16/09/2014 The One Show

Hello and welcome to the programme with Alex Jones... And... Me, Matt

Baker. Our guest tonight seems to have upset somebody and it might be

because he wrote this in his new book. I thought that Alex Jones was

the most obnoxious human being I had ever interviewed. This could be

awkward! Please welcome Piers Morgan!

There we are. Can you shed a bit of light on this? It was the single

worst experience of my interviewing career. Somebody so relentlessly

revolting, screaming abuse at me, shattering any image I had of this

person. Talk about Halo removal? Wow! Sounds exactly like me. Not

this Alex Jones. Lets see the moment you came head-to-head with the other

Alex Jones later. Not many of us, including Piers, say their words

will make history but Mary Pitcaithly will have that chance on

Friday morning. It is her voice we will hear and I'd is the result of

the Scottish referendum and Sarah Mack has been to see how she feels

about being the first to know. They may be empty now, but this is

where people will cast their vote. Almost 4.3 million people are

registered to vote in Scotland and it is incredible the thing that of

Thursday night, tens of thousands of these boxes will be full to the

brim. The all-important job of announcing the result of this

historic vote has been given to Chief Counting Officer, Mary

Pitcaithly. You seem very calm and collected. What is going on behind

the scenes at the moment? It is building up to a crescendo, but not

long now until we see the finishing line. I suppose you have to be

careful about what you are going to wear? I should be careful about

colours. I have been chilled not to wear loud patterns. -- told not to

wear. Are you allowed to vote? And at yes. Can you tell you which

weighed you are going to vote? I am not allowed! Ardeer family feel?

They are excited. My daughter is a huge help. She make sure I am calm

and organised. After the polls close at 10pm on Thursday night, each of

the local authority results will be collated and sent by e-mail. They're

the team will produce the final figure and Mary will announce the

results on Friday morning. Anything you do say, even though it might be

factually incorrect, that is legally binding. Are you worried about

making a mistake? That is not going to happen. You are very confident

about that! What do you think you're lasting memories will be of the day?

I am hoping there will be a good atmosphere in Scotland, that people

will have a good experience at the polling station. That people will,

at the end of the day, have absolute trust and confidence in the result.

They may not like the result but they will be comfortable with the

integrity of the process. The most important thing is to get a good

breakfast. That might be after I have announced the result!

Nicky Campbell is travelling across Scotland for the One Show, trying to

get at measure of how people will vote. Get straight we caught up with

him on Stornoway on the Isle of US. -- Isle of Lewis. Since then he has

gone to Aberdeen. We understand you are in the wild-?

-- oil town. Yes, it started in the mid-70s and

it is still going strong. There are expensive cars and property is

amazingly expensive. When I was a student, it was expensive. That is

when the Boomtown Rats had a hit with I Don't Like Mondays. That is

where I did my final exams and I got really nervous going in there and

having a look around. There are a lot of nerves at the moment. Because

of the oil boom, that is at the economic heart of this debate. It is

all about this stuff - Brent crude. How much is left? How long is it

going to last? What will the tax revenues be? What about price

fluctuations? That has been at the heart of the debate. Estimates vary

between 12 billion barrels and 24 billion barrels. As we gear up

towards Thursday, the nerves are kicking in and the arguments are

also intensifying. Lots of people are certain on one side or the

other. I have been speaking to people who are not so sure. Yes

people thinking, is this the right decision? And no people thinking, I

don't know? Maybe this will be the chance of a lifetime. We have got

four people here who are not troubled by uncertainty. We have

some campaigners. Come a little bit closer. What has the reaction been?

Any doors slammed in your face is? Yes, a couple. We have been shouted

at. The next time when you see is a positive it gives you a boost. We

have had doors slamming as well. They see the leaflets and badges and

then slam it in your face. Any eggs? No eggs. We have been given some

cups of tea or a dram, which is nice. What about your experience? It

has been positive. With every negative experience a positive one

is around the corner. We are still getting new volunteers, even now. It

is getting close. The nerves must be kicking in. Definitely. Lots of

butterflies and feeling sick. We will be happy when the result is in.

