Brecon Beacons The One Show - Best of Britain

Hello and welcome to The One Show: Best Of Britain with Carrie Grant...

..and Gyles Brandreth

and another chance to see some of our very favourite One Show films.

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Today we're in the magnificent Brecon Beacons National Park

in Wales, of course.

Yes, home to the wonderful Black Mountains over there in the east.

Not to be confused with the Black Mountain Range

over there in the west.

Now, later in tonight's show, Christine Walkden

will be digging around for a story in the back garden of Max Clifford.

I like tidying up which I suppose fits in

with a lot of what I do anyway.

And Joe Crowley is going back to the 1970s to a small Welsh town

that saw an extraordinary drugs raid.

In here, Kemp made 20 million doses of LSD.

And I'm heading even further back in time and further north to Bangor

to remember the day The Beatles came to town.

But first, Miranda is climbing aboard a town centre tour bus.

-Stay tuned, she has packed her wetsuit.

-Mm-mm!

Built in the mid-1800s, the Albert Dock

was one of the biggest construction projects of its time

and for a while it made Liverpool an epicentre for world trade.

For decades, thousands of ships and boats have unloaded

their cargo here but it wasn't just official goods they were bringing in.

They had stowaways too.

From around the world, creatures attached to hulls,

caught in ballast tanks and swept in from the sea

made this old, industrial heartland home.

And the only way to get a really good look at this habitat

is to get in the water and I'm not going in alone.

CHEERING # I'd like to be

# Under the sea

# In an octopus's garden in the shade. #

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, in the middle of the Albert Dock

in Liverpool. It's a world-famous heritage site.

'Susan Gilbertson has lived in Liverpool for most of her life

'and spends her days talking about the history of the Albert Dock.'

That's where Richard and Judy used to film This Morning.

Although she works on top of the water she's always been curious

about what lies below especially as there's a piece of Liverpool folklore

about a creature lurking in the depths.

-There have been reports of a ginormous eel. A condor eel, is it?

-Conger eel, yeah.

-Yeah, a conger eel.

Basically there's a little funny story going around.

Everyone refers to it as "Dock Ness"!

-Ha ha! This is your Dock Ness monster!

-Yeah.

-Wow, so a big conger eel?

-Yeah.

-Living in the docks here?

-Living in the docks.

-Wow.

So with special permission, in we go.

-Right, are you ready for this?

-Yes.

-Feeling warm?

THEY LAUGH

-I've been warmer!

-It's going to be amazing.

And it really is. Every structure

under the water has become an artificial reef packed with life.

I can't get over this rope. It's just covered in mussels, isn't it?

-I know.

-Smothered. It's about that fat at the bottom.

Just with all the mussel growth and all the sea squirts and everything.

You'd think there'd be plenty of space for everything

but they're all crowded on top of each other.

It's not like they find a fresh piece of space, it's just,

"Oh, there's one, we'll grow on top of that."

The water here is incredibly clear, partly due to these mussels

that filter bacteria, plankton and other organic material.

And they also provide a hearty meal for other creatures.

But there is one animal that Sue has seen year-on-year

floating around the docks.

-There were go, it's a jellyfish.

-Oh, my God!

It won't sting, it's a mini-jelly and they don't sting.

-And what do they do?

-They're food for turtles!

-Oh, is it?

-THEY LAUGH

Their dinner then! Hello, turtle dinner!

As the waters warm up during the summer months,

more and more jellyfish appear here in the docks.

And I didn't think we'd see anything better

when we got a glimpse of Susan's Dock Ness monsters.

Well, OK these conger eels are only about a metre and a half long

but I never expected to see so many of them in a city.

Those conger eels were beautiful, weren't they? Those two tails

-hanging in that green weed.

-They're gorgeous.

Almost twisted around each other and then suddenly

one minute they're just off.

-They were gorgeous.

-Really beautiful.

Silky, weren't they? You want to touch them. Beautiful.

Normally these eels live around the coast

but this artificial reef has attracted them here

providing great habitat and food.

-What do you think then?

-It's amazing.

THEY LAUGH

I'm lost for words. It very rarely happens

and it's absolutely fantastic.

I could just stay and look at it for hours.

I never expected to see

so much variety of life in the heart of Liverpool.

Species from all around the world cohabiting

successfully in their little hideaway beneath the waves.

The National Park is famous for its caves

and this one has the widest mouth in the whole of Wales.

The widest mouth in the whole of Wales?

No wonder I feel so at home here!

The place actually is called Porth yr Ogof

and I recognise the cave because it features

in the BBC series Merlin which I've been watching.

