Beaulieu The One Show - Best of Britain

Welcome to The One Show Best of Britain with Giles Brandreth.

And Lucy Siegle. And another chance

to see some of our favourite One Show films.

Today, we're at Beaulieu in Hampshire.

The home of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.

-Is he a personal friend?

-As chance would have it, yes.

Home, too, to Beaulieu Abbey, Palace House

and a village where the animals roam free.

And home also to the National Motor Museum,

which showcases some of the earliest cars and motorbikes.

The ideal location for a film from Marty Jopson,

in which he looks at the life of the bright spark who invented the match.

There we go.

And a film from George McGavin, who encounters the creepiest of insects.

I don't think I've seen

so many caterpillars in one place in my life.

Not only that, we've gathered together

the largest collection of James Bond cars

ever brought to one place. Voo-voo-voom!

But first, our resident wildlife photographer Jamie Crawford

goes on the trail of a very elusive creature.

-And they've got a teashop here, too.

-Ooh, a teashop!

-Come on.

Today, I'm after a shot of bats in the belfry

and here in Tattershall, Lincolnshire,

the bats have made this church their home.

Surrounded by lakes, trees and grasslands

and with insects galore, it's a perfect habitat for bats.

There's so many bats here that caretaker Dave Mullinger

and a team of people have to cover everything in the church

to protect it from rather corrosive bat pee and, well, poo.

Dave, that's an enormous amount of poo.

How many bats have you got in this church?

-Somewhere between 600 and 1,000.

-And lots of different species?

Four different species. Soprano pipistrelle, common pipistrelle,

long-eared and Daubentons.

-Whose poo's that, then?

-That's a mixture.

Good answer, good answer.

-So where exactly are they?

-Somewhere above the roof timbers.

Not an ideal photographic position, particularly given how high it is.

You're looking at about 60 feet.

'Ah, that'll need a Plan B then, and luckily, according to David,

'the bats leave the church a little nearer the ground.

'Each of the ancient doors has tiny gaps around the edges,

'ideal for bat exits, but that brings its own problems.'

I've got quite a lot of kit, but even so, taking photographs of bats

that are that big and fly up to six metres a second

isn't going to be easy, so this time around

I've enlisted the help of a specialist.

There's a lot of kit here, Sam.

'This is Kim Taylor, a specialist photographer

'responsible for some simply breathtaking high-speed photography.

'To get his amazing shots,

'Kim builds most of his own equipment from scratch,

'and he's prepared to let a rookie like me loose with it.'

This is a very important part of the apparatus.

This is an infrared sender and receiver

and this is what reflects the infrared beam.

'The bats are so fast,

'my finger will never be quick enough on the shutter,

'so this beam runs from top to bottom of the door,

'and if the bats fly through, they'll trigger the flash.'

Yeah.

So this is the big flash?

Yeah, that's going to light the bat from the front.

'This flash ensures we'll see the bat but, being Kim,

'he's got three to light it beautifully.'

Hold onto your hats.

Bang! It works.

Focus on it.

'Then it's the small business of trying to guess

'how high the bat will be and get it in focus.'

Now zoom back to about 200.

Our set-up's ready, then.

The bats will break through the beam,

the beam will trigger the flash, but what's going to trigger the camera?

Well, it's actually you, Jamie,

that's going to trigger the camera with a cable release.

'What I need to do is close the shutter the minute I see a flash.

'So, now we just need to wait for the dark and the bats.'

'Bats can eat up to 3,000 insects a night

'and usually hunt from dusk till dawn.

'But I can't see a thing.'

-One just came out.

-Did it?

-One just dropped, yes.

-Oh.

This is quite exciting.

Ooh!

That one came just a foot in the wrong direction.

'The problem is, the beam's very narrow

'and the door is very wide so only some bats will trigger the flash.'

All these bats coming out and none of them going through the beam,

just goes to show you, you can have all the kit in the world,

but you still need a bit of luck for it to come off.

-Yes.

-Yes!

There he is. Look at that.

'Our first bat, a soprano pipistrelle.'

D'you think we can push in a little bit closer, see if we can...

We could try a bit closer, see if we can get a bigger image.

I love it.

Did you see that one?

Ooh, ooh, ohhh!

Two went, but they didn't hit the flash.

-Do you think we've been too ambitious?

-Possibly.

-Ye-es!

