A world away from the grim grit of Red Riding – geographically, chronologically, and dramatically – is the leafy, gentle, genteel world of Lark Rise To Candleford. A drama guaranteed to lull you dreamily to the end of your weekend rather than sit you on the edge of your seat and douse you with cold water before cracking your head with a viciously swung pair of handcuffs. So it’s with a sense of inner warmth that I greet the BBC’s news today that a third series of Bill Gallagher’s adaptation of Flora Thompson’s memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood has been commissioned and will film later this summer for transmission in early 2010.

The press release describes this as an “antidote to winter blues” and it’s certainly good to be able to watch happy people wandering in sun-drenched fields and through leafy glades when you’re huddled by the fire with the winter wind whipping round your whithers.

There’s no word yet on exactly how many of the regular cast, including Julia Sawalha, Olivia Hallinan, Jason Merrells, Brendan Coyle, Olivia Grant, Mark Heap and Ruby Bentall, will return for the third series, nor if anyone is yet lined up for the numerous guest slots, taking the place of those characters peculiar to Lark Rise whom everyone knows without ever having seen before, but it’s early days. Writer Bill Gallagher hasn’t even started on the scripts yet. As he says: “I’m delighted at the public response to Lark Rise To Candleford, it’s wonderful that so many people have taken the show to their heart and I can’t wait to get started on new storylines and characters for the third series. Flora Thompson’s beautiful books are packed with delights, so we’re never short of inspiration.”

Expect more stuttering, faltering romances between the lead characters, would be my guess, along with the usual chronicling of the day-to-day life of two communities at the end of the 19th century as they go about their traditional businesses farming, crafting and generally getting up each others’ noses and into each others’ business.

The current series, which will conclude on Sunday 15 March with a spring wedding, has so far attracted average audiences of over 6.4 million viewers, and received a deluge of positive feedback from both fans and the press.