-How are you saying that again?

-DRAMATICALLY: Porth yr Ogof!

-SHE LAUGHS

-You're right, my pronunciation is terrible.

Why do they send me to places with impossible names to pronounce

when I could've been sent to Bangor?

It's funny you should say that because that's where I'm headed in this next film about The Beatles.

1967 - Flower Power was gripping the nation

and The Beatles were caught up in it like the rest of the country.

The boys were becoming increasingly interested in spiritual matters

and in August 1967, travelled away from London for a special weekend

of meditation and soul-searching

and what better place to come than here...

in Bangor?

SITAR PLAYS

They came to North Wales to see the Maharishi,

an Indian guru who promised enlightenment through meditation.

George had dragged them to the Hilton Hotel, I think it was,

to see a person called the Maharishi

and they'd been so amazed

and impressed by this person they decided to go off the next morning

to Bangor for a course of some sort.

So I went down to Euston

the next morning, got on the train and the station was chocker.

People had somehow found out. There was chaos on the platform.

The Beatles' London send-off was chaotic

and there were similar scenes when they arrived in Bangor.

The conference was held at Normal College which is now a part of Bangor University.

# Roll up Roll up for the mystery tour. #

The Beatles actually stayed at the college and it was here

that Mal Hughes and Roy Flynn, a couple of postal workers,

were called on to deliver the most important telegram of their lives.

I was in the sorting office and a telegram came down the chute.

I picked it up and I says, "A telegram for The Beatles." So...

So you just happened to be the man that was standing

-at the bottom of that chute at that moment?

-Yeah, waiting for it.

-My particular job at the time was a telegram boy.

-Aw!

Obviously they don't have these kind of things now, it's all e-mails.

The supervisor says, "You're not going with it."

I says, "Yes, I am." He says "No, you're not."

So I says, "Yes!" Anyway, we had a bit of an argument and he says, "Oh, all right."

-So two of you in a van to deliver a piece of paper?

-Yes!

-Yes!

# Got to get you into my life. #

So you get here, you get out the van, what happens next?

I went in through that door there and that's where they were in there.

And I just says to John Lennon, "I have a telegram for you."

-Were you shaking? "Here's-your tele-gram!"

-I just handed it to him. "There you are."

-We're used to it!

-Cos you would have been, what, 16 at the time?

-16, yeah.

-How did you feel, standing there with The Beatles?

-Just amazing.

It's only now when you think back

that you can realise that it's never going to come again, is it?

This was also a day that Colin Jones and Geoff Dacre would never forget.

In 1967, they were 15-year-old music fans and they came to

the college armed with cameras aiming to get some shots of The Beatles.

So what was your plan?

Colin suggested we say we're from the press

because we both had a camera each and I thought there's no way

they're going to believe that, we were only 15.

Then they'll ask for identification which we hadn't got obviously

so I thought all they can do is throw us back out again, you know.

There was two, like, bouncers on the door

-and I think we both said simultaneously...

-Freelance press!

-Freelance press, yes.

-And they said, what?

-In you go!

-Yeah!

-This is where you would have seen The Beatles?

-Yes.

-In you go.

That's right, yeah, yeah.

# Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. #

-What is it feel like coming back in here?

-Strange.

-Very strange.

We felt so conspicuous and we sat at the side down that wall there.

-Where were The Beatles?

-On the stage here

and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was sat there

-doing his spouting.

-And there was an audience presumably?

-Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull.

-It was actually... Jane Asher.

-Have you still got the pictures?

-I have, yes.

-Let's have a look then.

-There we are.

-That's amazing.

-That's the Yogi.

-You were really close.

And of course you got the mighty Mick Jagger.

-He doesn't look very happy, does he? Is that Marianne...

-Marianne.

-That's Marianne Faithfull, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Have they just had an argument?

-Yeah!

So you've only got these two pictures left of everything

-that happened that day for you guys?

-Those were the only two we dared take!

In the end, The Beatles cut short their weekend in Bangor.

It was while they were here that they were told their manager and friend Brian Epstein had died.

Being here in Bangor, you can really feel the excitement

the city must've felt having The Beatles amongst them.

That's why years later, they're still talking about the weekend

the Fab Four came to North Wales.

-That must have been an amazing day for you.

-It certainly was.

This is turning out to be an amazing day for me, you know. Memorable.

Why's that?

Because it's actually 50 years since I first came to the Brecon Beacons.

-Half a century ago as a schoolboy.

-You do not look old enough, Gyles.

I know but still I was brought here on a school trip

and I am quite a groupie for waterfalls.

