When Britain Went Wild

0:00:18 > 0:00:25We've all been taught to see the '60s as a wild decade, a time of sexual and cultural revolution.

0:00:25 > 0:00:29But it was also a time when another revolution was happening,

0:00:29 > 0:00:35when our attitudes to animals and nature were completely transformed.

0:00:35 > 0:00:40As television took off, a new world of exotic creatures started to enter

0:00:40 > 0:00:44our lives, and a new respect and reverence began to grow.

0:00:44 > 0:00:48That relationship between man and animal completely changed.

0:00:51 > 0:00:56People were just ready to start thinking a little bit more widely about animals.

0:00:56 > 0:01:02Writers like Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell helped us to appreciate and value animals.

0:01:02 > 0:01:07Pioneers such as Joy Adamson, and her life with lions, and Jane Goodall, with her

0:01:07 > 0:01:12research on primates, showed us that animals had something to teach us.

0:01:12 > 0:01:15We're not separate from the animal kingdom.

0:01:15 > 0:01:19We don't rule over it, but we're part of it. That was something new.

0:01:19 > 0:01:25Before the '60s, the British public knew very little about wildlife protection.

0:01:25 > 0:01:29Groups such as the World Wildlife Fund or campaigns to save the whale didn't exist.

0:01:29 > 0:01:36In fact, the very idea that animals might be endangered came as a big shock to us.

0:01:36 > 0:01:38That was a big wake-up call.

0:01:38 > 0:01:40Yes, it was a big change of attitude.

0:01:40 > 0:01:44As our interest in animals grew, so did our awareness

0:01:44 > 0:01:48of their surroundings and the natural world around us.

0:01:48 > 0:01:55And a new word began to be used - the environment, a word hardly recognised before the '60s.

0:01:56 > 0:02:01The idea of "the environment" as a way of talking about what surrounds you was novel.

0:02:02 > 0:02:05It is stunning, the transformation in attitudes.

0:02:05 > 0:02:10In fact it's one of the great untold stories of British social and cultural history.

0:02:10 > 0:02:15This is the untold story of how we fell in love with animals,

0:02:15 > 0:02:22of how we grew to understand our relationship with the natural world. This is the other story of the '60s,

0:02:22 > 0:02:24of When Britain Went Wild.

0:02:33 > 0:02:35The change in our attitudes to the natural world

0:02:35 > 0:02:39was long in the making, but the post-war years were key.

0:02:41 > 0:02:45At that time, few people were engaged with nature or wildlife.

0:02:45 > 0:02:49In fact, very little had changed since the colonial days,

0:02:49 > 0:02:53when protecting animals was all about preserving hunting stocks.

0:02:53 > 0:02:57But there was one man who would change all that.

0:02:57 > 0:03:02Peter Scott was the public face of a new movement and the driving force

0:03:02 > 0:03:06behind the first-ever mass membership wildlife group.

0:03:06 > 0:03:10He encouraged a love for, and a fascination with, the wild,

0:03:10 > 0:03:13which would inspire a generation into caring for animals.

0:03:13 > 0:03:16I think David Attenborough has said,

0:03:16 > 0:03:19if there was to be a patron saint of conservation in Britain,

0:03:19 > 0:03:23it would be Peter Scott. He was a remarkable man.

0:03:26 > 0:03:28Very difficult to find someone,

0:03:28 > 0:03:30certainly in this country,

0:03:30 > 0:03:33who was anywhere near as influential as Peter.

0:03:35 > 0:03:39Of course there were a lot of people behind the scenes,

0:03:39 > 0:03:46but in terms of public presentation, Peter was incomparable.

0:04:01 > 0:04:07Peter Scott was born into a family of an elite class of Englishmen from an earlier age.

0:04:07 > 0:04:12His father, Robert Scott, was a very British hero. Better known as Scott of the Antarctic,

0:04:12 > 0:04:19he had died in his attempt to be the first man to the South Pole when Peter was just two years old.

0:04:21 > 0:04:27Such a background of wealth and privilege was common among many of the early naturalists.

0:04:30 > 0:04:32Peter Scott enjoyed the great outdoors.

0:04:32 > 0:04:37Although we may now find this surprising, he was a passionate hunter.

0:04:40 > 0:04:43I think there's an instinct within us,

0:04:43 > 0:04:49which goes back to our forefathers who had to kill to eat,

0:04:49 > 0:04:52and I think it's still there.

0:04:52 > 0:04:56And I'm bound to say that I passed through a period,

0:04:56 > 0:04:58and I hate remembering it,

0:04:58 > 0:05:01but I don't want to cover it up because it's true.

0:05:01 > 0:05:05It was a time when I really took great delight

0:05:05 > 0:05:09in successfully killing.

0:05:09 > 0:05:11I... I... I...

0:05:11 > 0:05:14I hate to think it was so, but it was so.

0:05:15 > 0:05:19In our generation, that wasn't an odd thing to do.

0:05:21 > 0:05:27A lot of the people most interested in conservation and wildlife

0:05:27 > 0:05:31were in fact people who'd been brought up in the country

0:05:31 > 0:05:35and shooting was absolutely part of ordinary life.

0:05:35 > 0:05:38That route, although it does seem strange,

0:05:38 > 0:05:42is a route that many others have followed. It works for people.

0:05:42 > 0:05:47It's something which someone coming from a very different background,

0:05:47 > 0:05:53not as a hunter but perhaps as a city-dwelling nature lover, might find inexplicable.

0:05:53 > 0:05:58But the truth of the matter is that there are lots of hunters who have become conservationists.

0:05:58 > 0:06:03It was through hunting that Scott developed his keen interest in wildlife,

0:06:03 > 0:06:06but his conversion was a turning point in his life.

0:06:06 > 0:06:10He gave a very poignant account

0:06:10 > 0:06:12of his conversion.

0:06:15 > 0:06:21He describes in his book, The Eye Of The Wind, how he shot a goose

0:06:21 > 0:06:24and it was wounded - it broke its legs.

0:06:24 > 0:06:28It was out on the mudflats and nobody could get to it.

0:06:29 > 0:06:34It was there that morning and then it was there the same afternoon when they went back

0:06:34 > 0:06:35and it was there the next day.

0:06:35 > 0:06:38He decided that, you know,

0:06:38 > 0:06:42he didn't enjoy this and he didn't want to do this any more.

0:06:42 > 0:06:47So he switched from being primarily a hunter

0:06:47 > 0:06:55to studying their behaviour and eventually of course to conservation.

0:07:00 > 0:07:03Scott, the hunter-turned-conservationist,

0:07:03 > 0:07:08fell in love with the wetlands of the Severn Estuary and, in 1946,

0:07:08 > 0:07:12he set about creating a sanctuary for wild and endangered birds.

0:07:12 > 0:07:17It became the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire.

0:07:17 > 0:07:20First of all, they lived in a little cottage.

0:07:20 > 0:07:23There was a little cottage on the estate there,

0:07:23 > 0:07:24the part that they bought.

0:07:24 > 0:07:28Then they built this spectacular low red-brick house,

0:07:28 > 0:07:31which had this enormous window looking out over the pond,

0:07:31 > 0:07:38with wild ducks coming in and landing practically in front of you, you know - "splash"!

0:07:40 > 0:07:45Scott was convinced that people would share his passion for wildlife, and Slimbridge was unique

0:07:45 > 0:07:47in letting them get close to the birds.

0:07:47 > 0:07:52It was another great thing about Peter Scott, that he realised that the environmental movement

0:07:52 > 0:07:57was about bringing people to see wildlife, to get excited by it, showing them the wonders

0:07:57 > 0:08:04and complexity of the natural world, and getting them enthused and passionate and engaged with it.

0:08:05 > 0:08:07I was very small when it was set up.

0:08:07 > 0:08:09It was all a lot barer.

0:08:09 > 0:08:12There was much less growth.

0:08:12 > 0:08:15The people were allowed everywhere.

0:08:15 > 0:08:19People were allowed into this pen as well.

0:08:19 > 0:08:23That was an interesting concept, that we had our meals overlooked by the public!

0:08:23 > 0:08:30If they would look in with binoculars, sometimes we'd look back at them with binoculars.

0:08:30 > 0:08:32It was a wonderful place to grow up.

0:08:32 > 0:08:35I mean, we had the freedom of the pens.

0:08:35 > 0:08:37We had the ability to roam anywhere

0:08:37 > 0:08:42and enjoy the birds. It was fantastic, and I remember going out

0:08:42 > 0:08:48with my little box camera, being so excited that I could get pictures of birds really, really close.

0:08:57 > 0:09:01The success of Slimbridge was helped by Scott's connections.

0:09:01 > 0:09:03He even asked the then Princess Elizabeth

0:09:03 > 0:09:08to bring some rare trumpeter swans back from Canada, which she did.

0:09:08 > 0:09:11But then he had always mixed in very influential circles.

0:09:13 > 0:09:16Right from a child, he was well-connected,

0:09:16 > 0:09:19because his mother was really quite a social person,

0:09:19 > 0:09:23and she knew all sorts of people in government and elsewhere.

0:09:23 > 0:09:27She introduced my father to all sorts of interesting people.

0:09:27 > 0:09:34Of course, he was already and Olympic skater and a yachtsman, and all the other things that he did.

0:09:34 > 0:09:41So his skills helped him to meet these people with his own confidence that he could do things.

0:09:41 > 0:09:45Peter Scott was able to draw on the family history, if you like,

0:09:45 > 0:09:51and reinvent that in terms of his passion for wildlife conservation

0:09:51 > 0:09:54at Slimbridge and all the rest of it.

0:09:54 > 0:09:59There was something so archetypally English, British,

0:09:59 > 0:10:00about what he was doing.

0:10:00 > 0:10:07And did it with such eloquence and such a commanding understanding of the natural world.

0:10:07 > 0:10:12And his love of it just communicated itself to people almost effortlessly.

0:10:12 > 0:10:15"Even if you don't belong to such an organisation..."

0:10:15 > 0:10:19This ability to communicate his passion had already been exploited on the radio,

0:10:19 > 0:10:24where Scott presented several popular wildlife programmes.

0:10:24 > 0:10:27But it was television which would make him a household name.

0:10:27 > 0:10:30It was producers at the newly-formed Natural History Unit in Bristol

0:10:30 > 0:10:35who would discover Scott's talent for the screen.

0:10:35 > 0:10:37We'll show his mask,

0:10:37 > 0:10:40a little turned-up bill...

0:10:40 > 0:10:43We went along to see him do this lecture.

0:10:43 > 0:10:47He stood up on the stage, he talked to the people - he had them in the palm of his hand.

0:10:47 > 0:10:52He had a big blackboard on the stage, and he sort of drew his ducks.

0:10:52 > 0:10:57And then he showed little bits of film, short squirts of film on a big screen there.

0:10:57 > 0:10:59And we went back home and said,

0:10:59 > 0:11:01"It's just television!"

0:11:03 > 0:11:08The programme Look was first broadcast in 1955,

0:11:08 > 0:11:12and would run for a further 26 years.

0:11:20 > 0:11:24And there you see my studio window on the left there,

0:11:24 > 0:11:29and just inside is where I am, sitting and talking to you now.

0:11:29 > 0:11:33This rare early recording shows how some of the first Look programmes

0:11:33 > 0:11:36were broadcast live from Peter Scott's house at Slimbridge.

0:11:36 > 0:11:41On the easel here is a picture I haven't really quite finished, actually.

