28/02/2014 The One Show

We will hear how or 2014 has become the year of the sinkhole. And we

will hear from this little guy, Lucas. He is four and has his own

personal hotline to NASA. You can stop now, Anastasia, this is us.

Hello, welcome to The One Show with Alex Jones. The one thing she cannot

do without right now is her climbing shoes, running for a sport relief

challenge. All will be revealed on Monday. How is it going? It is

going. And Chris Evans is here and the one thing he cannot do with out

is me! Tonight we want you to send us a picture of the one thing you

can't do without right now. Because in a moment we have a film about

this guide. He was given 15 minutes to grab what he needed most when a

sinkhole opened up under his family's home. Look at that! There

have been ten times as many sinkhole is this debris than ever before. And

you are worried about it? Yes, one thing this show cannot do without is

a guest and they do not come any happier than ever in Davis! -- Evan

Davis. Nice to see you. What can't you do without? It is the phone but

money can buy phones. These socks I took to school my first day of high

school and they have never worn out and they have been in every sock

drawer I have ever had and I would feel terrible if anything happened

to them. Are clean? Yes and they even have my name label on. Sell

anything living and breathing. The insurance company can replace items.

Let's see what happened when Sharif Sadebay discovered a massive

sinkhole under his house and was allowed back in to grab what he

could when he was allowed back in for 15 minutes. If seemingly

ordinary street in Hemel Hempstead but turned the corner and it is a

very different story. After the wettest winter on record,

it seems sinkhole is or another painful legacy of our recent

weather. According to the British Geological Survey, this year's

winter storms have contributed to the number of sinkholes and

landslides. Natural sinkholes can occur when rainwater soaks through

soil and certain types of rock which are dissolved by water. Over time,

cavities developed beneath the soil until the ground above collapses.

For the residents of this street the nightmare began on the morning of

the 15th of February and a knock on the door by police. I opened the

door. There were police everywhere. I grabbed my little boy. They came

upstairs and said, get out get out. So a real urgency? Guess. Overnight,

sinkhole ten feet deep and 30 feet wide Tourette in the ground beneath

Sheriff's house. So this happened 11 days ago, have you been back in at

all? No, we were not allowed to go back in until today just did get

things like clothes. You had no clothes? No clothes, nothing.

Everything is in there. Today, Sheriff has been allowed back inside

but just for 15 minutes to grab what he can. Residents from the evacuated

properties cannot move back in until the Council confirms the ground

around the site is safe. All these cracks have suddenly appeared. So

you are trying to get as much as you can carry. Since the sinkhole

appeared 17 truckloads of concrete have been used to fill the void to

try to make the area safe. Holes this size are unusual and probably

in my career I have filled in half a dozen holes of the most of this

size. We are busy trying to investigate the extent of the

problem and naturally, we will do it as quickly as we can. Since being

evacuated, Graham's family of four and their dog had been living in a

tiny hotel room. Adam has got a cot? No, he is sleeping in with us. The

dog has her own bed. You are trying to do some schoolwork at the moment

will stop there is a fair bit of cabin fever but we have to just get

on with it. You want to know what has happened and make sure it is put

right? I do not want them running round the garden with fear in the

back of my mind that there might be a sinkhole. Residents of 12

properties or unable to return home with no idea when they might be

allowed back permanently. For Sheriff it was a case of getting in

and out and getting as many things as possible. Lots of clothes for

him, his wife and son and also the laptop and documents. He does not

know when he will be allowed back inside his house again.

What would you do? It is incredible. Good luck to the

families. You might remember that Matt and I met Zoe who lost her

car, Bruce, when a sinkhole opened up outside her home. Zoe was

wondering how she would get Roos out. The good news is, the sinkhole

has been filled in! But the bad news is that Bruce is still down there

because they could not get the car out so they had to bury the car.

However, a very friendly virtual card trading company gave her a new

one. Hooray! So it all ended happily ever after. We need to pick things

up now. How about a little boy called Lucas who is very cute with

his own direct hotline to NASA? He is very tired so we have to get on

with this! If you have ever helped your child with a school project

prepared to be outdone. Lucas is joined by his dad. James, tell us

the story, what was the project that Lucas had to get done at school?

