09/10/2012 The One Show

Hello and welcome to the The One Show with Matt Baker and Alex Jones.

Tonne, we are joined by a blond bombshell who really knows how to

shake those hips! LAUGHTER

Not that one! Not that one. No! LAUGHTER

That was brilliant. It's Zoe Ball. CHEERING

It had to be done. Very good. do you think, Boris for Strictly?

would love to see Boris on Strictly. Boris Johnson doing the rumba. Is

that something we really need to see, I am not sure? He would have

something to say to the judges, but his speech at kich conference today

was -- Conservative Party Conference was funny.

I was pleased to see that you called me a blond haired mop. If I

am a mop then Dave you are a broom and your colleague George Osborne,

the dustpan. Every single chocolate hobnob in the world is made in

London! It is actually true!

It is incredible. You never ever know what you are going to get.

There has been so much interest in Boris that the papers came up with

a new term, they are calling it Borismania. Are people outside the

media bubble as interested in him as the press would have us believe.

We went to Hamilton in Glasgow to find out.

I don't think he would make a good Prime Minister because I don't

think people take him seriously. is a character, you know, but as a

Prime Minister, I couldn't imagine it. I think he would be an idiot.

I think he needs a haircut. But he is a good people person. He knows

how to work a crowd. They all seem as bad as each other

so what difference does he make? have been a Labour supporter and if

I was going to vote for Tory I would vote for him.

I think he is a person of fun and humour. Whether I would trust him

or not would be a different story. A mixed bag there.

Indeed, Justin is here now. Justin, is Boris, do you see him as a

liability or an asset for David Cameron? That's a loaded question,

isn't it? I think at the moment, it has got to be, it has got to be...

A long long pause! He has got to be an asset. He is popular and not

just with the Tory Tory grass-roots. This is a man who won a second-term

as London mayor when the Tory party were doing badly in the polls and

David Cameron called him a rockstar saying, "I want more people like

him in the party." He is a bumbling funny man, he can laugh off almost

anything. Yet behind that, people who know him say he is strategic

and ambitious and remember, he has never ruled out a leadership bid.

So, he is an asset, but if he was ever to challenge David Cameron he

would become a big liability to him. He does deny he wants to be Prime

Minister? He sort of denies. He said would he be a better leader

than David Cameron? He says that's unverifiable.

But Zoe, zuneg he could be a -- do you think he could be a Prime

Minister? I find that idea terrifying!

LAUGHTER You know, I hope not, you know. But

I'm not going to get into politics right now because I might have a

rant. Brighton, it was home to the Lib

Dems. Does Brighton change a lot? It was quiet actually I have to say.

I didn't see a lot of people around. They set-up the barriers. I drive

past and think, "Who goes to it?". Membership is down, isn't it?

Membership of of political parties is down massively. In the 50s the

Tories had 2.8 million members and Labour had over one million members

and now they are struggle to get 200,000, but add together, Labour,

Lib Dems and the Tories, they have less than half of the one million

members the caravan club has! Those divisions that used to define

the parties that used to make you say, "I am Labour, I am Tory" have

evaporated. A lot of people think hover you vote for -- whoever you

vote for doesn't shape the Britain we live in anymore.

Is Is this the end of the conference season? No. There is one

more. The SNP are having their conference in Perth on Thursday

next week. Last week you went up to the Labour

Labour Conference? I saw a similar picture. It was quieter. We wanted

to go and find out how ordinary people viewed these party

conferences. Let's have a look.

You turn if you want to. Party conferences have been the

launchpad for some of the most defining moments in political

history. The lady is not for turning.

Scenes of elections and debates, of contests and dramas.

And you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour Council, a Labour

Council hiring taxis to scuttle around a city, handing out

redundancy notices to its own workers.

A place to air your grievances, make key policy decisions and make

statements. Go back to your constituency and

prepare for Government. The party conference season is

almost over. They have been rallying their troops and

rehearsing their battle cries. There are cheers and applause for

the big set piece speeches, but say conference regulars, something is

missing. Across the UK's political parties, conference goers are

asking, "Where is the passion of old?". That's what I'm going to

negotiate for and I ask the conference to support me.

