11/08/2011 The One Show

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

Tonight's guest is the actress who caused a storm on Albert Square

earlier this year with the controversial baby swap story line.

Now she is swapping Walford four sons and sunshine in the South

Pacific. It is Samantha Womack. Love lead to see you. -- lovely to

see you. We are both wearing lace. Sorry about that. We are wearing

lace underneath. The nobody got that! Things seem to have calmed

down with the riots. But you had a taste of it. Like everybody that

lives in London, I was passing through an area, Camden, which was

starting to head towards trouble. I went down to Regent Street and

Oxford Street, where there was heavy police presence. I am staying

in a hotel in the City, so I was feeling nervous, like everybody.

was definitely quite scary. Do you think we have seen the last of the

riots? I don't know. I know that the police presence has been up to.

Everybody that is available is now patrolling the streets. I hope that

will be an end to it but you don't know. It is so erratic, which is

what is so nerve-racking. There does not seem to be any pattern. It

is springing up all over the place and the minute you think it has

died down, it is back. We will talk to you about South Pacific a moment

later. We have a surprise for you. Oh, God. It is always bad when

people say that on television. Is it a bunny? It is a mystery guest

but we will not get you guessing. You might actually guess he who it

is! And Dom Littlewood will be opening up some case files.

emergency recall of Parliament today, David Cameron admitted that

far too few police were used during the riots at their tactics were not

working. He has now said that baton rounds and water cannon can be used

if the need arises. We look at the options that the police have and do

some things that will never be used. Every bobby has been disgusted by

the scenes on the streets of England this week. There was a

feeling that the police could have used more force. People asked why

they did not take measures such as water cannons against the rioters.

Yesterday David Cameron said that if the police want to use water

cannons, they can request them. But do we really want them on our

streets? I think David Cameron is right to bring in water cannons as

an option available to the police. Water cannons are most effective

when used against a large crowds rioting against a particular target.

We saw in Nottingham in the last few days attacks on police stations,

which we have not seen elsewhere. In that situation, a water cannon

could certainly help to drive away the crowd if they are intent on

attacking a particular target. They are quite frightening. They can

make you think you are drowning. They can knock you over and they

can make you feel very wet and cold. They would work. Add in plastic

bullets would be more useful. -- I think plastic bullets would be more

useful and I have seen cases when they could have worked. Plastic

bullets and water cannons can seem tame compared to what is on offer

elsewhere in the world. In the Philippines, you might expect to

get a face full of gas, which would leave you struggling to breathe and

your eyes and throat burning. In America, and tasers might get you

and sound deterrents as well. They Blast Lab 149 decibels and can

clear the street faster than a rock concert. Not everyone believes that

the police should have more gadgets. I don't think that militarisation

is the solution that we are looking for. The water cannon is developed

to control a crowd. With this new public disorder we are seeing the

group dispersing, moving down side streets into small groups of

individuals, which is not traditional crowd control. Another

security challenge facing the police is just around the corner,

the Olympics. As well as putting in an order for javelins and shop

Purves, should we also be buying plastic bullets and water cannon? -

- shot put. We have seen a lot of damage to our reputation as the

police should do everything they can to knock this kind of situation

on the head, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics. If it

flares up, it should be dealt with more robustly. The public wants

something done now, but the reality is that what we also want is these

things prevented in the future. Debates around things like rubber

bullets take us no closer to prevention in the future. Obviously

in the future we all want to keep the streets safe. We hope that

anti-riot measures such as plastic bullets and water cannon will not

actually need to be deployed. Just the threat of them could be enough

to keep the peace. Water cannon, have they been used before on the

mainland? No. They have been used in Northern Ireland. In the

Northern Ireland police service they have six, which they say can

now be deployed at 24 hours' notice to the mainland, but that would be

a new thing for us. David Cameron said that police tactics did not

work. Yes. Any idea what they will do now? He said he had had a frank

exchange of views with police chiefs. It seems to be about the

emphasis. They were treating it as a public order situation, when they

should have been treating it as a criminal situation. It is really

about a change of emphasis. He also stressed that this is a new and

unique challenge for the police, because of the focus on looting and

the speed at which the rioters were travelling. And the way they were

communicating. It is uncharted territory and it needs a change of

and this is, so now they are looking at different things. They

are talking about new powers to impose curfews. And also about

removing face masks, which has been a big thing. This is incredible,

isn't it? I found it extraordinary that the police did not have these

powers until today. Previously they were only allowed to remove face

masks from rioters if there were actually engaged in violent conduct.

