:00:17. > :00:22.It is another chance to see some of Nothing says Best of Britain more
:00:22. > :00:25.than the Peninsular in South Wales, home to some of the most stunning
:00:25. > :00:31.beaches our shorelines have to offer, including the beach behind
:00:31. > :00:37.us which has been voted one of the best. But despite five blue flag
:00:37. > :00:44.for its stunning beaches, it remains a shy, laid-back kind of
:00:44. > :00:48.place. You won't find any donkeys on the sand here, just 90 miles of
:00:48. > :00:56.glorious, untouched coast line. is one of Britain's best kept
:00:56. > :01:00.secrets. But what is a holiday if you cannot share it?
:01:00. > :01:08.In the 1950s when I was a little boy, this is where I used to come
:01:08. > :01:15.for my summer holidays, the Isle of Wight. It is good to be back.
:01:15. > :01:23.Whenever I go on holiday, I like to send a postcard home. I am looking
:01:23. > :01:31.for something a bit perkier than that. This is more like it! Saucy
:01:31. > :01:38.seaside postcards by the masterful stop Donald McGill. -- by the
:01:38. > :01:42.master. Cheeky postcards have been a seaside tradition since before
:01:42. > :01:48.the First World War, and Donald McGill sold 200 million of them
:01:48. > :01:56.between 1904 and the 1960s. Sorry I cannot lending a hand, I have
:01:56. > :02:05.enough on my plate as it is. This enthusiast has a modest collection.
:02:05. > :02:10.Last year, he bought 120,000 originals in mint condition. How
:02:10. > :02:14.come you have got thousands of cards here? The whole purpose is we
:02:14. > :02:18.are paying a much to him in this museum, and if you look at the
:02:18. > :02:24.ceiling about 3,000 cards are up there, just a percentage of what he
:02:24. > :02:31.did. He did over 13,000 illustrations. I think he is time
:02:31. > :02:41.this, humour is time this. His cards are fantastic. -- she met his
:02:41. > :02:42.
:02:42. > :02:46.But he was a corrupter of morals, wasn't he? I don't think so,
:02:46. > :02:56.because, let's face it, the art of the double entendre is only if your
:02:56. > :03:02.mind knows what to see that it is an offensive card. All of these
:03:02. > :03:06.cards are in a police van. Why is that? We are recreating a scene
:03:07. > :03:11.where, in 1953, five shops were raided by the police not for
:03:11. > :03:17.illicit contraband but for postcards. Postcards? Harmless
:03:17. > :03:26.seaside postcards. In 1954, thanks to ball office saw seized postcards,
:03:26. > :03:30.he ended up in court, prosecuted for obscenity. -- thanks to four of
:03:30. > :03:40.his saucy est postcards. He was fined �50, but tens of thousands of
:03:40. > :03:46.
:03:46. > :03:51.Dr Dave Allen is a media historian. How did seaside sauce almost lead
:03:51. > :03:56.to prison cell porridge? I think what happened in the early 50s is
:03:56. > :04:00.we returned to a Conservative government and a conservative
:04:00. > :04:04.society and there were local dignitaries and good people,
:04:04. > :04:08.whatever you might call them, who decided to interfere in all of this
:04:08. > :04:13.and look after everybody else's morals. Eventually he ended up in
:04:13. > :04:18.court and was made an example of. I am intrigued by the notion it
:04:18. > :04:23.happened in the month that Elvis Presley made his first record. The
:04:23. > :04:27.world was about to change. It was the Freudian century. He reminds us
:04:27. > :04:32.of repressions under the surface and brings them out, visually as
:04:32. > :04:41.well as in-jokes. You would never believe the liberties men take down
:04:42. > :04:46.here... He takes sex to the seaside? Yes, he does. When I came
:04:46. > :04:52.to the Isle of Wight, I didn't realise it was seething! You had to
:04:53. > :05:01.be a certain age to spot it. I was quite a late developer! Donald
:05:01. > :05:06.McGill had the last life -- the last laugh. After his prosecution,
:05:06. > :05:10.he directed his humour and his prosecutors. He carried on drawing
:05:10. > :05:14.until his death in 1962. It is obvious what the Isle of Wight
:05:14. > :05:19.needs. I will slip one in while no one is looking.
