Episode 1 Christmas City

It's that magical time of year, it's Christmas.

Up and down the UK, in towns and cities,

families are gearing up for that big special day.

They're buying presents, eating and drinking and generally making merry.

But as we know, Christmas is a major undertaking that takes planning,

organisation and a lot of hard work

but for some people it can be a pretty challenging time too.

I'm very scared!

Should've used nails.

Still got Christmas trees to be delivered yet.

So we are in the heart of the UK's biggest Christmas market,

in Manchester, to show you just what it takes

to get that festive season on track.

If we didn't do our job, the city would come to a standstill.

Our priority is to get the motorway open

and get these people moving again.

Somebody's fallen out getting into a taxi here.

The ambulance has already been called.

Were going to be meeting stallholders,

police officers and organisers

who all work tirelessly behind the scenes

to make this special time of year safe and joyful for us all.

It really does feel like the start of Christmas because everyone is

getting together having a good time.

BOTH: Welcome to Christmas City.

Going to be a good Christmas.

On today's show we're going to be meeting a very special girl

who's on her way to the festive funfair.

One, two, three, go.

We'll be meeting the first time stallholder

who's taken a gamble at the Christmas market.

The risks involved as a business are huge.

It's a massive undertaking for us.

And I'm going to be finding out

what it's like to be homeless at Christmas.

At Christmas time, how do you think loneliness can affect people

that are living like this?

It can drive people to kill themselves

because, really, it's a bad time.

There are more than 100 Christmas markets across the UK,

generating spending of about a quarter of £1 billion.

The biggest of these is Manchester

with over 300 stalls spread across ten sites in the city centre.

More than 40 of those stalls are for food and drink.

After all, it's the one time of year when most of us push the boat out.

Turkey is king at Christmas.

Two thirds of us will be tucking in

to 10 million birds come the big day.

One stallholder from Manchester

is bucking the trend of the traditional festive taste

and is risking everything to bring his own version of a cheesy

Christmas lunch to this year's market for the very first time.

Hiya, yeah, I'll have one of those bratwurst, please. Thank you.

Charlie, there you go, dude, enjoy.

What began less than two years ago as a pop-up restaurant is now

a thriving city centre business,

giving gourmet burgers a run for their money.

One Pomodoro. Would you like chicken on there, mate?

Northern Soul Grilled Cheese is the creation of Manchester's Dan Place.

The premise was going to be like an American-style diner.

Burgers kind of took off in Manchester, got a bit saturated

and the best thing on our menu was the grilled cheese.

You might be a convert.

We can actually say

we're the UK's first American grilled cheese restaurant.

Setting it up to be like New York style.

So when it's nice and cold all the steam's flying out.

It's my favourite place in the world, New York.

Second to Manchester.

Dan is taking a huge business gamble by throwing his efforts into opening

a food stall at this year's Manchester Christmas market.

Cheers, bud, how's that for you? Nice one, man.

Cheers, buddy, see you soon.

With over 9 million hungry visitors to feed,

it's a great opportunity for Dan,

but to break even he will need to sell 5,000 toasties

in just over 40 days.

The risks involved for us as a business are huge.

A lot of what we are doing has to be paid upfront.

It's a massive undertaking for us.

We operate a kitchen at the moment, to order.

We're going to flip it on its head.

We're going to serve away to the customer.

So the front will be glazed to the shop.

It will be a full bank of grills

because this won't cut the mustard down there.

We need to have a lot of volume going through.

This is Drew, my general manager.

Me and him are working 24/7 on this.

He doesn't quite know about the seven yet but he'll find out.

24/7. We've been doing that for the last year, never mind this month!

To make sure his food stall competes with German sausages,

Hungarian goulash and Spanish paella, Dan has a plan.

Just smell that.

-Oh, wow.

-Snaff on that, mate.

Success depends on Dan's festive menu.

He's banking on his signature Christmas toastie to be a hit

but to get it just right,

he's testing some specially flavoured hams.

That will be the crucial ingredient

but which one will his staff and customers prefer?

We've done an orange and ginger,

done an orange and lemon and we've done a Christmas festive spice.

So I reckon we chop it up,

get some portions out and get the customers' feedback and I think we

should let the customers pick which one we go with at the markets.

So you're getting the orange and lemon in there, yeah?

So these are our own cures that we've actually sat the hams in.

There you go.

