Browse content similar to Episode 5. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Welcome to The One Show: The Best of Britain, with Angellica Bell. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
And Phil Tufnell, and another chance for you to see | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
some of your favourite One Show films. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Tonight, we're in an ancient seat of learning | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
named after the river that runs through it, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
a magnet for visitors from all over the world - Cambridge. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
The university was formed in the early 13th century, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
when scholars taking refuge from hostile locals in Oxford | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
migrated to Cambridge and settled here. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
Charles Darwin, Francis Bacon, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
David Attenborough and Stephen Fry | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
are among the famous names who have studied here | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
but you don't have to be an academic to achieve success. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
I took a trip to Scotland to talk to a top-selling artist | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
who left school at 16. | 0:00:58 | 0:00:59 | |
In 2004, 500 people queued up outside this stately home, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
Hopetoun House in Edinburgh. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
Those who made it inside would witness history being made. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
A picture entitled The Singing Butler | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
was expected to sell for between £150,000 and £200,000 at auction | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
but the hammer eventually went down on a whopping £744,800, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:28 | |
a new world record for a Scottish painting sold at auction. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:33 | |
It outsells the works of Vincent Van Gogh, Dali and Monet | 0:01:33 | 0:01:37 | |
and has been reproduced on posters, cards, calendars and even umbrellas. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
The Singing Butler has sold over a million copies in Britain alone | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
and it's easily one of the most recognisable pictures in the world, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
but its roots are firmly planted in Fife, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
the place where its painter, Jack Vettriano, began his career. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
How did The Singing Butler come about? | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
It was inspired mainly by Leven beach, which is where I grew up, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
and there's a lovely part of it | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
where the tide can go out for half a mile, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
sort of flat, with pools of water | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
and you know, that's certainly what I tried to recreate. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
So what's actually going on in the picture? | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
As I see it, here is this sort of eccentric guy | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
and they've been out for dinner, | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
he's got money, he's got a maid, he's got a butler, | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
and he decides he just wants to go and dance on the beach. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
He realises, of course, too late, that there is no music, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
so he has to ask the butler to sing | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
and so, they waltz while the butler sings | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
and the two umbrellas shelter them. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
And it's just one of those paintings that I think, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
you know, on a rainy day, when life's not too good, you look at that | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
and you think, "You know, life can get better than this." | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
And have you ever danced on a beach yourself? | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
Yeah, but not like that! | 0:02:58 | 0:02:59 | |
PHIL LAUGHS | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
Jack is the son of a miner. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
He took up painting at 21 and had no formal training. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
In 2005, it was revealed | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
that Jack had used an artists' reference manual | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
to form his figures. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
'At that time, I was relatively unknown. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
'I had no access to models' | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
and I came across this manual in a bookshop and took it home | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
and I thought, "This is great," | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
you know, "This is full of figures," | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
and of course, when that became known publicly, | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
I did get a bit of flak for that | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
but what I do know for a fact is that Francis Bacon used the very same book | 0:03:35 | 0:03:41 | |
that I took The Singing Butler out of. Now, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
I don't think that's bad company to keep, you know? | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
In actual fact, Jack prefers | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
a different version of the famous picture | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
where the woman's wearing a green dress instead of a red one | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
and it hangs here in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
Well, The Dancer In Emerald was a study for the finished version, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
and I was playing around with colours | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
because I was trying to get what I thought would be the right colour | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
and I did the green, and then I did the red, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
and I looked back at the green and I think, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
"I actually like the green." | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
Whilst the buying public have always embraced Jack's work, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
the art world has been less welcoming. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
I often get drawn into this debate | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
about, you know, me and the establishment, | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
and the truth is that it's completely out of my hands. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
There's nothing I can do, you know, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
if they don't like my work, they don't like my work. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
I would far rather be enjoyed by millions of people than a handful. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
It may not be critically acclaimed, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
but this painting has definitely captured the hearts and minds | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
of the public more than any other contemporary painting. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
'How does it feel to have created a piece of work | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
'that so many people love?' | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
The overall feeling is one of immense pride | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
that I was able to, from a manual, construct this painting | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
and it's gone out there and been such a success. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
It's such a shame Jack doesn't get the credit he deserves for his work. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
As he said in the film, he doesn't worry about it. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
So long as the public love his work, which they do, he's happy. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
I found him a real inspiration, a real talent and a top bloke. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
-It's nice when you meet people like that. -It is. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
Now, this is the River Cam and since the Middle Ages, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
barges have used it to bring heavy goods into Cambridge, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
including most of the stone used to build the colleges. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
Dating back to the 13th century, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
the university is one of the oldest in the world. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
Cambridge is now made up of 31 colleges and 150 departments | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
and is at the forefront of scientific research. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
It's a far cry from the city's roots as a trading centre | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
and route to Europe via the Cam. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
Nowadays, it's the famous punts | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
which create most of the river traffic | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
and the river has become one of the city's main attractions | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
-and also a fantastic place for all types of wildlife. -Found anything? | 0:06:02 | 0:06:07 | |
-No, not yet, but I'll keep looking. -You do that. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
Now, one species you'd be very hard to find a glimpse of | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
is the small and elusive vole. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
Here's One Show wildlife expert Miranda Krestovnikoff. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
One of my biggest wildlife inspirations as a child | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
was Wind In The Willows, with the adventures of Toad, Mole and Ratty. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
But the biggest revelation as an adult | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
was the fact that Ratty wasn't actually a rat. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
He was, in fact, a water vole. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
There used to be millions of water voles in the UK, but now | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
they have the unenviable title of our fastest-declining mammal. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
In the last 45 years, the population has decreased by more than 95%. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:50 | |
Because while stoats and weasels | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
are the villains in The Wind In The Willows, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
in the real wild wood, Ratty has a much more deadly predator. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
The mink is a non-native species to Britain | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
and it's the only predator | 0:07:03 | 0:07:04 | |
that can fit into the water vole's underground tunnels, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
so for the poor water vole, there's no escape. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
But here in Seaton in East Devon, Ratty is making a comeback. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
The Environment Agency has been working for the last ten years | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
to get water voles back in rivers. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
So far, a couple of thousand have been reintroduced around the country | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
and on this part of the River Axe, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
150 are due to be released. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
But it's taken years to get the habitat just right. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
This is such a beautiful and tranquil spot. Was it always like this? | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
No. Ten years ago, this was a steep-sided, boring borrow pit | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
but the East Devon District Council and other partners locally | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
have transformed it into this wonderful wildlife haven. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
You can see all these fantastic reed beds around the side, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
lots of tree growth. It's a great site for all sorts of wildlife. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:03 | |
And also, a great place for the water voles. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
Well, that's the key thing, you see. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
We need to be creating these kind of habitats | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
to enable water voles to survive and to spread out. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
OK, we've got one coming out now, right on cue. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
Fabulous! Look at that! | 0:08:20 | 0:08:21 | |
I will let you, cos I know they bite. I've handled them before, | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
and I know they could take a chunk out of your hand. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
-You have to be a bit careful with them. -That's Ratty. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
There's this urge, I just want to stroke it. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
-You want to stroke it, don't you? -But I know it'll take my finger off | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
-if I do that. They are so cute. -They're a smashing-looking animal, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
got to admit. Very different to a rat. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:39 | |
-You notice the nose is quite snubby, rather than pointy. -Yes. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
The tail is furry, dark, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
rather than sort of pink and fleshy, which a rat's tail is like, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
so they're quite a handsome-looking animal, I think. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
Look at those teeth as well! They're ready for food. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
Most of this vegetation you see around here, they will eat, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
even the bark and leaves of trees, | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
they'll climb up in winter months for nourishment, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
so they're not too fussy. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
But before the water voles can be released, | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
it's essential that the neighbourhood is cleared of mink. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
Dotted around the area are 80 of these rafts. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Any animal setting foot on them | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
will leave evidence of their presence in the soft clay. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
We've got some very convincing footprints on these ones. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
Can you talk me through what we've got? | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
Well, the large ones appear to be otter | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
and to help, we made this tracks overlay. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:33 | |
That makes it so much clearer, because it's quite hard, | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
when you're looking at just this bit of clay with a print in it | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
to identify exactly what it is, but that's definite confirmation. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
And have you got anything else on that one? | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
A bit less clear is what I think is a mink track here. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
-That's a pretty good match for the mink. -For the mink there. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
The mink print there. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
The rafts are checked regularly | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
and, fortunately, these mink prints were found miles away, | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
so the coast is clear for the water voles to be rehoused, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
firstly in temporary accommodation. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
Now, inside is a bit of straw | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
and bits of carrot and apple, | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
just to keep them fed for the first couple of days, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
and after that, they will actually gnaw through the bottom of the box, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
which is just cardboard, and then work their way | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
through the mud of the riverbank and then just out into the water | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
but after that, they're on their own. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:22 | |
The water voles due for release today were all bred in captivity. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
There's a mix of family groups, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
brothers and sisters, old and young, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
but each water vole is micro-chipped so their movements can be monitored. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
So I'm just going to let him go now. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
There you go, chap. And they're gone. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Now that the threat from the mink has begun to subside | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
and the habitat has been restored to suit the water voles, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
numbers are increasing across the country. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
And I'm sure Toad and Mole will be very happy | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
to have Ratty back on the riverbank again. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
Well, after seeing the teeth on them voles, I'm glad we didn't catch any. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
But they are cute, you have to admit that, Tuffers. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
Religion has always played a part in the story of Cambridge. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
The university originally was a cluster of monasteries | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
and there are over 13 churches within the city boundaries. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
And behind us is Great St Mary's | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
and it's been part of Cambridge for over 800 years. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
Cambridge legend has it that during the Black Death, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
there weren't enough priests to bury the dead, | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
so one of the reasons they founded a new college was to boost numbers | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
and they called it Corpus Christi, which means "the body of Christ", | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
and it still exists today. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
You're a fountain of knowledge. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
But Britain hasn't always welcomed priests with open arms. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Here's Dan Snow. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:41 | |
Today, Britain is home to hundreds of faiths. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
In the last census, done in 2001, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
they recorded more than 170 religions | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
rubbing shoulders on our little island. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
Excuse me, madam, can I ask you a quick question? What's your religion? | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
-Church of England. -Church of England? | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
-We're Sikh. -Pentecostal Church. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
-Um, Jewish. -I'm Catholic. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
-Muslim. -I'm Buddhist. -Hindu. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
Nowadays, we take it for granted | 0:12:04 | 0:12:05 | |
that we're free to worship whichever religion we please, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
but it hasn't always been that way. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
During the reign of Elizabeth I, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:13 | |
being a Catholic priest was a treasonable offence | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
and even hiding one was a risky business. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
The penalty if you were caught was the most grisly death - | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
you were hanged, drawn and quartered. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
Defiant priests had to keep on the move to evade capture. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
They'd travel from safe house to safe house around the country | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
with the Queen's priest hunters hot on their tail. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
The Catholic families that gave them shelter | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
had to think of more and more ingenious ways to keep them hidden. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
I'm off to Baddesley Clinton, a stately home in Warwickshire. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
In the late 1500s, two Catholic sisters lived here. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
They turned it into a secret meeting place for priests, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
complete with its own collection of priest hiding places | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
or priest holes. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:01 | |
-Hello. -Dan. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
'Alice Hogge, an expert on the period, is going to show me around.' | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
-Excellent moat. -Oh, I love a moat. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
'One of the priest holes is in the attic.' | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
Why go to such extraordinary lengths? | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
Why not hide in a cupboard or under the bed or something? | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
We know the lengths the searchers themselves went to find priest. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
They'd come in with carpenters and builders, | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
go through the house and measure it | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
and work out if a space seemed to be false, and if so, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
they'd just break the wall through, so you really need a safe place. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
-We've got one up here that you might want to have a look at. -Oh, yeah. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
-If you just want to get up the ladder up there. -Look at this. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
-It's right up in the roof of the house. -Absolutely. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
'In the 1500s, this hole would have been completely sealed up | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
'and only accessible from another part of the eaves.' | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
Who would have built somewhere like this? | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
We think these ones were built by a carpenter called Nicholas Owen. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
By day, he'd come into your house and he'd, I don't know, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
build you a new staircase or put in a bathroom or something, | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
and then by night, he'd be building places like this. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
There's another one you might want to come and see, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
which is actually right down in the kitchen of the house. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
OK, so this is the most famous hiding place within this house. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
On the 19th October 1591, so that's 14 years before the Gunpowder Plot, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:11 | |
the house was raided | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
and seven priests had to go down there and hide. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
'One of them, Father Gerard, wrote an account of the experience.' | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
Late mediaeval autobiography. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
-That'll keep me from getting bored down there. -Good luck. -Thank you. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
It's quite narrow. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:24 | |
I'm going holing, priest holing. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
Yeah. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
So here I am, squashed in here. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
It's about two foot high. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:33 | |
The floor is pretty wet and minging. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:38 | |
OK, here's the passage from the book. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
"It was about five o'clock the following morning. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
"Suddenly, I heard a great uproar outside the main door. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
"It was the priest hunters. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
"With swords drawn, they were battering at the door | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
"to force an entrance. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
"Father Southwell guessed what it was all about | 0:14:54 | 0:14:56 | |
"and slipped off his vestments and stripped the altar bare. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
"Nothing was left to betray the presence of a priest. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
"Outside, the ruffians were bawling and yelling | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
"but the servants held the door fast. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
"This gave us enough time to stow ourselves and all our belongings | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
"into a very cleverly built sort of cave. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
"At last, these leopards were let in. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
"They tore madly through the whole house, searched everywhere. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
"They took four hours over the work, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
"but fortunately, they chanced on nothing. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
"So we were saved that day." | 0:15:23 | 0:15:24 | |
DOOR SLAMS | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
It's quite chilling reading that account written hundreds of years ago | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
about their experiences hiding down in this exact tunnel here, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:36 | |
in this priest hole here. It's extraordinary. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
Well, Cambridge knows all about the power of words. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
The university library holds | 0:15:45 | 0:15:46 | |
one of the greatest collections of books and manuscripts in the world | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
and some of the great literary figures, such as Tennyson | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
and Wordsworth, have pored over them whilst studying here. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
But there's another city which rivals Cambridge's literary status | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
and you have to whisper its name around these parts. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
The One Show's renaissance man, Gyles Brandreth, | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
and Oxford graduate, explains all. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
This city has generated | 0:16:11 | 0:16:12 | |
some exquisite examples of the English language. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
Welcome to Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
BUZZING | 0:16:19 | 0:16:20 | |
That's my cliche alarm going off again! 23rd cliche of the day. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:24 | |
Another turn-up for the books. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
BUZZING Oh, goodness! | 0:16:26 | 0:16:27 | |
There are around half a million words in the Oxford English Dictionary - | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
enough, you'd have thought, for every single one of us | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
to find original ways to express ourselves, but no. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
To be honest... BUZZ | 0:16:39 | 0:16:40 | |
..at this point of time... BUZZ | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
..we're all guilty of resorting to cliches, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
those infuriatingly irritating, overused turns of phrase | 0:16:44 | 0:16:49 | |
that pollute our conversation like a rash. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
BUZZ Like wildfire. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:52 | |
BUZZ Oh, kill the buzz! | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
BEEPING | 0:16:54 | 0:16:55 | |
So which cliches most get up Oxford's well-educated nose? | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
"To be fair". I just hate it. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:03 | |
-Touch base. -Someone asking to go for a bite to eat. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
Dumb blondes. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
-Yeah. -It's just not true. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
This is where the cliche was born, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
on the printing press. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
In the early 19th century, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
there was a new type of printing that came in which was much faster, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:24 | |
much more efficient than the old style. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
The English called it "stereotype". | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
The French called it "cliche" from the sound of the printing press | 0:17:30 | 0:17:35 | |
producing these innumerable copies of newspapers and things. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
-So it made a sort of "cliche, cliche, cliche" sound? -Yes. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
No-one keeps a closer eye on our language | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
than the Oxford University Press. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
They patrol our verbal landscape 24 hours a day | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
thanks to a mighty computer known as Corpus. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
The Oxford English Corpus is a huge electronic database | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
of English from around the world. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
It contains more than two billion words | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
and we can search that to find out how common a word or a phrase is. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
If there's one example of a particular expression on there, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
that's not terribly significant. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
If there's tens of thousands of examples of a phrase, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
maybe that phrase is a bit of a cliche. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
How do you decide when a useful phrase turns into a well-worn cliche? | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
I think, really, that's something of a personal judgement. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
For example, the Dreaming Spires of Oxford, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
which I very much hope you're not going to use in this piece... | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
