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Longleat House is one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
anywhere in the country, filled with unimaginable treasures, and exquisite beauty. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
But the house is on red alert, and one area has had to be closed off | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
because one of the irreplaceable great ceilings is in danger of collapsing. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
We'll be bringing you the full story on today's Animal Park. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
Also coming up today... the monkeys are getting a trifle picky about their food. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
And this man is known for working with African legend, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
George Adamson, and the Born Free lions. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
Now he has come to Longleat, what will he make of their pride? | 0:01:02 | 0:01:07 | |
It's strange not to be able to go in there and play with them and stuff, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:13 | |
because then I always did. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:14 | |
But first, Longleat House is one of the very finest examples | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
of Elizabethan architecture to be found anywhere in the country. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:29 | |
The original building work was completed around 1580, but since then the house has continued to | 0:01:29 | 0:01:35 | |
evolve through a whole series of alterations and renovations. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
For example, the grand staircase was added a mere two centuries ago, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
but the most spectacular changes were done in the 1870s, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
when the great Victorian designer JD Crace put in seven magnificent ceilings. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:56 | |
Inspired by the interiors of Italy's most sumptuous Renaissance palaces, | 0:01:56 | 0:02:01 | |
these ceilings are widely regarded as Crace's masterpieces. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
But now one of them is in grave peril, | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
something's just been spotted that shows there's a real danger of collapse. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:16 | |
House Steward Steve Blythe is facing an emergency in the lower dining room. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:21 | |
Well, last Thursday was my day off. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
Late in the day, probably about four, five o'clock, I got a phone call at home from Ken to tell me | 0:02:24 | 0:02:31 | |
we'd had a major problem in the house, failure with the ceiling, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
and what had happened, one of the guides had looked up, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
noticed a gold bauble, you can see there's wire on it, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
it actually slid down it, it came through the roundel over here, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
it had dropped about an inch. So Ken very quickly got a ladder out, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:51 | |
went up, and it more or less dropped off in his hand, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:56 | |
but of course, we've got a major problem now because all of that area of the ceiling has loosened off. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:03 | |
So this is a real shocker, it's real unfortunate. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:08 | |
But this is not the first time there's been a problem with the ceiling. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
Estate Manager Tim Moore remembers what happened 15 years ago. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
When I came to Longleat in 1992, we had an issue with actual movement on | 0:03:18 | 0:03:23 | |
that ceiling, so we've always known the structure of the ceiling | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
is a bit suspect. And then secondly, about two years ago, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
one of the ornamental plaster sections fell down. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
We got a specialist in who looked all over it, put the piece of plaster back, stuck it back, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:43 | |
and the general view at the time was, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
yes, the plaster was obviously of the age it is, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
but generally the rest of the ceiling wasn't in too bad order. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
But if the structure was given the all-clear, why, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
just two years later, is there another emergency? | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
In fact, Longleat House could be a victim of its own success. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
Head Guide Claire Mound may have the answer. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
Come the summer, we were having between 3 and 4,000 people through the house every day, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
and one bank holiday, we actually had 6,000 people walk through the house, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:17 | |
and that is a lot of feet for the poor old house! | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
Longleat's Curator of Historic Collections is Kate Harris. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
The real problem in the room is that the identical room above, | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
which is the state dining room, the public can only stand on one | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
particular spot as they come through the door, so all the thousands of feet hit exactly the same spot | 0:04:34 | 0:04:40 | |
immediately above the door, and we're expecting to find, when we investigate further, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
that the fragile condition of the ceiling is following the track of the many feet above. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:52 | |
We haven't got that confirmed yet, | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
but that's what we're expecting to find, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
that it'll be almost a pathway of damage mirroring the room above. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
But right now, Steve and his team must take immediate action. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:05 | |
The first thing was, we needed to seal this room off. There was the fear that something | 0:05:05 | 0:05:10 | |
might drop down onto a visitor or one of the guides, so they closed the room off, and of course, we had | 0:05:10 | 0:05:17 | |