Attendance at party political conferences was at its peak in the

late 1990s. In 1997, 25,000 people are estimated to have attended the

Labour Party Conference alone. This year, Labour and the Lib Dems

together only attracted 16,000. So what has changed? Back in the day,

30 years ago, there were decisions in conference which were lively and

that really mattered and that were going to change the world and make

a big difference to people's lives. You were making history happen on

the conference floor and that that mattered. Neil Lawson is a party

conference regular. There is less people. There are a lot of empty

stands. They are trade fairs. You are kind of rent a mob.

Does the conference literature back this up? I have pro shures from

this year's -- brochures from this year's party conferences and look

at these from 20 years ago. In 1992, the conference agenda seemed to

take up the whole brochure, now it is it is reduced to a page, the

rest is used as advertising space or exhibition information. These

days, they look more like trade fair pamphlets, there there seems

to be less debail out and discussion, less opportunity for

ordinary members to get involved. These days you would be forgiven

for thinking that party leaders are more interested in hearing from the

lobbyists who can pay up to �1500 to be there.

People interested in doing politics for a living. People really want to

get involved, they are interested, but they are bored with the

political menu being served up by the three parties.

Conferences are big money spinners these days. Last year, the

Conservatives conference income was over �4 million. The Lib Dems was

over �1.5 million. There is people selling suits in there. Selling

suits? LAUGHTER

At a party conference? At a party conference.

It is focused on what we really need if we are going to win a

general election and that's what we want.

It is difficult to get an exciting conference because the next

election is years away. I share most members frustration that there

isn't more policy. For some the party conference

season is a major event on the political kal calendar. Conference

performs a different function to it did in the 70s and 80s, it is less

a forum for arguing about policy and initiating policy and more a

Forum for presenting parties to a wider public.

Thank you very much, Justin. A few questions who goes to those

and what goes on inside? We are so pleased It Takes Two is back!

It is so exciting. This evening, Alex was trying to

run in and out of the dressing room to watch the rehearsals.

haven't interviewed your dad. is on the show tomorrow night. I

went to the studio on Saturday night and know I know -- now I know

how our families felt. I had clammy palms when I saw him go up to the

balcony, I needed to pace. He says he wasn't nervous, but I think he

did look nervous. Have you been trying to throw loads

of information at him? When he told me he was doing it, it was my uncle

Paul's 60th birthday party and he called me into the office and he

said, "I have been waiting to tell you this." I thought, "Oh my

goodness, he is ill." He said, "No, it is worse. I'm doing Strictly

Come Dancing." I was like, "What?" Oh brilliant because he has so much

energy and he would call me. I only knew a couple of weeks ago. He

would go "OK, this is a quickstep and I am hopping on one foot for a

minute-and-a-half." I am like, "It is going to be fine." Bless him,

yeah. Week one is down, done and dusted.

Would you say your your dad is an embarrassing dad? Not now.

We caught up with him. Look at this and you might change your mind.

Hi, Zoe, do you remember remember when I came up to Manchester when

you were working there or nots working there and I took you to a

restaurant and you were eyeing the waiters as they went past. I crept

my hand over the table and put my han on my hand on yours and you

realised what I had done and you went, "It's me dad."

That's brilliant. That's brilliant. He held my hand and when the waiter

came up, he said, "I am know I am 50 and you are 19, but why can't it

work?" LAUGHTER

We don't think he embarrassed himself on Saturday. What did you

think? I thought he did really well. I was relieved it was over and he

got through it and he didn't make mistakes and he had a difficult

time because Aliona hurt her foot. When the judges, I actually, I

don't think I heard what Craig said because I was just so relieved it

was over and Len said he has given the oldies... He is on the moves.

He is on the beat there. As long as he doesn't sing-along! Craig said

don't do singing! No, he didn't embarrass me. I was really proud of

him. Considering, it was the first week,

when everybody was a bag of nerves like Victoria Pendleton.

