Dir: James Dawson | Doc 2026

Derek vs Derek: a very English battle of the farmyard

There are few things more entertaining than putting two farmers from Devon called Derek together and discovering that, despite sharing a profession, a landscape and presumably a fair amount of vocabulary involving mud, they disagree about almost everything. Derek vs Derek turns this unlikely pairing into a wonderfully funny, warm-hearted and surprisingly thought-provoking documentary.

Derek Banbury is a third-generation dairy farmer who believes in intensive farming and producing food “to feed the nation”. Next door, Derek Gow — one of Britain’s best-known figures in species reintroduction — has decided to turn his entire farm over to nature. Their opposing visions could hardly be clearer. Banbury sees farming as a practical necessity; Gow sees the restoration of wild habitats and lost species as an urgent environmental responsibility.

The stakes are high. In the last 70 years, Britain has lost more animals and insects than in the 11,000 years before. Gow wants to help reverse that decline by bringing back the plants and animals that have disappeared from the countryside, while Banbury remains firmly rooted in the realities of food production. The film asks whether these two priorities must remain in conflict — or whether productive farming and nature restoration might work alongside each other.

Their relationship is essentially one of affectionate warfare. They disagree, sometimes spectacularly, with wild boar and beavers included. Gow sees modern farming as having helped strip the landscape of much of its biodiversity; Banbury, meanwhile, is hardly about to abandon cows and generations of farming practice because a rewilding enthusiast tells him to. As tempers fray, wild animals escape and the land is transformed, the film charts their often funny and turbulent relationship.

The arguments are serious, though. Gow makes the case for rewilding as a way of restoring vital flora and fauna and rebuilding the intricate web on which agriculture itself ultimately depends. Banbury brings the uncomfortable realities of farming into the conversation — including the extraordinary fact that a great deal of the food produced by farmers ends up being wasted. It is a neat reminder that the environmental argument cannot simply be about what happens in the field: what happens after the food leaves it matters too.

And then there is the deliciously British subplot involving Banbury’s wife, who has rather pragmatically found a way to benefit from Gow’s crusading activities. His conferences and events — including those devoted to the increasingly fashionable subject of wolves — provide business for her small hospitality operation. So while the Dereks may be locked in an ideological tug-of-war, there is money to be made from the rewilding revolution. Everyone, it seems, has found their own ecosystem.

What makes Derek vs Derek particularly appealing is that it never feels like a boring lecture. The filmmakers have found the humour in the clash and allow both men to be complicated, stubborn and passionate human beings rather than mouthpieces for opposing environmental camps. Their arguments are lively because they are personal, and their mutual irritation is almost as entertaining as their occasional flashes of agreement.

Visually, the film is glorious. The countryside is captured with an almost tactile beauty — fields, hedgerows, wildlife and changing seasons providing a gorgeous backdrop to the verbal skirmishes. As the land is reshaped and nature begins to reclaim its space, the film makes you look at the British landscape afresh while simultaneously making you smile.

In equal parts hilarious and moving, Derek vs Derek shines a light on the vital debate surrounding the future of rural Britain. Even-handed, informative without being worthy and light-hearted without trivialising its subject, it is a little gem. It leaves you with plenty to think about — but, more importantly, with the feeling that perhaps the best way to argue about the future of the countryside is over a cup of tea, with two stubborn Dereks refusing to give an inch.

IN CINEMAS FROM 2 OCTOBER 2026