:00:22. > :00:27.How unwelcome to the One Show. Tonight's guest has one of the most
:00:27. > :00:37.powerful voices in the business. He resonates, he reverberates in
:00:37. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:52.French, German, English, Russian Please welcome one of the world's
:00:52. > :00:56.
:00:56. > :01:00.greatest tenors, at the maestro, So very nice to have you here. You
:01:00. > :01:05.are full of cold, as well! Anybody who will hear my voice now will
:01:05. > :01:12.never guess that I have been making my living for over half a century
:01:12. > :01:18.singing opera. I have a cold! very resident tonight! You have
:01:18. > :01:26.ginger and honey? Ginger and honey, you guessed. They recommended it to
:01:26. > :01:31.me. And at a bit of whisky! You are a global star, you have houses all
:01:31. > :01:36.over the world, where are you spending Christmas? You have grown
:01:36. > :01:43.children here in Britain? Yes, I have three English granddaughters.
:01:43. > :01:49.They are the daughters of one of my sons, he also sings. I know that
:01:49. > :01:53.one day they will be singers. They have beautiful voices. I will see
:01:53. > :01:59.them tomorrow morning before leaving quickly, we will spend
:01:59. > :02:07.Christmas in Mexico, it is our tradition. We get all the family,
:02:07. > :02:13.on my sister's side, with the nephews, everybody, I never say I
:02:13. > :02:21.am dreaming of a white Christmas! I always have a warm Christmas!
:02:21. > :02:30.do you have for Christmas lunch? have a turkey. The evening of the
:02:30. > :02:35.24th. And the 25th, you need to same, you know. -- you eat the same.
:02:35. > :02:38.And lots of singing, no doubt. But it is expected that we will fork
:02:38. > :02:42.out a �13 billion before Christmas. But that bonanza will come too late
:02:43. > :02:49.for many shops and companies that have gone into administration this
:02:49. > :02:53.year. So why are so many of them still trading?
:02:53. > :02:56.Almost 2000 companies have gone into administration this year. One
:02:56. > :03:04.of the most recent big brand names to join them is the electrical
:03:04. > :03:08.chain, it. Famous retailers like Clinton's, the card shop, they have
:03:09. > :03:12.all gone in two administrations. But they have managed to survive
:03:12. > :03:20.and continue to trade on the High Street. How is it possible for a
:03:20. > :03:26.brand to survive if it is in administration? This London camply
:03:26. > :03:32.-- cab company has been making the iconic black taxi, it caught in the
:03:32. > :03:38.administrators in October. At the factory, Matthew Hammond from Price
:03:38. > :03:41.Waterhouse Coopers has the task of sorting out the mess. So what is
:03:41. > :03:48.administration? It is like when a person goes bankrupt, they cannot
:03:48. > :03:52.pay their debt, in this situation, it is for a company. My job as an
:03:52. > :03:57.administrator is to diagnose the problems and try and fix them, then
:03:57. > :04:00.ultimately sell the business on to a new investor. But it looks as if
:04:00. > :04:04.this place has been effectively closed down? And you have to make
:04:04. > :04:09.some choices. You cannot do everything abyss this would
:04:09. > :04:13.normally do. One of the first things the administrators did was
:04:13. > :04:21.to stop production and make over half the workforce reduction --
:04:21. > :04:27.redundant. These men all lost their jobs. They are out today, trying to
:04:27. > :04:31.drum up support for their campaign to keep the factory up and running.
:04:31. > :04:36.I worked there for 37 years. It is a hard time of year to be made
:04:36. > :04:41.redundant, and to fight for your rights, to get what you are due, it
:04:41. > :04:46.makes things worse. What do you want to achieve by your campaign?
:04:46. > :04:51.To put a bit of pressure on the administrators, to basically give
:04:51. > :04:54.us a fair chance to get our jobs back. Because the company went into
:04:54. > :04:57.administration, workers only received a statutory redundancy
:04:57. > :05:03.package from the government, receiving far less than they would
:05:03. > :05:08.have been paid otherwise. 156 people lost their jobs, more than
:05:08. > :05:12.half the workforce, but that many people really have to go? I think
:05:12. > :05:17.in the special circumstances we see here, that was the most difficult
:05:17. > :05:22.decision, but necessary to preserve what is left. Is this just a way of
:05:22. > :05:28.avoiding debt, writing them off, going into administration? At that
:05:28. > :05:33.is a myth, the debt is not avoided. I think it is difficult decision to
:05:33. > :05:35.go into administration for a lot of directors. It is the
:05:35. > :05:40.administrator's job to pay of company debt. Banks and secured
:05:40. > :05:45.creditors are always at the top of the list. They get paid first.
:05:45. > :05:49.Everyone else, including the customer, has to wait, as this man
:05:49. > :05:54.found out after he waited -- ordered a kitchen from MFI it
:05:54. > :05:59.shortly before the financial retailer went into administration.
:05:59. > :06:05.They said you had to pay everything up front? Everything, just a few
:06:05. > :06:10.pence short of 5200. A week later, we heard they had gone into
:06:10. > :06:14.administration. You paid them and within a week they had gone
:06:14. > :06:18.bankrupt? Yes. He never received his kitchen from MFI, and after
:06:18. > :06:23.three years of waiting for the administrators to pay creditors, he
:06:23. > :06:27.found that he wasn't going to get his money back either. Then he
:06:27. > :06:32.discovered something that really confused him. I got the shock of my
:06:32. > :06:36.life a few weeks ago, I just happened to go on to the website,
:06:36. > :06:41.and lo and behold, it looks like they are selling everything they
:06:41. > :06:46.used to sell. How do you feel seen a company with the same name as the
:06:47. > :06:51.one that owes you �5,200? Awful, absolutely awful.
:06:52. > :06:56.It is absolutely terrible, how did that happen? He it does seem
:06:57. > :07:00.extraordinary, but the job of the administrator is to raise as much
:07:00. > :07:05.money for the failing company it can. So they look at all the assets,
:07:05. > :07:10.and the brand name is an asset, such a separate company bought by a
:07:10. > :07:13.brand name, and started selling furniture again. Because the debt
:07:13. > :07:17.have been written off, they don't owe anything to Dennis. Christmas
:07:17. > :07:22.hasn't come soon enough for businesses, but others are relying
:07:22. > :07:26.on this time of year. This is a time of a lot of bankruptcies in
:07:26. > :07:31.retail businesses, it seems extraordinary. This is the time
:07:31. > :07:35.everybody goes out and spends money, but if you get the calculations
:07:35. > :07:39.wrong, you do the maths, people will have problems. That is what
:07:39. > :07:43.seems to be happening, retailers are facing a really tough times at
:07:44. > :07:48.the moment. A lot of people are shopping online, the bargains of
:07:48. > :07:53.there are harder to get, it means businesses are making less money,
:07:53. > :07:59.so it is difficult. If you want to have a high street, you have got to
:07:59. > :08:03.spend money in it otherwise the shops will go bankrupt. But as well
:08:03. > :08:07.as a lack of customers, there are the reasons these companies are
:08:07. > :08:11.going into administration. There are all sorts of pressures on
:08:11. > :08:15.businesses, one of which is rented. We have been looking around the
:08:15. > :08:20.country, and in Whitstable, some shops have been facing 80%
:08:20. > :08:24.increases in rent. You can see it is very hard as a business to go on
:08:24. > :08:32.operating if you see them going up like that. So businesses have to
:08:32. > :08:40.adapt. Even in opera! So cinemas are showing operas lives a. That is
:08:40. > :08:47.right. A 25 years ago, or 30, in London this started, I was singing
:08:47. > :08:54.at the Covent garden Square, it was opera live. The people came and
:08:54. > :09:00.enjoyed the performance. That was on the big screen. And that, for
:09:00. > :09:08.years, it was in other places. And since then, since about six or
:09:08. > :09:15.seven years, the Metropolitan Opera started with high divot -- high
:09:15. > :09:22.definition, directly to the Meavy houses. Are you doing another one
:09:22. > :09:30.in April? I am yes. So every theatre is bringing out the
:09:30. > :09:36.possibility to a new public. It is not the same. But you get the
:09:37. > :09:41.opportunity. Live opera is live opera, but it is as close as can be.
