09/05/2014 The One Show

Tonight's guest presents a series on car renovations,

Do you think you can get this clapped-out old classic back to

As it's you, Alex, I'll give it a go.

Hello and welcome to The One Show with a spit-and-polished

Well, let's give our guest a proper welcome.

APPLAUSE That took ages, didn't it? I have

been here since three o'clock shooting that. The car that you are

featuring in this Sunday's new series is the great British mini,

which is timely. It has just been crowned as Britain's West car. You

agree? I do. I know we bandy the word around a lot, but I do think it

is a work of genius. I have it on good authority that Enzo Ferrari,

when he was first brought to people's attention, he was asked

what he would change about the mini, and he said he wouldn't change

anything. Also tonight, we have a birthday boy in the house, Paul

Heaton. Along with Jacqui Abbott, his former partner in crime from the

Beautiful South, back together for a new album, and they will be singing

for us later. But first, one of the cheapest ways

to have fun in your garden this summer is the classic slide, light

flats and put washing up liquid on it and slide down it. It has been

super-sized for the city street, and it could be coming to a town near

you. In 1922, Charles Wicksteed

transforms childhood when he invented the slide. Ever since,

slide designers have striven to build the best. This takes the slide

out of the playground somewhere you never expect. Artist Mick Jeremy is

better known for public projects such as the sky Orchestra playing

music from balloons to the city and in. His latest project is a 90

metres slide on one of the busiest streets in Bristol. Nearly 100,000

people have signed up for the chance to get one of just 360 turns.

Understanding the physics behind how water slides work is vital to making

it as thrilling as possible while still safe to use. So how do you

start? There are two macro forces involved when you go down the slide.

The first is gravity that pulls you down, but the second is friction

between the you and the slide, and it is the combination of these

forces that will determine the speed. We have to get it right,

because I am going to be the first member of the public to go down it.

Paolo has put particle physics aside for the day and come up with a canny

formula to estimate my speed on the slide. So my final velocity is the

square root of two times gravity, H is the drop, and this is how much

energy you will lose because of friction. This is the length of the

slide. And that is the inclination of the street, 6 degrees. So what do

we get? About 20 mph. That is quite fast and! And how we measure this? I

will be at the bottom of the slide with a speed camera, so I will

measure it. Let's go! As I make my way up to the top of the slide, I

start to wonder what I have let myself in for. Thousands of people

are waiting and watching, but before I hit the slippery slope, I want a

quick word with the man responsible, Luke Jeremy. Why and how? I have an

office on Park Street, and in the middle of the heatwave, it was

awful, and I thought, wouldn't it be great to be able to commute home on

a water slide. This is it. I am kind of hoping we don't do 20 miles an

hour. But so did you get the full experience, I am going to wear this

camera on my head. I think they are ready for me. Here we are!

That was brilliant, but how fast was I going? 14 miles per hour. You lost

some speed bumping into the sides. But it is not too far from what we

expected. It certainly felt fast. But that didn't stop anyone else

trying. So what did they think? I think taking the slide to work every

day would be a brilliant idea. Why not? It would save my legs and my

spider strength. When the slide was invented, it was just a plank of

wood, but innovators like Luke Jeremy have taken the slide into the

street, and I think Charles Wicksteed would have loved it. I

know I did. The best One Show assignment ever.

How many kids are wondering why we sent a grown-up to do that. He is

the most grown-up person we have on the show, that's why he's got an

action figure. So, Phil, as well as your car show,

you're in a big new BBC drama Why has the series been described

as a love letter to Manchester? It is a 3-part drama, and it is set

near the Arndale Centre. The story that follows is really about if

family, and the emotional aftermath and how they cope. And my character

is a central figure to the story, basically. There is a lot of stuff

going on. And it is about the Manchester bombing and the World

Cup, and you go in the space of three hours, we go from 1996 through

to the millennium. Let's see the clip. Something happens in your

head, you are driving a fellow victim home from the bomb that day.

You will have to direct me from here. Turn left, and we are at the

end. It's not that bad, is it? No, I

think are used to live around here. Using Judy? Yes, I did.

APPLAUSE And that is where the journey

begins. I worked with Liz White on Life on

Mars, so I had definitely been around there! All of the drama was

filmed in Manchester, and you recreated the scenes on the streets.

We couldn't tell which photograph was from the film and which was from

the real bombing. That is good, isn't it? We closed off a street in

Manchester in the Northern Quarter, and we turned up on set, and the

production design had done an incredible job and put all these

stuffed dummies in shop windows, because we basically reimagined it

as much as we could, because when it happened, people thought they saw

dead bodies, and it was mannequins. It is a week on Thursday. 9pm, BBC

One. In a moment, we'll be talking to

Paul Heaton, whose first ever album with his band The Housemartins was

called London 0 Hull 4. It celebrated the underdog,

and as a city, Hull can certainly But it has since been declared City

of Culture, has a brilliant aquarium, and a week on Sunday, they

play Arsenal in the cup final. Phil's team. You make me sound like

the new manager! Here is a Hull version of Happy Hour.