0:11:41 > 0:11:44It's a picture I've been painting. And it shows some pintails,

0:11:44 > 0:11:49which are British ducks, flying across in front of this very window. I mean, that is roughly speaking,

0:11:49 > 0:11:53the view you have just been looking at, through the window, across the pond.

0:11:53 > 0:11:56Now let's see if we can find something a bit more

0:11:56 > 0:12:00typically British in the way of ducks out there on the pond.

0:12:00 > 0:12:04We would have Peter sitting down in his studio, what was effectively his studio.

0:12:04 > 0:12:08And he could be talking about the ducks the other side of the window,

0:12:08 > 0:12:10and he could turn and draw the duck for you.

0:12:10 > 0:12:15..part of the collection birds, and put them into this enclosure here.

0:12:15 > 0:12:18This was his secret weapon, really,

0:12:18 > 0:12:21the fact that he could talk intelligently

0:12:21 > 0:12:23about these beautiful birds,

0:12:23 > 0:12:27but also do drawings to make a particular point.

0:12:27 > 0:12:29- # You're gonna find me - Ba-ba-ba-ba

0:12:29 > 0:12:32- # Out in the country - Ba-ba-ba-ba... #

0:12:32 > 0:12:37It's difficult for a daughter to say, but I think that he was very charismatic.

0:12:37 > 0:12:43He was very articulate, so he explained things very clearly.

0:12:43 > 0:12:46Certainly, it was new, it was a different thing.

0:12:46 > 0:12:50Wildlife hadn't been shown in that way at all before.

0:12:50 > 0:12:53# Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba... #

0:12:53 > 0:12:57I remember all the lights. There's much less lighting now,

0:12:57 > 0:13:00cos it was very hot, I remember, when the lights were on.

0:13:00 > 0:13:04And us children used to sit in the background.

0:13:04 > 0:13:08It was always a big event, lot and lots of wires.

0:13:08 > 0:13:10Yeah, I do remember.

0:13:10 > 0:13:13George, the golden eagle is fairly secure.

0:13:13 > 0:13:17It's still a rare bird, but it's fairly secure in Scotland.

0:13:17 > 0:13:20Peter Scott took to television like one of his ducks to water.

0:13:20 > 0:13:25And Look enjoyed unrivalled success with an ever-increasing audience.

0:13:26 > 0:13:32And perhaps I should explain that these are only the highlights that you've seen of a very much longer...

0:13:32 > 0:13:35Peter was a lovely man. He was very easy to work with, certainly.

0:13:35 > 0:13:37But everything had to go his way.

0:13:37 > 0:13:41If there was any kind of problem, and things weren't going nicely,

0:13:41 > 0:13:43he would be inclined to stamp his feet

0:13:43 > 0:13:45and have a little bit of a tantrum.

0:13:45 > 0:13:48But always in the interest of the job that you were involved in.

0:13:49 > 0:13:53And his job, as he saw it, was to persuade people

0:13:53 > 0:13:55that wildlife needed to be protected.

0:13:55 > 0:13:59Well, if we decide that we have got a responsibility

0:13:59 > 0:14:03to prevent animals from becoming extinct, what can we do about it?

0:14:03 > 0:14:07Well, in extreme cases we can, and I think we should,

0:14:07 > 0:14:11take into captivity a proportion of the population

0:14:11 > 0:14:13into some zoo, park or reserve,

0:14:13 > 0:14:16and try and breed them there and build up the stock.

0:14:16 > 0:14:21Now, here at the Wildfowl Trust, we have done that with several species.

0:14:21 > 0:14:26We have particularly had some success with the nene,

0:14:26 > 0:14:27or Hawaiian goose.

0:14:27 > 0:14:30Long before it became widely acknowledged,

0:14:30 > 0:14:34Peter Scott recognised the importance of conserving wildlife.

0:14:34 > 0:14:39He was also aware that engaging the public in this battle was crucial.

0:14:39 > 0:14:44Scott was one of a handful of people who realised that television

0:14:44 > 0:14:47would become one of the most important tools

0:14:47 > 0:14:50in persuading people to care about animals.

0:14:51 > 0:14:53TV CAMERA BEEPS AND FILM SPOOLS

0:14:53 > 0:14:56'Keep it quiet, please. Stand by.'

0:14:59 > 0:15:03In the mid-'50s, television was a completely new medium, but it was one

0:15:03 > 0:15:08which lent itself to engaging the British in a love of wildlife.

0:15:08 > 0:15:11There were two kinds of television programmes.

0:15:11 > 0:15:14The first and original kind of animal programme

0:15:14 > 0:15:18was one in which animals are brought from the London Zoo

0:15:18 > 0:15:20in the middle of the night, stuck on a table,

0:15:20 > 0:15:23and a man from London Zoo said, "This is..." whatever it was.

0:15:23 > 0:15:27And this poor creature sitting there, blinking in the sunlight,

0:15:27 > 0:15:30before it was stuffed back into a sack and taken away.

0:15:30 > 0:15:37We're going to show you some of our special favourites from the zoo. The first being Peter, a chimpanzee.

0:15:37 > 0:15:41The next one we're showing you is a cockatoo named Old Bill.

0:15:41 > 0:15:44- COCKATOO:- Come and shake hands! - Come and shake hands.

0:15:44 > 0:15:47I watched avidly. It was exciting. You saw animals

0:15:47 > 0:15:48you'd never seen before,

0:15:48 > 0:15:51it might bite the person who was handling it,

0:15:51 > 0:15:54or escape or pee down his front or those sort of things.

0:15:54 > 0:15:56So it was live television.

0:15:56 > 0:15:58Well, I've got a handful here! And hello, how are you?

0:15:58 > 0:16:03And then there was a couple called Armand and Michaela Denis.

0:16:03 > 0:16:07The title of our first chapter today is Search For Gertie.

0:16:07 > 0:16:11- You had better explain who Gertie is.- Oh, yes.

0:16:11 > 0:16:15Travellers' Tales, with Michaela and Armand Denis, was a big departure

0:16:15 > 0:16:19from studio-based programmes and hugely popular in the '50s.

0:16:19 > 0:16:22..no idea where this photograph had been taken,

0:16:22 > 0:16:24or if this animal was still alive.

0:16:24 > 0:16:28Then one day, an old Tanganyika settler started talking to me

0:16:28 > 0:16:30about a rhinocerous he knew,

0:16:30 > 0:16:33in the old Amboseli Game Reserve.

0:16:34 > 0:16:38Armand and Michaela had been filming in East Africa for a long time.

0:16:38 > 0:16:41They actually put together a feature film.

0:16:41 > 0:16:45And in order to get publicity for the feature film, they also took

0:16:45 > 0:16:49the outtakes and made a 30-minute trailer which gave it publicity.

0:16:49 > 0:16:53And the BBC put it on and it was sensational.

0:16:57 > 0:16:59TRUMPETING

0:16:59 > 0:17:02Everybody went, "Gosh, look! Elephants, ooh!"

0:17:02 > 0:17:06Fabulous. And so those were the two things.

0:17:06 > 0:17:11But it didn't have the immediacy that the zoo programmes had.

0:17:11 > 0:17:12And hello, how are you?

0:17:12 > 0:17:14The problem with the zoo programmes

0:17:14 > 0:17:18was that they showed animals out of their ecological context.

0:17:18 > 0:17:20And I thought, "Wouldn't it be great

0:17:20 > 0:17:22"if we combined the two qualities of those things?"

0:17:22 > 0:17:27The live show of the animal that's on the table, but also a film.

0:17:27 > 0:17:32So I cooked up an idea that someone from the zoo and I should go together

0:17:32 > 0:17:36to catch animals for London Zoo, which is what zoos did in the 1950s.

0:17:40 > 0:17:43This is the story of a search for a dragon.

0:17:43 > 0:17:45The island on which it lives lies in Indonesia.

0:17:45 > 0:17:50We were going to try and film and collect some of the other interesting creatures,

0:17:50 > 0:17:52which we hoped to find on our way.

0:17:52 > 0:17:56Lizards of all sorts were very common around the village.

0:17:56 > 0:18:03And one of the commonest, and in many ways the loveliest, I saw in this small tree.

0:18:03 > 0:18:05It is a Tokay gecko.

0:18:13 > 0:18:15And here he is in the studio.

0:18:15 > 0:18:18He's about, er...

0:18:19 > 0:18:21..nine inches long.

0:18:21 > 0:18:25Quite a big gecko, as geckos go.

0:18:25 > 0:18:28And quite a fierce one.

0:18:28 > 0:18:31He lives on frogs,

0:18:31 > 0:18:35mice, lizards, and even young birds.

0:18:35 > 0:18:40Yes, I mean it's a mercy that nobody ever sees those programmes any more.

0:18:40 > 0:18:42I wouldn't mind if the BBC lost them!

0:18:42 > 0:18:44They're pretty crude programmes.

0:18:44 > 0:18:47I mean, there are sequences in it

0:18:47 > 0:18:52which are attempts at decent natural history filming.

0:18:58 > 0:19:02'After less than two hours, which we thought wasn't bad going,

0:19:02 > 0:19:04'we came at last to the village,

0:19:04 > 0:19:07'one enormous house, over a hundred yards long,

0:19:07 > 0:19:10'in which all the villagers live.'

0:19:10 > 0:19:14It's very hard for us now actually to imagine

0:19:14 > 0:19:21just how incredible it would have been to be one of the first viewers of something like Zoo Quest.

0:19:21 > 0:19:24A programme like that, where people who have never travelled

0:19:24 > 0:19:25outside the United Kingdom,

0:19:25 > 0:19:29who maybe have never travelled outside their own town, you know.

0:19:29 > 0:19:32They might have lived in Bradford all their lives.

0:19:33 > 0:19:35'As I walked past them,

0:19:35 > 0:19:39'I discovered that this temple was sacred to the cave's inhabitants.

0:19:39 > 0:19:43'Millions of millions of bats.'

0:19:43 > 0:19:48And a programme like Zoo Quest, which brings you face-to-face with things like a Komodo dragon...

0:19:48 > 0:19:51There was the dragon. This was tremendously exciting for us.

0:19:51 > 0:19:55Something that you could never envisage seeing otherwise.

0:19:55 > 0:20:00It's impossible to overestimate the impact of something like that, because it really brings

0:20:00 > 0:20:03the great variety of the planet into your living room.

0:20:03 > 0:20:06Before the '50s, it would have been inconceivable.

0:20:06 > 0:20:11So it had an enormous impact in awakening people

0:20:11 > 0:20:14to the huge variety of wildlife around the world.

0:20:14 > 0:20:17But also, of bringing to people's attention

0:20:17 > 0:20:21the extent to which it was endangered and under threat,

0:20:21 > 0:20:25and so on. So I think those first wildlife shows,

0:20:25 > 0:20:28in the '50s and '60s, were absolutely crucial

0:20:28 > 0:20:31in stimulating people's environmental interests.

0:20:36 > 0:20:40As the public's appetite to see wild animals on the screen grew,

0:20:40 > 0:20:42so did the ambition of the film-makers,

0:20:42 > 0:20:46as they explored more and more of the natural world.

0:20:46 > 0:20:49Hans and Lotte Hass gave the audience a taste

0:20:49 > 0:20:52of their exotic underwater adventures.

0:20:52 > 0:20:56'One of our tasks was to get photographs in true colour

0:20:56 > 0:21:00'of the many varieties of coral fish in the Red Sea.

0:21:00 > 0:21:02'Quite a task.'

0:21:02 > 0:21:05There was this Austrian couple with a dream life.

