Browse content similar to 01/09/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to the One Show with Matt Baker. And Alex Jones. | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
With us is a man who, after swimming the channel and the Strait | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
of Gibraltar for charity hasn't had enough of the water. He's back for | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
more, this time swimming down the Thames. It's half man, half fish, | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
David Walliams. Half man half fish, never been introduced as that | :00:37. | :00:44. | |
before?! Half man half fish, makes me a mermaid. I know. We are indeed | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
going to be following you through the the week on the One Show. We | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
have brought you a few things that might help you on your journey. | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
survive pack. Do you want me to put those on now? You can do whatever | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
you want. Are you going to grease me up as well? We have a lovely | :01:00. | :01:07. | |
little float as well. That's a 30 inch waist, mine's a 40 inch! | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
Lovely, thank you very much. I could sign that and put it on eBay. | :01:11. | :01:17. | |
Let's do it. And raise 10p. David's done some amazing things in the | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
water. We want to see you with your badges and anything else you have | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
won in the pool. Don't be shy and send them in. Hope the challenge | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
goes well and that you won't have to sample the delights of your | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
first story this evening. Hospital food. Chef James Martin is | :01:34. | :01:40. | |
determined to do something to improve it. | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
Every year, the NHS spends around �500 million of taxpayers' money on | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
hospital food. But what worries me is nearly half of the food that's | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
served ends up being thrown away. I appreciate that it's difficult | :01:53. | :01:59. | |
cooking for all these people. I would just like it to be better and | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
taste better. The potato is just... I don't like it at all. As a | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
package, it's pretty poor. Vegetables wet and soggy. Mash | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
potato that you could walk across. Custard's the same, you know. Lumpy | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
and you could walk across that as well. | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
Scarborough General Hospital is up for a change and over the next few | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
month, I'm going to be working with them to achieve it. | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
For the last two decades, the kitchens here have been run by | :02:28. | :02:35. | |
catering manager Pat Bell and her head chef Sharon Ellis. This is | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
Sharon my head chef. Nice to meet you. How many meals come out of | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
here a day? Over a thousand. decides the menu, you? Yes. | :02:44. | :02:51. | |
much have you got to spend? We have a patient meal aloufpbs of �3.49 | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
per patient per day -- allowance. lot? Yes. Three main meals, all the | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
beverages and biscuits that we give them throughout the day. | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
The financial challenges faced by the kailtering team at Scarborough | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
are shared by chefs at every NHS hospital in the country -- catering | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
team at Scarborough. There have been a series of | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
Government initiatives aimed at raising the standards, yet in 2007, | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
50,000 people within the NHS were still dying with malnutrition. | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
Despite calls for compulsory standards for hospital food, the | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
Government says that the responsibility lies with each | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
individual NHS Trust. I want to find out what the chefs at | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
Scarborough general are currently using in their cooking. Pat is | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
giving me a gieded tour of her store cupboards. -- guided tour. A | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
lot of soup here? We have to use 14 flavours of soup a week because we | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
have one on at lunch and one at supper every day. What is wrong | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
with home-made soup? It's got to be better for you than this? We have | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
canned fruits this side. The reason why we have tinned fruit, is that | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
for any reason? We have to have fruit on the menu every day, but we | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
use tinned fruit, only tinned fruit in natural use, not syrup because | :04:11. | :04:17. | |
then it caters for the patients who're on special diets. Whips, | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
cold sweets, they'll supplement the menus. They're suitable for diets | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
as well. I've not seen one of these since I was a kid. So are the | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
dietitians happy with this? Yes. Really? Yes. If they weren't, it | :04:31. | :04:37. | |
wouldn't be on the menu. Next stop, Pat's deep freeze. My freezer. | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
Looks like an air-raid shelter. Look at it! What's up here? | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
Omelettes up here. Omelettes? Omelettes. In a freezer? In a | :04:47. | :04:55. | |