-Finally, we've got it.

-We have a result.

-That is the one.

That's a scorcher.

'Some of the bats seem almost to be playing with us.'

Look, they're flying round and round like that.

-Ooh!

-Got it.

BOTH: Ye-es!

That's amazing.

I've never had so much fun in a graveyard.

'But as we had to get a special licence to use a flash around bats

'and with great shots, thanks to Kim's expertise,

'it's time to wrap up.'

I think we'll turn off now, OK?

That's bats in the belfry. Tick.

'And this was our best shot.

'A Soprano pipistrelle leaving the belfry for an evening jaunt.'

-And that's why they call him Batman.

-They don't.

And this is the Aston Martin,

as featured in the James Bond movie, GoldenEye.

It's one of 50 Bond vehicles here at the National Motor Museum,

in an exhibition called Bond In Motion, which is on until December.

-You can go and see it now!

-Oh, what about this?

-I'm going for a drive with Stan in the Aston Martin.

-By yourself?

Mmm-hmm. Ha-ha-ha. Enjoy the rest of the exhibition.

How very dare you!

Well, I'll just go and find out some information by myself!

Now, I'm here with Doug Hill, who is the museum manager

and we're among these amazing Bond cars, but what's happened here, Doug?

Disaster.

Well, Daniel Craig was driving this in Casino Royale,

and in the scene, the baddies have kidnapped his girlfriend,

he comes flying round the corner in his Aston Martin DBS

and she's laid in the road, so he steers to avoid her

and the car flips.

Actually, first attempt, it didn't flip, so they had to put

a cannon in the back of it to fire it over, and it went seven times.

Surely that must be some sort of world record?

Yes, it was. In fact, it's now in the Guinness Book of Records

for the number of consecutive rolls that it did,

and that's the end result. One completely mangled Aston Martin.

MUSIC: "James Bond 007 Theme" by John Barry

May I suggest he needs to drive more carefully,

cos his insurance premiums, they're going to go through the roof.

I think we need to take a look at what happened.

TYRES SCREECH

And this is a Ford Mustang Mach 1, last seen on two wheels

disappearing down a narrow alley pursued by the cops.

I got you now.

Lean over.

That was 1971, Lucy Galore, a great year for films.

-Well, before I was born.

-Really?

WELL before I was born.

Whether or not it was a great year for music, of course,

depends on whether or not your heart goes out to this little chap.

# I owe everything I have... #

Records always need a bit of luck to become hits,

but the story of this song involved a very fortunate combination

of time, television and talent.

'Customers, this is your Opportunity Knocks All-Winners Show!'

Long before X Factor came along,

one of the first talent shows in the UK

to use the power of the audience vote was Opportunity Knocks.

You voted for him, from Bonnie Scotland, Neil Reid!

Aged 12, Neil Reid was already a little star,

singing in Northern clubs,

where Opportunity Knocks was every act's ambition.

I wrote away for it and I waited about two and a half years

before I even got an answer.

And then I did the audition and then on the audition itself they said,

"You're on the show and this is the date."

And then just, bang!

Neil won the vote to return on the show week after week.

He was a phenomenon, but his biggest opportunity

came right out of the blue, thanks to Bill Parkinson,

the guitarist for Tom Jones.

Tom sang a song called Yiddishe Mama. You know it?

# My, Yiddishe mother... #

Afterwards, it struck me that if I wrote a song about my mother,

maybe Tom would sing that.

GUITAR MUSIC

It said everything I wanted to about my mother.

'Mother of mine, you give to me all of my life to do as I please.

'I owe everything I have to you...'

Fantastic song.

I don't mean fantastic for me,

but fantastic for me to be able to say that to my mother.

Bill's mum loved the song, and she wasn't alone.

It also reached the ears of Neil Reid's manager.

Perfect for the little boy on Opportunity Knocks.

'I sang it on week four of the show

'and the single was released on that same week.'

# Mother... #

The record shot up the charts,

selling two and a half million copies worldwide.

Describe to me what life was like after Opportunity Knocks.

I couldn't go out in public, because people knew instantly who I was.

# And I can walk straight... #

And after the hit single came an album, which made Neil

the youngest artist ever to top the UK album charts.

What I hated was people wanting to keep me 12. That's what I hated.

When I was 20, it just didn't work.

And I remember, at one point, I sat...