Was it to do with religious denomination and women having their

faces covered? Yes, there is a lot of complexity. Now they have the

authority to remove them if they suspect that person is about to

engage in criminal conduct. There is a change of emphasis there.

Thank you. There is also news of a man in intensive care who was

attacked while heroically trying to put out fires in Ealing on Monday

night. We have this picture here. He had their identification on him

but he has been named as 68 year old Richard Mannington Bowes.

Police are eager to trace his next of kin and anybody that knows him

at all. They also want any information on his suspected

attacker. He is described as black, of big build, wearing a white T-

shirt with writing on, and a dark jumper over his shoulders. Anybody

with any information should contact Crimestoppers. As we said, Dom

Littlewood is also here, and he has been delving into his filing

cabinet again. It gets fatter every week! I had a woman on my left and

suddenly! First up, compensation for the damage that was caused by

the riot. The Prime Minister has spoken about this in the Commons

today. Yes. To put it into perspective, 48,000 businesses have

been affected. The bill is running at �200,000. As far as compensation

is concerned, if you are insured, try to put in a claim with your

insurance company first, but you only have seven days and they will

only be looking at the Department why it claims. A lot of these why

it's happened in poorer areas of the country. -- riots. Some people

might not have insurance. In 1986, claims were put in against police

forces. Saying that they did not respond? Not saying they did

anything wrong, there is just a fund there so that people can claim

against that. So they are not left homeless or something. With some

insurance, with car damage, if you have got your own insurance and it

is third-party, fire and theft, you will only get it back if it is

burnt out, not if the windows are smashed. You should go back to your

own insurance company first but there is that all back there.

have also got an interesting news on train tickets. Yes, David wrote

in. He said that he had a complaint We decided to have a family get

together in May this year. I bought train tickets for my mother in-law

and sister in law. Neither of them have access to the internet. I

printed the tickets myself, and I posted them to them. When David's

relatives travelled, they were shocked when the inspector said the

tickets were not valid as they could not produce the credit card

they were bought with. They were asked to pay the standard walk-on

fare of �154 each but they did not have the money and had to hand over

their contact details. The women were upset and David was furious.

We spoke to the station staff. They told us about the appeals process,

which I followed up, but that appeal was rejected. David did not

think this was fair because he could prove the tickets had been

used honestly. While he tried to prove his case, more administration

costs were added and the bill went up to �418. That is on top of the

�87.50 he had already paid for the tickets online. Eventually, and as

they got more strident and began to upset my mother, I decided to pay

it myself. I am fighting to get the system changed because it really is

not fair. That is a bit heart. have to give the train company they

do. -- that is a bit harsh. It is not hidden in the small print, it

is written on the tickets and on the website. But I take David's

side. The company could make it much easier. In fairness to them,

we have contacted them and they will get back their additional

costs. With electronic tickets, remember they are not good if you

are not travelling with the person that you are buying them for. If

you want to get tickets for somebody else, go down to the

station the old-fashioned way. Simple as that. You are harbouring

train anger, Samantha? I am just fuming. It is entrapment. It has

become so complicated. You have to buy a certain ticket at a certain

time if you stand on one leg, shaking the guy's hand at a certain

time, before 3 o'clock. They make it so complicated for you. And you

buy a ticket, you pay your money, you then want to travel and you

change your train time, God forbid, and all of a sudden you have to pay

an extra �100 for the ticket. Surely I have still paid my money?

You can get flights for less than that. For me it is all about

revenue. It is all about entrapment. They set you up to fail because

somebody is making a pretty penny on the other end. We should send

you on a train journey! You want people to get in touch if they need

your help. If people need any help, they should write to us. On Sunday,

a memorial service will be held to remember the victims of a school

trip to Scandinavia which ended in tragedy 50 years ago this week.

Someone Samantha knows quite well, Larry Lamb, has the sad story of

the Croydon schoolboys his Heads you win, tails you lose.

