12/09/2011 The One Show

Hello and welcome tot One Show with Matt Baker and Alex Jones. Tonight,

a returning Yorkshire hero. wents from Leeds to New York by

selling 85 million books worldwide and has written one of the top ten

selling novels of all time. She is a A Woman Of Substance. It's

Barbara Taylor Bradford! APPLAUSE

Welcome home. Thank you. I'm here all the time you know. But not

It hit the bottom of Manhattan and the Meatpacking District was under

water. We didn't have a drop of rain and we live on the east river.

Right overlooking the east river. It was fine. We had rain. Everybody

was prepared though. Yes. The mayor closed the bridges and tunnels, so

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 57 seconds

that nobody could get in on Let's remind ourselves of what has

happened on this epic week. 56 hours, 64,000 gallons and over

100,000 strokes. This swim has been billed as David Walliams verses the

Thames. I hope I've done enough training but it's a really hard

thing to work out. Its eight days of swimming, it's really hard to

train for that without actually doing it. Thousands of people have

been out to support David from the river bank. Here at The One Show,

our support has never wavered. David has encountered hypothermia,

a stomach bug and excruciating muscle strains. Despite the

obstacles, on Saturday the comedian even found time to rescue one

rather over-excited fan who joined in the swim. And he's not the only

friendly face to spurred David on. 140 miles later, David Walliams

Absolutely incredible. A second ago, he stepped up those steps like the

creature from the Black Lagoon. Someone who was here to watch him

was Barbara Windsor. You were in tears. It's so emotional. All of as

actors were standing there. We were so scared, we wanted to make it so

right for him. We were all very nervous. I've been through this

with him. He's such a great guy. He says it's the only thing he is good

at, swimming. And I think he's being a bit hard on himself! The

thing I've noticed is whenever he's been out of the water he's been at

smiling and talking, even when things were really Rafa. We've

called him the nation's sweetheart because he really is. The drama has

been great. The fact he was ill, is he going to go on? Then rescuing

the dog. It's been wonderful. ad was beyond the call of duty

because at times it looked like a dog should have rescued him!

here we are, a great part of London. Everybody is so for him. It's what

we need, don't we? I think you are probably right. We also have Mark

Foster here. Done a bit of swimming in your own time. You said to me

earlier that David Walliams is making professional sportsmen look

I saw him before the Thames and I didn't think he wouldn't make it,

not the Thames the channel. Doing this about five times longer, it's

phenomenal. I couldn't make it in the Thames. He makes us

professionals look bad. Maybe this is something they should build into

the 2012 Olympics, Thames swim, why not? You wouldn't get many people

signing up for it. I think the dog was teaching him the doggy paddle.

Thank you Mark. This is the reason why, not many people would be

wanting to attempt to swim the Thames. This is the water that

frankly, I wouldn't even wash my hands in. He's swum140 miles of it.

In a minute we talk to David and showing him exactly what it is,

he's been swimming through. Only if he wants it though. Because he

deserves better. Back to you. Thanks Matt. So David's raised � 1

,093,000. It's an incredible amount. Here's how you can make it even

better. To support David, make a donation to Sport Relief right now.

Text swim to 70005. Your money can make a big difference to transform

the lives of poor and vulnerable people throughout the world and on

people throughout the world and on people throughout the world and on

Barbara you only arrived on Wednesday, but have you been

following David? I have, and I think it was brave of him and

wonderful to do this for charity. You know that Thames was dirty when

Charles Dickens was writing books about the Thames and the

ragamuffins in to find coins. And another thing, I hate to frighten

anybody, but Catherine He epburn, when she was making Summertime in

Venice, she swallowed a lot of the water of the Grand Canal, because

she fell in, and was never the same. She said that to me once. David had

the injections before he took the plunge. Oh, he did. I think he's

fully recovered now. Water we saw is awful. Whilst David tries to get

some energy back, we'll move on to our Energy Bills. With energy

prices rising, heating our homes this winter bb more expensive than

ever. Our -- are suppliers having a laugh at our expense or covering

rising costs? Simon Boazman looks for the truth behind our bills.

Following the latest round of price hikes, the average dual fuel bill

now stands at around �1200 a year. No-one can guarantee if or when

that figure will start to fall. According to the Government, this

is the future, �200 billion they say needs to be invested to reform

our energy infrastructure and that's going to mean building more

tidal power stations, nuclear plants and wind turbines like these.

