21/05/2014 The One Show

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

Joining us tonight is a Dame and a Sir with around 100 awards between

them. In their honour, we decided to roll out two red carpets tailored to

their glittering careers. Please welcome Ian McKellen and Julie

Andrews. Welcome, welcome, welcome! Hello.

How are you? Lovely to see you. Please take a seat. How are you?

Very well. It is wonderful to have you both. I am glad we did not wear

green. People often say that! Surprisingly, you two have never

worked together but we understand that you came very close. Not for

lack of wanting, I can tell you. You did not know this but I told you

this morning when we bumped into each other. When he told me that

wonderful story about... What was she called? Gertrude Lawrence. You

had your old friend Noel Coward as one of the characters. I auditioned.

I had a whole day pretending to be Noel Coward. A whole day? It was

wonderful and I loved it but the part went to Dan Massey who was

nominated for an Oscar, so... What could have been! There is still

time. We have had a very exciting day at the BBC. What have you been

up to? We have had a massive to one of famous songs. There you are. They

are very good at waving. Should we waved back? This singing is just as

good. We understand that you would like to spend a bit more time

singing. Is that right? Well, I don't know. Do you think it is too

late to start singing? I don't. Don't forget that if you don't feel

like singing, you can things speak. We had a little go at that. Did you

never play Henry Higgins? I was once asked to do it with the Scottish

national opera and I said I could not go in and speak with opera

singers. You should do it in concert with a big Symphony Orchestra. And

pick up an agent! Your wonderful Emma Thompson did Sweeney Todd at

Lincoln centre in New York and she was fabulous. There is just

something about a musical, isn't there? I can't agree with you more.

Salad Days, remember that? Julian Slade. Jimmy was in that for eight

years and I asked how they did it. He said every night I heard the

piano and I was away. This is one of those marvellous actors'

conversations! It is like the dressing room. Here we go again...

Is it true that if you are fortunate enough to be in the long run of a

play, the first three months you are learning your lines all over again,

the next three months of the first year you are just enjoying it, and

the next three months you are listening to the orchestrations and

finding things and all of that, and then the last three months... It is

hell? You just have to keep remembering. We have loads of

material Plantier! Sorry! You should just crack on. I think that is true.

The way round it is to treat every performance as though it is the

first one ever because it is always the first for the audience. We have

got some rather unusual singing for you to enjoy this evening. Christine

has flown across London's rooftops from the Chelsea Flower Show to talk

about the highlights, including plants that thing. We are not

kidding. All will be revealed later. I cannot understand how this

is done. She will be testing the Edelweiss. It will be an album next!

This will all be happening throughout the show. As we

mentioned, it was a big day at the BBC and we wanted to do something

special because you were coming and we went slightly over the top,

really. We are going to show the efforts at the end of the programme,

but first here is the story of how the whole BBC joined forces for you,

Julie. The BBC, a hotbed of creative

talent. Today we are stretching our vocal chords to celebrate a movie

icon in the only way we know how, a mass singalong. We have asked our

colleagues and singers from around the country to give us their best

singing voice. From Radio 1... Heated discussions about how the

line should be delivered. It is just one line! To watchdog. I call

myself... I like that. Maybe I am tone deaf? Vanessa has taken a

minuet from her chat show. I love The Sound Of Music. I didn't think

the lyrics correctly but I sang from my pram. We are singing up a storm

and possibly strangling a cat. Is that Lucy wearing the wrong dress?

Finding this quite hot because Mary Poppins wore a lot of undergarments.

I am enjoying the support of these women but I don't think they are

from the same film. These are not real. We got the outfits from the

intranet. We even think we can teach Jamie how to hold a tune. Am I

singing the whole line? Just a female deer. And Ray, a drop of

golden sun. It is like watching Julie Andrews. Remarkable! How do

you solve a problem like Matt Allwright? Climb every mountain! Is

that too much? With our singing voices, we have got a mountain to

climb but thankfully lots of people have turned up to help. We just love

The Sound Of Music and Julie Andrews and we have seen it so many times.

