19/11/2013 The One Show

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

are nervous. Tonight's guest has his own minder. He sent us this message.

You look after him because I know where you are, alright! Alright, no

worries. We will. It is George Cole! APPLAUSE

He is still looking after you now. Yeah. We know you have a heart of

gold because he did go on to say this. My dear old King Cole, how are

you? They caught me while I'm doing a bit of a New Tricks, a new show

I'm in. When we started Minder, I have to tell everybody I was a huge

fan of this man and it grew and grew all the time I worked with him. He

was just brilliant. He was a wonderful actor and a really

wonderful bloke and I love him dearly. Ah! George, you are on

tonight to talk about your autobiography, which you have

finally written at 88? -and-a-half! So thinking back to everything that

you have done in your career. We know you for so much. How do you put

Minder in context? Right at the top. Do you? Yeah. You can't do something

for 107 performances unless you love it. Sure. It was wonderful. There's

a whole chapter in the autobiography dedicated to Minder, so we will talk

a bit about that later on. Yes. Alex is very talented. She read a lot of

it on the running machine... This morning! She will tell you more

about that. At the beginning of the year, you might remember that

Richard III was found buried in a Leicester car park. Well, what we

are about to show you goes further back. It is the discovery of a

sarcophagus in Lincoln that's been buried for 1,000 years. We were

there when it was opened for the very first time.

This is Lincoln, famed for its gothic cathedral and 11th century

castle. But archaeologists have discovered a church which is older

than both and is one of the UK's most important historical finds. The

church is thought to be 10th Century and was found with skeletons and a

limestone sarcophagus. Today is the day they are planning to unearth the

remains for the first time so they can start to figure out just who

this person was. This is an amazing find. How did you come across it?

The reason we are excavating this trench is to form a foundation for a

lift shaft. The trench has opened a tiny window on a late Anglo Saxon

church. Did you have no knowledge of this snnchts it is pure chance. The

archaeologists have the Normans to think. When they came to build their

castle, they cleared the area and in doing so, sealed the burials

underground creating a time capsule. Seven skeletons have been taken away

for testing. What do we know about them? There is a mixture of men,

women and children. The burials are all in wooden coffins so these

people were relatively important in their day. We make a trip down the

hole so I can get a look at the sarcophagus. It is incredible. It is

really beautiful. It is. Very nicely made. Also, you can see some of the

tool marks of the mason who made this thing. That will give us a lot

of information about the late Saxon stone industry which, at the moment,

we know little about. Just how significant is this? Late Saxon

stone sarcophagi are not something you come across very often at all.

This is really unprecedented. After the scanning specialists have made a

full 3D scan of the coffin, the team prepare to raise the lid. It is so

close to lifting the lid. This is incredibly exciting. This is

historical theatre and it is such a privilege to be here to witness it.

The lid is cracked so it has to be taken out in three pieces. With the

lid removed from the trench, finally the team get a first look at this

1,000-year-old skeleton and they make a very unexpected discovery. We

have shoes. Shoes were made of leather. The leather is terribly

decayed and there is another preserved for us to see that they

are stitched together, which is consistent with the date we are

looking at. It means they weren't an ordinary person. They were either a

member of the clergy, or a pilgrim, if not both. They were the people w

afforded the right to be buried with some form of clothing. Next, a bone

specialist examines the skeleton to determine what she can about who he

or she was. What I have seen is that it's possibly a very young

individual. Really? Maybe early 20s. That is from the pelvic area. It

seems it is an adult male, early 20s. What would happen next? I need

to do a full analysis and we will be doing carbon and nitrogen isotope

analysis to construct the diet to get an idea of what type of food

they were eating at that point. Right. After 14 months of

excavating, the team here are one step closer to finding out exactly

who this mystery man was. Leicester may have its King in a car park, but

Lincoln has its cleric in a courtyard.

What a moment to witness. Incredible moment. We've got shoes! Can you put

this into context? The Normans came in, they built the castle. What was

there beforehand? What was Lincoln like the time when this person was

alive? Under the Romans, it would have been a fortified city. When the

Romans leave, it is a smaller settlement until it has a

resurgence, you have the Vikings around, they like some of the old

Roman fortifications. It becomes a much bigger urban centre, a trade

centre, both regionally and nationally. There's lots of

agriculture surrounding it. OK. A good place to go shopping? A very

good place to go shopping! How often then are sarcophagi found? This is

very rare. I've been assured that in terms of undisturbed sarcophagi,

this stands on its own. I don't know of any other examples. There has

been a handful in the area that Lincoln is in. They are really

broken up. This is one of a kind to find one in tact like this.

Initially, the hopes were that it may have been a King. You talked

about the fact that it was a member of the clergy. Any more light being

shed on this, of who he was? High status. This is an area of Lincoln

where there were rich people, these were the who's who of Lincoln. Can

you tell that by his shoes? Yes, the shoes, as you saw, have religious

significance. I see. The fact you will be in a limestone sarcophagus,

this kind of - it is almost harking back to Roman burials. This is

someone who wanted to be remembered, someone of real status. Somebody

with a minder, perhaps? Yes. Maybe. George, what do you reckon? What

about the members of the public, like us, can we visit this

sarcophagus? This is how it came about - this was a regeneration.

They had no idea they were going to find this. They had no idea there

was a church underneath. They have been finding all this stuff and when

it is finished, this will go on display at Lincoln Castle so

everyone will be able to see this person. Thank you ever so much. What

a thing to have experienced. A remarkable moment. Now, recently,

Gloria Hunniford met two One Show viewers who are angry with the cost

of their holiday. Who wouldn't be at a price of HE MUMBLES Sorry? Who

wouldn't be angry if their holiday costs HE MUMBLES What you saying,

Matt? Gloria will explain. Searching for a holiday online can

be frustrating. Sometimes you want someone else to get the deal for

you. You may like to try a company like this, Sunsave, after all they

do promise to try and get you the best possible price and they also

guarantee an exceptional level of service. What could go wrong? Dave

was one of a number of viewers who e-mailed us about Sunsave. All were

complaining about two big problems. Firstly, when you book a holiday,

you think you know the total price. When you check your bank account, a

number of transactions appear and the total cost is much higher.

Secondly, once you have paid the money, it doesn't turn out to be the

holiday you were expecting. This year, Dave booked a holiday with

Sunsave to Turkey for 12 days. I went on to the Sunsave website,

chose the flights, the accommodation and it came to a full price of ?380.

The next day, an adviser contacted me. She said that the price had

increased slightly. It would be with two different airlines, one going

out which was charged in pounds and the other one, which would be

charged in euros. What amount was that she was quoting? ?462. I went

on to the bank account the next day to find out that three different

payments had come out. One to the first airline for ?135, one to the

other airline for ?255, and one to Sunsave for ?305. I was not amused

by. Dave was charged a total of ?695 for his holiday. That's ?233 more

than he thought. So Dave queried the price and requested a recording of

the phone call in which he confirmed his booking. This is something any

disgruntled customer can do. It works out, everything included, the

total is... That is interesting. I hear sterling very clearly and there

was a mumble about euros, it wasn't clear to me anyway. I asked her

again what the total price was, it was still that ?421 for the full

holiday. Let's have a listen. That's what... ? The total in sterling for

everything, with the one bag, two transfers and everything... Is 421

and twopence. That's for the flights, for the baggage... The

whole holiday. Very clearly in that conversation. She said the total is

that. We received other complaints where the price increase was

confusing. One nearly ?600 more than the customer was expecting to pay

and more than double the original online quote. People were also

getting in touch with West Yorkshire Trading Standards. Margaret made it

clear she needed disabled facilities for her husband. When we went on

holiday, the wheelchair wouldn't fit in the room. We looked out on the

balcony, there must have been 100 steps to the pool. It were like, "We

can't stay here." I rang her immediately and she said, "No, you

will have to wait three days. We can't do anything at the moment." I

said, "Get us flights back then. " If you want one back, you will have

to do it yourself. Here is some of Margaret's conversation on the

phone. He has to take one with him. When he takes his leg off, he needs

to get out of bed into toilet, so he needs his wheelchair. Alright, I

see. I will put a note... But that will be fine. West Yorkshire Trading

Standards say they have been working with Sunsave to improve its

services. They got involved just before Dave and Margaret booked

their holidays. They say that since then, they have seen an improvement

but will be continuing to work with them. So what kind of service should

you expect when booking a holiday like this online? Before you confirm

that booking, I would always check exactly what are you going to be

charging me and if they tell you it is going to be various separate

amounts in separate transactions start querying why. Most agents will

charge you one amount even though they are piecing it together and so

to see transactions coming through in different currencies for each

element on somebody's card is unusual. Most companies do not work

in that manner. Sunsave told us they underwent a change of ownership in

September 2013 and customers will now receive e-mail confirmation of

their booking and one single receipt for their transaction. Dave and

Margaret have been fully compensated for their holiday.

Thank you, Gloria. George, let's talk about your autobiography. You

were saying it's been a labour of love. It's taken you the best part

of a year to write it. It started with you as a young boy in London.

How then does a working-class London boy become an actor? Tell us the

story. Well, I went to a Surrey Council School in Morden. From the

age of 12, you were allowed to do a job either in the morning, at the

crack of dawn, or in the evening, after you finished school. And I got

a job selling newspapers, and delivering papers, at the end of

every day. I would take home with me one of each of the evening

newspapers, the evening news, the Start and the Standard. And then,

when I left school, you had to go into the headmaster's study and meet

someone from the board of trade. And I went in and they said, what do you

want to do? I said, I want to go on stage. And the headmaster said, get

out, go to the back of the queue. So, I went to the back of the queue,

and by the time I got to the head of the queue, they did not even ask me

what I wanted to do. The man from the Ministry of Labour said, go to

the butchers in Morden, Monday morning, eight o'clock, they need an

errand boy and a bike. I went home and again read these three papers,

and they are jumping out at me was an advertisement which said, small

boy wanted for musical show. And that was it. I was going to say,

where does Alastair coming to all of this? Funny thing was, the first

time I became aware of him was when I went to Rosehill in Morden, and

there was a film on called something afloat, in which he played a Genie

in a bottle, with the crazy gang, and it was wonderful. But he was so

good and so fascinating, I wanted to know what his name was. I was still

sitting there reading the end credits when everybody else had

gone. Alastair Sim, it sounded such a strange name. Let's have a little

look at you in St Trinian's. What on earth are you doing here? I do not

want anybody to see me! There is something going on in this joint you

ought to know about. It is this letter, I opened it this afternoon,

posted in the school box by one of your mistresses. And the book is

called The World Was My Lobster, and there is a picture of you on the

cover. Where did that phrase come from? Well, my eldest son was a

script writer, he came to have dinner with us one night and said, I

heard the most wonderful line in a pub today, and he said, it is

straight out of Minder. I said, what was it? And he said, the older man

said to the younger one, I am telling you, my son, the world is

your lobster. I took out my wallet, took out ?25, gave it to my son, and

I said, that is mine. Did you know at that stage that that was what you

are going to call your autobiography? No. And I said, don't

give that to anyone else at all. And so I put it to the back of my mind

and I sat on it for about two years, and then suddenly, we had a boxing

episode, and in the dressing room afterwards, when I went to see

Terry, his face was pouring with blood and he was moaning and I said,

stop worrying, Terry. From now on, the world is your lobster. I have a

feeling that the person who said that either did not know the

original or did not like oysters. But a few months later, the man who

created the series said to me, I hear I owe you ?12 50 people I said,

what do you mean? I thought it was the best line ever written!

George's is out now. It is full of stories, including about his first

breakthrough role, as an evacuee, when he was 15 while George was

telling this story, millions of children were getting evacuated for

real. Ruth Goodman has met one of those children. From Victorian

times, the General Steam Navigation Company? offered paddle steamers as

a fashionable way to cross the Channel as well as to cruise the

River Thames. But in 1939, with the outbreak of war, these paddle

steamers would have a dramatic reinvention. In Dagenham, they took

part in Operation Pied Piper, evacuating children to the

countryside. On the same day that Hitler invaded Poland, thousands of

children from nearby Gravesend and Tilbury gathered here at the Ford

motor company jetty in Dagenham. They stepped aboard paddle steamers

and said goodbye to their families, with no idea of where they were

going. Children who came here and went off on the paddle steamers were

the only ones who used this mode of transport. Some of them may never

have seen one before, so the children were just going on a voyage

into the unknown. One of the workers on the docks that morning was Walter

Muir. He had his camera with him and took photographs of the

extraordinary scene taking place in front of him. His images give a real

sense of the scale of the Exodus. Over three days, nearly 17,000

children were evacuated by eight paddle steamers heading to Yarmouth,

Lowestoft and Felixstowe. 84-year-old Thomas Burt was just ten

when he walked to the docks with his brother Ernest from Easterbrook

School, three miles away. I do not think I had ever been up at that

hour before. We traipsed along in one long convoy, escorted by the

teachers. I think perhaps there was a policeman at the front of the

column, because they needed to stop traffic and whatever. Thomas had no

idea that there was a photographer there that day, and has never seen

the photographs. Actually, we have something we thought you might like

to have a look at. Believe it or not, the day you were getting on

that boat, somebody was taking photographs. It was amazing to watch

Thomas transported back to that frosty September morning at the

jetty. There are the mothers with their children. That is terrific . I

might be in one or two of those. I remember boarding that boat. It was

an adventure. I was too busy to cry. Too busy taking it all in. You see,

they are not large, but it was to me. It was an oceangoing liner! And

there is the gang planks. I remember on the boat, leaning over the

handrail most of the time. Oh, that is one of them, I wonder which one

that is. And there is another one. Queen Of The Channel, that was one.

That was not the only contribution to the war effort made by the paddle

steamers of the General Steam Navigation Company?. Most of them

then were involved in another if evacuation in June 1940, taking part

in Dunkirk. So, they played quite a significant role within the social

history of the war. A few months after Dunkirk, Dagenham and London

were hit hard by bombs . Thomas and Ernest were in the relative safety

of the countryside, but they got news that a bomb had landed on their

parents was no street as they took cover in their Anderson shelter. The

bomb probably hit the shelter of the people next door, but three children

were killed instantly. The mother died two days later. Our shelter had

been lifted out of the ground, laying on its side. Had we been in

there, perhaps one or two of us would have been killed. At the end

of the walk the fate of the paddle steamers had also been hit. One of

them was destroyed, others were damaged. Those that remained

returned to normal service. The world had changed, and trips by

paddle steamer no longer had the same image. By the 1970s, the steam

company had closed. Today, not a single one of these steamers is on

the water. The photographs, however, remain a real testament to the lives

saved. Remarkable images. To overcome to

cry, those were his words. They, we have a very special One Show,

because we are going to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of

That's Life. We will be joined by some familiar faces, and Esther

herself will be presenting the show. We want you to tell us about some

things you have seen recently which have made you laugh, or if somebody

who has made you furious or something. Tell us about it. We want

to see badly worded adverts, spelling mistakes, talented pets,

funny shaped beds, we will have it all. And if you have got any strange

musical instruments which you have invented, even better. Anyway,

basically, if it is the kind of thing you have been dying to tell

the world about, if only they brought back That's Life. That is

exactly what we are doing, we are bringing back That's Life. George is

over the moon about that! Here is how you get in touch in true That's

Life fashion. The address is... Thanks. You can use e-mail if you

want but this is a nostalgic show, so we would like some proper

letters, please. Now, it is time to join Iwan Thomas for some DIY with a

difference. Smoo Cave in Durness is one of

Scotland's best kept secrets. With Chambers only accessible by boat, it

is one of Scotland's greatest natural wonders. But this normally

peaceful place has some industrial invaders. Restoration works are

currently under way to stop the cave from crumbling down, and to preserve

this treasured area. The good news is that I am getting to meet some of

the team to see the work they are doing. The bad news, apparently they

want me to help, which means I have got to go up there. Before I get to

work on the outside, I want to check out the inside of the cave to see

what makes it such a special place. Smoo Cave tour guide: Has worked at

the cave for 26 years. There we go, into the cave. It is a bit of an

adventure just getting to the adventure, if that makes sense! Wow!

It is huge! That is beautiful. Smoo Cave has a complex make-up. It has

this spectacular waterfall, several chambers and the largest entrance to

a C cave anywhere in the UK. It is also the only British cavern where a

sea water cave joins a freshwater cave. Any interesting, famous

visitors who have come here? In a team 14, Sir Walter Scott stood

right where you are. And he said there were paintings inside the

cave. I have searched every square inch of it and I cannot find any

paintings. -- in 1814. But that is a penicillin bacteria, it is not a

Neolithic venting! Next, I am joined by an engineer and geologist who

explains what is going on. Why is this work necessary? It is a visitor

attraction, and there have been some blocks falling down, and we do not

want those to land on anybody's head. We are putting some netting in

to help stabilise that, and removing any of the box which look like they

might be loose at the moment. Was now time for me to get to work. What

is this netting actually doing, simply stopping the rocks? Yes, and

once we have taken the loose rocks away, this will hold everything in

place. Shall I cleared the pathway? That's it. Are you going to put this

last plate on? Yes, these are the bankers. These will be drilled four

metres into solid rock. -- the anchors. That is a huge spanner.

It is days like this that I love The One Show. I am so delighted this

work is getting done. It is a great feeling of relief, knowing you do

not have to worry about someone getting injured. The big thank you

to Iwan Thomas. George, thank you so much for your company this evening.

George's autobiography is out now. And tomorrow, Adam Hills, Dr Who's

Jenna Coleman and John Hurt are in the studio. See you tomorrow.