Our meat guy's actually quite traditional, they're hand done.

So, lemon and orange going through that.

That's really lovely cos you can get the fruit all the way through it.

Some spices going on in there.

-I can taste the ginger.

-The ginger.

Go big or go home. It's Christmas.

-I think I like the cinnamon one.

-Cinnamon?

This is my favourite.

-Favourite?

-This tastes like Christmas.

Great, so that's a unanimous decision

for the Christmas festive spice. Brilliant, thanks very much, girls.

For any business, the laws of supply and demand are crucial but in Dan's

case, not having the right supplies on time

could put him out of business very quickly.

These hams are brined in our special brine mixtures

and if we run out, it's three days minimum

until we can get the hams again.

What we don't want to do is get to the markets and we've run dry.

There you go, this is the one we've chosen today.

With his market research concluded,

Dan can break the results of the taste test to his supplier.

We've just done it out to customers, they've taste tested it

and it's festive spice all the way, mate, as we thought.

I love a challenge. It really is a challenge.

I don't think you can get any bigger than the markets.

It's going to work. I'm a Man City fan, so an eternal optimist.

We said we can, now we've got to do. Cheers, guys, see you next time.

Christmas is a time for families

to come together and enjoy the festivities

but for some it can be a very bleak and lonely period.

Latest figures estimate on any given night there are over 3,500 people

sleeping rough on Britain's streets.

Homelessness will be tough any time of year but especially at Christmas.

I'm about to meet someone who found himself living on the streets of

Manchester at this festive time of year.

This is Brian. He knows just how hard it is

to have nowhere to go at Christmas.

Tell me a bit about yourself.

I worked in a bakery for 30 years.

Basically making pies, all different pies but drinking on the job.

-Right.

-Everyone knew, it was only a small company.

My boss, God bless him, kept me on

but about the last two years I started getting on amphetamine.

OK, so you were not only drinking at work but you were also taking drugs

-as well?

-Yeah, so I wasn't sleeping all week and ended up losing my job.

Brian's mother died and he lost his flat.

He moved back home but his father,

unable to cope with his son's issues,

asked him to leave. He had nowhere left to turn.

It's me own fault. I've got no home.

Obviously, my family don't want to know me.

No job. "What am I going to do?"

With nowhere to go, Brian ended up homeless on the streets.

Now he's agreed to show me some of his old haunts.

In the daytime I'd be up here in the car park.

You always find somewhere.

It doesn't look too welcoming as a place to sleep if I'm honest, Brian.

It's a car park but I guess it kept you dry.

It wasn't too bad.

I just used to go in the stairwell, just stay in there.

You get people coming in and out, looking at you

and everything but, yeah.

At 48 years old, Brian had never slept rough before

and he struggled adapting to life on the streets.

How vulnerable did you feel

when you found yourself living on the streets alone?

Really vulnerable. I'm out on the streets. I've not got me job.

I'm not used to this, cos I've worked,

so I'm like a fish out of water.

It's just like getting thrown to the sharks. Just despair.

At night, Brian chose to sleep away from the other homeless crowds,

always attempting to return to the same spot where he felt safest.

-So this is it?

-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It's blocked off on this side now where all the beer barrels are.

But, yeah, that's it.

So if you were homeless right now

would you still be able to make something here?

-Yeah, no problem, yeah.

-What would you do?

If there's no-one about, I'd get these out the way.

At the back of the wheelie bins here.

Get one of these on the floor, some cardboard on top,

me sleeping bag and whatever I can over me.

To me, this is just a bit of wood and some bins.

Yeah. That would do me, that.

What do you actually do, do you get any sleep?

You get an hour. You're always sleeping with one eye open,

very, very light sleep.

Because you've got to be aware.

Because you get foxes coming in, as well. Having a sniff.

-Hang on. So, you're hiding from the public.

-Yeah.

-You're trying to keep yourself out the way.

-Yeah.

-And on top of that, you've got foxes coming in.

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's a back alley, isn't it?

So, you're going to have... It's night-time, isn't it?

There's bins everywhere. We've probably got rats coming in.

-Rats, mice.

-Wow.

-You just get used to it.

Knowing what this is like now...

-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

-..First-hand, because you lived like this...

-Yeah.

-..At Christmas time, how do you think loneliness

can affect people that are living like this on the street?

It drives people to suicide.

