13/12/2011 The One Show

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

Our guest tonight has traded high heels for the high seas. He is

playing at Long John Silver in a new version of Treasure Island. It

is Eddie Izzard! They are so welcoming. That is

lovely. I thought this was a quiet and cosy chat and suddenly 93

people have been dragged in off the streets for Christmas crumpets! I

will give them a fiver. They are all here to see me. No pressure.

They are not. They were wandering down the corridor. Anyway. You have

lots of connections with lots of places in the UK and I was

surprised that you have one with my neck of the words, South Wales.

Skewen was the destination of one of your first extreme trip. In it

was. I lived in Skewen, 20 miles from Port Talbot and 50 miles from

where you grow up. It is near Swansea. I was there for two years

and my mother died when I was there, unfortunately. It is nothing to do

with Wales, it was just where we were. I decided I had to go back. I

keep going back to things in my life. When I was 40 I said to my

dad that I was going out on my bike. -- 14. What was his reaction?

said OK because he had done that when he was a child. Me and my dad

are very similar. I have done lots of things which have been wrong,

Hollywood Bowl, kicks in French, pushing staff, apart from telling

everyone I was a transvestite, doing all these things, and my dad

also pushed his own limits and boundaries. But he did not look out

for you and plan accommodation for you. You just went for it. You can

do that when you are 14. I was supposed to phone back every night,

that was the thing. And I had to find up iPhone because there were

no mobile phones. -- find a pay phone. I would not, door of farmers

-- knock on the door of farmers and asked if I could stay and they were

always find. I did not have to move in! There were people we knew round

the corner. It is a long way. difficult to pronounce for English

people! As well as his marathons, we will be talking to him about

Treasure Island. You are an intriguing pas -- pirate. Tattoos

on your face. I have been trying to shave my head for some time. The

director came up and asked me if I wanted to shave my head and I said

yes! It had been eight years. If you shave your head, men and women,

you don't know how it will look. Your skull might not work. It works

well. I have an excellent spell! His crew includes Donald Sutherland

and a lighter work but we want to add to it with some of our view of

pirates. -- Elijah Wood. This is my son. He is mad on pirates. Please

send in your photographs and we will look through them later.

spent some years living in Yorkshire as well. Yes, I was at

college in Sheffield. Do you know the name of the county and them?

have no idea. I did not know they had an anthem. Well, Yorkshire has

been singing On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at, which is its anthem, since the

early 1800s of that knowledge of it is dying out so we have been to

meet the locals drumming up in -- the enthusiasm for an old classic.

On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at, famous old folksong, guaranteed to stir the

blood of any true Yorkshireman like myself. Believed to be composed in

the late 19th century, the song borrows its tune from the old

Methodist hymn Cranbrook. The words are written in a dialect, probably

originating in the Halifax area. It tells the tale of a man courting

his lover, Mary Jane, on Ilkley Moor, without a hat. The song goes

on to predict that without a hat, the man is doomed to die from

exposure because of the harsh winds on the more. He will then be buried

and his body consumed first by worms he will then buy eaten by

dogs, who in turn will be turned by the singers of the songs themselves.

-- who will then be eaten by dogs. Despite the bizarre lyrics, such

was the popularity that it became the unofficial anthem of the county

of Yorkshire. We sent a trombone player out onto the streets to see

how many people recognise the famous anthem named after her

Ilkley Moor. It quickly became apparent that while the older

generation remember the song fondly, many of the younger generation

certainly did not. Sorry, I did not recognise that. It sounds familiar

but I don't know where it is from. Is it On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at?

local music teacher Gordon Addison is leading a one-man crusade to

save it from extinction. We are just trying to encourage schools to

think about teaching the song. parents to think about whether

their children know the song. If they don't, learn it, teach it to

them. Why it is happening at school today? We will teach this choir to

sing it and they will be a company by this band that we put together

this morning. They will be performing after lunch. Gordon has

set himself a real challenge. I have arranged to have a chat with

the local MP, Greg Mulholland, who is championing the campaign in the

House of Commons. Is this a good use of precious parliamentary time?

Yes, it is a bit of fun but it is important. We have an age-old

musical and folk tradition in Yorkshire, as in many other areas,

and it is an important part of who we are. Did you know On Ilkla Mooar

Baht 'at before you started playing it? I had heard of it but I did not

know the words. It is really fun. It is the same thing repeated over

and over again but it is really fun to play. Is there something I can

do to take part in the concert? are your lips? Chapped. Try this.

am asthmatic, you know. It is very good for that but if it does not

work, there is always this. That is humiliating. I will get this

mastered, don't worry. It can't be that hard. There are no buttons on

it. I could really do with a couple more months to perfect my part. It

is a frantic scramble to get ready for the performance in the

afternoon. As the Yorkshireman I grew up with On Ilkla Mooar Baht

'at and it is sad to think that some children are completely

unaware of this important part of their heritage. I hope the

performance today does its bit to reinvigorate a whole new generation

to fall in love with On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at.

# On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at. # Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane,

Mary Jane. # On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at.

# Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane. # On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at.

Thank you to the children of Gunter School for that great performance.

-- Guiseley. I did know that some betide did not know the name of it.

-- but I did not know the name of it. They did very well. On Ilkley

Moor without your hat. In the olden days everybody wore hats, but

nowadays you can probably get off with somebody without one. That is

the essence of the song! You can find someone you fancy on Ilkley

Moor. Or you can just go to a cafe! By New Musical? Somewhat. I like

the piano and I used to murder the clarinet when I was a child. I did

not want to play the clarinet but I was forced. Were you third

clarinetist? I was. I got clarinet by mistake. I wanted trombone and I

put the wrong thing on the form. I was gutted. You can't have all of

the kids playing the piano in the school band so they suggest other

things. I was third clarinet. I had this very funny line. The first

clarinet plays the music, the second place the harmony, the third

clarinet are just plays the notes that are left over. I was the

violinist so I feel your pain. Anyway, it has been 40 years since

Bangladesh was created and we have been used to Bangladeshi families

coming to Britain and setting up homes and businesses. It is not all

one-way traffic. Konnie Huq meets a British Bangladeshi family planning

to move in the opposite direction. Ashworth and his family are getting

ready for the journey of a lifetime. Do you want to help baddy with the

packing? The 60 years, migrants from Bangladesh have come to

Britain in search of education, work and a new life. But now lots

of young British families are reversing the trend and moving from

Britain to Bangladesh, where they now believe they can enjoy a higher

standard of living. The cost of living is over their low over there

so -- is lower over there. You can have a big house for the same

salary that you are wrong here. even less. Although the move will

make them instantly wealthier, Ashworth's wife is more

apprehensive about going back, and that is because she left Bangladesh

relatively recently in 2007 to get married. Only now does she feel

settled in Britain. What would you say is difficult about moving from

Bangladesh to the UK? The first thing was that I had no one here.

All my family and friends, everybody was in Bangladesh. Now

that I have made friends, now that I am so close to my husband as part

of the family, it is all very difficult. Ashworth is not taking

the family moved lightly. His well- paid job as an accountant will

protect his family from many of the downside of life in Bangladesh, the

country is still developing and over the years has had its fair

share of problems. What are the down sides of moving? I would say

the provision of health care. If you can afford to go to private

health care, you hear about malpractice and mistreatment of

patients, especially with a young family. The law and order situation

He has gone on ahead to Bangladesh and his family will follow once he

has settled in. It is a 12 hour flight from London to the capital,

but it could be a world away. It has been a week and I want to see

how he is getting on. Like most British Bangladeshis, I have always

straddled two cultures and now that I have been back to Bangladesh a

fair bit, it can be quite a culture shock at times. I am intrigued to

see how we are getting on. Some parts of his new life at the same

as back home, but outside of his office he finds he has a lifestyle

that he would never have had in Britain. An inexpensive meal here

just costs �1.45. What would you get in London for that? Rent on a

reasonable one-bed flat just costs �90 per month. In London he would

have to pay around �1,300 for something similar. So far would you

say it has been what you expected? Yes. I came with an open mind. I

did not know what to expect. To a large extent, people have been very

nice and welcoming. The guy from London that made an effort, so they

come and say hello to me and make me feel comfortable. It is really

good. You have your own driver? Wow. You could not have that in the

UK. And because I am new in town I have a bodyguard as well. No way!

Does that make you feel a bit grand? A bit uncomfortable? Like

you are a superstar? It does a bit. It is just because I am new in town.

It is not all positive. Although it is winter, he is struggling with

the heat and the mosquitoes and the traffic is an absolute nightmare.