Well, this is the Sgwd Clun Gwyn waterfall

which if you translate from the Welsh means "waterfall of the white meadow."

It's very fortunate that you do know the actual name

because if you didn't, we wouldn't have got here because this is

one of the few parts of the United Kingdom that does not have

-a postcode.

-So you don't get your post or your letters here.

-No, but you get the most fabulous power shower!

-You certainly do!

-What are you up to next?

-I'm going to climb that hill. Oh, yes.

-I'd better set of now.

-Bit of a cliff face.

It is a bit of a cliff face.

And I'm off to find out more about the National Park from the warden manager, Judith Harvey.

Judith, this place is called a Geopark. What does that mean?

Well, it's an area with special rock formations and also an area

where the cultural history of the area is linked to the geology.

What kind of plants and vegetation might we find here?

Well, this, we're within the waterfall's

Special Area Of Conservation

which is a really tremendously special area.

We've got plants that only grow in these deep gorges.

You can hear the water behind us

and it tumbles over the waterfall, produces a lot of moisture.

It's like you've got your own rainforest here, isn't it?

It is actually. We are in the Celtic rainforest here!

What a stunning location and how many waterfalls do you have in the park?

There are seven named waterfalls in this area. Believe it or not,

I have seen people kayaking over here.

When the river's in flood, they go over and drop down.

-Proper extreme sports.

-It is, yeah.

Judith, what's the most important part about your work?

To me, it's conservation of the environment

and also introducing people TO the environment.

Allowing them and explaining the nature

and natural history to them so they can enjoy it too.

-What an amazing location to work in. Thank you so much.

-OK, you're welcome.

Back in the 1970s, an unsuspecting town in mid-Wales

became the focus of the biggest police drugs investigation known to these parts.

Joe Crowley went to find out more.

Tregaron is a small market town in mid-Wales

where not much ever happened.

Until 1977, that is, when locals here

found themselves at the centre of

one of the biggest undercover police operations Britain had ever seen.

No-one in Tregaron had any clue at all

that the crime of the century

was being perpetrated under their very noses here.

HEAVY ROCK MUSIC

Back in the late '60s, Britain had embraced flower power

and with it came LSD.

LSD, one of the most powerful mind-affecting substances known to man.

The drug has mind-blowing effects.

In a few cases, it does, in fact, drive people mad.

It can make them go and kill other people or themselves.

Despite being an illegal drug, reports suggest

100,000 acid tabs were being taken in Britain every week.

Police knew vast amounts were being manufactured somewhere

but they hadn't got a clue where.

Leaf Fielding worked in one of the illegal acid factories.

We thought we'd found a tool that could help us

solve all the world's problems.

Don't forget, we're living in a world with the threat of the bomb

and we thought that by taking LSD, we could live in peace and harmony.

Leaf and his co-conspirators evaded capture for years but in 1975,

police found ripped-up pieces of paper

in a crashed car from Tregaron.

Pieced together, they read hydrazeme hydrate,

a chemical used in the manufacture of LSD.

Believing they'd stumbled on the acid ring,

police hatched Operation Julie.

Undercover cops were put into Tregaron disguised as hippies.

Dai Rees was one of them.

When I was undercover as a hippie, I had a very unkempt beard.

I had very, very dishevelled hair.

There were times when we had to literally sit side-by-side

with some of the people that we were watching.

We could very easily have blown the whole investigation

to pieces and spoilt it all.

The crashed car belonged to one Richard Kemp

who lived near Tregaron with his girlfriend, Christine Bott.

Well, this is where Richard Kemp and Christine Bott lived.

So the police would've been keeping an eye on this place.

Were they based around here?

They used to watch from the top of the hill with binoculars.

All the houses around here, they also became police houses.

They even set up a fight between one of the hippies - hippie cops

and the local policeman, in order to looked genuine.

Living as hippies for a year,

police kept tabs on the suspected drugs ring. Breaking into a cellar,

they finally found the proof they'd been looking for.

In the cellar, they had to climb over a mountain of debris, walls filthy.

Suddenly they turned the corner and they find this.

This cellar was the centre of a worldwide organisation.

In here, Kemp made 20 million doses of LSD.

Certainly one of the major illicit LSD laboratories ever found.

On 26th March 1977, the police made their move.

800 officers raided 87 houses across the UK making 120 arrests.

So where were you? You were staying at a house down the lane?

Yes, just right at the bottom of this lane.

Is that where you were when the police swooped and arrested you?

Yeah. At five o'clock in the morning,

they burst in and I was hauled from the bed by six policemen.