They've not got their families, they're out on the streets.

They're lonely. All right, they've got mates around them.

But they're still lonely up here, inside themselves.

And it can drive people to kill themselves,

because it really is a bad time.

It really is.

Later, I'm going to get a taste of exactly what it's like

to sleep rough, when I join Brian for a cold winter night

on a wet Manchester pavement.

In order to hit Christmas deadlines,

the company responsible for building the cabins

for the Manchester markets starts operating at full pelt

from as early as October.

OK, I've done it.

Managing director David Palmer has been designing and installing

the chalets the market stalls operate out of since 2005,

when the council decided to switch from flatpack cabins

to pre-fabricated chalets.

They were made to be built quite quickly.

So, they all just bolt together with probably eight bolts.

They're built up off site and then we have the kind of big relay race

with the wagons that take them into the centre.

It's an intense two weeks.

There's a deadline because when the market's open,

those chalets have to be there.

That's non-negotiable because

there are market traders coming from all around Europe.

I think the team like it.

Because it feels like you're part of the Manchester buzz.

There's a buzz in the city centre.

It's just stressful.

But it's quite enjoyable at the same time.

With the official opening of the market just 48 hours away,

some of the 300 stallholders are making finishing touches to their

specially commissioned cabins.

Others, like first-time stallholder Dan,

who's juggling a full-time job and his market stall preparations,

are only just starting to set up.

I've not even looked at the big Santa yet.

There. There he is.

After a full day's work at his cheese grill,

owner Dan is about to set out his stall.

So, the plan tonight - get the stuff in.

All the equipment's gone into the shop today.

Get the tools in, put everything together.

Work the ins and outs of the shop. The size of the unit.

Pretty much go and get the paper plan that we've got.

And then put it into the physical plan.

It will be a long night, I think.

Under the watchful eye of the big man himself,

Dan and his team get to work.

Absolutely amazing.

The best spot you could hope for.

We are right in front of the two main bars.

Fingers crossed, these guys will be ploughing them with the old ales

and we'll sober them up.

Team Allen Key.

Bang.

So...

But before they can even make a start, there's a glitch.

Pass.

There's no electricity.

You go and try and find them.

Try and find them and see if we can get the lights on.

We've got no lights.

It's good in one way - you can't see us.

And another way, we can't see what were doing.

So, I think we just need to do what we can.

Feed off everyone else's light

and the spark's assured us he'll be here before 12 o'clock tonight.

The lads had to soldier on without any electricity.

But there is some light.

They have their very own lamppost built into the shed.

We've actually got to accommodate some of Manchester's landmarks.

Landed a bit short in the unit, but that's going nowhere, is it?

In the space that they have left,

Dan and his team must fit an entire working kitchen

into a smaller area than they were anticipating.

Right, to me, pal.

But Dan's Christmas dream hinges on a single vital piece of equipment.

His brand-new, custom-built grill unit.

You can just work the wrong way up, yeah?

It's a pivotal moment.

-It couldn't have landed...

-You might get a bit here, hold on.

..On a worse spot.

I mean, I've worked in worse, but that is tight.

It's not going to be able to sit there because there's just

too much cross heat going.

We are just 200mm short of the measurement

which has just thrown the space.

It's going to make it... unworkable.

Dan has gambled £30,000 on equipment and rent.

If he's not cooking the moment the market opens,

his grilled cheese empire could go up in smoke.

The plan that we had is no longer the plan.

After a long, frustrating night on the market,

it's back to the drawing board for Dan and Drew.

Over in Cathedral Gardens, the De-Koning family

have won the contract to run the funfair for the Christmas market

for the third year in a row.

The family run fair has been travelling the country

for over 50 years.

Go to the van. Behind that lorry.

But fitting into the city centre is a tight squeeze.

Right-hand now. Right-hand. Right-hand down a bit now.

-Pull the front in.

-Jan De-Koning is the owner.

I like doing the Manchester Christmas market

because it's a great time of year.

It's Christmas. There's a great atmosphere on the markets.

Yeah, it's just good.

Families, kids.

It's a really good atmosphere.

Too close. Come back and we'll bring it off a bit.

But last year was a bit different.

His daughter, Isabel,

was recovering following treatment for her cancer at Christie Hospital.

It was quite devastating for us.

It showed us another side to life.

It put us in the middle of people having cancer.

Jan decided to show his gratitude to the specialist cancer centre.

