05/12/2013 The One Show

Hello and welcome to The One Show with Matt Baker. And Alex Jones. We

hope you are safely sheltered with the news that in the next few hours

could bring the biggest storm surge in 60 years. We'll have live updates

from great Yarmouth, Kent and Glasgow. With us is a man who

created a storm himself every once in awhile, Jeremy Paxman! Are you

all right? I'm very well but I'm slightly bothered by the way the

news luxuriates in natural disasters. And you are almost on the

point of doing so. Well! Shall we ask you if you were involved in a

hurricane area on? I was time to get to work in 1987. The days of black

and white and dinosaurs. There was a total power cut over West London. An

engineer said, there is an emergency generator. I said, why not put it

on? And about ten minutes later, for about two seconds, the lights came

on and then they went dead again. He said it was not designed for

emergencies! We would like to hear about your experience. I would like

to hear about it! You always get reports on the news saying that

people are really calm. The only people who are not calm in the news

reporters. If you took any pictures today, send them in. Later we will

be talking about Jeremy's new book and revealing why the contents of

this beautiful old cigar box that Jeremy has brought with him

tonight, will change what you thought you knew about World War I.

First, let's go straight to gel. What are the condition to Great

Yarmouth? It is a bit blustery. People are keeping warm because they

are very busy. They are braced for the worst storm surge in 60 years.

The council has laid on this sand. Who are you filling bags for?

Ourselves. We have been told to evacuate. I have a young family.

What about you? 50, 50 really. And they go, I may not. Even though you

have been warned to go, you may not? 50, 50 at the moment. You busy

working away? Yes, we're helping neighbours and ourselves. We have

filled about 20 bags so far. Superintendent Bailey. You heard a

bit of indecision there. What is your message? We have contacted 9000

homes in the Great Yarmouth area today with the clear message that

they are in the infected areas and they should leave their homes. We

are advising people in the first place to stay with relatives if they

can, outside of the affected area, otherwise go to rescue centres. The

message is clear, this is a serious incident and we want people to

leave. In 2008 there were warnings and nothing happened. Yes, the

warnings were there on that occasion. But these are severe

warnings. We're taking them extremely seriously. Trevor

Wainwright is leader of the council. What scale is this happening on? We

had 50,000 sandbags available from this morning. We have another

100,000 bags coming in from Lincolnshire. They will arrive

tonight. In this particular area, we have had 50 tonnes of sand delivered

and we have got six of these throughout the borrower. A huge

operation. It is a staggering effort. All of this sand has come

off the beach. There are six of these sites across Yarmouth. The

beloved and told to evacuate Tomasz should. People here are busy. Thank

you very much. Tomasz Schafernaker is here. How are you? Very well. It

has been a busy day. How did this start? A real beast. It originated

in the far north Atlantic where the cold is. It has rolled in across

Scotland and northern England. The thing about this particular storm

is, the winds, they are nothing extraordinary. It is the fact that

it is such a big storm spatially. It covers such a wide area. It is in

the North Sea now. It is literally covering the whole of the North

Sea. It is affecting Denmark and the low countries. A big and powerful

one. You are going to stay with us for the rest of the show and give us

your view. Thank you. We can now go live to Sandwich in Kent and Simon

Jones. Simon, what is happening? A huge amount of activity tonight.

Lots of worried faces. Filling up sandbags, people trying to get

ready. Due to hit here in about five hours. Let's get the latest from the

Environment Agency. How bad will it be? It will be one of the most

significant events for almost 60 years. The defences are in good

condition. They will be protecting 100,000 properties nationally. We

still expect 3000 properties to be flooded. We are talking about life

and death? We have issued severe warnings. There is a risk to life.

That is why we are saying to people, make sure you stay out of floodwater

and protect those you love and your property from flooding. Take the

advice from the local authority and the police. We know that evacuation

is happening in Great Yarmouth. The police are starting to do that here

in Sandwich. Developing situation here in Sandwich. About 180 homes

being evacuated, seems reflected across the country. Time to get the

latest from Sarah in Glasgow. I can see the other guys are braving

the elements. It may be blowing a Hooley around the UK but this

morning Scotland was the first to experience the icy blast of winter.

We consider ourselves a hardy bunch but it came as a bit of a shock

after such a gentle autumn. It came in the form of 90 mile -- macro 90

miles prior wins. Police Scotland were advising drivers to steer clear

of the roads. Sadly, one HG tree driver lost his life. -- HGV.