I was doing this summer season,

and I thought, "This is just nuts. I don't want to do this."

# Sweet mother... #

"I'm going to get out before it throws me out."

Neil is now a business consultant.

Mother Of Mine composer Bill is still writing and performing music

and this is the first time the two of them have met

in the 40 years since the song was a hit.

# Mother of mine

# You gave to me

# All of my life

# To do as I please...

# I owe everything I have to you... #

It took me literally...

I don't want to say how sure, it took me under one hour to write it.

Here's a strange thing, it took me four minutes to sing it, OK?

We did it in one take. That first run was what went out.

Absolutely great.

That's why it has that absolutely genuine, authentic feel to the lyric.

It's just sung from the heart, isn't it?

'Mother Of Mine, retrospectively looking back,

'was obviously just perfect for the moment.'

'It was just right. The voice, the song.'

It was a Christmas anthem,

but I also think it was something to last.

Even the hardest of the hard guys love their mum.

# Mother of

# Mi-i-i-i-i-ne. #

The Motor Museum has the most fantastic collection of cars

and motorbikes and some things here are over 100 years old.

This is definitely my favourite car so far.

It's an 1899 Daimler

and it's the vehicle in which royalty was first taken for a ride.

Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales, was driven in this vehicle,

sitting right here.

This car, the Silver Ghost, was termed the best in the world

at the 1906 London Motor Show.

-You know who would love this place, Lucy?

-Who's that?

Our very own mad inventor, Marty Jopson.

Yes, and here he is on the trail of a bright spark

who came up with something else we couldn't live without.

200 years ago, it was fire,

not electricity that warmed our homes, cooked our food

and lit our way, but back then,

making fire was a time-consuming business.

Now, the history of lighting fires goes way back

to simple devices like this.

But that's really quite a palaver and hard work, too.

A slightly more modern invention is this, the flint and steel.

Whilst that's quite good, it's still not a fire

and in fact, what was often simpler than lighting your own fire

would be to pop next door

and just borrow a burning ember.

In the 1800s, the world desperately needed an easier way to create fire.

Despite harnessing fire more than half a million years ago,

we entered the Industrial Revolution and the age of steam

without a quick, safe and portable means of making it.

But all that was to change in 1827, when a man named John Walker

stumbled upon an invention completely by accident

that would change the world forever.

Walker was born in 1781, here in Stockton-Upon-Tees.

The son of a grocer's shop owner,

he left school aged 15 and went to study medicine.

Shortly after graduating, he came to the conclusion

that he really didn't have the stomach to be a surgeon

and instead, began studying chemistry.

Finally, at the age of 38,

and known locally as the most qualified man in Stockton,

he set up his own chemist shop.

In 1827, he began selling large amounts of combustible materials,

which we think people were buying

so that they could make percussion caps, used for firing muskets.

The story goes that Walker was in his workshop late one night,

mixing large quantities of these combustible chemicals into a thick paste.

He fetched a stick, which he had been using the previous night,

to find it covered in a hardened lump.

In his attempts to remove this lump,

Walker accidentally invented the world's first match.

EXPLOSION

# Hallelujah, hallelujah... #

Chemists had been experimenting with ways to make fire for centuries,

but invariably, their methods had been a bit violent.

Take for example, phosphorus,

the key ingredient in today's safety matches.

In its pure state, it's extremely reactive to oxygen.

You see what I mean?

Phil Dunford is a member of the Institute of Explosive Engineers.

In the early 1800s, the only thing that was really available

to the general public was a Promethean match.

In it is potassium chlorate

and to light this match, you dip them in sulphuric acid.

-Sulphuric acid? OK. Can we try?

-We certainly can.

-It's a remarkable amount of effort to get it to light.

-It is, isn't it?

-Here we go.

-Like that.

-That's it. And...

-Oh, wait.

-You'll find it starts to fizz a bit.

-Look, it's going!

-And then it catches fire.

-And you now have a match.

-What's the problem with these? Why not use these?

Well, would you really want to be walking around the streets

-with sulphuric acid in your pocket?

-I guess not.

What did Walker do?

Walker produced a match which had only one part

and was ignited by friction.

For this type of match,

we use antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorate

Can I have a go at striking one of these? Ooh.

-Oh!

-There we go.

You get the initial burst of flame, that catches fire to the sulphur.

This really is the world's first practical match.