to close the room above, because the vibration was shaking the ceiling, and that room remains closed. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:24 | |
Until we know what's happening here, we really can't afford to have people upstairs. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
I think it's a massive aesthetic loss to the house | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
to have the public really unable to see this room properly. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
This is one of the most important things that we show. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
So as far as the interiors at Longleat go, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
it's what we lead with, so it's very important to us, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
and very important to the public's experience as they tour through the house. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
Apart from anything else, the timing couldn't have been much worse. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
This year, the exterior roof is undergoing major repairs, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
and the last thing they needed | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
was an emergency conservation project inside the house. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
We've got the cost issues involved, the fact that, as you know, we're already halfway through | 0:06:08 | 0:06:14 | |
a major repair for Longleat, which is renewing lead on the roof, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
and we've now got possible issues of very significant expenditure within the house. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:23 | |
It is a concern, simply because, at this stage, | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
we just don't know how big a problem it is, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
and it may be a very significant one. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
But the only way to know just how bad the problem really is | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
will be to find out what's going on beneath the surface. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
We'll be back later when they try to get some answers. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:43 | |
Earlier in the series, Deputy Head Warden Ian Turner | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
masterminded a plan to put one of the six million trees from the Longleat Estate into Monkey Jungle | 0:06:55 | 0:07:01 | |
to make its residents a new and exciting feeding station. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
Things didn't go exactly to plan, and the whole operation took over | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
36 hours just to move the massive trunks into position. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:15 | |
Ben and I have joined Ian to put them to good use. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
So what have we actually got here, Ian? | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
We've made some special cakes up for the monkeys, | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
-and it's got all the normal stuff what the monkeys eat, banana, peanuts and apples. -Right. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:29 | |
What we need to do is shove it into this Corsican pine tree we've made for 'em specially. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
We've drilled holes in, but the trouble is we need to do it quick, because the monkeys... | 0:07:33 | 0:07:38 | |
It's not the greatest day weather-wise but we need to scoop this out and shove it in there. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
Would it be fair to describe this as a "monkey trifle"? | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
It would, yeah! | 0:07:45 | 0:07:46 | |
-It looks very good! -I've got one, that does look good! | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
So they will come racing over to this? | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
Has the tree gone down well with the monkeys? Have they enjoyed it? | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
Yeah, and the reason why we're doing this is, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
instead of just putting food down, they've got to sit | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
and have these perches where they can sit on and pick the food out, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
-and if you look back, you've got one coming over straightaway. -Oh, wow! | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
-They can't resist this! -They don't like this weather. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
Should we just pull back and watch and let them come in and feed? | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
On this tree, yeah. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:17 | |
Yeah? OK, let's just pull back and away and yeah, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
in moments you've got the first one coming in, although rather lazily going... | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
It's picking up the stuff off the floor! | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
Picking up the stuff off the ground! | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
You're constantly coming up with ideas for them, do they really need it? | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
Cos it's a huge enclosure with lots of natural trees for them to climb, and places for them to hide. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:51 | |
Why is new stuff so important? | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
-They probably wouldn't need new stuff for us to do, because it's like being in the wild really. -Yeah. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:58 | |
But this is just to keep 'em, because they've got all the young ones, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
it's always good to keep their minds active, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
and have new stuff all the time, and this tree's gone down a treat, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
cos they've got all the perches. And look, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
instead of him shoving all that, he's... | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
He's having to pick it out. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
-He's picking all the peanuts out. -Oh, yes, he is! | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
It must be incredibly satisfying to see them working away like that? | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
Normally they'd take five minutes to eat, and this should take a couple of hours. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
That's brilliant, well we shall get down to putting this in the rest of the tree, but Ian, thank you | 0:09:23 | 0:09:28 | |
very much, and congratulations on a real success. You're going to have some happy monkeys this year! | 0:09:28 | 0:09:33 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:34 | |
