A New Era... An Island Parish

Deep in the south Atlantic Ocean, 8,000 miles from the UK,

the Falkland Islands are one of the most isolated places on Earth.

Over the last 30 years, the famously hardy islanders

have overcome war and adversity to preserve their way of life,

but now there's another challenge just over the horizon.

Oil has been discovered offshore and, whilst the human

residents here stand to benefit, there are others who may not.

It's May in the southern hemisphere, and excitement is growing

for the social event of the autumn, the May Ball.

I got my nails done, and my hair.

I had my turn... Can't remember which year. A long time ago, though!

And there's a new RAF chaplain at the military base.

Hello, Mark, it's the padre.

Padre Ian does the rounds of his congregation,

but will he manage to entertain the troops?

Where do you think we are, then? "We're in the school."

Yes, we're in the school, that's right.

Hmm, OK.

Welcome to you if you're visiting the Falkland Islands

or whether you're here on East Falkland and in Stanley today.

Sunday in Stanley, and in Christchurch Cathedral

it's business as usual for the rector of the Falkland Islands,

the Reverend Richard Hines.

For those who would like to learn a new song, it goes like this.

Are you ready?

# A man went out to sow some seed

# And some fell in the rocks

# The sun beat down and the plants dried up... #

-WOMAN CHUCKLES

-That's a dry plant.

# And that was the end of that. #

When Richard arrived on the Falklands almost seven years ago

the islands were already a very different place

from the mainly agricultural community

that fell under the world's spotlight during the 1982 war.

Most of his congregation now live and work in Stanley

and what was a declining population is definitely on the up.

There have certainly been massive changes

for people who live in the Falkland Islands

during the last 35 years.

And, if anything, the pace of change is accelerating.

And what it's taken some countries

a couple of centuries to pass through,

the Falkland Islands has gone through in a few decades.

In 1998, islanders learnt that deposits of oil

had been discovered in the waters surrounding the Falklands.

And since then, there's been a lot of speculation

about the size of the find

and when, or even if, anything would come of it.

So the arrival of a 400-foot barge into Stanley Harbour

is an exciting sign that things are finally on the move.

The noble barge has arrived - made in, er, Texas

and brought down through the South Atlantic.

And I'm quite impressed with the way in which these tugs

are manoeuvring the thing through what we call the narrows.

It's one more step in a whole series of things that are happening

as the build-up for oil exploration itself is underway.

The Texan company who own the barge

have been granted a licence by the Falkland Islands government

to explore one of the areas where oil has been discovered.

And they've flown in a couple of their representatives

to tell everyone about their plans.

Ladies and gentlemen, exciting times are upon us here

for Noble Energy and, we believe, for the Falkland Islands as well.

One of the things that we're very committed to is

if we are so fortunate as to be successful,

that everybody benefits from whatever makes sense.

I don't know what the numbers... how meaningful they are,

but, suffice it to say, it's big.

Everyone is excited about the prospect of oil

and the money it'll bring to the islands,

but nobody wants it to spoil what they've got here.

Arguably the Falklands' greatest asset is its wildlife.

Five different species of penguin, seals and a host of sea birds

could be at risk when their natural habitat is disturbed.

Australian marine biologist Megan Tierney has been drafted in

to work with the Falkland Islands government

and the petroleum licence holders' association

to help make sure that doesn't happen.

I first fell in love with Antarctic stuff, I think,

when I was about ten or so, and I decided that's where I wanted to go.

And then I saw a new job come up

at the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute.

A lot of the work I'll be doing while I'm here

will be focused on what we call higher marine predators.

So these are the animals which are sort of

at the top of the food chain, essentially.

So, penguins...they might not seem like

the most ferocious of predators, as such,

but they are sort of at that top of the food chain

in this part of the world,

so they might be quite susceptible

to any potential environmental impacts from the oil industry.

So if there happened to be a spill,

which, you know, is going to be unlikely, but in case it does,

because of their diving behaviour

they'd be more susceptible to be impacted by that spill.

One of Megan's first projects is to produce a map showing

where in the ocean these creatures go to feed during the winter.