Lucas and his friends were doing a project on space at school. We

thought we would see if we could get some kind of response from NASA if

we dropped them an e-mail if we asked for a brochure or something

like that. I filmed Lucas asking some questions. Just a colour

brochure would have been amazing. And we were blown away by the

response from a very kind chap called Ted. First let's have a look

at one of Lucas's questions. Question number one, how many stars

are there? A great question! What happened next? Three weeks later we

got a response from Ted. There was some dialogue going on. I think Ted

had to deal with an emergency at NASA so I did not ask too much. He

sent us a ten minute presentation, a tour of NASA. It was a ten minute

video but I expect it would have taken a day to edit. This was just

for Lucas? Just for Lucas. Good for Ted. He is a very nice man. You have

never spoken to him directly but Ted is live from NASA right now. This is

super cool! Say hello to Ted. Say come in NASA. Coming, NASA. Now you

can ask him any question you want. What do you think? How hot is the

son? Good question. The sun is very hot. In fact it is over 5000

Celsius. One of the ways we know how hot the sun is by looking at it. It

turns out when things are very hot they start glowing and emitting

light. By watching the sun we can infer that by looking at the night

how hot it is. Right now, NASA is currently studying the sun very

intensely. NASA has a great mission called Iris which is studying the

sun and watching it all the time. That is a good answer. Any more

questions, Lucas? No. No? Ted got away lightly there! How cold is the

moon? That is a good question. The temperature on the moon depends on

whether it is daytime or night-time like here. During the night it can

be colder than -200 Celsius. During the day it can be warmer than 200

Celsius. But it is not as fast as it is here. A day and night on the moon

takes a month. That is why you can see it go from full moon to half

Moon to quarter moon. Have you seen the film Gravity and did it make you

scared? Guess, idea to and I am glad I have got my feet on the ground.

Say you have heard of the Ted and Little Ted, that is NASA Ted! You

can go to sleep now. What is the most you have done for

your best pal? Have a listen to Jane Plume's story.

When my best friend and her husband lost their lives I made the big

decision to become legal guardian to their boys. There is rarely a quiet

moment at this house in Loughborough. Jane is a single

mother to five children. These three are hers but Luke and Ashton are the

sons of her best friend Jean. The first thing that struck me was her

smile. She was very bubbly. We had a similar outlook to life in general.

We would sit down with a bottle of wine and put the world to rights.

When Jane and Jean are both met -- when Jane and June one met they both

have young families. We started planning days out. Gina was very

loud but Sean was more reserved. Over time he became a really good

friend. In 2009, Sean was diagnosed with lung cancer and given just a

few months to live. He refused to be defeated and threw himself into

fundraising. He told Gina out of the hole that she was starting to sink

into because he was so strong and positive. A year later out of the

blue, the family received a phone call. I cannot remember the exact

words. They said there had been an accident. Gina was killed in a car

crash. She was just 34. Her boys were five and 11. That is where my

practical side kicked in. I would get the boys to school and get

Ashton to the childminder. I would wait for my girls, pick them up,

come back, do dinner for everybody. Jane realised time was short for

Sean. One day I said, if you wanted me to have the boys, I would. Was it

a big decision? It was a big decision and I did not take it

lightly. But I did not have to ponder it for months or weeks or

days. It was a massive decision. But an easy decision. When Sean died,

Jane moved into their house. Annie Mae had to change schools. Marco and

Milly have astounded me. The way they have coped with the change and

accepted it, as far as I'm concerned, they have two more

brothers. I said, go for it. Tell me what you think about auntie Jane? I

love her to bits. She's the best thing that happened to us. I was

really happy she offered to take us in after mum and dad passed away.

What is it like having this munchkin as a sister? She is a rascal. Who is

this boy? My brother. Who is this girl? My sister. We make a lot of

memories around the dinner table. We are lucky that we have got a few

memories of the families together. Last year, Jane's daughter nearly

nominated her for a Mum of the year award with the local paper. My mum

should be Mum of the year because since 2009 she has been an

inspiration. Jane won the award. I love all five of them equally. I

have never once regretted my decision. Jane has written a book

about her story and it is out now. Big decision to make - our

documentary - pro or anti-London? A bit of pro, a bit of anti. Here is a

clip. More than ever before, one city is

dominating our lives, our economy, our culture, our politics. London is

now evolving into the capital of the world! It is the place where people

want to live if they possibly can and want to have some investment.