Sometimes a life can turn on the flip of a penny. Two boys wanted

the last seat on the plane and a coin was tossed for it. My brother

called heads and won - but he didn't. He lost. All of a sudden

eight good friends weren't there, weren't there to share whatever

your life was going to be after that. All the boys came from here,

the Lanfranc School. For many it was their first time on a plane,

for many their first trip abroad, so the excitement must have been at

fever pitch as they set off on an alternative trip to Stavanger in

Norway. Quentin won the toss and grotto last seat. 1961. A good year

to be young. Beatlemania was round the corner, Ricky Nelson would do

meantime. Happy days. The Lanfranc school for boys was in Croydon. 34

of them got on the plane. None of Rosalind Jones was Quentin's sister.

She was 15 when he left on that summer day in the '60s. When he

came to say goodbye to me that morning, for some crazy reason a

voice came into my head which wanted me to say, look, I will

never see you again, give me a kiss goodbye. I never couldn't believe

it, so changed it to, "I may never see you again." He gav me a peck on

the cheek and was gone. What was happening in Norway? The plane was

flying to Sola airport. Everything was going to schedule. It was being

talked down by traffic control. It should have turned round and come

back on a normal approach, but it didn't. It flee eastwards instead

into the mountains, where it crashed.

The rest cue effort was led by the Norwegian Red Cross. It was them

who set about the grim task of combing the scene. Back in Croydon,

desperate families waited anxiously for news. When it came, their worst

fears were confirmed - there were no survivors. Grieving families

demanded answers, but none came. look to some parents like a

whitewash. It wasn't a whitewash but they couldn't say what caused

it. The official cause of the accident - deviation from the

prescribed flight path for reasons unknown.

The boys were brought back here a few days later. Dozens of coffins

all made of Norwegian wood. They were laid out here, in the school

Assembly hall. Even now half a century on, some of their

classmates still live with the guilt of escaping events on that

mountainside. You were the head boy, yes? I was head boy in that last

year, yes, before the crash happened. How come, wouldn't it

have been normal thaw would have gone on the trip? He been on the

trip to Switzerland the year before. My parents really couldn't afford

it. We did debate that, so I didn't go. I was pretty lucky, looking

back. A mass grave was laid nowt the cemetery near the school, and

in the weeks that followed, tens of thousands of people paid their

respects. As for the aircraft, the Vickers Vikings' days were numbered.

Within a few years they were history. 50 years later and two

communities a on either side of the North Sea are united in their grief

at what happened. At the time it was Norway's worst aviation

disaster. Their memory became one of the drivers many nigh life. I've

gone on to lead a very full life. I'm very lucky for that. Looking

back, it is something that I had that the Lanfranc Boys didn't.

On Sunday the official civic service of remembrance will be held

in Croydon Minster at 3.00pm. And there's also an exhibition in the

Museum of Croydon until 17th September. The story there

beautifully told by Larry, who you have worked with for white a while.

The lovely Larry Lamb. Do you miss him? He was such a wonderful person

to work with. I know the scenes that we did weren't particularly

joyful, but we had a very good time making them. She a wonderful,

gorgeous man, and very attractive, dare I say? And your character,

Ronnie, was right at the centre. Yes, he's not really my father, it

is OK for me the like him! Your character was at the centre to

which baby swap story line. 13,000 complaints were made to the BBC.

Yes! How did people react to you on the street? People sometimes can't

decipher between the argumentor and the character. The people's

representation of that whole thing, as usual they whipped it up into a

frenzy. They had pictures of me lives at 5 o'clock in the morning

looking tired. There were complaints and they had to be

addressed. Certainly the story in the way we told it, we tried to

address it. I wanted to make sure that everything I did, me myself

Sam playing that character, was based in truth, so I embarked on a

fuet meetings with my producer, Brian Kirkwood, which was lovely,

very open. Continued to work out a story line we felt was specific to

that character. It certainly wasn't a situation that was representing a

group of people. This is a soap character. A soap character has to

sustain an incredible amount of tragedy, if you are a playing a

tragic heroine. The genre is heightened, and viewing figures

come into play. The figures go through the roof when you have

tragic circumstances and harrowing story lines, so the BBC is trying

to hit those targets. It is a bigger conversation. It must have

been very hard for you as an actor having to do that. Now you are

moving far from that with South Pacific. Is that a conscious

decision? Yeah, and I regret ate little. Just because I have these

ticks in my eyes. It looks nice.. I've just came offstage literally.

We open in two or three days. On Monday. She is joyous and wonderful

but it's a pretty tragic piece. It is about racial tension and foreign

occupation. It was based on the Pulitzer-winning book, Tales of the

South Pacific, a very harrowing tale. The beautiful music cut

across this strange, beautiful, tale of people who were isolated

and trying to deal with where they come from and their own prejudices.