Walker never patented his idea,

but the demand for matches was enormous, and very quickly,

entrepreneurs from all over the world were manufacturing their own.

But attempts to improve upon Walker's accidental recipe

caused deadly side effects.

White phosphorus was added to remove the undesirable odour

and improve reliability.

Unfortunately, the poisonous fumes from this material

caused hair and teeth to fall out.

When asked why he never took out a patent, he simply said,

"I have no doubt that this invention will benefit everyone.

"If they want it, let them have it.

"I will always be able to obtain sufficient for myself."

The invention of matches

is seen as one of the most significant of the 19th century

and to this day, the most printed phrase in the English language

is "close cover before striking."

Once upon a time, here at Beaulieu,

the Abbey used to offer sanctuary to criminals.

Even murderers could escape prison, if they slept under its roof.

Well, then, it's fortunate there is no longer a roof here.

-I pursued a couple of conmen.

-Did you?

-Yes.

Very interesting characters. They were art forgers, this duo.

I think you'll like this film.

In the autumn of 1989, an elderly man in Bolton claimed to have found

this priceless Anglo-Saxon artefact in a park in Preston.

Inside, it contained a tiny piece of Christ's cross.

But it was a fake, forged by his son, Sean.

This would be the start of a 17-year conspiracy,

which became the biggest art and antiquities crime case in Britain.

A couple in their eighties

have admitted defrauding art galleries and antique dealers...

..with more than 100 forged works.

The works, if real, would be worth some £4 million.

This was their greatest con.

The Armarna Princess, a fake Egyptian statue, so convincing

it was authenticated by the British Museum.

For nearly two decades,

their son Sean created the forgeries in their garden shed,

while father George

conned the country's most prestigious art galleries

into buying them.

It was a case that was to change the way the art world

goes about spotting fakes and con artists.

What stunned experts

was the sheer range and variety of these forgeries,

particularly as Sean had no formal training whatsoever.

It's extraordinary to think that somebody could have done these

actually, well, as he says, in a garage.

Shaun Greenhalgh, really, is nothing short of a genius.

This was their last forgery, an ancient Assyrian relief.

It ultimately led to their undoing, when auctioneers finally noticed

the staggering quantity of items attached to the name

George Greenhalgh.

Bonhams came in here,

actually, with a big dossier of all the things

which had been offered to the auction house

by George Greenhalgh.

And this wasn't at all the picture that I had

of this fairly homespun sort of chap up there in Bolton

who'd inherited these things from his grandfather.

And when John took a closer look,

it was then that he spotted both a spelling error in the inscription

and key discrepancies in the design of the harness.

Forensic testing proved without doubt that the relief was a fake

and the Greenhalghs were finally rumbled.

Shaun was sentenced to four years in prison,

while his father, George, received a suspended sentence

on medical grounds.

Over 100 forgeries were seized by police

from museums across the country and are now stored as evidence,

here at a top-secret fine-art lock-up.

How did they get away with it for so long?

They went to different departments. Assyrian and something to the Roman,

so they may turn up one week with an item of stone,

the next week they turn up with an item of silver.

And the two departments didn't talk to each other.

'But creating the pieces was only half the battle.

'To authenticate an item, you need proof of its history - provenance.'

This is one of the items they used as provenance for the pieces they tried to sell.

-That looks old in itself?

-It is old.

So they're faking the catalogue as well as the original work?

No, the catalogue is genuine. This is dated back to 1892.

It's from a sale at Silverton Park in Devon.

And they purchased this in 1999, just for a few pounds.

But in it, there are descriptions of numerous items.

For example, it might just say, "One Egyptian statue"

or "One stone relief."

And what they did is, they created an item based on that description.

Then they'd take it to an expert and say,

"It's been in my family since 1892,

"it was purchased by my great-great grandfather.

"That's the catalogue to prove it.

"And there's the item."

'Since this case, police are now keen to encourage art experts

'that the ultimate provenance is forensic testing.'

We identified the artefact behind you, the Assyrian relief.

That was actually... The patina on it is tea,

and that's what gives it that ageing effect.

So good was Shaun's gift at forgery

and his father's skill at telling tall tales,

it's thought that there could well be numerous Greenhalgh fakes

still out there.

But now, newly-acquired works of art are inspected

with the thoroughness and scepticism that they require.

