Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees

I'm Judi Dench..

..and I've been an actor for 60 years.

But I have another passion, which may come as quite a surprise.

Ever since I've been a little girl, I've adored trees.

SOARING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Oh, it's lovely!

I've even turned my six-acre garden into a secret woodland...

..and I think of my trees as part of my extended family.

But I've always suspected that there is much more to these beautiful,

magical giants.

'Now, over the course of a year, I'm going to find out how much they

'live, breathe, and even communicate.

'I'll discover how they survive the harshest winter.'

Isn't that just beautiful?

'I'll hear what's going on beneath the bark when they burst back into

-life in spring...'

-And now we're going to place it back on the tree.

'How they fight back against invading hordes.'

My tree, doing all that work.

'I'll see into the heart of my beloved oak tree.'

SHE GASPS It's riveting!

'I'll discover how our woodlands shaped our history.'

-Oh! You're joking!

-A cannonball?

-A cannonball?

-Yeah.

-SHE GASPS

'I'll even find out if trees live in communities, just like us.'

A forest like this is a very, very social place.

'Do you know, there are more trees on the planet than there are stars in

'our galaxy? There's so much for me to discover.'

My life now is just trees.

Trees and...and champagne.

SHE CHUCKLES

Come on.

Whenever I can, whatever the season, this is where I escape to.

SHE HUMS A MELODY

These are the trees I've nurtured for over 30 years.

I started planting trees here with my actor husband Michael Williams.

Michael died in 2001, but even before that,

every time a relative or a friend died, we would plant a tree.

This is Jeff. This is one of my brothers.

This is Stephen Hanley. He was a lovely, lovely

actor and singer in A Little Night Music at the National,

and he died, and we put this in, and it's just like him.

He was very, very tall and kind of pale.

And it's lovely.

We've got Ian Richardson

and we've got Natasha Richardson. No relation.

Ian and I were at Stratford together, and Natasha,

I was at Central with Vanessa.

And this is Michael.

But this was already here

when Michael died, and that was 16 years ago.

So this is not a 16-year-old tree,

but it was a young tree at the time.

It is about remembering and it's something, for me,

it's something that's living, that goes on.

So that...it's not, you know, you don't remember them and stop.

You remember them and, and the

memory goes on and gets more wonderful.

SHE HUMS A MELODY

Now it's time for me to learn more about my beloved trees at the bottom

of my garden in the heart of Surrey,

and there's no better time to start than in the winter.

CROW CAWS

I think my trees are at their most magical at this time of the year.

Sleeping giants, waiting for spring to arrive.

Their icy beauty takes my breath away.

"How like a winter hath my absence been from thee,

"the pleasure of the fleeting year!

"What freezings have I felt...

"What dark days seen!

"What old December's bareness everywhere!"

When it's freezing outside,

there's nothing I like more than sitting in the

warmth with David.

David has devoted his life to nature and conservation,

and he shares my passion for trees.

So I'm going to find some quotes for you now.

-Right, and I'll try and spot what plays they're from.

-OK.

-SHE CHUCKLES

"Be you in the park about midnight?"

-This is the Merry Wives.

-Well done.

LAUGHTER

We've been together now for seven years,

and she's just great fun to be with.

We've both got good senses of humour,

and the silliest of things gives us fits of giggles.

Yes. Oh, yes.

-"Creep into acorn cups and hide them there."

-Well done.

-Is that it?

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

It seems that Shakespeare knew a thing or two about trees,

and now it's my turn to learn more,

and I'm going to need some help.

Tony Kirkham is the head of the tree collection at Kew Gardens,

one of the largest in the world.

He's going to help me uncover the secret lives of my trees.

-So you want to learn more about trees, Judi?

-Always, I do.

I'd love to know more about them.

You know, you...I don't know that much about them.

I just know I love them so much,

and I know you know everything that I don't know.

Well, I'd love to do that with you, Judi, and you

live in an amazing part of the world,

because Surrey is the most wooded county in England.

And so wooded, in fact,

that there are more deer in Surrey today than there were in Queen

-Elizabeth I's reign.

-Good gracious!

And here we are in winter. I love this time of the year,

and it's a time when all the trees are shutting down.

They need to prepare themselves for winter.

-This is their rest period.

-Get rid of the leaves and have a rest.

Get rid of the leaves, they know that it's going to get frosty,

so they have bark that acts like an insulation jacket, like a coat.