It can sometimes take in two hours to get back from the office. What

else has struck you about being back? I am much more appreciative

and grateful for everything that I have. I have a good job, family

support and I can afford a family house. Lots of people here live

below the poverty line and for them, the things that I enjoy and take

for granted, those things would be beyond them. Although there are no

hard numbers on how many young Bangladeshis are going back,

anecdotally it appears to be on the rise. His brother has already made

the move from London to Bangladesh and his cousin is hoping to follow

in January. Back in England and his wife is planning to join him in a

couple of months. But they are still hedging their bets and will

not be selling their London home just yet.

Nice to see my old friend Konnie Huq. There is more and 40 years of

Bangladeshi independence on the BBC Asian Network website. Your new

home this Christmas is on Sky One. You are playing Long John Silver on

Treasure Island. It is also on the BBC as well. I am doing The Lost

Christmas on the BBC, working against Treasure Island. I am

trying to take over all of the channel's! Treasure Island, is it

traditional or Pirates Of The Caribbean? If you think that

Pirates Of The Caribbean stole the somewhat pantomime, swashbuckling,

area, we fight. We are doing the aggressive, real pirates. Imagine

300 million on an island somewhere and you just have to go and get it

on a boat. What would you do for that? And the criminal element.

Long John Silver, who I play, and half of the pirates on the boat are

actually believing that it is their treasure which has been stolen from

before. It is Treasure Island Reboot. That is what it is. Let's

I am the law on the ship, I am sharing with none. I know because

it is tattooed on my brain, what each man here is entitled to. Let

us all have the lives we have learnt. 4th sets -- we have earned.

You talk too much, John Silver. were really keen for that part of

the story to be included? thought about doing a prequel. It

is always talk about as Flint's treasure but no one knows how he

lost the leg. I wanted to show him using it. Someone else had the idea

that we could do the prequel. I thought, why don't we have... Later

on I get rid of that leg. I wanted to show how determined he was,

because these are the characters I like to play. People as determined

as I am! We will move on to The Lost Christmas now. You wake up in

a street in Manchester? We started only two weeks after Treasure

Island. Is that why you have got a bit of hair? Yes, I had to do

something radical, just a diet completely blonde and go in a

different direction. I like it like that. I like both the looks. This

is an urban fairy-tale with a tone of it's a wonderful life. It is

quite a dark story but goes to a beautiful place. I am found lying

on the ground, I have no memory of whoever I am, and I have no fear. I

wander through the story, interacting with these characters.

If they take my hand, I get these visions of things they have lost.

Five characters have lost things and they are all linked, and it

gradually goes through the story, it is quite a beautiful story.

Quite hard to come straight from the pirates and into that? It was a

left turn at the junction. That is what you have to do quite a lot in

In many ways, Christmas in 1946 was much like any other. Family gather

together, presents under the tree and everyone eating as much food as

possible. Well, as much as rationing would allow. There was

one unusual thing about 25th December, 1946. Many families had a

German around for dinner. Ruth Goodman went to Bradford to explain

why. When the war in Europe ended,

because of a shortage of manpower, captured German prisoners of war

were sent to Britain to help rebuild the country. By 1946,

400,000 German POWs were housed in camps up and down the country. At

first, living so close to the enemy was uncomfortable. Under a

fraternisation ban, German POW backers were not allowed contact

with local people. It was even forbidden to accept money, food, or

cigarettes. -- German POWs were not allowed contact with local people.

Gunter was not allowed to make contact, but this did not stop him

catching the eye of a local girl called vile it. I was working in

The gentleman who drove the lorry came into the shop and bought

cigarettes. One day, Gunter was sat in the front. She was addressing

the window and she gave me a little smile. I asked the driver to give

this young lady a letter. I was asking her if she would write to me,

and I would write back, as a pen friend. I said to my manager,

should I do it? She said, it is an experience. So I started writing to

him. The fraternisation band was finally lifted step before

Christmas 1946. For the first time since being captured, German POWs

were allowed out of the camps on the condition they were signed up

by local British people. I enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding, very much.

Did we have some? No, we didn't, it was Christmas. When I came back at

night, everyone had been out. Everybody had been with their

family. Britain kept its German workforce for three-and-a-half

years after the war. The German prisoners of war represented a huge

mobile workforce, which they were able to employ in the various areas

that they needed. It could be channelled into agriculture,

rebuilding houses, clearing rubble away. Was this unusual? Did other

countries hang on to prisoners like this? Britain had actually signed

the Geneva Convention which stipulated prisoners should be

returned home as soon as fighting had stopped. But this didn't happen.

In general, they felt that these prisoners could be used to repair

what the German love what I had destroyed. And in that sense, they

felt it was a contribution towards rebuilding Britain -- German

For Gunter and Violet, their whirlwind romance was blossoming

and they decided to marry. Anti- German feelings were still common

in Britain. When we said we would get married, I had to go to the

justice of peace. He had a talk to me and said, do you realise that

when you marry this German person, you will lose your British

nationality. It must have been a really big decision. I had to go

and see the camp commander and as well. He gave me a strict talking

to. But I didn't take much notice. Consequently, we would not have got

married, would we? In 1948, the last PoWs left Britain, with some

15,000 deciding to stay and make a new life here. Including Gunther.

The British public were able to show German prisoners of war a

degree of kindness and hospitality, and Christmas of 1946 stands out as

an example of how ordinary people were able to open their hearts with

compassion. In some cases, like Eddie, you have got plans to take

your stand up over to Germany, haven't you? Yes. SPEAKS IN GERMAN.

I did three months in front this year, 71 digs in Paris in French. I

arrived in Paris, after 15 years of trying. I'm going to do Germany at

the end of 2012. Do you have to ad- lib a little bit? There is a trick.

I do a universal kind of said, talking about Greeks and Romans and

Santa claws and God and banjos, and they exist in all countries, and

then you have to change the world over. You have to try to implement

as much as you can. I can go off and talk about Christmas trees and

say, is white the right colour, and you can do that? The more you do it,

the cooler it gets and they think, we are just watching stand up and

it is just an English guy. If you get stuck, you can mine? Not really,

you can ask the audience what the word is in French.

Having been to Yorkshire at twice already this evening, we thought it

was unfair on the walls of the Roses opponents. To balance it up a

little, we sent Phil Tufnell to Lancashire, to check out a hotel

that is also a work of art. Now, the seaside is great for

donkey rides and ice-cream, but it is not usually the place that you

associate with major artworks. The town of Morecambe in Lancashire is

a real treat for art lovers. The artistic gems are not found in a

gallery, but in the town's grandest hotel, the Midland. The hotel was

built in the 1930s, and is a work of art Deco mastery. The London

Midland and Scottish Railway Company grew rich in the inter-war

period, carrying millions of people to the British seaside. The company

commissioned leading architects to design the hotel, and one of

Britain's biggest name artists to adorn the building inside and out.

Eric Gill was one of the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts

movement, a sculptor, design and print maker. Ruse's great

grandfather, Joseph, was his assistant. She has written two

books on the artist. Eric Gill is one of the most important sculptors

in the 20th century. In Britain are. He took up letter Cup -- letter

captain, sculpting, engraving, book illustration -- letter cutting. His

influence was about this direct way of working on the stone, and that

being specifically British. sculptor's -- sculptures in his

beloved stoner are all over the London. At the BBC's Broadcasting

House, on the front of the London Underground headquarters, and

inside Westminster Cathedral. Away from the capital is some of deal's

finest work and the nautical theme dominates his sculptors at the

eighth Midland Hotel. The see houses started life as a chance of

Portland stone and they were carved in situ. Eric Gill like to feel

freedom of movement so he wore a smock, you can imagine the builders

not looking up to see how he was getting on. We have the next Eric

Gill, commonly known as the medallion. If you look at the hands

and the feet of Neptune, can you see the signs of stick martyr? We

have Jesus with John the Baptist, so to Eric Gill this is heaven, and

this would be the stairway to Heaven. Like it. It is a little bit

racy, isn't it? It is, but it is well appreciated. Eric Gill's bass

relief was carefully designed for its position in the hotel reception

to be warm and welcoming. In the mind of Eric Gill, this represents

the hoteliers trade. The young Princess is the hotelier, welcoming

the wary guest. You expect to eat well and drink well, and that is

why he has chose this piece. When you walk into the hotel, what a

welcoming sight you have. For many years, Eric Gill's brilliance was

hidden almost completely from view, as the hotel fell into disrepair. A

huge renovation project four years ago breathed new life into both the

hotel and Eric Gill's art. And the Midland is now once again a source

of great pride in the town. It is another Eric that we associate with

Morecambe these days, but in a town that has suffered from cheap

international travel and the good of British weather, it is nice to

see a bit of artistic sunshine come A wonderful place, I have stayed

there myself. You have stayed everywhere. I got stuck in the mud

and had to get rescued by a hovercraft.

We asked for your pirate voters, you did not disappoint.

-- photos. These people have built We have William Nicholas aged six,

from Caerphilly. Gerry Conway, the Caliber from Glasgow looks rather