The cha-cha is a hard one. Once it is gone, it is gone. That recovered

and the doubt sets in your head, but she will be back. She is an

Olympian and she is amazing. Watch her, she will be fantastic.

This is the thing... You are like the shoulder to cry on, aren't you?

When it gets, because it is intense, Strictly, but with It Takes Two you

can come down and pour your heart out? You know what people are going

through. Like Jason Donovan, "Take vitamins, you will be fine.".

calm down. But what about Lisa Riley? She is at the top of the

leaderboard. I had a feeling about those two. My dad said watch Lisa.

I noticed Craig said something disparaging like "good luck." The

energy when they walked out on to the floor. She is amazing, but it

is like you never know until you see people dance how the

partnership is working and there are some partnerships you will

never forget like Russell and Flavia and look at these two, I

think they're going to do amazing. Look at her. She is so sexy as well.

And... Can you imagine the American I think it's a good thing. You get

to have them compared to Richard Foster of it is judged on that

performance, isn't it? You did the dance off INEOS series? I never had

to. But it was in the series? Usually at that point people go, we

are going, we are going. Hopefully it will add a bit more drama.

Takes Two is back on weekdays at 6:30pm on BBC Two.

We wanted to make sure that Zoe is not the only person being

embarrassed by her dad tonight. We have three more, all prepared to

Strictly Dad Dancing is coming up next. Before that, here is a

brilliant bit of Strictly gossip. There is one contestant in this

year's competition, she has a secret passion that can only be

satisfied by going into the woods in the dead of night. I heard about

this. It seems that Fern Britton can't get enough of bats.

We know that she likes to chat, but what is not commonly known is that

she is batty about bats. So, where does your interest start,

childhood? Yes, but not by seeing Real bats. It is because I read

Dracula. The electrifying picture of him turning into a bat, climbing

up the castle windows, standing at the window with his huge wings.

Terrifying, but fantastic. It became that romantic, scary debt.

Your home county, Buckinghamshire, is a real hot spot for them. It's

really exciting. The area of burn wood forest is bat

central, with some of the biggest, smallest and rarest all living here.

John Hodgkins helps to monitor these small mammals. There's about

13 species as a whole. It's a high number, there are only 18 species

in the country. So, for this particular bit of forest, it's

really good. What is it that they like about this bit? There is still

a lot of ancient wood land. That is what they are lighting, lots of

insects for eating as well. Because this woodland is so vital for bats,

they are monitored very closely, being caught during the summer and

early autumn to see which species are present. But delicate bats need

a delicate system. It is called Harper trapping. A speaker sent out

social calls. They are at a frequency well outside of our

hearing range. They are too concerned about there being another

bat in the area. They don't notice them, they hit them gently and

slide down. It's like a lobster pot. And it doesn't hurt? I have watched

it happen and it is quite gentle. There are a lot of midges, that's a

good thing, because they will be out. To minimise disturbance, they

only catch them for an hour and a half. They checked the traps every

There we go, we have got a bat, that side. There is another one,

down the bottom. We will get some bags and get them out. It's just

like Christmas, because we have no idea what is in the bag. Our first

bat. It is a brown, long eared bat. You can see those enormous ears.

Look at him! Oh, my God. It's like Dobbin. This is the ear, and the

bits sticking out? It is another part of the ear, returning

echolocation back into them. next one is one of Britain's

smallest. You can see, straight away, the face is very different.

They are tiny. They are as small as little field mice. Like a harvest

mouse. With wings! Over 90 minutes, we catch nine from three different

species, including one of Britain's largest. As soon as they are

measured, weighed and tracked, they Jo this has been a wonderful

evening. It has been absolutely thrilling. There she goes! I am so

thrilled that I felt that they were magical, to meet them and know that

they really are, there is a real charm about them. You do fall in

love with them. Not like Dracula at As we said before the film, for one

night only we are going to be hosting Strictly Dad Dancing.

musical sting and everything! We have three dancing dads and three

more to five children. But who is the daddy of embarrassing dancing?

