh, that's pretty much perfect.
28:07And what would you say?
28:08Hamfer, yeah.
28:09If I were to come to the pharaoh islands and I would, like, bump into the prime minister and say,
28:16I'm really interested in pharaohies doing metal.
28:19He'd go, well, or she would go, Hamfer, of course.
28:22Yep, I think so.
28:23They would?
28:24If, yeah.
28:25Talk me through a beastly growl.
28:27Well, there's many ways to do it.
28:30But I focus a lot on the death metal growling, which is quite deep and roaring.
28:35Can we have a go?
28:36Yeah.
28:37Can you show me what you mean, first of all?
28:38I can definitely try.
28:39Should we do it out into the fjords?
28:42Well, yeah, and if you can make a whale come, that would be better.
28:45I think so.
28:46Okay.
28:47It has happened.
28:48All right.
28:49Do that again.
28:54No, you go.
28:55Oh, it's on my throat.
28:59Yeah, I can hear it.
29:00I'm going to get it up there.
29:02Yeah.
29:03I can't do it.
29:06But you're using your throat too much.
29:08I don't know how not to.
29:09No, exactly.
29:10You have to think of it not as a tonal thing, but as more like a visceral thing.
29:18From here?
29:19Yeah, it comes from here.
29:20So you're pushing just enough air up, but you're not using your throat.
29:24You're thinking of like you're tearing a little bit up your roof, the roof of your mouth.
29:28Like.
29:29You know.
29:37You sound very Viking-y, that's for sure.
29:39That is a little bit of Viking.
29:40Well, actually all my heritage is from Kettering, which is not very Viking at all.
29:43I'm really fascinated listening to the way you sing on recordings.
29:46You go from a quite high lyrical voice to that.
29:49How do you do that?
29:50Well, I think there's nothing really obstructing.
29:55They're not obstructing each other.
29:56Okay.
29:57So they can, they can actually, they can switch between quite quickly.
30:00Like that.
30:07Well.
30:08I mean, I can hear I'm pitching.
30:09Yeah.
30:10But it's all here.
30:11That second part was perfect.
30:12That was quite head voice, wasn't it?
30:14Yes.
30:15That's amazing.
30:18I'm enjoying that.
30:19Yeah.
30:20Yeah.
30:22Whilst it's a million miles, and indeed years, away from my days on top of the pops,
30:27it's impossible not to see how this landscape inspires such dramatic music.
30:37The area forecasts for the next 24 hours.
30:40Viking, North Utsia, South Utsia, 40s, good, occasionally poor at first.
30:48Here in shipping area Faroes, they might be small.
30:51But when it comes to fishing, they are mighty.
30:57The Faroes are now a major international player in seafood,
31:00and one of the largest fisheries nations in the world.
31:05And in the UK, we import around 164 million pounds worth of fish and seafood from the Faroes.
31:12To cope with the global demand, the Faroes are now leading suppliers of farmed fish.
31:18I've come to a hatchery on Bordoi Island, about 29 miles north of Torshaven.
31:23Hi, Runa. Nice to see you.
31:25Shall we look at our facility?
31:26I'd love to see it.
31:31Salmon is key to the Faroes' success.
31:33It's almost half the country's total exports.
31:37Runa is the Freshwater Director at Bakkerfrost, one of the big producers here.
31:42And it's his job to look after the salmon from egg to 18 months old.
31:46Oh, wow. Dimey.
31:48Like the name suggests, the salmon are incubated and hatched on site.
31:53Once they reach around 0.2 grams in weight, they're moved here to what is called the first feeding room.
31:59They are really tiny and then they grow to around 5 grams, which will take around 12 weeks.
32:06And then we put them into the next stage.
32:09So they're here for 12 weeks to grow?
32:11To grow and get fed and that's it. Just being happy, hopefully.
32:15They look lively.
32:16They are quite lively and they are, especially in the morning when they're really hungry, they really jump for the food.
32:23So we go up the stairs here just so we can see down on the fish.
32:26Right. Oh, blimey.
32:27Correct.
32:28How many in this tank?
32:29In this tank, there would be around 200,000 fishes.
32:32And I noticed that the water's circulating and that's kind of mimicking the kind of current the salmon would be?
32:39That's correct.
32:40So they're as close to their natural life as you can get?
32:42Absolutely.
32:43Where the deposit, I noticed there's food being deposited here.
32:46This is where the deposit food.
32:47Food will come from a bite picker silo into these smaller ones.
32:51Are there 12 big tanks?
32:52There are 12 big tanks in this whole area.
32:54So how many fish?
32:56There will be around 3.2 to 3.3 million in this unit here altogether.
33:03So you need to be this big for 3 million fish of this size.
33:07When they get bigger, you need more room.
33:09We continue to the final stage in the hatchery process, not forgetting to don yet another fleece.
33:16I think I preferred the blue one.
33:18These are the biggest tanks.
33:20They are 1,200 cubic each.
33:23And we would have in each tank around 100,000, 120,000 fishes that will grow to around 500 ground before they go to sea.
33:31So this is where we put the fish to sea from.
33:34They're so lively.
33:35They are lively.
33:36They're majestic.
33:37Yeah.
33:39So these tanks are much, much bigger.
33:42So this is the last stage.
33:44This is the last stage.
33:45They swim here for the last, say, around 12 weeks before we smaltify them.
33:51And then they will be around 500 grams and we put them to sea.
33:55Smaltifying is a process that occurs naturally in a salmon's body, preparing them to migrate from freshwater to saltwater.
34:01So your job is to manage as much of every step of the way as you can.
34:07It seems to me what you're doing is very Faroese.
34:09You are adapting to environments and doing what you can to make the best living you can.
34:14Yeah.
34:15From sea, from fish, from markets.
34:18It's what Faroese people have always done.
34:20Always do.
34:21We're really, yeah, really flexible and adjusting to whatever environment we might come.
34:29At 18 months old, their time at the hatchery will be complete and they'll be ready to begin the next stage of life out at sea.
34:36Inspired by the youthful energy of the smalt I saw back at the hatchery, I too have made the epic journey from freshwater out to sea.
34:52I'm on board the Hansa Bacca, one of Baccafrost's whale boats.
34:58At 76 metres long, it can carry 450 tonnes of live salmon.
35:03We've just arrived at one of the company's farms, two hours sail from harbour.
35:10There are farms like this in 20 fjords through the Faroese and the salmon arrive here at around 18 months old.
35:19It's the next stage in the process where the salmon mature for market in pens suspended in the sea.
35:26So I'm looking down into one of those giant pens which contains the fish that are ready to be transported back for processing.
35:34And what the guys on the platform have done is they've put a net in there and they're kind of corralling the fish towards the boat.
35:42The net helps to nudge the salmon towards three huge pipes attached to the ship.
35:47Kind of like a hoover, a giant hoover but a gentle hoover that makes sure the fish aren't harmed in any way because you need the fish to be perfect obviously for market.
35:56And so as those nets close in, the fish are coming, they're leaping, you can see them, are coming closer and closer to the nozzles.
36:04Salmon like to swim against current, they're athletes among fish.
36:09And so they kind of use the salmon's own natural ability to get them into the tanks and then back to the shore for processing.
36:16I really want to get down there and have a closer look at how this works.
36:22The pens are 64 metres in diameter and hold around 80,000 salmon.
36:28So I'm right down by the pen now and it's absolutely writhing with fish and I'm going to see if I can get one for you to see.
36:39Oh, it's heavy.
36:46The seas around the Faroes are some of the cleanest in the world and they maintain a steady temperature all year round.
36:53Perfect conditions for salmon.
36:56Oh, Jesus Christ.
36:59It's really heavy.
37:02There we go. Thank you very much, Jordan.
37:05Thank you. Wow, what an amazing animal.
37:08What he can see about it is that these are healthy fish.
37:11And he looks in great shape.
37:13I don't want to get him out there, Jordan.
37:15We can put him back in, I think.
37:17Yeah, let's put him back in, can we?
37:19Yeah.
37:21Oh, my God, it's so heavy.
37:25Thank you, Alan, thank you.
37:28I mean, they're amazing animals, aren't they?
37:30Yeah.
37:31I think they're so strong.
37:32Yeah.
37:33And these are healthy fish.
37:35And that's the important thing, is that they're healthy.
37:40Once on board, the fish will go to Bacofrost Processing Facility, where they'll be gutted, filleted and packaged.
37:48Ready for the world.
37:52We've got support vessels, we've got a huge ship here, we've got amazing tech, amazing skill, amazing investment.
37:59And it's very far, I think, from what Andrew and Jan were doing in their little boat the other day,
38:04where we were catching cod and haddock on a hook and line.
38:07What they were doing seems, well, not that different from what their forefathers were doing going back for generations.
38:14And maybe that's kind of at the heart of what fishing in the Faroes is about.
38:18But I'd argue that this is really an extension of that.
38:21It's people using their ingenuity, their know-how, their skill and their sheer persistence
38:27in the face of all kinds of challenges, to do what they have to do, to bring fish to market,
38:33to put food on tables and money in pockets, and to keep life in these islands viable.
38:46It's become clear to me that living in shipping area Faroes is about much more than merely surviving.
38:53This is a place where traditions adapt to become skills,
38:57which then transform into something fresh and new.
39:02I've come to a floating bridge just outside Torshaven
39:05to find out how the Faroe Islands have managed to become a Michelin-starred foodie hotspot.
39:11Sebastian. Hello. How are you?
39:13Oh, I'm really well. Welcome.
39:15This is amazing. This is beautiful, huh?
39:17This is like Lord of the Rings. It's Wagner in Game of Thrones.
39:21It's like a mythical landscape.
39:23This is something unique. This is something beautiful.
39:26Sebastian is the head chef at REST,
39:28a Michelin Guide restaurant specialising in Faroes-inspired food.
39:33A diver delivers his catch here three to four times a week,
39:36meaning this is probably the most picturesque larder I've ever seen.
39:42The sea quality is so beautiful.
39:44Are you ready to jump in?
39:46I'm not going to jump in, but I want to see what you're going to pull out of that sea, Sebastian.
39:49Just be careful, please.
39:50OK, I'll go first.
39:51So what happens here, our diver takes all the seafood and shellfish from around the islands
39:59and he puts them in here. This is basically our walking cooler.
40:02He just leaves it for you?
40:03Literally.
40:04So he drops in different baskets or nets with a lot of different products.
40:10Yeah.
40:11This might be...
40:12OK, I think I might need some help with this one.
40:15Sure.
40:16No.
40:17Oh, my God. Look at that.
40:18This is fine.
40:19They're huge.
40:20This is the horse mussel.
40:22That's the biggest mussel I've ever seen.
40:24Such a specific environment, isn't it?
40:26So you get very food-specific to this.
40:29Look at the size of these things and they weigh a ton.
40:31Yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:32Yeah.
40:33It's incredible, huh?
40:34What would you do with this?
40:35For this season, with this ingredient, we are doing a tartalet.
40:39But then we add some preserves from the last year's season.
40:43Yeah.
40:44We try to pickle, preserve, ferment a lot of stuff, especially from the island, that
40:50grows in the island.
40:51And then we serve it with a guajillo tartalet, which is a type of Mexican chili.
40:56That's when we put both cultures together.
40:59Well, that's very interesting because you're not from Faro.
41:02Yeah, exactly.
41:03You're from Mexico.
41:04I'm coming all the way from Mexico.
41:06I've been living already five years in the Faroes.
41:08How did you get from Mexico to the Faroes?
41:10Because not many people make that journey.
41:12Back in 2019, I moved here the first time.
41:15There was a two-Michelin-style restaurant back then here in the Faroes.
41:19And this is what attracted me.
41:21The restaurant, the food, what they were doing.
41:25And then I ended up in this beautiful place.
41:28So I never grew up having shrimps, having fish on a daily basis.
41:33So it definitely, it's something different here for my cooking style, I would say.
41:39Like I said, there are different stuff here.
41:42It's a little bit a surprise always.
41:45He likes to change from place to place.
41:48Let's see what we have here.
41:49Ooh.
41:50What are you hoping for?
41:52Oof.
41:53Oh my goodness, look.
41:54This is, this is something.
41:56Oh my gosh.
41:57Just out of this world.
41:58That is just a harvest.
42:00We have a sea urchin right here.
42:03These are the, yeah, one of the most beautiful things I ever tasted.
42:09So sweet, so soft.
42:12I don't know.
42:13You need to, you need to really, really just taste like that.
42:17A little bit of, not even salt.
42:18You don't eat anything.
42:19I've eaten them in France as a great delicacy.
42:23Yeah, exactly.
42:24But I can't imagine what else you would do with them.
42:26They might be probably coming from the Faroe Island.
42:29Like a lot of top restaurants really, really are craving for this ones.
42:33We are actually using them for dessert.
42:36Dessert?
42:37It's our first sweet dish on the menu.
42:41You're ready to eat, shall we?
42:43I've been ready to eat for about four hours now.
42:47What's fascinating is that Sebastian's restaurant is not an outlier.
42:53In 2017, the Faroe Islands won its first ever Michelin star.
42:57In 2025, the same chef was awarded two stars for his new restaurant.
43:02And there's another place nearby that, like rest, is mentioned in the guide.
43:06If you want top class food, and I really do, the Faroe's is your spot.
43:16Called off on important restaurant business, Sebastian has left me in the very capable hands of his team,
43:21who have been cooking up a storm.
43:24Oh, it's my friend the sea urchin.
43:26Oh, yeah.
43:27We use sea urchin as dessert here.
43:30So, in this shell, what we have is a foam.
43:34We make this by a sweetened buckthorn reduction.
43:38On top, we add a little bit of vanilla sugar.
43:41And then lastly, we hit it with a torch to give it almost a creme boule-style texture.
43:47In this shell, we have our beautiful, fresh sea urchin.
43:50Right from the Faroe's delivered this morning.
43:57You a fan of the sea urchin?
43:58I love sea urchin.
44:04Here you are.
44:07Please enjoy.
44:08I'm going to.
44:09I'm sure you will.
44:10Thanks, Chris.
44:11You're welcome.
44:12Right.
44:13I'm not sure you're enjoying the stars.
44:14Ooo!
44:15That is sensational.
44:16That is...
44:18It's like continents crowding into a tiny, tiny little spoonful of deliciousness.
44:34The sea urchin has this kind of umami creaminess,
44:38that long sweetness.
44:41There's that slight crunch from the brulee sugary thing.
44:45And there's something tart, sour in it as well.
44:48It's so good.
44:50It's an extraordinary achievement to do this
44:52in this lump of rock in the North Atlantic,
44:55somewhere between Scotland and Iceland.
44:58And yet it does it not by kind of bringing stuff together
45:01in a surprising and imaginative way,
45:03it's already here, right?
45:05The sea urchin we pulled out of the sea this morning.
45:08There's flavours.
45:10They're all done with the local ingredients,
45:13imaginatively treated in traditional ways,
45:16pickling, fermentation.
45:18And yet it has a sort of sophistication about it,
45:21as well as the utter simplicity of coming from
45:24not further than I should think a mile away
45:26from where we're sitting now.
45:28But I'm going to eat this now and stop talking
45:30because it's just so good.
45:33I've been blown away by my jaunt up
45:38to this very northerly section of the shipping forecast.
45:41It's sort of everything you expect and a complete surprise.
45:47Far from being an insular collection of islands
45:49sheltering the North Atlantic,
45:51they stand tall and reach outward.
45:54It's impossible not to have romantic notions about a landscape like this
45:58and the pharaoh certainly delivers on that.
46:00But more than that, what I come away with is a sense
46:03not of the romantic but of the pragmatic.
46:05and of a very tough, hardy, resilient people adapting
46:09to these really, really tough circumstances
46:11and coming up with a life that is quite extraordinary
46:14and quite unique.
Recommended
46:55
|
Up next
42:01
42:57
42:01
29:23
42:56
23:51
22:17
43:36
48:11
27:08
58:55
43:50
1:09:05
58:51
1:01:02
Be the first to comment