It is wonderful. The Sound Of Music is a family of session so I had to

come. I love the film and I love Julie Andrews. You will have to wait

until the end of the show to hear the sound of our music. You have put

so much work into that. We enjoyed every second of doing it and

hopefully it will look good. Thank you. What a great compliment. We

couldn't choose which song. There were so many but let's talk about

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because it was not in the book. How

did it feel to be singing this? Well, it was OK. It wasn't in the

book but the wonderful Sherman brothers who wrote the music came up

with this wonderful music hall song. That was my background, music hall,

four years. Your parents were from the halls, where they? And so was I.

All over the place. You acted with them? Did you get thrown about like

Buster Keaton? Yes! My parents were a very good second top of the bill.

My mother said it was better than being top of the bill because there

is no responsibility. But I bet you became the star. That did happen a

little bit. The reason you are here is because you are doing this

fantastic evening looking back over your life. Aled Jones is hosting. I

am going to be in the audience. How do you sum up the night? It is an

engagement that I have done many times. I did it in Australia last

year and I had a ball. It is me welcoming everybody to my living

room, so to speak. It is clips, outtakes, funny stuff, a montage of

some of the films, lots of talk about things that I am passionate

about and funny things that have happened along the way. Then Aled

Jones will join me in the second half and then he really monitors the

questions and the answers that the audience have submitted. That is my

favourite part. You have touched on this a few times in your life. I

have done it a number of times. Does it get easier to be more open about

your private life? Do you want to be more private? I think I want to be

more private as I get older. What about you? The older I get, the less

confident I am that there is anything in my life of interest to

anybody. It is true. My work is one thing but what I do when I am not

working... I don't want to talk about that. You have got kids. I

don't allow my kids, right from when they were born, they were not

allowed to be photographed. There were a couple of accidents that

happened but mostly know because it was too dangerous. I don't have kids

but I do have nephews and nieces and their children. There is nothing

like a good uncle. Thank you. And they are going to love your new film

which is out in cinemas soon. It is the seventh instalment of The X-Men.

This is quite complex until you see it. Wolverine is sent back in time

so that he can create a better future. And you are sort of a bad

guy, are you? I do my best but people do not approve of the way I

do it. When we go into the past, it is not me playing Magneto but the

wonderful Michael Fassbender. Let's take a look. You need to go to my

house and find me. Convince me of all of this. You need me as well. It

is going to take the two of us, side-by-side at a time when we could

not be further apart. You will have to be patient. That is my strongest

suit! You will go to sleep by your body travels back in time. As long

as you are back in the past, the present will coexist. Do you really

think this will work? I have faith in him.

Just watching that, you get special effects and so on, what is it like

for you as one of our finest theatre actors to suddenly be surrounded by

green screens and acting to fresh air? An awful lot of stuff is talked

about green screens. It is a screen on which later on the scenery will

be projected. There I am doing something. What am I doing? It is

all pretending. It is called acting! I am not really up a tree. But an

awful lot of the time, particularly doing the Lord Of The Rings, we were

wherever we appeared to be. It was back in the studio for the close-ups

that there might have been a green screen. But on stage it is not a

real castle, it is not a real room! Really? ! What is fascinating is

looking at a clip like that and then playing the beautiful scenes in Mary

Poppins. Our screen was yellow most of the time in those days. Disney's

version of the green screen. That is the 60s. That is in front of a huge

yellow screen. Oh, for the animation? When you go across the

water, which you do any second, are you on trolleys? I just had to step

on a little raised turtle. Don't tell me you are not on that hill and

you did not turn around? That one-sided. Here we go. Looking down.

