Review of ‘A DVD Postcard from The Peak District’, by Stephen Parker

This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.

Local landscape photographer Stephen Parker has created this moving-picture postcard of a glorious journey around the Peak. It takes the form of a 40-minute DVD packed inside an illustrated laminated envelope. The reverse is postcard style, with space for a message, details of the addressee and a postage stamp.

Scores of different scenes cover all corners of the Peak throughout the seasons, set to classical music including songs by Tideswell Male Voice Choir. Visual themes also intermingle beautifully. The viewer can admire towns and villages in full bloom - including well dressings, or Buxton dressed in autumn gold; blue skies and rainbows; the Hope Valley shrouded in rolling waves of mist; Padley Gorge(ous), and stone-built villages all of a huddle or occasionally en fete.

The movement of water, water everywhere ranges from gentle to stunning: Carsington Water a-ripple, the uniqely different old bridges of Bradford Dale, a vehicle splashing through a ford, peaty cascades at Three Shire Heads, the more formal Chatsworth cascade and fountains, but then torrential activity at Monsal Dale weir and Howden dam wall.

The DVD Postcard shows the Peak District at its incomparable best, a lovely welcome pack or memento for visitors and for lovers of the Peak everywhere.

Review by Julie Bunting