But some trees, like the conifers,

keep most of their leaves in winter.

There is a tree that's one of my favourite trees.

The yew tree. It's one of only three British native conifers in the

British Isles, and I love it because it's still very active in winter,

and it has this amazing sap

that will tolerate temperatures down to -35 degrees.

Because it has almost a built-in antifreeze in the leaves that

stop the leaves from freezing and allow it to keep growing.

What a pity I haven't got one here.

Well, I know a really, really good

yew tree, not far from here,

that's very old, full of character. It's a beautiful tree.

Oh, I'd love to see it.

Apparently, the yew is 140 million years old.

So it's Europe's most ancient tree.

Walking through a yew forest always feels mysterious.

And Tony tells me there's a good reason.

Their leaves are poisonous to humans,

and some people say they've experienced hallucinations

amongst these magical trees.

To show me one of these wonderful yews,

Tony's brought me to a local churchyard.

So...it's a lovely church, isn't it?

Yews are often found beside old churches.

So, Judi, I've brought you here to see this, this tree,

-which is a favourite of mine in Surrey.

-Oh, my word!

-How ever old is it?!

-It's probably 1,500 years old.

It's so ancient, it only grows at a 100th of an inch a year,

but it has a girth of more than 30 feet.

So it's seen quite a lot of activities.

-With a little door to the side.

-Incredible!

-You've got to touch it.

Oh!

-Look at this little gate!

-And it's hollow inside.

-If you go around the side, you can see in, and...

-How beautiful!

-Shall we go round this side?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Oh, how fantastic!

And it still shows the form of yew, of the old yew, you know.

Look at the old bark there. This is all living.

SHE GASPS

Around 1820, I think it was hollowed out by the landlord of the

local pub, so he could get some chairs in here, and a table.

When they hollowed it out, this is what they found in it.

-Oh! You're joking. A cannonball?

-It's a cannonball.

-Oh, my goodness!

Probably from the Civil War.

-It must be.

-Lodged, lodged in, you know, in one of these holes.

-Isn't that amazing?

-Good gracious! That's so heavy.

SHE GASPS

Most people assume that the yew was planted by the church.

-Yes, I did.

-Well, actually, the church was built by the yew.

-Oh, right.

-So the old yew's like this, so this predates the church,

and this was a revered tree by the Druids and the pagans.

So they would come and worship this tree, because it was a sign of

-longevity, prosperity.

-Well, you can see, can't you?

-Yeah.

Already, I've learned so much.

Trees live on a completely different timescale to us.

I'm told the oldest tree in the world is over 5,000 years old.

Now, having met Tony,

there's somebody who knows about trees, absolutely.

So all those things that you kind of suppose you know, and you think,

you know, I'm going to get them all answered, properly, now,

and told about it. And I shall give up acting and lecture on trees,

I expect. Quite soon...probably. SHE CHUCKLES

I love that moment when you realise that winter is coming to an end and

spring is bursting through.

LIVELY ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Dormice sense the leaves around them are warming up,

and open their eyes for the first time in months.

Along with bats and hedgehogs,

these little creatures are the only British animals that hibernate.

And, for me, a sure sign of spring

is when I see thousands of wood ants

building their huge nests.

But I want to know what's happening

to my trees in the spring.

How are they preparing for the longer, warmer days?

I'm meeting Alex Metcalf, in Nower Wood in Surrey.

He wants to show me what's going on under a tree's skin in spring.

When you're thinking about spring,

this is the kind of day you imagine.

Look at that. Isn't that wonderful?

Alex has brought an ingenious invention of his.

So we're going to have a look at this sweet chest up here.

-Let's step very carefully round the bluebells.

-Yep.

Oh! Oh.

-Oh.

-Fantastic, beautiful old tree.

-Beautiful.

So what I wanted to show you is this device here,

that allows us to explore a bit more

-about what's going on just behind the bark here.

-What is that?

-So, this is...

-A microphone, called a tree microphone? SHE CHUCKLES

This is a tree-listening device,

and it allows us to hear what's going on just behind the bark.

-OK.

-So, can you hear anything?

FAINT RUMBLING

-Can you hear anything?

-I can hear very faintly.

-So, there's a...

-There's a deep rumble there.

-Like a... Yes, I can hear...

Yeah. So that's the, that's the inner workings of the tree,

-so that's the tree vibrating.

-Oh, I say!

But Alex has another magic trick in his box,

-to help me hear even more.