Services were cancelled across the entire country. About 130,000 homes

were without power. Earlier, I travelled to the outskirts of

Glasgow and I met some pretty tired engineers who had been working flat

out to try to restore connections. Of course, at this time of the year

they are up against the fact we are losing like pretty quickly.

Tonight, 60,000 homes remained without electricity and electricity

companies are telling us it could take up to a couple of days before

the lines are restored. With snow and ice forecast overnight, drivers

are being warned to take extra care. If you are thinking of heading out,

stay safe. From Glasgow Central station, back to the studio.

We will keep you updated throughout the show. Jeromy's new book, Great

Britain's Great War, is out now. The inspiration for writing it was you

discovering this cigar box and its contents? That's right. My mother

died a few years ago. We found this old cigar box. She did not smoke

cigars. It turned out to be full of what was left of her uncle who had

died long before she was born. He worked in the woollen industry in

West Yorkshire. He was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. I started

thinking, this is the letter, you can have a look at it. Every family

who lost somebody got one of those. This rather chilling formal letter

saying that your son has died. They have just filled in the blanks.

Three quarters of a million of those went out. Three quarters of a

million men were killed in the First World War. This is quite

interesting. This is something that the family of every dead man got. It

is called the dead man's penny. It is about the size of a saucer. It

was a commemorative thing that went out at the end of the war. You have

got a photograph of my great uncle Charlie. He is the one in the middle

leaning on the sign. I guess that photograph was taken in 1915. He was

dead within six months. It set me thinking about what we think about

the First World War. I decided that what we really think about it is not

about the war, what we think about how the ideas, the prejudices we

were given, essentially after the war and predominantly in the 1960s.

The idea of lions led by donkeys. Generals deliberately sacrificing

their own men. The idea that the whole thing was almost a failure. It

was a futile war. How were they supposed to know that in 1918? The

single greatest characteristic, I think, is that people enjoyed in a

valiant way. I think we owe them a duty of memory and respect. And I

wanted to just try to find out what the experience was like for people

at the time. Think of the values we have now, self expression, freedom,

choice. These guys did not have a choice. You are putting down the

right history as opposed to rewriting history. It took you five

years or so to put it down. Before you wrote the book, did you share

this material? Yes. I had the Blackadder idea. I have come across

schools where they used Blackadder as fact. It is a brilliant comedy

but it is not fact. We should try to understand what it was like for men

and women and mothers and fathers and children at that time. It was an

astonishing event. As well as writing the book, you have been

making a television series which will start the World War I season.

Let's have a quick look. In the mock and fear of the

trenches, a new kind of family was formed. A corporal and if you men in

a trench were like survivors from a shipwrecked on a raft, that was how

one veteran remembered it. -- shipwrecked. The extended family was

the few dozen men in your platoon. And the father figure, the tenant.

This was usually a boy of no more than 19.

You are very keen to point out that must be a commemoration and not a

celebration. Nobody suggests it is going to be a celebration. Three

quarters of a million men dead, many wounded. There is nothing to

celebrate. We owe them a duty of respect and memory, yes. Jeromy's

book, Great Britain's Great War, is out now. Campaigners have been

asking the MoD to stop recruiting 16-year-olds into the armed forces,

even if they do not go to the front line for another two years. As Andy

Kershaw foundered, there was a time a boy soldier of 12 years of age

became the poster boy for recruitment.

The training ship royalist has set sail with a crew of young sea

cadets. It is windy, it is called and it is hard work. Ready, forward.

Ready. It is great fun being at sea with these guys but it gives very

little indication of what life was like from -- what life was like for

my paternal grandfather, who spent his youth at sea but with a

significant difference. He was in the Navy, fighting in the First

World War. In 1916, my grandad was serving on the British battleship

King George V, fighting the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland, the

greatest naval conflict of the First World War. He was just 15 and had

lied about his age to enlist. I have no idea what made him join up at

such an early age. He was either extremely courageous or he did not

know what it was letting himself in for and in that he was not alone.

During the First World War the recruitment age was 18, but hordes

of younger boys managed to join up. In many ways this was nothing new.

The British military had a long tradition of taking children to

fight overseas. What was different about World War I was the scale of

it. By the end of 1918 250,000 boys had been recruited. The war had just

broken out. There was a huge, popular fervour for the great War. A

lot of lads had left school, there were 14 or 15 years old. They are on

the bottom rung of whatever career they are doing. Difficult, tough

job, and here was a chance to wear a uniform, be out with your mates.

