Browse content similar to 31/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to The One Show with Alex Jones. And Matt Baker. | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
Tonight's guest does a mean impression of Tom Jones and Ronnie | :00:25. | :00:33. | |
Corbett. Tonight, he is starring as himself. It is Rob Brydon! And good | :00:33. | :00:40. | |
to see you. Of course, you are co- hosting Comic Relief. Yes. | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
Direction are doing the official single. They have a fantastic | :00:45. | :00:51. | |
record coming out. Obviously, I am well up on One Direction. "a | :00:51. | :00:57. | |
fantastic record"! We wondered if you could perhaps join them? This | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
is what you would look like in the band. That is one of the saddest | :01:02. | :01:12. | |
:01:12. | :01:14. | ||
sights you will ever see. I met Harry styles, actually. I had a | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
photo with him and showed it to my daughter, and my credibility went | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
through the roof. Are you going to sing with him like you did with | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
Tom? It is a worrying thought, from their point of view! Well, you have | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
joined us on a great night, because we have a lovely film later about | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
what it was like growing up with the The Lion, The Witch And The | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
Wardrobe or the CS Lewis. And that got us thinking - what is in yours? | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
As in, your wardrobe? Have a rummage around and if you find | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
anything weird or wonderful, take a picture of yourself with it and e- | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
mail it to us. Rob, kick us off. What is the weirdest thing in your | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
wardrobe? I have a loincloth. I did a series in Australia a few days | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
ago -- a few years ago called Supernova, and there was a scene in | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
that where I had to be wandering around the outback in a real | :02:13. | :02:19. | |
loincloth, so I kept it. Thought it might spice things up at home. But | :02:19. | :02:26. | |
it hasn't. Does it come out often? In it doesn't. Not since that while | :02:26. | :02:34. | |
the fate for first time. I felt it wise not to repeat that experience. | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
Time for a bit of Mastermind. Our specialist subject tonight is tax | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
and how to avoid paying it. Asking the questions today, a powerful | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
group of demanding MPs. In the hot seat, the firms that make millions | :02:48. | :02:55. | |
by helping others pay less tax. The One Show had special permission to | :02:55. | :03:01. | |
go behind the scenes and get access to the chair of the Public Accounts | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
Committee Margaret Hodge, as she prepared to give the tax advisers a | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
run for their money. Labour MP Margaret Hodge is not a | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
woman to be messed with. I don't know what you takers for. We need | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
proper answers to proper questions. The idea that you come here and do | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
not answering questions, it is not on. As chair of the Public Accounts | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
Committee, it is her job to make sure taxpayers don't get short- | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
changed. This robust probing of tax affairs of Google, Amazon and | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
Starbucks raised eyebrows and helped force the US coffee giant | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
into paying more tax in the UK. Behind this door, Margaret Hodge is | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
gearing up for her committee's next moment in the spotlight. She agreed | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
to give me some insight into how she prepares for battle. We are | :03:53. | :04:01. | |
here to talk about tax. I never feel confident. Maybe that is me. I | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
feel really nervous, really conscious that I am not an expert | :04:05. | :04:12. | |
in this world. But I hope this time, I have prepared. Facing the Public | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
Accounts Committee's questions today will be the senior | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
accountants to help multinationals lower their tax bills by exploiting | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
the legal loopholes in our tax system. Former tax inspector | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
Richard Brooks's keen to see that the committee does not pull its | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
punches. Everybody else expects rich people and a big companies to | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
pay a reasonable amount of tax on their profits. These characters | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
advise companies on how not to do that. So I think Margaret Hodge's | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
best chance of success is to show the difference between what they do | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
and the public expects. I am like Richard, few MPs have specialist | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
backs knowledge, so Margaret and her committee make sure they do | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
their homework. Our have done a lot of preparation. We have the | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
National Audit Office, whose job it is to prepare reports for us on | :04:58. | :05:04. | |
value for money. I have talked to a lot of experts in the field, and we | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
do go a heck of a lot. How robust will you be in your questioning? | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
Firstly, they always say, everything we do is legal. But we | :05:13. | :05:20. | |
know that they take fantastic risks. Secondly, all too often, these guys | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
come into government and help write the new tax laws. So it is a | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
poacher turned gamekeeper, and then back to poacher again. Before a big | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
hearing, the committee meets for a final briefing. MPs are drawn from | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
different parties to ensure, at least in theory, that the committee | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
does not split along party lines. We don't often wash our dirty linen | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
in public. We will have a private meeting, thrash out the issues and | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
come to a consensus. To date, Margaret wastes no time in getting | :05:52. | :06:00. | |