I just step on... You will see. And all I had to do was step on a little

turtle and the magic of Disney did the rest. It was a great lesson

because it is the first movie I ever made and it taught me right away the

patients that is needed. Especially for special effects. They take twice

as long. That must have been one of the first films using animation and

people at the same time. He tried it in a couple of movies but much

smaller and this was very big for Disney at the time. Ground-breaking.

Julie and Ian have both played characters that are firm favourites

for fancy dress parties. Now it is your turn to show your versions to

them. Send us your Magnetos from X-Men,

Gandalfs, Richard IIIs, Marias and Mary Poppinses to the usual address.

Can I tell you about one of Julie's frocks from The Sound Of Music? One

of them was auctioned and the lucky winner was Peter Jackson who

decorated Lord of -- directed Lord Of The Rings. Does he wear it? Don't

answer that! I said to him at a party, has your wife turned it on?

-- tried it on? She said across the party, no! If you are out there,

Peter, put on address and send us a picture.

are going to hear some singing plants.

What have you got going on? This is where science and gardening

comes alive. This is a bronze award winning Chelsea exhibit and this is

how it plans can be monitored to pick up the electromagnetic

frequencies to make them saying. The pineapple, a South American

herbaceous plant very good in drinks. If you press it, it will all

become very quiet, and you might just hear it singing. Listen... That

is real sound, live! You look a little bit sceptical? Is it April

on? -- is it 1st April? We have got another two to come. That is

strange, talking to plants and them and to ring back. I see what you are

doing. Oh, my! The idea of cells being reversed to a pre-embryonic

state sounds like something out of X-Men rather than something from the

real world. But the use of stem cell research means we are finding

revolutionary ways to treat certain conditions. Ewan Thomas has been to

read a man with a superhero style mission on his hands.

This man has just got off a flight from Cologne with a special bit of

hand luggage. The box he is carrying over his shoulder contains this, a

bag of stem cells. His trip began 24 hours ago when he set off to get

them. One is acutely aware that when one is carrying the box with the

stem cells that they could be saving somebody's life. The reason he has

to go abroad? The demand for stem cell transplants outstrips the

compatible donors. The match ratio between donor and patient is minute.

Of those awaiting transfer in the UK, less than half will succeed.

Peter volunteers for the Anthony Nolan charity which matches donors

around the world with patients in Britain. He selects the stem cells

in a refrigerated package which stays cold enough for just under two

days. This short hop to Cologne is relatively easy in comparison with

previous journeys. I have been to Australia, I have been to Israel, I

have travelled throughout Europe. He is frequently dispatched to Germany,

where they have nearly 5 million people on their donor database, ten

times as many as in Britain. His job is to bring the stem cells back to a

hospital in Manchester where a recipient we are not allowed to

identify is waiting. Each year, around 1800 people need a stem cell

donor, like 29-year-old Mike Brandon from Bristol who was told he had

leukaemia just after he got engaged this year. Unfortunately he was too

unwell to take part in the film himself. He said, I have been dealt

a bad hand but I can deal with it. Mike needs to find a stem cell donor

match. We had his three brothers tested to see if they were a match

and unfortunately they weren't. The specialist turned to the Anthony

Nolan register to look for matches. About a third of people can find a

suitable donor in their own family but the majority have to rely on

strangers. Kate is helping to find Mike a donor closer to home and has

set up a social media campaign. We called it Shake For Mike. In the

first 48 hours we had 2136 people register to be a donor. Hopefully

shortly we will find out that we have a match for Mike but the

campaign will continue. Peter needs to get to Manchester by public

transport. First, a train to London. You got that with your

life, literally? I am going to be careful. It does not move from my

site. I feel very humble and proud to be with you. Why do you do it? I

am very privileged to be able to do this. Potentially in that box is

somebody's life. Now, the tube to Euston. I am going to aim to do the

400 metres at some point in my life but I do not think I will ever

emulate your wonderful efforts. And finally, the train to Manchester.