What was the attitude of the authorities towards child

recruitment, the Army, Navy, the government? It was a scandal but in

1914 there were queues of young lads going down the street, with older

men, and you had recruiting sergeants, each paid bounty for a

recruit and it was up to them. Are they going to argue the toss with

this young lad who is fit, willing to go? They thought, if you want to

join up, I'll let you join up. I know when I was 15 I was spending

all my time fishing, dabbling in photography and fiddling around with

motorcycles. Certainly not fighting a major sea battle like my grandad.

Soak -- some were even younger than him, the youngest we know about was

a boy of just 12. Sidney Lewis ran away from his south London home to

join the Army in August, 1915. His son Colin has joined me to tell me

more. What do you know about his time in the Army? Did he see action?

Initially he joined the East Surrey Regiment and was transferred to the

machine gun Corps with whom he went into battle. In France. He served

six weeks in the Battle of the Somme. How old was he? 13. He must

have barely been able to see over the top of his machine gun and the

trench. As part of a press campaign to champion the courage of young

boys and shame older men into joining, Sidney's story appeared in

a national newspaper. But when Sidney's worried mum discovered

where he was she found negotiating his release from the Army was not

straightforward. She had written to the War office to say, hang on a

minute, Mike Ladd is in the battle? She wrote several letters and at

first they would not do anything because she hadn't sent a post

certificate -- she had not sent up birth certificate, confirming he was

12 years old when he joined. When she sent the birth certificate that

they agreed they would release him. They took him in without a birth

certificate but would not let him out without one! Three cheers. Do

you know what, reflecting today on my experiences of my grandad in the

First World War and those of Sidney Lewis does make me wonder whether

kids of today's generation would have the same sense of duty,

self-sacrifice, principal and courage. What do you reckon, guys?

We have some of those sea cadets in the studio tonight. A bit more

enthusiastic, tonight. There we go, good. Lovely to see you all. Are you

ready for this? Yes. Let's have the music. Here we go. Jeremy, earlier

you were kind because you said whatever, you can ask me whatever

you want, well, you are known for the cooler question. We're not going

to ask you them but we have some viewers who have got some questions

for you. This is a surprise, go on. This is the first one, here we are.

Newsnight features lighter hearted items. Until then, sleep well. Is

there anything you would refuse to do on Newsnight because it was just

too silly? Yes, anything that was too silly I would refuse to do.

There are lots of things, I would not dance, for example. My colleague

danced the other night, very generously, I thought. Very good.

Off you go, stand up and do it! There are lots of things I would not

do, of course. Let's have the next one. I would not get a tattoo,

either. Dimbleby, did you hear that? If you are not going to vote, why

should we listen? Good evening, Jeremy. When you interview Russell

Brand recently you gave him a pretty hard time because he did not vote in

the last -- in the last election. Don't you think you should have told

him you did not vote either? I am afraid that is complete rubbish. I

did vote at the last election. I don't know how Michael Howard again

manages to be so misinformed. I did say at a recent election, in the

last 20 years, I did not vote and I felt very uncomfortable about it

afterwards. I would not make that mistake again. If you live in a

society, you have to pay your taxes and you have got to vote. The rest

of the time you can say what you like but if you don't vote you are

not entitled to criticise the government, you are not entitled to

comment about how society is run so you must make the minimal effort. I

think on the ballot paper that ought to be a box at the bottom that says

"none of the above" . Then the message might get through that the

choice on offer is not really satisfactory, which is especially

Russell Brand's point. If he he had asked you, would you have admitted

not voting? I have just told you, I did vote. But he -- but if he asked

you? I tell you what, let's have a light-hearted question! Why haven't

you kept your beard? Why have you kept your beard? Here's my model, of

course. We hear you are not a big fan of the subject of our next film.

Mike has been to Deeside to watch them making their home once again on

the industrial... Sorry, what? Not the industrial banks of the river,

it is seals, Jeremy. The River Tees has long been

industrial hub of the north-east providing great shipping access and

room for large factories. Collectively that industry and its

resulting pollution drove most of the wildlife out. But in recent

years as the river has become cleaner the wildlife has returned

and one unexpected species is starting to thrive will stop with

some local help. David Miles is a health and safety adviser for one of

the nearby energy companies. But in his spare time he volunteers for the

industry nature conservation Association. Because here amongst

the heavy industry seals have moved back and began to thrive. It is a

record year this year. We have 22 pups. The numbers are up as well. We

have about 60 or 70 seals, you can see about 60 today. When I see lots

of wildlife around the River Tweed makes me proud because a lot of

companies that had to be responsible and clean air act up in making the

tea is healthier. Harbour seals are known as common seals and are mainly

found along northern and eastern coasts in quiet river mouths and

harbours. They are incredibly shy, so here we need to stay behind this

hide to avoid disturbing them. This is remarkable. All the fine is as a

backdrop, the A178, 50 metres away and loads of seals. It is typical,

this is the main area the pups and the nurses -- the nursing, the

feeding. Harbour seals spend roughly half their time in the water, coming

on land to moult, rest and breed. The river is tied also the mudflats

appear twice a day. -- it is tidal. With industry all around them the

seals can roll out here with minimal disturbance. What are they feeding

on? Mackerel, salmon. May have been building up slowly since the

mid-80s, is that right? 1986, and steadily since then we have seen an

increase in numbers which has been positive for the area. They come

back because of clear water? The water is clean, a plentiful supply

of food. Although they are not back to their heyday numbers big from

before the Industrial Revolution, over 80 harbour seals have been

counted living amongst the smokestacks so far. But nobody is

sure exactly how many there are so David has a plan. What I am actually

doing for the first time this year is to photo ID the seals. How can

you tell the differences between individuals? We are using a

programme which is identification software. It has been used in the

past in Africa to photograph zebras and use their pattern is a bar code.

Very clever but seals are not stripey. No, they are not, but this

programme can read patches as well as stripes so you can use the animal

markings as a pattern and it identifies the animal. For the

database to work David needs to get photographs of all of the seals from

all angles. Which is going to take a long time. When do you think you

might have the full set of seals from here? I have 22 individuals and

the idea is to collate a database so I can take photographs and identify

seals that returned. Like clockwork, as the tide turns the seals slide

down the banks and back into what is increasingly becoming cleaner water.

So if the water quality is there that also means a huge array of

invertebrates, large populations of birds and of course lots of fish and

lots of fish means lots more seals. I know that spot very well and I for

1am pleased to see the numbers. Likewise, me and Jeremy have been

having a ding-dong! I don't think we do, I think you are just wrong! From

an ecological point of view. This is like celebrating a surge of rats.

Fish and snails have been around for millennia, perfectly coexisting.

Whether or not you like them, let's find out how it is going to be this

evening. On the tees they are doing fine because common seals pup in the

summer but further down the shore in Lincolnshire, grey seals pup in the

autumn and for three weeks the grey seal pups are entirely dependent on

their mothers and if they are separated in the surge, it is a

death sentence so hopefully the wardens are watching out and they

will stay with their mothers until they go out to sea. They are

popping? Pupping. We have a lovely present. We're hoping to persuade

you. It sweet, pup has been adopted by you, called Jeremy Paxman. It was

separated from its mother. It will be released back into the water.

This is blackmail! Photographed with a seal. We have a concert already. I

bob in by the very words of Jeremy Paxman himself. Tomasz is back. Give

us an update and your predictions for the next 48 hours. It looks bad

along the North Sea coast. What we have been having in the last day or

so, strong wind pushing the water in the direction of the southern

portion of the North Sea. On top of that you have got high tides as well

so you have different amounts of water piling up against each other

and then in East Anglia and the northern Kent coast, that is where

the hazard is so anywhere from around the wash, which is a little

bay area, down towards the Kennett Coast, these areas will be impacted

over the next 24 hours, very serious stuff. At a is with every tide

coming in? There are three tides and the high tides plus the mound of

water pushed by the wind and the waves on top of that is the

difference may not be able to cope with that. Lots of you at home have

been victims of the storm already. Martin and Debbie's shed was blown

over in the wind. Luckily the car stopped it blowing down the road

into a nearby infant school. This is Welsh, this is Dave Berry... From

Prestatyn. His grandparent's housing Wales. They were out shopping at the

time. This is a picture of the storm surge on the River Mersey. Mrs

Judith, from Glasgow, her summerhouse, before and after. There

we are. A big thank you to all of our guests, especially to Jeremy.

Great Britain's Great War is out now. Tomorrow, I will be here with

Chris and Eddie Izzard.