28/03/2016 The One Show

Hello and welcome to your Easter Monday One Show with Alex Jones. And

as Matt is busy lambing on the farm all week, I'm joined by the Warrior

himself Chris Hollins. APPLAUSE

Thank you. How has your Easter been? Very good potty training. Hit it

hard, four days intense training. Exactly. It's not great. I hope our

guest has had a better Easter than me, he's a good all round egg and

just happens to be Britain's leading musical star.

# Love will never ever be the same... #

Well, how is that for a Bank Holiday belter? Doesn't get much better!

Please welcome Michael Ball! Hi, God to see you. Hi. How are you?

Very well. How are you? Interested to hear how your potty training is

going. It's more the wife than me but he's going great guns. I wish I

was! Can't believe we are talking about this. Aspects of love there.

30 years ago nearly. You can't tell. A lot of work! That high note at the

end, the B-flat, quite something but it was your idea wasn't it? It was

originally. I did a series of concerts before the show opened with

Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd Webber decided we were going to

presue two songs from Aspects as kind of finales for the show. --

preview. Love Changes Everything used to end "love will never be the

same" and I thought, don't you think we ought to have a showy finish -

not like me at all! And he said, can you get it because I don't read

music, I don't know what my range was, I didn't at the time. I belted

out this note little realising I was going to have to do it twice in a

show, eight shows a week when they put it in. But it worked. It worked.

Yes, yes. It's the money note, you know, the

money note! This Easter weekend's been hit by

winds, rain and snow in some areas but we know our viewers are not the

kind of people to stop the weather from them having fun. Of course. If

you have a photo of your family braving the elements, send them into

the usual address and we'll show some later. As Michael is here to

talk about the Olivier Awards, we'll have a performance from the

nominated show later, the cast of Bugsy Malone. My favourite. Easter

is the most important date in the Christian calendar and this weekend

millions of people will have come together to celebrate their faith.

Can faith alone explain the seemingly miraculous recovery of a

wheelchair-bound man. Dr Sarah Jarvis has re-opened the case book

on the story of Jack Traynor. When it comes to miracles, it's easy

to be cynical. But for millions of pilgrims, to holy shrines like

Lourdes, they're proof of divine intervention. So should miracles be

taken seriously? I may be a Christian, as well as a doctor, but

I do not believe in miracles. Here in Liverpool, many people are

certain this man, Jack Traynor, was cured by God. We know for certain

that Jack was gravely injured during World War I and given a full war

pension because of his paralysed arm and severe epilepsy. By 1923, he was

confined to a wheelchair but travelled to Lourdes in a party of

Catholic pilgrims. Michael Langham organises trips there today and this

is his understanding of what happened next. When the blessed

procession took place, his arm, which the nerves had been severed

and he'd had operationles to try and rejoin these nerves in his arm,

began thrashing about. They took him to the hospital. The following

morning he leapt from the bed and ran, in his night garments to the

grotto and net in prayer and, from even when I was a child, people were

told about the Jack Traynor story and we believe that it's a miracle.

Jack went on to run a successful business as a Coleman. His

grandchildren, Gary and Jackie, have no doubts.

What do you think happened to Jack that day in Lourdes? I think he was

very fortunate that he was a chosen person to be cured and I believe he

was cured of his illness and that is my given belief. And we are here, we

are here as living proof. For a case to be officially

recognised as a miracle by the Catholic Church, it needs to be

assessed by the international recognition of Lourdes using

scientific methods. Michael Moran has agreed to review the case file.

But are all doctors as ultra--sceptical as me?

Do you really believe in miracles? I have to say, I do. I have seen

evidence to back up cures through my work in international medical

committee and have met three people who've been noted as having

miraculous cures, so I've seen the person after the cure. I see the

placebo effect of people getting better because they want to. Surely

that is it? You can't explain this with the placebo effect. Only 69

cases have passed all the tests to be classified as miraculous cures.