Over here a little bit.

Living, working in Manchester,

we decided we were going to give the profit from this to Christie's

and we did, and it made us very happy to do that,

to try and give something back.

Not only did he donate his £20,000 profit and give free rides to the

children being treated for cancer, he's doing it all again this year.

To see the kids enjoying themselves is a really nice feeling.

It's a really... It gives you a warm feeling and to think that you're

contributing in some small way,

trying to put a little bit of happiness back on their lives.

So, it's a really an easy, nice thing for us to do.

And one little girl who's hoping to go to the funfair this year is

five-year-old Gracie Hart.

-That makes sense.

-OK!

She was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer

just before her third birthday.

She'd been for a nasal flu vaccine

and she had that as pretty much every child in her school did.

And then about two days later, I noticed that the side of her nose,

here, had started to... It just looked strange.

It didn't look right. I went to the doctors, as you would,

and eventually we got the horrible news that no parent wants to hear.

That it was cancer.

Gracie began a series of treatments at the Christie.

She had a combination chemotherapy, which was three different drugs.

She had that in cycles,

so generally with chemotherapy, with kids,

they do it over a three or four week cycle. So,

she would be in hospital for three days having those drugs.

Oh, that's nice.

What are you watching?

It's OK.

Now, Gracie's looking forward to the Christmas funfair.

-You're excited, aren't you?

-Yep!

Yeah. Because you like Christmas.

Yeah.

And maybe we find some treats at the market?

Oh, that would be good!

It's one day before the official opening

of Manchester Christmas markets.

Get out the bloody shop.

Grilled cheese sandwich entrepreneur Dan and his right-hand man, Drew,

are battle weary after a night struggling to squeeze

everything they need into their Christmas cabin.

At 12:30, we didn't have lights.

We were wet and sodden.

Not defeated, but we said,

"We can't work like this. Let's get out fresh."

Finished at half 12. Picked Drew up this morning at half five.

The custom-built grill unit Dan had bought especially for the market

didn't fit when they first arrived at the cabin.

But by taking the original top of the unit and turning the whole thing

upside down, things are looking up.

Dan has gained the crucial 200 millimetres he needs.

We've had to scrap all the tailor-made stainless steel.

Use the shelf legs down here.

Strap them together and make the best out of a bad situation.

It doesn't matter to us. It's the same, if not better,

cos we've got a slightly better height than we would have done.

It might be in the right place now,

but the grill is still waiting to be fired up.

I need to call in a few favours, I think, this afternoon.

We can get the gas man,

lap of the gods, traffic's good, he gets to us,

gas tested this afternoon...

Clean the grill tops, oil them all up,

so, yeah, there's a lot of other little bits and bobs.

Dan's £30,000 investment is on the line.

With its Albert Square location,

the stall might be at the heart of the market,

but such a prime position comes at a price.

Product's coming in today, get these fridges filled.

Get the cheese and the bread. And get them on the grill tomorrow.

Just looking at our clock.

Exactly 24 hours until the minute,

we'll be open, serving grilled cheese tomorrow.

They'll be competing with more than 40 other food stalls,

so the heat is on. Well, almost.

Every day in the UK,

around five children are told they are living with some kind of cancer.

It's a frightening diagnosis at any age but for children

and their families, dealing with cancer is really tough.

Manchester is home to one

of the biggest cancer treatment centres in Europe.

Children from all over the region travel to the Christie Hospital

for life-saving care.

Do you recognise anyone?

Big hug?

That's nice, isn't it?

Five-year-old Gracie has been coming here since being diagnosed

with a very rare form of cancer in her nose,

just before her third birthday.

So, we've come to Christies today, just to bring Gracie up

for a checkup with her consultant - Dr Edders, she calls him - Dr Smith.

-Help me take that off.

-Right, let's take it off, then.

Because it's very old.

To take the trauma out of hospital appointments,

the children's department make sure a visit to the Christie is fun.

-Hi.

-How are you?

-Really well. How are you?

-I'm good!

-Good to see you.

Pen is their paediatric support worker and play specialist.

Hello.

We make sure that when children come

they're fully supported throughout the treatment.

They are still sticky.

That's all right. We can take it out, can't we?

For children having radiotherapy treatment,

they need to have scans and most of them need to have a mask made.

To help them keep still doing treatment.