stuck in. So you have deliberately taken them offshore so that they | :06:00. | :06:07. | |
don't pay their fair share of tax in the UK. That stinks. I don't | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
agree, Madam Chairman, obviously. I think we are giving the best advice | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
we can. By Esther advice in what context? To businesses that are | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
competing internationally. Best advice to them, or to the | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
collective good? We are giving the best advice to the client and the | :06:23. | :06:30. | |
options they have. Margaret, I am here to ambush you. How did it go? | :06:30. | :06:37. | |
I am exhausted. I think it went well. Nobody cried. You did not | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
have any breakdowns, or anybody sobbing and saying, I have done | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
wrong. I have never had anybody cry in giving evidence to us. But I | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
think I got more than I hoped. We are trying to make sure everybody | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
pays their fair share according to the profits they make. | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
Well, tax specialist Richard Murphy joins us now, someone else who has | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
been liaising with Margaret. We heard her reaction to this morning. | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
Do you think they landed any big punches? Not the way they did with | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
Google, Starbucks and Amazon, but we learnt a lot. We learnt that | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
these big firms do sell tax avoidance. It took two hours to get | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
them to admit it, which is some indication of how careful they are | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
about the language they use. We learnt that they have so many | :07:27. | :07:34. | |
branches in tax havens that one of the people they did not even know | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
where his firms have offices and have to be reminded. We know that | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
their auditors sign the deal's off. We know that these companies are | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
not only selling tax avoidance, but as Margaret pointed out, they are | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
also helping to write the law for the Government. So a lot of issues | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
came out this morning which let people understand better what the | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
roles of these firms are. mentioned Google, Starbucks and | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
Amazon. We all know about those three. But how began operation is | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
tax avoidance? A HM Revenue and Customs reckon tax-avoidance costs | :08:08. | :08:14. | |
the UK �5 billion a year. I reckon it costs �25 billion a year. There | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
is obviously a big difference there. Google, Starbucks and Amazon are | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
not actually in the revenue's estimates at all, because they | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
don't think that problem can be solved yet, so they have not added | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
it into the total, but I have. It is a lot of money we are talking | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
about. I am sure those in the firing line would argue that what | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
they are doing is not illegal, but what will the Government do to | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
crack down on this? It is not illegal, but nor is it definitely | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
legal. It happens firstly between different states, not just in the | :08:46. | :08:53. | |
UK. So you are finding loopholes. That is what tax-avoidance is, | :08:53. | :08:59. | |
going round the law. Surely it is clear if somebody is doing it. | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
Could you not make it illegal? some extent, it is clear. You | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
recognise it when you see it, but try to define it is hard. It is | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
like an elephant. But that is great, and it has a trunk. I should not | :09:14. | :09:24. | |
have said that next to a comedian! You have a slim grasp of reality, | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
my friend. The The ayes to the right is that we can grasp the | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
reality, because what is actually reported and where it is happening | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
and where it is going on, that is the big test. Is it possible to | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
make it illegal? The government is trying. It has a law coming up. I | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
don't think that will work well enough. We have to push harder to | :09:45. | :09:52. | |
solve this. There is a tax deadline out today. You have four hours and | :09:52. | :10:00. | |
50 minutes to get your tax return in. Online, you can still do it. | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
You can do it before midnight. As we have already seen on The One | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
Show this week, parts of the country have been affected by | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
flooding yet again. By but one area of Cheshire is still recovering | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
from the September floods of last year. | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
The Trent and Mersey canal is 93 miles long and 235 years old, but | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
in September last year, part of this historic waterway dramatically | :10:26. | :10:33. | |
gave way, draining into a farmer's field. Whoa can't go much further. | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
Local tea room a Warner Belinda saw the breach happened. What happened? | :10:39. | :10:45. | |
It was amazing. Let me show you an image. You were one of the first on | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
the scene. Yes. This was at about eight in the morning. There were | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
cracks where I was stood. I was pinned right back against the hedge. | :10:55. | :11:05. | |
:11:05. | :11:06. | ||
The were you not scared? Ferry. You can see I was shaking. People | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
obviously using the canals and the boats, they can't get this far up. | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
No. The Cheshire Ring is now a dead end. So you need it fixed quickly. | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
Very much so. It is not just the boaters and holidaymakers we will | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
miss, it has the walkers and a lot of people using it for dog-walking. | :11:23. | :11:28. | |