0:21:05 > 0:21:08I mean, this wonderful schooner,

0:21:08 > 0:21:10sailing the south sea.

0:21:10 > 0:21:12The Xarifa, it was called.

0:21:12 > 0:21:18And there was a most beautiful blonde girl in a tight white swimming suit,

0:21:18 > 0:21:23who was continually diving over the side and swimming down, grappling with a monster from the deep.

0:21:26 > 0:21:30And Hans with his beard, "Lotte is going to do this," and so on.

0:21:30 > 0:21:33Riveting. I mean, I couldn't wait until the next week.

0:21:38 > 0:21:41They were before Cousteau appeared on television.

0:21:41 > 0:21:47And they, as far as the British television viewer was concerned,

0:21:47 > 0:21:49that was the first time you'd seen under the waves.

0:21:49 > 0:21:55That was the first time you'd seen a coral, that was the first time you'd seen a shark underwater.

0:21:55 > 0:21:57Wow! I mean, amazing.

0:21:57 > 0:21:59Here's one waterproof case

0:21:59 > 0:22:03which I developed for an ordinary twin-lens reflex camera.

0:22:03 > 0:22:07And that's my camera. It's smaller and handier for the shots I like to take.

0:22:07 > 0:22:09Hans and Lotte Hass

0:22:09 > 0:22:11were like the Fanny and Johnnie Cradock

0:22:11 > 0:22:13of the underwater world, really.

0:22:13 > 0:22:17It was almost as much watching the pair of them interact,

0:22:17 > 0:22:22watching the human species was as interesting as watching the underwater films.

0:22:22 > 0:22:25But, of course, they brought underwater films

0:22:25 > 0:22:29to everybody's front room for the first time ever.

0:22:30 > 0:22:34'This is my special friend, the puffer fish.

0:22:34 > 0:22:37'Wherever I dive, it's not long before it joins me.'

0:22:39 > 0:22:43I worked with Hans for 18 months on Diving to Adventure.

0:22:43 > 0:22:47He wasn't great on his writing.

0:22:47 > 0:22:51And Johnny Morris, who I was working with at that time,

0:22:51 > 0:22:54we got Johnny in to do some rewriting on his material.

0:22:55 > 0:22:59You have to get him into focus, and think about all the other...

0:22:59 > 0:23:06Hans absolutely loved to bring God into it. He would be in with a very beautiful underwater scene,

0:23:06 > 0:23:08and he would like to say,

0:23:08 > 0:23:11"Here, in this underwater scene with this beautiful coral,

0:23:11 > 0:23:14"we feel very close to God." You see?

0:23:14 > 0:23:17And we were not so keen on this.

0:23:17 > 0:23:21And Johnny would rewrite some of his stuff.

0:23:21 > 0:23:24But he was great, Hans, a really good guy.

0:23:31 > 0:23:36Although television at this time was in its infancy, the appetite for wildlife programmes was strong.

0:23:36 > 0:23:41The British public was discovering it had a fascination for animals.

0:23:41 > 0:23:45But it had yet to find a way of taking this beyond the screen.

0:23:45 > 0:23:51# ..never break, never break never break, never break

0:23:51 > 0:23:53# This heart of stone

0:23:53 > 0:23:55# Oh, no, no, you'll never break... #

0:23:55 > 0:23:59Relatively few people were committed to an interest in wildlife.

0:23:59 > 0:24:05Societies didn't have big memberships. The RSPB was a relatively small society.

0:24:05 > 0:24:11The British Trust for Ornithology was practically a handful of people, with very few members.

0:24:11 > 0:24:16And it grew exponentially really, and I think largely because of television.

0:24:16 > 0:24:20I believe those early television programmes opened people's eyes

0:24:20 > 0:24:24to something they were already programmed for and hadn't realised.

0:24:26 > 0:24:29As well as television, there were films being screened in cinemas

0:24:29 > 0:24:33which started to challenge people's perceptions.

0:24:33 > 0:24:38In 1966, the film of Joy Adamson's book, Born Free, became a blockbuster.

0:24:38 > 0:24:41It told the story of how a British couple living in Africa

0:24:41 > 0:24:47brought up a lion, eventually releasing it back into the wild.

0:24:47 > 0:24:50The film starred Virginia McKenna and her husband, Bill Travers.

0:24:50 > 0:24:57Based on a true story, it was unique in the near-documentary way the actors had to work with the animals.

0:24:57 > 0:25:02It challenged the idea that a wild animal was something to be feared.

0:25:02 > 0:25:07I think people's attitude towards wild animals, particularly lions,

0:25:07 > 0:25:12of course, in this case, was changed by the story of 'Born Free'.

0:25:12 > 0:25:16The relationship of two people with a wild lioness,

0:25:16 > 0:25:19it was like a fantasy, and yet it wasn't a fantasy.

0:25:19 > 0:25:25It was absolutely, probably one of the most truthfully-written stories,

0:25:25 > 0:25:27I think, ever told,

0:25:27 > 0:25:30about relationships between man and wild animal.

0:25:30 > 0:25:34And I think it was so uplifting for people.

0:25:34 > 0:25:36It opened so many doors for them.

0:25:36 > 0:25:38We had these stereotypes.

0:25:38 > 0:25:43We had the fierce wild animal and the human that's terribly afraid of it.

0:25:43 > 0:25:47And this knocked away all those misconceptions.

0:25:47 > 0:25:51'Soon her characteristic curiosity prevailed, and she enjoyed herself tremendously.'

0:25:51 > 0:25:53In a scene such as this,

0:25:53 > 0:25:56where Virginia and Bill even swim with the lion,

0:25:56 > 0:26:00audiences were presented with a completely new concept.

0:26:00 > 0:26:05For Virginia, the close relationship she had to build with the lions to make the film was a revelation.

0:26:07 > 0:26:13There was just something about us being able to swim in the ocean with a lioness between us, you know...

0:26:13 > 0:26:16was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

0:26:16 > 0:26:21The making of Born Free had a lasting impact on Bill and Virginia.

0:26:21 > 0:26:26Our life was completely changed from that moment onwards.

0:26:26 > 0:26:29From that moment when we stepped onboard the boat in London

0:26:29 > 0:26:32to sail to Mombasa with our children to make the film,

0:26:32 > 0:26:35and we were pacing the deck reading books about lions,

0:26:35 > 0:26:37because we didn't really know anything at all,

0:26:37 > 0:26:42from that very moment, our life had changed forever.

0:26:44 > 0:26:48Joy Adamson's work revealed how close we could get to wild animals.

0:26:48 > 0:26:51There'd be another pioneering woman in the '60s,

0:26:51 > 0:26:53who would take this even further.

0:26:53 > 0:26:54Jane Goodall,

0:26:54 > 0:26:58a British researcher, spent years studying primates in the African jungle.

0:26:59 > 0:27:05She opened a window onto their lives, which showed how much we have in common with them.

0:27:05 > 0:27:07It gripped the public.

0:27:07 > 0:27:09# For your love

0:27:09 > 0:27:13# I'd give you everything and more and that's for sure

0:27:13 > 0:27:14# For your love

0:27:14 > 0:27:18# I'd bring you diamond rings and things right to your door... #

0:27:18 > 0:27:22Jane Goodall is totally unique.

0:27:22 > 0:27:25Here was this slight, pretty English girl,

0:27:25 > 0:27:29going off into the jungle, as it were,

0:27:29 > 0:27:32you know, absolutely on her own.

0:27:34 > 0:27:36And I seem to recall that

0:27:36 > 0:27:42she was the first scientist going to do this kind of research work

0:27:42 > 0:27:44that gave her study animals names.

0:27:45 > 0:27:49Before, they were just called by numbers or letters, or something.

0:27:49 > 0:27:51But she gave them names.

0:27:52 > 0:27:56So they were individuals with characters and personalities,

0:27:56 > 0:28:00and of course that's what brought all of us into the story.

0:28:00 > 0:28:05I think the Goodall and the Adamson effect was to make people realise

0:28:05 > 0:28:11that the boundaries between human and animal were much more blurred.

0:28:11 > 0:28:14I don't think people had really appreciated the extent to which

0:28:14 > 0:28:17we were effectively part of the same kingdom, if you like.

0:28:17 > 0:28:20And that you could have this relationship with an animal

0:28:20 > 0:28:22which wasn't master-and-servant,

0:28:22 > 0:28:27but it was that you're both participants in the natural world.

0:28:27 > 0:28:30So, Joy Adamson raising the lion cub,

0:28:30 > 0:28:35or Jane Goodall actually striking up almost relationships

0:28:35 > 0:28:39with individual primates, it kind of...

0:28:39 > 0:28:41It brings home to people the extent to which

0:28:41 > 0:28:43we are not separate from the animal kingdom.

0:28:43 > 0:28:46We don't rule over it, but we're part of it.

0:28:46 > 0:28:48That was something new, that sense.

0:28:48 > 0:28:51Their huge tails

0:28:51 > 0:28:54hung down like bell ropes.

0:28:54 > 0:28:58The idea that animals and humans might be equal partners in the natural world,

0:28:58 > 0:29:06was also being explored in a new wave of literature, in stories which would influence a whole generation.

0:29:18 > 0:29:23Gerald Durrell's books about animals were bestsellers across the world,

0:29:23 > 0:29:26and even became part of the school curriculum in Britain.

0:29:26 > 0:29:30He wrote his most famous book in 1956.

0:29:30 > 0:29:35My Family And Other Animals describes his childhood on the island of Corfu,

0:29:35 > 0:29:38and his adventures with a whole host of wildlife.

0:29:42 > 0:29:45"Some 20 feet away from me,

0:29:45 > 0:29:50"the sea seemed to part with a gentle swish and gurgle.

0:29:50 > 0:29:51"A gleaming back appeared,

0:29:51 > 0:29:57"gave a deep, satisfied sigh and sank below the surface again.

0:29:59 > 0:30:01"I had hardly time to recognise it as a porpoise,

0:30:01 > 0:30:05"before I found I was right in the midst of them.

0:30:08 > 0:30:13"They rose all around me, sighing luxuriously,

0:30:13 > 0:30:17"their black backs shining as they humped in the moonlight."

0:30:31 > 0:30:35He made animals so accessible to people.

0:30:35 > 0:30:37He was able somehow to get people,

0:30:37 > 0:30:41and their personalities and feelings and emotions,

0:30:41 > 0:30:43to connect with those of the animal,

0:30:43 > 0:30:45if you can say animals have such things.

0:30:45 > 0:30:48Some people said, "Oh, Gerry's writing's just anthropomorphic.

0:30:48 > 0:30:51"He just gave human qualities to the animals he wrote about."

0:30:51 > 0:30:53But he really didn't.

0:30:53 > 0:30:55If you read it very closely, it's not sentimental.

0:30:55 > 0:31:01It's just making the animals understood, and bringing out

0:31:01 > 0:31:04sort of a connectivity between people and animals.

0:31:04 > 0:31:08I think that's why Gerry's writings have been so influential.

0:31:08 > 0:31:11There are so many people I meet today in the conservation world,

0:31:11 > 0:31:14and what they're doing today, they tell me,

0:31:14 > 0:31:17they owe to their first reading of Gerald Durrell's books,

0:31:17 > 0:31:19particularly My Family And Other Animals.

0:31:19 > 0:31:23It's not them and us, humans and animals.

0:31:23 > 0:31:27The animals are given human characteristics, they're given personalities.

0:31:27 > 0:31:32There, they are humanised in a way that makes them enormously appealing, and makes

0:31:32 > 0:31:38them cute and cuddly and amusing, and all those kinds of things, that lead us to sympathise with them.