Earlier in the series, four keepers travelled deep into the Tanzanian bush to work with Tony Fitzjohn. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:44 | |
Fitz, as he's also known, is a world-renowned conservationist | 0:09:44 | 0:09:49 | |
and runs the Mkomazi Game Reserve | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
where he's helping some of Africa's most endangered animals. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
For 17 years, Fitz worked alongside legend George Adamson, the Lion Man of Africa. | 0:09:55 | 0:10:03 | |
Together they helped rehabilitate and save captive lions before releasing them back to the wild, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:09 | |
stories that were told in the book and Oscar-winning film, Born Free. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:15 | |
There we were, sharing the lives of these incredible predators, we just | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
ran like mad things for nearly 20 years and didn't stop. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
During the trip, Head Warden Keith Harris | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
helped in a project to release hunting dogs back to the wild. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
For him, working with Fitz was very special. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
I've read books and seen films, you hear stories, and it's been really great to work with him. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:41 | |
And being out here again in the wild and getting amongst these animals, it's been great. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:48 | |
So when he heard Fitz was visiting the UK, Keith wasted no time in | 0:10:48 | 0:10:53 | |
offering him his first-ever tour of a safari park. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
-Tony? -Keith, what a treat! -Nice to meet you. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
-Nice to see you again. -Sunny England! | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
-Bit cold or..? -Yeah, a bit chilly. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
So can I get a tour, or are you busy today? | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
-Yep, hop in the car and we'll go and take you round. -Thanks very much. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
Like so many visitors, Pets' Corner is the first stop. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
Ain't they wonderful? Everyone should have some in their bathroom! | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
Here, the snakes are a bit more friendly that Fitz is used to. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
-Wow! -There we are, how about that? | 0:11:29 | 0:11:34 | |
I had, sort of, 11-foot black mambas in the house. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
This is great, with the rolling hills, it's beautiful. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
Next, it's up to the East Africa Reserve, home to giraffe, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
ostrich and zebra, which should be like a slice of home to Fitz. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:01 | |
They look in very good shape indeed. It's a very nice scene. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
It's nice to know that what you see is what you get. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
If you've got to live in England, for a guy like me, this'd be perfect. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
In Tanzania, Fitz has built a sanctuary for the highly endangered and dangerous black rhino, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:24 | |
where trackers follow them to ensure they're safe from poachers. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:29 | |
At Longleat, techniques are slightly different. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
I just love this guy, herding the rhinos on the tractor. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
They almost look like sculptures, don't they? | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
It's very strange for me to see white rhino. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
They're very placid. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
I'd be rather nice to have some black rhino, | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
because there'd be a lot of cars here with punctured doors! | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
There's one final stop on Fitz's tour, and that's in lion country, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
where he's certainly no stranger to these big cats. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
Join us later when Fitz heads straight into the lions' den. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:05 | |
Back in the Great House, there's a crisis in the lower dining room, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
and Longleat's Curator of Historic Collections Kate Harris | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
is worried that the bauble falling down is just the tip of the iceberg. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
I'm very concerned, because we thought we'd tackled this problem, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
and it turns out to be a much more severe problem than we originally thought. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
And it's because it's unknown, whether we're going to have to take the whole ceiling to bits, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:42 | |
and put it back together again, and the whole issue of whether | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
the plasterwork has reached the end of its shelf life, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
those are real unknowns at the moment, so we've yet to find out just how bad the news is. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:54 | |
In order to get to the ceiling, and work out the root of the problem, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
House Steward Steve needs to ensure the room is completely clear. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
The table's laid with antique porcelain and silverware, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
which must be packed away safely. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
Time to call in the professionals. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
There's hardly a thing on this table that's less than two centuries old, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
but June Windes and her army of cleaners are well used to handling such delicate and priceless items. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:33 | |
Once the room is clear, Steve can get to work. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
They're setting up a scaffold in order to examine the ceiling closely. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:50 | |
Ken Windes, June's husband, has been called in. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