-All right.

-So now I'm going to plug it into here.

-Mm-hmm.

So I can give you those headphones.

And now we're going to place it back on the tree...

RUMBLING

So now we can hear more clearly,

there's just the rumbling sound.

Oh, yes, very, very clearly!

Can you hear anything else in the background to the rumble?

Every now and again, a little blip.

-Like a little popping sound?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-So that little popping sound is...

-SHE GASPS

..that little popping sound is the sound of the water travelling up

from the roots, all the way through

the thousands of tiny little tubes, called xylem tubes,

just behind the bark, as the water goes up to the leaves.

The tree, like this, will drink

around 200 litres of water a day.

So that's equivalent of, say, two full baths full of water.

So there's a huge amount of water travelling up inside this tree.

Well!

Oh, it's riveting! It's wonderful!

So, trees get thirsty, just like us.

And when we know how to listen to trees,

we can hear them quenching their thirst.

RUMBLING

"From you I have been absent in the spring,

"when proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,

"hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

Now I've heard the rush of water surging up under the bark,

I know they're fully awake and ready for action.

But I've also noticed that spring is when they start attracting the wrong

sort of attention.

I'm taking Tony to look at one of my favourite trees -

a young oak that Michael and I, and our daughter Finty,

planted for my grandson, Sammy.

But, unfortunately, it's looking a bit frayed at the edges.

-Is it all right?

-There's some feeding damage here.

-Somebody munching away.

-This is just a caterpillar munching away on them,

-by the looks of things.

-Just the end of it?

Yeah, and can you see how they've gone between...

They've left the midrib, which is like, if you imagine a cabbage,

and you eat, you prefer the bit in between the...

-So you eat round it?

-..the thick bits, they...

-Choosy.

-They're choosy, very choosy, yeah.

-They go for the softer pieces...

-Yes, look at that.

-..which are probably more tasty.

I wonder if my tree can feel anything when there's a

caterpillar invasion, and also,

can it do anything about it?

There's so much more going on in trees than I'd ever imagined,

so I suspect my tree might be able

to sense when it's under attack.

Tony thinks Oxford University scientist Kristiina Visakorpi

can help to solve the mystery.

-So this is your office?

-Yeah.

-What an incredible structure.

-Yeah.

-In the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere.

Right, then.

Right, Kristiina. Is it one on the, the one on the ladder at a time?

Yeah, one at a time, so if you go first, then I'll...

You'd never believe this beautiful treetop office

-is just outside Oxford, in Wytham Woods.

-Wow!

This is absolutely amazing!

It's like an elfin forest, but we're in the top of the canopy.

It's...Tolkein-like.

This 40-foot-high walkway is where Kristiina is exploring

whether a tree can sense when it's under attack.

So we're looking for a leaf with damage on, Kristiina.

-Oh, there you go. There, there, look.

-Oh, yeah!

Kristiina's machine works by measuring photosynthesis -

the amount of carbon dioxide that the leaf is breathing in.

And if the damaged leaf slows down its breathing,

Kristiina's machine will pick it up.

We can have a look of the, of the actual rate from this monitor here.

Not sure if you can see,

but right here it's recording how much the leaf is taking.

-And how much is that?

-How much... That's quite a low number.

Leaves that are eaten by these caterpillars,

they drop their photosynthetic rate, and what I find really

interesting is that this effect also spreads to the surrounding leaves,

so even if the caterpillar is just eating one leaf,

I can see the same effect in those leaves surrounding that one leaf.

So the tree is talking to itself...

-Yes.

-..and sending signals from the damaged leaf to the other leaves,

to beware, insects about.

So, Sammy's oak does sense an insect attack,

and Tony says some trees can take

defending themselves a step further.

They fight back.

So there is some tree species, like the common beech,

and she can sense when roe deer are grazing on her,

from the saliva from the roe deer...

-Really?

-..and very quickly can increase the tannin levels in the

leaves, so the leaf tastes very bitter and sour to the taste,

which means the roe deer stops grazing on them.

What's more, Tony tells me that when some trees are overwhelmed by an

attack, they can call in outside help.

This is a pine forest, and pines

often come under attack from aphids...

-Oh!

-Hmm.

..that can multiply at an incredible rate.

So a single aphid, in a year, could

give rise to around 600 billion aphids.

-600 billion?

-600 billion.

-You know they're up to no good, don't you?

-You do.

