14/04/2014 The One Show

Hello and welcome lovely evening. Goodbye.

This place would have been very similar to what it was like in the

1800, when Daphne came to stay. Yes, it would. In those days, there were

just two buildings, no village. It was very remote, very quiet. The

story is fictional. Yes, completely. She was a thundering

good writer with a very good imagination. Jamaica Inn went on to

become one of her most popular novels. Readers loved the thrilling

plots and evocative descriptions of the Cornish landscape. On either

side of the road, the country stretched interminably into space.

No trees, no lanes, no cluster of cottages or hamlets, but mile upon

mile of bleak moor land. It's a beautiful day here today on Bodmin

Moor. But the weather can change quickly and becomes a very dangerous

place. In the book, it has a dark, brooding, menacing presence, strange

wind blowing from nowhere. Sometimes, the wind shouted and

cried. There was a silence on the moor which belonged to another age.

The writer's lover Cornel was not limited to the moors. In 1977, on

Desert Island discs, Daphne Du Maurier recalled her earliest

connection to the area. Family decided last have a holiday home in

Cornwall. And we came down and discovered ferry side. I simply

adored it. She first came to the coastal town in 1926. Her family

love this area and purchased this house behind me, ferry side, as a

holiday home. Her passion for the area has been passed down to her son

who lives at ferry side today. What is the mother novel people love?

Jamaica Inn especially is a real page turner, and a violent story,

which is difficult to imagine coming from such a gentle, loving person.

She and I used to walk over all these moors, and the stillness and

the light, this had a terrific effect on her. I think landscape and

places meant much more to her, almost than characters. It is now

over ATA is since that lost afternoon on the moors, but the

story it inspired and continues to catch our imagination. -- it is now

over 80 years. There is a woman who knows how to

wear a hat! Looking good there. I didn't even know that there was

genuinely a Jamaica Inn. Have you been there? I used to live and work

in Cornwall, and I stay there a lot. Jamaica Inn was a lovely pub, and

you can go there and have lunch and relive the whole smuggling story.

And Cornwall has inspired you. Your new novel A Seaside Affair is also

set in Cornwall. I started reading it, but then my mum took it on her

cruise! I set all the book is in a fictional town called Trevay. And I

suddenly thought, when I was doing Strictly last year, I was hanging

out with the stage managers, and I suddenly thought that Trevay could

have a theatre that they need to save, because it is going to be

turned into a coffee shop. So we brought in all of these actors and

actresses from London, all behaving badly and having affairs, so that is

why it is called A Seaside Affair, and even Richard Gere makes an

appearance. You can just chuck them in? Yes, as long as you are nice to

them. This is my fourth novel. And two of those have been set in

Cornwall. Three. So clearly there is an inspiration there for you. I love

Cornwall. I have been there since I was little, and when I first worked

in television, I was offered four jobs, having asked for 72, and one

of the was in Cornwall, so I went straight there. It is mystical and

magical, and I grew up with stories of the headless Horseman going

across the moors and stinking into the bog, and the Dartmoor prisoners

escaping, and the police would have to stop our family car going on

holiday, because that is exactly how prisoners would escape, dressed up

as a father driving his family to Cornwall. And you are a busy girl. A

Seaside Affair is out now. And as well as that, you've been busy

poking around allotments for a new BBC Two series The Big Allotment

Challenge. It's sort of what The Great British Bake Off does, but

with fruit and veg patches. What do the contestants have to do? We have

nine teams of two contestants per team. And last March, they will put

into a walled garden, and they were told what they needed to plant for

the challenges, and anything else they wanted to do. So they started

planting last March, and we were filming them. By time-lapse magic

photography, you see the seeds growing. As that happening now?

You'll have to imagine it. And when the season got to harvesting, in

July, I arrive with three expert who are there to judge them on the

fruit, vegetables, flowers, flower arranging, pickling, preserving and

jam making. And it is fantastic. So every show, they have to do four

challenges. So it is quite forlorn. Let's have a look at a clip from

tomorrow night, judgement day for the radish. You conceivably nicht

there. It is just starting to come down there. This shows signs that it

might be getting a little woody. It is quite hard to cut. It is a bit

woody. Never mind. You can still pull something out of the bag. Just

not radish is! APPLAUSE

He took that well, but there is nothing worse than a woody radish.

You don't want that in your mouth, obviously. They look like they are

right out of ZZ Top. They do! They were very easy-going. And there were

one couple, mother and daughter, not easy-going, actor win. And two best

friends, they say they did have a competitive owner nobody, and they

are fantastic. I think it will do brilliantly. There is also a book to

accompany the series, which features lots of lovely recipes including one

for mint jelly. Yes, and if you get the book now, you will be able to be

doing this by July or August. There's lots of handy tips for

growers in the series. One couple use of wheelbarrow of llama poo

everyday. Prompting us to send the reliably green-fingered Terry Walton

to find out what tips One Show viewers have to get their allotment

springing in to action. Here in the Rhondda Valley, there are 27 of us.