We have got two yes campaigners, two no campaigners. What we need is a

group hug. There we are! They all love each other really. The Radio 5

Live breakfast show is from Aberdeen tomorrow morning. Do not miss it.

We will catch up with Nicky in Edinburgh tomorrow.

If the vote has split your family down the middle and you are able to

be here on Friday, we would love to hear from you. Just e-mail us at the

usual address. Now, Piers, you have got a new book

out. It all started when you replace Larry King on CNN in the States will

stop looking at some of these billboards, all of these folk who

put up these posters were rooting for you? I remember going to Times

Square four years ago, a week before I went on air. There was this huge

build-up to replacing Larry King. My first thought when I saw the

billboards was, this is great. And then I thought, what am I getting

myself into? I knew a lot of people expected me to fall flat on my face,

a lot of pressure. But there was also the sense of, what is going to

go really wrong? It is going to be an amazing experience, and that is

what it was. I had a fantastic time, there was controversy, great

moments, low moments, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything. You

interviewed over 1000 people - the great and good of entertainment and

politics. What was the bravest question that you asked? One of the

toughest was with the former Iriney and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

and I remember sitting opposite him. He had about 30 henchmen and it was

an intimidating atmosphere. My brother was a British army colonel

and sent me a question. He said, ask him how he felt his daughter dated a

Jewish man. I thought it would be a great question on a human level. The

perception is that he denounced the Holocaust and wants to exterminate

Israel. I asked the question and I got this long silence, and the

interpreter made it even longer. Then he looked at me and said, I

would have no problem with that. He said, I have no issue with the

Jewish people. My issue is, he put it, with the Zionist regime. It was

a clarification of previous comments that had made him more notorious,

that he had wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the map. It was

quite personal. He had never been asked that sort of question.

Probably my funniest one was the Dalai llama. He doesn't smoke,

drink, take drugs, have sex, watch movies, watch television. He doesn't

e-mail or text. He does not live modern life at all. I asked him at

one stage, do you know Simon Cowell? He looked completely bemused and

said, what is that? Excellent! Good news! With your interviews, you try

to get certain cancers and that. How do you feel when you know the

question, and what are you getting out of it? I think television of any

kind, whether it is news, or a celebrity interview, it is all about

theatre. We are creating theatre for people at home to be informed and

entertained, provoked even, into having a reaction. I always try to

look for a moment of drama. In Life Stories, you look for something that

will inspire a reaction from the guest, the audience, a piece that

will be memorable television. Your trick, you talk about it in the

book, you say you have stock questions that usually provoke a

great reaction. One is, how many times have you been in love? We do

not want that from you. We want to know if you could relive any moment

in life, not marriage or children, which would you choose? It happened

a month ago. If anybody follows Bian Twitter -- follows me on Twitter...

Only 4 million followers at the moment! I was in a charity cricket

match, captaining Ian Botham, against Brian Lara. Brian Lara came

up to bat and I brought myself on to bowl. This was my moment. I had

already been terrorised by Bradley. People will remember me being

pelted. This was my chance to rehabilitate myself in cricket

circles. I bowled Brian Lara's six balls and because of my goading he

tried to smash with number six and got caught 40. As he trudged off I

remember thinking, life cannot get better than this moment! If I could

relive on a loop cycle meet bowling the delivery that got him out, I

would. How did it feel when you heard the show in America was coming

to an end? You had closed the door, there was nobody around, and you

were on your own. It felt fine. I was in the last six months of my

contract and you always talk to your bosses then. I did not want to keep

on doing a daily show. I had lived in America full-time for four years

and I had run my course. We had become irritating to each other and

we needed a break. CNN offered me a deal but I decided not to take it.

There were other opportunities as their, which hopefully over the next

few months I will be able to sort out. I had a fantastic time at CNN.

It is one of the fantastic news that works, up there with the BBC. No

regrets. That is where the book ends. If you want to know what

happens, read the book. Shooting Straight is out now.