Tony has had a graphic made,

to show how trees fight back against the aphids.

The trees are under attack from aphids, so what the tree can do...

It needs help, it needs to bring in the cavalry,

and this is an invisible cloud that the trees are sending out.

Apparently, the cloud is a strong perfume.

The tree releases it when it's under attack,

and it attracts a mini superhero.

And the ladybird can smell this cloud.

It can sense this cloud and it knows that there is food there.

You know, they are launching off.

Flying away to the pine, to feed on the aphids.

So, ladybirds are as sensitive to that cloud emitted by the pine

as that to a shark to the smell of blood in the sea.

-It's wonderful that nature's got an answer to all the problems, isn't it?

-It's quite reassuring.

It's very reassuring, yes.

It's only when we come along, as man, and mess it all up.

-Mess the system up, yes.

-Yeah.

-True.

-So we've got to protect...

-Indeed, definitely.

-..our fauna.

So, not all insects are harmful to trees.

For some trees, it's quite the opposite.

This is the orchard close to my house.

It's just gorgeous at this time of year,

when the blossom is out and it's buzzing with insects.

-Well, they all look very healthy, don't they?

-They certainly do.

-They're wonderful.

-That's wonderful. That's beautiful.

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

-Actually, if you smell it...

-I thought I could smell something, I thought I could.

I'm told that bees will travel

six miles to get to flowers like these.

They're after the nectar, but as they drink,

pollen brushes onto their backs.

And when the bee visits another tree,

the pollen drops off and the flower is fertilised.

-Here we are.

-Oh, look, how wonderful!

How wonderful is that?

But if you look underneath, you see you've got little, tiny

-pears just developing.

-Well, I look forward to the pears.

But all pollinated by insects.

Yes. The bees, the bees.

But trees are so clever, some have

evolved other ways to pollinate.

Since they can't move, they use something that can.

The wind.

One of them is the Scots pine.

In spring, it releases thousands of tiny pollen grains into the air.

The grains can travel 100 miles on

the wind, until some of them land on

these little flowers.

Sometimes they even form vast pollen clouds,

like this one above a yew forest.

These clouds can be so dense they've been mistaken for forest fires.

And, a few months later,

these fertilised flowers will become pine cones, containing tiny seeds

which float off in the breeze.

But the fruit of many trees is too heavy to be carried on the wind.

They need a friendly courier to find them the perfect spot to germinate.

David has brought me to his wildlife centre,

to show me the ideal messenger.

It's one of his favourite animals.

HE CLICKS HIS FINGERS

-He'll come.

-He's passionate about saving these endangered creatures.

-Here he comes.

-There you are.

These little bits, then he'll sit and eat it.

If you give him a whole nut, he'll just take it away.

Look at those ears. Look at how lovely he is.

Very, very good manners.

The red squirrel population has shrunk by 90% since grey squirrels

were introduced nearly 150 years ago.

So David is helping to reintroduce them around Britain.

All squirrels are important to how trees spread their seeds.

Very, very pretty to look at.

And those wonderful tufts at the end of their ears,

and the way they keep their balance with the tail.

Like grey squirrels, they gather the nuts and bury them for the winter,

but they don't have the best memory.

They get food, they bury it,

and then they forget where it is.

So you get a plant, you get a tree.

What could be better than that?

It's been a wonderful spring,

but now the days are getting longer and warmer,

and I can't wait to find out what happens next with my trees.

GENTLE PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

BEE BUZZES

This is the time of year I love most.

I just adore it.

At the heart of my garden, stands this incredible oak.

It towers over everything else, and it's one of my favourite trees.

I've asked Tony if we can uncover some of its secrets,

and we're going to start by working out its age.

So, Judi, shall we measure your tree and see roughly how old it is?

-Look at it!

-Isn't it magnificent?

Oh, it's lovely!

-It's..

-Got to give them a pat. Let them know you're here.

-I quite agree.

-Yeah. A rough guide is, if we measure the circumference

-at breast height...

-Yeah.

..and a good guide is, for every inch, is a year.

-Well, we have to do that!

-Well, I've got some string.

-Oh, that's convenient!

-AndI hope it's going to be long enough, because it's a big tree. And we'll, we'll measure it.

-OK.

-So, if I give you that...

-How are you going to get round?

-I'm going to, I'm going to go this way...

-Are you? SHE CHUCKLES

..and if you can hold it in one spot...

-Yeah.

-..and then, and I'll thread this through. I'll be back...