So we would start to introduce the idea of having a scan,

using a model scanner and become desensitised to it.

So that when they need to have a scan for real, or have a mask made,

it's not anything new or scary.

I look good.

You do look good. You always look good.

-You do.

-Are you dancing with it?

-That's good.

-That's really good, isn't it?

If I can take this off now...

Yes, of course you can.

Ed Smith is Gracie's consultant.

And today, he's giving her a checkup after her latest operation.

-Come on then.

-Is he just going to check me out?

-Yes.

-I am checking you out.

You see?

And when you've checked me out, I'll just go back to Pen.

Absolutely, good idea.

It's always a little bit concerning as a parent,

coming to a place like this, bringing your child, but you know,

everyone we've met here has always made it so welcoming to come and for

Gracie, she sees it as a real treat

to come to Christies because she does so many fun activities.

You're all right, aren't you?

-What's this here?

-It feels all right.

It's healing all well.

And stuff.

-Good.

-Yeah.

She's got back to normal really quickly.

And how's the mouth? Is there any dryness there at all?

She gets a little bit dry mouth,

mainly, I would say, in the morning when she's woken up.

But it's not stopped her eating or drinking.

She's been able to do pretty much everything.

She's been treated here twice.

They've been in our lives for coming up to three years now, really.

So for Gracie,

she probably can't remember the days, unfortunately,

before the likes of Christies and the hospital.

Do you have any problems chewing or anything?

No, not really.

Just wobbly tooths.

-Wobbly tooths.

-Yeah.

I've got a wobbly one now, which...

It hurt when I was eating but now it's calmed down, so it's stopped.

-Yeah? Yeah.

-Good.

With Gracie's checkup behind her,

it's now full steam ahead for Christmas.

-Say thank you.

-Lovely.

-Thank you.

And I will try and make you a card.

Thank you very much indeed.

There's just time for Gracie to say goodbye to Pen...

-Bye.

-Bye-bye.

..Before heading home and making plans for the Christmas funfair.

Across the UK, local authorities spend an estimated £160 million

a year to grit 80,000 miles of road.

In Tameside, where Greater Manchester meets the Peak District,

the council look after over 400 miles of highway

and keeping the borough moving in the run-up to Christmas

is one of their biggest challenges.

Lee Holland is Tameside Council's road gritter in chief.

And the Christmas holidays are often his busiest time of the year.

This is Tame Street Depot in Stalybridge

and this is where we prepare for the winter maintenance season.

Before the season starts, we have to ensure we've got enough

salt at the depot to treat the highway over that period.

And in an average winter,

we'll spread about 2,000 tonnes over the network.

We have seven vehicles prepared every night ready to go out,

if the forecast dictates.

Here's your route. You're going to be doing Route one.

-Right, no problem.

-We are gritting at 15 grams.

Parts of the borough are almost 245 metres above sea level and in the

winter, snow and ice can make road conditions treacherous.

But with each and every deployment costing taxpayers £5,000,

deciding whether or not to send out the gritting wagons

is never straightforward.

I suppose the easiest decision is just to go out gritting

but you're spending a lot of money,

so what we tend to do now is rely on a lot of technology to give us a lot

more information and it gives us a more informed decision on when we

should be going out and treating and at what times.

As well as receiving regular forecasts from the Met Office,

the council have two weather stations of their own

and Lee is paying one of them a visit.

The weather station, it tells us a lot of information.

It tells us what the air temperature is,

it tells us what the wind speed is.

We've got a sensor in the road which tells us the road surface

temperature, which is the thing we monitor most closely.

Years ago, I'm sure it used to be

somebody used to stick their finger in the air, how cold was it.

Look at the grass outside and look at whether there was frost on the

ground. We certainly appreciate the technology,

it makes life slightly easier.

Although the decision-making process isn't straightforward.

Back in the warmth of his office,

Lee is poring over the very latest weather reports.

At the minute, the forecast is quite marginal.

It's a sort of difficult decision on deciding whether we should be going

out and if we are, what is the correct time.

Cos we don't want to be going out gritting the roads for three or four

hours and it be raining and washing all the salt away,

but we do need to get the salt down before the snow comes.

With temperatures hovering at around freezing,

Lee has a big decision to make.

To grit or not to grit.

That is the question.

We'll put all the lads on standby.

With the view to them coming in this evening.

In the city centre, the big day has finally arrived.