We share our stories. For some reason, we are mostly men. What you

think is your tips for keeping pests of your allotment? I try to attract

as many birds as possible. They are predators for the insects. And the

joy I get from seeing them is fabulous. What is your success?

Potatoes. What do you put in to make them so healthy? Well rotted compost

and a little Horseman near. You cover them to within an inch of the

top to retain the water. You have to grope them to check that they are

ready. You can feel the potato, a bit small, not quite ready. A couple

of weeks, we can eat them. These were planted way back last May. I

put them in this cheap plastic tubing, so you have nine inches of

nice white blanched leak. I call this my potato dither because it

stops me doing a lot of bending on my hands and knees. A tool for the

ageing Gardner. If you are growing members of the cabbage family, make

sure that the ground is firm and hard. I would run backwards and

forwards playing cricket on it to make it really hard, which makes

your cabbages and cauliflowers have firm hearts. Take two steps forward

and one step back because the weeds are creeping up behind you.

And I love the way they say, women are allowed, too.

Only within the last five years! The cute little water vole, immortalised

in the popular children's story The Wind In The Willows, has been

finding it hard to keep its head above water. Changes to its habitat

and predators have resulted in dwindling numbers, so there's a race

on to save Ratty, as Mike Dilger's been finding out.

Magor Marsh in South Wales is unspoiled fenland. It should be

perfect for water voles, but these cute creatures have been lost across

Britain due to changing habitat and mink, a non-native predator. There

hasn't been a whisker of water vole on these marshes recently, but now

there was a bold plan to bring them back in big numbers.

25 volunteers from the Gwent wildlife trust are gathering to

release 100 voles into the waterways. Leading the project is

Gemma Bo day. What is the plan of action? We need to move quickly

because it is a hot day. I have never seen water vole is being

unloaded from a transit van. They were bred in Devon, but the original

stock is from right across the UK. They were captive bred and have

never set foot in the wild, but this is the ideal setting, as mink have

been removed from the area, so it is perfect habitat for them. It is slow

flowing, not to deep water, fantastic botanical diversity. Water

voles will eat up to 200 species of plants, so plant diversity is

important. Water vole is need eat 80% of their body weight in plant

material every day. This means winter hits them hard, as low

temperatures limit the growth of plants on the river bank, causing a

shortage of food. That is not their only struggle. Last year saw the

first release of water vole is here. But when it became one of the

wettest summers on record, Gemma watched nervously. We were worried

last year with the first batch that went in. The rhynes do rise and fall

naturally. But there was a lot of water here. And they can get flooded

out of their homes? They rely on the banks to borrow into The Den nests.

They can be flooded out. Burroughs can be up to three metres long, and

have various entrances, including underwater openings to give them an

escape route when in danger. But the areas where they sleep and have

their young need to be above the water line. So these water voles

have come up with a nifty survival trick. What we found last year was

these amazing floating nests that they make. It is just the most

exquisite rugby ball woven together with grasses and sedges. It floats

and rises up with the water? Yes, it is a great adapter for them. It

means potentially their success is hopeful. But even floating nests

won't be enough to get the population to a point where it can

definitely survive. So today, this year's extra 100 voles are heading

out to boost the numbers. Left out in cages, they are given time to get

used to their surroundings before they are released. But 31 of

today's voles will be released straight into the waterways.

Why treat these ones differently? These individuals will be hard

released, and they are adults. They are not in a family group, so it is

better just to release them straightaway. Wonderful. How do you

handle them without getting bitten? Carefully!

And hey presto, we have a water vole. Ouch! First one to be

released. There we go. Best of luck in your new home,

fellow. By the time these last 100

individuals are released, they should ensure that there are water

vole is back for good on the Gwent levels.

It was always going to bite him! Thanks, Mike. We want to see your

Commonwealth medal photos, and we have them here. This is Michael

Floyd with his bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in India. This is

Karen's neighbour who won a silver medal in 2010. And this is a neater

north with a gold medal in women's Olympic track in Delhi. That's all

for tonight. Thanks for joining us, Fern, and good luck with your new

book, A Seaside Affair. And of course, The Great Allotment

Challenge starting tomorrow on BBC Two

This is just a part-time job. In real life, we are fighter pilots.

I think he might have forgotten the unit!

Yeah, we just saw each other and just fell in love, didn't we?