18/09/2014 The One Show

Hello and welcome... What are you doing? We have just had that

conversation before going on air, I would do that bit.

No, we said I'm going to do it today! I always do the hellos on a

Thursday... ! We are absolutely rubbish at this. But, tonight's

guests are better. We are joined by a couple of actors not known for

mincing their words! You are an ill-made spiteful creature. Full of

envy, lust and low cunning. So, do as you are told and get out

of this house before I smack you! Goodness me. Let's hope they are not

as scary tonight. It is Charles Dance around Lacey

Turner. We struggled slightly with our scary

bit. Does that come naturally to you two? Chancellors, you go first? What

shall I do? Are you a happy-go-lucky chap? I have to try.

And Lacey, you are doing it with people all day. Is it hard to keep a

straight face? Sometimes it is. I do burst into lofter. But I didn't

realise I did it so much. Talking of stern looks, can you give

steely like Stacey or give the daggers like Dance. Give us your

best glare. We will be inundated.

Get in touch via [email protected] or the One Show

Facebook. We are also talking about Game of Thrones, Dracula Untold and

Our Girl. Now, nine women have been convicted of running an illegal

pyramid scheme that promised a fortune to members if they handed

over ?3,000. The judge said that families and

life long friendships had been destroyed. He said that 88% of

people who invested money would lose it.

This is the story of how thousands of people were persuaded to part

with millions of pounds over an innocent cup of tea with their

neighbours. Just imagine you are having a cuppa

with friends, and they ask you to invest ?3,000 in cash on the promise

that you will get eight times that back. All you have to do is convince

your mates to do the same. Sound too good to be true? It is.

Today, for the first time, we can report that nine women have been

convicted of organising and or promoting a massive illegal pyramid

investment scheme. 10,000 people paid nor than ?20 million into the

scheme. Pictures like this were used to lure them in. The scheme was

called the Give and Take Syndicate. Marketed as being just for women. It

started in Bristol five years ago. It soon spread across the city and

beyond. To join, you agreed to pay in ?3,000

and recruit at least two more people, often at evenings like this

one, secretly filmed by the BBC's Inside Out Series.

It is local and invite. Introducing friends and family. So mentioning to

people, talking about it. It spread byword of mouth. The

people that signed up with, find two more investors and so on. Once there

were 14 members below you in the pyramid, you are promised a payout

of ?23,000. That is where the dream turned sour. Alison is one who lost

her money. How did this start? Basically a friend said to me I

could earn money. It seemed like a good idea. I mentioned it to

friends, to neighbours. Obviously I thought it was a good idea, that it

would be good if they came on board as well.

What made it sound so convincing? Basically I had seen people paid

out. We had been to parties. The wine was flowing. The buffet was on.

Then halfway through the night, the lady who was paid out. They brought

the money on a silver platter, it was thousands of pounds. Amazing as

she poured it into her handbag and left with it in her handbag. It felt

like this would happen to me. But it didn't. That is as pyramid

scheme, illegal since 2005 are doomed to fail. To pay out they rely

on members signing up more members. The trouble with that is you run out

of people. By the 26th level of a scheme like

this one, the total number of people needed would be bigger than the

entire population of the UK. The Give and Take scheme started in

2008. By the time it was shut down, almost 10,000 people had lost their

money. Meanwhile, the organisers and the promoters at the top of the

pyramid had pocketed up to ?1 million between them.

How did you feel when you realised that your money was gone? Really

angry. ?3,000 was a lot of money. It was my savings. I am a single mum. I

invested it to hopefully make a difrns in life.

Today's events put the final nail in the coffin of the Give and Take

syndicate. This pyramid scheme collapsed but there could be others

out there yet to be exposed. What do you say to others thinking of

getting involved in this sort of thing? Please don't do it. I learned

the hard way. I lost my savings. You won't get your money back it will

not happen. Thank you, Dan, for making that ease

easible understandable. Absolutely. Charles, we are used to

seeing you like this... Here we are. Goodness me, Charles! Not for a long

time have you seen me like that! But in Dracula Untold, the new film, you

have gone for a new look... Yes! Yes, indeed.

Vampire Caligula! Yes. There you go.

It is quite a scary film. Especially at 10. 30am I would add. Better in

the evening. I have not seen it. You have not seen it? No.