It's the opening of Manchester's Christmas market

and Councillor Pat Carney, the council city centre supremo,

is heading in for the launch event, with Corrie star Sherrie Hewson.

Very nice.

To me now, it's Christmas in Manchester.

We are all looking forward to coming on the markets

and whatever the troubles in the world,

we're going to have a wonderful time in Manchester.

Funds are tight in local government but Pat remains convinced that

Christmas isn't the time for the council to play Scrooge.

We do spend money on Christmas but on a balance sheet,

£90 million boost to the economy

and hundreds of jobs for local people,

the market is a win-win story.

With the ten city centre markets in full swing,

it's a busy time for Jan de-Koning

the man in charge of the Christmas funfair.

Last year, Jan donated profits from the funfair to Christie's hospital

and this year he plans to do the same.

His generous donation is gratitude for the cancer care his daughter

Isabel received there 18 months ago.

Basically, they saved our baby when we took her there.

They helped us, they helped her, and they help anybody who comes to them.

And as well as offering cash to the specialist cancer centre,

Jan is also offering all its patients

and their families free rides.

Tonight, five-year-old Gracie and her family...

Look at that.

..Have come to enjoy all the fun of the fair.

The pair of them have been asking me about it all week.

Jumping around in the car as we came here and as soon as they saw the

rides, it was...

They were really, really excited.

One, two, three...

Go!

Like Gracie's mum Caroline,

Jan understands what it's like to have a child diagnosed with cancer.

Jan's daughter went to Christie's as well, like you do.

She was 16 when she got diagnosed.

-Was she?

-Yeah. But she's had the OK now.

-That's great news.

-Yeah, she's just looking at universities

-and getting ready to...

-Fantastic.

I think cos she's so young, she's had it since she was two,

so it's all she's known.

She kind of sees it as normal.

-How old is she?

-She's five now. She'll be six in February.

When you look at how resilient they are, you've got no option

but to just get on with it. Yeah.

Are you all right, Mrs? Was that good?

-Yeah.

-Oh, brilliant.

It's been fantastic.

It's brought the Christmas spirit a little bit early for us.

Which is lovely as a family.

So we've had a great evening

and the kids have had a wonderful time.

So really pleased.

After weeks in the planning and with more than just a few hurdles to

overcome, Dan's dream of running his own food stall on the market

is now a reality.

Mac attack with bacon.

A classic. And a Crimbo dinner.

But it's been far from plain sailing.

It's been really tricky.

The boys have done us proud. Pete down the end there has been pulling

13-14 hour shifts without even a single moan.

We slept in the van last night.

It is what it is. We did have a few hurdles to overcome

-and they are all forgotten about now, are they?

-Just about.

For once, the polls are right,

Dan's specially commissioned Christmas ham is going down a treat.

-Excuse me.

-Just as his own brand of market research suggested it would.

We gave the guys three options for

the Christmas ham that we were going to feature on the Christmas markets.

We've actually highlighted it on the menu.

Customer picked. And the customer is always right. As we know.

Now, it's beginning to look a lot like the Christmas Dan hoped for.

Enjoy, guys. Thank you.

-See you later.

-He can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

His £30,000 gamble might just pay off.

Yesterday, big boy chimed at 11 o'clock, the doors were opened,

the till was singing, we got there in the end.

Queues going out the door.

That's what we want. Manchester is absolutely buzzing,

people are absolutely loving it.

If we keep growing on what we're doing, projections are right,

numbers are bang on, just as we said.

It's going to be a good Christmas.

At the last count,

there were 70 people sleeping rough in Manchester City centre

and many hundreds more at risk of homelessness.

The Booth Centre charity organises a mass sleep-out in the run-up to

Christmas in the grounds of Manchester Cathedral.

Events like this not only raise awareness,

they also raise much-needed funds

and last year they raised almost £60,000.

Now, I'm going to join nearly 200 volunteers

who have come down for this year's event.

As you can see, it's cold, it's wet, the weather is utterly miserable.

I'm certainly in for a very long night.

Earlier in the show, I met Brian. He used to be a rough sleeper.

Tonight, I'm going to get a small taste

of what used to be his life on the streets.

And he's going to help me find a safe place to sleep.

So, Brian, looking around, obviously you've done this many,

many times for real.

Where would you look to sleep?

You want somewhere like down by the walls here,

where you are out of the way.

