Episode 2 The One Show - Best of Britain

It is another chance to see some of Nothing says Best of Britain more

than the Peninsular in South Wales, home to some of the most stunning

beaches our shorelines have to offer, including the beach behind

us which has been voted one of the best. But despite five blue flag

for its stunning beaches, it remains a shy, laid-back kind of

place. You won't find any donkeys on the sand here, just 90 miles of

glorious, untouched coast line. is one of Britain's best kept

secrets. But what is a holiday if you cannot share it?

In the 1950s when I was a little boy, this is where I used to come

for my summer holidays, the Isle of Wight. It is good to be back.

Whenever I go on holiday, I like to send a postcard home. I am looking

for something a bit perkier than that. This is more like it! Saucy

seaside postcards by the masterful stop Donald McGill. -- by the

master. Cheeky postcards have been a seaside tradition since before

the First World War, and Donald McGill sold 200 million of them

between 1904 and the 1960s. Sorry I cannot lending a hand, I have

enough on my plate as it is. This enthusiast has a modest collection.

Last year, he bought 120,000 originals in mint condition. How

come you have got thousands of cards here? The whole purpose is we

are paying a much to him in this museum, and if you look at the

ceiling about 3,000 cards are up there, just a percentage of what he

did. He did over 13,000 illustrations. I think he is time

this, humour is time this. His cards are fantastic. -- she met his

But he was a corrupter of morals, wasn't he? I don't think so,

because, let's face it, the art of the double entendre is only if your

mind knows what to see that it is an offensive card. All of these

cards are in a police van. Why is that? We are recreating a scene

where, in 1953, five shops were raided by the police not for

illicit contraband but for postcards. Postcards? Harmless

seaside postcards. In 1954, thanks to ball office saw seized postcards,

he ended up in court, prosecuted for obscenity. -- thanks to four of

his saucy est postcards. He was fined �50, but tens of thousands of

Dr Dave Allen is a media historian. How did seaside sauce almost lead

to prison cell porridge? I think what happened in the early 50s is

we returned to a Conservative government and a conservative

society and there were local dignitaries and good people,

whatever you might call them, who decided to interfere in all of this

and look after everybody else's morals. Eventually he ended up in

court and was made an example of. I am intrigued by the notion it

happened in the month that Elvis Presley made his first record. The

world was about to change. It was the Freudian century. He reminds us

of repressions under the surface and brings them out, visually as

well as in-jokes. You would never believe the liberties men take down

here... He takes sex to the seaside? Yes, he does. When I came

to the Isle of Wight, I didn't realise it was seething! You had to

be a certain age to spot it. I was quite a late developer! Donald

McGill had the last life -- the last laugh. After his prosecution,

he directed his humour and his prosecutors. He carried on drawing

until his death in 1962. It is obvious what the Isle of Wight

needs. I will slip one in while no one is looking.

Very saucy! But a friendly message from a faraway place always puts a

smile on my face. What is this? Deal Mike and Anita, wishing you

were there, lots of love, Matt Baker and Alex Jones. I know they

are on their holidays, but it gets no better than this. South Wales

has it all, sun, sea, sand, skied. But there are plenty of perils to

be aware of when you are on a beach holiday, such as... Seagulls eating

your chips, sunburn, your ice-cream melting. I was thinking more along

the lines of drowning, being swept out to sea, because it might look

calm, but the sea can be cruel. Take this, all that is left of a

timber carrying cargo ship that was caught in a gale on its way to

Swansea harbour back in 1887. It has become a bit of a landmark year,

that you can only see it when the tide is that. Not all of the

shipwrecks were accidents. There was plenty of booty to be gained

from shipwrecks, and there was a bunch of Nedda Wells to put lights

across the hills on to the rocks -- Tallulah the ships on to their

rocks and to their do. Nowadays, us Brits are more hospitable to

visiting seafarers, but if they come a cropper, they now help is at

hand. The fishing community lies on the

frigate Northumberland coastline and its unpredictable waters have

claimed many lives over the centuries. Its claim to fame is

that this lifeboat station here, which dates back to 1851, is the

oldest operational life boat house in Britain. But it is also famous

for its formidable women. More about them later. Richard Martin's

family have been involved with the lifeboats for more than 100 years.