Money, companies and people are pouring into London like never

before. London is one of the great iconic cities of the world and we

can attract people from New York, from Tokyo, from Paris. Our capital

is generating more than a fifth of Britain's income and it is pulling

away from the rest of the country. The danger is that while London

congratulates itself on global economic success, the rest of the

country feels left out of getting any share of it. It seems crazy that

we are centralising it in one place and building a huge suburb that is

stretching north rather than spreading it out properly. APPLAUSE

Two hours in all, starts on Monday at 9.00pm on BBC Two. A week later,

you have the second half. What was the mission statement behind Mind

the Gap? It was explain why, in this country, London is just so dominant.

It is not like Germany where you have Berlin and Hamburg and

Dusseldorf and Cologne, it is a weird, lopsided economy and a lot of

us who live and work in London think it is getting more lopsided. This

place is changing very fast. We wanted to explain it. That is part

one. We wanted to see what do you do about it, what should the rest of

the country do about it? I wanted a little chance to put a hard hat on

and go to a lot of construction sites. Of course you did(!) What

were the major arguments for and against London's power? London

really works. This is the thing. This is why it is so difficult for

the rest of the country. London sucks in a lot of talented people.

It creates lots of top jobs. It's a great place to put those top jobs

because - you have condensed so many people within a tiny space, within

45 minutes of travel time. You have millions of people. In lots of

businesses, media, science, financial services, that kind of

proximity, that shoving everybody, squashing everybody up seems to work

well. That is why London is successful. London uses its people

brilliantly. The rest of the world look at it as a sort of - the

Germans have VW, we have London. It is a great machine that churns out

output. London is productive and that has to be good. Of course. You

don't want to close down your big economic engine. Lots of people will

be thinking, "It all happens in London." Exactly. The problem is

that with the way London produces so much, it sucks in a lot of the best

jobs and the best people from the rest of the country. So, it uses up

more than its share, really. It uses it up very well. You can see how the

rest of the country must feel that it needs to get a look-in. Boris is

very pro, the Mayor of London. Did you get some good antis, though? The

trouble is this. Everyone outside London running Birmingham City

Council and Manchester, they don't want to do down London because they

want to say, "We are doing really well." They are all saying, "We are

doing fantastically." We found it hard to get people to do down

London. It was a bit of a mission. We don't want to do London down. It

doesn't have to be a versus the rest. We have to ask what is the

rest of Britain doing to get a piece, to sort of get a segment of

that? It is called Mind the Gap. What about the gap, is it widening?

It is at the moment. That is not good. We have this enormous crash -

the crash of five years ago - it was in London's industries that that

crash occurred. Which part of the country is growing fastest? London.

People are flocking into London. It is the most extraordinary thing.

There is a bubble, as you said, and a crash could happen again. What

happens if the Russians and the Chinese ship out? This is my secret

worry about the programme. Everybody leaving in two years' time and

someone will say, "What a load of old rubbish that was!" There could

be a bubble in the property market. It is getting very silly where I

live. I wouldn't be surprised if those were overheated. London has -

it has - there is something about big cities at the moment. They are a

very good place to do stuff. London has a resilience, even if the

property market falls, my guess is that London itself will reinvent

itself. Don't say "London" anymore! What about Manchester? What about

Birmingham? Liverpool? Here is the part two story. What does the rest

of the country do about it? You have said it again! Sorry. LAUGHTER We

need bigger cities outside of the capital. And - I said "the

capital"... This is quite good. We have some big cities. They are not

huge cities - Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds. We have these cities. If you

could somehow join them up a bit more, if you could build really fast

links between those, and build much better roads between those than the

M62, you would have a city the size of Los Angeles. It would be like Los

Angeles, a big, sprawling city. I think some kind of focussing on the

big cities. The world is about cities at the moment. That's what

this whole programme is about. Alright. The programme is on BBC

Two. It's a week apart. Monday and Monday. The first Monday after the

weekend. The one seven days after that! What can't you do without

right now? Hunger Games. This one is a bit strange. Michelle can't live

without her two certificates for sheep-related items. This one can't

live without her woolly hat. Sally can't live without her bike that

lives in her living room. OK. Evan, when you find yourself on a phone to

a call centre, do you behave well on purpose in case you are being

listened to and taped? I always behave well, but not because I fear

being taped. Just because I'm a nice guy. He is a nice bloke. We sent

Michael Douglas to give some call centre workers a spruce up. If only

they were allowed to put the phone down for long enough.