It's one of the worst moments in my life, actually.

You recognise what you were doing was wrong?

I recognise what I was doing was illegal.

Personally I didn't think it was morally wrong.

15 of the ringleaders including Kemp and Leaf Fielding were found guilty

and sentenced to a combined 120 years in prison.

It was something which every one of us would take pride in for years afterwards -

indeed, even now - that we were part of that particular investigation.

I was sentenced to eight years in prison.

My family were extremely shocked.

Some of my relatives decided

they didn't want anything to do with me ever again.

Of course I had regrets.

You know, my own actions had put me in prison for a long time.

Who wouldn't regret that?

Operation Julie was Britain's first really big drugs bust.

What had started as an idealistic dream

ended with the harsh reality of prison.

This is the Monmouth Brecon Canal.

35 miles long, 200 years old and when it was built,

it was designed to transport coal and iron.

These days it's used for much more leisurely pursuits.

You could spend a couple of hours on a canal boat up here and see some of

the most fantastic scenery in Britain.

And it is truly heaven...

-BUZZING

-..except for the midges! And here's our very own Mr Insect,

it's George McGavin.

Bees are one of the most important insects on earth.

They provide us with their honey

and pollinate our fruit and vegetables and now,

they're set to revolutionise our national security.

# I'm a bee, I'm a bee I'm a, I'm a, I'm a bee

# I'm a bee, I'm a bee I'm a, I'm a, I'm a bee. #

Here in Hertfordshire, Freddy Cook and his team of scientists

are working on a clever idea

to harness the exceptional sense of smell

of one of Britain's hardest-working insects.

Now, listen. What's happening here? What are you doing?

Well, we're training honeybees to detect chemicals in the air.

In airports, for example, we need a quick and cost-effective

and reliable way of finding when people are trying to smuggle

drugs, explosives, that kind of thing.

What's wrong with a nice, wet-nosed spaniel?

You know, how is this an improvement?

Well, we know dogs are very sensitive

and we also know that bees are extraordinarily sensitive.

So the idea is that we can train a bee

in a matter of minutes to detect a chemical in the air

whereas a dog, it takes several months to train.

It all sounds a bit far-fetched at the moment

so to prove his point, Freddy's going to show me

how his sniffer bees are trained.

So what happens now?

So now we're going to take a bee out of this cartridge.

And you're using very soft forceps?

That's right, just forceps to gently hold her

so then she goes in to the bee-holder like this. It's not hurting her

and the spring at the front just holds her gently in place like that.

Once in the capsule, it's over to the training area.

Here, a tiny trace of explosive has been mixed with air.

The air will then be wafted over the bee so she can smell it.

So I'll turn it on.

We'll allow her a couple of seconds to recognise the smell.

And then I will feed her.

-Out with the tongue, and she has a feed.

-And off.

How many times would you have to do that, to train the bee?

As you will see the next time, often they have already learnt it.

-Wow!

-If I try again, turn the switch... Look, she is responding.

Out pops the tongue. That is just amazing.

On just one trial, she has realised

that the smell of this stuff means that she gets food.

That's right.

This incredible memory is what makes bees such experts at detecting food.

When out foraging, if they like a flower's nectar

they instantly remember its smell and location.

Back at the hive they drop off their precious nectar

and can then navigate their way back to the exact same flowers

guided by their extraordinary memory.

And it is this natural ability that is being harnessed here.

Cohorts of trained bees are placed in a kind of smell-o-meter device.

So, now is the time for the acid test.

Here we have six innocent-looking suitcases

but two contain minute traces of explosives and drugs.

The question is, can the bees find them?

Number one.

If a substance is detected, the bees extended tongue

will trigger a sensor which shows up as a red light.

Bag number three.

Whoa! That is very, very clear.

Five of these bees have responded.

These were the ones trained to the chemical found in explosives.

So that bag contains explosives?

That is right, we would want to have a closer look at that.

Bag four.

Nothing there.

Clear. And now my bag. Which should be absolutely fine.

-Ah!

-Woah!

We have got quite a strong response here.

From the bees who were trained for cocaine.

You planted this in my bag!

-Shall we have a look?

-This is not my bag, officer, really!

So, in this bottle, I placed the scent of cocaine

and the bees have picked that up.

Having done their duty it is back to the hive for these girls.

Hopefully, with more testing,

we will soon see sniffer bees in airports all around the country.

Giles, why are we wearing these silly suits?

Because I am a coward and I'm about to take you to meet some bees.

Welsh bees.

I need to be protected. Here is the beekeeper.

Now, Kenneth, I love bees because they give me honey.