0:31:38 > 0:31:41HE BRAYS LOUDLY

0:31:52 > 0:31:55DISTANT, SIMILAR BRAYING

0:31:58 > 0:32:00Gerry was huge fun to be with.

0:32:00 > 0:32:02I mean, he was...

0:32:04 > 0:32:07..full of humour, full of jokes.

0:32:07 > 0:32:10And he loved animals.

0:32:11 > 0:32:17Many people's views of wild animals come from the pages of books they discovered early in life.

0:32:24 > 0:32:30Besides Durrell, there was another author writing at this time whose books influenced millions.

0:32:32 > 0:32:38Gavin Maxwell became world famous for his semi-autobiographical book, Ring Of Bright Water.

0:32:38 > 0:32:45Published in 1960, it told the story of his adventures living with a wild otter.

0:32:45 > 0:32:49It would later be made into a film, once again starring Virginia McKenna.

0:32:51 > 0:32:54Ring Of Bright Water

0:32:54 > 0:32:56was complex, erm...

0:32:58 > 0:33:01..written by a complex man...

0:33:03 > 0:33:07..who had many dark periods in his life.

0:33:07 > 0:33:11And not all the stories of the otters are that joyful.

0:33:11 > 0:33:13And yet,

0:33:13 > 0:33:16it is this...

0:33:16 > 0:33:22this joyfulness, it's the rapport that he had with his animals,

0:33:22 > 0:33:26the affection he felt for them...

0:33:26 > 0:33:32his extraordinary gift of description of nature.

0:33:33 > 0:33:38The magic of his creative writing.

0:33:38 > 0:33:41It's all about involving us, isn't it?

0:33:41 > 0:33:44Allowing us to reach out and experience the things with the writer.

0:33:44 > 0:33:49It's gathering us in so that we share these experiences.

0:33:49 > 0:33:51And he was a master of that.

0:33:59 > 0:34:02"He became for me the central figure

0:34:02 > 0:34:06"among the host of wild creatures with which I was surrounded.

0:34:06 > 0:34:08"The waterfall, the burn,

0:34:08 > 0:34:11"the white beaches and the islands.

0:34:11 > 0:34:14"His form became the familiar foreground to them all.

0:34:14 > 0:34:18"Or perhaps foreground is not the right word.

0:34:18 > 0:34:22"For at Camusfearna, he seemed so absolute a part of his surroundings,

0:34:22 > 0:34:26"that I wondered how they could ever have seemed to me complete

0:34:26 > 0:34:27"before his arrival."

0:34:30 > 0:34:32I think it was his ability to capture

0:34:32 > 0:34:34not just a sense of place

0:34:34 > 0:34:38and of this sort of seemingly idyllic lifestyle,

0:34:38 > 0:34:43but it was the personal connection with basically wild animals.

0:34:46 > 0:34:51That idea that he could capture so lyrically that relationship

0:34:51 > 0:34:56between man and beast was something I found hugely attractive.

0:35:02 > 0:35:08I think Ring Of Bright Water was a component

0:35:08 > 0:35:13of the way that we started to think about wild animals differently,

0:35:13 > 0:35:17because it was the personal relationship,

0:35:17 > 0:35:20like it was with the Adamsons and Elsa, it was Gavin with Mij.

0:35:21 > 0:35:27And the possibility that these extraordinary relationships can happen.

0:35:33 > 0:35:35I think what's crucial about these books,

0:35:35 > 0:35:37the Gerald Durrell or the Gavin Maxwell,

0:35:37 > 0:35:39is that they appeal to people

0:35:39 > 0:35:41who, of course, don't live in the countryside.

0:35:44 > 0:35:51They represent a kind of escapism, back to the land, back to the vanished England of hedgerows

0:35:51 > 0:35:54and otters and all of this kind of thing.

0:35:54 > 0:35:59They conjure up a world that most people, of course, wouldn't encounter in their daily lives.

0:36:01 > 0:36:06So environmentalism has always had this kind of escapist aspect to it,

0:36:06 > 0:36:09and I think books like these are able to bring in a mass audience,

0:36:09 > 0:36:12they're not written for a tiny group of true believers,

0:36:12 > 0:36:15they're written and they convert a mass audience

0:36:15 > 0:36:19by not being preachy, and I think that's what made them so effective.

0:36:21 > 0:36:24But for Gerald Durrell, his books were only part of the story.

0:36:24 > 0:36:27They became a means to an end.

0:36:27 > 0:36:34As his fame increased, he used his influence and money to try and change the very concept of the zoo.

0:36:44 > 0:36:49We would shudder today at the sight of distressed animals behind bars,

0:36:49 > 0:36:54but before the '60s, people didn't appreciate that wild animals might be suffering.

0:36:54 > 0:36:58Zoos hadn't changed much since Victorian days.

0:37:03 > 0:37:09At the time, most zoos really were just menageries, and their attitude

0:37:09 > 0:37:13was just something we can't really fathom today.

0:37:13 > 0:37:16No real respect for animals.

0:37:16 > 0:37:22Another hangover from Victorian times, still evident in the '50s, was an obsession with collecting

0:37:22 > 0:37:28and cataloguing specimens, as David Attenborough encountered during his Zoo Quest days.

0:37:28 > 0:37:31The London Zoo was founded in the early 19th century,

0:37:31 > 0:37:35and it wasn't founded as a zoo, it was founded as a Zoological Society.

0:37:35 > 0:37:38And its primary aim was not necessarily to keep animals

0:37:38 > 0:37:43to show people, it was to assemble specimens

0:37:43 > 0:37:46of all the animals that you could find,

0:37:47 > 0:37:51so it was still a hangover from the 19th-century cataloguing days.

0:37:51 > 0:37:55So that it led to things that you would think absurd now.

0:37:55 > 0:37:59There was a thing called the Small Mammal House, which was the size of,

0:37:59 > 0:38:02I don't know, a large greenhouse.

0:38:03 > 0:38:08And the cages were all exactly the same size, this size,

0:38:08 > 0:38:09about that big,

0:38:09 > 0:38:13and they had a little box at the back which was the nest box.

0:38:13 > 0:38:16And you would go in and they all had all these names on it, you know,

0:38:16 > 0:38:21the Gambian pouched rat, etc.

0:38:21 > 0:38:26And you could probably see not a single animal, they were all asleep.

0:38:26 > 0:38:30But that was of no consequence to the Zoological Society of London.

0:38:30 > 0:38:33They wanted to catalogue it and describe its habits

0:38:33 > 0:38:35while it's alive,

0:38:35 > 0:38:38but they were particularly interested in having the dead body.

0:38:40 > 0:38:43They had on staff a man called the prosector,

0:38:43 > 0:38:48whose job it was to take these animals when they died

0:38:48 > 0:38:51and dissect them and publish the results.

0:38:51 > 0:38:52# Rescue me... #

0:38:52 > 0:38:56As a young man, Gerald Durrell had been an animal collector for zoos.

0:38:56 > 0:39:01He'd spend months travelling the world and catching animals to bring home.

0:39:01 > 0:39:05- But as time went on, he became increasingly disillusioned.

0:39:05 > 0:39:06# Come on and rescue me... #

0:39:06 > 0:39:07There was the attitude,

0:39:07 > 0:39:10"Well, there are plenty more where they came from."

0:39:10 > 0:39:16And Gerry had just slaved and worked and tried to keep these creatures alive, and learned how to do it

0:39:16 > 0:39:23for so many months and then just to hand them over, well, that drove him absolutely mad.

0:39:23 > 0:39:27And I don't know when was the exact moment, but he decided,

0:39:27 > 0:39:30"I'm not going to do this any more for anybody else,

0:39:30 > 0:39:35"I'm going to develop and establish a place of my own as a sanctuary

0:39:35 > 0:39:40"where I can actually help save these creatures as species,

0:39:40 > 0:39:42"save species from extinction."

0:39:49 > 0:39:52Long ago I decided that when I finally got a zoo of my own,

0:39:52 > 0:39:55it would have to be able to do certain things.

0:39:55 > 0:39:59It would act as a sanctuary for animals which were in danger in the wild.

0:39:59 > 0:40:05And it would give people a chance of learning more about animals, both to increase their own knowledge

0:40:05 > 0:40:09and to enable the animals to be looked after with much more skill.

0:40:09 > 0:40:12Durrell was one of the first to promote the idea

0:40:12 > 0:40:18of captive breeding, breeding endangered species in zoos and later releasing them back into the wild.

0:40:18 > 0:40:21When he started to plan his own zoo in Jersey,

0:40:21 > 0:40:25he looked to pioneer Peter Scott for inspiration and advice.

0:40:25 > 0:40:27# Rescue me... #

0:40:27 > 0:40:30Gerry had great regard and great respect for Peter.

0:40:30 > 0:40:34And indeed when Peter set up the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust

0:40:34 > 0:40:39in Gloucestershire, Gerry knew all about it and wrote to Peter

0:40:39 > 0:40:42and wanted to model his own setup,

0:40:42 > 0:40:46that eventually happened in Jersey, on Peter's.

0:40:46 > 0:40:51Gerry, he loved animals but he also loved twisting the tail of authority.

0:40:51 > 0:40:58He was not a man who was necessarily a respecter of persons or position.

0:40:58 > 0:41:01He served his apprenticeship in London Zoo,

0:41:01 > 0:41:04and was, and let it be known, perfectly clear

0:41:04 > 0:41:06that he thought they were rubbish,

0:41:06 > 0:41:11by and large, that they didn't know how to look after animals properly.

0:41:11 > 0:41:13And that he was going to teach them.

0:41:13 > 0:41:16# When you walk in the Garden... #

0:41:16 > 0:41:17I thought he was mad.

0:41:17 > 0:41:19# In the Garden of Eden... #

0:41:19 > 0:41:22The London Zoo COST money, it didn't make money,

0:41:22 > 0:41:25London Zoo COST, and here was Gerry, going to set it up.

0:41:25 > 0:41:28I mean, like digging a hole in which to pour money.

0:41:28 > 0:41:31# Does your heart understand?

0:41:31 > 0:41:35# When you walk in the Garden... #

0:41:35 > 0:41:42Gerry was the first to take seriously the possibility of breeding in zoos to replace in the wild.

0:41:42 > 0:41:45It's a very big job to do that.

0:41:45 > 0:41:48There's more to it than meets the eye with this business.

0:41:48 > 0:41:52But he did it, you see. And he was extraordinarily persuasive,

0:41:52 > 0:41:55and he persuaded people that this would be a wonderful thing,

0:41:55 > 0:41:57which indeed it is, was and is.

0:42:00 > 0:42:05# When you're yearning for loving and she touches your hand... #

0:42:05 > 0:42:09Jersey Zoo became a role model for the way zoos are run,

0:42:09 > 0:42:13and famous around the world as a centre for conservation.

0:42:13 > 0:42:18But in the early days, it was a continual battle to finance the project.

0:42:18 > 0:42:21Durrell raised funds with his writing

0:42:21 > 0:42:26and from television appearances, where his natural talent was soon recognised.

0:42:26 > 0:42:28I don't think we ought to go into that, Peter!

0:42:28 > 0:42:32We ought, perhaps, to look at Patagonia on the big map.

0:42:32 > 0:42:35Yes, I'd like to show you where we went, Peter.

0:42:35 > 0:42:38'We were doing the Look programme at the time.'

0:42:38 > 0:42:41I saw a thing in the newspaper that he'd just got back and he'd brought

0:42:41 > 0:42:46a whole bunch of animals and was keeping them in Bournemouth.

0:42:46 > 0:42:49So I found his telephone number, rang him up, and said, as I said

0:42:49 > 0:42:53to all these other people in those days, "Have you got any film?

0:42:53 > 0:42:55"Did you film while you were there?"

0:42:55 > 0:42:59"Yes," he says. He had his Mickey Mouse camera, and he filmed the animals while he was away.

0:42:59 > 0:43:03So I said, "Are you interested in the thought of being on telly?"

0:43:03 > 0:43:05He said, "Yes, of course, I would love it,

0:43:05 > 0:43:09"but they won't have me because they've got David Attenborough."

0:43:09 > 0:43:12He was paranoid about David, you see, so I said, "Not necessarily."

0:43:12 > 0:43:16We were knocked out by the thought of having Gerry,

0:43:16 > 0:43:19'because Gerry Durrell was famous because of the book.'

0:43:19 > 0:43:21This is the Tembeling river

0:43:21 > 0:43:24in the centre of Malaya.

0:43:24 > 0:43:28Jackie, my wife, and I are going up to see the National Park, the biggest

0:43:28 > 0:43:33of Malaya's national parks, and it's a journey that takes about six hours by boat.

0:43:33 > 0:43:35By this sort of boat, anyway.

0:43:35 > 0:43:36I can see some rough water ahead.

0:43:38 > 0:43:40Durrell went on to make

0:43:40 > 0:43:43many hugely popular and successful television programmes,

0:43:43 > 0:43:45drawing the audience in

0:43:45 > 0:43:48with the same powers of description

0:43:48 > 0:43:49that he'd used in his books.

0:43:49 > 0:43:53You see that strange white throat that he keeps inflating?

0:43:53 > 0:43:56Looks rather like the sail of a sailing ship?

0:43:56 > 0:44:00It's a territory display, he's obviously warning off another male

0:44:00 > 0:44:02who's wandered into his territory.

0:44:06 > 0:44:10Though it doesn't look like it, it's actually a flying lizard.

0:44:11 > 0:44:16The wings aren't really wings at all in the sense that a bird or a bat has wings.

0:44:16 > 0:44:20They're rather like two sections of umbrella on each side of his body.

0:44:20 > 0:44:24Thin skin supported by elongated rib bones.

0:44:24 > 0:44:26Though he's called a flying lizard,

0:44:26 > 0:44:30it would probably be more accurate to call him a gliding lizard.

0:44:30 > 0:44:34If you wait long enough, you can sometimes see them performing.

0:44:39 > 0:44:41Now, I think he's going to take off.

0:44:44 > 0:44:46There, isn't that incredible?

0:44:48 > 0:44:51'Gerry absolutely loved television and filming.'

0:44:51 > 0:44:54He said if he hadn't been an animal collector for zoos,

0:44:54 > 0:44:56he would've been a film-maker.

0:44:56 > 0:44:59And he certainly saw that as a way to get the message across.

0:44:59 > 0:45:01There were his books, of course,

0:45:01 > 0:45:05but he loved being both behind the camera and in front of the camera,

0:45:05 > 0:45:09and tried to do that as often as he could.

0:45:09 > 0:45:13Television presenters such as Durrell and Peter Scott saw it as part of their duty

0:45:13 > 0:45:19to raise people's awareness about the plight of endangered species around the world.

0:45:19 > 0:45:23Television would be an essential tool in getting people to become

0:45:23 > 0:45:30actively involved in wildlife issues and Scott used his Look series as a platform to voice concern about

0:45:30 > 0:45:32animals in danger of becoming extinct.

0:45:32 > 0:45:38This is a programme about the wild animals of the world,

0:45:38 > 0:45:45their place in our lives today and their place in our lives tomorrow.

0:45:45 > 0:45:51You see, comfortably at the back of our minds is the idea that out in Africa or India or somewhere,

0:45:51 > 0:45:56there are still millions of these great wild animals roaming the jungles and deserts,

0:45:56 > 0:46:02millions of lions, millions of elephants, millions of giraffes.

0:46:02 > 0:46:05Well, it just isn't true.

0:46:05 > 0:46:09There are probably today more lions in the world's zoos

0:46:09 > 0:46:11than there are wild in Africa.

0:46:13 > 0:46:15When someone like Peter Scott said,

0:46:15 > 0:46:18"You know, don't you, all these are in danger?"

0:46:18 > 0:46:22it did make you wake up.

0:46:24 > 0:46:27But raising awareness at home wouldn't be enough.

0:46:27 > 0:46:30Peter Scott needed to take his message to an international audience.

0:46:44 > 0:46:48In 1961, Peter Scott joined a group of leading naturalists

0:46:48 > 0:46:54at a conference held by the International Union for Conservation Of Nature.

0:46:54 > 0:46:58They drew up a charter, stating that everyone had a responsibility

0:46:58 > 0:47:02to protect endangered species for future generations.

0:47:05 > 0:47:09Scott used his influence and public image to raise money

0:47:09 > 0:47:12for the charter, helping to form the World Wildlife Fund.

0:47:18 > 0:47:21A World Wildlife Charter

0:47:21 > 0:47:26to meet what amounts to a state of emergency for wildlife,

0:47:26 > 0:47:30and now we've got a World Wildlife Fund,

0:47:30 > 0:47:32which is being launched to give it teeth.

0:47:32 > 0:47:36Practically all the animals you've seen can be saved

0:47:36 > 0:47:41for our children's grandchildren, if only we care enough.

0:47:41 > 0:47:49It would be tragic, wouldn't it, if, through our own thoughtlessness, we destroyed them forever.

0:47:55 > 0:47:59Peter Scott's ambition to set up the World Wildlife Fund,

0:47:59 > 0:48:03was, I think, driven first of all by the idea that environment

0:48:03 > 0:48:08and conservation and animals doesn't respect political frontiers,

0:48:08 > 0:48:11that this was a global problem.

0:48:13 > 0:48:15Birds migrate across political frontiers.

0:48:15 > 0:48:18Animals migrate across political frontiers.

0:48:18 > 0:48:24Scott was trying to see a wider picture of this on a global scale.

0:48:30 > 0:48:36In pre-war times, in the days of the Empire, getting things done on a global scale was much easier.

0:48:36 > 0:48:38Then, it was the elite of the day,

0:48:38 > 0:48:40wanting to protect their hunting stock,

0:48:40 > 0:48:42who could get laws forced through.

0:48:46 > 0:48:51In 1903, a group of colonial hunters had established what was essentially the first

0:48:51 > 0:48:55international conservation group for the preservation of wildlife.

0:48:58 > 0:49:01I suppose back in 1903, when we were established,

0:49:01 > 0:49:04we were the Society for the Preservation of the Wildlife

0:49:04 > 0:49:05of the British Empire,

0:49:05 > 0:49:09so that is a different precept to where we are today,

0:49:09 > 0:49:10and we very much started off

0:49:10 > 0:49:17as a group of people worrying that game animals were declining in Africa and that there was a need

0:49:17 > 0:49:24to try to respond to this problem and to provide some limits to allow game species to recover.

0:49:26 > 0:49:32They were very much from the elite classes, the people with the time and the money to take responsibility

0:49:32 > 0:49:37for such things, and they were seeing that their recreational hunting was at risk.

0:49:37 > 0:49:42# Wordlessly watching He waits by the window

0:49:42 > 0:49:46# And wonders at the empty place inside... #

0:49:46 > 0:49:51In a way, these sportsmen, these hunters,

0:49:51 > 0:49:59were in such close contact with animals, as part of the hunt, the Imperial hunt, which was embedded

0:49:59 > 0:50:06in a great deal of ritual, class and gender, they were intimately involved with the animals

0:50:06 > 0:50:13they were shooting, and keenly aware of the decline of species, keenly aware of the loss of habitat.

0:50:15 > 0:50:19They were known as The Repentant Butcher's Club because they had

0:50:19 > 0:50:22put down guns and started to turn to conservation,

0:50:22 > 0:50:27and they were the first people who agitated for game reserves,

0:50:27 > 0:50:31and it was those game reserves that evolved later in the 20th century

0:50:31 > 0:50:34in Africa and India as national parks.

0:50:38 > 0:50:42With the gradual demise of the Empire came a loss of influence,

0:50:42 > 0:50:46and by the late '50s, concern was growing among the wildlife gentry

0:50:46 > 0:50:51that the newly-independent ex-colonies would not protect their national parks from poachers.

0:50:51 > 0:50:57This was where the World Wildlife Fund came in, realising that, to raise enough money

0:50:57 > 0:51:03to protect endangered species, they had to engage the widest-possible audience.

0:51:05 > 0:51:09One of the leading figures in the British appeal

0:51:09 > 0:51:14was a PR man who knew about advertising,

0:51:14 > 0:51:16and he used all the techniques

0:51:16 > 0:51:20which had made him so successful as a businessman

0:51:20 > 0:51:22in the service of the charity.

0:51:22 > 0:51:27He knew it had to have an emblem, he knew it had to have an icon,

0:51:27 > 0:51:30he knew it would be at that stage,

0:51:30 > 0:51:33in the public's mind, at any rate,

0:51:33 > 0:51:36it ought to be furry and cuddly.

0:51:36 > 0:51:39It ought to be something that you could give an image

0:51:39 > 0:51:45which was immediately identifiable and easily reproduced.

0:51:45 > 0:51:47All of those kind of practical things,

0:51:47 > 0:51:50so it came down to a panda and Peter designed the panda.

0:51:51 > 0:51:56Scott used his artistic skill and designed a simple but effective logo,

0:51:56 > 0:52:00creating an iconic image which is still in use today.

0:52:02 > 0:52:06I think it was perhaps the most obvious rallying call to the public

0:52:06 > 0:52:11and Peter Scott's focus on the panda as a symbol of something that was worth saving,

0:52:11 > 0:52:15that the individual man in the street could do something about it,

0:52:15 > 0:52:19rather than something that was just under the control of governments.

0:52:19 > 0:52:23The fact that you could sit in your homes and put £5 in an envelope

0:52:23 > 0:52:26and know that you were doing something.

0:52:26 > 0:52:33One of the first campaigns WWF ran in 1961 was for the plight of the black rhino.

0:52:33 > 0:52:37Not only did they persuade the Daily Mirror to run the story,

0:52:37 > 0:52:42but the paper carried it on its front page and for several pages inside.

0:52:42 > 0:52:44# Since you went away

0:52:45 > 0:52:50# I have been losing my sleep at night... #

0:52:50 > 0:52:51It was an extraordinary coup

0:52:51 > 0:52:55to get a newspaper to do that and I think it spoke to a particular way

0:52:55 > 0:53:00of understanding nature, that was dominant in Britain - the concern for individual

0:53:00 > 0:53:05animals who are being mistreated, isn't the same thing about concern for the rarity of species or a loss

0:53:05 > 0:53:12of ecosystem structure, but it's the one that really strikes a chord with the British public, then.

0:53:12 > 0:53:16And still does, so that it was an effective way of

0:53:16 > 0:53:21introducing the wider problem of the loss of species, the loss of habitat.

0:53:21 > 0:53:24# Bringin' on back the good times... #

0:53:24 > 0:53:28The article about the rhino hit home with the public,

0:53:28 > 0:53:31and tens of thousands of pounds was raised

0:53:31 > 0:53:35from individual donations and local charity events.

0:53:37 > 0:53:43What they did was to make themselves into a big membership organisation,

0:53:43 > 0:53:48so that it was a small donation, and lots of people could do it

0:53:48 > 0:53:53and in that, I think, was its power and its influence.

0:53:53 > 0:53:59Just numbers of people, and they were attracted because the big animals,

0:53:59 > 0:54:02the big, attractive animals were used.

0:54:02 > 0:54:09That shows the power of using an animal as a kind of flagship

0:54:09 > 0:54:12for further conservation efforts.

0:54:20 > 0:54:24Elephants and rhinos are the things that really got people turned on

0:54:24 > 0:54:29because they suddenly realised that there were these iconic animals

0:54:29 > 0:54:31that were being slaughtered.

0:54:31 > 0:54:36And this was why the World Wildlife Fund was able to take off and why it

0:54:36 > 0:54:42started to get a lot of general support because people realised, "Wow, it does matter to me."

0:54:42 > 0:54:45# Don't let me down

0:54:47 > 0:54:50# Don't let me down... #

0:54:50 > 0:54:55WWF had instant impact and raised large amounts of money, but while it increased awareness

0:54:55 > 0:54:59of the threat of extinction posed to big animals abroad,

0:54:59 > 0:55:05back home there was an invisible threat to wildlife which was only just beginning to be noticed.

0:55:16 > 0:55:23Rural Britain, romanticised by poets and artists for centuries, was changing.

0:55:23 > 0:55:28The birds that had graced the countryside for as long as people could remember

0:55:28 > 0:55:31were becoming notable by their absence.

0:55:34 > 0:55:39It's difficult now to picture it, but if you went out into the arable land in the Fens,

0:55:39 > 0:55:43the place was littered with dead pigeons and partridges,

0:55:43 > 0:55:46and it was obvious to anyone living in the country

0:55:46 > 0:55:48that something awful was happening.

0:55:49 > 0:55:52Norman Moore was one of the first people to realise that

0:55:52 > 0:55:56the UK's wildlife was under threat from man-made chemicals.

0:55:56 > 0:56:01He was one of a small group of scientists who had been given the task

0:56:01 > 0:56:05of researching the impact of pesticides.

0:56:05 > 0:56:08Quite early on I realised that

0:56:08 > 0:56:12DDT and dieldrin, particularly dieldrin,

0:56:12 > 0:56:17were really very dangerous things to have in the environment.

0:56:20 > 0:56:23They were both highly persistent and that meant that

0:56:23 > 0:56:30it was sprayed one year and it would remain in the soil a lot later.

0:56:34 > 0:56:41These pesticides had a profound effect on one of the UK's favourite birds of prey.

0:56:41 > 0:56:45And another keen naturalist, who'd spent years watching

0:56:45 > 0:56:52the decline of peregrine falcons, Derek Ratcliffe, hit the news with his pioneering fieldwork.

0:56:55 > 0:57:02The decline has been worse in the south of the country, with very few pairs remaining

0:57:02 > 0:57:05in the south of England or Wales where there used to be good numbers.

0:57:10 > 0:57:14His findings showed that sprayed crops were eaten by pigeons.

0:57:14 > 0:57:19They, in turn, were consumed by peregrine falcons, with devastating results.

0:57:19 > 0:57:23He estimated that more than half of their population had disappeared.

0:57:29 > 0:57:34The pesticides had a sinister side effect - the falcons

0:57:34 > 0:57:38started laying eggs with abnormally-thin shells, which easily broke.

0:57:54 > 0:57:57Ratcliffe's study was welcomed in some circles,

0:57:57 > 0:58:02but attacked by the authorities and had to be defended by scientists.

0:58:02 > 0:58:05Well, a bird of prey has never done me much good -

0:58:05 > 0:58:06why should I worry about it?

0:58:06 > 0:58:11I don't think it's the bird of prey as a bird of prey that matters -

0:58:11 > 0:58:14what matters is that the work on birds of prey

0:58:14 > 0:58:18has shown that pesticides all over the Earth's surface

0:58:18 > 0:58:25can accumulate and do harm to a species over very large areas.

0:58:25 > 0:58:26And this I think is important.

0:58:26 > 0:58:30The Ministry of Agriculture and things,

0:58:30 > 0:58:33they didn't like it at all, what we were doing.

0:58:33 > 0:58:37They had, they knew it was partially true anyhow,

0:58:37 > 0:58:41but they wanted to tone it down altogether

0:58:41 > 0:58:45and of course we were not at all going to tone it down altogether -

0:58:45 > 0:58:49we wanted people to get involved and solve the problems.

0:58:49 > 0:58:53Unlike today, people didn't fear pesticides.

0:58:53 > 0:58:57In fact they saw them as modern saviours.

0:58:57 > 0:58:59DDT was a life-saver!

0:58:59 > 0:59:05During the Second World War, it saved God knows how many lives,

0:59:05 > 0:59:08because it killed mosquitoes.

0:59:11 > 0:59:15And mosquitoes were spreading malaria which was killing our troops.

0:59:15 > 0:59:20And I shall never forget, as a child, DDT,

0:59:20 > 0:59:26we thought it was fantastic, we thought it was a miracle, absolute miracle,

0:59:26 > 0:59:30because it was doing all the things that nothing else had done -

0:59:30 > 0:59:34that is, killing nasty bugs.

0:59:35 > 0:59:40After the war they were still in popular use to improve food production.

0:59:40 > 0:59:44Having endured years of austerity and food rationing,

0:59:44 > 0:59:50the public were unwilling to hear that there might be a hidden cost to their new quality of life.

0:59:51 > 0:59:59Most people, the vast majority of the general public, who are enjoying the benefits of cheaper food,

0:59:59 > 1:00:02see only the good pesticides do.

1:00:02 > 1:00:04So although there were signs,

1:00:04 > 1:00:11I think by and large people were so enamoured of the bounties of science

1:00:11 > 1:00:14and technology and industrialised agriculture,

1:00:14 > 1:00:18I think people would have said, taken the attitude,

1:00:18 > 1:00:21that a few dead birds was a tiny price to pay

1:00:21 > 1:00:26for feeding the hungry, which is how it was perceived at the time.

1:00:31 > 1:00:33'This is the American Dream...'

1:00:33 > 1:00:37Technology was moving at an even faster pace in America,

1:00:37 > 1:00:39feeding into the idea

1:00:39 > 1:00:42that such advances all contributed to a better quality of life

1:00:42 > 1:00:44and should be widely celebrated.

1:00:48 > 1:00:53Pesticides such as DDT were seen as part of this new and prosperous era,

1:00:53 > 1:00:56helping farmers to grow food much more successfully.

1:01:00 > 1:01:02'Grasshopper control, leader, Wyoming.

1:01:02 > 1:01:04'Be on guard for a possible outbreak.'

1:01:04 > 1:01:08'Warning, state grasshopper control leader, Nevada, tremendous egg population, your state.'

1:01:08 > 1:01:11'Montana, be on guard, possible grasshopper outbreak.'

1:01:11 > 1:01:13'Texas, Arizona, Utah...'

1:01:15 > 1:01:19'Airplanes chartered by ranchers, states and the federal government

1:01:19 > 1:01:21'baited millions of acres of range land

1:01:21 > 1:01:23'in the most heavily infested areas.

1:01:23 > 1:01:29'Spraying insecticides that spell death to the invaders.'

1:01:35 > 1:01:40But in 1962, a revolutionary book was published which would profoundly change this view.

1:01:47 > 1:01:51'There was once a town in the heart of America

1:01:51 > 1:01:55'where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.

1:01:55 > 1:02:01'Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change.

1:02:01 > 1:02:05'Some evil spell had settled on the community.

1:02:05 > 1:02:08'Mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens.

1:02:08 > 1:02:11'The cattle and sheep sickened and died.

1:02:11 > 1:02:14'Everywhere was a shadow of death.

1:02:14 > 1:02:17'There was a strange stillness.

1:02:17 > 1:02:20'The birds, for example, where had they gone?

1:02:20 > 1:02:24'It was a spring without voices.'

1:02:30 > 1:02:34Rachel Carson was an American biologist and writer.

1:02:34 > 1:02:36Her book, Silent Spring,

1:02:36 > 1:02:40questioned the use of toxic chemicals in the countryside.

1:02:41 > 1:02:45It had a huge effect on the public.

1:02:45 > 1:02:47It was a public book about it.

1:02:47 > 1:02:49It was very readable.

1:02:49 > 1:02:51I knew Rachel Carson.

1:02:53 > 1:02:57She was a very charismatic person,

1:02:57 > 1:02:59and a very readable book.

1:02:59 > 1:03:04It exaggerates in places but it's basically true.

1:03:04 > 1:03:07I think added together, it will mean that unless we do

1:03:07 > 1:03:10bring these chemicals under better control,

1:03:10 > 1:03:13we're certainly heading for disaster.

1:03:13 > 1:03:19Chemicals are the sinister and little recognised partners of radiation in changing

1:03:19 > 1:03:22the very nature of the world, the very nature of its life.

1:03:22 > 1:03:30These sprays, dust and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forest and homes.

1:03:30 > 1:03:35Non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect,

1:03:35 > 1:03:40the good and the bad, to coat the leaves with a deadly film,

1:03:40 > 1:03:43and to linger on in soil.

1:03:43 > 1:03:47Can anyone believe it's possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons

1:03:47 > 1:03:53on the surface of the Earth, without making it unfit for all life?

1:03:53 > 1:03:56That was a seminal work at that time -

1:03:56 > 1:03:59it was the first thing that brought that level of real concern

1:03:59 > 1:04:04about what was happening, to attention,

1:04:04 > 1:04:08and Rachel Carson managed to put together such

1:04:08 > 1:04:10a convincing argument of things

1:04:10 > 1:04:15that perhaps hadn't filtered through to the general consciousness before.

1:04:15 > 1:04:19It was just in those sorts of days when we were beginning to wonder

1:04:19 > 1:04:25about where our food came from and suddenly, you're thinking about what's happening to our rivers?

1:04:25 > 1:04:28Where are all these things that are used to grow our crops,

1:04:28 > 1:04:30what's happening to them, and what are the consequences?

1:04:30 > 1:04:33# Where have all the flowers gone?

1:04:33 > 1:04:35# A long time passing... #

1:04:38 > 1:04:40Silent Spring catalogued

1:04:40 > 1:04:44the widespread destruction of wildlife in America by pesticides.

1:04:44 > 1:04:48But it was also about ecology - the relation of plants and animals

1:04:48 > 1:04:51to their environment, and to one another.

1:04:51 > 1:04:54Although today this is a well accepted principle,

1:04:54 > 1:04:57in the early '60s it was leading-edge stuff.

1:05:01 > 1:05:05Rachel Carson had to do a lot of the fieldwork herself.

1:05:05 > 1:05:09There wasn't a huge body of literature that she could call on.

1:05:09 > 1:05:14And that's why the agrochemicals companies went after her -

1:05:14 > 1:05:16they said, who is this woman?

1:05:16 > 1:05:19She's not a real scientist as we know a real scientist.

1:05:19 > 1:05:22She's doing a lot of her own observational and measurement work,

1:05:22 > 1:05:24and what does this tell us about anything?

1:05:24 > 1:05:28And really went for the jugular in terms of her scientific credentials

1:05:28 > 1:05:30and the fact she was a woman, of course.

1:05:30 > 1:05:33Things were pretty crude in those days

1:05:33 > 1:05:36and the agrochemicals companies had no compunction at all

1:05:36 > 1:05:40in seeking to destroy her reputation, partly because she was a woman.

1:05:43 > 1:05:46The major claims in Miss Rachel Carson's book,

1:05:46 > 1:05:50Silent Spring, are gross distortions of the actual facts.

