21/09/2016 The One Show

What are you waiting for, we are on air on one minute. I need some

hairspray. The star of Gardeners' World has his paws all over the

make-up. Monty Don?! No, Nigel. Hello, and welcome to The One Show

with Matt Baker. We've had well known double acts

on the show before - Ant and Dec, Paul Hollywood

and Mary Berry, even Poldark and his Demelza -

but tonight's guests are inseparable # Just the two of us.

# We can make it if we try. # Just the two others.

# Building castles in the sky. # Just the two of us.

# You and I. It is Monty Don and a fully made up and pampered Nigel. A

very warm welcome. We understand this is my job was my first outing

to the big smoke. He has never been to London, he has never been on the

street, he has hardly ever worn a collar and lead, so this is

extremely stressful, but he is doing very well.

If he wants to wander around the studio, feel free. The place is

yours, Nigel. We understand that the tricks of the trade that you use at

Longmeadow is to adorn your cameras you will find, the Gypsy particular,

with various toys. The director will say, I wanted Nigel to look up. --

you will find, with jib in particular. This is our

Cottonopolis, isn't that ideal! And we also have a little squeaky toy to

get the ears moving. Monty is over there, Monty is over there, you can

have that, Nigel. Well done! Lovely to have you both, we will be talking

about all things Nigel later in the programme.

Ideal for climate control as the season is on the turn.

And in future you might be able to wear a shirt made from cotton

spun right here in Britain - we've got the perfect

Oh. Once upon a time here in greater

Manchester, Cotton was king. A simple strand of sperm thread that

is -- sperm thread that has clothed and finish nations and

civilisations. It was a source of huge wealth, transforming the city

and surrounding towns into the powerhouse of the Industrial

Revolution. My parents were the first generation of our family to

escape the cotton mills. Everyone before them had worked in that

industry. As a child in Rochdale in the 60 's and 70s, I watched the

industry decline and then disappear, we thought, forever. The last cotton

mill here closed in the 1980s, but 30 years later, Cotton spinning is

back. Andy Ogden is the empty. What does it feel like being a Lancashire

mill owner? You don't look like the traditional type. I am thinking of

growing a beard... Mutton chops. Putting on a top hat. Changing your

name to Josiah! Having a statue in my local town. After ?5 million

investment, the mill will target the luxury market. It's Cotton, proudly

labelled made in Great Britain. Why is there a demand for it now?

There was always demand for quality product and the best quality of yarn

in the local textile industry. We are going to be producing the finest

cotton yarn in the world, and quickly. Couldn't you have doing it

cheaper? You can always do things will cheaply, but this is demand,

heritage, provenance and bringing it home.

Now a single floor of the automated spinning machines can be operated by

three people instead of 60. Californian cotton is the raw

material, this machine takes a little from each bail and blends it

together. Christine has spent her lifetime in textiles, but never

cotton spinning. What does it feel like to have started working just

recently in a cotton mill? Exciting. My parents was in the cotton mill, I

think my grandfather was, now I am going through. Hopefully I can pass

this onto my generation. And the cotton itself is very fragile? Very

fine. You need nimble fingers. I can tie a very fine line on a hook for

fishing, so I should be all right? Good.

This intermediate stage, called roving, is going through this

spinning machine with a compacting component. It squeezes the fibres

together, that is what gives it very high quality. This is what comes

out, 1000 metres of this stuff weighs only four grams. In its

heyday, the region boasted almost 2000 mills. It also employed

thousands of migrant workers, including this man. For him, it is a

welcome return to cotton. Since the industry died, it is very difficult

to find experienced operatives. It is a big opportunity for young

people to learn an old skill with a new technique. From an old-timer

like yourself? Correct! This is the end of the

caper, this is called final winding. This machine has actually got an

eye, a little camera, and that spot any imperfections in the thread it

whips them out and slices the two ends together. That is what you end

up with. I know as a business menu will have little time for emotional

sentiments, but is it important to you that you have brought this

industry back to its traditional home? Oh, it is vital to us. If it

wasn't for the staff and the people around this region, we would not be

able to do this. Here it is, this is going off to

make luxury tailor-made shirts, each of which will cost about ?650. Which

is 100 times more than I pay for one of mine. For now, this will remain a

fairly niche industry, but it is great to see the first British

cotton that has been spanned four decades, and in its traditional

home. It is wonderful to see the industry

is back, what a shame it is 600 and shirt! It is a shame, and he usually

has his dog Buster, which I am sure Andy would have enjoyed. -- Nigel

would have enjoyed. No sign of bluster in the cotton mill. Let's

have a chat about Nigel. Nigel is the reason for the new book? It is

called Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs? I wrote this book because

