0:01:02 > 0:01:07You know, we live in an amazing place.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10These lumps of earth we call the British Isles.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14If you travel north, south, east or west,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17you discover it's a land of extremes.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22We've got this ancient and chequered history...
0:01:22 > 0:01:29We've got an extraordinary diversity of landscapes and wildlife.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33And it's chock full of surprises. Just look at that!
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Sights to take your breath away.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Like this one...
0:01:54 > 0:01:58I wish I could tell you what it feels like to be here.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00That is Ben Nevis.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03At just under 4,500 feet,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06it's the highest mountain in the British Isles.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12And on a day like this, you see it in all its emotional majesty!
0:02:23 > 0:02:26This is the very summit of the British Isles
0:02:26 > 0:02:29and the coldest and snowiest place in Britain.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40But if you head south, you'll discover another world -
0:02:40 > 0:02:42more like the tropics!
0:02:42 > 0:02:45These are the Isles of Scilly.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52With temperatures like these and white sand and turquoise-blue sea,
0:02:52 > 0:02:57I could just as easily be in the Bahamas as in good old Blighty!
0:02:57 > 0:03:02And that's not all that's Caribbean about this place.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Coconuts are often washed up on these shores.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08They float here from Central America
0:03:08 > 0:03:12on those warm ocean currents that bathe the British Isles -
0:03:12 > 0:03:16the Gulf Stream. That's why the Scillies are frost-free in winter
0:03:16 > 0:03:18and scorching hot in summer.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23So hot, in fact, that some palm trees will even grow here!
0:03:29 > 0:03:34We're only 700 miles from top to toe, yet the British Isles
0:03:34 > 0:03:37have natural riches far out of proportion to their size.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44Maybe it's to do with a life spent working outside, tending the earth,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48that makes me so passionate about the British Isles
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and proud to call this place home.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58On a fine day, even the most hardened cynic
0:03:58 > 0:04:01would have to admit that
0:04:01 > 0:04:06Britain is one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in the world.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10But how did it come to be like this?
0:04:10 > 0:04:14The answer is an amazing story of earth-shattering events
0:04:14 > 0:04:18that have shaped the landscape and wildlife -
0:04:18 > 0:04:22the countryside we see today.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25It's a story that's relevant to us all
0:04:25 > 0:04:27because it affects where we live,
0:04:27 > 0:04:31where we work, and even what we grow in our gardens,
0:04:31 > 0:04:36and it's a story that I'm about to unravel.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The reason our landscape is so wonderfully diverse
0:04:41 > 0:04:43is because it's had such a long time to evolve.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46And the countryside is littered with clues
0:04:46 > 0:04:49that enable us to look into our past.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Just like an onion, you can peel back the layers of cities, fields,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56woodlands and even mountains
0:04:56 > 0:04:59to reveal the story of the British Isles.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03A story that's been three billion years in the making.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13There are parts of Britain that I know like the back of my hand.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16The Yorkshire Dales, this bit of the Isle of Wight.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19There'll be places that are familiar to you.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22But they've changed so much over thousands of years,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24time and time again,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28that if you went back into the past, you simply wouldn't recognise them!
0:05:29 > 0:05:35I'm going on a journey to discover those hidden faces of Britain,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38and to find out what shaped the land we know and love.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46It's every schoolboy's dream.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54I'll be travelling the length and breadth of the country
0:05:54 > 0:05:55by all manner of means!
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Finding out what has created our coastline.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Discovering why we have such special wildlife.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10Seeing how we've changed the countryside.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18And revealing the Britain of ancient times,
0:06:18 > 0:06:23long before people walked this green and pleasant land.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33It's a story of amazing change,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37a story so incredible that it often defies belief.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45But the clues are all over the British Isles, under your feet
0:06:45 > 0:06:48or staring you right in the face.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50And that's what I'm looking for.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01Today, the majority of us live in towns and cities up and down the country.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05That's where I'll start peeling back the layers of Britain's history.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09If that's far from how our coast was shaped and valleys were carved out,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14remember, there are clues to the past everywhere -
0:07:14 > 0:07:16including right down there.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Take gardens, for instance -
0:07:26 > 0:07:30your garden, my garden, any garden you like.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35They hold a clue to Britain's past and the best way to reveal it
0:07:35 > 0:07:39is to cultivate the soil a bit and then sit back and watch.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49This often happens, when you're digging in your garden.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Down comes a robin, perches on your fork handle.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57This is a male and his missus
0:07:57 > 0:08:01is in the hedge behind me, and he's on the lookout for food -
0:08:01 > 0:08:03anything I might turn up.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Yeah, handsome chap, aren't you?