-OK.

-The steps, where you can go down a bit, just so...

Do you want to have a look?

So the grass is a no-no straightaway.

Yeah, if you've got cardboard or anything or something

to go under, your sleeping bag ain't going to get wet.

-Yeah.

-Somewhere where you're going to get a windbreak.

There's not much to go on here.

You're pretty much out to the elements, aren't you?

If we could find a doorway around here,

where it's a bit more out of the way.

OK, let's have a look.

You see, here, right next to the clubs and the pubs,

-and people could come out.

-Yeah.

You're an easy target cos they've had a drink, haven't they?

So, they're going to come over.

You hear the stories, nicking your sleeping bag, beating you up.

Urinating on you.

It's just a buzz to them.

-It's a laugh.

-But to you, that bag could be everything.

It's your home, isn't it? Would you let someone in

and have a pee on your couch? You wouldn't, would you?

And that sleeping bag's your home.

You could sleep in there if you didn't want to get seen.

So, if you were doing this again, you would actually consider...?

-Yeah.

-Getting in that bush?

Might be a bit wet, but you'd not get seen.

It's like being back in the army, that is.

-The sort of thing we would have done.

-Yeah.

I could even go down there.

-So, down here?

-Yeah.

This literally is what you would pick

if you were back on the streets?

Yeah. Cos people are going to walk past this billboard,

they're going to walk straight past you.

So we got a bit of shelter from the public,

a tiny bit of shelter from the elements...

-Yeah.

-And it's kind of enclosed.

So this is my home for the night.

Yeah.

It is.

Most people on this sleep out have opted to stay together.

I want to get closer to Brian's experience of sleeping rough alone.

Brian, I'm going to be on my own, I think, for this one.

You've given me my bed.

I think it's time for me to try and get inside.

-And a pillow.

-Thank you for your help.

-Have a good night.

-Thanks, buddy.

-OK, see you later.

-See you. Goodbye.

I'm going to try and settle down for the night

but I know I won't get much sleep.

A few feet away, Brian is doing the same.

Everyone else is bedding down too.

Well, it's a few hours into the night now.

The temperature has dropped.

It's impossible to get comfortable.

And there's a lot of noise now when people

are coming out of the bars and clubs

after having quite a few drinks, it seems.

I can see why Brian said he felt so vulnerable,

sleeping like this,

and why he'd literally want to sleep with one eye open.

It's a very, very scary place to be.

It's getting late now, so I'm going to try and get some sleep.

But while the city sleeps, dedicated teams are hard at work,

keeping our Christmas on track.

In Tameside, head of environmental services Lee Holland has decided to

send out the gritters.

That means a busy night for Ryan Book and his fellow wagon drivers.

Hi, Ryan. Here's your route. You'll be doing route one.

We are gritting at 15 grams.

Give us a shout if you need anything?

You've got your phone on you, haven't you? Right, cheers.

Ryan works as a stonemason by day but on cold winter nights like this,

he is a key part of the team that keeps Tameside moving.

We used to have eight routes altogether

but now they've changed it so they put it down to five routes

and each route takes three hours altogether.

On a small... 7.5 tonne, they go up and down more steep hills, really.

One of the lads, he couldn't stop and he ended up hitting a tree.

We're sending the gritter drivers out when we're telling most people

to stay at home and stay off the roads.

They are driving and the grit they are putting out

is behind their wagon.

So they're not driving on a treated surface.

There's also other influences that are just as difficult,

in terms of when there's a lot of cars parked or double parked,

then it can become difficult to get round the streets.

And out in the gritting wagon,

Ryan has encountered exactly that problem.

Cars are double parked and I don't think I'm getting through.

I'll go and have a look. Going to be a tight squeeze.

Shall we go for it?

An error of judgment here could spell

a hefty insurance claim from the car owners.

Scary.

With literally centimetres to spare, Ryan has made it through.

That was tight. Very tight.

Every year, the routes are the same, so they should know,

when it starts getting cold,

not to parallel park.

But you still get the odd people doing it.

Sometimes, you have to reverse back and then try and find another way

round to the other side.

But parked cars aren't the only thing on Ryan's mind tonight.

Negotiating his Christmas rota could prove just as problematic.

Weak on, week off, we are on this year.

I'm on Christmas and New Year lates,

which I'm not happy about because I like to have a drink.