I have heard that the bee population is in steep decline.

Is that true and does it matter?

Yes, bees are in decline, and yes, it really does matter.

30% of the food produced in this country is pollinated by bees.

Without them you will lose 30% of production.

Things like tomatoes, apples, crops, peas, beans, they will not be there,

because the number of pollinators will not be around.

-Why are the bees declining?

-Because of loss of habitat.

Monoculture, growing throughout the country, oilseed rape,

and disease, such as Varroa destructor,

the little mite which has had a massive impact,

and a significant loss of bees in the UK over the last ten years.

So what are we going to do about it?

We are trying to treat them using non-chemical treatments.

The chemical treatments we used to use, they have become resistant to.

-We can encourage them by growing flowers.

-Absolutely.

-Dandelions and stuff.

-Dandelions are good.

I can only say this once, dandelions are not weeds.

They are what bees love, aren't they?

Absolutely, if you want to help the bee population,

don't spray your dandelions.

I thought this was an urban myth, but is it true

that if bees became extinct, human beings would die within four years?

It is not a theory I would want to put to the test but I suspect

that the loss of food production would have a severe impact, yes.

We have Christine Walker next,

she has been nosing around people's gardens again,

-through the potting shed keyhole.

-I love her.

Before you leave, you must come and have a look at my bees.

Yes. You do that!

When it comes to digging and muck-raking

there's usually one person in the middle of it all.

He owns this garden and his name is Max Clifford.

Max has made his name and fortune looking after people's reputations,

and dealing with the press.

He is always at the centre of things, so I suspect this garden

has more to do with getting away from it all.

An oasis of calm, and sweet-smelling roses.

If I'm in the country, I tend to be the office a couple of days a week.

So I'll be here two or three days, working in the garden.

When I say that, I am not doing the gardening,

I have a very good gardener who does that.

One of the few things I actually do myself is a bit of trimming.

I like tidying up. I suppose it fits in with a lot of what I do anyway.

Roses were my mum's favourite.

I always think of my mum. Lilian, her name was.

She giggled a lot. When she giggled, she shook. Which I loved to see.

She was always someone that everyone came to with their problems.

So I suppose I have inherited a lot of things from Mum.

Did she ever show you how to prune it? May I?

-Please do.

-Because you're making a right hash!

-I am sure, yeah, go on.

There is no bud there so that would die the way back down there.

So when you're pruning you should always cut just above, there.

-There?

-That is fine.

-How about that?

-That is better.

Max moved to this house with his second wife, Jo, a few years ago.

It is in a gated estate in Walton-on-Thames,

not too far from where Max grew up in south London.

We didn't really have a garden. It was a tiny little postage stamp.

My dad had runner beans and tomatoes, bits-and-pieces.

-We didn't really have many flowers because there wasn't room.

-Right.

So what do you buy a man who has everything?

Especially one like Max who doesn't drink or smoke.

If you've got a couple of thousand to spare,

what about a very large fish?

-I know as much about koi carp as I do about gardens.

-Right!

-The big gold one was a gift from Simon.

-Simon Cowell?

-Yes.

-Right.

-The orange and black was a gift from Louis Walsh.

-What about plants?

Which of those are from the stars?

This particular plant, a New Zealand cabbage tree,

was a gift from Jade Goodie.

That is something which brings back a lot of memories.

Some memories, yeah.

-What about this pool?

-That was a gift from me to me.

-Excellent.

I swim virtually every day.

-When there is snow on the ground I am still swimming.

-Really?

After a hard day's chatting, I reckon I deserve a splosh.

-Do you consider yourself a lucky man?

-Incredibly lucky.

Anybody that works for themselves and makes a very good living

doing something you absolutely love, has got to be.

But your life hasn't been totally without tragedy, has it?

No. At the age of six, my daughter, Louise,

was diagnosed with chronic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

We had 18 years of hospitals,

Liz, my wife, and I, were there all the time.

Then Liz - we had been married 37 years -

she died very suddenly of lung cancer.

I suppose about two years after Liz died I met and got to know Jo,

who was a volunteer bereavement counsellor

at a Children's Hospice I was involved with.

We got married just over a year ago, last Easter.

So, you know, there have been some clouds,

as there are for lots of people,

but there has been an amazing lot of sunshine through my life

and I consider myself incredibly lucky.

That was a really touching film about Max Clifford, wasn't it?

It has been quite a special day, this.

I look forward to coming back to the Brecon Beacons.

-Maybe in another 50 years.

-And why not? I am up for it!

-Bye now!

-Bye-bye for now!