Both police and experts have learnt to share their concerns

about potential forgeries.

Thanks to this case,

lessons have been learnt that have changed the nature of fraud detection,

and Bolton's amazing fake factory

is finally closed for business.

The good news is that all the paintings and artefacts here are the genuine article.

Oh, good. But did you know, Giles, that Beaulieu is reputedly

one of the most haunted places in the entire country?

-I did know. I'm a friend of the family, remember.

-Oh, yes, sorry.

So I know that after dark, monks can be heard chanting.

And I know, too, that this lady, Countess Beaulieu,

died more than 200 years ago, but her ghost is still seen

walking through walls.

-Why doesn't she just open the door?

-Funny family.

I think it's time for another creepy-crawly tale

from George McGavin.

'Southend Cemetery in Essex.

'And something strange is going on.

'Just recently, it's gone through an eerie transformation.

'Is it something supernatural?

'An alien invasion?

'Or even a plague of giant spiders?'

These webs aren't made by spiders,

but by tiny caterpillars - millions and millions of them.

'They're the caterpillars of the ermine moth.

'There are several different species in Britain.

'These are the bird-cherry variety.'

Ermine moths have one thing in common.

They all spin vast sheets of silk

over their host plant.

'These ones only live on and eat cherry trees,

'and with avenues of the trees, Southend Cemetery is the ideal home.

'Steve Taylor has worked here for 20 years.

'He's used to all kinds of wildlife, but this is something

'relatively new.'

-Steve, when did all this begin?

-Well, it's about three years ago.

And I came in to do a funeral on a Sunday,

parked my car where I normally park my car, over there,

looked at the tree opposite the car park

and there's caterpillars all over the tree trunk.

Before you knew what it was, what did you think had happened?

I was shocked because I thought we had something

that was going to damage the trees. That was my main concern.

All right, one tree, not too bad,

but when you look at the amount of trees that started to be affected,

I thought we had a serious problem on our hands and I was quite worried about it.

Have you had any odd reactions to the fact that all these trees are completely covered in..?

It's gone from one extreme to the other. We've either been accused of doing it deliberate...

What?! How do you mean?

-Well, creating a film set for some macabre, spooky horror film!

-Ha-ha!

Some people have been quite amazed by it

and obviously some people have been disturbed by it,

because of where it is, and if it starts covering the gravestones, it can cause some distress.

'They really are all over everything.

'Not just the gravestones, but benches, the road

'and even our equipment.'

So why should they go to all this effort?

Well, it's a bit like us when we go camping.

By spinning a web, it's a bit like having your own personal tent.

It's tough, it's sticky, it protects you from the elements,

and enemies, like birds and wasps.

It's amazing! It sleeves the entire tree.

Everywhere they crawl is covered in this thick, sticky web.

'Colonies of ermine moths are creating their unusual art work

'all over the world.

'The owner of this car made the mistake

'of parking under an infested tree in the Netherlands.

'The reason they engulf everything in their path?

'They're simply searching for their next tasty meal.

'Once they've finished gorging themselves,

'they settle down for the next stage of their life cycle,

'giving me the perfect opportunity to take a really close look.'

Well, what I've got here is an endoscope camera,

which has a little lens on the end and a little beam of light,

and I can just poke it into a hole here...

..and see what's going on.

And it's absolutely amazing!

There are literally tens of thousands of fully-grown ermine moth larvae

which have now eaten all they want to eat

and they're finding a place to pupate.

They'll stay in their cocoons until end of July, beginning of August,

when they'll emerge as adults and mate,

and the whole cycle

will begin again.

'So, what about the cherry trees?

'They may look pretty ropey

'but in fact, once the moths have hatched,

'the web will gradually rot away

'and the trees will send out new shoots and leaves.

'In fact, it'll just look as if the moths hadn't been there at all.'

I don't think I've seen so many caterpillars in one place in my life.

The trick here is,

don't stand still too long or you'll get completely covered in them.

Well, you can see what George took away from that film.

Yes, and what have you taken away from our special day

-at Beaulieu, Giles?

-I'll tell you what I've taken away. Two things.

-One, this, for you, from the tea shop...

-How sweet.

..and the other is for me.

This, from Lord Montagu's own wardrobe.

Very fetching! Take it away, Stan!

Poop-poop!

-Poop-poop!

-Bye!

Bye!

Poop-poop!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd