11/04/2017 The One Show

Hello and welcome to the One Show with Matt Baker.

Sophocles and Socrates - now please be upstanding for the

CHEERING Micky Flanagan! Come on over. Very

exciting. Nice to see you. Please take a seat. And maybe we should

start by asking what is on your mind at the moment. These big questions,

you have a whole series about it. It is falling off already. Seductive.

What is keeping you up at night? When presenters get my name wrong

like you did last night. That has upset me. It really has, Mark. You

have got to be a professional! We were very pushed for time last night

and had to talk quickly. Everything has been on my mind, patriotism, men

and women. This is quite distracting. I will be naked by the

time we finish this bit! This is my new series we are talking about

here, patriotism, midlife crisis, don't know what all that is about.

Loads on my mind. I am a thinker. We can see. Especially the getup. You

are either a thinker or you are not. But we are trying to answer some

unexplained questions like why are these seals doing this? They are

swimming upside down. If there are any questions troubling you at home,

the great philosopher Micky is on hand to answer. We will do this

later. Don't be shy, sending whatever queries you have got. It

could be why are we -- are we alone in the universe? Why do we dream?

Why do men not put the toilet seat down. Why do women not put it up! If

you have one of those which lowers itself slowly, as a man, you want to

watch it happen. Why do we have toilet seats? I am happy with the

porcelain area. I think the toilet seat squeezes the buttocks together.

There we go, it is happening right now. This will be an interesting

show. Keep it coming. Now, it has been ten years since the Animal

Welfare Act came into force place a legal obligation on owners to take

care of their pets but it seems like the message is not getting through.

The RSPCA has released its annual figures and reports of animal

cruelty on the rise. We said Don to find out more.

You would think a law which makes owners take care of their pets

properly and introduces penalties would reduce animal suffering. But

there were 140,000 cases of animal cruelty investigated by the RSPCA

last year alone. It is here that many of those investigations

started. The RSPCA's national call centre in Rotherham handles more

than 1 million calls a year to its 24-hour hotline. Mark Bowman

oversees the centre. You have a busy call centre here. Hamley calls are

coming? On average we take the call every 27 seconds and in the summer

about 4000 a day. Why are you getting so many calls? Social media

has taken off and people are more aware of cruelty. It is so easy

these days to take a snapshot or screenshots and e-mail them into

investigate. I have only been here 20 minutes and the calls are coming

in thick and fast. You are through to the RSPCA, I am Patricia, how can

I help? Some of the details are truly shocking. Sadly, calls like

this are all too familiar to the call handlers. You must have seen

some calls which were distressing? Yes, it definitely. You think about

everything you have listened to. There are some horrendous things

that you do listen to. Now I would say not as much because you have to

let it go, you take a call and you have to let it go and move on to the

next. An incredible 400 calls a day spark a full investigation by a team

of nearly 500 inspectors like Keira Benham. She has just received a call

about concerns over pets living at this flat. She has allowed me to tag

along for the day. Just explain to me what has been going on. There is

some sort of net on it. You can see some dead fleas there. There were

some other concerns, was it cats here? Six cats. A quick check

reveals the owner has been dealing with the problems. There are no

creepy crawlies running around which is great to see so I think it is

getting on top of the eye infection. It was the Animal Welfare Act which

gave the RSPCA more powers to intervene by advising owners before

any pet suffers. How do you feel about the fact the RSPCA have

knocked on your door today? They have said they want to check the

animals. You are quite happy to get a on the door? Not everybody

probably takes as much time and care as they ought to so I do not have an

issue whatsoever. But our -- at our next stop the visit is less welcome.

RSPCA, are you there, lovely? Eventually, the owner allows Keira

to check her dogs. Are you happy there's no very happy that the lady

is OK and the dogs are OK. Back on the road and Keira receives an

urgent call out. Receiving, go ahead. There is a goose with fishing

wire wrapped around its peak. When we arrived there is no sign of the

animal. We may be on a wild goose chase that it gives me a chance to

ask here about one of the criticisms levelled at the RSPCA. Some people

have said the RSPCA are too quick to remove pets from their owners, what

would you say? I would disagree. Since the Animal Welfare Act came in

we have more tools in place to work with people in situ and

offer help and support so we don't have to remove animals. In fact,

since the Animal Welfare Act came into force, the RSPCA has helped

over 3.5 million animals. But with complaints on the rise it seems like

inspectors like Keira here will have their work cut out for some time.

Helen is here now with Sally Firth and her poodle Mavis. Looking at how

beautiful may this is, you would never believe how neglected she was

as a young dog. We have some photos here. This was the condition she was

in. There were nine of them originally, the mother and eight

puppies. They were dumped in a Winchester Lane. A member of the

public phoned it into the RSPCA. I found out about the story, it was on

my local news back in January 2015. I thought it was a shame, but I had

no intention of getting involved with that. And then I contacted the

poodle network back in March and then I started fostering her back in

May and she was a complete basket case. It was like having a feral

animal in my house. What is she like now? She is like a normal pet but

she still suffers from anxiety. I can only leave her by her sell for

about an hour. I work from home so I try and leave her most days if I

can. She's still very clingy and dependent on me. She is still a

young dog. Improving all the time. Helen, we saw in the film with Dom

that that was just a snapshot of the cases the RSPCA and other welfare

charities have to deal with every single day. The RSPCA get a call to

help every 27 seconds. In the short time we have been on air, they will

have had approximately ten calls already and they get one point 5

million every year. The inspectors looking to 140,000 cases every year

of cruelty and neglect to animals and they are just one of hundreds of

animal charities and shelters up and down the country. What is worrying

is the law changed in 2007 in England and then Wales to allow

those inspectors to go in where there is suspicion of cruelty rather

than evidence and now the cruelty figures fluctuate between 150000 and

160,002 be honest, they don't seem to be improving. There is a call for

an offenders register? The RSPCA looked into a case in 2015 of age

while I called Chunky. He was taken from his home by four young boys and

he was abused the four hours. He has made a good recovery. The boys were

banned from owning dogs for five years but this led to a call for a

register, bit like the Sex Offenders Register, where if you have been

banned from owning an animal, you go on a register and people who plays

dogs like Mavis into loving homes can see those names. There are

600,000 names on a petition to DEFRA at the moment to bring this in and

make it the first in Europe. The government is worried it could lead

to people taking the law into their own hands and at the moment, we rely

on police capturing that kind of data. Thank you, Sally and Helen and

Mavis. Made this has made herself at home. She is absolutely gorgeous --

Mavis has made herself at home. We will talk more about Micky's budding

career as a philosopher. And we have another puzzle for you now. One

which has wildlife experts scratching their heads in confusion,

including Miranda. This is a grey seal behaving in a

way I have never seen before. This footage obtained exclusively for the

One Show shows the seals blipping themselves on their backs and

rubbing themselves on the sea bed. But the question is why? That is

what I am keen to find out. We have enlisted some of the country's

leading seal experts to study the footage and give their thoughts.

Each one has come up with a different theory about why the seals

are performing this behaviour. Many of the seals doing this I

youngsters, juveniles. One of the things we know about first-year

seals is they keep their coat for longer, so it may be they are trying

to scratch some of the old hair off. I think it is some kind of scent

marking. The shoulder and back region in grey seals have skin cells

which secrete odours which appeared to be very important in social

contact and play. For me, I think this is really something that feels

good, but the area between the shoulders is somewhere they cannot

reach with their mouth or flippers. I think this is just a new technique

animals have come up with to solve a problem. So it could be getting rid

of old hair, scent marking or just having a plain odd scratch. But I

would like to see this for myself, so I am off to the Farne Islands of

Northumberland with an expert who has filmed this behaviour. He has

been studying seals for 16 years and he has his own theory about this. I

think the actual behaviour allows them to assert their position in the

social hierarchy and that may be connected with how dominant they are

in their rubbing. But what is really going on down there? Time to see for

myself. Once in the water, then leads me to the area where he has

seen the seals back rubbing regularly -- Ben leads me. You can

see rows where they have driven themselves to the sandy bottom.

There are nine or ten grey seals, all very inquisitive. They are

looking at us, we are looking at them. We want them to do something

interesting. It is a waiting game. Thankfully we don't have to wait

that long. Look at that. Oh my word that is beautiful. Look at it. Right

in front of me. Oh yes. There is definitely something going on here.

It is like the place they all come to hang out.

I feel like I'm on the dance floor, and they're all just strutting their

stuff on a Friday night. It is like this area is an

amphitheatre and the seals take it in turns to come down and show off

what they can do. Look, I can do it on my back, on my side. I can go

anywhere I wan. I have never seen anything like this in my life

before. This is utterly incredible. Unfortunately, after just over an

hour of watching this incredible but bizarre behaviour, we have to return

to the surface. But Ben is going to continue his study, to try to get

the definitive answer of why they are doing this. What we are looking

at doing now, is using a thing called a sound trap, which is a very

sophisticated hydrophone to record their vocalisations, in real time,

while we are imifing them and what we are doing is link specific vocals

to specific behaviour. Very often experts have already reached their

conclusions as to why other wildlife behaves in a certain way, but on

this occasion, it is all got us scratching our heads!

It is shrine a sun trap. It is like a sunbathing thing. They are putting

their tummies in the sunshine. It could be a question for Micky's new

series. I know I am going to sort out the gravel on my drive. I am

going to roll round on my back. Easy. So thinking allowed starts on

Monday, and your attempting to answer the big questions of our

time. It came from taking a break from comedy, really, didn't it. Yes

I had a year off and I sat down doing a lot of cogitating, and I

thought about the big questions. And a lot, because I was sort of, I had

nothing to do all day, that is where thinking begins. When you are not

busy you can think. Have time to... Head space. We don't have to think.

When you wake up in the morning the there is nothing to do, my wife

would give me a leter, I would think there is two hours. Go to the pose

office an bavenlingt during the walks I would think an I would think

I will go to the pub, then I would have a pint and think again, then I

would get home. My wife would say what have you been doing and I would

say thinking. You have got a new series out of it. It had to come

out. When it is all in there, where is it going to go, if not out to the

people. Into a series. I keep it to myself. You have broken it up into

different episodes. The first one is men and women. You have been married

17 years. For about seven. I held out! No, I have been married for

seven but I have been with my wife for 17 years. OK, what did you learn

then about your marriage through that particular episode? Because you

go off all over the place, you meet lots of experts and you conclude it

all. We tried not to focus on men and women's relationship, although

we look into that. We tried to work out where men are now, and where

women are now, and where are they when they come together, and you

know, the new problems, the old problem, what is changing with men

and women. We try to make it like that. I didn't want it just to be

the problems with men and women, of which I don't know, there have been

a few... But I have ironed all my out. This is how I start my day. I

wake up and I go, don't upset her. That is my opening thought. Don't

upset her. When I go to bed at night. I think oh, I haven't upset

her. Then I know I have had a nice day. Your research has taken you to

some odd places. Yes. You have done some crazy things. I like to throw

myself into thing, you know. If someone asked me to do something, I

don't say how would that make me appear to the general public, I

think will it be funny, will we learn anything? Will it get a laugh?

Will it get laughs? That is you wrapped in bandages a, being

squirted with mineral water. Not just mineral water. This is me

potentially trying to lose weight very quickly. What they call the LA

Slim within wrap. You walk in as a fat person and you leave as a still

a fat person but with less money in your pocket. Because this is in Los

Angeles, this is the sort of things people will do for the quick fix.

You know, so she wrapped me up and then she unrap wrapped me and I was

about an inch slimmer all round. So it works. She just did the

measurements loser on the first time. This was all to do with the

midlife crisis episode. Where we start, the midlife crisis is created

by the sort of knowledge of your impending death, you know. So what

happens is you start thinking about dying, and this, this is not my

theory, this is Freud and Jung. You start to think about your life. This

is when you look at the differences between men and women. You end up

chatting to a cosmetic surgeon. Let us take a look. Would you say I am a

good looking man? Are you working from a good basic? Yes. Be honest.

You have an oval face, that is good. That is good. This is female. This

is male. OK. Really? Yes. Besides that this makes you look old, tired

and angry. Other than that you look fine. Could you put the word failure

on the end of that and then we will have the set. You weren't tempted to

get anything done? No. That was the lowest moment in LA, when he sort of

said I looked old tired and angry and said I had a bit of after boot

nose. I don't know if he was looking for work, I left there feeling very

unattractive. You end, do you end up almost competing in Mr World? Yes.

What? Do you know about it? We all thought this was from the past, but

it is back but for men, and it is looking for the hottest, most, you

know, undateable man in the world. It is in Southport? Yes, that is

where you go if you are looking for looker, that is where they hold it

every year. Looking good there. There was a lot of dancing going on.

They like to dance. And... That was the next night was Mid World. We

have asked for questions this evening, and we have had a lot in.

We have. We have one from Debbie irVIP who said where do all the odd

socks go? They meet up with other odd socks and become pairs. Gordon

says what if there were no hypothetical questions? That is when

someone says can I ask you a question, you just have. Scott says

why do we snow? To annoy our partners. When we go off it is pay

back. John from Edinburgh, he is raging. Why do other drivers insist

on parking next to my car in an empty car park? It is called being

considerate. Leaving a space beside you. What does he want the whole car

park? How much space does this man want? We have Ryan who said why have

I never seen a baby pigeon? I have never seen one. Because they stay in

their nest until they are fully grown. Like children, now. Now. Who

don't leave until they are 33 or 34. Chris says how does a snow plough

driver get to work? That is an old one, he calls in and says I can't

make it. Being British, he say I know I'm

supposed to be driving it but I won't get there. Tom says who would

win in a fight, Batman or Superman? I think Batman. Batman? Yes. There

is no real debate. That is one of those big questions. Maybe on series

two. All the answers to your big questions. Sir Ronnie Flanagan.

Micky Flanagan: Thinking Aloud starts on Monday. Micky is the

latest in a long line of people who haven't had recognition for their

extraordinary mind. The physicist James Clark Maxwell,

on the other hand, really does have reason to feel hard done by,

as Marty's discovered. In 1687 Sir irsack Newton found fame

for his explanation of gravity. Questions. Maybe on series two. All

the answers to your big questions. Sir Ronnie Flanagan. Micky Flanagan:

Thinking Aloud starts on Monday. Micky is the latest in a long line

of people who haven't had recognition for their extraordinary

mind. In 1687 Sir irsack Newton found fame for his explanation of

gravity. Questions. Maybe on series two. All the answers to your big

questions. Sir Ronnie Flanagan. Micky Flanagan: Thinking Aloud

starts on Monday. Micky is the latest in a long line of people who

haven't had recognition for their extraordinary mind. In 1687 Sir

irsack Newton found fame for his explanation of gravity. 200 years

later Albert "Einstein entered the books with his theory of relativity.

There is another scientist who should be up here. Here. He caused a

revolution in fizz sicks is and was Einstein's hero, his name is James

Clark Maxwell. His discovery was electromagnetic

waves which are used in everything from medicine to communication.

Maxwell was born in Edinburgh in 1831. I have come to his childhood

home to find out more about him, from Dr Firth. What was he like as a

child? He was very curious in the world about him. He would ask what

is the go of that, meaning what is the driving force, good Scots

expression of curiosity. Naturally inquisitive and give

itted, the young Maxwell produced a mathematical paper on shapes, at

just 14. This is the first of many scientific

paper, written in Maxwell's own hand writing, on what looks very much

like a school jotter. And indeed, accepted for publication by the

Royal Society of Edinburgh. At the age of 29, Maxwell made an amazing

breakthrough. He created the world's first colour photograph. A mixture

of a par tan ribbon. Maxwell's own hand writing, on what looks very

much like a school jotter. And indeed, accepted for publication by

the Royal Society of Edinburgh. At the age of 29, Maxwell made an

amazing breakthrough. He created the world's first colour photograph. A

mixture of a par tan ribbon. -- tartan ribbon. In 1861 his attention

was drawn to solving one of the greatest puzzles of the age. A

electrical phenomenon was observeded by Michael far day, one of the most

eminent scientists of the day. If you take a coil of wire, and you

attach it to a little light bulb and then you take a strong magnet, and

if I move the magnet into the coil of wire, the light bulb lights up.

So moving a magnet inside a coil of wire generates electricity, an

interesting observation but nobody could explain what was going on.

Intrigued Maxwell turned to mathematics, to try to make sense of

it all. He came up with a complex set of

equation, explaining how electricity, and magnetism interact.

His equations revealed that electro Mag any tinge energy travels in

waves, and those waves travelled at the speed of light, and that was no

coincidence. The electromagnetic wave he

discovered was light. For the very first time, we understood the very

nature of light itself. The implications were huge.

Here, I am splitting light into its component parts. I have used my

prism to create a rainbow of colour, from the red, all the way through to

the violet, and that is it will light that we can see. But Maxwell's

equations predicted that there was invisible light, that we can't see,

beyond the red, and beyond the violet.

What he predicted was the existence of different forms of electro

magnetic wave, from radio, to microwaves, and from ultraviolet to

x-rays, the application of these waves and these discovery was

mind-blowing. Today, we use electromagnetic waves

for more than just seeing, there is communication, and cooking, and even

medical treatments. Physicist Peter Higuains won the

Nobel Prize in 2013, for his work on the Higuains bow sun particle. He

understands better than most the relevance of Maxwell's equations.

Maxwell was important to modern physics but also to all kinds ofs a

pecks of modern life. If he has survived into the 20th century he

would have picked up one of the earliest Nobel Prizes. This

unassumed Scottish scientist deserves widespread recognition for

his extraordinary work. What a show it has been. We have

answered so many questions tonight. So much knowledge. That is it for

That's it for tonight - thanks to our guest Micky Flanagan.

His new show, Micky Flanagan: Thinking Aloud, starts

on Monday at 9pm on Sky 1, and he's on tour from May.

Fern Britton will be here with Doctor Who's