Peter has got a 2.5 hour train journey and then he is a stone's

throw from the drop-off point. It has been an easy trip today. I have

been to Australia and back. It took 37 hours. I have got ice packs in

here but only last for 42 hours. If there had been a severe delay we

could have been in trouble. Peter's trip was on planes, buses, the tube

and trains but it has only taken him eight hours to make it to the

Manchester hospital, plenty of time to spare this time. Hello,

everybody. The stem cells are in this bag. I will hand this over to

the hospital. They are still really cold and ready to go. What happens?

To the lab and to the patient. So your job is done?

your job What a job. We have an update. A

match has been fined for Mike and he will be having his transplant next

month. If you would like more information

on how to become a stem cell donor, visit the website.

You have been doing a lot of research in the past? In 1972, or

something, all on the NA -- DNA. I saw a name, wangdoodles. I had to

research like crazy about someone needing a match and I did research

about whether it could be done and it could. Maybe if you are free you

could do a DNA film? Julie famously sang about sugar but

our supplies would have been down to a spoonful or less if it was not for

the fighting spirit of eight particular group of factory workers

during the Blitz. Dan Snow has been to silver time to find out more. --

silver time. If you head east over the city of

London you get to the industrial peninsulas of Silvertown, sandwiched

between the old docks and the Thames. From the mid-1800 's,

Silvertown was the Empire's gateway one materials and a hub for booming

Britain. -- gateway for raw materials. Keeping all those

factories running required thousands of workers, all housed in terraces.

3000 of them worked at the Tate and Lyle refinery which still dominates

the skyline today. By the start of World War II this had become the

largest cane sugar refinery in the world, producing around 14,000

tonnes a week. On 7th September, 1940, the first of the London

Blitz, the success that had put Silvertown on the map made it a

prime target for the loved waffle. The Blitz onslaught was

catastrophic. Street after street was levelled as 300 tonnes of Nazi

bombs rained down on East London. Ethel was a 10-year old girl living

in Silvertown when the bombs began to fall. I remember the first

bombing, that was on 7th September, my birthday. We went out of the

shelter and all of a sudden it went up. Some of it hit our house. Can

you remember the aftermath? The paint factory was alight. All the

houses were standing but they were bombed out. They wouldn't let anyone

back into Silvertown. Ethel and her family were among the thousands who

had no choice but to flee the devastation of Silvertown. To most

of the workforce evacuated, it would not have been a surprise if the

industry had ground to a halt but sugar was key to maintaining morale

and economy had to find a way to keep production going. Philip Lyle

was the refinery manager during the Blitz. They started work preparing

for a raid precautions two years before it happened. They build air

raid shelters in the strongest buildings. They stock them with

food, water, everything. What did your father tell you about the

raids? He wrote this letter, which describes the aftermath of the first

heavy raid on Silvertown... "nearly all the factories on the weight were

burnt out and blazing fiercely but halfway along I find the roadway

full of molten tar, which made passage difficult. I got through and

find the factory practically intact, though both its neighbours were

nearly burnt out and still blazing. " The workers, many of whom were

women, refused to be intimidated by the raids and slept in dormitories

on the site. Not even a parachute mine exploding meters away broke

their spirits. Beyond minor shock there were no casualties at all and

an hour later the girls were back in the same dormitory. Remarkably,

later in the war with the bombs still falling, 14 you rolled Ethel

returned to Silvertown and took a job in the refinery. -- 14-year-old.

Weren't you scared? Not when you are young. It gives you an idea of the

spirit of these people. They are marvellous. The girls were sleeping

near people whose homes had been smashed up. But many were forced to

leave silver time -- Silvertown forget. You don't see anybody now.

