South East Cornwall will be in the TV spotlight Thursday of next week as celebrity chef Tom Kerridge begins a new four-part BBC series looking at ways to save Britain’s pubs.

Tom, who was born in Salisbury in Wiltshire and brought up in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, has built on his career as a chef to run a number gastro-pubs himself. He is these days the chef patron of the two Michelin-starred pub The Hand & Flowers, the one Michelin-starred pub The Coach, and his pub-cum-butcher’s shop, The Butcher’s Tap, all in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

However, he is painfully aware that the country’s much-loved boozers need help, as since 2000, Britain has been losing hostelries at a rate of around 12 a week. Hence his new BBC2 series, Saving Britain’s Pubs with Tom Kerridge.

The first episode, to be broadcast on Thursday, November 12, at 8pm, sees his journey beginning at The White Hart in Chilsworthy, near Gunnislake.

He finds that although this 300-year-old free house is the only pub in Chilsworthy itself, publicans Amy and Ian are only just scraping a living from it – a familiar story for landlords of rural pubs across Britain.

Tom suggests a large-scale renovation to capitalise on the stunning views across the Tamar Valley. Although this would involve costly and disruptive building work, the couple decide to proceed with the plan.

Viewers will see if the idea pays off, and whether Amy and Ian, with Tom’s help, are able to turn things around and avoid the need to call “last orders” at The White Hart for good.

In his series – which also visits a pub in Stroud in his former home county of Gloucestershire and a London boozer which is a focus for the local Caribbean community – Tom finds the reason for pubs’ dramatic decline can be blamed on the trend that we are not going out as much – something the global pandemic has done little to help.

Cash-strapped drinkers are buying booze from supermarkets to drink at home rather than frequenting their locals, and publicans are struggling with the burden of taxes, rents, rates, wages and the cost of food and drink. Perhaps most telling of all, inflated property prices can make selling pubs off for housing more profitable than running them as businesses.

This year, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of establishments closing has gone up even further.

So Tom says he is on a mission to reverse the worrying trend and revive struggling pubs.

He believes that the British pub is an important part of our national culture and a valuable asset to many local communities.

“When a community loses its pub, it loses its soul,” he says. “Pubs are a vital part of our history and culture, and communities with a decent pub at their heart are stronger for it because people from all walks of life mix and socialise there. While many local services and shops are closing down, there are clear opportunities for reinventing what a pub can be.”