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Special | 6m 6s | Video has closed captioning.
Director Toby Bull observes the sheep that live on the land where his parents were buried several years ago. An original perspective on bereavement, tackled with humor and tenderness.
Aired: 02/13/23
Expires: 02/12/27
♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] [ Sheep bleating ] [ Birds squawking ] [ Sheep bleating ] [ Cellphone buzzing ] -Hi, there.
-Hello.
Are you in London?
-I'm in Shropshire.
-In Somerset?
-Yeah.
-Doing all right?
-Yeah, I'm all right.
-Good.
-Uh, it's been, um...
I've just been waiting by the grave for the sheep to come a little closer.
-Don't mean to keep you.
I was gonna invite you to Cafe OTO, but you're not in range.
-No, I'm here for a while.
Uh, but being here has been really good.
-Yeah.
Um, boy, um... Bah, bah, bah, bah.
So what about the sheep?
-The sheep?
I, um...
It's complicated.
It's like the -- the -- the more time I spend with them, the more I feel that they know that there are people buried here.
-Do you think animals know anything?
Why would they need to know in order for there to be some kind of intimacy?
-Well, there are these moments when they've, like, stumbled across Mum and Dad's grave and... -Stumbled?
-But, uh, actually [chuckles] I feel that, in some way, maybe they could acknowledge that Mum and Dad are buried here.
-Well, you know, like, there's a kind of... For instance, every Easter, in all the villages of Greece... -Mm-hmm.
-...all of the families go to the graveyards and have extended conversations with the dead.
-Mm.
-But they don't speak back, as far as I understand.
-Yeah.
But kind of like in the same way the sheep could know that Mum and Dad are buried here, I feel Mum and Dad know that I'm visiting them.
-[ Chuckling ] Yeah.
Let's talk soon, Toby, eh?
[ Call ends ] [ Birds chirping ] [ Bird squawking ] [ Sheep bleating ] -Hmm.
[ Rain falling ] [ Zipper opens and closes ] [ Thunder rumbling ] -Hello, Toby.
-Dada.
[ Sheep bleating ] [ Bleating loudly ] ♪♪
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