They all moved. You lose contact, don't you? Whilst the vast

Silvertown refinery remains those who made it thrive have all but

disappeared. Don't you just love Ethel? That he

would have been -- it was very important for morale, wasn't it? It

was a key factory. The youngsters back at home on without. There were

stories of carrots rather than ice cream. Kids would not believe it to

date - no sweets, no chocolate, no candy bars. And they always said not

to accept sweets from strangers. As a kid, I never had a sweet. I did

not know what it was. We did have a good diet. It was organic,

everything was organic and home-grown. Is it right that you had

a prisoner of war at your house for Christmas? Yes, there was a prisoner

of war camp near us in Wigan. We had evacuees from Middlesex. If they are

watching, get in touch! We have not seen you for 70 years. They lived

with us for a year. My parents were good people and they thought, the

war is over and there is some poor German away from his family who

needs comfort at Christmas, so he came round and spent Christmas Day

with us. And if that family are watching, do e-mail. You never know

we might find them before the end of the show. Julie, you were a bit

older but you were living in Camden to you had lots of experience of

sheltering from the Blitz in the tube stations? Yes, with my mother

and stepfather, and the guitar. We would run down there. Did you do

concerts? My dad did. Sir Henry Moore made that so famous. What do

you remember? It was very smelly. They had burners. There were babies

with nappies being changed. There were toilets, and God knows what.

150,000 people and I went head down there. It was the only place you

could be safe. We are going to talk about the

doodlebug, give us some information about that. These were unpiloted

bombs, the precursor to cruise missiles, I suppose, and the Germans

launched them towards Britain. They were terrifying because they were

unmanned, and a hint of the future of warfare. It was scary to hear

them coming over, it really was. My parents, towards the end of the war

when the doodlebugs were coming fast and furious, no house wife could

bake a cake or do their washing or get the laundry done or anything,

change the birds. My mother would stay in the house until the last

possible moment and muggins would have to sit on the top of a shelter

with a whistle and umbrella because it was always raining! I protested

mightily but I could tell the difference between a doodlebug and

one of ours. When I heard the doodlebugs coming, I would blow the

whistle and we would run into the shelter. And with the umbrella, did

you float up into the air? One day I forgot to blow the whistle. I

wouldn't go. It was pouring with rain and so many neighbours came

round and said, bloody hell, why didn't you blow that whistle? Dan

has sent us these brilliant audiophiles so we can hear the sound

of a doodlebug now. DRONING.

Still familiar? A horrible noise. I don't know if anybody else

remembers. Let's lift the spirits with another singing plant. Lovely!

Christine, what have you got for us? I have got a phone but she is being

a diva. She stressed out from being at Chelsea. -- fern. Julie, can you

pass any any top tips to make a relax? She can't have a gentle cup

of tea or anything, can she? I think a little misting would be a good

idea for a plant. She won't do it but never mind we have got

edelweiss. You know a lot about this. Small and white, clean and

bright. Edelweiss. I never knew that plants could make noises. I love it.

Thank you very much, Christine. Speaking of edelweiss, coming up we

have got a mass singalong of Do-Re-Mi in homage to Julia. Let's

have a look. 100 people joined in including Jamie Cullum. And the BBC

weather team with their green screen. We were inspired by this

particular number from The Sound Of Music.

# Doe, a deer, a female deer # Ray, a drop of golden sun

# Me, a name I call myself # Far, a long long way to run

# Sew, a needle pulling thread # La, a note to follow Sew

# Tea, a drink with jam and bread # That will bring us back to

# Let's start at the very beginning # A very good place to start

How vivid is that memory? That is not green screen, it is really the

Alps. Was there a lot of rehearsing? Yes, lots. Lots of pre-rehearsing.

Mapping out the number of stairs, running here and there, so we knew

the choreography before we even got there and then it was just a case of

acting it. Looking around, your finger placement on guitar was

superb. Thank you. I had a horrible time doing it. They kept putting me

back in the trailer to keep practising. I couldn't do it now. I

play guitar myself. Sorry! My grandson does. Two of them actually.

You didn't play the guitar? I did but I couldn't do it now. Do you?

No. OK! Julie's big break on the silver screen is down to one of the

biggest film producers in the world and years before he set eyes on

Julie, he spent a bit of time over here.

This little Lincolnshire village has a surprising and star-studded

connection with Hollywood. The clue is in the name. Norton Disney. It

was here on the 6th of July 1949 that whilst Disney, creator of

countless children's classics, arrived unexpectedly with his wife

and two children. The local newspapers reported that he was on

his holidays. Walt Disney was already in the UK filming Treasure

Island, his first film with actors rather than cartoons, and he took

the trip from Devon to Lincolnshire. He did not turn up in Norton Disney

entirely by chance. Walt Disney and his family spent some time exploring

the village and chatting to local residents. He visited the local pub

for a drop of cider. Perhaps a tasty picked up filming in the West

Country. But it was not just the current President is attracting him

to the village. He was keen to visit Saint Peter's parish church to look

at the graves. Alan is the local historian. In 1949, Walt Disney and

the Vicar of the date stood where we are standing now. Where is this? --

vicar of the day. This is the mortuary chapel and it is the first

place that a Disney is buried. We have five in total into that there

are many underneath. While Disney must have wondered if there was a

family resemblance. He could trace his family history back to Ireland

and the 17th century. The Norton Disneys came from a powerful French

family and arrived in England sometime after the 11th century. The

belief is that the Disney family came over after the Norman conquest

and settled here? They came shortly after William The Conqueror, towards

the end of that century. And they settled for hundreds of years. Where

they related to Walt Disney? He seems to think so. Although the

footage has never been released, he spent some time filming the tombs on

his cine camera. Storylines of many Disney movies feature a strange soul

searching for their family so perhaps it was a case of life

imitating art when Walt Disney visited Norton Disney to rifle

through the parish records. The current custodian of those records

is Doctor Rogers from the Lincolnshire archives. What is the

earliest reference you have found? This, which dates from the 13th

century, and it mentions paying rent to Lord William Disney. And that is

from the friends, meaning of Isney. And spelling does not settle down

for a long time. By what time do we get the name Disney that we

recognise? Certainly by the end of the 18th century. But the spelling

of his name is not the only parallel between Walt Disney and these

nobles. There is a bit of land here called Disney land. The original

Disneyland! When does it state from? 1386! It all started here. I

absolutely knew it. We have got right here. Is there a link between

Walt Disney and the land of Disney in Lincolnshire? One record states

that in 1651 a branch of the Disney family certified by William Disney

was established in Ireland. But sadly there is still no evidence to

prove that the Northern Disneys were related to Walt Disney's own Irish

bloodline. His living relatives seem to have made up their minds about

the origins of his family name. 50 years later, when his knees also

came to visit the Disney teams, she signed the visitors book, Mary

Disney, direct descendant. What a brilliant story. These two I just

chatting away! We are back on! Can we ask you about Mary Poppins? Did

you originally turned down the role? I didn't turn it down. What Disney

came backstage when I was performing in Camelot and I thought he was just

being nice but he asked if I would come to Hollywood to see the designs

and hear the songs that he was planning for this movie that he

intended to make. I was horrified. I said, oh, Mr Disney, I would love

it, but I have to tell you. I am pregnant! Three months pregnant. He

said, that is all right. We will wait. They were barely in

preproduction. You know how long it takes to get a movie up and running

and ready for the screen, by which time I had had my lovely daughter

Emma. And three months after she was born, off I went with my husband to

Disney. Did you do Camelot with Richard Burton and Eddie -- anybody

else? After Richard left, he left before I did, he made Cleopatra. Do

you get a tingle when you come back to London? When I drive home I

always think about Mary Poppins. Especially in the spring. I love

this country. I love my country. It is my country. Isn't it the best

thing that our great performer of this generation sings with an

English accent? Yes! Nobody has ever been to one of your concerts and

heard you singing without hearing every single word. That was my

lovely singing teacher. She was a stickler for diction. Hang on to