You are starting at the Barbican. On Monday. It is gorgeous. It is

for seven weeks, and then we start the tour. You've put me on the spot

now. I'm a mummy, I don't retain... It is everywhere, look at the

website. And we've still got this lovely surprise for you. It is

South Pacific-related. A palm tree? Wait and see.

Now we go to great lengths to get incredible wildlife shots on One

Show. Kate Bevan chucking herself off a hillside to soar alongside

birds of prey shows real dedication. Over the hills and valleys of Wales,

red kites once almost extinct in Britain are now a familiar sight.

At our farm if Abergavenny I've often seen red kites soaring and

circumstance until the skies above. They glide effortletsly at great

height, seeming to defy the laws of gravity. And today I'm going to

join them. Parawalking combines paragliding

and falconry. Paragliders are always looking for ways to stay in

the air longer, something red kites do naturally. Who better to learn

from than the true masters of the sky? This is Mr Black. He's a six-

year-old hand-reared red kite. Together, we are going to share a

very special flying experience. Martin Kray is a paraHawker. He's

been flying with trained red kites for ten years. So Mr Black is a red

kite. What makes them so special? In the wild a red kite spends a lot

of its time soaring. They don't flap hardly. They've got a big

wingspan, they are very light. Its tail, a long, forked tail, which

means he can stay completely flat. He uses his tail like a rudder. He

is much more efficient in a thermal than I am. It is thermals that are

key to paraglide and the red kite's aerial talent. A thermal is created

as the sun heats the ground unevenly. Where the ground is

hotter, columns of warm air rise, which act like an everything, lator

for birds of pray, and hopefully for birds of pray, and hopefully

for us too. Red kites have got it easy. We need

a lot of equipment before we can get airborne. And over here is the

hill we are about to jump off. I've never done this sort of thing

before and I've got to say, I'm a little bit nervous.

Oh, wow! The sheep look tiny. Once we are safely airborne Mr Black is

released and will hopefully guide us to the thermals. There he is!

However, it seems that Mr Black has other ideas. He's just sitting on

the edge there. That's no good to us. I know. Mr Black! After taking

in the view for a moment, it wasn't long before Mr Black was back in

action. Whoa! Nice one. Hopping from thermal to thermal Mr Black is

cushioned by parcels of warm air isn't can soar to a great height.

And we are right on his tail. she blows! This may be a thrill-

seeking ride for me, but for many birds of prey it serve as very

useful purpose. They spend most of their time hunting from the air.

Flapping their wings would burn a lot of energy. But hitching a ride

on a thermal dramatically reduces their calorie consumption.

Primarily scavengers, red kites feed on small mammals. They harness

the power of this thermals to scour a vast area for food. Mr Black may

be able to stay up here for hours on end, but with the wind picking

up, we can't, so it is back to Earth for us, with a bump. That was

amazing. You could really feel the thermals when you were going into

them. And to share the flying space with that red kite, I feel very

with that red kite, I feel very privileged.

Good on you, Kate. Samantha, we were talking about

your new role in south south. Did you know when the film was released

in 1958, it was so popular that one cinema in London showed it

constantly for four-and-a-half years. I don't know about

constantly. I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair

# I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair

# And send him on his way # Wonderful. I've literally just been

doing that number. Here is your surprise. Live from Hollywood, the

lady who starred in the role that you are about to play, the fabulous

Ms Mitzi Gaynor! Oh, my God! APPLAUSE You are there now? You're

real. Wow! We just saw you play the scene that Samantha's been

rehearsing all day, Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair. Can you tell

us what you remember about filming that scene for the film? Well,

first of all hi, Samantha. Hello Mitzi. How gorgeous to see you.

lovely to be with you. I'm so excited for you. You must be over

the Moon. I'm absolutely thrilled. We've literally just come from

rehearsing that number on stage, and just practising the shower,

getting the shower working and getting up enough lather. Can I

tell awe story? Yep. OK. We were out on location and we were

rehearsing and everything was fine. Josh said, we are going to roll, so

we were all ready and I'm in that little hut where I do my washing. I

pull on the thing and the water starts... And the shampoo gets in

my eye. LAUGHTER And so, my make-up man says, "Take

off the lashes" Josh says, "What have you done?" I said (Inaudible)

so on the way to the set there was a story on the island of Kaui.