:09:41. > :09:44.We look forward to that! But in any case, it is a hard time by
:09:44. > :09:53.everybody, especially when I think about Christmas gifts and children,
:09:53. > :09:59.you know. Many people, never mind the extra parties that you do, but
:09:59. > :10:08.the toys for the children... I hope that everybody thinks. Could and
:10:09. > :10:18.agree more. Is yours up, mine is! There are tears. Mine is, doesn't
:10:19. > :10:19.
:10:19. > :10:29.look as good, though. I got this for a tenner on the way here. There
:10:29. > :10:29.
:10:29. > :10:35.you are! It is Ali decorated on one side. -- only decorative. We have
:10:35. > :10:39.to save money these days! Alex Reilly has been divided everything
:10:39. > :10:41.you need to know when it comes to buying a Christmas tree. -- to find
:10:41. > :10:45.out. It is the most wonderful time of
:10:45. > :10:51.the year, when Britain goes bonkers the Christmas, but doesn't really
:10:51. > :10:55.get going until you buy your Christmas tree. This furry friend
:10:55. > :11:01.lives in our home until Twelfth Night, but how do we make sure we
:11:01. > :11:08.choose the right one? Kluft is a master of the Christmas tree trade.
:11:08. > :11:12.-- Cliff. Where do they come from? In the main, from Denmark. The once
:11:12. > :11:19.and Scotland that we have, the weather has not been so good, it
:11:19. > :11:22.has been too warm, in fact. So will they be more expensive? Not really,
:11:22. > :11:26.because the transport from Scotland is expensive, people are price-
:11:26. > :11:31.conscious, they are looking for a bit of a bargain. What advice would
:11:31. > :11:37.you give somebody looking to buy a Christmas tree? The Normans are the
:11:37. > :11:42.best ones, but the best smelling ones are the Norway spruce, but
:11:42. > :11:47.they do tend to drop their needles. You should look out for a nice,
:11:47. > :11:52.uniform tree, plenty of branches, and that is the best way to look
:11:52. > :11:57.for a Christmas tree. Also make sure they are nice and green.
:11:57. > :12:02.year, 8 million Christmas trees will be sold around the UK. The One
:12:02. > :12:07.Show did some research and found that the average price for a six
:12:07. > :12:11.but Norman is around �40, but the most expensive we could find was in
:12:11. > :12:17.an exclusive part of London, where the same dream would set you back
:12:17. > :12:22.�70. I am off to Lewisham to help Harry flog some of his. This is the
:12:22. > :12:29.second year you have been selling them, how his business? Busier than
:12:29. > :12:38.last year. We sold about 300, we did better than that already this
:12:38. > :12:43.year. These ones are 35. Week by it and sat at one price. Other quality
:12:43. > :12:48.the same as you would buy in a department store? Nine times out of
:12:48. > :12:56.10 they are getting it from the same supplier. It will be the same
:12:56. > :13:04.tree. We know how to look after them! Can I have a look at your
:13:04. > :13:14.stall? We will get you write out of the front, in front of everybody.
:13:14. > :13:18.
:13:18. > :13:26.Get your lovely trees, everybody! �35! All day long. What are you
:13:26. > :13:36.doing? That is not right! That was my sale! Do we do delivery? We can
:13:36. > :13:38.
:13:38. > :13:47.put a stamp on it, it might not get She will be back, she will buy one.
:13:47. > :13:52.Francs for the tutorial. Best of So expensive these days! And you
:13:52. > :13:57.were just saying, you were in New York buying a Christmas tree.
:13:57. > :14:00.is right. I was interviewing a person that sold them and I said, I
:14:00. > :14:06.hope you don't get more than you are going to sell, because we do
:14:06. > :14:12.you do with all of them? It is just a pity you have to chuck that many.