A round 2000 miles of canal in the UK is looked after by a charity | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
called the canals and river Trust. They rely heavily on donations. | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
Ince is the operations director in charge of rebuilding the canal. | :11:38. | :11:44. | |
Gobsmacked at how big this is. is a bit of a job. The Trent and | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
Mersey Canal ran along here. Embankment, keeping the water high | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
up above the fields of the wonderful Cheshire countryside. | :11:52. | :11:59. | |
Because of all the rain we had last summer, this bank burst away. | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
Thousands of cubic material were washed away. Millions of litres of | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
canal water. Was it a sudden break of the bank? We had about 24 hours' | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
notice. We knew something was wrong. There have been five times as many | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
land slips in this country in the second half of last year than in | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
any previous year, because of the saturated ground. Being here, it is | :12:23. | :12:29. | |
hard to get across the sheer scale of the devastation. But where I am | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
standing, you could fit 12 double- decker buses! You have to fill this | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
with modern-day materials. What would have been used originally? | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
200 and 50 years ago, they used the material that was here. They dug | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
out from the hillside, created the Embankment and then lined it with | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
clay. The clay forms the seal. We will now use modern materials that | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
will look exactly as it did, but it will be more secure. How important | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
is it to Britain to continue this heritage of canals? Were well, I am | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
biased, but that it is massively important. If you remember the | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
Olympic opening ceremony, everyone was in awe of the industrial | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
revolution and how it was depicted. The canals were part of that. The | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
canal industry generates �500 million of value for the country. | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
We are at the lowest level here on the flood plain, so we will have to | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
gradually step it up. When it is finished, get the canal bed back in, | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
let the water in, boating continues. So for the summer, hopefully you | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
will be ready. It would be lovely if we could come back and see the | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
finished article. You are welcome. Deal. The last one back up their | :13:43. | :13:52. | |
makes the tea. No milk in mind, Euan! Another job well done by a | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
water expert. Rob, you are hosting Comic Relief | :13:57. | :14:04. | |
this year. How long is your stint? There are a lot of posts. I think | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
mine is an hour or an hour and a half. Add it happens to be 25 years | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
of Comic Relief. It isn't that amazing? There are so many | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
highlights over the years. I always remember when Dawn French snog Hugh | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
Grant. I remember that. I remember waiting for that. And when Lenny | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
Henry did the thing with Tom Jones. The singing thing. I always | :14:27. | :14:34. | |
remember those moments. But Comic Relief Bay, Red nose night, always | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
has special moments. What have you got planned? Big things. We are | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
sitting on something big. The new sound vague, Rob. Her I am like a | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
politician. I think it would be wrong at this stage to get into | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
specifics, but let me say this - you will not be disappointed. | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
one of the big pushes this year is malaria and preventing malaria. So | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
you went to Africa, and here is you with a mother and child affected by | :15:02. | :15:12. | |
:15:12. | :15:13. | ||
Hey, there, you are a smiler, aren't you? We have found out that | :15:13. | :15:19. | |
this little girl does have malaria. Don't you? Yes. If you are there | :15:19. | :15:27. | |
thinking, your �5 does not count, well, �5 would pay for a malaria | :15:27. | :15:34. | |
net it may have stopped this little girl getting malaria. | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
Lovely little girl. Such a lovely girl. | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
She was gorgeous. Her mother brought her in early. It is really | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
hard to do those things. Even now as I sit here, you start to fill up. | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
Now that little girl was, the mother brought her in early. She | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
looked full of life. Charming and a smiler, but the majority of the | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
kids they are bringing in are lifeless, limp little things. | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
We witnessed something, I think it will end up in one of the films, | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
where they brought in a little boy, they were trying to put a drip into | :16:09. | :16:15. | |
him, an IV line. They were trying to find a vein. They could not find | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
one on the arms. They were trying to get in through the head. Trying | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
to get this needle in, the nurse could not do it. Then they got one | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
in but there are just lines of mothers with their children. So | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
they get it in, give them the drip. Then the mother carries the child | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
to the ward and, now, don't think of the ward being lovely beds it is | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
awful. They have not got enough drip stands for the drips. So you | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
get four on one. The mothers are sitting on the floor. These | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
children, people are having their dinner now but these children have | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
problems with their waterworks, that is all going on. | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
It is horrendous. I have watched these films and I've | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
been affected by them. But when you are there... And the | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
smell... Oh, it was a real, it was very hard. | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
It stays with you a long time. You are carrying that through on | :17:18. | :17:25. | |
the night. The last time that Comic Relief was on, �74 .3 million on | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
the night. That figure goes up it is | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
remarkable, but when you see... When you see the films. I have been | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
privilegeed to go and see it. The way that we live here, I know you | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
have been out, Alex but you can't compete, really it is like another | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
planet, not another continent. The thing is that it does not have to | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
be that way. Especially with malaria. It is preventable. The | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
nets cost �5. It is about educating and then giving the equipment that | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
is needed. Let's hope that people will be as | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
generous this year. I really hope so. I know these are | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
difficult times, but by our standards it is very little one has | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
to give to make a massive difference. | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
Completely. Now he is impossibly cute and spiky. | :18:18. | :18:25. | |
Thank you! He puts in the occasional... I am 47, yet there is | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
a youthful energy it is odd. That's it. We are not talking about you. | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
No, we are not even talking about Chris Evans, we are talking about | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
the British hedgehog and wildlife experts are worried that hedgehogs | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
could be under threat because of some problems. | :18:44. | :18:51. | |
Miranda has been to the Channel Islands to track down a rarer type | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
of hedgehog. Alderney covers three square miles | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
with 2,000 residents, but it has unusual wildlife. | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
Along with all of the bees, rabbits and birds, there are around 700 | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
hedgehogs on the island. But these are no ordinary hedgehogs. | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
Over half of them are not brown, they are blonde. | :19:14. | :19:20. | |
Back in the 1950s, there were no hedgehogs on the islands, but local | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
legend has it in the 60s, three brown pairs were brought back from | :19:25. | :19:32. | |
the mainland as pets and escaped. James is from the Alderney Wildlife | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
Trust. A certain number of the hedgehogs | :19:36. | :19:42. | |
are blonde hedgehog. They are not albinos? No, it is a | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
gene that is carried by brown hedgehogs. If there are two that | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
carry it, then one out of four of their off spring will be blonde. | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
For a night-time animal it is seems a strang adaptation. There are | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
blonde hedgehog on the UK mainland but this are rare. Here they make | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
up 60% of the population that is likely to rise. | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
Here we don't have foxes or badgers, so they are safe from these types | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
of pred tores. Some locals feed them in the | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
gardens and head out to catch a glimpse of them at night. Some will | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
even join the hedgehog surveys to count the browns, versus the blonde. | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
I am excited as I have never seen a blonde hedgehog before. So, tonight, | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
it may be the night! Within ten minutes of searching, we find | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
something. Is it blonde? Unfortunately, for me it is a | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
juvenile brown one, but it is important for the survey. They need | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
to know if it is a male or female. It's a boy. As for us, we are back | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
on the search for the blonde. It is not long before we strike lucky. | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
Look, that is definitely a blonde hedgehog, look how white it is. | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
Look at that! That is cute and ridiculous all at once. | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
Look at that little white nose. There are no fleas on the hedgehogs. | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
In the UK there would be 500 fleas on it. It would be obvious. | :21:20. | :21:29. | |
They leave tubing on a couple of their spines so they don count the | :21:29. | :21:35. | |
hedgehogs twice. There we go, the first time I see a | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
blonde hedgehog. They are so unusual, you can see why the | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
islanders have taken them into their hearts. Let's hope that they | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
continue to thrive here on Alderney. There you go little chap. | :21:47. | :21:55. | |
I like the blonde little ones. It is a change! LAUGHTER If you want | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
it take part in the survey, it starts tomorrow. There is more | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
information available on the website. | :22:02. | :22:09. | |
And a nice change for you, Rob, was your West End debut, wasn't it? | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
Why did you do it? I spent four months in the West End with A | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
Chorus Of Disapproval. It is hard work. With Trevor Nunn. You know it | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
is hard work. You think you go on stage once a night but for me it | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
was hard. I have never done anything for that long. | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
But I thoroughly enjoyed it. have good reviews. Although there | :22:33. | :22:40. | |
are some that we cannot make head nor tail of. The Guardian saying he | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
unleashs a terrific riff. Is that good? They are not saying that I | :22:46. | :22:55. | |
broke wind! What about this one, a deliciously, bossyness about him. | :22:56. | :23:03. | |