1:05:50 > 1:05:55Completely unsupported by scientific experimental evidence and general,

1:05:55 > 1:05:57practical experience in the field.

1:05:57 > 1:06:00The real threat, then, to the survival of man,

1:06:00 > 1:06:02is not chemical but biological

1:06:02 > 1:06:07in the shape of hordes of insects that can denude our forests,

1:06:07 > 1:06:09ravage our food supply

1:06:09 > 1:06:13and leave in their wake a train of destitution and hunger.

1:06:13 > 1:06:18If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson,

1:06:18 > 1:06:23we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases

1:06:23 > 1:06:26and vermin would once again inherit the earth.

1:06:28 > 1:06:31Silent Spring is one of a number of blows.

1:06:31 > 1:06:37They kind of rain down on the reputation of scientific modernism.

1:06:37 > 1:06:40Before '62,

1:06:40 > 1:06:44there had been this absolutely uncritical,

1:06:44 > 1:06:50almost kind of gushing worship of science and technology.

1:06:50 > 1:06:52And what Silent Spring does,

1:06:52 > 1:06:57it's the first kind of dent in modernisation's reputation.

1:06:57 > 1:07:02It expresses, I think, the anxieties of people that things had got out of control, had gone too far,

1:07:02 > 1:07:03and all this progress,

1:07:03 > 1:07:06which has changed the lives of millions of people,

1:07:06 > 1:07:08has not come without cost.

1:07:08 > 1:07:09And what happens in the '60s

1:07:09 > 1:07:14is that people, for the first time, realise what the costs really are.

1:07:15 > 1:07:20Rachel Carson's Silent Spring set in motion a new spirit of activism,

1:07:20 > 1:07:23when an interest in animals would change

1:07:23 > 1:07:26from passively watching them on television

1:07:26 > 1:07:29to actively campaigning for their welfare.

1:07:39 > 1:07:41The '60s was a decade of protests

1:07:41 > 1:07:44which fed directly into the wildlife protection movement.

1:07:44 > 1:07:48Just as people had been shocked by newspaper pictures

1:07:48 > 1:07:50showing the plight of the rhino,

1:07:50 > 1:07:53they were now angry about images of seal culling.

1:07:57 > 1:08:02# Wild Thing I think you move me. #

1:08:02 > 1:08:04Few people will rally to protect you

1:08:04 > 1:08:09if you are an ugly and unattractive animal.

1:08:09 > 1:08:13The conservation movement in the 1960s and 1970s certainly

1:08:13 > 1:08:19selected certain iconic species - giant pandas, mountain gorillas,

1:08:19 > 1:08:23and seals, which became totemic species.

1:08:23 > 1:08:28They became hugely powerful recruiting tools

1:08:28 > 1:08:30for the environmental organisations

1:08:30 > 1:08:33and conservation organisations of this period.

1:08:33 > 1:08:37In some ways, because people identified with them.

1:08:37 > 1:08:40People almost identify human qualities in them.

1:08:40 > 1:08:43As seal culls were taking place on the Farne Islands,

1:08:43 > 1:08:46and in the far north of Scotland, on Orkney and Shetland,

1:08:46 > 1:08:50so the public began to get more angry and disenchanted

1:08:50 > 1:08:53and dissatisfied and uncomfortable

1:08:53 > 1:08:57with the fact that we were culling such a beautiful animal.

1:08:57 > 1:09:00This has been one of the great sea changes in British society.

1:09:00 > 1:09:03In fact it's one of the great untold stories

1:09:03 > 1:09:06of British social and cultural history - the way that we have rallied,

1:09:06 > 1:09:09over the 20th century, decade by decade,

1:09:09 > 1:09:13to protect certain iconic species that we have decided

1:09:13 > 1:09:17have value, and we cherish and we want to interact with

1:09:17 > 1:09:19and we want to know are doing well

1:09:19 > 1:09:21out there in the wider natural world.

1:09:21 > 1:09:26Unlike WWF's rhino campaign in 1961, where people were happy to send

1:09:26 > 1:09:31money from the comfort of their own homes, animal welfare had moved on.

1:09:31 > 1:09:36And, for some, it was now about getting up and doing something.

1:09:36 > 1:09:39# Call out the instigator

1:09:39 > 1:09:44# Because there's something in the air

1:09:44 > 1:09:49# We got to get together sooner or later

1:09:49 > 1:09:52# Because the revolution's here... #

1:09:52 > 1:09:55This new kind of activist had cut their teeth

1:09:55 > 1:09:58on the anti-nuclear protests of the late '50s and early '60s.

1:09:58 > 1:10:03They had found a new freedom - the right to stand up and be counted.

1:10:03 > 1:10:06At the beginning of the '50s

1:10:06 > 1:10:11there was still quite a strong obedience in the British nation.

1:10:11 > 1:10:14They were used to being led by the upper classes,

1:10:14 > 1:10:18used to being led with a degree of discipline during the war.

1:10:18 > 1:10:24And it was only really in the late '50s and early '60s

1:10:24 > 1:10:27that the absolute right to question and rebel

1:10:27 > 1:10:29was enshrined in British life.

1:10:32 > 1:10:36We campaigned against apartheid and nuclear weapons

1:10:36 > 1:10:39and we campaigned against this, that and the next thing.

1:10:39 > 1:10:40It was the age of protest.

1:10:40 > 1:10:44And that also helped take the conservation movement forward.

1:10:45 > 1:10:48The sense that people felt

1:10:48 > 1:10:53they were free to express their opinions.

1:10:53 > 1:10:57It's that collectiveness which give you such a feeling

1:10:57 > 1:11:00of, "I can say something, my voice will make a difference.

1:11:00 > 1:11:03"They must listen. Look at us all, how many we are here."

1:11:03 > 1:11:08And that's probably what people felt at that time.

1:11:12 > 1:11:16While the demonstrators were only a small section of society,

1:11:16 > 1:11:21the animal campaigns were attracting a wider range of people.

1:11:27 > 1:11:29Environmentalism has always suffered

1:11:29 > 1:11:32from the image of being a very precious, middle-class activity.

1:11:32 > 1:11:36Now, clearly in the '60s you did have a change,

1:11:36 > 1:11:40in that it slightly stopped been the province

1:11:40 > 1:11:45of late middle-aged men with beards, and became a young person's thing,

1:11:45 > 1:11:47and it became what I would see

1:11:47 > 1:11:51as a move from the upper-middle class to lower middle-class.

1:11:54 > 1:11:57They're not from the very bottom of society

1:11:57 > 1:11:59but they're not from the top.

1:11:59 > 1:12:02And these people were often burning with righteous anger.

1:12:02 > 1:12:05They want to bring something new,

1:12:05 > 1:12:08they want to tear down the old order, they want change now.

1:12:08 > 1:12:12And they take that activist energy

1:12:12 > 1:12:17and channel it into the ecological movement.

1:12:17 > 1:12:20The animal protests of the '60s had attracted

1:12:20 > 1:12:26a different type of follower but essentially it was still a movement for a minority of people.

1:12:26 > 1:12:29However, towards the end of the decade

1:12:29 > 1:12:32there would be in an ecological disaster

1:12:32 > 1:12:34that would change everybody's outlook.

1:12:46 > 1:12:52On 18th March 1967, one of the World's first supertankers crashed

1:12:52 > 1:12:54on to rocks just off Land's End.

1:12:59 > 1:13:05The Torrey Canyon was carrying a cargo of 120,000 tonnes of crude oil.

1:13:10 > 1:13:11The image of oiled birds

1:13:11 > 1:13:13becomes very vivid immediately

1:13:13 > 1:13:15when you mention the word, Torrey Canyon.

1:13:19 > 1:13:22It's a doomsday scenario coming true.

1:13:22 > 1:13:27And it's happened not in America or on the other side of the world

1:13:27 > 1:13:30but right on our front doorstep.

1:13:30 > 1:13:33And when you have all these birds covered black with oil,

1:13:33 > 1:13:38it sort of presses a very British button, if you like,

1:13:38 > 1:13:43which is the cute and cuddly natural world,

1:13:43 > 1:13:46which we have polluted, which we have ruined and destroyed,

1:13:46 > 1:13:48and that's a very powerful image.

1:13:53 > 1:13:55It was a very big thing, yes.

1:13:55 > 1:14:00And it had a very important impact on the public.

1:14:03 > 1:14:06I think it was a big shock.

1:14:08 > 1:14:11Looking back on it now, of course,

1:14:11 > 1:14:14it was a pinprick compared with what is happening

1:14:14 > 1:14:17in the Gulf of Mexico.

1:14:19 > 1:14:25Those images were just astonishing.

1:14:25 > 1:14:27And again, it's so intriguing

1:14:27 > 1:14:28that over the years,

1:14:28 > 1:14:32the things that changed people's minds about this

1:14:32 > 1:14:35is the moment where something that was invisible becomes visible.

1:14:35 > 1:14:39Where that which was largely under the radar, just tripping along

1:14:39 > 1:14:43with people either conniving in, or actively comfortable about,

1:14:43 > 1:14:46a particular pattern of environmental damage,

1:14:46 > 1:14:50suddenly goes public, goes live, goes very visible.

1:14:50 > 1:14:53And the Torrey Canyon undoubtedly was one of those moments

1:14:53 > 1:15:00where people thought, "Wow, that's the dark side of the oil economy, that's one of the consequences."

1:15:00 > 1:15:01An early recognition

1:15:01 > 1:15:05that all the benefits that came through the widespread use

1:15:05 > 1:15:07of relatively cheap hydrocarbons

1:15:07 > 1:15:10- which they were in the '60s and '70s -

1:15:10 > 1:15:13that there was a downside, a dark side, to that.

1:15:13 > 1:15:15And certainly those images brought it,

1:15:15 > 1:15:17for the first time, into people's lives.

1:15:20 > 1:15:24The Government called in the forces to deal with the disaster.

1:15:24 > 1:15:27It was treated as a full-blown military operation.

1:15:27 > 1:15:29Though it was an enemy people knew little about.

1:15:29 > 1:15:32'The south-west coast was a battle area.

1:15:32 > 1:15:35'Civilians, 2,000 soldiers and Royal Marines

1:15:35 > 1:15:40'grappled with the stupendous task of trying to fight off the oil.

1:15:40 > 1:15:44'Enormous quantities of detergent were brought to the area.

1:15:44 > 1:15:48'A small defence indeed against an estimated 50,000 tonnes of crude oil

1:15:48 > 1:15:50'already floating on the sea.

1:15:50 > 1:15:53'But with the mass of mobile pumping machinery now assembled,

1:15:53 > 1:15:55'it was the only remedy available on the shore.'

1:16:00 > 1:16:02They had to deal with the oil on the beaches

1:16:02 > 1:16:06because politicians especially have to be seen to be doing something.

1:16:06 > 1:16:08Although in retrospect it's pretty clear

1:16:08 > 1:16:10that they should have done nothing

1:16:10 > 1:16:12and just let the oil sit on the beach

1:16:12 > 1:16:14because in a very few months it would be gone.

1:16:14 > 1:16:16In real life they came down and poured detergent,

1:16:16 > 1:16:21vast quantities of this detergent, all along the beaches.

1:16:21 > 1:16:25'Every tide left a thick covering of oil, to which detergent was applied with all speed.

1:16:25 > 1:16:29'The lovely beaches of Cornwall, the delight of holiday making millions

1:16:29 > 1:16:32'would not be sacrificed without a struggle.'

