Derek Gow and Derek Banbury are neighbors in Devon who represent polar opposites in the current agricultural landscape. Gow, an outspoken and sweary Scottish rewilder, has gained recognition for reintroducing species such as beavers, storks, and wildcats to the English countryside. Banbury, meanwhile, is an unrepentant intensive dairy farmer who has spent five decades scaling his operation from a modest 14-cow start to a massive facility housing 600 animals. The three-year documentary project, Derek vs Derek, directed by James Dawson, chronicles the friction and eventual evolution of their relationship.
The film begins with a clear sense of animosity. Banbury bluntly assesses his neighbor’s methods, stating, “It’s like he’s just gone mad, and the madness is now crossing the road on to my land.” Gow is equally critical of modern intensive farming practices. He holds deep disdain for farmers he accuses of “spaffing” public funds on expensive vehicles and maintaining overgrazed pastures, describing the industry as one that rapes the environment to churn out products nobody wants. He also frequently lashes out at what he calls “showers of morons” within the conservation sector for spending time in committees while biodiversity collapses.
Tensions often spill over into daily life. When Gow’s wild boars escaped and dug up Banbury’s fields, the dairy farmer had them shot. Banbury expresses a clear dislike for rewilding staples like beavers and storks, prioritizing his business model above all else. “I love farming,” Banbury declares in the film. “Intensive farming, that’s supplying the world with food. I’ve done it for 50 years and I won’t change. Nobody tells me what to do!”
Filmmaker James Dawson stumbled into the project while documenting Gow’s efforts to transform his own land from a muddy, industrial-style farm into a nature sanctuary. During the production, Dawson stayed with the Banburys, where he captured the domestic life of the family, including wife Linda and their four children. The film highlights moments of humorous frustration, such as a dispute over health and safety regulations requiring fewer chairs in a barn for a screening, which left Banbury infuriated despite the protestations of his daughter Katie.
As the project progressed, the dynamic began to shift. While filming at local cattle markets, Banbury faced teasing from peers who joked about him becoming a film star. Yet, as the cameras recorded the two men side-by-side, mutual understanding emerged. Banbury began to acknowledge the value of wildlife, eventually considering allowing his own hedgerows to grow wild to create ecological corridors. Gow, for his part, expressed newfound sympathy for older farmers caught in a system that demanded constant expansion for survival.
The documentary underscores a pivotal moment when 300 neighbors and farmers attended a special preview of the film in a barn. They were served local cider and pasties, and according to Gow, the screening concluded without anyone arguing against the reality of nature loss. While Gow admits some of his fellow farmers are difficult, he notes that they are acutely aware of the environmental changes occurring around them.
Gow’s vision for the future, which he illustrates using 1950s and 60s Ladybird books, suggests that farmers could integrate nature into their land without sacrificing all productivity. “Gow does not want to rewild the world, but suggests if every farmer set aside 10% of their land, it could make a significant difference,” the documentary notes. The film has already received standing ovations at festivals in Thessaloniki and Sheffield.
Ultimately, the documentary serves as a portrait of two men who share more than just a name. Both possess a fierce work ethic, a deep attachment to the land, and an unexpected capacity for growth. Linda, Banbury’s wife, eventually characterizes Gow as a “big Scottish softie at heart.” As they look toward the film’s UK release on October 2, the two Dereks appear to have moved from a position of conflict to one of begrudging coexistence, proving that even the deepest ideological divides can sometimes be bridged by proximity and a shared humanity. The report also notes that d erek Gow and Derek Banbury should hate each other. The report also notes that gow is an outspoken rewilder widely credited with bringing back the beaver in England. The report also notes that over the hedge, Banbury, his neighbour, is proud to be an intensive farmer, producing milk and beef cattle behind tightly clipped hedges. The report also notes that with no hope of bridging the chasm between modern chemical farmers and idealistic rewilders, or between the needs of food production and the worsening extinction crisis, is slowly and subtly upended, as the two Dereks learn to live alongside each other and hopeful seeds of common ground are sown, what begins as a portrait of neighbours at war. The report also notes that then, when Dawson first visited Gow, he was put up at the Banburys, where wife Linda has turned former pigsties and old sheds into holiday cottages. The report also notes that he knew he had to make a rather different film, as soon as Dawson met Derek Banbury over breakfast in the farmhouse kitchen. The report also notes that both Dereks share a certain charisma, bloody-mindedness, business acumen and, actually, a love of animals, as well as a boundary.
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