06/04/2017 The One Show

Hello and welcome to The One Show, with Angela Scanlon...

Tonight's guests are part of one of the most dysfunctional TV

No, not that criminal! What about the Mitchells? Guys, what is going

on, this is ridiculous, what's happening? Is it The Addams Family?!

And from the new musical tour of The Addams Family, it's Sam Womack and

Les Dennis! Hello to you both! Fester and Morticia, looking

beautiful. You have both recently had dramatic exits from soaps, both

died, and now it seems you're playing the undead! Have you bonded

over it but when we have talked about it, haven't we? Mine was

Lexit! I was just round. We have not really had time, we have been

rehearsing solid. It is such a wonderful show but it is quite

complex, with lots to learn. We will get into that later on, but is it

right that you attended your own funeral, in Coronation Street? I

did, actually. I went back after it finish with my wife, and we went

into the canteen, and I said to Helen and to Ollie, who plays my son

in the sun, and I said, why are you all dressed up? They said, it's your

funeral today! They said, you can go down onto the street if you want,

your hearse is there! So, morbidly, Claire and I went down and had a

photo taken! That was very weird! I was getting in the mood for Fester.

Did they get it right? You were happy with the funeral? I was in

tears, I was sat at home watching Michael's funeral and I was in

tears! Moving on to a subject I know you're very pass unit about, Sam,

because today's news has been dominated by a man who took on the

system over his decision to take his child out of school for a holiday

during term time. It is a battle which took him to the Supreme Court.

Following the story has been Nick Wallis. Last May, Jon Platt from the

Isle of Wight found himself at the centre of a media storm after he

refuse to pay ?120 in fines for taking his daughter on holiday

during term time. I was locked into a legal battle which was not of my

choosing. The law in England simply requires that children attend school

regularly. Jon's lawyers successfully argued that he had not

prevented this, with an overall attendance record of 92%. But the

local council appealed that decision. It has ended in the High

Court. Senior judges decided in Jon's favour, upholding the original

warning that he had no case to answer for. Absolutely delighted

with the outcome of this case, as will hundreds of thousands of

parents at. This is a situation where taking your kids on a family

holiday amounted to a criminal offence. It seemed the way was open

for parents to take their children out of school for occasional

holidays. But the Department for Education wasn't happy. It back to

the council in appealing to the Supreme Court to be allowed to make

one final legal challenge. Eight months on, I am off to meet Jon as

he prepares to go head-to-head with his local council won last time. But

to see you again. If I had told you two years ago that your decision to

take your daughter out of school would have led to the Supreme

Court...? I would have said you were mad. This has not come from you? S I

have not appealed any decision of any court ever. I don't know why

elements within the Isle of Wight council and within the department of

education think that parents cannot make decisions for their children.

The department is arguing that regular attendance means a child

should not even have one day's unauthorised absence. Jon disagrees

with this interpretation of the law. What will be the argument in the

Supreme Court tomorrow? I know it sounds bizarre, but there are three

QCs and three junior barristers, who will stand before five Supreme Court

judges tomorrow, and try to prove what the word regularly means. It is

crazy, hundreds of thousands of pounds for a definition of what the

word "regularly" means. How are you feeling about it? 18 days ago we got

an e-mail from the department, reassuring me that they would not

pursue me for costs if they lost, which made me feel a lot more

relaxed than I was. But I genuinely want to win this, this is a very

important case, which is going to have massive repercussions. The next

morning, Jon and his wife Sally are up bright and early ahead of their

day at the Supreme Court. I am actually looking forward to seeing

these very impressive people doing their stuff in the Supreme Court.

This is as high as it gets. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, there

are no fines for absenteeism. In Wales, families are allowed to take

ten days holiday at the discretion of the head. However, there were

more than 150,000 penalty notices issued to parents in England for

term time absences from school two years ago. After Jon's High Court

victory, the current policy is in disarray. So now, all eyes are on

Jon's case to see if the Supreme Court rules in his favour. If it's

correct that being late on one occasion his rise to a criminal

offence, then we would say that is a ludicrous interpretation, and this

court - this court - should not interpret a statute in a way which

gives rise to absurd results. After a full day in court, the judges have

retired to deliberate what they have heard. Jon is act in the media

spotlight. A little bit shell-shocked, to be honest. It has

been five or six hours of pretty intense legal debate. And I have

absolutely no idea which way it has gone. I hoped I would come out with

very strong feelings one way or the other, so I could reconcile myself

to it. It was quite traumatic, actually. For Jon, it has been a

long road, and now he just wants to hear what the final decision will

be. Well, as many of our viewers will have seen in the news today,

the Supreme Court ruled against Jon, and he joins us now. It has been two

gruelling years. You have spent thousands on this already. It is

going back to the Magistrates' Court, where you could face another

large fine. Is there a part of you which wishes you had just paid that

?60 initially? Yes. Many times. I change my mind on this sometimes. I

think, why was I so stubborn, why didn't I pay it? Other times I

think, you can't allow the state to treat you this way. This is verging

on authoritarian. This is a free country, it is not a dictatorship.