:05:19. > :05:25.Very saucy! But a friendly message from a faraway place always puts a
:05:25. > :05:30.smile on my face. What is this? Deal Mike and Anita, wishing you
:05:30. > :05:34.were there, lots of love, Matt Baker and Alex Jones. I know they
:05:34. > :05:41.are on their holidays, but it gets no better than this. South Wales
:05:41. > :05:46.has it all, sun, sea, sand, skied. But there are plenty of perils to
:05:46. > :05:51.be aware of when you are on a beach holiday, such as... Seagulls eating
:05:51. > :05:55.your chips, sunburn, your ice-cream melting. I was thinking more along
:05:55. > :06:02.the lines of drowning, being swept out to sea, because it might look
:06:02. > :06:05.calm, but the sea can be cruel. Take this, all that is left of a
:06:05. > :06:11.timber carrying cargo ship that was caught in a gale on its way to
:06:11. > :06:15.Swansea harbour back in 1887. It has become a bit of a landmark year,
:06:15. > :06:19.that you can only see it when the tide is that. Not all of the
:06:19. > :06:24.shipwrecks were accidents. There was plenty of booty to be gained
:06:25. > :06:31.from shipwrecks, and there was a bunch of Nedda Wells to put lights
:06:31. > :06:36.across the hills on to the rocks -- Tallulah the ships on to their
:06:36. > :06:40.rocks and to their do. Nowadays, us Brits are more hospitable to
:06:40. > :06:48.visiting seafarers, but if they come a cropper, they now help is at
:06:48. > :06:51.hand. The fishing community lies on the
:06:51. > :06:56.frigate Northumberland coastline and its unpredictable waters have
:06:56. > :07:02.claimed many lives over the centuries. Its claim to fame is
:07:02. > :07:07.that this lifeboat station here, which dates back to 1851, is the
:07:07. > :07:12.oldest operational life boat house in Britain. But it is also famous
:07:12. > :07:16.for its formidable women. More about them later. Richard Martin's
:07:16. > :07:22.family have been involved with the lifeboats for more than 100 years.
:07:22. > :07:29.How did it start? It started in 1851 following a fishing disaster
:07:29. > :07:38.that year. 10 fishermen lost their lives. They paid for this, the
:07:38. > :07:44.current lifeboat station. This is the exact boat house that was built
:07:44. > :07:49.in 18 did to one. And the life boat driver -- I and the lifeboat driver,
:07:49. > :07:54.but am also responsible for getting the life boat into the sea. What
:07:54. > :07:58.did they used to do this in the old days? The women would turn out to
:07:58. > :08:01.to launch the life boat. It seems that along the Northumbrian coast,
:08:01. > :08:08.the launching of live birds was often done by women as the men were
:08:08. > :08:11.either at sea or fighting in the war. Mary and Alan the remember
:08:11. > :08:21.their mothers working in the fisheries and launching lifeboats
:08:21. > :08:21.
:08:21. > :08:27.during emergencies. I grew up a few yards from here. When I was young,
:08:27. > :08:31.it was where they used to pull them up, where the activity went on. The
:08:31. > :08:40.women came out in the morning with lines, and they were launched from
:08:40. > :08:50.there. I have some footage I want to show you. Wives and sweethearts
:08:50. > :08:59.help to bring them to shore. Rosy- cheeked women... That is my mum, I
:08:59. > :09:03.think. It is a case of all hands when the boats come down. The hands
:09:03. > :09:13.of the women and children speeding their return. The procession goes
:09:13. > :09:21.to the village. It looks like hard work. The boats were bad enough,
:09:21. > :09:26.but when it was a life boat, very, very hard. Women's work is never
:09:26. > :09:32.done, and now they are busy preparing the food. That is what my
:09:32. > :09:36.mum used to do. Why was it so important the women were involved?