To do this she just needs to catch several penguins

and fit them with a satellite tracker,

which is not as easy as it sounds.

While penguins might appear to be, you know, small and cute and fluffy,

they've actually got a lot of character -

quite capable of giving you a good whack with their flippers,

you know, potentially breaking bones in hands and arms.

And also quite sharp beaks and claws, so...and...

which has been known to rip through quite expensive Gore-Tex jackets.

So, um...yeah, worthwhile being wary of...of them.

But Megan can't afford to hang around.

To be useful, the study needs to monitor the birds' feeding patterns

right from the beginning of winter through to the end,

so she needs to catch her penguins while she can.

At this time of year, the sun is low in the sky

and sets at around five o'clock.

For the youth of Stanley, that can only mean one thing -

it's time to get their dancing shoes on.

The annual May Ball is fast approaching,

a milestone event in every Stanley teenager's life,

and nobody wants to be shown up on their big night.

Step, together, step and turn, and it's exactly the same.

So you step, swing your leg, step back...

'Basically we're here to help the youngsters learn to dance,

'although most of them know a lot of the steps from previous dances.'

I had my first May Ball back in 1991

and spent a number of years away from the islands

and, on returning, had to learn it all again.

So we've all been there and kind of earned our dance shoes, as such, and

it's just nice to be able to pass on skills to future generations.

Two steps to the line of dance, two steps against...

I think it's something the girls coming up to 15

look forward to every year.

It takes a lot of planning

because the girls have to order their dresses and it's a big thing -

don't want to clash with someone else's colour and the rest of it.

Hair appointments are hard to come by, nails done, it's...

Yeah, it gets bigger and bigger every year!

The May Ball is one of the Falkland Islands' most enduring traditions.

It dates back to Queen Victoria's day, when it was called

the Empire Ball and held every year on her birthday - the 25th of May.

This year's ball is taking place at the Town Hall.

Tim Miller and his wife, Jan, are in overall charge

and, assisted by a team of helpers,

they're putting the finishing touches to the decorations.

-Don't stand on it - it'll be shorter!

-Are you in uniform? Yes.

That's nowhere near there. Is it all right?

Each year, we try and pick a theme to focus on.

This year being 2014, um, we're focusing very much

on the centenary, 1914, start of the First World War and the huge,

great big naval battle that took place just off the Falklands

on 8th December 1914, between the British fleet and a German fleet.

The Battle of the Falklands, as it became known,

was one of the great British naval victories of the First World War.

But it came only a few weeks after another British fleet

had been defeated off the coast of Chile.

The victorious German admiral then made the ill-fated decision

to mount a raid on the supply base at Stanley,

where he was met by a squadron of British battle cruisers.

Seriously outgunned, he turned and fled,

but was hunted down, and all but two of his ships were sunk.

Although we're celebrating,

we're also commemorating the massive loss of life as well

and so we've decorated the hall accordingly -

one side, we've got the pictures of the British ships

and then on the other side, up here, we've got pictures

of all the German heavy ships, as a mark of respect, really,

to the 2,000 young seamen who went down on the German side.

And then, up on the stage there,

we've recreated two guns from a very old British battle ship,

HMS Canopus, which was moored at the lower end of Stanley harbour.

She was too slow to take part in the battle

but she actually fired the opening salvo of the battle

on that morning of December 8th.

We've been helping run the May Ball now for...

I think it must be 22 years, I would think.

It's a lot of work, setting it all up, but we enjoy it.

It's one of those nice little traditions that, you know,

it just gives you a feel-good factor playing your little bit

in helping keeping it going, really.

I've just realised I've got it the wrong way up!

Does this happen a lot?

No, not usually, no.

He's talking and working at the same time,

and he's a bloke and they can't do that.

That is worse than a thing you can do!

HE LAUGHS

It basically means you're in distress!

Yeah, it's a shootable offence.

Yes...

The Union Flag upside down is actually a sign of distress, but

if you don't know how to do it, it's quite easy to hang it upside down.