He was the House Steward before Steve, and knows the building inside out. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:58 | |
Do you want to turn him here, Ken? | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
Yes, that way. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
First, they need to take down the roundel. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
-Got him? -Yep, got him. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
Behind it is the system of supports that holds the ceiling in place. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
OK, explain to me how this ceiling works, Ken. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:17 | |
Well, basically, what you've got here is a fletch beam, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
it was about 15 years ago, | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
this beam failed, and the floor started to sag, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
and they reinforced this beam with metal. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
So what they did is brought the beam back to its original position. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:36 | |
They've actually strapped the ceiling supports to that beam, | 0:15:38 | 0:15:43 | |
which means that what you're doing now is | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
you're transferring any vibration from the floor above | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
directly to the ceiling, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
rather than going through the intermediate beam system. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
Which I think could have been a major mistake. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
So by strengthening the beam supporting the floor above, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:03 | |
the ceiling below may have suffered. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
This is obviously where the concern is, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
you've got little cracks like this appearing, you see. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
This bit here is actually moving up and down, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
and that crack is actually tracking right across there, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
-look, into this area. -Yes. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
Some of these bulbs have vibrated loose. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
There's a good example. In fact, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
I'm going to go for it and take that away, in case it falls on somebody. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
For Ken, who's devoted a quarter of a century | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
to looking after this great house, it's a very sad moment. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
It is heartbreaking when you find something like this that has been up there hundreds of years. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:48 | |
And you do get a feeling for the house as you live with it | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
and...serve it, if you like, for quite a long time, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:59 | |
so that when things start breaking to bits like this, then it is sad. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
And it brings a lump to your throat in many ways, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
in the fact that, what's happening now, how far is this going to go? | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
And what's more important is, how can we stop it happening? | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
I'd like to think it was going to be here in another 400 years. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
It's going to take time and a great deal of careful investigation, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
before they'll know exactly what must be done. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Over the next few months, Estate Manager Tim Moore is going to have a lot to do. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:43 | |
It's a major problem - | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
we don't know quite what our strategy's going to be. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
With this sort of problem, in conservation terms, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
cautious enquiry and really trying to check through detail is all-important. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
We're going to have to take it steady, to get the experts in, and then tease out a solution | 0:17:57 | 0:18:03 | |
and a strategy, we don't know the cost implications, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
we don't know quite how far we've got to go with it, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
it's quite frankly an open-ended issue at the moment. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
We'll be back in the house later to follow how the crisis unfolds. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:20 | |
One of the most popular sections in Pets' Corner is the collection of Siberian chipmunks. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:34 | |
Recently, six new faces were introduced to the group, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
with the hope that they would kick-start a new breeding programme, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
and sure enough, the plan worked. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
The babies are now a few weeks old, and I've come along to meet them. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
I'm down at Pets' Corner | 0:18:50 | 0:18:51 | |
with Head of Section Darren Beasley, and we are entirely surrounded | 0:18:51 | 0:18:57 | |
by chipmunks, none of whom I recognise, I have to say! | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
No, they're not long born, they're just coming out of their boxes now! | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
And what pretty little creatures, with these gorgeous stripes on them. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:08 | |
Aren't they smashing? Obviously these are called whites, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
you see this little chap here, | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
has still got the very faint brown stripes, so they're not albino, they do have colour | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
pigment in them, but it's a recessive gene, so basically we can encourage this white colour to come forward | 0:19:17 | 0:19:23 | |
by putting the right mums and dads in with the right colour history. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
Being this very pale colour in the wild wouldn't be a great survival mechanism? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:31 | |
No, it'd be so easy for the predators to pick them off, because they'd stand out so well. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:36 | |
I mean, naturally these Siberian chipmunks, as we know them, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
they breed a brown colour with sort of dark brown to black stripes, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
and really that is their camouflage, that's to break up their outline. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
You've had babies, they've all grown up together, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
can they stay together or do you start getting factions with males and females and fighting? | 0:19:49 | 0:19:54 | |
Yes, you do have a dominancy, you do have a bit of fighting, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
but the name chipmunk is this "chip, chip", it's this calling noise, | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
and it can be calling for a boyfriend, girlfriend, or it can be saying, "stay away." | 0:20:00 | 0:20:05 | |
As we're going to expand - this is a very popular exhibit - | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
we're going to expand this and spread our wings, so we want loads more chipmunks. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
It's a good mixture of stuff here, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
lots of seeds, monkey nuts, and fresh fruit. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
What sort of stuff would they be eating in the wild? | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
They're opportunists, they will take leafy buds, they'll take flowers, they'll take small insects, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
we put a meat protein biscuit in here for that. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
We give them a big selection of lots of nice things, and they'll choose what they like. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
A complete delight, Darren, thank you very much for introducing me. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
-Thank you. -And enjoy yourself, guys! | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
I don't think there's any doubt that they're going to do that! | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
Back up at the house, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
the Longleat staff have been working round the clock to get the dining rooms back open to the public, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
and Kate and I have run up to get the latest. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
We've come back into the house to the lower dining room to meet House Steward, Steve Blythe, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:06 | |
and to find out what the latest is, Steve, on the ceiling, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
and I've suddenly seen this bit! | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
Yes, we needed to take this roundel down to have a look, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
to see what was going on, so we've had all the surveyors in, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
we've had all the architects in, and we're moving forward. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
Kate our curator's been getting lots of information for us on | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
the history of what's been happening with the ceiling, and that's all come together now, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
hopefully we're ready to move on, but a good bit of news is, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
the room's open again. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:36 | |
I was going to ask, is it the whole room? You've got some scaffolding over here? | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
We've still got equipment in the room where we still have people | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
coming in and having another look at this, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
and what is this, and what would happen here. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
-Where did this piece come from? -Up here. Where you'll see, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
we've got the huge hole in the ceiling at the moment. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
-Blimey! -Wow! How are you going to be able to minimise damage like this happening again? | 0:21:54 | 0:22:00 | |
That's part of what we're doing at the moment, before we do the repair, we need to know what happened, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:06 | |
why has it happened, and that's what the architects, the surveyors, are looking at, they'll report to us. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:11 | |
and before we do any repairs, we'll be looking into the future and what needs to be happening in the future. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:17 | |
It's fantastic news that at least half the room's open. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
Yeah, and of course we're all happy about it, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
and of course Lord and Lady Bath are very happy about it, that we've got visitors coming through. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:27 | |
-Well, Steve, that is fantastic news, thank you very much. -OK, thank you. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
Head Warden, Keith Harris, is giving Tony Fitzjohn his first ever tour of a safari park. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:43 | |
But what will the apprentice of Mr Born Free | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
make of Longleat's famous lions? | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
Wow! Look at this! | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
Look at this lot, isn't this lovely? | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
And there's two main breeding females in here, so presumably, | 0:22:56 | 0:23:01 | |
your wild lions, they'd be scarred and... | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
-Yeah, these are... It's all a bit strange to see them in such perfect condition. -Yeah. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
For someone who's dedicated their life to giving animals their freedom, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
this is an unusual experience for Fitz. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
It's quite strange, I've never been to a safari park before, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:22 | |
I've never been to Longleat, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
and I have seen animals in captivity, and I don't... | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
I don't slam zoos, there is a place in this paved and civilised world of ours to... | 0:23:28 | 0:23:34 | |
to have animals in captivity. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
I'm a bit surprised they look in such good physical shape | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
and so relaxed and in such good mental shape for captive animals, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
but I'd rather have a jumbo jet waiting and pile them all in the back, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