:09:36. > :09:40.Because the men were at sea most of the time, and the women were in the
:09:40. > :09:43.houses, so when the life boat had to be launched, they needed the
:09:43. > :09:48.women to pull the life boat into the sea, because they did not have
:09:48. > :09:57.tractors then. The women of the town received several awards for
:09:57. > :10:02.bravery. They can be seen collecting awards in 1927. They
:10:02. > :10:08.were again recognised for their efforts during the rescue of crew
:10:08. > :10:14.from a boat. The life boat had set out and had to come back because
:10:14. > :10:22.the sea was very rough. Then, the women had to poll the life boat
:10:22. > :10:29.about half a mile. They then launched it, and they rescued all
:10:29. > :10:33.of the crew. They were each awarded two and 6p, which is now 12.5 pence.
:10:33. > :10:38.This town can be proud of its fishing heritage as well as its
:10:38. > :10:42.famous daughters. And although so many aspects of life have changed
:10:42. > :10:52.it, the tradition of life-saving is still going strong today, meaning
:10:52. > :10:54.
:10:55. > :10:59.help is never far away. Some inspiring women there. I think
:10:59. > :11:05.you could launch a lifeboat. It is good you have that much faith in
:11:05. > :11:09.me! I have enough strength, Show Me the Way to the coast! The coast is
:11:09. > :11:15.all along here, miles of golden beach, brilliant for wildlife for
:11:15. > :11:20.two reasons, it is quiet and unspoilt. That makes it better for
:11:20. > :11:27.animals and birds. There is a seagull. That is a jackdaw. That is
:11:27. > :11:32.a seagull. That is a crow. There is a seagull. No, that is a white
:11:32. > :11:38.plate. But it is not just the beach, look at the would land, the river,
:11:38. > :11:42.the coastal marshes, the sea. All of these habitats make it superb
:11:42. > :11:50.for lots of different species. can hear a lot of birds at the
:11:50. > :11:55.moment. What is that? That is a cow. It was, I swear! Anyway, talking
:11:55. > :12:01.about bird-watching, last year I went to North Wales to see birds
:12:01. > :12:05.from a different perspective. Thus thes around our coastline are
:12:05. > :12:12.home to some of the biggest and best seabird population in the
:12:12. > :12:17.world. Toff birds living on rocks seas and gliding effortlessly on
:12:17. > :12:22.strong winds. They are not the only ones facing our weather. Energy
:12:22. > :12:26.companies want to put more wind turbines out to sea to cash in on
:12:26. > :12:31.our climate. But as this is where birds live and feed, it could cause
:12:31. > :12:35.problems. Conservation groups have been doing some blue-sky thinking
:12:35. > :12:39.and have teamed up with energy companies to survey the sea birds
:12:39. > :12:43.and find locations where there is minimal bird activity. Seabirds
:12:43. > :12:47.tend to congregate around good feeding sites and nesting grounds.
:12:47. > :12:51.It's a wind farm was built at one of these hot spots, it could
:12:51. > :12:58.devastate the population. The surveyors are looking for hot spots
:12:58. > :13:03.and clear spots. Mike is an ornithologist and has been taking
:13:03. > :13:07.to the air. We use airplanes because it lets us cover a large
:13:07. > :13:12.area in a short time, so we can get a good snap shot in one day. It
:13:12. > :13:17.also allows us to get into areas of shallow water which boats and
:13:18. > :13:22.people on land may not see. Bearing in mind how fast planes fly, you
:13:22. > :13:27.have to be sharp in your identification? We have about five
:13:27. > :13:31.seconds to identify the birds, so we have to identify them, count how
:13:31. > :13:37.many there are, and work out how many -- how far from the plane they
:13:37. > :13:43.are. At that speed, this will be all to mad bird watching. But I am
:13:43. > :13:49.up for that challenge. -- this will be also met bird-watching. All
:13:49. > :13:54.systems go, ready for take-off. The average survey covers 1,200 square
:13:55. > :14:01.kilometres a day. We are heading for the north coast of Wales. I am
:14:01. > :14:07.used to driving along the A55, but I have never had this view before.