We don't have the glitter ball, for I bet you cannot wait to get your

feet into does. Let's meet our first contestant. This is Robin

She refuses to dance with him, so she dances -- he dances around the

house when her friends are over. says he has his own special bust a

All of the contestants have chosen their own music, which probably

makes it worse. Robin is going to be dancing to Billie-Jean, by

I don't think any amount of therapy Especially because he's wearing a

Our second contestant is Carlton Whitaker from Blackburn. And his

16-year-old son, Alex. Alex is studying at ballet school and you

want to be a professional dancer. Have you given him any tips, or are

you going to do as Latin freestyle and hope for the best? He seems to

think I got my moves from him. But I think I got them from my mother.

So, Robin got seven. His Carlton higher or lower? He is higher, he

One more to come after this next film. Can we bear it? It's time for

a bit of upwardly-mobile gardening. This is actually better than

Strictly! Anyway, now we get to see a vertical garden with lofty

ambitions. During the Troubles in Northern

Ireland's, they began directing so- called peace walls to separate

amenities that could not live side- by-side. There were 88 of them,

mostly in Belfast, covering 17 miles. Nearly 45 years on, they are

still here. But with the Troubles in the past behind us, at least

there is talk of bringing them down. Just around the corner in east

Belfast, they created a new living garden wall. 500 square metres in

size, utilising nearly 7000 plants. This living wall is about bringing

It was created by a local community group called the East Belfast

Mission, down the side of their new centre. The building will provide a

shared space for both Protestant and Catholic families to enjoy

together. I'm keen on gardening, but what possessed you to put a

garden up there? Well, this is a very heavily built-up area. One of

the ways we wanted to regenerate it was by introducing green space that

was capable of being used by all parts of our community here. We

have introduce retail units, we have a cafe. All sorts of community

facilities, where people can meet, as a way of bringing people

together. We will have a cup of tea by the green wall, we will fall in

love by the green wall. It's very impressive, can we have a look? Not

a simple walk out the back door. To attend this garden, you have to go

50 metres up. This is all good fun! In a special lift like this one, a

cherry picker. Gravity rules out soiled beds staying in place for

the plants and flowers to take root. Instead, they dared them into a

specially designed, man made felt. The whole wall is covered in this

felt. They were grown in individual pots and the whole route was taken

out and inserted into the pocket. All that is there is the

established bulb, popped into a packet of felt? Look at the

beautiful plants, geraniums, gorse, honey suckle. Right at the top,

good old Irish word blind. -- would bind. Very much a Gaelic theme.

What we have tried to do was replicate the Irish landscape. The

geraniums are meant to represent fields. Then, running the full

length of the wall, Irish hedgerows. What we have got is the Irish

landscape, replicated in to the inner city, on the wall. Belfast

get more than its fair share of rain fall. But at this 90 degree

angle, the plants cannot rely on it to keep them watered and fed.

Instead, a computer controlled irrigation system pumps rainwater

and vital nutrients to the plants by pipes running 15 metres high.

Built into the wall are plenty of sensors that measure the moisture

content, they measure the health of the various plants. We can monitor

that by computer. We can adjust it, depending on the weather, how much

rain we have had, etc. This system managers all of us. So, the poor

old gardener, with his finger, is now redundant! In an area where

walls have such a negative meaning in the past, what about this one?

think it's absolutely fantastic. It brings a nice bit of green to a

rather dull road. It's a green place. It's almost the city centre.

It's really nice. I think anything in this country that moves us

forwards is fantastic. The work at rebuilding the community is going

to take place inside the centre. But it's a garden wall that has got

people talking around here. This is one garden that has laid down its

The atmosphere in here is incredible. It is time for the

final Strictly Dad Dancing competitor. Who would will get

their hands on this lovely slipperball? Is it possible for

Kevin Eggleston from Somerset and his 15-year-old daughter, Chelsea,

to be awarded 10? Can that be done? Considering he has chosen Little

Mix as his song, it is quite a random choice. All of your teachers