You brought something to everybody's attention which we all need to know

about. It was not by choice. I was not in a position where I was going

to pay six ?2. In a nutshell, can you explain what the Supreme Court

ruling today means? The decision was all on the definition of what

"regular" means. Does it mean docs attendance, does it mean once a

week, because that would be regular? Or does it mean 100% attendance? The

Supreme, despite as the barrister saying it would be ludicrous,

decided that it meant 100% attendance during term time, and

therefore, if you take your child out of school for even half a day in

England, you are breaking the law. That's not to say that if there are

not exceptional circumstances, you can't take your child out of school.

But those would be down to the headmaster's discretion, and it

would be things like a family bereavement or religious testable,

rather than a holiday, for instance. This clarification of the law brings

us into line with Northern Ireland and Scotland, which have exactly the

same law, but not the fines. Wales is slightly different, because you

can have ten days discretionary holiday as long as the headteacher

gives permission. If you go to a fee-paying school in England, you do

not have any of this applying to you at all. So if you are rich, you are

all right. The lady here was talking about the disruption that would be

caused in classes if every child could be taken out. -- Lady Hale was

talking about... Can you see that point, Jon? I believe policies

should be based on evidence, and I do not see that evidence. If they

were to show me that evidence... I am shocked by Lady Hale, because I

did not see any evidence of disruption to other children. There

were attempts by the DAV to convince the court that there was a

detrimental impact on the individual child, but I have been saying this

all day, the Department for Education's own research on this

shows that children who get taken on term time family holidays, even

those who missed 20 days a year, do better than children who have zero

absences. Holidays for children are an incredibly enriching experience.

Broadens the mind. It certainly does. Doesn't that depend on the

type of travel? No. The data does not analyse out a weekend at the

Louvre from a weekend in Benidorm. It says, if you look at all

absences, the children who have 20 days off a year Etta than the

children have none. Are you then not in the realms of looking at this as

far as cheap holidays are concerned? Some parents are playing as best

they can with the system in place and would see that as being unfair?

The issue is no longer, if ever it was, about cheap holidays. The

holiday I took my kids on had 17 members of my family on it, it was

not a cheap holiday by any stretch of the imagination. It was the

school holidays for two of our three children. One of the Government's

solutions is to give different schools different term times. Well,

that's exactly the cause of the problem, in my case. Now, lots of

children are off, watching this. My kids are in school until tomorrow.

Different term times causes as many problems as it solves. Unless you do

it somehow regionally, and again, that is above my pay grade. It is

not the cost of holidays, what we're talking about is, you wake up

tomorrow morning and your child looks exhausted, you decide, I'm

going to keep my child off, for whatever reason, I'm not going to

work, I'm going to stay at home and watch cartoons, you now need the

permission of the state to make that decision. And that's outrageous in

England in 2017. It's North Korea 1984. Or in the hands of the

headteacher? This is the point. The Supreme Court said it was down to

the discretion of the headteacher. Some people will say, this means

more expensive holidays for us, we cannot take our children in term

time. Plenty of parents will say, this is right, we play by the rules,

why shouldn't every other family? I know there will be plenty of

teachers who think that this idea that you can take children out of

school in an unauthorised way is disruptive. But what's ridiculous is

the idea that all of a sudden, if that was how it worked out, it is

not believable that suddenly 30 children were all disappear at the

same time. We love our kids, we want the best for them. Hang on, it did

come to a point whereby if you said that regular attendance meant 90% of

the school year, and therefore you couldn't be prosecuted for taking

your child out of school without permission, there could be a

circumstance whereby you get to June at the end of the school year, a lot

of pupils have been attending for 90% of the time, and parents go come

the last 10% is free, we'll take them on a cheap holiday in June.

Thank you very much, guys. We're going to have to leave it there!