Jack's grandchildren have never seen the report published on their

grandfather or heard the conclusions. You have been to

Lourdes a few weeks ago and looked through Jack's case in detail, what

did you find? The first important thing is the report is there, lots

of things about your grandfather and here is a summary of the case which

is laid out by the doctor at the time. A lot of detail there. How he

was deemed incurable and then a summary for a year later saying this

is a powerful man who is fit and well and a note from a GP in

Liverpool to say that he knew him and that he did have epilepsy and

now he doesn't. So he's a powerful man, the picture of health? Yes. To

me, it's pretty convincing. Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. I

accept the circumstances of Jack's recovery are extraordinary. But in

the end, the medical committee gave two good reasons why this case

should not be considered a miracle. We think part of it might have been

due to the delay between his first official examination which may then

have said that we can say for definite it happened at that time.

If we were looking at the medical details, potentially it could have

been that he still had a small amount of right arm weakness after

the cure, albeit he was obviously very functional

the cure, albeit he was obviously coal. The man who left for

the cure, albeit he was obviously in a wheelchair returned to applause

here at lime in a wheelchair returned to applause

The bar for in a wheelchair returned to applause

high. In all my years as a doctor, I've

high. In all my years as a doctor, without a cause I can understand.

high. In all my years as a doctor, Dr Sarah

high. In all my years as a doctor, clear in the film that you don't

believe in miracles but there is no clear in the film that you don't

is extraordinary. How flummoxed are you? Completely. All doctors would

be. Nerves are similarly not supposed to put themselves back

together and certainly not overnight. Medical miracles happen

sometimes and for inexplicable medical reasons, people recover.

Especially we hear in terms of cancer? Cancer is a really odd one.

It's still incredibly rare and I wouldn't want to give people hope.

Probably about four cases a month in medical literature are people who've

had spontaneous remission, a cancer which should have been going in One

Direction, and we know which direction that is unless they have

treatment, but suddenly overnight completely disappeared. Classic,

beautiful case, a chap called John Pattison who 40 years ago was

diagnosed with Hodgekin's disease, he was told it was terminal, he had

treatment, kept relapsing, he said, that's it, I'm taking myself off to

make the most of it, he came back from abroad, two months later,

doctors examined him and said "it's gone! " Extraordinary. I suppose in

terms of medical research you get excited? We'd love to be able to

investigate what caused it, we'd like to bottle it, we want some of

what they've got. Those cases are rare but there is something more

tangible now. This immuno-therapy is a big step forward in terms of

cancer isn't it? Yes, and it may be connected to the spontaneous

remissions because we think what is possibly happening there in some

cases might be people's immune system fighting it off. This is

designer immune system. So we know we all produce antibodies, you have

a cold, you fight it off. These are mono-clonal antibodies designed

specially to attack the proteins on the cancer, so they can be used to

treat the cancer or we can make them attack the cancer itself. We can use

viruses now which we are modifying, to get them to attack the cancer.

Marvellous. Moving on now to your area of expertise, the theatre!

OK. Oh, that one. Thank goodness, yes.

The mouse trap is the longest running show, it started back in

1952? Yes. Do you know the shortest running show in the West End? In the

West End. No, I know on Broadway there was a show called I think

Glory Days that closed at the interval!

LAUGHTER You knew that Michael Ball was going

to be... I think I have a sneaky idea but I won't give it away. You

have ruined it anyway so don't worry.

It's had an opening night and a memorable closing performance. They

were both on the same day, sadly. Yes.

Every year, theatre shows in the West End make more than half a

billion pounds. But for individual productions, it can go horribly

wrong. This is the story of a West End

production that became the shortest running show in modern West End

history opening and closing within 24 hours. It's Friday morning and

welcome to Radio 1... When Radio 1 DJ Mike Reed came up with the idea

of writing and composing agriculture an all singing all dancing tribute

to the life of Oscar Wilde, it was always going to be a tough sell.

We'll have a jingle. Mike Reed, just what I always wanted...

Oh! Most West End musicals look for at least a couple of million as a

start-up fund and employ a big team behind-the-scenes.

Not Mike. It was Reed's decision to produce direct and fund the entire

show by himself and that turned out to be the real problem. The first

duty of the theatre producer is to secure the right venue. Mike chose

The Shaw, his first big error, the Shaw promised to launch Oscar as the

centrepiece of an expensive lawn. . -- launch. . That, according to Mike

Reed, didn't happen. We were spending on re-establishing it

because it was basically a conference centre, it wasn't on the

map, taxi drivers didn't know where it was, they weren't online without

an e-mail address. Without the support, Oscar's box office presales

were disastrous with just five paying customers in total.