How have I seen it before you? You are privileged and you are who you

are. An important person. Everybody can see it from the 3rd of

October? Indeed but I have not seen it yet.

Well the story, it starts, there are lots of versions of Dracula, made

into films and television series but this is from an early stage of

Dracula's life? Yes. It uses a lot of the embellished history about

Vlad the Impaler and puts it alongside Bram Stoker's idea of

Dracula. So it gives the foundation. But the thing about the film is that

it is bigger than any other Dracula film. It is kind of epic because of

the stuff we can do with CGI and the enormous great battle scenes. So it

is a very broad canvass. It is a big wide canvass. My first experience of

Dracula was Christopher Lee. But because of the budget constraints of

Hammer Horror, you could never use wide lenses or you ran out of set.

And they were also tomorrowestic chamber films. A bunch of people

hunting for poor old Christopher Lee and a few angry villagers with the

garlic chains around their necks. But this, there is a monumental

battle scene and then this rather strange man, who has been in a cave

for 1,000 years. We are looking at a clip. A word to

my children if you have not gone to bed yet, go now. You may have

nightmares after this. This is the point where you tempt Vlad over to

the dark side. Indeed. Spill blood, if not for the pleasure

of it. Men do not fear swords, they fear

monsters. They run from them. By putting one village to the stake,

I spare ten more. Sometimes the world no longer needs a hero.

Sometimes what it needs is a... Mobster. You believe you know what

it is to be a monster? You have no idea.

APPLAUSE. I used to be a romantic leading man!

This is it, people associate you a lot with the more classical pieces

but you were not classically trained. You were trained in a pub.

Tell us the story. I went to art school. I was going to be a graphic

designer or photographer but then I thought I wanted to be an actor. I

knew of two men who coached a couple of friends of mine for the drama

school auditions. I rang him up and asked him to teach me. I had a

grant. You got the grants for universities and colleges. I had a

grant for three years. I thought I would not get another one, I worked

as a labourer and various other things. I saw these wonderful old

men for a couple of weeks and the occasional Sunday. They taught me

what I learned had I gone to drama school. We worked through

Shakespeare, Shaw and comedy and Beckett.

In the pub? Well, a printing works next to the pub. There was a space

behind this great printing press. We worked there. Leonard was an English

man, his first pupil was Peter Finch. His partner was a German, a

member of a contemporary drama school. What they did know about the

business was worth knowing. We would go back to their garden and dig the

garden for payment, and he would impact words of wisdom to me. They

basically tried to teach me what I would have learned had I gone to

drama school. Like gurus. Everybody can see the results of

that fantastic training in Dracula Untold out on the 3rd of October.

Dracula is the not the only one with an affinity for bats. So is our man,

Mike Dilger. Here he is, to tell us how a rare

species of bat is whingeing its way back to parts of England.

In an inshan't woodland in Dorset, a project is taking place to conserve

and find out more about one of Britain's rarest mammals, the Beck

Stein bat. We hoped that the bats would return.

But it did not work with the Beck Steins, until an amazing idea from

Germany. Concomplete. It was believed that the Beck Steins were

attracted to them as the concrete added insulation. Making the inside

of the boxes warmer than the traditional wooden ones. So 84 were

put up here. Proving a huge success. Female Bechsteins have been moving

in. Today is the first day since the

youngsters have been born that the team are checking to see how the

population are doing. I have never seen a Bechstein and I cannot wait.

Colin Morris from the Vincent Wildlife Trust, begins the survey

once the juveniles have been weaned. Once he finds Bechsteins, he takes

them out. What I am doing out, I will put this

muslin over the bat box. Remove the door and as the bag is there, it

stops the bats before they fly away. I can extract them without losing

them. Can you say how many are in there? It is difficult. They are

tightly packed in there. It could be six or 66.

It is known that the bats only give birth every other year. So this

makes this work even more viable. The bats are weighed, measured and

ringed. If caught again, Colin will know their history. To are me it is

a new British mammal. Look at that... Oh, my word. What a little

stunner. Huge ears! I notice a little tag on

there. You know this bat. You have handled it before.

This is an adult. 2007 this was born.

Is that a good age? It is average. There are some females that are 14

years old. One of the females we have captured 45 times. We know more

about the fee marls than the males. Once they are ringed, September they

leave the woodland, and we never see them again.