:14:13. > :14:19.But that is what they are grown for. You can get them for a pound or a
:14:19. > :14:24.penny on the 23rd! That is my tip for you! Tomorrow, we will be
:14:24. > :14:28.turning on the BBC's Christmas lights. If you switch on your
:14:28. > :14:36.Christmas lights on your tree or inside your house, we would like to
:14:36. > :14:41.see them. Send us your photos. have a new album out, Songs, it is
:14:41. > :14:46.quite different from the opera we were talking about. 20 years!
:14:46. > :14:53.tears been even more, I did an album with John Denver. Now I have
:14:53. > :14:58.a new contract, so we are of course doing classical music, but I said,
:14:58. > :15:03.can I do an album with popular songs, and they said yes. So that
:15:03. > :15:13.is what has happened. One of the lovely people you'd duet with his
:15:13. > :15:16.
:15:16. > :15:25.Katherine Jenkins, we shall see you # Come what may
:15:25. > :15:35.# Come what may # I will love you
:15:35. > :15:42.
:15:42. > :15:47.# Until my darling -- dying days. # Placido, you are still hitting
:15:47. > :15:54.incredibly high notes. Will there come a time when you have to go
:15:54. > :16:02.into baritone range? Most of my repertory is a baritone range.
:16:02. > :16:05.After so much singing, I have done the tenor, but I still have so many
:16:05. > :16:13.beautiful operas. The voice is still there.
:16:13. > :16:23.I really love to do different voices. Especially now with my age,
:16:23. > :16:24.
:16:24. > :16:29.there are so many characters and heroes, lovers that the tenor
:16:29. > :16:36.always wins, all of those roles and I still love it and enjoy it.
:16:36. > :16:43.Well, it is a beautiful listen. Placido's CD of Songs is out now.
:16:43. > :16:48.Now, Placido, have a look at that big telly, can you guess what this
:16:48. > :16:55.is? Well, it is not a lady doing something with the eye larbs.
:16:55. > :16:59.Well, it is not far away. It could abfemale, but it really a large red
:16:59. > :17:03.damsel. Now, George McGavin has been out
:17:04. > :17:10.and about looking at Britain's insects.
:17:10. > :17:15.I've come armed with my collecting kit to my old stomping ground in
:17:15. > :17:21.Oxfordshire. Today I'm collecting insects for a man who promises to
:17:21. > :17:27.show me them under a different lens to this one. These amazing images
:17:28. > :17:33.are the work of Tomas Rach. The photographer, has been inspired by
:17:33. > :17:40.the form and the incredible detail of insects what he photographs them
:17:40. > :17:44.close-up. I would like to know hor about his techniques, -- more about
:17:44. > :17:51.his techniques, so I'm off to collect some insects.
:17:51. > :17:57.One of the best places to collect bugs is among the leaves and the
:17:57. > :18:02.litter of decaying wood. About a third of insects live in decayed
:18:02. > :18:08.wood. This is a beetle lava. It has three little pairs of jointed leg
:18:08. > :18:13.there is at the front. Here is a ground beetle. Now, look
:18:13. > :18:18.at that. That is beautiful. Now it is quite a big one. If he stays
:18:18. > :18:24.still like this, long enough, he will be perfect. I know that up
:18:24. > :18:30.close the back of those wing cases are covered in tiny pits. It even
:18:30. > :18:35.has tiny hairs on his head. I think that will look fantastic. After
:18:35. > :18:43.finding a ladybird a house fly and rather legy millipedes, it is time
:18:43. > :18:47.to take the whole lot back to Tomas. I have been raking about in the
:18:47. > :18:53.undergrowth for about an hour collecting lots of bugs and beesis.
:18:53. > :19:00.This looks amazing. How do you keep them still? The
:19:00. > :19:05.insects are always escaping! Well, for this occasion I am using water
:19:05. > :19:10.and lava in the water. The water is a restriction.