How did it start? It started in 1851 following a fishing disaster

that year. 10 fishermen lost their lives. They paid for this, the

current lifeboat station. This is the exact boat house that was built

in 18 did to one. And the life boat driver -- I and the lifeboat driver,

but am also responsible for getting the life boat into the sea. What

did they used to do this in the old days? The women would turn out to

to launch the life boat. It seems that along the Northumbrian coast,

the launching of live birds was often done by women as the men were

either at sea or fighting in the war. Mary and Alan the remember

their mothers working in the fisheries and launching lifeboats

during emergencies. I grew up a few yards from here. When I was young,

it was where they used to pull them up, where the activity went on. The

women came out in the morning with lines, and they were launched from

there. I have some footage I want to show you. Wives and sweethearts

help to bring them to shore. Rosy- cheeked women... That is my mum, I

think. It is a case of all hands when the boats come down. The hands

of the women and children speeding their return. The procession goes

to the village. It looks like hard work. The boats were bad enough,

but when it was a life boat, very, very hard. Women's work is never

done, and now they are busy preparing the food. That is what my

mum used to do. Why was it so important the women were involved?

Because the men were at sea most of the time, and the women were in the

houses, so when the life boat had to be launched, they needed the

women to pull the life boat into the sea, because they did not have

tractors then. The women of the town received several awards for

bravery. They can be seen collecting awards in 1927. They

were again recognised for their efforts during the rescue of crew

from a boat. The life boat had set out and had to come back because

the sea was very rough. Then, the women had to poll the life boat

about half a mile. They then launched it, and they rescued all

of the crew. They were each awarded two and 6p, which is now 12.5 pence.

This town can be proud of its fishing heritage as well as its

famous daughters. And although so many aspects of life have changed

it, the tradition of life-saving is still going strong today, meaning

help is never far away. Some inspiring women there. I think

you could launch a lifeboat. It is good you have that much faith in

me! I have enough strength, Show Me the Way to the coast! The coast is

all along here, miles of golden beach, brilliant for wildlife for

two reasons, it is quiet and unspoilt. That makes it better for

animals and birds. There is a seagull. That is a jackdaw. That is

a seagull. That is a crow. There is a seagull. No, that is a white

plate. But it is not just the beach, look at the would land, the river,

the coastal marshes, the sea. All of these habitats make it superb

for lots of different species. can hear a lot of birds at the

moment. What is that? That is a cow. It was, I swear! Anyway, talking

about bird-watching, last year I went to North Wales to see birds

from a different perspective. Thus thes around our coastline are

home to some of the biggest and best seabird population in the

world. Toff birds living on rocks seas and gliding effortlessly on

strong winds. They are not the only ones facing our weather. Energy

companies want to put more wind turbines out to sea to cash in on

our climate. But as this is where birds live and feed, it could cause

problems. Conservation groups have been doing some blue-sky thinking

and have teamed up with energy companies to survey the sea birds

and find locations where there is minimal bird activity. Seabirds

tend to congregate around good feeding sites and nesting grounds.

It's a wind farm was built at one of these hot spots, it could

devastate the population. The surveyors are looking for hot spots

and clear spots. Mike is an ornithologist and has been taking

to the air. We use airplanes because it lets us cover a large

area in a short time, so we can get a good snap shot in one day. It

also allows us to get into areas of shallow water which boats and

people on land may not see. Bearing in mind how fast planes fly, you

have to be sharp in your identification? We have about five

seconds to identify the birds, so we have to identify them, count how

many there are, and work out how many -- how far from the plane they

are. At that speed, this will be all to mad bird watching. But I am

up for that challenge. -- this will be also met bird-watching. All

systems go, ready for take-off. The average survey covers 1,200 square

kilometres a day. We are heading for the north coast of Wales. I am

used to driving along the A55, but I have never had this view before.

