13/08/2014 The One Show

here in Edinburgh to bring you the very best. As a result, we have a

5-star show for you to bring you the very best. As a result, we have a

5-star show for U-turn. Paul Merton, Suki Webster, Nichols Parsons, Al

Murray and a ban used stand-up called Nancy Dell'Olio. We may even

get Kevin here to move. Hey, care of?

How about that? Hello and welcome to The One Show, live from the biggest

arts event on the entire planet, with much all right. And Alex Jones,

and the fantastic Te Matatini Kapa Haka performers! They will be

bringing us a lot more Maori magic later. We will also witness some

fantastic acrobatics from one of the hottest circus groups on the Fringe.

It is a show called A Simple Space, and I believe that movement is

called the pigeon. I can do the bottom half. We have also got a

festival of guest to talk to. Here are the BBC -- here is the BBC's own

festival of guest to talk to. Here are the BBC -- here is area of

Potterow. We start with the pub landlord himself, Mr Al Murray! Good

to see you, mate. Likewise. You have just come off stage into the BBC's

area in Potterow. Yes, I am onstage at 7:20pm with my stand-up show. It

is a preview of show you are doing around the country? Thank you for

bringing that up. It is very kind of you. It is a new show of Pub

Landlord nonsense. But it is 20 years of the Pub Landlord, and he

was created at the Edinburgh Fringe? Yes, I was doing a show with Harry

Hill at the Pleasance cabaret bar, or distil a venue. But we did not

have a linking device, so on the opening night, we thought, why not

say, the compere has not turned up, and the pub landlord has offered to

fill in? And we did it, and it worked. You have done well out of

him. It was kind of a lucky accident, because I understand that

early on in Edinburgh, it was not so brilliant?

I was in a show in 1989 that was written and directed by Stuart Lee,

a big Fringe favourite now, and it was declared the worst show on the

Fringe by two national newspapers. That has got to be good, though?

Well, we turned it round eventually. The thing with the Fringe is that it

is synonymous with launching comedians like yourself. What is the

appeal to people like yourself who are now established? The people! I

have been here a week now, and I am shameless. Edinburgh is the greatest

city in the world. With the greatest audiences in the world. Now, you are

about to go on stage, so let's get you warmed up. Jacket on.

Obviously, the Pub Landlord would have something to say about the

referendum? I am glad you asked me that, pal, but I am not allowed to

vote. What is your opinion on the Fringe festival? Is it a bit arty

farce for you? There is a lot of pulled pork, Artisan maps, flatbread

. We are going to send you of for you start a riot. It is weird being

half him and half me. Off you go. Nice to see you. Al Murray! Well,

his show is one of only a 3000 that are taking place at the festival,

almost 24 hours. So we set a challenge for the fastest man on The

One Show payroll to see how many shows he could go to in one day. Of

course, there was no chance he was just going to stay in the audience.

It is nearly impossible to see everything on at the Edinburgh

festival, but The One Show set me a hard challenge. They want me to

visit as many acts as I can in just one day. I was a runner, so I am

number on my feet but they want me to perform? This is going to be

tough. Edinburgh Festival Fringe began in 1947, when eight theatre

companies who had not been invited to the first Edinburgh International

festival Camelot anyway and stayed their productions in alternative

venues. And it worked out for them. The Fringe is now the largest arts

festival in the world. Opened in 1787 as a place for social

gatherings, every year, the assembly rooms plays host to some of the

weird and wonderful act to visit the Fringe should stop this year, the

amazing bubble man is in the house. How special is this festival? Well,

the fact that I get to do 25 shows in a row in the same place, that

never happens anywhere else. And everything is unpredictable with

bubbles. During August while the festival is on, the population of

Edinburgh more than doubles. It is not easy making your way through

this lot. I think I am funny, but it is time to meet a real comedy double

act, a homage to Morecambe and Wise. We started our show last year, and

it has grown from there. It has been amazing. One o'clock already. I am

up against it. Best get a move on, because every performance counts. I

will leave that to you. I have just been asked to take part in a Little

shop of horrors, so I am going to do my vocal warm-up. I have clocked up

a good number of venues already. But I reckon it is time for a few more.

This is two my mother is from Japan, and I have managed to work my way in

on the act. This is easier than I thought. Here at the restaurant just

off the Royal Mile, the entire place has turned into a venue for a unique

experience, hosted by some familiar characters. How hard is your job? It

is easy. You jumped up jogger! How dare you break that? Audiences enjoy

a three course meal amongst the chaos of Basil, Sybil and the

waiter. I don't think I will be back there any time soon. Now, here is a

place I recognise. It has been a long day and a tough challenge. I

have enjoyed it, but I am finally at my last menu, and I am going to go

all out for this one. One of the biggest attractions in the city is

the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo MO which sees over 220 as attendees

each year. At his final destination, please give a warm welcome to Iwan

Thomas from The One Show! Wow, what a day. This challenge has been

brilliant and a real honour to finish it here at the royal

Edinburgh military tattoo. It has been awesome. Cheers, One Show!

