Behind the scenes on BBC Two's Tudor Monastery Farm Mealtime at the Tudor Monastery Farm (Credit: BBC/Lion Television/Laura Rawlinson) She is, however, an impressive repository of Tudor facts, thanks to her 25 years as a member of a re-enactment group, and she wastes no time in telling me that her white veil has been pinned into a gable shape at the front, "to ape the style of the court. It shows I'm a Tudor woman with social pretensions," she grins. A self-confessed "Tudor Girl," Goodman is thrilled by the nation's seemingly insatiable appetite for the period. We've devoured everything from Hilary Mantel's Booker Award-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, to BBC Two's racy drama The Tudors, and Goodman puts our enthusiasm down to the period's "exoticism" and aesthetics. "The Tudor world is very colourful to the eye - people were brightly dressed, buildings brightly painted," she explains. Also, a little later, in Elizabethan times, we explode onto the world stage, as opposed to being by ourselves as almost a third world country, and that's quite exciting. But while fictional representations of the period tend to focus on the monarchy, Goodman hopes that this series will shift our understanding from the realm of kings and queens to the everyday. It was a time of very great practicalities - there's not a lot of sitting around doing nothing, even at the top. It's a very hands-on, gung-ho society. Goodman also hopes to debunk some of the more persistent myths surrounding Tudor life, such as the claim that food was highly spiced to disguise rotting meat: "Utter bunkum!" she declares. Spices were way more expensive than meat, and humans have been able to tell when meat is off since they were lizards, because otherwise you're dead. Later, I meet Ginn and Pinfold in the farmyard, perspiring freely into their long-sleeved shirts and breeches in the August heat. For Pinfold, television presenting is just the latest addition to an already eclectic skill set. The Wirral-born archaeologist is also an ex-personal trainer and naval reservist and has a master's degree in terrorism security. "I don't have the same background as Ruth and Peter per se," he laughs. But you just throw yourself in. Tom Pinfold and Peter Ginn sowing seeds (Credit: BBC/Lion Television/Laura Rawlinson) Throwing himself in has meant sowing and harvesting barley and field peas, casting bells, making paper, practising archery, building a pigsty and conducting a perilous midsummer celebration, involving rolling a flaming cartwheel down a hill. "If it can make it to the bottom alight, it ensures a good harvest," explains Ginn, who took a tumble during the celebration thanks to his slippery Tudor boots. "I landed on my back surrounded by fire and roots," he says. The series does hold one significant pleasure for Ginn, however. Having wrestled with early tractors in Edwardian Farm - "you were always frightened of losing a finger" - this series has allowed him to work with animals. "We've got the only pair of working oxen existent in Britain and we've got them harrowing," he says excitedly. We're going back to a time when it is all about people and labour. It's hard, but in a good way; it's very community based. The show's predecessors have been a hit for BBC Two, pulling in nearly four million viewers between them, and Tudor Monastery Farm will no doubt prove just as successful. But some question the value of the recent slew of programmes about our heritage. Do we really need to watch archaeologists scything barley in a bucolic landscape? I ask Goodman. Isn't it just escapist nostalgia? "Of course, there's a slight fantasy element to the series," she says, bristling "but it's not pure indulgence." Then she rallies. If you look at history, you realise that everything in the past has been different - everything! She emits a delighted laugh. And that means that everything in the future can be different. You can be powerful. You can change the world. Clearly, there's no keeping this Tudor Girl down. Tudor Monastery Farm begins on Nov 13 at 9pm on BBC Two