It is a fabulous bird's-eye view. Most sea birds fly close to the sea,

soaring on the up draft from the waves, looking for fish. The

trouble is, these planes don't go slower than 100 miles an hour, or

lower than 75 metres, so this really is Speed's twitching, but

Kittiwakes flying in A. With less than five seconds to glimpse a bird,

there is no time to write anything down. It all goes on the tape-

recorder. Flying in A. Hawk flying in BE. You're using the bird name

and then letters. What does that mean? We tried to record how far

away from the plane they are. We put them into four distance bands.

Is right beneath the plane. B is 400 metres away. It goes up to a

massive one kilometre, although he can still identify them. One flying

in A. We've got a gannet! Flying away in A. They are big travellers,

flying up to 200 miles from one hot spot to another in search of fish.

Part of the survey is to identify the routes and add them to a vital

list of no-go areas for turbines. A really rich area for seabirds,

fantastic. Not a place for turbines. Oh, flying on B. I'm getting the

hang of this now! When the ornithologists find a clear spot,

they continue to check it to make sure it is safe. So far, five wind

farms have been put up in places that he is happy will cause minimal

disturbance. For now, I think I may have found my new favourite way to

spot birds. Gannets, hawks, goals. All from 250 foot, flying at 100

miles an hour. It has to be one of That was brilliant. You were

absolutely knew what aliment. a ball. I was flying with the birds.

Usually I am looking up, this time I was lucky right down. It was

literally a bird's-eye view. What about this? We have moved further

west along the coast. It's spectacular. The castle itself was

originally built in the 12th century by the first Earl of

Warwick. But the limestone and sandstone we see today is probably

the work of the family that took over ownership in the 13th century

and rebuilt it. What is great about the ruins is that you can still

make out all of the elements. The turrets, the base of what was once

a tower and the magnificent wall that went around it. There would

have been a small village near by as well, all perched in a dramatic

location overlooking the bay. Although it seemed the perfect

place for a castle, nobody foresaw the power of Mother Nature. That's

right. It seems huge drifts of sand, blown by massive coastal wind,

smothered entire fields and houses and impoverished the people. That

includes the church that was right alongside the castle. There are

churches dotted the whole way along the Peninsula. I wonder if any of

them had a rector that was famed for out thinking none other than

Understanding the fundamental laws of nature has challenged some of

the greatest minds in history. Aristotle first proposed that sound

travel through the air. But accurately measuring its speed

proved to be difficult. Isaac Newton miscalculated it in 1667 by

as much as 15%. It would take a country Rector, William Dereham,

too accurately measure it from St Lawrence is in Essex. The church

Local physics teacher Esther McCall contacted The One Show because she

was fascinated by his experiments. 300 years ago his desire to crack

the calculation was inspired by a daily -- daily occurrence. He could

hear the sound of the naval ships as they went past Greenwich. They

would sound their salute. He thought of himself, I wonder how

long it takes the sound to get from Greenwich to Upminster.

She invited us today because she wanted to recreate the experience

with some of her pupils. Before we can measure anything, I have to

check the signals on another church roof. In 17,005, he arranged for

muskets to be fired from the top of this very church. They could be

seen a way over here in St Lawrence's. He measured the

difference between the church tops as just over two miles. We've got

additional problem that he didn't have. That is the M25, which runs

huge and noisily between us. That is why we are going to have to send

up an enormous rocket to make a huge bang so that we have a vast

arsenal of fireworks, rockets, mortars and all sorts of shells.

The pyrotechnics had been rigged by experts and they are now ready to

fire. We just need to get up the tower at St Lawrence's to observe

the results. The best view is from a shutter that he cut in the spire.