Thank you, Iwan, for your support, athletic as always. He is not a

jumped up job. We are joined now by Paul Merton and Suki Webster, who

are not only performing together, they are married in real life. So,

Al Murray was here a second ago. He was saying that when he first came

to Edinburgh, he had these terrible reviews. But you, Paul, had a bad

experience for a different reason. Yes, in 1987 May was the first time

I came here to do a one-man show. The opening night was fine. The next

day, a friend of mine said, want to go and play football on the Meadows?

I went and broke my leg and went into hospital. They came out of

hospital and have a pulmonary embolism and also got hepatitis A.

And while in hospital, a review came out that said, go and see this man.

So people would queue up to look at me and check the x-rays. That was

the worst one. Even worse than bad reviews, fighting for your life. You

have come a long way since then. Yes, I am getting over it. Your play

is called My Obsession. Suki, tell us about it? It is a half-hour one

act play with both Paul and myself, a two hander. It is My Obsession,

about a fan who meets her number-one favourite stand-up. All is the

stand-up, I am the fan. They both share one obsession, him. So they

are perfectly matched. Did you draw on anybody from real life for this

portrait? Of course not, darling. The funny thing is, Paul was not the

clear choice to play the comedian, was he? No. I had not actually

thought of Paul. I had a first choice and approached him. Them I

asked someone else. They said, I am not going this year. Who were those

two, out of interest? Should I say? He says no. Phill Jupitus and Marcus

Briggs dog! -- Marcus Briggs dog. So I said to Paul, I cannot think who

to ask, because if they are not already coming up, you have to pay

them a lot of money and I have not got masses of money. And I can't

think who to caste. And he was looking at me saying, really? You

don't know who to caste as a stand-up? I was waving at her.

Eventually, the penny dropped. But I am having a wonderful time doing

this play, because unlike when I do improv, you only do it once. But

with a play, half an hour every day, you have got to find that laugh and

you got that dramatic bit over there, so there is a lot to think

about. This is my best Edinburgh. Good luck with it. Thank you for

popping in. Now, as well as lots of comedy, there is also some drama at

the Fringe, a lot of it inspired by the centenary of World War I. And

there is one in particular that turns the real testimony of soldiers

who fought in that conflict into an incredibly moving piece of theatre.

It is called Forgotten Voices. Rumour was we would get on a train

for six months and then go to Egypt. We were told, you are leaving

tomorrow for destination unknown. Where was that? Nobody knew. By six

o'clock in the morning, we were on the train without saying goodbye to

anyone. So the play of Forgotten Voices is based on the book, which

is in turn based on the transcripts of ordinary people 's experiences,

which were collected by the Imperial War Museum in the 60s and 70s. I was

stationed in Gibraltar when it started. I was afraid it would be

over too quickly, and I should miss it. That was what I felt then. I was

afraid I would miss it. I threw a postcard out of the window at the

station, hoping it would be delivered to my wife. It wasn't. The

play told the story of the First World War through these 50 ordinary

people. It is an emotional experience. There was rougher far to

the right, and then on the left -- rifle fire. We could not see

anything. We said, come on, then, we will have you! I think we all feel

it is a privilege to be asked to communicate how it was for all men.

And it was just as bad for the French and Germans. So, France. We

spent our first night in a field, quite relaxed, smoking, stretched

out. Then we saw this group of French soldiers running up the

hillside. And there was a sound of gunfire. After a few seconds, there

were three explosions and when the smoke cleared, we saw the French

picking someone up. The shell had killed him. You could see that. That

was the first time we realised what the war was about. I think the gift

back to us at the end of the play, there is complete silence from the

audience. They are stunned, and they are thinking about what these men

went through. Over the top we went. Some thought out as best they could,

their packs pulling them out. There was nothing left but noise. We saw

nothing. We knew nothing. We lived in a world of noise. Simply noise.

Forgotten Voices will be performed for the rest of the festival. We are

joined by a star of television and radio, Mr Nicholas Parsons,

everyone. Thank you, thank you. Lovely to see you. You are a true

veteran of the Edinburgh Festival. You came here after World War II

when it just started out. I was very young. I came from my adopted city

of Glasgow with some friends to see the new phenomenon. They had a few

shows on just after the war. There was one show a little theatre, and

then there were more shows at the Fringe. There was the famous one

with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett and it suddenly took

off. And now there are more Alan Bennett and it suddenly took

3000 shows in the French and it has become the tea of the wags the dog.

-- detail that wags the dog. That is what brings most people here. You

have also recorded two episodes of Just A Minute. You have seen all of

these marvellous people. Where does Paul Merton sit in the ranking? How

funny is he? He is a stall wart. It is a very difficult game to play.

But he watched it as a youngster. He was so good from the word go. We

can't wait to have him back. I do not think the show subsidises his

lifestyle but he comes on it because he loves doing it and he really is

so brilliant in the game. He sometimes takes off and goes into

the realms of the surreal, which is quite unbelievable. And nobody

challenges him. It is all deviation! I used to listen to it as a child

so, for me, the fact that I am doing just and it fills me full of joy.

And that comes across. It really is amazing. Just A Minute has been

going for 47 years. We have done over 900 performances. You should

write a book. Funny you should ask me! The book, Nicholas... There is a

book! It is called Welcome To Just A Minute. Anything else you would like

to mention? My own show, Cabaret Bar at 5:10pm every day. I do that and

Just A Minute. I am exhausted! You have just wrapped it up beautifully.

Borrowed adrenaline and the stimulation from lovely friends like

this lot, who keep me going. I am 90 years of age, you know. Well, you

look fantastic. There is your money back. It has been four days since

Tumble, the new show on BBC One. Are we winding up, darling? I have

acrobatic withdrawals. I enjoyed Tumble as much as the next man. I

could do a forward roll. I think we have people who know what they are

doing. Very impressive. Simple space from

Australia. -- A Simple Space from Australia. Coming up, Nancy

Dell'Olio. It is the moment I have been waiting for all my life. I can

tell you that just over there, there are a group of engineers who have

not time to come and see shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They need

not worry because the next project is a performance in itself, really.

This is the majestic Firth of Forth outside Edinburgh. It is home to

Scotland's biggest engineering project in a generation, the

Queensferry Crossing. And we are following every step of the process

as this incredible structure begins to take shape. Last year, we saw how

the engineers laid the bridge's foundations deep underwater. It is

amazing! How far down are we? -14, 14 metres under the water level.

Over the past year, things have come a long way. Now, the engineers face

another challenge. While the main towers are well underway, what they

have to do next is to connect the bridge that will eventually be on

those towers to the shoreline, here. And this is what they are using to

do it. These 3000 tonne viaducts will connect the road on land to the

deck of the bridge. They are so heavy that they need to be supported

by eight concrete piers. And the man in charge of this operation is lead

engineer, Chris Higgins. Talk me through the bridge. It is made up of

two main stations, the approach viaduct and the main cable stay

station. We are constructing the approach viaduct which leads from

the access roads. These massive structures need to stretch over 500

metres from the shore, out to where the deck of the bridge will begin.

That is not all. These viaducts need to be very carefully balanced. If

anything were to go wrong, I certainly would not want to be

standing here if it did. How do you move something this big Thomas

suspended up in the air, half a kilometre overwater? The key to

getting the whole operation right lies in these rather unassuming

cables. Chris, what is the big deal with the cables? These are the

cables are left at the end of the deck to keep it level as we are

launching over the piers. If we did not control at what would happen is

that it would not go over the pier. To avoid a disaster of monumental

proportions, Chris and the team are relying on deceptively simple

physics. Imagine that this is what is going on behind me. Granted,

slightly less technical. Imagine that this is my viaduct. As the

viaduct is pushed outwards the front begins to psych under its own

weight. If it tips too much it could knock over the pier. What they do is

they attach steel cables to the front of the viaduct and put in a

post. That is behind me. It is sticking up. With tension on the

cable the engineers can lift the front of the viaduct or does not

catch the front of the pier and makes it safely across. That is very

important when you have got such an expensive engineering project. The

viaduct is pushed outwards in 90 metre sections, each reaching the

next pier. It is not a quick process. At a top speed of just six

metres per hour, it takes over eight months to reach the point where the

viaduct ends and the deck of the bridge begins. Once they have

finished on this site, they have to do the whole thing all over again on

the opposite shore. How much rather have you got to do in this

direction? Another 300 metres. Two more peers to build. We plan to have

that complete by Christmas. A bit of work. A bit of work left to do. Then

we have to come back and start casting the deck.

What a bridge. We are now joined, I am very excited to say, by one of

the most stylish debutants at Edinburgh. The Queen of glamorous

living! And let's not forget, a lawyer - Nancy Dell'Olio.

It is so great to have you here. It is lovely to be her and to see you

again. You are practically dressed Edinburgh, as always. Can you select

your heels on the telly? -- can you show? Your one-woman show kicks off

tomorrow night and there is a buzz. It is supposed to start tomorrow

evening. You have not learned your lines yet, you said? Well, I will

repeat it again tonight and by tomorrow night I will get there. You

are a colourful character. How honest would you be about your love

life, the football side of things, in this show? Is it a reveal

everything kind of show? I wrote a book a few years ago and every day

my life is updating, so I am really focused on this show and you have to

condense it down to one hour. I have selected a few stories that I would

like to share with the audience. I hope that they will see my sense of

humour. How will you deal with hecklers, if people start shouting

from the audience? Why would they shout at me? Nancy is confident it

will be fine. They are going to be in adoration of me! Good luck with

that, Nancy. I would love to see it. Good luck. Absolutely. She is very

fragrant. That is almost all we can bring you

from Edinburgh. Thank you so much to all of our guests and also to Kevin,

our living statue. We have merely scratch the surface. Lot more across

the BBC. For more information go to the BBC Edinburgh Festival website.

We will finish with Te Matatini Haka and the Royal Edinburgh Military

Tattoo. See you tomorrow.