I'll be back in about a week. THEY LAUGH

OK.

If you hand me that, I can take it.

-Yeah.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah.

-OK. Here we are.

-Here we are.

-OK. Good. So, now...

we need to measure...

-That.

-..this piece of string.

One yard.

Two yards.

Three yards.

Four yards.

Where's the...?

Five yards and...

18 inches?

I should think.

So, five times 36...

-SHE CHUCKLES

-Get the calculator out.

Obviously, maths isn't Tony's strong point,

-or mine.

-Right. Five times 36...

-15...

-..plus 18..

is 198. So it's 200 years old.

Oh. Good for him.

What a lovely thing to find out.

My oak might just have started growing when Wellington won the

Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

But finding out its age is just the beginning.

I want to know what other secrets my oak holds at this time of year.

Tony has invited Doctor Matt Disney to my garden, to reveal some of my

oak's summer secrets.

He scans trees all over the world to explore exactly how they help the

planet, and he's made me a

three-dimensional model of my garden.

SHE GASPS

So we come through the gate and come into the clearing.

Oh, look! The pavilion.

So we have the summer house here

and all the other trees around the outside...

And the oak...

..and you can see your oak through the clearing there.

So we've stripped away all the other trees

from our three-dimensional picture...

..and we're left with your splendid oak here.

Oh!

So, one of the things that we can do is we can estimate how many leaves

there are on your tree. Would you like to have a guess?

I couldn't begin to guess.

So we reckon there are about

260,000 leaves on your tree,

so that's about three tennis courts' worth of leaf area.

I'm told that all those leaves are helping the tree to breathe in more

carbon dioxide, which it will then use to grow more branches.

So, the other thing we can do,

we can measure how long the branches are on your tree.

So, over the course of our work, over the last few years, we've been

all across the tropics, and we've scanned somewhere between

10,000 and 15,000 trees in total,

and so far we've found trees that are a lot taller.

One of the biggest trees we found was in Ghana,

and that tree had nearly 9km of branches,

and when we saw that, we thought, "Wow, that's amazing!

"9km of branches!"

Your tree's bigger than that.

-Of course it is.

-Your tree has 12km of branches in it.

A prize tree.

-Indeed. So far, that's our longest-branched tree.

-Really?

Is it? SHE GASPS

I'm very, very proud of it.

All those branches!

My oak must be a very healthy tree.

And, in 200 years, my tree must have breathed in a lot of carbon dioxide.

Just the wood alone weighs about 25 tonnes,

so that's how much carbon is stored in your tree there.

So, by hoovering up all that harmful carbon dioxide in the summer,

my oak must be helping the planet.

Matt wants to show me this map of the world.

We're looking at how the levels of carbon dioxide, seen in red,

change over the seasons.

So, in winter, the photosynthesis slows down,

and the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere go up.

So here we are, coming towards summer, and you'll see the levels of

CO2 in the atmosphere, in the northern hemisphere, start going

down as the trees start drawing down that CO2 from the atmosphere.

So, Matt, you can tell me absolutely, finally,

that my tree is helping the planet.

-Absolutely.

-It's riveting!

It's riveting, isn't it? SHE GASPS

I would like that there forever, just that picture of it.

Very, very proud of my tree, doing all that work, and here am I, going

about, thinking I'm so hard worked and everything.

Look what it's doing, my oak in the garden.

And all the others, actually. Don't want them to feel left out.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

"Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

"and summer's lease hath all too short a date.

"Sometime, too hot the eye of heaven shines...

"..and often is his gold complexion dimmed...

"..and every fair from fair sometime declines,

"by chance or nature's changing course, untrimm'd."

My other passion is Shakespeare.

In 60 years, I've been in over 30 of his plays,

many of which involve woodland and nature.

Tony's heading off to explore how

trees like mine shaped Shakespeare's

world, and I want to examine how

they feature in his plays.

Since I was really a little, little girl,

and was taken just to see my brothers in Shakespeare,

at St Peter's School in York,

that's all I ever wanted to do, was to be in those plays,

and learn as much as I could about them and about him.

I am on Box Hill in Surrey, brushing up on my knowledge,

with Shakespeare expert Dr Charlotte Scott.

One of the things I think that's unique about Shakespeare is that he

was brought up in a rural environment,

but actually made his living in an urban environment.

So he's one of the few playwrights, I think, of his generation who

actually could bring that kind of local rural knowledge...

-Exactly, yes, yes.

-..to the kind of city landscape.

So, tell me, what was the first Shakespeare part

that you ever played?

-Ophelia.

-Ophelia.

-Not many trees in Hamlet.

-No, not enough trees.

-Not enough trees in Hamlet. THEY LAUGH

We did a production of As You Like It at the Vic in about 1958,

and Alec McCann played Touchstone, simply wonderfully.

And, you know, that line, "So this is the Forest of Arden,"

and I remember he came in and said,

"So THIS...is the Forest of Arden."

It used to get the most marvellous laugh.

-LAUGHTER

-Massive disappointment.

Often, Shakespeare's woods are full of menace and magic.

But Charlotte reminds me that they're also full of romance.

Cos, of course you'll remember in As You Like It,

the trees were so central, not only to the entire action of the play,

but also to the way in which Orlando

communicates his love for Rosalind.

-I think he pinned them up on the trees, doesn't he?

-He does, he does.

-Exactly. He pins up love letters.

-Writes them up and pins up love letters.

And it turns out that these love messages

are still to be found today.

So these are called arborglyphs, and they have an ancient and very, very

long history of tree-carving as forms of communication, but also,

-I think, as pictorial symbols, as...

-What did you say it was called?

-Arborglyphs.

-Arborglyphs.

-Mmm.

Oh, that's wonderful!

It is, yeah. And an ancient, ancient art that was practised,

I think, for thousands of years in terms of, not only, as we said,

messages, but also artworks,

you know, notes, sort of forms of reminders.

Much nicer than just signing your name on a, you know,

on a bit of the Tower of London.

That's it. Sort of an early tattoo, isn't it?

-Yes, I suppose it is.

-And you wonder if these tell stories of people

who were married or, you know, proposals,

that somehow this moment in this woodland marked something they

wanted to remember forever.

-And they come back and see it, maybe.

-Yeah.

-Well, it's lovely when

-it's like that and doesn't actually harm the tree.

-..spoil the tree.

-Yes.

-No, exactly.

And it will go, eventually, too.

-It will disappear and the story will end.

-Yes.

-We could go on for hours.

-I know. Should we go to the pub and keep going?

-INDISTINCT DIALOGUE

-Cymbeline, yes, exactly.

I've talked to Charlotte about the magic of Shakespeare...

..now Tony is discovering how trees like mine,

and especially my magnificent oak,

were so important to the Tudors.

-Hiya, Chris.

-Really good to see.

-Yeah, good to see you, too.

He's meeting archaeologist Chris Dobbs

to explore the greatest wooden treasure

that survives from the Tudor age.

So here we are coming into the Mary Rose ship hall.

Oh, my goodness!

That is absolutely incredible.

It's Henry VIII's warship, the Mary Rose.

So half of it was eroded on the sea bed,

but this is the ship that Henry VIII ordered

the building of in 1509.

The sheer amount of timber that's in it.

There's quite a few trees there.

It is beautiful, isn't it?

And it's beautiful because of those curves.

It was supposed to be very fast.

This beautiful ship was about 130 feet long.

It was the first specially commissioned warship

built by Henry VIII.

It marks the birth of the Royal Navy,

which helped forge the largest empire the world has ever known.

And what actually happened to her?

Well, she fought for Henry VIII in three wars against the French,

but sadly, in 1545, capsized and sank in front of the king's eyes.

There were 35 survivors but probably over 500 men on board,

so, I mean, a great tragedy of the time.

Parts of it are elm, but the frame is made from 600 oak trees.

That's about 40 acres of woodland.

And I suppose when they built this they had to get as much timber

the shape of the ship that they could

because they couldn't work it.

In the 16th century they could easily find these wonderful curved

-timbers to build the ship from.

-It's amazing, really, isn't it?

Because although they've shaped them,

all they've done is squared off those branches

but retained that...

-That joint is the tree.

-Exactly.

It's not been changed in any way apart from flattened down, really.

And I love that you see they've retained the shape.

That's absolutely what this ship is.

It's built out of the curves of the tree,

the natural curves of the trees.

Basically, the oak built the ship.

On the Mary Rose, almost everything was made of wood -

from the simplest object to the most advanced technology.

And what I really want to show you is this tiny thing here.

Can you guess what that is? I mean, it's absolutely wonderful.

No idea. It looks like a chess piece or a draught.

-Yeah, it looks like a draught piece, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

But that is actually a pocket sundial.

And I've got a replica of one in my pocket.

So what you'd have to do is you'd have to get it out,

orient it for north, south.

Then you'd have to see where the shadow is cast on the dial.

I mean, this just shows it was very much a wooden society.

Even their pocket sundials were made of wood.

Do you know, I'm absolutely blown away.

This is a floating forest.

Tony has brought some things from the great Tudor warship to show me.

Accompanying him is conservator Simon Ware.

-Judi, how are you?

-Oh, great to see you.

-Great to see you.

-Yeah, it's been quite a while, hasn't it?

-It's been a long time.

-Yeah.

Nice to see you.

Wow, look at this.

So, this is a yew longbow that was brought up from the Mary Rose.

Isn't that amazing?

Of course, one of your great friends...

-Robert Hardy.

-Robert would have handled this.

-He would have looked at this.

-And he's only just died.

-Yeah.

Isn't that incredible?

Robert Hardy was a very dear actor friend of mine.

In 1960, I played Catherine to his wonderful Henry V.

He was also the greatest expert on the English longbow,

and conserved all the longbows found on the Mary Rose.

-I remember him telling me that this was the machine gun...

-It was.

-..of medieval times.

-It was, of course.

But the bow isn't the only thing Tony's brought with him.

-What is this?

-This is a nit comb.

What is that?

-Oh, a nit comb!

-Yeah.

Isn't that amazing?

This belonged to a member of the crew,

so they would have had their own comb for removing head lice.

And I think if we look in the light, you may actually be able to see some

of the little remains of the nits and the head lice

still in there in those fine teeth.

-Along there?

-Yes.

JUDI GASPS

That's absolutely incredible.

It's amazing that wood was once so crucial to an entire society.

I've learned so much about what my trees do in summer.

They're such sophisticated individuals.

But just how social are they?

Do they communicate?

I hope autumn will give me the chance to find out.

The changing colours of the leaves show my trees are hard at work

preparing for winter.

Their green pigment is sucked back and stored safely under the bark

for next year.

The tree transfers unwanted toxins into the leaves,

which it jettisons to keep it healthy.

But the impression that everything is shutting down is deceptive.

This is when the janitors that keep the woodland clean set to work.

This secretive scary slime mould roams the forest floor,

hunting down microscopic debris to eat.

And then there's another astonishing woodland caretaker.

It's probably the single most important part of a woodland,

but you'd never know it.

There's a lot of life and action still going on

underground in a woodland.

So, if you look here, you see all this fungi,

these are the fungi that breakdown that woody matter

that many other creatures are incapable of breaking down.

-Almost in a circle.

-Almost.

-Have you noticed?

We're almost in the centre.

We're almost in centre of it, yes.

This type of fungi is called a decomposer

because it breaks down woody matter

and turns it into nutrients in the soil.

Just the tip of the iceberg,

so there's so much more action going on underground here.

Apparently, all these fungi have long threads

like roots running through the earth sometimes for miles.

We've got some amazing footage here.

And these are the threads here of fungi.

And they've come in, they're looking for dead wood

and they've found this branch, this dead branch.

Good gracious!

And that's sending a signal back to start the breakdown.

So this is quickened up?

-This is quickened up.

-Yes.

-Yeah, I don't know how many times.

It's saying, "I've found dead wood.

"Come and get it."

And all these other threads are coming

and enveloping this dead wood.

Good heavens.

By breaking that wood down, it then makes it available

as organic matter for the tree to feed on,

so it's recycling.

The fungi are the best recyclers.

It's amazing, isn't it?

-It's absolutely...

-But I've got something even better to show you.

This has never been filmed for television before.

This is called hair ice.

And as the fungi starts to decompose, this is a waste product,

it pushes the water out

from the wood as it breaks it down.

And because we're in autumn, as the first frosts appear,

it freezes and crystallises

this water that comes out.

So this is ice. Isn't that incredible?

-So beautiful.

-It is beautiful.

I never knew autumn was such an important time of year for my trees,

and Tony tells me that there's another type of fungi

that doesn't decompose dead wood.

Instead, it may do something even more astonishing.

It might just allow the entire forest to interact.

In this beautiful beech forest I'm meeting fungi expert

Professor Lynne Boddy.

She's going to tell me what's going on beneath our feet.

This is pretty, this forest.

It's very pretty.

It's lovely.