35 miles south-west of Stanley,

is Mount Pleasant British military base.

Since 1986, this has been the home of an ever-changing community

of around 2,000 military personnel, contractors and their families.

Most people here are on detachments of between 4 and 12 months.

One of the most recent arrivals is Reverend Squadron Leader Ian Brown,

Mount Pleasant's new chaplain.

So we're just on our way to Mount Kent, which is

one of our remote radar sites.

We've got about ten people up here

and they're all up here together for about four months.

We're 8,000 miles away from the UK here,

so that doesn't come without its issues for serving personnel.

Hello, Mark, it's the padre.

'My role here is really to look after the welfare of the serving

'personnel, the contractors, any MOD civilians that might be here.'

-How we doing, you all right?

-Very well.

Yeah, good to see you. Keeping busy?

Oh, yes!

It's pure morale, um, basically you know that there's somebody

out there who cares, somebody who's out of your command structure.

-Everyone's getting on all right, are they?

-Yeah, everyone's getting on OK.

How's comms with home? All right?

Yeah, not bad, I spoke to the missus a few times.

She's happy enough, they get a bit of peace without me, you know.

Somebody who can actually look after the guys

and push their cares forward.

So what's on the menu tonight?

Fajitas tonight, nice and steady.

And comms with him have been all right, have they?

Yeah, yeah, not bad.

How you doing? How you getting on with Minesweeper?

-Completed it.

-That's fine, OK, great.

You know, it's not unusual that after you've visited a section,

within the next couple of days, somebody will call you

and they'll perhaps have an issue that they want to talk through.

And that's where a lot of the one-to-one pastoral work

takes place.

Back on the base, Padre Ian's centre of operations

is St Cuthbert's chapel.

So, this is my office.

Over here you can see pictures of my family, look.

There's Sam, Becky and Emily, and Alfie the dog.

Look at him - he just melts the heart, doesn't he?

Padre Ian is going to be away from his nearest and dearest

for the next four months.

But some service personnel on longer postings

bring their families with them.

The children have often been uprooted

from their schools in the UK

and part of Padre Ian's job

is to make them feel at home in their new environment.

And he's got a secret weapon to help him do just that.

This is my friend, Grandpa.

Nice to meet you, Grandpa.

"Thank you." And you've not met Rocky the Raccoon either, have you?

Oh, you want to see Rocky the Raccoon.

He doesn't say a lot, does Rocky,

but he's certainly a firm favourite with the children.

And how do Rocky and Grandpa get on?

Grandpa doesn't like Rocky at all.

So, um, I think Grandpa is in earshot

so we'll just have to just be a bit sensitive.

In Stanley, at the headquarters of Falkland Islands Conservation,

Megan and conservation officer Sarah Crofts are preparing to go

and tag some penguins.

What have we got? Scales.

Scales? Fantastic. Notebook.

Yes.

Various tools that we might need.

Their research will help protect the penguins and other wildlife

once the much anticipated offshore oil exploration gets underway.

Trackers?

That would be a good thing to take with us.

Yeah, so this is one of the trackers that we're going to be

attaching to the penguins.

When the bird comes to the surface, up to the sea surface,

it will send a signal out through the antenna

which will then...

up to a satellite, which will give us its location.

You know, you hear it said never work with children or animals

and wildlife in particular.

They're unpredictable.

And so we're expecting that they'll be there,

but there is this chance that they'll decide,

"You know what? It's nice out there, out at sea today.

"We're just going to hang out there

"instead of coming back in for a rest."

So...

Megan's study is focusing on the gentoo penguin.

The Falklands is home to the world's largest population of gentoos,

identified by their orange beaks and long tails.

OK, OK.

In the summer, around 130,000 breeding pairs nest on the islands.

But what isn't so well known

is where they go to feed in the winter

and how long they stay out at sea.

Their best chance of finding a colony of gentoos is Bertha's Beach,

40 miles down the coast from Stanley.

The penguins are at either end of the beach, aren't they?

Yeah, they are. There's two colonies.

So, yeah, we'll have to stay well back when we get there.