Traditionally, it's advance ticket sales that fund a show's start-up

costs. Without these, no-one even knew Oscar the Musical was on. As

the curtain rose on press night, Mike knew he needed good reviews to

help drum up box office business. But then another disaster hit. The

sound was all over the place and there were real problems. I spent

most of that night walking the streets. I knew that we were really

up against it. Jittery, waiting to see what the papers said. I knew it

wasn't going to be good. And he was right, a theatre critic remembers

what he saw. It wasn't a very successful first night. In fact it

was a disaster and, I looked at my review and I was slightly shocked

and embarrassed by it because you don't want to be too nasty but this

is what I said for what it's worth; "what would Oscar Wilde say if he

was condemned no watch the musical of his 150th birthday, something

about his hair going grey from gratitude or he might be too busy

chewing his green carnation in dismay... ". Not very nice. That was

Jon rows compared with some. This was much more than an artistic

failure. With no third party investors, terrible presales and a

disastrous product launch, Oscar the musical faced an immediate cash

problem. The dilemma was simple, to stem the financial bleeding by

injecting more of his own money or cut and run.

Reid chose the latter, closing the show after an unprecedented one

night. Why couldn't you have gone on?

I didn't have the money other major West End producer. I couldn't afford

to carry on so I had to make a quick decision as to whether to carry on

or cut and run them, and that was the decision. I said I can't get

deeper and deeper in here so I took the decision to pull it. Some

reports put the figure Mike lost close to ?80,000, a drop in the

ocean for the big boys may be but a future loss for one man. In this

world, the world of show business, there is the show and the business.

Business is the difficult end of it. There you are producing this thing,

didn't work, and you have never done it again. I never wanted to be a

producer, learned a lesson, wouldn't do it again. But again, you can look

back for what it's worth and say you are in good company of people down

the decades who have gone swaps, shouldn't have done that. The great

Oscar couldn't have put it better himself.

He cannot knock him for his bravery. I have got to ask, I know this

audience will say you have never been in a stinker of a production,

but have you? I have been in a show that has been rubbish. I shouldn't

say... Kismet. Oh, here we are. I wish I could tell the stories, I

can't, but it was ill-conceived to start with. We shouldn't have been

doing it because it is set in Baghdad and we were at war at the

time so that's not the greatest of starts. And it is very

old-fashioned, beautiful music and I was told we were going to rewrite

the book and the writer was still alive and he wouldn't let us. It was

terrible but the good thing that came of it was but also in the cast

was a young opera singer called Alfie Boe. We became great mates and

I persuaded Cameron Mackintosh to come and see the show because I said

you will never see anything worse in your life and he loves a bad show,

loves having a laugh. I introduced him to Alfie and that's where the

whole Les Miserables came from. We are here to talk about Sunday night,

you are hosting Olivier Awards, and here are some of the musical

nominations this year. And do you see how we have the

actual award. You have done it, you have the actual award. Have you felt

it? I want it back! Is what will your personal highlight this year? I

think Imelda Staunton's performance, she's a great mate but I'm not

biased, her performance in Gypsy was one of the most brilliant

performances I have ever seen in the theatre. It is an extraordinary

show, one of the most challenging shows, and she was incredible. I

loved Kinky Boots. I haven't seen Bend It Like Beckham yet, I'm going

to see it next week. The theatre is really thriving and it is an open

field, the awards. Some years you can say this will win, that will

win. And it is not just musical is of course. I'm looking at some of

the biggest names, Nicole Kidman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Judi

Dench. Dame Judi is always up for one. I know, it's boring! And Mark

Rylance getting an Oscar, could he do the double? It would be nice,

Rylance getting an Oscar, could he wouldn't it? I heard it

It's interesting, the big stars you name

It's interesting, the big stars you Cooper came over to do Elephant Man,

It's interesting, the big stars you they love doing

It's interesting, the big stars you and performing live. They will make

their money that is where the real training is.

And that is where the real training is.

out of you doing performances on the night? Yes, I will be part of two

performances. Part of a special tribute to the 40 years because it

is the 40th anniversary of the Olivier Awards, and getting a lot of

previous winners back to perform there, and also a little personal

dream of mine because one of the writers of Kinky Boots is Cyndi

Lauper and she has asked me to sing with her. I didn't even have to push

her! And we want to say congratulations because we know you

are taking over from the late Terry Wogan on Sunday mornings on Radio 2.

