One Man and His Island - Our Lives

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One Man and His Island

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Luke Rudland

Our Lives: Series 7: One Man and His Island

Series 7

BBC One - Our Lives, Series 7, One Man and His Island

An ex-aircraft engineer becomes the warden of a remote island between England and Wales.

Ex-aircraft engineer Simon begins a completely new life on his own as the warden of Flat Holm Island. The more he learns about the island, the more he learns about himself too.

Living on your own on an island is a fantasy that has come real for one man. After suffering some traumatic events in his life, ex-Royal Air Force aircraft engineer Simon Parker needed a change. Now he’s leaving the mainland behind to begin a completely new life as the warden of Flat Holm Island.

Four miles from the city of Cardiff, in the middle of the Bristol Channel, Flat Holm Island has no mains power or water, and it’s exposed to the worst of the weather. When something breaks, there’s only Simon to fix it.  

Flat Holm is a site of special scientific interest because of its gull colony, which makes up 20 per cent of the Welsh gull population. Monitoring the gulls requires a squad of volunteers with hard hats and overalls as the gulls spread plenty of their ‘good luck’ around. Gulls might not be many people’s favourite birds, but they are suffering a decline in numbers, and Flat Holm is a crucial breeding ground.

Summer day trippers come to the island and might enjoy a drink in the Gull and Leek, Wales’s most southerly pub. The opening hours? ‘Whatever I decide,’ says Simon. 

As spring turns to summer and the months pass, Simon continues to learn all about the island and its wildlife - and perhaps more importantly, something about himself too.

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