But at this time of year, they're notoriously unpredictable.

Looks like we've overcome the first challenge -

whether there would be any penguins here.

They don't seem too worried at the moment.

-We've just got to keep it nice and slow.

-Yeah...

And every time they look like they're getting spooked,

we'll just stop, let them settle again.

We're going to try and approach the birds without disturbing them

as much as possible because if we approach too quickly,

they will get alarmed and basically run away from us.

Right, if we just stop for a bit.

Just a case of inching forward, really slowly.

The aim is to cause the penguins as little distress as possible

so everyone's relieved when the first attempt is successful.

PENGUIN BRAYS

We've managed to get a couple of birds, so we're

recording all the measurements that we take and the weight of the bird.

OK...

6.7.

5.4 and 2.5.

It's just to keep them calmer. If they can't see,

they tend to just keep a bit calmer just to reduce stress.

Let's just stick the tape underneath the feathers.

This is special waterproof tape.

The important thing is to make sure it's sort of on the spine

so it's nice and straight.

I think that looks good, are you happy?

You get the chance to sort of contemplate them

and marvel at the things that they're capable of.

I mean, it can be quite humbling, really.

When you work with these birds, obviously you don't want to try

and anthropomorphise anything and, you know, get too attached.

But they are, you know, special animals.

They carry these trackers for us, almost sort of as volunteers.

And, of course, we don't have a lot of information

on where they go in winter

so it's going to be a lovely new set of information

from these particular birds from the Falklands.

Back in Stanley,

at the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute,

Megan gets visual proof that their efforts have paid off -

the trackers are working.

A different line represents a different penguin, so you can see

that we've had a lot of birds just heading east out of Bertha's Beach.

What's really interesting is that we've also had one of them

that's been heading out up to the north-east.

And a lot of the exploratory work

that's been done with the oil and gas

has been to the north of the Falklands at the moment.

And so what we might see is

whether these penguins over this entire winter period, while

we have the trackers out, whether they utilize that area as well.

Oil is important to the future of the Falkland Islands

but so are all the other natural riches of this unique

and unspoilt place,

and preserving them remains the number one priority.

It's eight o'clock in the evening, and over at the Town Hall,

excitement is in the air.

Tonight's the night, and May Ball Night 2014.

Well, obviously you're sort of nervous - is there some

little thing that you've forgotten about?

That's going to suddenly... Oh, dear!

This is the 22nd May Ball that Tim Miller

and his wife, Jan, have organised.

This is a real traditional dance here.

It's been going on for... I don't know how many years, decades,

and everybody likes it to be just so.

And hopefully we've got it right.

The guy with the black cowboy hat on,

he's still wearing the tie that I lent him two years ago

when he came without one.

The Winter Ball is always really good.

But this is a difference experience.

The dresses are different and the dances, so it's really good.

The girls still get excited about it.

I got my nails done and my hair, and my aunt did my make-up.

Yes, I had my turn, can't remember which year, a long time ago, though.

But I think I always get excited about the May Ball.

Really do.

The party is going with a swing, so it's time to get down to the serious

business of electing this year's May Queen and her Prince Charming.

The ballgoers all get a vote.

So each one's given a pink slip for the May Queen

and a blue slip for Prince Charming

and then they can vote for whoever they want to win.

But there are also three mystery judges

chosen by Tim for their impartiality.

You will see the girls dancing waltzes, foxtrots,

quick steps, sambas...

We will ask you to give several choices.

Stanley is such a small place

that you very soon get to know... not just your next-door neighbours,

but you get to know, you know,

all the people in the shops, in the pubs.

Within a few months, you will know pretty well everybody in Stanley

and they will all know you as well.

That's why it's important to get newcomers as judges.

You will just identify them to us by "the girl with the red dress"

and "this colour shoe" and that sort of thing.

Everyone throws themselves into the dancing, hoping to impress

the mystery judges and each other.

By the end of the evening, all the votes have been cast

and it's up to Jan to supervise the count.

I'm not too sure on the girls so far - the piles look a bit even.

-15.

-And this is...

-Seven.

OK, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to do the gentleman first.

The Prince Charming for 2014 is...

..Mr Jack Ford.

OK, it gives me great pleasure to announce

the May Queen for 2014...

Miss...Kayleigh Anderson.

The Falkland Islands have a new May Queen.

For 15-year-old Kayleigh, it's been a fantastic evening.

'Well, I just expected to come here and dance and have fun'

and then, I won.

She's very bubbly, very bouncy, and she was just really in there

and dancing all the dances and having so much fun.

Some people might think it's a little bit sort of old-fashioned

and quaint what we've been doing tonight,

but, in the Falklands, we value our traditions and our heritage.

You know, we're really proud of them

and this is one of...

a good old tradition that we really like to keep going.

On Mount Pleasant military base,

Padre Ian is preparing for another pastoral visit.

The base has its own primary school

and he's been asked to take the morning assembly,

and Grandpa's going along as well.

Right, so, Grandpa, we're going to go to the school today

and we're going to meet the children.

I want you to be on your best behaviour.

"OK!" Mm, right, come on, let's get you in the bag.

I think Grandpa's quite unique in what he brings to the party

and so I'm hoping they'll be looking forward to seeing him today.

There are a number of people

who are down here on 12-month plus tours

and they're eligible to bring their families with them.

And so we have not only serving personnel and contractors

but we also have a community,

and part of my role is to look out for the community.

I enjoy going into the school and working with the children there.

So I'll do an assembly each week because everybody,

whether you're staff, child, serving personnel,

we're all 8,000 miles away from people we love.

So, it's good to see you all again.

And I've been thinking about what to talk about today.

And while I was sitting in my office

thinking about what to share with you today,

a friend of mine just had a chat and he said he wanted to come along too.

We don't want to disturb him too much.

There he is. Oh, dear, he's fast asleep.

OK, so, I think if I count to three, we can wake Grandpa up.

OK? One, two, three...

Wake up, Grandpa!

OK, maybe a little bit louder this time, OK? One, two, three...

Wake up, Grandpa!

OK, I think we're just going to have to go for it this time, OK?

Are you ready? One, two, three...

WAKE UP, GRANDPA!

"Goodness me!" Yes, OK, Grandpa. Where do you think we are then?

"We're in the school!" We're in the school, yes, that's right.

What did you want to share with the children?

"My friend Albert is coming."

Ooh, well, Grandpa, did he tell you that he was

frightened about getting on the aeroplane?

"Yes, he did." OK, so what did you do when he told you that?

"I laughed." Oh, OK, well that's not very kind, is it?

Did you say anything to him?

"Yes." What did you say to him?

"I said, 'Scaredy, scaredy custard.'"

Oh, dear, Grandpa!

"You smell like mustard."

Oh!

It's really nice when they come into school and do assembly

and they get to know the kids really well.

We're in a very adult environment here, so whilst

a lot of people do go out of their way

to put on things for children and support them,

often the padre coming into school

and doing assembly for the children

is something really focused at them every week and

is on that child level, so I think the padres enjoy that as well.

And what do you think Grandpa should show Albert in the Falklands?

You could show him Bertha's Beach.

Bertha's beach! Now what's on Bertha's beach?

Penguins!

Penguins! What do you think, Grandpa? "I guess so."

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really good idea. "Yes."

'They seem to like Grandpa

'and they're open to anything you've got to share with them.'

I do miss my own children

and certainly seeing children there in school uniform -

my daughter is in primary school today, she'll be wearing

her uniform, she'll be having an assembly, and part of me does

think of her particularly while we're going through this, yeah.

And what did you think of Grandpa?

He's funny.

I thought it was epic.

Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very funny.

Next time, the Reverend Richard joins the Scouts

on a trip to commemorate the battle of Mount Tumbledown.

It's a very hands-on, a very real, tangible thing that they do to

honour the people who are remembered by those plaques and that cross.

And the new governor and his wife get settled in to Government House

and prepare for the arrival of an important family member.

Wonderful to have her here.

She's sailed over half the world to get to us.