:19:10. > :19:14.What a great strik trick. Surrounding the bugs by water,
:19:14. > :19:21.stops them from running away it makes them easier to photograph and
:19:21. > :19:26.the orange flowers adds a perfect contrasting background. Leaving
:19:26. > :19:36.Tomas to concentrate on the images, I decided to find something
:19:36. > :19:41.different. Fantastic! Look at that, a water beetle it is smooth with
:19:41. > :19:51.lovely feet with hairs on. They help it to swim.
:19:51. > :19:57.
:19:57. > :20:07.Oops! Swim like that and escape! Never mind. Dragonfly lava galo
:20:07. > :20:13.rerbgs! -- galore! A back-swimmer. With a few more ready to add to the
:20:13. > :20:17.collection, I can't wait to see what Tomas thinks of them. Right, I
:20:17. > :20:23.have insects from a pond. Have you ever photographed them before?
:20:23. > :20:28.I have never seen these before. He uses a standard lens and
:20:29. > :20:33.powerful flash to high light the intrick asis of the insets. Anyone
:20:33. > :20:36.with access to these cameras can have a go too. After a full day's
:20:36. > :20:42.work it is time to see the final results.
:20:42. > :20:45.That is lovely. The jaws of this ground beetle make it the perfect
:20:45. > :20:51.predator. That is lovely. Look at all of the
:20:51. > :20:55.hair there, it looks silver. Incredibly, the hairs on this
:20:55. > :21:01.garden spider are used to sense wind direction and to taste and
:21:01. > :21:11.smell, even. The enormous compound eyes of the house fly are made up
:21:11. > :21:11.
:21:12. > :21:16.of about 4,000 lenses, allowing it to see almost a full 360 degrees. I
:21:16. > :21:21.am so impressed with the colours and the structures that we have
:21:21. > :21:28.been able to capture on screen. Perhaps photography is a great way
:21:28. > :21:34.of giving creepy crawlies the good press that they deserve.
:21:34. > :21:39.George, if only you had hung on to the water beetle, that would have
:21:39. > :21:44.been complete, that photo album. You have had a whale of a time
:21:44. > :21:50.working on this? I don't know what you have asked for Christmas, but I
:21:50. > :21:53.would want this instrument. It is 85,000 euros it can see 7,000 times
:21:53. > :21:59.better than the human eye. I have filmed things that I have never
:21:59. > :22:07.seen in the wild. Amazing. Let's have a look.
:22:07. > :22:14.Look at those little legs! Go in on that. That is tiny, absolutely tiny.
:22:14. > :22:18.This is for me, one of the most amazing eye-openers of the
:22:18. > :22:24.machinery. Here is a millipede clawinging through the fame. It is
:22:24. > :22:28.big, yet on its leg is a tiny mi terbgs there.
:22:28. > :22:33.It is sucking the blood there. If you looked at that there would be
:22:33. > :22:42.something else on that. It is a whole hidden world.
:22:42. > :22:48.You also loved the water bell. These things are everywhere. They
:22:48. > :22:53.have been around for 500 million years. When we have gone, water
:22:53. > :22:57.bears will still be around on Earth. Did you see anything you did not
:22:57. > :23:01.want to see? There is nothing that I don't want to see in the natural
:23:01. > :23:06.world if you are stuck about what to buy your kids for Christmas, buy
:23:06. > :23:10.them a hand lens. That will open up a whole new world that will blow
:23:10. > :23:14.them away. Very cheap! There you are, Placido,
:23:14. > :23:20.something for the grandkids. Just don't drop it.
:23:20. > :23:26.You can see George's George's Miniature Britain on BBC One at
:23:26. > :23:32.8.00pm and 9.00pm in Scotland. Now, here is Gyles Brandreth with a
:23:32. > :23:40.military tune that was almost more of a sprint than a march.
:23:40. > :23:45.The RAF March Past. The Royal Air Force's signature tune. With a
:23:45. > :23:51.barrage of melodies it is a dog fight in a musical form, but this
:23:51. > :23:56.dashing march had a surprisingly civilian start in life.