Where they go is a mystery. Once the bats are checked over, they are put

back where they are found. Over the course of the day, after

checking all 84 concrete boxes, Colin is delighted to have found

nearly 100 Bechsteins. Including 39 juveniles. And something more...

There is normally some interaction between the different colonies, in

the past seven or eight years, I have never found a new female bat

here. They have been ringed as a juvenile. So we think this is a

Klosed colony. The chance of it expanding or having greater numbers

is unlikely. But it is safe here? Yes, the bats

love it. As the project proved so successful.

It is now rolled out to other woodlands across England. Hopefully,

there are more concrete nest boxes going up and we may fine more

Bechstein bat colonies. What a lovely shot.

I have never liked them! I do not like spiders either. LAUGHTER

. Lacey, your new drama Our Girl was

meant to be a one off last year but it was so popular the BBC have

turned it in to a series. In it you play an Army Medic

in Afghanistan. I feel that we were so blown away,

we did not expect the reaction that it got. I remember... I was sending

a text message to the writer, Tony, asking him what has happened! We

could not believe how it blew up on Twitter. We never expected anything

like that. It was lovely for them to come back with a second series.

Well, a proper first series. Let's take a look at you struggling

to adapt to life in Afghanistan. Man down! Left leg blown off below

the knee, what are you going to do! Medic, what are you going to do! Are

you going to let him bleed out? He will end up like a pufferfish! Come

on! Somebody stands on an improvised exposer device, this is a life to

save! What are you going to do! Come on! Get up...

I remember watching you do the 1 off, in 2013, you were training to

be a medic in that one. How has the story moved on for the new series?

This series picks up from where the last one left off, she goes through

training and this is her being deployed to Afghanistan to fight on

the front line. You had some proper training from proper army

personnel. A medic told you to dress the wings. We learned everything, we

had the most fantastic military advisers. Nigel and Daryl, they were

fantastic. Nigel was there, 20 47, to go through everything. -- dress

the wounds. Wrapping up a bandage, a tourniquet, going through it, again

and again. He was there for everyone, for the boys, for

everyone. -- 24/7. From picking up a weapon, to marching... You have got

to get it right. If we were getting lazy, he would shout at us.

Stand-up! That was shot in South Africa. Yes, very hot. Boiling hot?

For a lot of time we filmed in between a couple of mountains, the

heat just stayed trapped in that little gap. It was difficult, it was

42 degrees at points. You kind of put your socks on and you think,

this is so wrong! I should be wearing a bikini! LAUGHTER

It really brings it back to you. What the soldiers are doing. Such an

eye-opener, unbelievable. I do not know how they do it. Just to move in

all of that kit... It is big. It is here it is here... You cannot put

your arms down by your side, just moving in it is a big deal, let

alone being shot at. I do not know how they do it. It is amazing. And

some of the extras are actual army personnel. Did you feel pressure,

when they were in the background? It is quite difficult, when you are the

only girl, you know that they will take the neck out of you before you

have even started. When we got back to the UK, we did a lot... Nigel had

got quite a lot of real soldiers together. We did a few scenes. I run

like a girl, because I am a girl! They began laughing. I would

collapse at the end of it... I am not a real soldier. They would be

saying, come on, get up! I am coming, I am coming! Actually, I was

unfit, because I was using so much energy, I ate Sony carbohydrates...

In South Africa, the meat is so nice, steak and mash. -- I ate so

many carbohydrates. We asked troops serving at

Camp Bastion and Kandahar Airfield to reflect on their time

in Afghanistan. Here's what they had to say

as they prepared to head home. It is a beautiful country, lovely

hills, lakes. Multicoloured deserts. Picturesque place. It would

be nice in a few years if we can come back without the threat of

terrorism and insurgent violence and enjoy the landscape. I am not

digging this hot weather at all, I want to get back to the snow! You

get a tan while you are working! The best thing about being here is being

with my lads all of the time. Worst thing, being with my lads all of the

time! It will never go back to how it was, hopefully. If it can stay

like this, we will have done a good job. It has gone into our soul and I

think that it is going to stay with us.

Sensible drivers! Out here, we do not have that. Sitting in a pub

garden. Normal toilet! Driving my car, just driving wherever I want,

not worrying about improvised explosive devices! My daughter was

born a few days ago. I missed the birth. I am looking forward to going

back to see her. Happy surfing, and a beautiful baby

daughter to come home to. Charles, we have to ask you

about about Game of Thrones what was it like being part of one

of the biggest shows on the planet? It is one of the biggest shows of

recent times. It is fantastic to be a part of it, I do not think any of

us knew that it was going to become this global phenomenon. We knew we

were dealing with... We had great scripts. It is the starting point.