:14:07. > :14:11.It is a fabulous bird's-eye view. Most sea birds fly close to the sea,
:14:11. > :14:15.soaring on the up draft from the waves, looking for fish. The
:14:15. > :14:21.trouble is, these planes don't go slower than 100 miles an hour, or
:14:21. > :14:31.lower than 75 metres, so this really is Speed's twitching, but
:14:31. > :14:32.
:14:32. > :14:37.Kittiwakes flying in A. With less than five seconds to glimpse a bird,
:14:37. > :14:44.there is no time to write anything down. It all goes on the tape-
:14:44. > :14:51.recorder. Flying in A. Hawk flying in BE. You're using the bird name
:14:51. > :14:59.and then letters. What does that mean? We tried to record how far
:14:59. > :15:09.away from the plane they are. We put them into four distance bands.
:15:09. > :15:09.
:15:09. > :15:17.Is right beneath the plane. B is 400 metres away. It goes up to a
:15:17. > :15:24.massive one kilometre, although he can still identify them. One flying
:15:25. > :15:29.in A. We've got a gannet! Flying away in A. They are big travellers,
:15:29. > :15:35.flying up to 200 miles from one hot spot to another in search of fish.
:15:35. > :15:40.Part of the survey is to identify the routes and add them to a vital
:15:40. > :15:50.list of no-go areas for turbines. A really rich area for seabirds,
:15:50. > :15:50.
:15:50. > :15:55.fantastic. Not a place for turbines. Oh, flying on B. I'm getting the
:15:55. > :15:59.hang of this now! When the ornithologists find a clear spot,
:15:59. > :16:03.they continue to check it to make sure it is safe. So far, five wind
:16:03. > :16:07.farms have been put up in places that he is happy will cause minimal
:16:07. > :16:15.disturbance. For now, I think I may have found my new favourite way to
:16:15. > :16:24.spot birds. Gannets, hawks, goals. All from 250 foot, flying at 100
:16:24. > :16:30.miles an hour. It has to be one of That was brilliant. You were
:16:30. > :16:34.absolutely knew what aliment. a ball. I was flying with the birds.
:16:34. > :16:39.Usually I am looking up, this time I was lucky right down. It was
:16:39. > :16:44.literally a bird's-eye view. What about this? We have moved further
:16:44. > :16:48.west along the coast. It's spectacular. The castle itself was
:16:48. > :16:51.originally built in the 12th century by the first Earl of
:16:51. > :16:57.Warwick. But the limestone and sandstone we see today is probably
:16:57. > :17:00.the work of the family that took over ownership in the 13th century
:17:00. > :17:04.and rebuilt it. What is great about the ruins is that you can still
:17:04. > :17:08.make out all of the elements. The turrets, the base of what was once
:17:08. > :17:12.a tower and the magnificent wall that went around it. There would
:17:12. > :17:16.have been a small village near by as well, all perched in a dramatic
:17:16. > :17:21.location overlooking the bay. Although it seemed the perfect
:17:21. > :17:26.place for a castle, nobody foresaw the power of Mother Nature. That's
:17:26. > :17:30.right. It seems huge drifts of sand, blown by massive coastal wind,
:17:31. > :17:33.smothered entire fields and houses and impoverished the people. That
:17:33. > :17:38.includes the church that was right alongside the castle. There are
:17:38. > :17:45.churches dotted the whole way along the Peninsula. I wonder if any of
:17:45. > :17:53.them had a rector that was famed for out thinking none other than
:17:53. > :17:58.Understanding the fundamental laws of nature has challenged some of
:17:58. > :18:02.the greatest minds in history. Aristotle first proposed that sound
:18:02. > :18:07.travel through the air. But accurately measuring its speed
:18:07. > :18:14.proved to be difficult. Isaac Newton miscalculated it in 1667 by
:18:14. > :18:21.as much as 15%. It would take a country Rector, William Dereham,
:18:21. > :18:31.too accurately measure it from St Lawrence is in Essex. The church
:18:31. > :18:34.
:18:34. > :18:40.Local physics teacher Esther McCall contacted The One Show because she
:18:40. > :18:44.was fascinated by his experiments. 300 years ago his desire to crack
:18:44. > :18:48.the calculation was inspired by a daily -- daily occurrence. He could
:18:48. > :18:52.hear the sound of the naval ships as they went past Greenwich. They
:18:52. > :18:59.would sound their salute. He thought of himself, I wonder how
:18:59. > :19:07.long it takes the sound to get from Greenwich to Upminster.
:19:07. > :19:11.She invited us today because she wanted to recreate the experience
:19:11. > :19:18.with some of her pupils. Before we can measure anything, I have to
:19:18. > :19:23.check the signals on another church roof. In 17,005, he arranged for
:19:23. > :19:26.muskets to be fired from the top of this very church. They could be
:19:26. > :19:35.seen a way over here in St Lawrence's. He measured the
:19:35. > :19:41.difference between the church tops as just over two miles. We've got
:19:41. > :19:45.additional problem that he didn't have. That is the M25, which runs
:19:45. > :19:50.huge and noisily between us. That is why we are going to have to send
:19:50. > :19:56.up an enormous rocket to make a huge bang so that we have a vast
:19:56. > :20:00.arsenal of fireworks, rockets, mortars and all sorts of shells.
:20:00. > :20:06.The pyrotechnics had been rigged by experts and they are now ready to
:20:06. > :20:10.fire. We just need to get up the tower at St Lawrence's to observe
:20:10. > :20:15.the results. The best view is from a shutter that he cut in the spire.
:20:15. > :20:23.I'll be attached by a harness while the People's Watch on 80 Dom
:20:23. > :20:33.monitor -- on a TV monitor below. We will stop timing when we hear it.
:20:33. > :20:34.
:20:34. > :20:44.The pupils are going to use an arsenal of timing devices from
:20:44. > :20:45.
:20:45. > :20:52.across the centuries to get the Right, I got 9.5 seconds. Let's see
:20:52. > :21:02.what they got down stairs. 9.6. reckon we should do that a couple
:21:02. > :21:17.
:21:17. > :21:24.9.5 seconds. 9.5 seconds. Nine So, how close will we get to his
:21:24. > :21:29.results? On average what we found is that it takes 9.4 seconds. OK?
:21:29. > :21:38.To work out the speed of sound you need to take a distance and divide
:21:38. > :21:42.it by the time. That gives you a figure of 343 metres per second. If
:21:42. > :21:47.you go to a textbook and look up the value for the speed of sound at
:21:47. > :21:51.the particular temperature we act is a value of 340 metres per second.
:21:51. > :21:58.It means that we have managed to work out the speed of sound to
:21:59. > :22:02.within a 1% accuracy. That is fantastic. I'm very impressed. The
:22:02. > :22:06.he wasn't the only one to be making measurements of the speed of sound.
:22:06. > :22:12.But he was the only one to be doing it in a rigorous, accurate and
:22:12. > :22:22.release scientific way. For me, at least, what he represents is the
:22:22. > :22:25.beginnings of modern experimental I can officially confirmed that
:22:25. > :22:29.there will be no cannons fired here. The tranquillity is one of the main
:22:29. > :22:34.reasons why so many people visit this gorgeous spot. You know, I
:22:34. > :22:37.could get used to this. The sound of the waves, the noise of the wind
:22:37. > :22:42.rustling through what remains of my head. Let's not forget beautiful
:22:42. > :22:52.bird song. # I do like to be beside the
:22:52. > :22:52.
:22:52. > :22:55.For some people, getting away from it all has nothing to do with the
:22:55. > :23:05.beach. Given half a chance they would head to the bottom of the
:23:05. > :23:07.
:23:07. > :23:12.garden. John Sergeant investigates. There is something peculiarly
:23:12. > :23:17.British about garden sheds. Born in five of us have got one. It seems
:23:17. > :23:24.that can add up to 5% on the value of a property. But it's got to be
:23:24. > :23:30.in good Nick. But the style is changing, they have become
:23:30. > :23:37.fashionable, must-have accessories. I'm going to see two of the sheds
:23:37. > :23:41.that designers drool over. That's very nice. What is that doing?
:23:41. > :23:51.is the chimney, it is powered by the fire. Really? There was a
:23:51. > :24:02.
:24:02. > :24:08.firing here? Yes, come and have a That's all very satisfactory. Why
:24:08. > :24:12.did you want to have a barbecue in a shed? Well, it's a space that we
:24:12. > :24:16.can use 365 days of the year. We have our friends in here, family,
:24:16. > :24:21.I've had some great girls' nights. We have a curry night, a Mexican
:24:21. > :24:26.night. I made that! It's a lovely place to come and get away from the
:24:26. > :24:33.television, the phone, sit around and trapped. Do you mind if I ask
:24:33. > :24:40.how much it cost? �14,500. Is it worth it? Money well spent.
:24:40. > :24:45.Absolutely. Forget the conservatory, build a shed. Or an igloo, as we
:24:45. > :24:50.like to call it. Where did the idea come from? Our good friends
:24:50. > :24:56.designed it, Rick and serrate year. We went travelling a few years ago
:24:56. > :25:00.in the Arctic Circle. We went in to ATP. We wanted to create the same
:25:00. > :25:05.campfire feel inside. But there it was minus 30. In this country you
:25:05. > :25:09.get bad weather, as you can see from this summer. The building is
:25:09. > :25:16.loosely designed around that. It's a sociable area, sitting around a
:25:16. > :25:21.campfire. Is not really a shared, is it? It is, sort of. It is a posh
:25:21. > :25:31.shed, a shed for seasons. They tell me I've got to go, but why should I
:25:31. > :25:38.
:25:38. > :25:43.By last shared, I'm told, is one to dream about. -- shared. Wouldn't?
:25:43. > :25:53.Yes. In the garden? Yes. But you never seen anything like this. This
:25:53. > :25:54.
:25:54. > :26:04.is the ultimate shed. A shed and a It's fine! As long as you don't
:26:04. > :26:11.It very Knightsbridge. Thank you. It's extraordinary, the garden can
:26:11. > :26:17.be more dramatic. Let's go and have a good time. Oh, yes. This is not
:26:17. > :26:22.what you would expect. What do you do here? I like to relax, chill-out,
:26:22. > :26:29.read. It's very nice and quiet. It's tied up with the whole
:26:29. > :26:33.atmosphere of the health spa. It's about well-being, this philosophy,
:26:33. > :26:38.the quiet atmosphere. It's a wonderful place to escape.
:26:38. > :26:47.perfect woman shed? You could say that, yes. But there is a lot of
:26:47. > :26:56.money here, how much did it cost? About �35,000. Wow, that his prime
:26:56. > :27:01.shared. It's a different kind of The essence is still there, of its
:27:01. > :27:06.day? And that's the most wonderful thing, we need it nowadays. A place
:27:06. > :27:10.to escape. An escape indeed. I've seen an amazing selection, from the
:27:10. > :27:17.wonderfully traditional to the gloriously girly, to the borderline
:27:17. > :27:21.Barney. What I have learned is that sheds can fulfil a vital need. Not
:27:21. > :27:31.necessarily a practical one. If you sometimes have a strong desire to
:27:31. > :27:38.
:27:38. > :27:42.escape, my advice would be, don't There he goes, John Nott on his