1:16:34 > 1:16:38In a desperate attempt to staunch the oil from the wrecked tanker,

1:16:38 > 1:16:40the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson,

1:16:40 > 1:16:43even called in the RAF to bomb the vessel,

1:16:43 > 1:16:46hoping the oil could be burnt off.

1:16:50 > 1:16:52Although this action looked spectacular,

1:16:52 > 1:16:53most of the ship's cargo

1:16:53 > 1:16:58had already been lost and the damage had been done.

1:16:58 > 1:17:02# Time it was and what a time it was, it was

1:17:04 > 1:17:08# A time of innocence

1:17:08 > 1:17:12# A time of confidence ebbed... #

1:17:12 > 1:17:16It was the worst possible time of year for the breeding auks.

1:17:16 > 1:17:19We were getting guillemots especially and razorbills

1:17:19 > 1:17:23and gannets coming ashore on the beaches.

1:17:23 > 1:17:27People were setting up bird rescue stations all over west Cornwall.

1:17:27 > 1:17:29Hairdressers were doing this especially

1:17:29 > 1:17:31because they had the equipment.

1:17:31 > 1:17:34For giving them shampoos.

1:17:36 > 1:17:38Many of our greatest conservationists

1:17:38 > 1:17:41who would build their careers in the 1970s and 1980s,

1:17:41 > 1:17:44cut their teeth, if you like, became angered about what they

1:17:44 > 1:17:49were seeing with the sea birds and Torrey Canyon

1:17:49 > 1:17:52and rushed down to help and clean birds.

1:17:52 > 1:17:57We quickly realised it was easy to get the oil off them with detergent.

1:17:57 > 1:18:01The problem was to get them back so that they had the natural grease on their feathers

1:18:01 > 1:18:02so that they could fly again.

1:18:02 > 1:18:08And any number of birds were treated and then put back in the sea to die.

1:18:20 > 1:18:24Torrey Canyon flagged up one important thing - who on earth

1:18:24 > 1:18:28in Britain was responsible for an environmental disaster?

1:18:28 > 1:18:31Which government department? Which group of civil servants?

1:18:31 > 1:18:34Nobody knew who was responsible for something like this.

1:18:34 > 1:18:40So it led to the standing Royal Commission on Environmental pollution in 1970.

1:18:40 > 1:18:43It led also to the establishment of the world's first

1:18:43 > 1:18:44Department for the Environment.

1:18:48 > 1:18:52# You can't always get what you want... #

1:18:52 > 1:18:54The devastation had rocked the British public

1:18:54 > 1:18:58and the Government's reaction in creating

1:18:58 > 1:19:00the Department of the Environment

1:19:00 > 1:19:03marked a sea-change in the way we as a nation

1:19:03 > 1:19:05put value on our wildlife.

1:19:05 > 1:19:07# But if you try some time

1:19:07 > 1:19:11# You might find you get what you need... #

1:19:18 > 1:19:25The creation of a department of state for the environment,

1:19:25 > 1:19:30the idea that that should be given importance alongside defence

1:19:30 > 1:19:36and agriculture, that sort of shift was quite radical at the time.

1:19:36 > 1:19:41Torrey Canyon brought home to people for the first time

1:19:41 > 1:19:45in a visceral way, it's not a book, it's not Silent Spring,

1:19:45 > 1:19:47it's something that is in the news day after day,

1:19:47 > 1:19:52it brought home to people just the risks of our obsession with oil,

1:19:52 > 1:19:54with economic progress and growth

1:19:54 > 1:19:58and with technological change and all those kinds of things

1:19:58 > 1:20:00and it made you realise,

1:20:00 > 1:20:01you know, we did this damage -

1:20:01 > 1:20:05it is not something that the world inflicted upon itself, we did it.

1:20:08 > 1:20:15The awareness of how vulnerable our planet really is became even more apparent in 1968.

1:20:15 > 1:20:17But this wasn't due to a disaster -

1:20:17 > 1:20:20it was thanks to a technological breakthrough.

1:20:20 > 1:20:275, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero. All engines are on. Lift off!

1:20:29 > 1:20:31We have a lift off. 32 minutes past the hour.

1:20:34 > 1:20:36People back on Earth,

1:20:36 > 1:20:40the crew of Apollo 8 have a message that we would like to send to you.

1:20:40 > 1:20:44The shots taken from Apollo 8 were the first time anyone

1:20:44 > 1:20:47had seen the Earth from outer space

1:20:47 > 1:20:52and the images brought the fragility of our planet into sharp relief.

1:20:52 > 1:20:56I think the first pictures from space, people were astounded

1:20:56 > 1:21:00and, I hope, made a bit humble.

1:21:00 > 1:21:03We are not the biggest, greatest beings in the universe

1:21:03 > 1:21:07because we couldn't get out of it and look back at ourselves.

1:21:09 > 1:21:13In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

1:21:13 > 1:21:15And the Earth was without form.

1:21:17 > 1:21:20Those pictures people see of the little blue ball

1:21:20 > 1:21:23spinning in the darkness of space, weren't part of the mission plan

1:21:23 > 1:21:28but I think they did generate this sense

1:21:28 > 1:21:34that the world was not of infinite size and therefore

1:21:34 > 1:21:37it needed to be thought of as something that could be managed.

1:21:37 > 1:21:40And God said, "let there be light", and there was light.

1:21:43 > 1:21:49It fostered an idea of Spaceship Earth, of a common future.

1:21:49 > 1:21:53It fostered a powerful idea of us all being in this together.

1:21:53 > 1:21:57It showed us that we didn't have anywhere else to go

1:21:57 > 1:21:58if we messed up this planet.

1:22:06 > 1:22:13And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night,

1:22:13 > 1:22:18good luck, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

1:22:21 > 1:22:24The Apollo 8 pictures contributed

1:22:24 > 1:22:26to the idea of one world,

1:22:26 > 1:22:30a world shared by people, all species of animals,

1:22:30 > 1:22:32plants, everything.

1:22:40 > 1:22:43It was an inspiration for the first ever Earth Day.

1:22:43 > 1:22:48In 1970, millions of people gathered on streets across America

1:22:48 > 1:22:50in what was one of the largest

1:22:50 > 1:22:52environmental demonstrations in history.

1:22:54 > 1:22:59I think that by the 1970s, people had started to realise

1:22:59 > 1:23:05that some of the most important issues were environmental issues.

1:23:05 > 1:23:08They started to realise, just as they do now

1:23:08 > 1:23:14with climate change, that these are possibly THE most important issues.

1:23:19 > 1:23:23We didn't really know what we were doing, with sort of marches

1:23:23 > 1:23:26and banners, you know, those sorts of things that you did in the '60s.

1:23:26 > 1:23:32But it was to try to generate an awareness and appreciation

1:23:32 > 1:23:38of the web of life, as we said back then, of the interconnectedness

1:23:38 > 1:23:43of all living beings and their physical environment.

1:23:43 > 1:23:45That was the whole point of that,

1:23:45 > 1:23:48was to bring that to more and more people.

1:23:50 > 1:23:53It seemed there was no stopping this tide of feeling,

1:23:53 > 1:23:58and awareness of nature and wildlife was now part of our daily lives.

1:23:58 > 1:24:00# Words are flowing out... #

1:24:03 > 1:24:08It was stunning, the transformation of attitudes.

1:24:08 > 1:24:12Environmental issues were on the front pages in the early '70s

1:24:12 > 1:24:15in a way they just weren't in the early '60s.

1:24:15 > 1:24:18People talk about environmental issues, people are interested

1:24:18 > 1:24:22in the environment and the natural world and wildlife and so on.

1:24:28 > 1:24:32But there's also, I think, a much deeper change, beyond the headlines

1:24:32 > 1:24:36and that is that you have had a complete cultural transformation

1:24:36 > 1:24:41from the early '60s when there was this absolutely, almost unthinking

1:24:41 > 1:24:45worship of science and technology.

1:24:45 > 1:24:49Now, by the early '70s that had almost completely collapsed.

1:24:49 > 1:24:52For the first time people have realised the costs

1:24:52 > 1:24:55that progress brings with it.

1:25:01 > 1:25:04This change was reflected on television.

1:25:04 > 1:25:09In 1970, the BBC commissioned a hugely popular TV drama, Doom Watch.

1:25:09 > 1:25:12It covered themes like pesticides and chemical leaks.

1:25:12 > 1:25:14It portrayed science,

1:25:14 > 1:25:18technology and big business as potentially sinister.

1:25:18 > 1:25:21Is this happening anywhere else?

1:25:21 > 1:25:24Do you know, I shouldn't be at all surprised if this is a pesticide spray?

1:25:24 > 1:25:28Doomwatch is not a programme that would have been conceivable in the early '60s.

1:25:28 > 1:25:29It wouldn't have been commissioned.

1:25:29 > 1:25:32And the reason is because popular television, popular entertainment,

1:25:32 > 1:25:36generally reflected scientific optimism rather than pessimism.

1:25:36 > 1:25:38My department is interested in pesticides.

1:25:38 > 1:25:41But by the early '70s there's been a complete change.

1:25:41 > 1:25:45Because I'm going to make sure that everybody sees you for what you are!

1:25:45 > 1:25:48We want to do a programme that 10 million people will watch.

1:25:48 > 1:25:50It's about precisely the opposite,

1:25:50 > 1:25:54it's about the dangers of science and industrialisation

1:25:54 > 1:25:56and the threat posed by big business.

1:25:56 > 1:26:00These are quite radical themes but it's a sign of how mainstream

1:26:00 > 1:26:02they have become that something like Doom Watch could be made

1:26:02 > 1:26:04as early as 1970.

1:26:07 > 1:26:11Doom Watch showed how much wider wildlife issues had become.

1:26:11 > 1:26:15Conservation groups were no longer confined to a small, elite group

1:26:15 > 1:26:16and, by the early 70s there were

1:26:16 > 1:26:21new organisations being set up to appeal to all ages and interests.

1:26:21 > 1:26:26The thing that the new campaigns around Friends of the Earth

1:26:26 > 1:26:32and Greenpeace did is to get into the thoughts and ideas of young people.

1:26:33 > 1:26:37And I think that was one of the biggest impacts they had,

1:26:37 > 1:26:42was that this stuff became much more interesting to young people.

1:26:42 > 1:26:45# How many roads must a man walk down... #

1:26:45 > 1:26:49By the end of the '60s, people from all spectrums of society

1:26:49 > 1:26:53had changed their attitudes towards animals and the natural world.

1:26:55 > 1:26:59Early television programmes and books had captured their imagination

1:26:59 > 1:27:03and helped inspire a new reverence and respect for the wild.

1:27:03 > 1:27:06Pioneers such as Peter Scott had tapped into this,

1:27:06 > 1:27:07persuading the public that

1:27:07 > 1:27:13protecting species did matter and that we could all contribute.

1:27:16 > 1:27:20Saving animals was no longer just about individual species -

1:27:20 > 1:27:22it was about their habitat,

1:27:22 > 1:27:25the interconnectedness of all living things

1:27:25 > 1:27:29and, ultimately, caring for the whole planet.

1:27:31 > 1:27:36# How many years must a mountain exist

1:27:36 > 1:27:43# Before it is washed to the sea?

1:27:43 > 1:27:49# How many times can a man turn his head

1:27:49 > 1:27:54# And pretend that he just doesn't see?

1:27:55 > 1:28:01# The answer my friend is blowing in the wind

1:28:01 > 1:28:03# The answer is blowing in the wind. #

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1:28:05 > 1:28:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk