22/11/2011 The One Show

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

Tonight's best dipped his toe in the river and ended up winning the

Boat race. He dallied with drama and is now the highest paid actor

on American TV. He penned a paperback which became a bestseller.

And has now taken the music world by storm. But we love him because

at heart, he is a bit of a bumbler. Pardon me for saying so, but it

seems to be a reasonably straightforward syncopated time

signature. If you were to act and the words if, where and fashion,

the correct rhythmic pattern would emerge. If, where and fashion.

# If you don't know where to go, why don't you go where fashions it

so, putting on the Ritz. It is Hugh Laurie! Welcome. We saw

you there with the wonderful Stephen Fry in Jeeves and Wooster.

How does that compare to House? to so strange. It is like a

previous life. A good one, though. A very wonderful previous life, but

it is so strange to see that. we going to see more Jeeves and

Wooster? We are pushing on a bit now. It is a young man's game. We

were young and feckless. That would be lovely. I would love to do

anything with the old geezer, as I refer to him when he is not here.

Do you think Stephen Fry would make a good butler in real life? No. And

not remotely. He doesn't have the qualities. No, he does not have the

qualities. He would be good at carrying suitcases. He is big and

strong. No. Were a, that is not the only time we will be seeing Hugh on

a piano tonight. The studio is packed full of instruments. It is

like Jools Holland in here. For a, new guidelines which may make it

easier to get a Caesarean on the NHS are released tomorrow.

A mum to be Angellica Bell visited one hospital to see if everyone

thought this was a good idea. It is a regular day here at the

East Surrey Hospital's birthing unit. I will be visiting a place

like this in just over one month's time. I am hoping for a natural

birth, but if recent headlines are to be believed, there may be more

choice on offer for mums to be. Although the likes of Victoria

Beckham, Elizabeth Hurley and Madonna have found it easy to

arrange Caesareans, ordinary mums find it harder to get one if that

is what they want. See sections are currently only available on the NHS

when there is clear medical need, when the condition of the more baby

means there is a real risk if giving birth the natural way. But

now the National Institute of Clinical excellence is revising its

guidance. Some believe the new guidelines out tomorrow will

suggest that everyone who asks for a Caesarean should be listened to

and if she insists, she should get one. That would be a victory for

campaigners who say women have been denied the right to choose for too

long. I hope they will give women more genuine autonomy. If a woman

has looked at the risks and benefits of the two different birth

plans and has decided she is more comfortable with the risks of a

Caesarean, her obstetrician will listen to that woman and support

her with that choice. The risks and benefits of the two planned modes

of birth are so close that we cannot say categorically that one

is the safest or best route for all women. How can someone believe that

open surgery would be better for you? Planned Caesareans have been

getting safer. Natural births are challenging. 30 years ago, just 9%

of births were Caesarean sections. Now it is 25%, partly because so

many modern mums are older and babies are bigger. Although the

cost comparison is complicated, elective Caesareans to cost more

than planned natural births when things go smoothly. That is a

consideration for care trusts, as NHS funds are tight. Although

Caesareans are faced -- safer now, there are still factors to weigh

against the pain and risk of natural delivery. The duration of

surgery takes 30 to 35 minutes. No surgery is without risk of

infection. Then there is the risk of injury to the bladder. But how

do new mums feel about the different ways of giving birth?

Katie had hoped for in afterbirth, but after 24 hours in labour, she

was rushed in for an emergency Caesarean section. Congratulations!

How old is your little one? She was born just before seven this morning.

And how are you feeling? Shattered. If you had the choice before you

came in knowing you could have gone for a Caesarean section, would you

have gone for it? I think we were quite open to anything. You were in

a lot of pain yesterday. I wanted a Caesarean section just to finish.

It was the scariest moment of my life. We were surrounded by 10 to

12 people, didn't know what was going on. But it was worth it in

the end. And you feel OK? Yeah. When people think of a Caesarean

section, they do not realise it is major surgery. A few rooms away is

Janet, with four-month-old Tabak grace. Was there ever talk of you

having a Caesarean because of her weight? No, I always wanted a

natural birth if I could have one. It is a woman's choice, but ideally

if you can have your baby naturally, you do recover quicker. But should

women have that choice? Ahead of having baby number two, choral does

not think so. It is a bigger expense for the NHS than having a

natural delivery. And if it is not medically necessary, I am not sure

we should have the choice. There were no elective Caesareans booked

in the day we were at the hospital, but recovery times for caesarean

sections are longer than with a natural birth. Women who choose a

Caesarean are ready for those things and they do not see them as

a problem. They often have very good recovery as a result. Whatever

tomorrow's guidelines say, for mothers-to-be and their partners,

change, if any, will be gradual. do not anticipate any dramatic

changes that would lead us to be needing to support Caesarean

section on demand. Does this mean women will still be encouraged to

give birth naturally whenever possible? For a first-time mum, it

may allay a lot of the fears from the stories she has heard. For a

woman who has had children before, it will be about how we can support

them next time. You would not offer a C-section -- Caesarean section?

No, we did not. Until the guidelines are published, we will

have to wait and see what if anything will change in terms of

choices available to expectant mothers. But as an expectant mother

myself, we all want happy, healthy babies, whichever way they pop out.

And Angellica is here in the studio, looking absolutely booming. When

are you due? On 19th December, three weeks and five days away.

you look tiny! Do you think? I am thinking it is a boy. Listen to the

midwife! We would offer you pillows, but we only have a double bass and

a large drum. I think I will be all right. Hugh, you have done a course.

I have done a St John's Ambulance course. I am qualified to deliver

your baby if no one else is around. This is the calmest I have felt all

week after you saying that. That is the first thing they tell you, to

make the mother calm. Going back to the guidelines, what do you think

will happen tomorrow? guidelines will apply to the whole

of the UK except Scotland. Scotland have said they believe it is down

to personal circumstances, so it is between the mother-to-be and the

doctor, and they will make an informed decision together. But the

most significant thing from the new guidelines in the eyes of

campaigners is to reinforce that the women have the right to debate

their birth options. They can request a Caesarean even if there

is no medical need. But that does not necessarily mean they will get

one, but they have the right to debate. How win for much do you

feel at this stage, with three weeks to go? With all my

appointments, the word Caesarean has never been mentioned. But I

have done a lot of research. A lot of women want a natural birth, but

there are complications. So I am open-minded. I just want to get

through it. I am nervous, but fingers crossed. We all wish you

well. Hugh, you play a doctor in the hit series House. What is the

biggest word you have used when diagnosing a patient? We do not

have time for the biggest word I have used. It takes about 40

minutes. Encephalopathy can score you are about 36 in a game of cat

might boggle. Could be good in Scrabble as well. There are plenty

of great words. Gyles Brandreth has been doing his own word search to

find out if the nation's vocabulary is as healthy as Hugh's.

It is a battle to the death. A verbal duel. Two men plumbing the

depths of their massive vocabularies. A nine Letter Word.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines my name as a substructure

of piles. Not many know that. But Scrabble champion Allan Simmons

certainly does. He reckons he has a vocabulary in excess of 100,000

words, three times as many as appear in the Complete Works of

Shakespeare. When I was younger, I was fascinated by finding obscure

words in dictionaries and finding out more of -- about the vocabulary

that was not used in conversation. Do you have a favourite word?

a word for a hardwood tree. But how many of us read books, let alone

ditcher is any more? And if we do not read, how do we acquire new

what? Is the great British vocabulary shrinking? There is

evidence that says one in four people has not read a book last

year. That is horrendous. What is to be done. People need to read

more. If they read imaginative stuff, it increases their

vocabulary and imagination and their ability to use words. If

something really awful has happened, instead of saying, that really

annoyed me. They could say "I was incandescent with rage". That is

more effective than I was annoyed. Professor David Crystal certainly

is not short of a word or two. He has written over 100 books on the

English language. Why do people still have this myth about thinking

vocabulary is poor. There is more written language on the internet

that in all the libraries of the world combined. When did you last

see somebody not reading? It on screen in some way, or even a

teenager. People say they do not read. When did you last see a

teenager walking down the street, not read it. It might be their

mobile phone rather than Charles Dickens, but they are reading.

have come to Roehampton University to conduct our own One Show

examination to the state of the nation's vocabulary. If Shakespeare

used 30,000 different words, how many will these students know?

Probably maybe 16,000? About 7000 words. 10,000 words? We are using a

test devised by Professor Crystal. First, take a dictionary of around

100,000 pages -- 100 pages or more. Pick 20 pages at random and count

how many words you know. Divide the total number of pages in the

Dictionary by 20 and then multiply that result by your own words core.

Multiplied by 514, my result is 23,052, which I am happy with,

because they predicted 10,000 words. I got 22,500. 30,767. 14,352.

Considering that I said 10,000, I am quite happy! I am halfway to

Shakespeare. So perhaps the great British vocabulary is healthier

than we imagine. But the size of my own ship not be a problem. Let's

see. Oh, well. I am rather gratified, viewers. My vocabulary

totals a splendiferous 107,000 plus Can resist showing off!, lot of

people will now do that. We had a little play around with your name

on the Scrabble board. This is what We will bear that in mind as we go

through the next little bit! are here to talk about your music.

Before we do that, let's have a little miss them. If very well.

# Walking down the road with my head down low.

# Looking for my mama but she ain't here no more.

# Baby you don't know, you don't know my mind.

# When you see me laughing, I'm You have got your fingers in your

ears. A always do that. I am very neurotic. I am seeing someone about

it! I have always done that, I have never liked looking at myself for

hearing myself. Fascinating. There are no mirrors and my house. It the

music itself is gritty. It is. real late-night feel. And quite

American as well. Well, yes. It is a completely American idiom. I knew

that from the start. That is what I have loved since I was a small boy.

I don't know why, I am from another country and another culture, but

that is what I have always loved. You have got some big names on the

album, how did you persuade the likes of Tom Jones to get involved?

A couple of crates of beer. For my own guess is that Tom Jones loved

singing. He just loves it. He doesn't want a day to go by without

him singing. We caught him on a good day, he happened to be

available, we sent in some tracks which he liked and he said yes. He

literally did ask for beer. We thought he would want caviar and

the rest of it. He said no. Down- to-earth Welsh boy! What was it

like to perform with him, did you feel nervous? Yes, extremely, but

he could not have been more of a gentleman. I thought at the time

that in the city of Los Angeles, people get famous for two weeks and

go absolutely mad and then get arrested for bondage and cocaine

and Gounod's what. He has been incredibly famous for 50 years and

he is the most gentlemanly, kind, funny, modest fellow you could hope

to meet. An amazing man. Have you ever had a go at trying to hit the

music scene before? Music has always been a big passion. No, only

in the shower. Why now? You would be eased -- surprised how many

people I can get into the shower! 1,800 was the biggest. I suppose I

just reached the point where I thought I would hate to look back

and say I could have done that and did not. Whatever happens, this is

something I have to do, this means a lot to me and I have to dive in.

You started playing musical instruments as a boy. You were also

a keen sportsman. Yes. I mean, yes. We have got some footage. This is

1980, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat race and there you Wharfe. How did

you get on in this race? Do why remember? Yes. We lost by four feet.

That is the result you do remember. Good biceps, every cloud. Thank you

very much! It is not what Alex was talking about. Your dad did rowing.

He was an absolute king of that Domain. He won an Olympic gold

medal. He went to the Olympics in 1936 in Berlin and Rome again in

1948, which is a considerable gap and he won the Olympic gold medal

in London in 48. He was amazingly good. Everybody who saw him and his

partner said they were out of this world. Do you have his gold medal?

I do. I am the keeper. Talking of the world, I can let you leave

without talking about House. Let's have a look at you in action.

you going to test my you're in or Not diabetes. Use cross matched

platelets to find a close match and get the real story. He is hiding

something. Anything that is medically relevant. Apple juice.

Easiest way to fight -- fake a spike in blood sugar. Is it going

to be second time unlucky? Angellica Bell left that. There's

going to be no sniffing or testing. Seriously, that is not funny!