Nigel gets lots of attention, people endlessly write to him, we get

letters, Christmas cards and presents, much more than me. Having

spent 30 years trying to build a career in television, I have ended

up being a dog minder. The truth was I have always had dogs, always loved

them. Nigel is sort of the summation of that. The book is as much about

my love for dogs and the dogs I have had as this chap here. ALEX: you

have seven dogs? Yes, all seven are there quite a lot. He is very

patient and gets on board. How did you come up with the name Nigel, it

is not a doggy name? That is the point, my children went to a phase

of naming dogs the least likely name for a dog. The short list was Nigel

or Keith. There he is as a puppy! It ended up being Nigel. Nigel buyer is

his full name. We have a sheepdog called Monty. My parents have a dog

called Monty. In the book, you compare him to Bill Clinton? How do

you come up with that comparison? Very briefly I went to a Bill

Clinton talk at Hay on Wye literary festival some years ago, and all the

great and the good weather. I got in because I knew somebody organising.

He was late, he was overweight and he looked like a potato, but every

single woman there, and this became a growing discussion points, was

bewitched by him. And I watched him, every woman found the excuse to go

and talk to him. And he drew them in. It was his charisma. He drew

them in. And they all got as close to him as possible. I am not talking

about you, it is someone else. Nigel has that same ability of drawing

people in. And he looks like a potato. In the book, you write about

the British's love of dogs, but you don't sugar-coat owning a pet. When

you take on an adorable puppy, you take on responsibility for its

death. That is not easy or good, either you will die before it or it

will die before you. In my time, I feel great guilt that there were two

dogs in particular that I kept alive for my emotional state or pleasure,

not their health. I think you have to accept that it like Nigel, he is

eight and a half, he might live to be 13 or 14, but I have had dogs die

at ten, the natural end of their life span. It means you have to be

brave, you have to be kind, you have to be wise and put them down, do it

in a loving, thoughtful manner. That is part of being a responsible

owner. It is not a subject we like to talk about much. If you love a

dog, you look after its death as much as its life.

It is the 50th anniversary of Gardeners' World next year, what

will the two of you be doing? Nigel will be Sela wait -- celebrating

with yellow balls, I think. And maybe a bumper anniversary biscuit.

Have you got a Fountain plans? We have a Nigel topiary. We will have

big jamborees at Gardeners' World life. I did the 40th anniversary.

The thing about Gardeners' World, it flows and keeps going and it will be

going long after Nigel and I have gone. The landmarks are great, but

it is the future. It just rolls on. The 50th, we will celebrate, but so

we will 51. It is like the land itself, we are all just custodians.

Monty 's Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs is out tomorrow. This is a

perfect example of a fantastic relationship between man and dog,

but on behalf of you who think dogs are getting in the way of your

relationships, Esther went to East London for advice.

Dear Esther, I think my girlfriend prefers my dog to me. She kisses it

more often, she buys it treats, she even let it slip in our bed. Should

I get rid of it? Let's see what the people in this market think?

If she prefers the dog to me, it is up to her to get rid of me or the

dog, it is her choice. If you had to choose between a dog or a man, which

would you pick? I would pick a human being, please. You can choose your

dog over your wife, can you? All right then. Keep the dog. Because?

Women always straight, dogs don't. Women always stray?! Maybe I have

found the wrong ones? Yes. You have got the loveliest dog.

He is called Enzo. Say hello to Esther. He rolls over, he shakes

hands, he does a high five. Your husband or the dog? The dog. Has

someone ever preferred an animal to you? I have had colleagues prefer

animals to me, I think. A dog is straightforward, simple love,

uncomplicated. The whole family needs to love the dog. Don't get too

enthusiastic, excuse me. I think my girlfriend prefers my dog to me, she

kisses it more often, buys it treats, lets it slip on our bed,

should I get rid of it? Share the love. Just bounce the dog a bit and

replace the dog. Can we watch this terrific hip movement? You should be

on strictly movement. -- you should be on Strictly. I prefer cats. He

sounds a bit jealous of it. May be the dog is giving her more love?

Give the lady more romance, love! As much as I devote my life to dogs,

I do not allow them on the bed. No dogs on the bed. No dogs upstairs.

Same. You can identify with that, can't

you? My wife says she knows but I really loved one I called her Gretel

which was the name of one of my dogs!

Monty, what jobs are you and Nigel doing in the garden now?

Lawns, you can deteriorate your lawn, hey, we are talking about lawn

stash area to your lawn. Carrots and parsnips than begin to harvest, it

is this time of year. Christine has been to a village

in Pembrokeshire where the residents have taken growing their own food

to a whole new level. I have been assured that you need

perseverance. Maybe there are other ways for human beings to live in the

landscape. Not everyone wants to live like this. Many of us dream of

escaping the rat race and going back to a simpler way of life, and

inspired the 1975 BBC comedy, the Good Life where Tom and Barbara Good

tried to become self-sufficient with varying degrees of success. What is

it? A fully grown carrot from our allotment. I well remember Tom and

Barbara's dream of self-sufficiency. It was big news in the 1970s. At the

time, several communities developed, all motivated by the father of

self-sufficiency, John Seymour. He was Britain's back to nature pioneer

and he started writing about self-sufficiency in the 1950s. We

started cultivating more ground and this became a tremendous Labour. So

we found ourselves getting a horse, more food had to be grown for the

horse, we found ourselves forced into a position of almost complete

self-sufficiency. And is his daughter. His philosophy was to live

a slightly on the planet as he can, he moved to Africa when he was

younger, 21, he spent a lot of time with Kalahari bushmen Joseph, who

taught John had to live in harmony with nature. He realised you did not

have to dominate nature, you could let everything live and thrive. Over

the years John's philosophy has continued to gain supporters with

more people having allotments, growing their own vegetables and

some even taking it further. This is Pembrokeshire, where this community

is dedicated to coming as close to self-sufficiency as possible. For

the most part it is a conventional garden, and Ian 's competitors. A

founding member of the community, said in six years ago, he lives

there with his wife and children, he turned to the self-sufficient life

after a conventional suburban upbringing. I was massively inspired

by John Seymour, his books, I remember being thirsty for that kind

of information. In the 1960s and 1970s John Seymour raised his own

family according to his principles. Biggar there was no he wanted to be

but haymaking and sheep dipping. Everyone gathered to help. But

different upbringing, definitely. This community operates in a similar

way, members working in harmony with the land but they have not given up

on technology completely. We are trying to demonstrate that it's

possible to live a sustainable lifestyle on the land while having a

fairly modern, modern comforts. We all have washing machines and

laptops and stereos and all that stuff. And at hard we are

essentially sustainable. Just how productive are you? We are producing

in excess of ?100,000 a year, doing a range of things. Food, both for

our consumption and for sale, craft for our only use and for sale, we

make our own electricity. Six years on the community is to nine families

supporting 20 adults and 30 children. This is part of what we do

in the eco-village, we have our living from the land so I grow the

widow myself. I have a direct connection between my own needs and

the way I meet them and that feels good to me. John Seymour continued

to promote self-sufficiency until his death aged 90 in 2004. I'm sure

he would have been proud to be the inspiration for communities like

this one. Now this may be surprising to some people, Monty, but you don't

think self-sufficiency is to you. I do not think it is for everyone. I

think growing something is essential for everyone and life enhancing and

brilliant but trying to be self-sufficient ends in failure,

disease and disaster. All the people I know who do it have such a

restricted life, you wouldn't do it but growing something as much as you

can is good. ?100,000, I think we'll all be bringing him up for the

business plan. We're joined by weather

forecaster Alex Deakin, because tomorrow marks a special day

for gardeners and Weather By tomorrow, everyone will be in

agreement that it's definitely autumn! The equinox. Day and night

are the same length as of tomorrow, and tomorrow will be autumn

whichever way you measure. Looking back, the summer was a mixed bag,

somewhere remember it as hot, some very wet. In June we had some

unprecedented weather. Overall the summer was average but if you look

specifically at months and areas its remarkable because the South was wet

in June. A lot of people I know in the South say it was a cracking

summer but they forget that June was very soggy indeed with twice as much

rainfall and hailstones as well, harvesting hail as our Weather

Watchers show in Sevenoaks, this was Sevenoaks, in June, so soggy in the

South. It was Wimbledon as well and they had to go to the middle Sunday

because it was so wet. Beach weather on the Isle of Harris, and a picture

of Shetland, 50% more sunshine in Shetland in June than average. Day

after day, beautiful blue skies. And then July and August came along.

Back to normal, it got very wet in the Highlands, from the first week

onwards cracking scenes like this, Norfolk and Suffolk just got warm

and sunny and we had hot spells. Not lengthy spells of hot weather but

through August in particular we had some peaks in the temperatures, the

hottest day of the summer was on the 23rd in Faversham, Kent. The hottest

day of the year was just a couple of weeks ago in September.

Meteorologists measures as June and July and August but September has

been crazy. So many days of 30 Celsius, three days in a row over 30

Celsius has not happened since 1929. The hottest day of the year was in

Gravesend, mid-September, 34.4 Celsius. It's never been about hot

ever. Not in the UK. And then bang, the thunderstorms, last week, which

caused flooding. That's what happens, the heat and humidity bills

and the atmosphere gets angry. One of my bugbears is that the weather

forecast is very Southeast centric. Don't you watch Country file? People

were commenting on this heatwave when the rain was pouring down

outside my window. In June and July we were talking about the Highlands

because it was so unusual. Thank you for all the weather Watchers

pictures that have come in. We really appreciate them.

If you'd like to become a Weather Watcher but aren't

sure how to get started, you can go to our website

Back in October we featured a film about a potential threat posed

to our honeybees by the Asian Hornet.

Their long feared arrival was finally confirmed after a sighting

Mike's been to meet a man who is keeping a close eye

on our native hornets and he doesn't even have to leave home to do it.

If you happen to be invited to stay at this house in Devon you might

want to find out who your room mates and before you accept. Stephen, good

to see you. Please come in. The house belongs to the vet Stephen

Powell 's, Intrepid naturalist and friend of The One Show. This

wildlife spectacle you have promised me is in your spare bedroom? Come

and have a look. In the corner and mysterious set of doors. The plot is

thickening. This is special, have a look. Hornets nest! It's supposed to

be a bird box. Stephen put it in the outside wall when the house was

built so imagine his surprise when he opened it one day to find

Hornets. The Hornet is a super-sized cousin of the wasp. It looks like a

really large one at the top. I assume this is the queen wedged in

here? She is huge. She must be twice as big as the workers. She is

resting and then she will go around the nest and look for any self

victory acquire her... She's the mother to every single Hornet that

we see here. They are egg laying machines, effect. Queens are the

only Hornets to survive the winter, she will have admitted the previous

autumn and then hibernate and until it was time to start a new nest --

to having debated. Then she will have got these workers to help her.

Hornets nest so incredible structures. You might be surprised

to find out exactly how they make them. While they are busy building

up their nest inside I am keen to see what they are doing outside.

High in the wall is the entrance to the nest we saw inside. One of the

key rules of the workers is together the perfect nest building material,

rotting wood. -- to gather the material. Stephen says the Hornets

have been using this piece of wood, you can see that one of the workers

has used its mandibles to scrape off bits before it chews it can uses

saliva to mix it with and uses it for the construction of the nest.

Inside the workers are busy turning the wood into puppy mache. They are

building it up. They will walk backwards as they go, making the

papier mache and make hexagonal shapes. No space is wasted. It is

the most astonishing feat of engineering. Beautiful structure.

Suspended citadel. You can see this liquid fired down the whole time,

waste? You're in. Nest can produce six litres of you're in in the

summer. Some people might think they had a leak in their loft and

actually it's just Hornets going to the toilet! I would not like to be a

plumber called out to that one. The eggs hatch out into larvae then

hatched by the workers. You can just see the larvae moving in the cells,

saying, feed me. Revolting looking creatures and if you look closely

they have mandibles like the adults with which they hold the food. They

are after protein. It is what you need to grow fast. Once the larvae

are big enough they close themselves into their cells and then like

caterpillars turning into butterflies they will metamorphose

into workers. They might not be the room mates most people would choose

to share their bedroom with but their surprise arrival has given us

a unique insight into the life cycle of the Hornet.

Those structures are incredible, what a treat to see that. Before you

go we want to say a quick thank you, Nigel, that is for your doggy bag.

And Monty's book Nigel - My Family And Other Dogs is out tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will be Livin' On A Prayer, we'll have Jon Bon Jovi in

the studio, I can't wait, it will be good. Lovely, what time is it? We're

halfway there. Goodbye!