# It's happy hour again # A loving place to be

# The meaning of style is a night out with the boys

# If you don't win, then you've lost # What a good place to be

# Don't believe it # Don't believe it

# The best thing about Hull is the accident. The people make it. The

feel-good factor in the town is all good stuff. Everything happening,

the City of Culture. They get a bad press from the people in the South.

# What a good place to be # Don't believe it

# Don't believe it. # Happy hour again and again and

again # Happy hour again #.

APPLAUSE We always have to do that line of

people on the telephone when we do a video like that.

Do we take them with us? And the irony is, Paul, you are not from

Hull. No, but I lived there for 20 years. To give them the feel-good

factor, we let them win the semifinal. Well, thank you, or we

couldn't have made that video. So you are not a Hull fan? Excellent.

Jackie and Paul are back together, working on a new album. But you are

not the beautiful size, are you? -- the Beautiful South. This is an

extension of my solo career, not connect it to the Beautiful South.

And you described finding Jackie again like... ? Opening up a garage

and finding an old Rolls-Royce. Tellers about how met again. I

hadn't seen him for 11 years, and I drove across to meet up with him. I

think both of us were terrified. I got out of the taxi outside the pub,

and we were soon reminiscing again. How come you have a pub? It has its

own recording studio upstairs, and we were recording there, not

drinking there, and we found it was going to be sold, so it was a sort

of rescue package. And how is it going? It is going well. It has a

beautiful theatre upstairs and is doing well.

going to sing them, apparently. We have ladies who are called that in

the studio. # Jennifer, Alison, Philippa, Sue

# Deborah, Annabel, too... # There are other names in that song.

What were the other names? You sung my bit and the other bit was sung by

Dave. Cathy. Cathy. Jane. We have those names but we haven't got time

for them. Everybody has sang the wrong words and put whatever names

they want in. So, with your new single, it is called DIY? That's

right. Johnny Vegas directed the video. How did that happen? How long

did it take? He was very professional. He was great. He put

his director's hat on. It came about because he's been doing quite a bit

of radio work for Radio 4 and he asked me to help with a few theme

tunes and I did that. He returned the favour. He rung me up and said,

"Do you fancy me doing a video for you?" It is an ironic title - it is

not about home improvements? Yes. Phil, Beautiful South fan? Yes. He

is not going to say no? I go back to The Housemartins and Caravan of

Love. You left the band to look after your two kids. What is their

reaction to mum going back? Did they know? Most of my family didn't know

until it was in a local paper and they all rang me mum. My God, is it

really back properly? It does seem like you have never been away. You

look maybe better than you did before! You knew me in my wild days!

Back on tour as well. People can see you. I heard this morning - I read

it on Twitter - has the tour sold out? I think it is sold out. There's

the odd ticket flying around. There were eight dates and they added four

more. Lovely to have that sound back.

Paul and Jacqui will be singing for us later on. They will. Now, we know

Phil doesn't do wimpy characters so no chance of him playing this man.

No. He's Popeye's friend. That's J Wellington Wimpy whose name inspired

a famous burger joint that is making a bit of a comeback.

Today you can have your burger any way you like it - fast and cheap,

gourmet, trendy and with a multitude of toppings. The market has come a

long way in over half a century. 60 years on, Wimpy is still here. It's

still sticking to its way of doing things. While the menu may be

glossier than I recall, there are still items on it that I remember

from back in my childhood. The wimpy Grill. And the sundae. Wimpy opened

in London in 1954. Its low prices created a whole new market in eating

out. It took its name from J Wellington Wimpy, a burger-loving

character from the Popeye cartoons. Come on, hurry up... Throughout the

'60s, it grew to have around 600 stores in Britain. It dominated the

UK burger market and was part of the cultural fabric providing a backdrop

for Dudley Moore. For six years now, I have been in love with you. I only

live to hear your voice. One cheeseburger, one shandy... But the

good times couldn't roll forever. This bit of British Americana was

under threat. In 1974, the first McDonald's opened. And their speedy

counters started to make Wimpy's waitress service looked

old-fashioned. Even the management were impressed with the American way

of doing things. It showed us how popular catering could be done. We

didn't think it was possible to achieve the sorts of standards of

service and hygiene that is typical in America. And so we quickly looked

at what we were doing and set about changing it. So, they emulated

McDonald's counter-style service. Those branches were taken over by

Burger King. Today, there are 1,700 McDonald's and Burger Kings

competing with the remaining table-service Wimpies. There were

many branches of Wimpy. There are now 100. Are you trying to trade on

a certain nostalgia? We can't walk away from 60 years of history. What

we can do is look towards the future, menu design, restaurant

design, our offering and build on that offering. There is no thought

of trying to ape the other fast-food restaurants and put your burgers on

a tray and get people to do self-service? No, we are

table-service. We are waiters and waitresses. You want a cup of tea?

You will get a cup of tea in a china cup served in a teapot. There is

something different about Wimpy. And their die-hard customers do seem a

loyal bunch. For me, it's from childhood and given the option, this

is where I will bring my children. I'm 91. Rose is 94. How often do you

come? Once a week. Sometimes twice a week. Upmarket sit-down burger

chains have emerged as further competition. But while a burger and

chips there can cost up to a tenner, at Wimpy prices are closer to

fast-food outlets at less than a fiver. So, does that combination of

the fast-food prices and table service appeal to a younger

generation of diners that I have invited from a local college? Good

burger? Bad burger? It is a really good burger. It tasted like proper

meat. Would they eat here again? No. I don't have the time to come in and

sit down. Kat? I would. There's a definite need for sitting around the

table and the quality time with your friends. Zoe? There is nothing wrong

with the food. It is great. I would want to take it away with me. Will

Wimpy survive? It is a historic brand on the British high street. I

like to think that after 60 years, it still has a future.

Oh, doesn't that look nice? Now, this is one of the beautiful cars

that you have restored as part of the series. Tell me what is so

special about this Land Rover? Well, the fact that it's a Series 1. It is

dating from 1958. It was a - well, not a wreck. It had been unloved. We

sort of just - it is his favourite car. OK. It is a piece of British -

it is like the Border Collie of cars. Gorgeous. There is a plaque on

the dashboard which says, "Tom's." Who is Tom? How do I describe Tom?

He is Lawrence of Arabia had camels, Tom had Land Rovers. He was an

explorer? He's been all over the world. He is 81 now and he still is

exploring and he is looking to go back to Algeria, I think. Right. He

is the most extraordinary man. We thought it would be fitting to put a

plaque in. Land Rovers have been his life. I love this car. How much? You

know, I'd do a deal with you. The problem is we haven't put it to

auction yet. It hasn't been out. We have to wait for it to go to

auction. Got anything else? There is a little number over there. Go on,

then. Skip over. What about this, baby? Same colour as my first Mini.

This is gorgeous. Isn't it? You have various standards to live up to. One

of the particular groups - you have to be so careful towards - are the

enthusiasts. Who are these guys? Well, basically, there's a

particular engine in this. It is made by a family called the Harris

family. You do not want to get on the wrong side of them. That is the

Harris family. They are keen to check out the car. Hopefully, I had

to bargain for the engine. They did us a deal. Alright. Let's talk a

deal. As I said, we haven't gone to auction with it yet. Oh no. What

else have you brought? Get yourself on the phone. I will give you the

number. What else have you got? There is a green number over there.

This is from Sunday's show. She is so gorgeous. I love Minis. You have

restored this one. I love this car as well. This is its original

colouring. Original fittings and everything. This is a Mini Cooper

1964. Perfect. Here is what you and Ant said when you first got your

hands on her. This is incredibly collectible. I will find it really

hard when this car is finished to let it leave the workshop. It will

be a recommission. All these beautiful gauges need to be put back

to how they were when it left the factory. The steering needs to be

recommissioned sensitively. If you did a bit of a spit-and-polish, how

much would that increase the value? So, you are talking about tart it up

and flip it? Yeah. Oh, Philip! Don't tell us. Not for sale, yeah? Yes.

Alright. That is all for today. You can see From There To Here on BBC

One on Thursday 22nd May at 9.00pm. Kylie is here on Monday. We have to

say go Molly at tomorrow's Eurovision. Now from the album, What

Have We Become, it is Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott with DIY.

# Some girls lose their boys after years

# Standing in line, it's a question of time

# Who's gonna be the next broken heart

# My heart belonged to a love so strong

# I would love him 'til the day that I die

# But I didn't lose my love to the Lord above

# D - she was so determined to take him right out of my hands

# I - if you're idle enough they can steal from the very first dance

# Y - she was young and pretty and young and pretty is better than I

# But we gave them all our kisses Now they found another Mrs

# Some women feel if you put her on a seal it will keep your fella

# But it ain't always so if you can grab him from below

# That's a lesson every woman can teach

# But my man was just the sort you could trust

# You could look a fella right in the eye

# If it wasn't for deceiving But suddenly he was leaving

# D - she was so determined to take him right out of my hands

# I - if you're idle enough they can steal from the very first dance

# Y - she was young and pretty and young and pretty is better than I

# But we gave them all our kisses Now they found another Mrs

# Come on girls, if she's wearing a dress

# She got high heels and he couldn't care less

# H - I - S - T - O - R - Y Come on folks, just an ordinary guy

# D - she was so determined to take him right out of my hands

# I - if you're idle enough they can steal from the very first dance

# And young and pretty is better than I

# But we gave them all our kisses Now he found another Mrs