CD and DVD is out now and he will be performing at the end of the

show. Get yourself ready. I will. You can go now. Lovely. For the

last few years scientists have been baffled by the various injuries

caused to harbour seals in the Outer Hebrides. Mike Dilger has

been to meet one man who thinks he has got to the bottom of the

mystery. Britain is home to more harbour

seals than any other country in Europe. But over the past decade,

there has been a huge decline in their numbers. Populations in

Scotland have dropped by as much as 84%. At the same time, seals

started washing up on Britain's beaches with mutilated bodies. So

could there be a connection? Dr Dave Thomson thinks they raise. He

is leading end investigation to find out what is going on. He is

sharing the a range of gruesome photographs of seals that have died

and they all seem to have the same ones. It was first thought these

lethal injuries were a result of predators attacking the seals. But

Dave has studied many of the corpses and has come to a different

conclusion. If you look at the edges of the cuts, they are very

smooth, it is not a predator. It is a rotating blade of some sort. The

only mechanism we can come up with that is likely to cause that is a

propeller and more specifically probably a propeller... A prime

example is a bow thruster, which is used for manoeuvring ships. A seal

swimming into this would explain the pathology of the wind. But not

why it has happened or why it is happening now. But there are a few

aspects of the seal deaths which give us clues as to why it they

could be dying. Although there are also grey seals around Britain,

these injuries have been found almost exclusively on harbour seals.

All the rooms start at the head, indicating the seals may have been

deliberately swimming into propellers and most curiously,

almost all the victims are females. Dave's theory is that female

harbour seals are somehow being attracted towards the propellers.

The only thing we can think of that would make it that selective would

be the acoustic response. Most bodies are found during the mating

season. A time when males draw in the females with an extraordinary

underwater call. Dave things the females can be mistaking the

acoustics of the propeller for this mating call and being drawn to

their death. Now he wants to scientifically prove this theory.

His unit from St Andrews University has already run tests on captive

seals which shows they can be tricked by coming up to an

underwater Speaker. Dave wants to take his research one step further

and see if he can get similar results in them wild, something

The plan is to play recordings of both real mating calls and

propeller sounds in the open sea, just off the coast of Oban. What

would we would be interested to see his animals reacting to the sound

by very closely approaching the speakers. It is that sort of close

approach that seems to be happening in the interaction with propellers.

They start off playing the real harbour seal mating call. To hear

it by a dropped a specialist underwater microphone into the

water. It is a really, really rough call, almost like a tractor

starting, getting louder and louder. That is a recording of the harbour

seal male making noises, but it sounds exactly like a propeller.

After being in the water for a few hours, we spot seals on the surface.

Dave's research is just getting under way and it will take several

years before his theory is proved. In the meantime, seal deaths are

likely to continue. With one seal having been washed up this week...

And Britain having internationally important numbers, let's hope we

get to the bottom of this problem sooner rather than later.

All the very best with that study. The talking of Acoustics, we are

ready to go in the studio. We have had a lovely e-mail for you. Peter

and panicles have said our three- year-old grandson Sam loves you

lorry so much he sings along to the Earth second track. He has to have

it on in the car wherever he goes. Does he? What are you going to do

for us? We are going to do a song made famous by Ray Charles,

Hallelujah, I love her so. Take it # Let me tell you about a girl I

know. # She's my baby and she lived next

door. # In the morning when the sun comes

# She brings me coffee in my favourite Cup.

# Yes, I know if, yes, I know. # Hallelujah, I love her so.

# When I'm in trouble off and I got no friends.

# I know she'll stay with me right to the end. For # Fever last me

just how I know. # Phi smile at them and say she

told me so. # Yes I know of, yes I know.

# Hallelujah, I love her so. # When I call her on the telephone.

# And I tell her that I'm all alone. # For I got to do is count from one

to four. # I hear her at my door.

# In the evening when the sun goes down.

# And their rain nobody else around. If # She kisses me and she holds me

tight. The # Says Daddy it will be all

right. # Yes I know, yes I know.

# Hallow lawyer, I love her so. -- # When I call her on the telephone.

# And I'd tell her that time all alone.

# All I've got to do is count from one to four.

# I hear her at my door. Off # In the evening when the sun goes down.

# And there ain't nobody else around.

# She kisses me and she holds me tight.