I have come to Morley on the edge of Leeds. Today, I'm calling in to a

call centre. These people are dealing with calls about parcels

handled by one of the country's largest delivery companies. Good

morning. They deal with more than 160 million collections and

deliveries each year. If you send something and it doesn't arrive,

these are the people you talk to. Nicola is a customer service

adviser. That is right, isn't it? Correct. Nice. How do they measure

your job success? They say we kind of have four minutes per call. OK.

Or per enquiry. How do you stay calm if somebody is giving you a load of

grief. ? Do you have a technique? We have to sit and take the swearing

and the abuse that we do get and tell them if they don't stop it, we

will end the call. If they don't stop, we terminate the call. If they

are nice to me, I will help them. If they do come through straightaway

being rude, sometimes it is hard to stay calm. Obviously, I would lose

my job if I didn't. I don't have a choice. Take a look. Wow! You like

it? It is great. Back of the net! When people ring in, do they pay for

that call? Yes. If you were to ring them back, we would pay for that

call? We would pay for that. So you avoid doing that! You should be

answering the phone, not playing on Facebook? What is going on? I work

on the social media team, so we deal with queries on Facebook and

Twitter. We can monitor what is being said and we can approach them

and say, "Would you like us to resolve that problem for you?" How

many followers have you got? 5,600. How many calls do you get to a day?

You can take a hundred plus calls on a really busy day. Are calls really

recorded for training purposes? We can record them to train staff, but

sometimes it can be used obviously if you are on a call and you have

someone that is hard to deal with. What is the technique then? You are

not, like, undermining the customer, trying to patronise them. That would

be a no, no. Have you had an argument with a girlfriend where you

have used your default tone of voice to keep things calm? My girlfriend

works here! We have both done it. "That's fine, that's fine. But we

will stop there, we don't need to go any further." Take a look. Better

than my mop that I had before! It needed it. Thank you very much. You

are the boss here. Why have you got the FA Cup? Contact centre manager

of the year. Congratulations. It is like winning the Oscar. You are the

Meryl Streep of customer care centres. Thank you. I quite like the

idea of being Meryl Streep! This is Sophie. She's so busy I have to cut

her hair at the desk. Sophie is on the VI P-Team. What does that mean?

We deal with customers that ship more than 100 parcels week with us.

We have a collection that - a van driver that has not turned up. They

are contacting the driver. Should be there within the next ten minutes.

Alright, then. Thank you. Bye. Nice work. Love it. Really nice. Won't be

able to do that at home, though! It's been a brilliant day with these

jolly nice people. The next time I ring a call centre, I shall remember

to be sweet on the end of the phone. Thank you, bye. Thank you very much.

If you thought that was a good, strong plait, have a look at this.

This is Anastasia from the Circus of Horrors and she can pull a car with

her hair. Anastasia, how did you learn that you could do this? It was

originally Chinese men that used to do it and I was looking for

something a bit grander and that is where the hair hanging came in. It

is an old-fashioned circus act that is dying now because it is quite

unpleasant to do. I can imagine. The end of the show is almost here. The

quicker you can pull that cab Evan will have longer to plug the Circus

of Horrors Tour. Thanks to all our guests tonight. You can see Evan's

programme, Mind the Gap: London vs The Rest, on Monday at 9.00pm on BBC

Two. Next week, Mary Berry, John Barrowman, Ruby Wax, Sam Bailey and

Jeff Lynne. Anastasia, go, baby, go! APPLAUSE

Good grief! Nearly there. Tomorrow, Bromley

Churchill Hall. Thursday Reading. Friday Tunbridge Wells. Monday,

Darlington. Friday 14th March, Stoke-on-Trent. Saturday 15th,

Birmingham. Other dates, too. Thank you very much. Your husband plaits

your hair? He does. Monday, I will tell you about the Sport Relief

Challenge. Have a great weekend. Bye. Cheers.