We are really pleased for you, that is a really nice slot. Good luck

with that and good luck with the awards and we will have a special

performance from one of the related shows, Bugsy Malone, at the end of

the show. The leading lady in our next film is

used to standing centrestage day after day and you could say hers is

a very middle-of-the-road performance. As she gets -- unless

she gets more funding, the could be coming down on her

performances. Here is could be coming down on her

Lollipop lady Marie could be coming down on her

mission, not just to make sure hundreds of kids get across this

busy road safely, she's also one hundreds of kids get across this

marketing mission to her job. Because crossing patrols across the

country are at risk as council budgets are squeezed. We are a

national institution really. We budgets are squeezed. We are a

like fish and chips, red buses... Here in London, it costs the council

?165,000 per year to have Here in London, it costs the council

25 crossings, but while the Crossing guards are waiting to hear if they

will have the chop, parents say guards are waiting to hear if they

service is priceless. How much do they pay them compared to the life

of one child, you know? Marie says councils should be thinking outside

the box. I think councils should be looking towards private sponsorship

from companies, we can advertise their logos on our uniforms and a

small amount of the budget could be going towards making a difference in

the community. Do you think this could catch on nationally? I hope

so, I would like it to be standard across the UK. The idea has already

caught on in Cambridge, and whilst Marie has had no takers so far from

the businesses she has approached, she won't give up. It's not about

our jobs, it is about road safety and children crossing the road.

Local parents think the crossing patrols provide a vital service.

This particular crossing, there has been a few accidents with kids

getting run over. I don't know how we can manage crossing this road.

You see at all the time if she's not there, so many kids run out and it's

not safe at all without her there. Bath was home to Britain's first

lollipop lady, Betty Hunt, in 1937. Modern road safety groups advising

councils say the need for crossing patrols now is as great if not

greater than it was in those early days. Deputy leader of the council

is Dominic, he's also won the finance team so what's he planning?

We haven't got rid of them, they are still there. We are consulting,

looking at new ways of funding lollipop ladies which is why we are

looking at our community, at our voluntary sector, and hopefully we

can be successful in following Marie in terms of getting sponsorship

which would be ideal. I have come to Hornchurch now to join Marie on her

quest to get sponsorship from local business. Set up by their dad Jim

over 40 years ago, this local building firm is run by brother and

sister Jamie and Lauren. I know you are Mormon, how important is it to

you that dangerous patrols are patrolled by a man or a woman? --

you are a mum. Very important. We have a lollipop lady always on

patrol, she is always bright and upbeat and children look forward to

seeing them. We need them. I have been given permission by the council

to see if I can find either national or local businesses, people who are

interested in sponsoring our service. That is something we would

be very interested in. Lollipop people are valuable asset to the

community and we would be happy to help you in your quest for

sponsorship. It is a result for Marie as the building firm agreed to

sponsor her for at least a year at around ?6,000.

Marie, how are you feeling? Brilliant, really excited. What a

lovely family and a lovely family business. I would be very proud to

wear their logo on my uniform. It is a positive result. Far from

being barking mad, it seems Maria's idea has legs and we will be keeping

barking and Dagenham's children safe for the foreseeable future.

Thank you. Some pictures now view braving the elements over the Easter

weekend. Look at the umbrellas blowing out.

And thanks to Michael. Before we go, here is the cast of Bugsy Malone

singing one of my favourites. You can see Bugsy Malone

at the Lyric in Hammersmith in London from June

and tickets are available now. # Anybody who is anybody

# Will soon walk through that door # At Fat's Grand Slam speakeasy

# Always able to find you a table # There's room for just one more

# At Fat Sam's Grand Slam speakeasy # Once you get here

# Feel the good cheer # Like they say in the poem

# Fat Sam's ain't humble # Plans are made here

# Games are played here # I could write me a book

# Each night astounds you # Rumours are a-buzzing

# Stories by the dozen # Look around you cousin

# At the news we're making here # Anybody who is anybody

# Will soon walk through that door # Anybody who is anybody

# Will soon walk through that door ..stay sharp.

You have a very young heart. There's something wrong with your

test.