Apparently, in forests like these, a special type of fungus

attaches itself to the very tips of the tree's roots.

Now, this happens on an incredibly tiny scale.

So we're going to have a look at magnified images on the computer.

Let's have a look, let's have a look. Oh, I say.

So what we can see here is one of the fine roots of the tree.

-This is underground?

-This is all underground.

And you can see these very fine

threads extending into the soil.

This is the fungus.

These threads build up and up until they cover the tip

of the root completely, like a sock.

And from there, they spread out under the forest floor.

These below ground fungi are not just attached to one tree.

They can be attached to several, so communication can occur.

-Like an underground system.

-Yes.

The threads, are they attached to different types of tree?

They don't just stick to one type of tree?

No, that's right. Some fungi are only found on one species of tree,

one type of tree,

but other fungi can join up lots of different trees.

-Really?

-And if, for example, this tree here

was being attacked by a swarm of insects,

not only does it send the messages within itself,

it can send those same messages through the underground network

to adjacent trees.

-That's...

-It's amazing.

-That blows your...

-I know.

-It completely blows your mind.

It does, it does. So beneath our feet there is a huge network.

JUDI GASPS

Gosh, there's...

-There's such a lot going on, isn't there?

-There is, there is.

That is staggering.

And not only do they send messages,

but they can also share food and water

to another tree somewhere else.

-What a brilliant system.

-It is.

-It's evolved over millions...

-Yes, of course.

Hundreds of millions of years.

Lynne tells me that these fungal threads

for both the communicators and the decomposers

are so numerous that she can easily find some.

Oh, my goodness me.

Can you see this one?

Look at the size of this!

-So there are lots and lots of fine...

-Oh, my goodness.

..threads joined together here.

This is going to be a huge network. Look at this.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole woodland

isn't connected up by this network. Look at it.

JUDI GASPS Good gracious.

-It's like a power line.

-Isn't it?

-Look how strong that is.

-They are.

Knowing that all these trees are using fungi

to communicate with each other,

I'll never think of trees as individuals again.

A forest like this is a very, very social place.

Everybody is sharing and passing everything to everybody else.

-Yeah.

-And sustaining everybody.

-Yes.

That was just mind-blowing.

Yeah, they're remarkable organisms, aren't they?

Aren't they just?

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold

"When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

"Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

"Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

It's been wonderful to discover that my trees aren't just amazing

individuals, but that they're part of an extended family.

When I plant trees in memory of my friends,

I always hoped that they would feel part of a community,

that they would be communicating with each other.

And now, it's so reassuring to find out that it's true.

I think it might be time to add another member to the family.

Tony has arranged to meet David and me in my garden.

There's a famous Chinese proverb -

the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago,

but the next best time is today.

So what better time than today to plant a tree.

The two trees that I've brought you are English natives,

British natives.

So one's a yew tree and one's an oak tree...

JUDI GASPS

..which are going to be around for a long time.

What a great present.

I'm going to do this one, as it's a yew tree, Robert Hardy.

I thought you'd choose that.

That would be so good.

-He would love that.

-How lovely.

-And maybe in another 300 or 400 years' time...

-Yep.

..someone might be making a longbow from one of its branches.

-You just never know.

-You never know.

-Shall we take them?

-Yeah.

-Oh, you are going to take them?

-Yeah. We're going to plant them.

-Gosh, that might be quite heavy.

-They're OK.

-I hope... I shall make my mind up quickly!

THEY LAUGH

David, the nearer the better!

-THEY LAUGH

-Yes!

-Maybe here.

-Yeah.

Just in here?

-Whoops!

-With that as the background?

-Yes. I think...

-It's a lovely spot.

-Wouldn't that be a good place?

-Yeah.

The soil in my garden is a mixture of sand and clay,

and Tony says my yew will be very happy here.

That's going to be just right.

How fantastic.

Gosh! Wonderful.

Oh, that is so nice.

Oh, I'm so pleased.

How appropriate, isn't it?

It's perfect.

It's absolutely perfect.

I've loved trees all my life, but after this year,

I'll never be able to look at them in the same way again.

I shall never be able quite to walk so nonchalantly

through a woodland again

without thinking of all that incredible work

that is going on under here.

I mean, we think we live in a society.

No comparison to what goes on round here,

how these chaps live.

I mean, it's mind-blowing.

It's wonderful.

And very, very exciting.

I don't know how I've lived so long without knowing,

but I know now.

JUDI LAUGHS