Robson Green on making documentaries that matter

Green's latest series is a celebration of embracing a slower pace of life and doing things that support our mental health.

Robson Green. Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

He’s the proud Geordie who is known for his roles in some of Britain’s best loved dramas, but these credits are just the beginning when it comes to multi-talented actor and TV presenter Robson Green.

In addition to his successful acting career, Green has been making documentaries for almost 20 years. More recently, these have showcased his love of fly fishing and a selection of the very best fishing locations from around the world, but Green’s latest project, Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes, shifts the focus to another subject close to his heart: mental health.

“We had this brief: showcase the north-east of England and its people,” he tells SBS of the inspiration behind the series that he hosts and co-produces. “So we said how about this; we take the roads less travelled with friends, family and familiar faces, and we meet ordinary people doing extraordinary things to assist our mental health.”

The series is, first and foremost, a celebration of the joy to be found in embracing a slower pace of life, as Green teams up with British personalities and family members to explore the incredible beauty to be found in the region he is lucky enough to call home.

Robson Green with his uncle Matheson Green. Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

“Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the world that we forget what’s on our doorstep,” Green explained. “It’s interesting the bubble that famous people are in; they so often never see the locations where they spend the most time.”

This was the reality for English former football player and coach Les Ferdinand when he moved from London to the northeast of the country to play with Premier League club Newcastle United. As he joins Green in the first episode of the series for a weekend of exploring in Northumberland, it’s a chance to see another side to the area, complete with a bracing dip in the North Sea.

Robson Green with Les Ferdinand. Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

… we take the roads less travelled with friends, family and familiar faces, and we meet ordinary people doing extraordinary things to assist our mental health

Robson Green

“I was in pieces when I met him,” Green explains. “I’ve grown up watching (Les) and he’s been my idol for years, but it was interesting to hear that when he was in the north-east, he never really got to see it.”

This back-to-basics approach is just as joyful for Green as it is for Les, and indeed for his full complement of celebrity guests, as he revels in the chance to show off the beauty of his own backyard. In doing so, he also gets to know the stories behind these familiar faces and reach the person behind their public personas.

“All the amazing guests we had on, who were just bright, articulate and entertaining, found themselves going back to childhood, and I think that’s what the weekend brings back,” Green says.

Robson Green with crime fiction author LJ Ross. Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

As well as Ferdinand, Green hosts actor Mark Benton, European Cup-winning Queen of the Jungle Jill Scott, Britain’s Got Talent winner Lee Ridley (aka comedian Lost Voice Guy), Strictly Come Dancing’s Sara Davies, acting co-star Tom Brittney (Grandchester) and Hairy Biker Si King, and many others over the 15-part season.

For Green, spending time in nature has a similar effect, conjuring up many nostalgic moments of his own youth. It has been a lifelong source of solitude for him at some of the hardest times in his life, and an important opportunity to reconnect amidst the busy pace of the modern world.

“… just immersing ourselves in the outdoors, breathing in the outdoors… it’s good for you.” Robson Green Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

“Maybe weekend escapes are a bookend and another world, a different sort of life, to the working week,” said Green. “Whatever it is, just immersing ourselves in the outdoors, breathing in the outdoors, drinking in the outdoors, it doesn’t cost that much, it’s on your doorstep and bloody hell, it’s good for you.”

Green hopes that the positive response to the series will open up opportunities for similar projects showcasing lives and experiences beyond the UK.

Robson Green with a forest bathing instructor in the Hamsterley Forest. Credit: Rivers Meet Productions / Signpost Productions.

“I’d love to go outside my comfort zone in Australia,” Green says. “We need to remind ourselves what’s on the doorstep of the big island at the bottom of the earth.”

Though he is the first to endorse the concept of a ‘weekend escape’, Green reiterates that, for him, it is about much more than running away from the stressors of contemporary society, and is instead an opportunity for stillness amidst the chaos.

“I think there’s that nostalgic element to (a weekend escape), and a getting-away-from-it-all element that is appealing,” Green said. “It’s not meant to be an escape from life, though, but instead it’s a greater immersion into it. That’s what it’s all about.”

Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes premieres with a double episode at 7.30pm, Monday 3 July on SBS. Double episodes continue weekly on Monday nights and are available to stream at SBS On Demand after broadcast.