your words and your voice will follow. We had something planned a

bit earlier and I don't know if we have still got it but we have a clip

of you H 12 at your first performance. Really? --

Did you know how extraordinary you were? Of course not. It was just

what I did. I had an adult larynx in a very young voice box. That was my

stock in trade. All the time I was in third avail -- musical, I was

belting out those operatic arias. When was it that you thought, this

is it for me and I want my life to be like this. I saw either Novello

in King's Rhapsody. Oh, my God! It was with Vanessa Lee. And Olive

Gilbert. Oh, my God! Novello was before Anna Steyn and Andrew Lloyd

Webber. The great Welsh composer. Did you come to films fairly late?

No, I have made them since I started but they were so bad you have never

seen them! The first was called The Bells of Hell and it was an

adventure movie set during the summer in Switzerland. It was taking

advantage of the success of The Sound Of Music with lots of kids in

it. No music. And the snow started early that year and the whole film

was abandoned. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got

?4000, my entire salary, which I could put in the bag and work

wherever I wanted. Richard III was the film that catapulted you into

the big-time, so to speak. That was when filled people thought perhaps

he doesn't just shout the time. -- film people. Let's have a look at

one of your speeches. Now is the winter of our discontent

made glorious sun by this son of York! And all the clouds that

glowered upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Fabulous.

Maggie Smith playing my mother, yes. She wasn't best pleased about that!

The technique there, you make it very accessible. I went to the Julie

Andrews school of diction. You can't pretend you can't sing with that

voice. Well, thank you. All right. I will take that as encouragement.

Let's do one together. The difference doing that speech on film

compared to a full auditorium... The best thing was I had played it for

so long on stage that in the studio all I had to concentrate on was not

how to play it, not what I was going to do, but what I would do in terms

of cinema rather than theatre. It was a good way of doing a major part

in a film for the first time. swing and Christine will be telling

us about the highlights. She is off to meet some people who pay them for

a living. The botanic Gardens in Cambridge

have been collecting different plants species since the early 19th

century. It is sometimes easy to forget that the scientific study of

plants underpins our understanding of life on Earth. Plants generate

the air we breathe, supply the food we eat and have even helped provide

the clues to evolution itself. For centuries, botanical illustrators

have captured the detail and diversity of the plant world.

Botanical art started many hundreds of years ago, when it was really

important to understand which plans could be used to cure you, to treat

illnesses, to save lives. So, right back when the first herbals were

written, it was important to have that accuracy.

By the 1840s, when these gardens opened to the public, botany was

being taught as an academic subject. We are seeing a teaching sheet. It

was produced by a man called John Stevens hence low who founded the

Botanic Gardens in Cambridge. He was very meticulous. He did not just

look superficially at the appearance of the plant but wanted to show his

students the details. One of the most famous people he taught was

Charles Darwin. He told them -- put him to recognise the different

elements so they could use those skills. It was those observational

skills that many believe helped sow the seeds for natural selection,

white some species flounder while others flourish. That was behind

everything Darwin deed and that came from Cambridge. His work was about

looking at the animals and plants closely on thinking, what am I

seeing and what does that mean. That is still the key to botanical art. I

am looking to capture the texture and colour of the petals and the

structures, so the reproductive parts of the plans, the bods,

perhaps the fruits if I was to paint them later on. It takes up to 90

hours to paint a flower in detail a photograph could not produce. Our

eyes are different from a camera. We can manipulate the image. We have

the leaves presented in a way the scientists can see most clearly. We

can see into the flour in the painting and we can find the perfect

you presented plans for photographing. -- presented plant. I

love the way you have the round shape of the alley. The team at

Cambridge is encouraging a new generation. Botanical artists to

date show us things we would not see two-day. It is because you have to

look properly to draw. It is a skill that is still important. Today, life

happens fast. We can spend time just looking, just being, just observing.

