This short series celebrating five individuals who have, "in some small way, swum against the tide" had no formal narration - just the freewheeling voices of the subjects and the people around them. No surprise to hear that it had been produced by Maggie Ayre, one of the regular producers of the perfectly casual Ramblings.

First, an encounter with Irayne, a Jewish pig farmer from Hampstead. "If someone had said to me five years ago, y'know, you're going to have a butchery, a refrigerated van and 200 pigs, it would have been laughable." We tramped outside to look in the pens. "Ooh, you like a chat and a scratch!" giggled Irayne, euphoric. "Have a scratch!" (Imagine the pigs' eyes: small bits of crazed crystal in watery milk that widened as Irayne rubbed their backs. The programme devoted some time to the sound of mutual bliss.)

Then, back into the story: ". . . I mean, who would have thought that the Jewish Chronicle would approach a Jewish girl and talk about her sausages? But they did! After which, there were lots and lots of jokes about the Ham and High." By now flushed with fresh air, we went indoors to hear about how it all came about, this obsession with 18th-century pork recipes. "I decided it would be fun," shrugged Irayne a little cautiously. "I didn't know anything about anything. The Middle White, for example - did you know it's the new Old Spot?"

On she went, stopping to fry a large plate of breakfast sausages unsentimentally. And the central idea was only very subtly expressed - as softly as a bat's squeak. Superimposed over this happiness was a persistent personal worry: in handling pork, the traditionally raised Irayne was hurting her religion. It wasn't as if she explained her position with strategic coldness or built a fortress against criticism; it was merely there, unresolved and containable, as most problems are. The programme turned towards reality in a way that so few manage.

Then, back to Irayne going on about someone called Barry at a pig auction: "So I went off with Barry and I said, 'Let's bid for one.' And he said, 'No, no, no, you bid,' and I said, 'I don't know how to, Barry, I've only been to Sotheby's before for this kind of thing.'" l
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