:23:56. > :24:01.Today, the RAF's a precision fighting force, but in the early
:24:01. > :24:08.day it is was a different story. Formed in 1918, the new RAF rose
:24:08. > :24:14.from the ashes of the army's Royal Flying Corp, but the force lacked
:24:14. > :24:20.pomp and ceremony. That is where an unknown musician, Henry Davis comes
:24:20. > :24:25.Well, he was walking through London, during the first week of the new
:24:25. > :24:29.air force and he met a old school chum. He remarked on the fact that
:24:29. > :24:33.they did not have a policy for making, managing and forming bands.
:24:33. > :24:40.He said, Walford, you are a musician, would you like to come
:24:40. > :24:43.and do it. Three days later he was major Walford Davis of the
:24:43. > :24:48.organising director of the new Royal Air Force.
:24:48. > :24:54.He had no military experience? No working his way up through the
:24:54. > :25:02.ranks? Overnight, a major, it is a scandal,
:25:02. > :25:06.isn't it? It would be these days. Propelled into musical battle, the
:25:07. > :25:13.major set to work composing his first ever ceremonial march.
:25:13. > :25:16.What is this? The first proof of the March Past. You can see that
:25:16. > :25:21.Walford has put in the corrections in his handwriting.
:25:21. > :25:26.What does this tell us about the composer? It tells me he was not
:25:26. > :25:33.versed in military writing. He put down a mark of 132.
:25:33. > :25:39.What is wrong with that? It is not easy to march at. 120 or slower is
:25:39. > :25:47.easier. It looks better on a parade. We can discover what 132 would
:25:47. > :25:55.sound like. Here is Guy, the Bobby Crusher of the RAF. I have the
:25:56. > :26:02.metronome set at 132, march away. It gets you going.
:26:02. > :26:08.It does, but it could also give you a heart attack. I will stop that.
:26:08. > :26:15.That is 132. That is too fast. They would be falling over.
:26:15. > :26:20.As organising director of music, should major Davis have known this?
:26:20. > :26:24.Undoubtedly! Against all odds, Davis' March Past was a hit with
:26:24. > :26:30.the middle section added by a colleague it became an intrinsic
:26:30. > :26:40.part of the RAF's identity. Here it is, performed by the Central Band
:26:40. > :26:42.
:26:42. > :26:47.of the RAF at a marchable 116 beats per minute.
:26:47. > :26:52.He's done it! It's magnificent! Absolutely. I have played and
:26:52. > :26:57.conducted it so many times but I never fail enjoying hearing it
:26:57. > :27:01.again. He may have been a civilian at heart, but he delivered the
:27:01. > :27:11.goods. It works That's it. There must be a good melody to start off
:27:11. > :27:12.
:27:12. > :27:18.with. That is what this is. But it is with the words heroic,
:27:18. > :27:24.and with the notes, it is uplifting, airborne.
:27:25. > :27:31.It is impressive. After one year, Major Davis
:27:31. > :27:36.resigned from the RAF with a -- for a less formal career with the BBC!
:27:36. > :27:43.Walford Davis may not have been cut out for military service, but he
:27:43. > :27:53.left behind him a musical monument of which the RAF takes great pride
:27:53. > :27:57.
:27:57. > :28:05.still today, at the right speed! And as soon as that tempo hit 116,
:28:05. > :28:11.Placido said, "Perfect."! Now, you have said if you rust, you rust,
:28:11. > :28:16.there are no traces of rust, but what will you do in 2013? Many,
:28:16. > :28:22.many different things, but to the end of the year I have a recording
:28:22. > :28:30.to finish. A Christmas concert in Moscow on the 19th of December and
:28:30. > :28:36.on the 22nd one in Prague and next year it is the Verdi and Wagner
:28:36. > :28:41.anniversary. So a lot of Verdi operas, it is the 200th anniversary
:28:42. > :28:46.of both composer's birthdays. So, keep sipping on the honey and
:28:46. > :28:52.the lemon. I will need it