Botanical illustration may now be closer to art than science but it

can still inspire people to take a closer look to the world around

them. It is exactly that. I have got a lot

of agricultural guidebooks for country file. If you use the painted

once you get a lot more information. We have allowed Christine to come in

because it was called out there. You have brought in these lovely plans.

What is it? It is a rose. This is a new Rose introduced, this is Rosa

David Alston --. It smells beautiful. It is disease-free, it is

a great Rose. These are other lovely new introductions. They are all

being released at Chelsea this year. This is the plant of the year,

hydrangea 'Miss Saori'. When they arrive, and I cut them, what do I

do? Do I put aspirin in the water? If you wish to arrange it cut it at

a slant. Aspirin, and little bit of sugar, and look at it flourish. Are

you a gardener? I am a flower arranger. I love having flowers in

the house. Do you have flowers in the dressing room? I love being

given flowers. I know what to get you.

If you are a florist and you love that creation, that is the plant for

you. The foliage will intensify to gold and you get a metallic purple

striations on the stem. The head of the flower will turn intends

metallic blue. She looks so beautiful in an arrangement and so

elegant. She is 'Neptune's Gold'. It is brand-new and a heck of a good

plant. Talking of keeping them indoors and outdoors, it has been a

real challenge for Chelsea gardeners because a lot of the flowers are

wilting? We have had it hot and cold, but that is the skill of the

British horticulturalist. You see it nowhere else in the world executed

to such a level than at the Chelsea Flower Show. So many expert growers

come together in one space. That is what makes Chelsea the flower show

of horticulture. Is it to do with the fact we have a allotment is? We

have a history of growing. What fascinates me is that we have small

plots, but the stories you can tell in such a short space - you do not

need a big garden at all. You should go, Julie. I will try. You should

engage with plans and you do not need a gorse, you just need a window

box and just enjoy the plant. One plant can set you on fire. Pity she

is not enthusiastic, isn't it? ! And this is Gaillardia ?Celebration?.

The flowers remain intensely red and do not fade out. It is a good

container plant. It will be a very popular plant. It has a very long

flowering season. It is quite hardy. It will come back year after year. I

am noticing things like azaleas, they bloom again, which they never

used to do. See that big telly, we will switch to BBC Two as soon as we

have finished because at eight o'clock the Chelsea Flower Show will

be on and you can find out all about it.

The time has come for us to show off our mass singalong of Do-Re-Mi in

honour of Julie. We are a bit nervous so bear with us. Thank you

to the choir to have given us a hand and especially the people at

Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music for spreading the word. Here we go!

FACING DO-RE-MI -- THEY SING DO-RE-MI.

# WHEN YOU KNOW THE NOTES TO SAYING # You can sing almost anything...

#. Bravo! Bravo!

I want a copy of that, do I get a copy? So do I. We will give one to

you for your birthday, Ian. If we could get them to sing happy

birthday to Ian. Thank you for sending in your photos of you

dressed up as iconic characters. This is Richard and friends. These

costumes are made entirely of curtains. Thank you for sending that

in. This is Laura dressed as Gandalf for a pub crawl. A themed pub crawl?

World Book Day is an important day for five-year-olds and this is EV.

This is Charlotte as Mary Poppins. This is Josh and his brother. We are

saying that you could be in X-Men because you have a metal foot? I am

a bionic woman. I have a bionic angle. Two years ago it was so bad,

I had to do that or end up in a wheelchair. It does not go off

because it is titanium. Does it manipulate itself? No, the muscles

are still around. It is the most beautiful piece of equipment, it is

brilliant. You could join in with X-Men. I have surely enjoyed

listening to the pair of you. APPLAUSE.

Thank you and all the best with the new X-Men movie, Days Of Future

Past. If you want to stay and keep talking, feel free. Good luck with

the tour. We will see you tomorrow with the Morrisey. We are back then.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

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