And the Wales Online saying Rob Brydon appear tobs a natural at | :23:03. | :23:09. | |
this testing medium! In this brave new medium of theatre! It is a new | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
idea! Another thing you were a natural of in a testing medium was | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
working on the Shopping Channel. This is you. | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
There we are. So we thought why not give you this. | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
I will hold this. There we are. And now do the hard sell on the | :23:26. | :23:36. | |
Comic Relief noses! OK, well, our next item is this | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
fantastic, red nose 2013 nose. Now, let me show you. It measures | :23:41. | :23:49. | |
about... It is measuring, oops, the wrong end of the ruler. | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
It is about uninch there. For anybody watching in Scandinavia, | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
that is three inches across the bottom and up to the top four to | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
four-and-a-half inches. There are so many things to do. You can fit | :24:04. | :24:12. | |
it on your nose like that. And you can't put this on without | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
doing a little bit of Ronnie Corbett! Brilliant! There is the | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
klaxon. They are very comfortable, those | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
noses. I remember having a nosebleed from the early ones. | :24:25. | :24:31. | |
Back in the early days of Comic Relief, the noses were barbaric. We | :24:31. | :24:37. | |
think that they prompted riots, the great riots of' 8, but these are | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
soft.. Better to have them on than off!, Right, then, in Chronicles of | :24:42. | :24:47. | |
Narnia, everyone remembers the characters of the lion, the witch | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
and the wardrobe. The stories lts featured the man | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
named Mr Tumnus. I have very small feet. With a wide | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
bottom, I look like Mr Tumnus. The question is, what would it be | :25:04. | :25:11. | |
like to grow up with CS Lewis? Let's see. | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
People see CS Lewis on the spines of books, Clive Staples "CS" Lewis, | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
the great scholar, writer, but to me, he was not CS Lewis at all, he | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
was just Jack. He was the man who first became my friend and later my | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
stepfather. Later, Jack was the man that I admired and respected and | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
loved most in the world. My brother and I came to Oxford in 1953. I was | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
taken to meet CS Lewis, the man on speaking terms with high king, | :25:44. | :25:51. | |
Peter of Narnia and Aslan, the great lion. I expected him to | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
bewaring a sword and armour, but instead, when I came to the back | :25:56. | :26:03. | |
door, there was a balding stooping man, in shabby clothes. With | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
cigarette-stained fingers and teeth. He looked strange to me, but soon, | :26:08. | :26:16. | |
he became so much more. Jack was a fellow of English At | :26:16. | :26:23. | |
Oxford for almost 30 years. He would take us walking out around | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
the University. Because of who he was, I got lots of privileges. I | :26:27. | :26:34. | |
felt so chuffed that I could see him around the place and get into | :26:34. | :26:40. | |
the areas where no-one else could. The movie ShadowLands is a | :26:40. | :26:46. | |
wonderful film, slightly fictionallised of how Jack and his | :26:46. | :26:52. | |
wife got together. First it started off as a penmanship. | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
My mother had longed to go to England. While she was here, she | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
was going to see if she could meet CS Lewis. That is how they met. A | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
lot of people think that my mother was hunting Jack as a gold digger | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
kind of a situation. She was not. I am glad to see that the house is so | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
well looked after. The CS Lewis Foundation have gone to great pains | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
to restore it to what it would have been in the 19'50s. It is very much | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
similar to how it was when we lived in it. The eight acres that the | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
house sits in, most was sold and destroyed by the gopers but the | :27:30. | :27:35. | |
lake and the -- by the developers but the lake and the woods is still | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
as it was when we were here. Now this is where I spent a great | :27:39. | :27:45. | |
deal of my childhood. It is a magical place. Right now it is | :27:45. | :27:53. | |
hauntingly Narnia. One expects a fawn or a centaur to appear at any | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
moment. Many people regard Jack as sun who lacked himself in a study | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
with a dim light and locked himself away. He was not like that at all. | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
He was athletic. He loved walks in the countryside. One does not think | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
of Jack as being the brave type, but he fought in the First World | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
War, and there was a great deal of character in the man. He was an | :28:16. | :28:21. | |
amazing character. Being a child here had huge advantages, the | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
learning advantages were huge. There were great conversations | :28:25. | :28:32. | |
between my mother and Jack in the diningroom. They would play | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
Scrabble using all known languages. You only have to prove that the | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
world you were using existed in a book in the house and you got away | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
with it. They would tone it down for my benefit but there was no | :28:44. | :28:50. | |
hope of me ever winning. I know that Jack and my mother, in the | :28:50. | :28:55. | |
time before her remission, were the happiest in their lives. My mother | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
died when I was 14, my father committed suicide a year-and-a-half | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
later, Jack died a year-and-a-half after that. It was a traumatic | :29:04. | :29:10. | |
childhood, in a sense. Everyone I ever loved died. This whole area | :29:10. | :29:18. | |
holds many attachments to me, but they are no longer the heavy, | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
grieving morose as they used to be. I can go down to the grave and look | :29:23. | :29:28. |