It's been to the Supreme Court, and it's still not solved, even on The

One Show! Les and Sam have both had their share of drama in the soaps.

But even they would not want to get on the wrong side of these fluffy

fighters. The Cairngorms, a truly magical place. But also a hostile

one. During winter months, howling gales can push the wind-chill factor

as low as -20. For most species, survival under such conditions is

nigh on impossible. But there is one creature that thrives here, the

mountain hare. It is specially adapted to survive cold, mounting

climates. My guide is a photographer who has made his name producing is

stunning images of these creatures through the seasons. With the onset

of winter, they get a new coat which is white for camouflage and is also,

a. It is the most magical time of the year to see the mountain hare

engaging in its most extraordinary behaviour - boxing.

Boxing happens when a female gives a young, frisky mail a punch on the

nose. It's hare speak for keep your distance. I'm hoping that with his

special knowledge, and he will be able to lead me to hares boxing in

the snow. I've come well-prepared, with white camera again. Wherever

you gone? I can't see you. -- white camera equipment. Andy spends a lot

of time in this area every year and has got to know some of the hares

almost as well as some of his family. What is at the drive you up

here this CV 's hares red-mac our love spending time with mountain

hares. They fascinate me. I like getting in their secret world. I am

dressed for the occasion. We've got a hare appear on this horizon.

That's a nice view there, Andy. You like he's a beauty. Sitting on the

top, Master of all that survey. Got a good view. They will often sit on

a platform, surveying the valley floor below them. There it is,

evidence. As we climb higher, it's like entering the winter wonderland

of the hare. Dozens have congregated above the snow line, their thick

coats making them more comfortable in these freezing conditions. It

sounds obvious, but I suppose, when you get a number of hares close

together, that is when you are likely to see some activity.

Definitely, a special if you get a group together, that's when the

boxing will occur. We can see them run. I cannot believe the size of

those back the, like a of snowshoes. When they splay their toes out, it

helps them just float across the snow. A whole hare soap opera is

beginning to play out. And if you put the time income as Andy has, you

get your reward. -- if you put the time in, as Andy has. Some of the

females have come into season, but those that are not interested, send

off the attention. A hare sits up in readiness as a male approaches. But

the guy isn't taking no for an answer, so she attacks.

In just a few seconds, the boxing match is over. What a spectacle! I

have to say, I am quite cold, but it is well worth the discomfort,

sharing this snow-covered hillside, right on the edge of the Cairngorms,

with a simply brilliant animal. Thank you. He gets in some places,

doesn't he? That was lovely. And now, the Addams Family the musical

opens in Edinburgh on the 20th of April. The interesting thing is,

this kind of developers not from the Addams Family that lots of people

would know, because it was an American cartoon strip. Yes, it

started in the New Yorker, and I think the original characters were

Morticia and Lurch. And other characters were added to the

cartoons. And they were really kind of macabre and awed and strange. And

the family developed over time, and then obviously, you had this series

in the 60s that a lot of us knew, and then it went on into the

blockbuster films. We have enjoyed researching its original...

Absolutely. A guy called Charles Adams was the creator. The cartoons

are brilliant. The TV series, I think that's the thing that created

the bus. -- the buzz. And when Wednesday brings her boyfriend home

and it causes havoc... They are squeaky clean, from Ohio, and a

little oh press, so for the Addams Family, these are strange, weird

people. And they embrace the dark side, but there's something quite...

We were talking, there's a piece at the end called move towards the

darkness, which we are really lucky. We're rehearsing it today, and it's

beautiful. We have the composer over from New York, and he was talking

about in a musical making everything fluffy at the end and getting to a

great, happy ending, and he was talking about when you are engulfed

in pain, moving towards the Addams Family would be the ones who would

want to investigate the dark, accept it. And we try to incorporate it

into this. I think its melancholy. It's a lot more layered. Fester is

in love with the moon, for one thing. Les Dennis has been in love

with... What about the singing and dancing side of things? How physical

visit and how are you getting on? Incredible. Cameron Blake Lee and

you have a massive tango. The longest tango in the world. It goes

on and on, and it's a really difficult dance. You're singing in

the background. Inode! That put me off then. I know! She probably

studied some of the old black-and-white movies of the 20s

and 30s, but you obviously needed the same sound in the singing voice,

and to try and find a way of placing it, movement... Lets meet the

family! And you have to lose your hair? I am shaving my head. What

might we want you to do it tonight. -- we want you to do it tonight. Our

director said, why don't you talk to your wife and see if she is all

right with and family are right with it. We are doing it for charity, for

breast cancer now, which is a great charity. And hopefully we will raise

money as well as having a shaved head for the character. We wish you

all the best with it. It's at the Festival Theatre. In Edinburgh, then

we're touring the UK, coming to a theatre near you. Nice! It is time

now to have a rummage around the archives of the British Film

Institute. We sent Gyles Brandreth to see what gems he could uncover.