but then, I know it's too old for most of them to go back. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
Despite his love for lions, Fitz hasn't worked with them for some time. | 0:23:55 | 0:24:00 | |
My last lioness was poisoned in the wild about two and a half years ago, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
but basically, since I moved to Mukanazi, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
I've not worked with the animals I love so much, which are lions, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
so everything I say here is tinged by the fact that these are the big love of my life, you know? | 0:24:12 | 0:24:19 | |
It's strange not to be able to go in there and play with them and stuff, which is what I always did. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:27 | |
Do you fancy releasing these? | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
Why, is there a local village or what?! | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
-It's an enclosure or... -Don't scare the locals! | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
-Pull straight down. -Pull it straight down. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
Latch in there, and off they go. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
Well, they didn't need much encouragement? | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
-No, no. -And the big guy? | 0:24:56 | 0:24:57 | |
Right, if you flick the catch over, he'll tell you off, but don't worry. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:03 | |
LION ROARS | 0:25:03 | 0:25:04 | |
And then just pull the slide. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
-Aww, good boy, good boy. -It's not really much of a telling off really! | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
He was quite good today, I thought he was going to be a bit grumpier! | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
And that's it. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
Well, I've put a few animals back into the wild, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
but this was the quickest programme I've ever been involved in! | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
With the release of the pride done, Fitz's visit to Longleat is complete. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:32 | |
But what does an African conservationist make of the work Keith and his staff are doing? | 0:25:32 | 0:25:38 | |
I've always wanted to come to Longleat since it opened years ago and I heard about it, one because it | 0:25:38 | 0:25:43 | |
was a lion park, and two, because it was England, be interesting to see, and I've never come. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:49 | |
It's very strange. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
I'm not meant to like animals in captivity, and I've spent my whole life setting animals free. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
I come here and talk to Keith and I see these animals, | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
they're all cared about, loved so much, | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
well managed and well run, and, kind of, where I come from, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
so much is being destroyed, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
so what I'm feeling is not what I thought I'd be feeling or should be feeling. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:13 | |
Now, this all sounds very silly, | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
but it is a great privilege to be here too, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
and I think everybody that comes here should feel that. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
It's a very special place, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
and I hope I leave here with some good friends and certainly some good memories. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
Well, sadly, it's almost the end of the whole series, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
but before we go, Kate and I have come up to the Rhino House | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
to say goodbye to Winston, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
and to thank Head Warden, Keith Harris, for another fantastic year. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
-Sad, isn't it? -It is sad, | 0:26:50 | 0:26:51 | |
but it has been a really exciting year for Longleat, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
lots of new things coming in, lots of new animals being born. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
-That's right, we've had new tigers, warthogs, which I think they've been great fun. -Yeah. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:02 | |
We've had all these births, so it's been great. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
And even the older animals, like Winston, are still doing so well? | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
Great to see him still... up and about and... | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
He got a bit down, but he's enjoying the spring and the summer now. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
Absolutely. Well, Keith, thank you very much. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
-Thank you. -We, I suppose, should pack our bags and go, shouldn't we? | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
Whoa, no... The series has finished, but you two haven't, I'm sorry! | 0:27:25 | 0:27:30 | |
You know this is going to be horrid, don't you? What is that! | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
-Winston needs his mud bath! -Why?! | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
-There's one for you. -OK. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
This is... He's been in on the yard here, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
so he needs softness on the skin, | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
you put cream on your face, here's Winston look, can you please...? | 0:27:43 | 0:27:48 | |
-I knew... -There's not many animals I'd do this for! | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
-I've been called back to the office! I've got to go! -Brilliant! | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
-Here you are, Winston! -OK, how are you getting on over there? | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
Your mud pack to make your skin beautiful and soft. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
That really is it for us, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
we are obviously going to be here for a while... | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
Don't even think about it, Fogle! | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
We look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye-bye. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
Bye-bye. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:14 | |
Ready... three, two, one!! | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
How did she do that?! | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 |