We've already done so! We've already done so! | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
Guilty, guilty! Oh, dearie me! | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
BUZZING We opened with the Dreaming Spires of Oxford. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
This is a film full of cliches. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
Look! You're a dictionary man. You actually work on a computer | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
but we've actually put out first editions of Dr Johnson on the table. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
-We can't escape cliches. That's what we're all about! -That's right. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
So, pop pickers, we asked Corpus | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
to compute this year's chart-topping cliches especially for The One Show. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
And here they are. | 0:18:57 | 0:18:58 | |
MUSIC: "Pick Of The Pops" theme | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
At five... | 0:19:02 | 0:19:03 | |
"A level playing field." | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
At four... | 0:19:05 | 0:19:06 | |
"Few and far between." | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
At three... | 0:19:08 | 0:19:09 | |
"The fact of the matter." | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
At two... | 0:19:11 | 0:19:12 | |
"Back on track." | 0:19:12 | 0:19:13 | |
And still at number one for the third year running... | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
"At the end of the day." | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
But with all due respect... BUZZ | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
..and when all's said and done... BUZZ | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
..some cliches do have an ancient and distinguished pedigree. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
Shakespeare, our greatest ever English writer, he gave us cliches. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:32 | |
We've got so many cliches that have come from Shakespeare. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
"In my mind's eye", | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
"more things in heaven and earth", | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
"the rest is history", you can just go on for ever. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
There's the old joke that Hamlet is just made up of quotations. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
What's your verdict on the cliche? Good, bad, or indifferent? | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
Well, they're fine in the right place. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
In everyday speech, they're very useful. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
They add to the efficiency of communication. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
If you're on a beach with a tsunami rolling up the sand, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:07 | |
you want to yell, "Run for your life". | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
But if you put it in a film script, it's going to sound dreadful. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
Of course, not all cliches are verbal ones. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
If this is Oxford, then Brandreth had better be filmed in a punt. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
At the end of the day... BUZZ | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
..don't cliches add something | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
to the ebb and flow of our rich and complex language? | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
Know what I mean? | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
BUZZ Oh, there it goes again! | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
All's well that ends well. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
-Does Gyles know everything, Angellica? -Yes, everything. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
-Who told you? -Gyles did! | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
Anyway, he's not going to be very happy with us | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
because we've used every cliche under the sun. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
No, I'm always riding me bike, wearing me boater, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
it's got nothing to do with being in Cambridge. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
When it comes to discovering great ideas, | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
this city has generated more than its fair share. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
Crick and Watson discovered the secret of life | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
by sketching out the structure of DNA in a local pub. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
Their double helix formation | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
is arguably the most iconic scientific symbol of our time. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
Building on work by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
their discovery in 1953 | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
enabled scientists to understand how DNA replicates | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
and how hereditary information is coded on it. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
This set the stage for the rapid advances in molecular biology, | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
which continue to this day. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
Along with Wilkins, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:30 | |
Crick and Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
a prize another Cambridge graduate surely deserves. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
Isaac Newton studied at Trinity College, | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
where he discovered the fundamentals of light and gravity. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
And more importantly, on a common called Parker's Piece, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
a bunch of lads got together in 1848 | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
and laid down the set of rules | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
which would later form the basis of a sport called football. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
Some of the best ideas, however, come from nature. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
Mike Dilger went to see how scientists have been getting inspiration | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
from some very clever birds. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
Owls - some of nature's greatest hunters. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
Their hearing is ten times more sensitive than ours, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
so they can hear a scuttling mouse from 30 feet away | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
and they can catch it unawares in pitch darkness, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
all because of a very quiet weapon. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
And like the Harris hawk, the barn owl that Jimmy's holding | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
is designed to fly as silently as possible | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
so it can creep up on its prey, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
but to find out just how quiet, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
we're going to put them both to a flight test. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
Let's go, Jimmy. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
Jimmy promises he can fly a Harris hawk and a barn owl | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
just inches above my head | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
and I've got to guess which is which | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
just from the sound of their wing beats. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
OK, Jimmy, ready for the first bird. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
OK, here we go. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:22:57 | 0:22:58 | |
I definitely heard wings flying overhead. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
I reckon that's the Harris hawk | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
and if I were a mouse or a vole, I'd be running for cover | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
