Sweet Somerset – Nostalgia Central

1 9 7 6 (UK)
13 x 30 minute episodes

This Bristol-produced television series from HTV West was created to showcase the folk music, humour, and unique rural culture of the English West Country. It blended traditional acoustic folk music with regional comedy and storytelling.

The host of the show was Fred Wedlock, capitalising on the popularity he built while hosting The Great Western Musical Thunderbox.

Guest Stars included the prominent Somerset jazz clarinettist Acker Bilk, the remaining members of The Wurzels (following the death of frontman Adge Cutler), and local artists Mike Silver, Mechanical Horsetrough, The Yetties, Strange Fruit, Brenda Wootten and Joanna Carlin.

The show firmly established Wedlock as a standalone television personality and paved the way for his decades-long career as an HTV regional presenter.

Fred Wedlock passed away on 4 March 2010 at the age of 67 in Bath, Somerset, following a brief battle with pneumonia and a subsequent heart attack.