Really good lines to speak, you do not have to make a purse from a pig

's ear, when they are good to start with... ! LAUGHTER

Good analogy. The whole thing is run like a military operation. HBO, they

know how to spend money. It is there on the screen. Production values,

fantastic. Very similar to this show... LAUGHTER

We are talking about the reaction of people who have been watching it,

but to see some of these scenarios... Look at this remarkable

photo. This is a wedding! This is a wedding! Was invited to it?

It not the cast photo it's actually the wedding of Darren Prew and

I find that extraordinary. They have got a white walk as well! That

Walker. -- white Walker! Leslie Howard was a Hollywood

heartthrob whose life came to a sudden and mysterious end

during world war two. And as Gyles Brandreth

discovered even after 70 years the riddle

of his death remains unsolved. By the summer of 1943, World War II

was still raging. The neutral countries like Portugal became hot

spots for secret agents. All flights out of Lisbon airport were under

surveillance. On June one, flight 777, departing for Bristol, was no

exception. Unlike the other commercial flights that day, this

one was shot down by the German Luftwaffe, over the Bay of Biscay.

There were no survivors. Investigators looked for motives on

the passenger list. Among the dead, Leslie Howard, star of gone with the

wind. The English heart-throb had left Hollywood behind to make NT not

see propaganda. On one side, standing Hitler, who had succeeded

in making the name of Germany hated by every nation in the world. Over

70 years after his death, motive for the attack which took 17 lives still

intrigues. Here we can speak with Leslie Howard's biographer. He

wanted to fight Nazi ideas, he saw what was happening in Germany. He

became a goodwill ambassador for the Allied cause. He was sent to all of

the neutral countries. During the conflict, Leslie Howard used his

acting and directing skills to make outspoken war films for the Allies.

Nazis! That explains everything... Your arrogance, your stupidity, your

bad language! With the propaganda work he was doing, would that have

made him a target for the Germans? His official work was reported by

the newspapers of the day. The Germans would have known what he was

up to. He is not on the German blacklist for British people. Or

they would have targeted if they invaded England. If he was not the

target, who was? It has been suggested his travelling companion,

bore a resemblance to Winston Churchill. Perhaps the attack was

the result of mistaken identity. That would suppose that the spy

could not tell that man from any other fat man smoking a cigar!

Unlikely. His children were wielded and mind attack. The actor's

daughter knew, knew, Somerton, and shared the family thoughts with him.

Ronald Howerd spent many years interviewing as many people as he

could, to get to the bottom of the mystery. There were two other people

on that aeroplane that the Nazis would have loved to have got rid of.

For example, Wilfred Israel, evacuating a lot of Jewish children.

Another person, to rail -- Terrell Shervington. He was a genuine spy.

There was also speculation the actor himself may have been a spy but his

daughter was not convinced. She dismissed the notion that Leslie

Howard could have been any kind of ageing, she said that he was not

self-sufficient enough, he had written bleating letters to her,

complaining about the heat in the hotel! This and that. She was firmly

of the belief that it was not specifically her father who was

being targeted. 17 people lost their lives in the attack, and yet still

today, there is no official explanation. All of the German

documentation has been destroyed, and the key British documents are

still under lock and key. Leslie Howard's death has become one

historical riddle which will remain unsolved for some time to come.

Later you are on Eastenders, in two and a half minutes time. You have

been away for four years! It is everybody's dream to come back, that

the carrot is not killed off. When did you get the call? The end of

last year. When Dominik, the new executive producer, went back. I

began speaking with him. We have stayed in contact over the years. I

think he is so great, so much to do with Stacey, my character. I trust

him with her. Why not! So you are back. Earlier on which challenged

you to give daggers like dance, to give steamy like Stacey. -- Dance.

Very much like Dracula! Rob, here he is... Doing his best Mideast air. --

doing his best moody stare. Brace yourself! LAUGHTER

Super job! We have run out of time, that is it for now, Dracula Untold,

is out on the 3rd of October. Our Girl starts Sunday, 9pm on BBC

One and EastEnders is on next. Tomorrow we are joined by John

Hannah.