Now, �200 billion is a lot of money. And it's going to be down to us to

foot the bill. So the question is - can we afford it? And that's not

the only worry. We're putting your energy concerns tot people in the

know, the Energy Secretary, the energy industry, the consumer

watchdog, and the TaxPayers' Alliance. I want to know why the

bills are so high, they keep going up, but they never come down.

Unfortunately prices have been rising. The wholesale gas price has

gone up about 40% this year alone. In addition to that, there are a

range of costs on the bill, things like the network costs, the costs

sts metre, cost of various green obligations and initiatives that

companies are obliged to do to help vulnerable people. A lot of these

have been going up too. So all in all, unfortunately, the picture

isn't good. Energy prices are high just now because companies tell us

that the wholesale cost of energy is increasing. But we don't see a

corresponding reduction when prices fall. The companies would refute

any discussion there's a difference whether wholesale prices are rising

or falling wha. They try to do is smooth out those prices over time

tone sure that prices to customers are not rising and falling, like at

the petrol pump. How much will the Government plans to switch to green

energy add to fuel bills? And what will the money pay for? We've seen

lots of different projections on what it will cost, what it means

for us and bills. Some of the worst case scenarios are talking for a

50% increase in electricity charges by the middle of this decade.

are big rises of energy prices coming because of the choices the

Government's made an the targets they've made to install more

renewable energy to cut emissions. Taking into account energy saving,

the switch to renewables our estimate is if you look forward to

2020 British consumers will be saving money on our policies, not

spending more. The reason for that is although prices may be going up,

because of world markets, and they may go up because of energy support

policies, overall bills will come down because we're getting a lot of

energy saving coming through. do we need to spend an addition

�200 billion on our energy network? We've got to replace 25% of the

electricity generating plants or the lights will go out. The best

way to replace that is wind generating capacity, getting us off

reliance of fossil fuel prices idea that this is unavoidable is

wrong. It's a choice politicians have made. It's unfair that we have

poor and elderly families picking up the bill, while we have energy

companies making windfall profits. It's certainly not the case there

are huge profits in selling gas and electricity to people at home. But

clearly there's a lot of work to do to transform the energy

infrastructure in this country and it has to be paid for. The big

question is how quickly does it happen, can we pay for it in a way

that's manageable and will we get value for money from it? These

reforms are described as a sea change for this country's energy

policy. Though we asked everyone in this film how much it would add to

our bills, no-one seems to know yet. Whatever happens, it's going to

cost �200 billion to make these changes and that's one enormous

Energy Bill that's coming our way. Are fuel prices a hot topic in

Manhattan? Yes, always in America. You know, a lot of the very big

cities don't have public transport, so you have to have a car to get to

work. So that's why there's always this grumbling, if you like, about

fuel prices. You're over here to talk about your new book, Letter

From A Stranger. On the cover here the Sunday Times described you as

"the queen of the genre". What genre would you say you're the

queen of? It's not romance, though there's romance in it. It's not

mystery or detective, but there's a lot of mystery in it. I write

mainstream fiction for women. I think that's the best way to

describe it. I have a lot of male readers because the books are often

quite dark. This is pretty, the cover, it's beautiful, elegant.

Needs a bit more blue for the boys, maybe. There's a lot of pink.

thought that was orange there that book called One Day. It has its

dark side because it goes back to Nazi Germany. My books are hard to

define. They're historical, modern history. I do touch on things like

terrorism and the Holocaust and stuff like that, but it's a good

read. It's quite dark from the beginning. It's not what you would

think by looking at the cover. it looks girly. Yes. We were just

chatting through the film about how this all started for you. You were

about ten years old and it was all kind of a pony at the heart. You

were desperate for this pony. thing is, my mother taught me to

read. That's how it start ed, before I was four. When I went to

kindergarten I could read. Then I started to write when I was seven.

I wrote a story about a little girl wanting a pony. I really wrote it

for my father actually, because I thought I'd get the pony. Actually,

my mother said it's good. She made me copy it out again because it was

scratches and blots. She sent it to a children's magazine and nothing

happened. I gave it to my father then and said "Would you want to

read this daddy?" Yes, but I didn't get the pony. The got a letter from

the children's magazine and they sent me a postal order for seven

and six. They not only printed it, but they bought it. So my father

said "Do you really want a pony?" I said, "No, I'd like a typewriter."

You still use one now? Yes an IBMselectric wheel writer number

two. It's not from the 1920s. wrecked my image. Hupting and

pecking. If it ain't broke don't fix it. That's what my husband Bob

says. Don't worry about the computer. If that's the way you

want to do it, do it that way. were a paid writer at ten. But you

left school at 15-and-a-half and went to be a typist at the

Yorkshire evening post. That's right. Five years later, became the

editor of Woman's Own. How did that work. That's a jump. I became, at

18-and-a-half, the women's page editor of the Yorkshire evening

post, having gone as the typist, becoming a reporter and so on. Then

I went to work in Fleet Street. But I fashion editor, not the editor.

Fashion editor of Woman's Own. I lasted a year because I really was

a newspaper woman. I got myself a job on the London evening news. I'm

still a journalist. I just wrote a piece on the Royal Wedding for the

Sunday Telegraph. I call myself a journalist. You mentioned your

husband there. He's a TV producer. He's made ten books no a mini

series. How does your working relationship work? He always said

to me "We're making a movie, not a book." But it's because he's my

husband that he gets the book on the screen. A lot of producers buy

a book, keep the title and throw the contents away. But not Robert

Bradford. He makes the book as much as he can get on the screen. Ten,

The new book, a Letter From A Stranger, is out on Thursday.

decades, the only way to see one of our most spectacular butterflies in

Britain would have been in a museum. The large blue was declared extinct

but it's made a remarkable recovery. We go to the fields of Somerset to

have a look for it. September 1979. Headline news is

the extinction of the British large blue butterfly. With such a

national wildlife treasure lost, the Royal Mail commissioned a

postage stamp in its memory. But today it's making a remarkable

comeback on one of the very sight in Somerset from where it

originally disappeared. It now proving to be the Mecca or for our

largest and most spectacular blue butterfly. The man who witnessed

their extinction and has spearheaded their return is

Professor Jeremy Thomas. The fruition of 30 years of his

dedication can be seen here at the Somerset Wildlife Trust site, but

nature reserve. For a butterfly that let's not forget went extinct

in Britain, how pleased are you personally to see them flying

around here? It's a great treat to see them come out, particularly in

such numbers. I believed we could do it, my head told me it was

possible but my heart sometimes doubted it. Ironically, just as you

slot at the last pieces into but Jigsaw puzzle, but butterfly went

extinct. I was brought in as an ecologist when it was down to one

colony and about 200 butterflies in the country. Alas, just as I was

pretty sure I knew what the butterfly needed, the last colony

disappeared. Jeremy had discovered the missing link in the large

blue's life cycle. The red metal and, with which this butterfly has

a somewhat sinister relationship. Large blues have an interesting

approach to parental care. There Young are adopted by ants. The

caterpillar mimics the sound and smell of their Rhona young. And

mistaken for a mislaid and lava, is taken back to the nest by the

foraging workers. There it leaves a predatory life, devouring the ready

stock larder of larvae, until one These bands are vital to the

butterfly, but they are very particular about the type of turf

they need. Too long and they move out, so with the help of a herd of

sheep to keep the grass a short, the habitat here was finally ready

for the return of the large blue. Jeremy set out for Sweden, where

the large blue is still a thriving. He meticulously collected their

eggs from wild thyme plants and brought them back home. This is

like a large clump of thyme here. This is importantly where the large

blue butterfly lay their eggs. You can probably see there's an

edge here and one more just underneath it. They are absolutely

minuscule! About the size of a pinhead. So with lots of eggs

around, there should be plenty of adults, too. Look at it perched.

We are slightly out of breath because the butterflies have been

giving us the runaround, but there is one right in front of my finger.

Large blues is not a particularly good name. They are very blue when

their wings are out but they are not huge. No, all the butterflies

happened to be small. This is just the largest of the British Blues.

What a privilege. They are really lovely. This is now home to the

biggest colony of large blue butterflies in the world. And they

are spreading all by themselves. Wandering around as a kid with a

butterfly net, never did I imagine in my wildest dreams I'd ever catch

up with large blue in Britain. But thanks to people like Jeremy, look

at this. I think they are back for good! In the words of Take That.

Why did it take so long to bring the large blue back? It's all about

getting the habitat right. It has the most complicated life cycle of

any butterfly. It took Jeremy 20 years to work it out. When he

worked it out, he realised they need a short grass where the ants

can survive. Once he got that right, he brought the butterfly back and

it's now flourishing. It's down to brilliant scientific research.

there is another species which could be facing extinction. Whilst

it's great the large blue is back, the golden Oriole looks like it

should be in the tropics of Africa. It is for large parts of the year.

This is incredibly rare and only survives on an RSBs be late in

Southwark. The reason it likes living in black poplars, it's gone

down from 20 pairs to just two pairs. It's very much on the edge.

This is the Scottish wildcat. There's only 400 of these left in

the wild. The reason why is because they are hybridising with British

species. British tabby cats. This was filmed on Springwatch this year.

You can tell it's a Scottish Wildlife -- wild cat because they

have a heavily furred tale with black and brown rings and a black

tip right on the tail. They are thought to be rarer than panders

and tigers. Barbara is hiding her shoes at this point. No cats were

harmed in the making of those issues. No, velvet printed like

leopard. The last one is the eel. This is the most amazing and

mysterious life cycle. They spend most of their lives on British

rivers and have this enormous migration to the Sargasso Sea near

Bermuda. Hundreds of tons of eels were eaten because they were

abundant. This species has been declining for 60 years. They reckon

it's gone down to 90-98 % lost. That's down to Climate Change,

overfishing and abstractions in our rivers. Lots of species are really

going down the tubes and we have to understand their life cycle to

conserve them. Your windy pictures are coming in thick and fast. Look

at Sue in Sheffield having a bad hair day. She is under that

somewhere. I don't know why I'm laughing! Here this family are

enjoying an ice-cream and Portstewart, Northern Ireland.

Dunkirk spirit, whatever the weather, we are having an ice-cream.

Let's go back to the banks of the Thames where a very tired David

Walliams is with Matt Allwright. Yes, I'm proud to say that I can

bring you a very tired, happy and about to be in a bath and David

Walliams. Well done, David. How are you? OK, a bit tired. Really, what

have you been up to? Swimming the length of the Thames! I got out

about an hour ago. About 45 minutes to an hour. Watching you come up

those steps, we've watched you every stroke of the way. I just

can't imagine how it must feel now for you. Incredible relief because

I'm a bit over swimming. I feel like I've done enough swimming for

one lifetime. Some of the words of the guys down there, the guys who

have come to see you epic, magnificent, unique, he Wrolich.

Can you put it in those terms? Tired. It's just swimming. It's

just putting one arm in front of the other. The atmosphere is great.

If you break it down, it was just swimming. But there were times when

we were really feeling for you. Not only were you swimming, you were

putting up with that terrible illness and stomach cramps. There

was a lot against me and the water was much colder than we expected

because it was such a bad summer. Getting ill was the worst. When you

are feeling sick, the last thing you want to do is exercise.

there a low point for you? That was really low. It got to be mentally

as well. I lost my Mojo completely. It was really tough but I thought

if I tried to keep going, isn't it nice - people are cheering! That

must have made a difference. It did. It took me by surprise, the

interest people had in it and the fact that the show was covering it

every night. The fact that in Marlow there were thousands of

people. It's fantastic, it really does help. It made me really proud

to be British. I know times are tough for people but they've been

so generous with their time and money. Why did you do it? People

look at you and think, you must be mad to do it! I'd been on lots of

trips with Comic Relief de Ethiopia, India, Kenya. I've seen the great

work they do in the UK. It's a charity that helps people who live

in poverty. I met a lot of people in Kenya, I met a boy there he was

12, Philip. His mum and dad died four years ago, he doesn't have

shoes on his feet, there's no one to love him. Sport Relief fund a

project which gives him education, food, health care and clothing. You

see that with your own eyes and you think, yeah, I will swim at 140

miles. You will be inspiring people to do things. Let me give you the

total. You've raised 1 million... So far, �1,194,258. Thank you so

much! I really do appreciate it. Without your money and support it

would just be me swimming along a river, and who cares about that?

will go and run the bath myself for you. We you gave me? I'll leave

that to Matt Baker. Dame Barbara Windsor made... When you gave me?

We've got to get back to the studio. Well done. Give it up for David

It's extraordinary. I know he says it's only swimming, but that is the

finest example. David took quite a shine to matter there but not as

much of the shine as he took to you earlier in the week. There we are,

Matt and David having a kiss. was a moment I will never forget.

The weather in London hasn't been too bad to date, but that isn't the

picture in many parts of the country. Lots of wind. Winds of up

to 85 mph are predicted. Laura Tobin is here to tell us how it's

looking. Is it as bad as it was predicted? Yes, we were forecasting

winds of late 70s and early 80s. The latest we've had is 87 mph in

Cairngorm, Scotland. We've been seeing the figures which we were

forecasting and there's more still to come. That is almost it for