In the first of a brand new series, Penelope Keith along with village judges - archaeologist Alex Langlands, garden designer Juliet Sargeant and craft expert Patrick Grant - weighs up four contenders vying for the title of 'Village of the Year'. This week we are in the western zone made up of some stunning seaside and rural idylls. Penelope is by the seaside in Charmouth, Dorset. In Redbrook, in the Wye Valley Patrick bridges the divide between Wales and England. Juliet uncovers her inner Viking in Lydford, Devon, and Alex learns to thatch on the coast in Aberdaron, Wales. Which village will make it through to this week's semi-final and be in with a chance of winning £10,000?

Penelope Keith and the Village of the Year panel of judges visit four villages going head-to-head in their bid to be crowned Village of the Year. Penelope meets an army of volunteers on the Dorset coast in Burton Bradstock; surf's up for historian Alex Langlands at the world's first surfing lake in Dolgarrog; anything goes for Patrick Grant in Llangwm's museum of everything; and Juliet Sargeant has a real taste of the sea in Mousehole, Cornwall. Find out which village becomes a semi-finalist and is in with a chance of winning the £10,000 prize money.