Last year, I was called out Christmas Day,

just before sitting down for dinner.

You have to take the rough with the smooth, don't you?

Who wouldn't want to be driving round in one of these,

with your music going?

We all want to have a rest at Christmas, so they are sat there

if they're on standby, waiting for the phone call.

And when it comes,

they have to come into the depot and start the operation.

Obviously we all come to work for a payment

but they also do it I think cos they all live in Tameside

and they all care about the borough and

they all want to do a good job.

His night shift is drawing to a close

and with Tameside's highways and byways safe for festive travel,

it's the end of the freshly gritted road for Ryan.

-Any problems?

-No, no, none at all.

A couple of cars parallel parked but that's about it.

-All right, mate.

-Right, cheers.

Keys on the hook, shoot off home then.

-Thanks very much.

-See you in a bit.

-See you, Ryan. Goodbye.

It's 5am.

I've been on the streets for seven hours.

That was a tough night.

I didn't really get much sleep at all

because every time I shut my eyes,

there was the sound of smashing glass or people shouting.

It was really, really noisy and really freezing cold.

I think it's time for me to get up and try and warm up a bit.

I'm glad I've done it.

But this is just one tiny taster of what people like Brian

had to do every single day.

The long night is over. I've hardly slept at all.

But I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've got a warm bed to go to and thankfully now, so has Brian.

He's off the streets and looking forward to this Christmas

with new hope. For the past nine months,

he's been working as a volunteer for the very charity that organised

the sleep out and saved him from a life on the streets.

Every morning, Brian serves breakfast to 70 homeless people

here at the Booth Centre.

I knew I was an alcoholic and I'd already been told by my doctor,

if I don't stop drinking, he says, "You'll be dead two years".

Last year, Brian lost his job and his home

and ended up sleeping rough.

In desperation, he arrived at this centre,

looking for emergency accommodation.

The relief when he said, "Yeah, we've found you somewhere,

"we've got you somewhere straightaway."

I just wanted a shower, got a shower,

got in a bed, quilt over me, it was brilliant.

Coming to the centre was a decision that saved his life.

There was one morning, I just woke up and went, "Right, that's it,

"I've had enough." I'm 48 at the time.

I thought, "I can't carry on like this.

"I've got the chance to go into a dry house

"where I can get my life together."

So I decided to do it and I've not looked back since.

Brian stopped drinking and started helping out at the centre.

I do breakfast until 8.30am and then I go out on the front line,

doing benefit claims, housing, emergency accommodation.

Or just someone to talk to.

It's not a chore, it's a pleasure.

It is important to me. It gives something back.

Volunteers were there when I was coming through,

couldn't do enough to help me.

They've been on the streets themselves.

They've had addictions themselves. And they really did help me.

And now it's me helping others

that have been in the same situation I've been in.

Just remember, it's a person in that sleeping bag, that's sat down.

It's easy just to chuck some money in and walk away,

but to go and buy someone a brew,

it meant a lot to me that someone's took five minutes out of their life,

sit down and ask me how I'm doing, am I all right.

It gives you a bit of a boost.

And just a few months ago,

Brian started raising money for the centre in the most unlikely manner.

Since I came off the streets, I've taken up running.

And Amy who does the fundraising at the centre says,

do you want to do a 10K?

And I didn't think I'd be able to do a 10K.

So yeah, I did it, Manchester Run.

And then I did the Bolton Community Half Marathon and on April 2nd,

I'm doing my first full marathon.

I've done so much in 12 months.

And it's just getting better.

Not drinking, not taking drugs.

I'm just enjoying life in general.

I've got my life back. And I wouldn't have it any other way now.

Dan, the smell of these toasties is absolutely amazing.

Rav, you are going to need one of these after your night out on the streets. How was that?

That will warm me up because it was freezing.

I'm not going to lie. But it was great to see Brian

and how much he's turned his life around with the help of the charity.

And we've got loads more stories like that coming up

-over the rest of the week.

-And on tomorrow's show,

I'm going to be working with a mental health charity,

who have got a great way of coming up with wooden Christmas decorations

and I'm going to have a go at making one myself, admittedly,

with mixed results.

And I'll be joining a team of trading standards officers,

as they make sure the alcohol that we get from the shelves really does

contain what it says on the bottle.

-Dan...

-Dan, let's have a go.

Pass it over. Look at that!

See you tomorrow.