I'll be attached by a harness while the People's Watch on 80 Dom

monitor -- on a TV monitor below. We will stop timing when we hear it.

The pupils are going to use an arsenal of timing devices from

across the centuries to get the Right, I got 9.5 seconds. Let's see

what they got down stairs. 9.6. reckon we should do that a couple

9.5 seconds. 9.5 seconds. Nine So, how close will we get to his

results? On average what we found is that it takes 9.4 seconds. OK?

To work out the speed of sound you need to take a distance and divide

it by the time. That gives you a figure of 343 metres per second. If

you go to a textbook and look up the value for the speed of sound at

the particular temperature we act is a value of 340 metres per second.

It means that we have managed to work out the speed of sound to

within a 1% accuracy. That is fantastic. I'm very impressed. The

he wasn't the only one to be making measurements of the speed of sound.

But he was the only one to be doing it in a rigorous, accurate and

release scientific way. For me, at least, what he represents is the

beginnings of modern experimental I can officially confirmed that

there will be no cannons fired here. The tranquillity is one of the main

reasons why so many people visit this gorgeous spot. You know, I

could get used to this. The sound of the waves, the noise of the wind

rustling through what remains of my head. Let's not forget beautiful

bird song. # I do like to be beside the

For some people, getting away from it all has nothing to do with the

beach. Given half a chance they would head to the bottom of the

garden. John Sergeant investigates. There is something peculiarly

British about garden sheds. Born in five of us have got one. It seems

that can add up to 5% on the value of a property. But it's got to be

in good Nick. But the style is changing, they have become

fashionable, must-have accessories. I'm going to see two of the sheds

that designers drool over. That's very nice. What is that doing?

is the chimney, it is powered by the fire. Really? There was a

firing here? Yes, come and have a That's all very satisfactory. Why

did you want to have a barbecue in a shed? Well, it's a space that we

can use 365 days of the year. We have our friends in here, family,

I've had some great girls' nights. We have a curry night, a Mexican

night. I made that! It's a lovely place to come and get away from the

television, the phone, sit around and trapped. Do you mind if I ask

how much it cost? �14,500. Is it worth it? Money well spent.

Absolutely. Forget the conservatory, build a shed. Or an igloo, as we

like to call it. Where did the idea come from? Our good friends

designed it, Rick and serrate year. We went travelling a few years ago

in the Arctic Circle. We went in to ATP. We wanted to create the same

campfire feel inside. But there it was minus 30. In this country you

get bad weather, as you can see from this summer. The building is

loosely designed around that. It's a sociable area, sitting around a

campfire. Is not really a shared, is it? It is, sort of. It is a posh

shed, a shed for seasons. They tell me I've got to go, but why should I

By last shared, I'm told, is one to dream about. -- shared. Wouldn't?

Yes. In the garden? Yes. But you never seen anything like this. This

is the ultimate shed. A shed and a It's fine! As long as you don't

It very Knightsbridge. Thank you. It's extraordinary, the garden can

be more dramatic. Let's go and have a good time. Oh, yes. This is not

what you would expect. What do you do here? I like to relax, chill-out,

read. It's very nice and quiet. It's tied up with the whole

atmosphere of the health spa. It's about well-being, this philosophy,

the quiet atmosphere. It's a wonderful place to escape.

perfect woman shed? You could say that, yes. But there is a lot of

money here, how much did it cost? About �35,000. Wow, that his prime

shared. It's a different kind of The essence is still there, of its

day? And that's the most wonderful thing, we need it nowadays. A place

to escape. An escape indeed. I've seen an amazing selection, from the

wonderfully traditional to the gloriously girly, to the borderline

Barney. What I have learned is that sheds can fulfil a vital need. Not

necessarily a practical one. If you sometimes have a strong desire to

escape, my advice would be, don't There he goes, John Nott on his