Piers might have had prestigious guests but we are meeting a

high-flying Libby. -- lady. She is a sensation. She needs a huge amount

of security. Here is Mike Dilger. The Montagu 's Harrier is the rarest

nesting bird of prey in Britain. This year there have been only seven

breeding pairs in the UK. When a nest is discovered it is so precious

that a huge operation swings into play to protect it. I am at a top

secret location in East Anglia. At the back of this field, in the long

grass, is a Montagu's harrier nest with chicks in and no one is allowed

close of a mess. Only 50% of Czechs in the UK survive because of

predation and crime. But thanks to a conservation effort, numbers have

increased from three breeding pairs to well over 40. Today, members of

the Dutch Montagu's harrier foundation are here to help. Why do

we have so few parents? They migrate north to Europe. The furthest north

and west they can reach is Britain. We will never have a huge population

but it is important that the birds we have, we look after. We work with

landowners, because they nest on the ground in crops. We do not want the

crops to be harvested when the young or in the nest. What about this

nest? It is interesting. We have a meal and a female and the mail has

another female one kilometre away, so he is feeding two females. They

both will fledge very soon. For the first time in Britain, one of our

Montagu's harriers will be sent out. The Dutch have huge experience of

tidying these birds, which helps them locate nests quickly so they

can provide protection 24 hours a day. It is noticeable that there is

some kind of fans. We have to fence them against foxes. Without that,

70% are predated. So there is no reason not to increase the number of

Montagu's harriers in the UK? Normally it is the chicks that will

be tight but as newly hatched Montagu's harriers are vulnerable to

disturbance, the Dutch team Tiger the adults instead and used a

special trick to catch them. The stuff brazen -- stuff Graven is

vital. The female will hopefully attack it and then, fingers crossed,

get caught in the net. We are not allowed to film the

catching of the harrier so we moved back and wait. As the females are so

vigilant, it is not long before the decoy Raven is sported. -- raven is

spotted. They do a quick health check and attach the transmitter.

She is very calm. Yes, you can do nearly anything with them. The

satellite tag only weighs about seven grams. It does not bother her

in any way? No. She is going to have a little backpack on the way. For

six years. They do very well with them. The process takes just 15

minutes and then the bird is ready to be released. We are going to

release it just down from the nest site. You take the bird and three,

two, one! Best of luck! There she goes. Data will be downloaded daily

and once it leaves the UK the information will go online, showing

the migration path as it heads to Africa for the winter. It has been a

real privilege to get a glimpse into the secretive world of the Montagu's

harrier. With so few, they needed all the help them can get. I hope

the bird we tagged comes back next year. Mike is on another assignment,

so Lucy is here. The other female bird, Madge, has excessively

migrated to Senegal for the winter. The male bird is very close as well.

The bad news is that the bird we saw in the film has unfortunately

disappeared. The last reading from her tag was early in the morning on

the 8th of August near Norfolk. The fear is that she has been a legally

shot -- illegally. If anyone has information, please call

Crimestoppers. There is a award. Going back to the books, gun

issues, what prompted you to tackle gun control? I tackled that in

Britain after Dunblane in 1996. We campaigned heavily at the mirror and

got real action, all handguns banned in Britain. That has not been, touch

wood, a school shooting in Britain since that day, 15 years. When a

similar incident happened in America, 20 young kids shot dead in

their classroom, something inside me be acted when I had these people on

the shop being so arrogant and completely unyielding and saying the

only answer to this was more guns. If there were more guns, the

teachers were armed, if people in the cinema had guns, churches, if

everyone was armed, there would be no gun crime. Clearly, complete

nonsense. I be acted to what was happening. -- reacted. The gun lobby

area acted strongly. A petition was started to have me deported. 150,000

people signed it. Some things are worth battling for. The American gun

culture is so crazy to people who live in countries like we do where

there is little gun crime that I thought, I am going to make this a

real issue and what will be will be. Talking of that, we joked about Alex

Jones earlier, but he is brought gun -- pro-gun. Hitler took the guns,

Stalin took the guns, Fidel Castro took the guns, and I am here to tell

you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms, it does

not matter how many people you get on the street begging, do you

understand? He went for it. He is a bit like you! What was it like being

on the receiving end of that? The producers said, I am cutting this. I

said, no, you are not. This did this fix our mind-body -- the statistics

are mind boggling. 18,000 killed themselves with guns, 12,000 on

average are murdered with guns. In Britain, 35 people a day in America

are killed by guns, murdered, in Britain it is that number a year.

That is the difference. This is a very serious side that they will

have seen. Are we going to see more of this? I have been approached by

people to make a documentary movie about this issue because I think

there is a global fascination with America's fascination with guns.

They have more guns than the next richest 32 countries combined. It is

something that terror is the country in two. A lot of people have come up

and said, keep doing what you are doing, and then some are like that

guy. A 9 -year-old girl at a shooting range in Nevada, she was

given a machine gun by an instructor with her parents laughing in the

background, as a treat. I have a young daughter. This nine-year-old

girl fired two or three billets and lost control and shot dead the

instructor standing next to her who had given how this killing machine.

What kind of civilised society, is oppose its superpower, encourages

that kind of scenario? The repercussions are incredible. 100

years ago all it took was one gunshot to set Europe on the path to

all-out war. We have seen a lot about the centenary of the First

World War, but how many of us can explain why it happened? Here is Dan

to help you out. On the 28th of June 1914 on a side

street in Sarajevo, an assassin shot a man and his wife in the back of a

card. This single act of violence would shake the world. The target of

the attack was Franz Ferdinand, error to the throne of the Empire.

That's my heir. This event triggered one of the bloodiest conflict of --

the world has ever seen. I am going to use my massive signed map to make

sense of it. -- sand map. When he had been as fascinated its Britain

and Europe's fragile peace. Rogue members of neighbouring Serbia's

government had helped plan the assassination. Serbia was a small

country, an enemy of Austria because it presented its domination of this

part of Europe. 30 days after the shooting, Serbia remained defiant so

Austria and Hungary declared war. This could have remained a local war

between two neighbouring countries worried not for the interlocking

network of treaties that bound together all the European states.

Serbia had a big ally. In Serbia's corner was Russia. Russia and Serbia

had a lot in common, same religion, same traditions, and Russia did not

want the Hungary install many to this part of Europe, so the Russians

mobilised their massive army. With nearly 6 million men, Russia's army

presented a massive threat to the hunt -- Hungary into. Across Europe,

Germany's well-equipped and disciplined army was thought to be

unbeatable. 34 days after the assassination, Germany declared war

against Russia. Two more powers had joined the words. A few decades

before, the Russians had been nervous about German strength and

look for an ally who could help them in the event of a war, and that was

France, another one of Germany's nervous neighbours. The Russians and

French would support each other in the event of war, so when Germany

went to war against Russia it was going to war against France too.

What did this have to do with Britain? In the previous decade,

Britain had made a commitment to France that it would help them if

the Germans attacked. The Germans decide to smash the friends first

and then move all of their troops back to the east to take on the

slower moving Russian job are not. To make the job of beating the

French easier, they decide to go road beside through Belgium. Belgium

was a neutral country and Britain had agreed to protect it. That meant

37 days after the assassination of the Archduke, Britain was at war

with Germany. The mass of global conflict would cause unimaginable

destruction and sweep away the old map of Europe. It all began with the

death of one man in a side street in a provincial backwater. By the time

it ended, over 16 million people had been killed.

That is a brilliant piece. I wonder how many times that will be played

in history lessons. It is fair to say that you divide

people. We have nasty comments, nice comments on the cover. We cannot

read those. We have got some insults that word

out wreck teed at you. -- were directed. You have to find out who

they were from. And then say something nice about them. "Piers

Morgan - once talented, now safe to ignore." That was repaired Murdoch

who misunderstood when I said I loved his Twitter feed. -- report

Murdoch. I got a message to him saying that it was genuine and I got

another tweet saying I was a friend. A compliment? The most brilliant

visionary I have ever worked for. "Piers, you're a hatchet man of the

new world order." That could be anybody! Alan Sugar. Alex Jones. My

message is, you keep taking those funny tablets because whatever makes

you behave like that is a very strange tablet. That is where we

will leave it. Shooting Straight is out. Tomorrow