but I'm going to wait for the second bird to be absolutely sure. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
OK. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
-Has it gone yet? -Yep. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
I didn't hear a flipping thing! | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
I'm presuming it flew over my head. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
If it did, that's the barn owl. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
This silent flight got engineers thinking, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
"Could owl technology help aeroplanes fly more quietly too?" | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
At the University of Southampton, | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
Dr Kenji Takeda is part of an aeronautical team investigating this. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:41 | |
The owl's amazing. Basically, it's the only animal that has evolved | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
to be completely silent to its prey | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
and it's looking at those aspects | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
that allows us to see how we can apply that on an airliner. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
Apart from the engines, most of the noise aeroplanes make | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
is caused by wind rushing over the wings. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
This is the speed a barn owl would fly through the air | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
while it's quartering a field, looking for mice and voles. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
And look at the wind resistance it has to cope with whilst it's hunting! | 0:24:07 | 0:24:12 | |
'Because planes fly much quicker, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
'there is even more wind and turbulence.' | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
You're at 30 miles an hour now | 0:24:19 | 0:24:21 | |
and an aeroplane's probably coming in at about four times that speed. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
You can see what effect the turbulence | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
has at the back of the wings - the ribbons are totally snarled up. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
'It's turbulent air that creates noise | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
'and in a smaller wind tunnel Kenji and the team realise that | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
'the shape of the plane's wing makes it even noisier.' | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
As that noise crosses this sharp edge at the back, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
it gets louder and is radiated towards the ground. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
OK, so how does that compare to a barn owl's wing, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
which we've got here? | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
If we look at the trailing edge, it's subtly different. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
You can see these little fringes | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
where it's got these very fine feathers. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
When the noise passes over that, it doesn't get radiated to the ground. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:12 | |
So the voles don't hear the barn owl coming? | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
That's right, it's almost silent. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
'So these frilly feathers are one of the secrets | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
'to the owl's incredibly quiet flight | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
'and, amazingly, by putting owl-like frills on model plane wings, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
'the team have found they can significantly reduce landing noise, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
'so in the next five years we should see similar | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
'bristles on commercial airlines.' | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
Hopefully people near airports | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
will sleep easier as a result of these bristles. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
That's right, they'll appreciate the owl's technology. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
'But owls have one more trick | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
'that could help reduce noise close to airports | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
'and Kenji and the team are testing this in a flight simulator. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | |
'Owls land on their prey very steeply, at about 25 degrees, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:55 | |
'so the voles can't hear them until the very last second.' | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
It probably comes in a lot more smoothly than I'm doing right now! | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
-Er, yeah! -I'm hopeless at this! -The owls have had a bit more practice. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
'Planes, by comparison, come in to land at a very shallow three degrees, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
'meaning they're very low and noisy when approaching the airport.' | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
The idea is if we could come in as steeply as an owl, we'd be further | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
away from the houses underneath us so we'd be a lot quieter. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
In fact, we'd almost be silent. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
'But can Captain Dilger achieve a smooth owl-like landing?' | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
That's it, so just aim for the runway, that's looking pretty good. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
TYRES SCREECH Boing! | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
-Now put the brakes on. -Yeah, welcome to Heathrow. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
Thank you very much! God, that was hopeless! | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
-Well, I wouldn't have Mike Dilger fly me anywhere after that. -I agree! | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
That's the end of our Cambridge tour and I think it's been a hoot! | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
-Get it? Owls? Hoot? -No! -No? -Bye. -Bye. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:56 | |
'Next week on The One Show Best Of Britain, I head to the stunning | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
'landscape of the Lake District for a picnic with John Sergeant.' | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
I love this spread you've put on, John! | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
It's a very typical Lake District picnic and how do we know that? | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
We know that because it's raining. ANGELINA LAUGHS | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
'Miranda Krestovnikoff dives into the Northumberland seas | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
'to get up close and personal with our favourite underwater mammals.' | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
-Ooh, I can feel something tugging at my fins! -SHE LAUGHS | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
'Phil and I take a tour around Blenheim Palace, | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
'birthplace of Winston Churchill, and you'll get another chance to see | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
'how The One Show put my senses to the test when they made me | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
'spend the night in a haunted mansion.' | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
-Are you OK? -I heard something in there. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
(I think something's here with me.) | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
Have I gone the right way? | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
I've gone the wrong way. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
'And find out why Dan Snow stepped back in time | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
'and took to horseback to... | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
'slice a cabbage?! You'll have to watch to find out. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
'Join us on Monday.' | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 |