I'm in one of the hardest places to get into in the UK. No, not the

vaults of the Bank of England - I'm in the archives of the British Film

Institute. Established in 1935, the BFI's National archive collection

holds nearly 1 million films and TV shows. As I search the archives, I

discover I'm not alone. It seems a globetrotting comedy legend's here

as well. Charles Brandreth, as I live and breathe! What are you doing

here in the archive? You're much too young. What are you doing here?

Michael is here as part of a festival hosted by the archive and

the radio Times. I have decided to go with around the archive in

seconds. Did you think at the start that you would be here one day, 50

years later? I didn't think about it that way. At the time, you did it,

and it just disappeared. That was the way television was then. Film

was prestigious, but TV was here one day and gone the next. Now, we live

in an age where everything can be discovered somewhere. Here we are,

Gyles Brandreth - never again. Charles Brandreth - why? The BFI is

always looking for missing television shows to complete the

archive. And they have a few shows featuring Michael Bell and that he

won't have seen in decades. This stage is ready, the starter is in

position. It is the world all, is pantomime speed record. The archive

has is more than just TV shows and films, it also has rare documents

and still is, some of which Michael has never seen before. We have some

photographs, first of all, relating to the meaning of life. This was the

fish shoot. It was actually the last day that the pipe ever appeared on

film together. -- the Pythons. That's George Harrison, who came

along and did film a couple of scenes. He had to say good evening,

and it was a bit indistinct. So I had to imitate it and say, good

evening. So, let's see what rarities they brought up from the vaults for

us to watch. It's a bit nerve-racking, really. Yes, it is.

First up is an excerpt from the complete and utter history of

Britain. This episode was thought lost for decades. I haven't seen

this one. Written by Terry Jones and myself, just before Monty Python.

Good evening, sir. My name's Augustin. Yaw it's a bit like

Horrible Histories. Watching that, you can see where the Python

obsession with history came from. Jon Cleese saw this and gave me a

call. He said, you won't be doing any more of those. And so, Python

was born. Next, it's the Christmas special of Do Not Adjust Your Set.

This is one of the first Terry Gilliam animations. As soon as we

saw it, we realised this was a totally new ingredient for a comedy

show of any kind. It's still one of my favourites. The anarchy of

Christmas cards! And now for something completely different. A

BBC drama from 1987 - East Of Ipswich, written by Michael and

loosely based on his early years. It was a drama based on our family

holidays in Suffolk, perfectly captured. It's rather cathartic. It

was a holiday romance which actually happened to me in 1959. I'm still

with the girl. Do you like watching the past was Magellan at the further

you are away from it, the less stressful it is to watch it. If you

look back and it is part of your work, some things are good and some

are bad. Thank you to Michael. The festival takes place from the

seventh to the 9th of April at BFI Southbank.

Now, from one British institution to another.

BUZZER SOUNDS we thought you would test your knowledge in a format you

would be familiar with. Let's play Addams Family Fortunes!

We asked 100 people to name the most dysfunctional family on telly. The

Addams Family are known for being anything but normal, but do you

think they came out on top? You can confirm. The Mitchells? Aren't they

the most dysfunctional? It could be them or the flats. The Mitchells? I

would. Come on, what are you going to... ? You decide. I'm saying the

Kardashian 's. -- the Kardashians. Our survey says... The Addams Family

with five. Look at number two... In the top answer, The Simpsons. We

asked 100 people to name a character from the Addams Family. Everyone has

a favourite, but who comes out on top? Who comes out on top? I would

say Wednesday, probably. You say Wednesday, our survey says... Top

answer. Absolutely brilliant. We asked 100 people to name a famous

person called Adam. Which famous Adam came out on top? Adam West? Oh,

no. Batman, you mean? Is it there? Would jubilate it? The top answer...

There you go. Thanks for that little trip down memory lane. That's all

we've got time for. A big thank you to our guests, Les Dennis and Sam

Womack. The Addams Family the music kicks off at the Festival Theatre.

Tomorrow, I'll be joined by Danny Mays and Frieda Pinto. Good night.