freezer. Never seen... Never seen a frozen omelette? No. How much are | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
these? About 25p. Surely that's more than they'd cost to make fresh. | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
Everything's out of a tin or a packet. Everything. All the veg is | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
frozen. All the soup's ready made, all out of a packet and apparently | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
they put two packets in to make it taste better. The NHS doesn't throw | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
money at catering departments like a lot of the hotels and big | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
restaurants do so I think it's been an eye opener for him this morning | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
to see what we have to work with. Have I got my work cut out then? | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
You sure have. We think you have. That VT throws | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
up so many questions. What happened next then? How did you start | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
solving the problem? First of all, we got rid of this, frozen omelette. | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
Never seen a frozen omelette before and frozen food is OK in moderation. | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
So I look at it as a business so transform the restaurant so we put | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
on things for the customers and the patients and above all else, the | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
staff who work in the hospital, Cowes Cowes, shoulder of pork, a | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
cheap dish to create, all manner of different things sothe restaurant | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
would become profitable so all the profit could be fed back into the | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
kitchen to help buy new equipment. All manner of different things we | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
looked at right the way through. Ice-cream, old age pensioners | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
wanted ice-cream. We couldn't do it in the kitchen so put vending | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
machines on the wards which were free and free to maintain and free | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
to look after. So looking at all sections, now we have got fresh | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
soup on the menu, fredge veg is in the soup on the menu, they're | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
cooking again -- fresh veg. The blueprint of it is hopefully it | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
works because they're going to roll it out to another hospital soon. | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
There will be so many people out there willing you to succeed. But | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
there will be sceptics, Loyd Grossman had a go in 2000 and it | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
didn't work? When I was approached, the first thing was to try to | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
change one. Each hospital's different and are treating | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
different patients, so the ability here is to create one blueprint | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
that other people could use, but fundamentally, but not asking any | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
more money. This can be done still for that �3.49 per day. That is an | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
amazingly small amount though isn't it? Tiny, but still can be done. | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
It's close to your heart. What is your inspiration behind it? | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
family members have been in hospitals. Everyone has an | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
association with hospitals. Seeing the food, one family member that I | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
had, having to see her there, it inspired me to cook in the first | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
place after seeing the food she had in hospital. I had a plaster in my | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
jelly once when I was in hospital. I was in hospital ten years ago for | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
a week and a woman come round in the morning and asked what I had | :07:45. | :07:52. | |
for breakfast and she said she had everything. I said, poached eggs, | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
baked beans, mushrooms and bacon. She went "toast or Cornflakes?". | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
She was creating the illusion of everything but really if you asked | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
for Cornflakes, it would have been fine. You are burning 4,400 | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
calories a day? Yes. How are you going to refuel? Eat like a pig. | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
This is one great thing about a physical challenge. You can eat | :08:14. | :08:23. | |
anything you like, so it will be cakes, cheese, ice-cream. No | :08:23. | :08:28. | |
omelettes. How many calories are in your bread and butter pudding? | :08:28. | :08:34. | |
2,800 a day. Will you come along one day. I could throw stuff at you | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
while you are swimming. No, cook a nice meal. What are you doing next | :08:38. | :08:45. | |
week? Obviously cooking for you. You can see how James got on all of | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
next week, Operation Hospital Food starts on Monday morning at 9.15, | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
BBC One. David's swim also starts on Monday morning, as part of the | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
Big Splash campaign, all about getting more of us into the | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
swimming pool. Learning to swim is a right of | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
passage in most people's lives and a viz to it the local swimming | :09:07. | :09:13. | |
baths can bring back nostalgic recollections. | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
Swimming, diving, having fun, laughing, joking, playing with the | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
kids. Drown your friends, I suppose, pull their costume down, to be fair. | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
I'm being honest. There was always a rumour at school that if you weed | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
in the pool, it would go a funny colour. Remember all the notices | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
about all the things you weren't allowed to do? No diving. No dive | :09:35. | :09:45. | |
:09:45. | :09:47. | ||
But, of course, not everyone has these memories. It's thought that | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
almost ten million people across the UK can't swim. But why have | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
they never learned? If you have a bad experience, often you find with | :09:58. | :10:03. | |
adults, that'll put them off for years and years. You say recently, | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
how old were you? Probably about 34. I had a bad experience with my | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
friend. He thought he was indestructible and jumped in off | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
the side and he couldn't swim. He had to get saved and he nearly | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
drowned. Your parents couldn't swim. You can't swim. But you've taken | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
the effort to bring your kids down so they can learn to swim? Swimming | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
is such a good sport to do and it would be really upsetting for me to | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
come to the pool and not being able to see my children get in there and | :10:33. | :10:43. | |
:10:43. | :10:44. | ||
It's not just a sport, it's a life skill. How much do you like | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
swimming? That much?! What's the best bit about swimming? You tell | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
me? Splashing people. I like your style, gimme five! However you look | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
at it, swimming is a great source of exercise and a whole lot of fun | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
as well. I'll tell you something, swimming baths are miles cleaner | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
than what I remember them as a kid. In fact, I think I'll drop a | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
plaster in the filter right now for old times' sake. Very versatile | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
isn't he, Dom, brilliant, underwater swimming and everything. | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a swimming pool? Is that fair? | :11:22. | :11:31. | |
Yes, my mum and dad met in Tooting Bec Lido. It would have been their | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
anniversary today, but my dad died three years ago. Your mum must be | :11:35. | :11:42. | |
so proud of you at the moment. all the things I do but... The | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
swimming, yes. Lots of foe toes of youngsters isn't in. This is Andrew, | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
aged eight. Look at all the badges there. He's doing well. More than | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
me! This here is Hannah from Gosport with a the swimming badges. | :11:58. | :12:06. | |
She swan 1,000 freestyle for her last badge. How old is she? Doesn't | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
say, probably about six. You've swam the channel, an amazing feat. | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
Thank you. Lots of people jumping up and down at that one, now you | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
are swimming eight times further, the Thames? Yes, this is 140 miles, | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
the length of the Thames from the start in Lechlade all the way to | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
the Houses of Parliament, so that's 140 miles. Incredibly dangerous? | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
is. I would say don't try this at home. It really is a dangerous bit | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
of water to swim, so really don't get in the Thames. This is all for | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
Sport Relief which is in March, but I didn't really want to do it in | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
March because it's going to be cold so I said can I do it in September. | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
How far do you aim to swim each day in preparation for the challenge? | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
I'm going to do 20 miles a day each day and I've been doing lots of | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
training, swimming aibt eight hours a day, doing as much as I can in | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
the Thames -- about eight hours a day. How does 20 miles a day make | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
you feel? It's kind of just short of the channel so it's like doing | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
the channel every day for eight days. What do you think about | :13:08. | :13:14. | |
because you can't wear an iPod? think mainly about you. Do you?! | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
I'm very touched. Sometimes about Matt but mainly you. | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
I think about all kinds of things, mainly about what I'm going to eat. | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
Do you go through Abba songs and pet shop boy bands? Some other | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
bands as well. Anything that makes you happy and takes your mind off | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
it because you're boring, your face is in the water, you can't speak to | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
anyone or see anything so I go off and think about my favourite songs, | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
lyrics to a song or my favourite James Bond film. You've been doing | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
these endurance challenges for the last five years. Would you PE | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
teacher have seen you as this type of thing? I would be last in the | :13:56. | :14:01. | |
cross-country runs. I met somebody from school a few weeks ago and he | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
said, to think you would be the Sports Personality of the Year | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
person. But it's not a race, at school it's all about who is the | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
fastest but I can stay in the water for a long time. You are in the top | :14:13. | :14:20. | |
50 of those swimming 2t channel? Yes, which is amazing, can't | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
believe it. Can you vary your strokes? I think I'll do some | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
backstroke to kind of open up my shoulders. Do you regret not | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
swimming more when you were younger because I'm sure there are loads of | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
Olympians who couldn't swim 20 miles a day for eight days? Yes, | :14:35. | :14:42. | |
but I was too lazy. I just liked watching TV and eating crisps so | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
yes, I don't think I would have ever been an athlete, I'm good | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
built for swimming with my long arms. Wide shoulders. And big hands | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
and feet so not a bad shape for it. You said you were doing it for | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
Sport Relief. Is there a cause in particular that you've found you | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
want to raise money for? Yes, I went to Kenya and met kids who live | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
on the streets. One little boy called Phillip is 12 he's lived on | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
the street for four years, his mum and dad are dead. Sport Relief | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
funds a project that gives him health care and education, | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
somewhere safe to sleep. So I'll be thinking of him when doing the swim. | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
We hope you raise loads of money. You got a million didn't you for | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
the channel? Yes and that was amazing so I don't know how much | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
I'll raise this time, but money can go a long way in helping people. | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
course it can. For all the information about David's Big | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
Splash swim for Sport Relief can be found through the website. | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
We'll follow every stroke and splutter of David's swim next week | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
here on the One Show. Not sure you will get a lot of time to enjoy the | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
wildlife around you as you are swimming so we've got Mike here to | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
tell you what you could be missing out on. For starters, there'll | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
probably be lots of ducks and Miranda Krestovnikoff has been to | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
Gloucestershire to discover the secret life of an unhatched | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
duckling. Bird song. Beautiful to our ears | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
but a vital way of communicating for all birds. | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
So vital in fact that for some it begins while they're still in the | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
egg. Most bird species communicate with | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
the outside world before they hatch. But for ducklings and little | :16:23. | :16:29. | |
Goslings like this one, it's especially important | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
Ducklings are born on land but to avoid predators, they need to get | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
to the safety of water as soon as possible. Mother ducks won't wait | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
for stragglers, the ducklings need to stick to her like glue so must | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
hatch at the same time. They do this by calling to each other from | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
inside their eggs. Those sounds are so quiet that | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
they're difficult for us to hear. I've brought wildlife sound | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
recordist Chris Watson to Slimbridge to give it a crack. I'm | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
sure you have the right mic for the job, but how are we going to do | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
this? We need to use a personal microphone so it's unon intrusive | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
and won't disturb the bird. Phoebe is going to help me. If you could | :17:10. | :17:19. | |
get that right in amongst the eggs, if that's possible. | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
How is that sounding? Really good, yes. Just settling down on the nest. | :17:24. | :17:31. | |
A bit of rustling going on. Is that her heartbeat? It's fantastic. | :17:31. | :17:36. | |
Really never expected to hear that. That is amazing isn't it, really | :17:36. | :17:42. | |
fast. It's fascinating, but it's not the sound we came to hear. In | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
fact, the pond is such a noisy place, it's a wonder the ducklings | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
can hear each other from inside their eggs at all. Well, they can. | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
And they've evolved a very clever trick to do so. A duckling in this | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
egg rests its head against the inside of the shell and it uses the | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
shell as a sounding board so that when it makes a chirp, that sound | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
travels through the shells of all the eggs to the duckling in this | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
egg. Chris, I can't chirp, but I can tap | :18:11. | :18:18. | |
and scratch. So if I just make a little sound... Can you hear that? | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
Clearly, yes. Really? It's going right through all the eggs, right | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
down to the contact mic at the other end. Working well? Excellent. | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
Beautiful. I want to hear the real thing so I knead to go somewhere | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
much quieter. In the duckery, there are eggs in | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
incubators ready to hatch and, away from the noise outside, we should | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
have a better chance of hearing what we came here for. Put your | :18:45. | :18:50. | |
hands on the top gently and you can feel them tapping away. Nice and | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
warm. Hang on, that one ice moving. Just like us, in order to make a | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
sound, ducklings first need to take a breath and for that, they need | :19:00. | :19:10. | |
air. If we could turn the lights off. You can really see that air | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
space. It's a lot bigger than I imagined it would be. By the time a | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
chick is due to hatch, the chick only covers one third of the egg, | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
so there's a particularly good egg here. Look inside! Is that its beak | :19:24. | :19:31. | |
that we can see? Yes. Gorgeous. bit of foot there as well and some | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
webbing. That's his little foot. Would it be possible to fix the | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
contact microphone on the outside of the shell to hear what's | :19:38. | :19:48. | |
:19:48. | :19:56. | ||
happening inside? Certainly, yes, I CHIRPING | :19:56. | :20:03. | |
It's going. That's the first time we've heard it call. | :20:03. | :20:12. | |
Oh, my God. That's brilliant! You can hear them tapping and squeaking. | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
That's absolutely brilliant. That tiny air space vocalising. This is | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
the start of the hatching process. And, in a day or so, all the | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
ducklings will emerge together ensuring nobody is left behind. | :20:30. | :20:39. | |
:20:40. | :20:40. | ||
Incredible. Mike, while David is swimming the Thames thinking about | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
Matt Baker... And Alex Jones. are doing it at the right time. The | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
rivers are in fantastic nick. The weir where you are is fantastic, | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
the Dee is super clean and the Thames is clean. Clean rivers mean | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
lots of wildlife teeming back. As you start up in Lechlade, if you | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
are on part of the rufr with loads of soft banks, you will see this | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
little critter, the water vole -- the river. You won't see that | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
because that's you. There is the water vole below you. Don't worry | :21:11. | :21:18. | |
about these, they're totally vegetarian. Slightly further down, | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
you need to be slightly more worried about the largest predatory | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
fish, the pike. Now, these are got huge teeth and the reason why they | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
do well in the Thames is because there's roach, minnow, so many fish | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
because it's clean I don't think for a minute these will go for toes | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
and fingers. They have a set of Nashers on them. How big are they? | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
Over a metre long. Look down and you might catch one. Further down | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
and by Richmond Park as you come into West London, you may see the | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
Chinese mitten crab. Crabs in the Thames?! A fresh water species that | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
came in, yes. You can tell them because they have a furry boxing | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
mitten and they may well nip something, I wouldn't like to say | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
for a second who they might be, but you know what I mean. Finally when | :22:08. | :22:15. | |
you get to the em - Thames, you may see a whale. Not a bicycle whale, | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
but a whale. A whale? A bottlenosed whale. It's not inconceivable that | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
you could hitch a ride if you are tired. Unlikely? But possible. Jie | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
I've already been attacked by a swan because they're very | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
territorial and had about ten goes at me. I had to get out and walk | :22:34. | :22:41. | |
for about half a mile. Some can brake a man's arm with their wing. | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
Steer clear of the swans, the pike and the crabs. The voles are fine. | :22:46. | :22:56. | |
:22:56. | :22:59. | ||
The voles are sweet. Just plough on and think of Alex. Dan Snow knows | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
that heroes come in all shapes and sizes.. We found one in the most | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
unlikely of places behind the bars of Peterhead Prison in | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
Aberdeenshire. In World War II, the bulk of the fighting involved the | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
allies using traditionally trained soldiers, airmen and soldiers | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
against their German counterparts. There were times when officers | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
needed to think unconventionally when they needed tos cape the | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
narrow confines of accepted military doctrine. That gave us | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
some of the most extraordinary stories from the Second World War | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
and one of them started right here in what's traditionally one of the | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
hardest areas of Glasgow, the globals. It was here in 1916 that a | :23:40. | :23:49. | |
man called Johnny ra men ski began a criminal career -- Ramensky. He | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
was more than just a vale lain. He became a soldier who joined the | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
elite commando's unit. Remarkably, his criminal skills were an | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
integral part of his military service. Johnny was a safe breaker. | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
John Mitchell was a safe expert who worked for the police and crossed | :24:07. | :24:16. | |
paths with Johnny. How did Johnny ra men ski learn his trade? | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
Ramensky? I understand he learned its from fellow prisoners in | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
Peterhead, particularly scotch Jimmy who was a real old hand. He | :24:24. | :24:32. | |
started way back in the 1800s. Ramensky demonstrated the same | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
skills as the police. If you can put the right charge of explosives | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
through the keyhole to take the lock off, the handle should turn | :24:40. | :24:49. | |
and the door should open. Ramensky was also an accomplished escape | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
artist and managed the break out five times. He was a thorn in the | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
side of the authorities and a public enemy, until Britain | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
declared war on Germany. He began a long campaign of letter-writing to | :25:02. | :25:08. | |
his prison governor, pleading to be allowed to join the Army. An an | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
extra reads "I beg you to overlook my past record and give me a chance | :25:12. | :25:20. | |
to serve my country, I'm willing to make a supreme sacrifice". A book | :25:20. | :25:27. | |
has been written on him. How did he end up being a good one in the end? | :25:27. | :25:34. | |
There was a letter writing about the skilful safe breaker. He did | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
serve his sentence. He was immediately met outside the gates | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
by the Secret Service agents in West London. He was put in the | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
commandos, the ideal unit for him. Created in 1940 with the express | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
intention of breaching enemy lines on secret missions. His skills in | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
explosives fitted the bill perfectly. One of his achievements | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
was to invent a method of blowing up railway lines to thwart German | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
attempts to minimise repair time. The Germans put wagons in front of | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
the local motors to blow them up and then they just repaired the | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
track. But he detonated the explosives underneath the | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
locomotive, a much better act of sabotage. He more or less invented | :26:17. | :26:21. | |
that delayed fuse technique. What else did he do in the war? He went | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
to Rome and it was quickly realised that there would be a lot of | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
valuable information in German safes and he was the guy to open | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
them. He did actually break into the German Embassy and open safes | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
there. Johnny returned from his wartime exploits with some | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
extraordinary souvenirs of top secret missions. These two banners, | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
they were brought home from Rome. In fact, the suggestion is that | :26:47. | :26:55. | |
these came from the top office. In his lust for excitement, he was | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
very, very driven to do something for Britain in a time of war. One | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
of the most remarkable Scots of the 20th century. An unsung hero whose | :27:06. | :27:12. | |
story deserves to be told. Despite his wartime heroics, after he was | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
demobbed, Johnny slipped back into a life of crime and died in prison | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
in 197 2. His life was a fascinating one that shows how in a | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
battle for survival, deprat times called for desperate measures. | :27:25. | :27:35. | |
:27:35. | :27:35. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds | :27:35. | :28:19. | |
You have three days to go before you start? 8.30am Monday morning? | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
Yes. How will you prepare over the weekend? I'm in the Thames tomorrow | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
at 7am doing some training there. I've got a wedding on Saturday, a | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
friend of mine is getting married. A spanner in the works? No, that's | :28:32. | :28:37. | |
good because I can think of something else. I'll go to Lechlade | :28:37. | :28:40. | |
on Sunday, then I'll start on Monday at Lechlade. Anyone who | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
wants to say hello, please come and say it. What will you be having for | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
breakfast that morning? Cakes probably. I'll probably eat | :28:48. | :28:54. | |
porridge, that's what I ate slimming the channel. That's slow | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
release carbohydrates. I have got to carb up. What is the deal with | :28:57. | :29:00. | |
people coming to see you? Please do. You will be letting people know | :29:00. | :29:07. | |
where I am each day so lovely to have support. I have eight days of | :29:07. | :29:12. | |
swimming ahead of me. Good luck with it. One more photo before we | :29:12. | :29:19. | |
go, Mrs Greene sent this in of her son, Dai Greene, he's won the gold | :29:19. | :29:24. |