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Now, this is all very charming, but it's actually telling us something
0:08:13 > 0:08:16very significant about our past.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23What did they do when there were no gardeners to turn over the soil?
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Well, before we came along,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31robins patiently followed nature's gardener - the wild boar.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42These great furry pigs behave just like gardeners.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45They're also constantly turning over the soil.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50Over thousands of years, robins learnt to lurk close by
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and wait for a juicy grub to be rooted out.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59So, you see, robins were born to live not in gardens,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01but where the wild boar roamed - the forest.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10Your neighbourhood robin is actually a throwback to ancient Britain.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15It's a living remnant of a time when the land was forested.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18And I don't mean a few bits of woodland.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21The wildwood was much bigger than that.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26No matter where you live in Britain, a few thousand years ago,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30there would have been no fields or houses, roads or hedges,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33just mile after mile of trees.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37They do say that the great forest was so dense
0:09:37 > 0:09:43that a squirrel could go all the way from Lands End to John O'Groats without ever touching the ground.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47And it wasn't just robins and boar in this forest.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49What else was here?
0:09:49 > 0:09:54To answer that, all you have to do is look in your A to Z!
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Do you know anyone from Eversley?
0:09:56 > 0:10:03How about Catmore? Your address could be a clue to what life was like in your neck of the wildwood.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Over the centuries, many villages
0:10:05 > 0:10:09were named after animals that roamed with the wild boar in the forest.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Take this place - Wooley, in Yorkshire.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Pretty little village with a green and a handsome church,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21but it wasn't always called Wooley. It used to be called Wolverley
0:10:21 > 0:10:26and the locals shortened it because it was easier to say. Why Wolverley?
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Well, you can work it out really, can't you?
0:10:29 > 0:10:34Hundreds of years ago, this was a wolves' lair.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46All over the British Isles, wolves were common in this great forest.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51Not just in Wooley, but in Woo Dale, Woolpit and Wooferton Croft.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57There were European brown bears
0:10:57 > 0:11:01across the country too, as names like Barham or Beartown remind us.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Beverley and Beaversbrook are named after beavers
0:11:11 > 0:11:14that once gnawed the trees of the wildwood.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18There were even moose, although sadly, they seem to have missed out
0:11:18 > 0:11:20having a town named after them!
0:11:22 > 0:11:278,000 years ago, the whole of the British Isles
0:11:27 > 0:11:29was full of these wild animals.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Back then, we were the rare species.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36There were only 4,500 of us
0:11:36 > 0:11:38living here in Britain.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Amazing what a robin and a few village names
0:11:42 > 0:11:44can reveal about our past!
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Today, there are no bears or wolves in our forests,
0:11:53 > 0:11:59but Britain's woodland is still some of the most important of its kind in the world -
0:11:59 > 0:12:03not least because of these beauties!
0:12:03 > 0:12:04Bluebells!
0:12:05 > 0:12:12Bluebells are a favourite of mine and they, too, can tell us something about our past.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Although they were present in the wildwood, they were scarce -
0:12:16 > 0:12:20kept in check by a dense tree canopy that blocked out the light.
0:12:21 > 0:12:28But something changed. Bluebell numbers began to increase for one very simple reason -
0:12:28 > 0:12:31we humans began to chop the forest down.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Open glades sprang up all across the country.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40And these bright but sheltered spots were perfect for bluebells.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42This is our British native bluebell.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Altogether more delicate and refined than its Spanish counterpart,
0:12:46 > 0:12:51which always seems to me to have been blown up with a bicycle pump.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57We take this beauty so much for granted and yet we have more than 50% of the world's population.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00If it didn't thrive here, it'd probably be extinct by now.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02What a loss that'd be!
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Bluebells are just one of the treasures in our woods today.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11If you pause for a few minutes
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and sit quite still, you might spot a fallow deer.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22They were brought to our shores by the Normans
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and seeing them on a magical day like this can transport you back
0:13:25 > 0:13:27a thousand years.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37The felling of the great wildwood
0:13:37 > 0:13:41was one of the most dramatic changes in the British landscape.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46It created William Blake's "green and pleasant land",
0:13:46 > 0:13:50the land that we think of as our typical countryside -
0:13:50 > 0:13:54open fields, hedges and copses.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01The first farms of our ancient ancestors
0:14:01 > 0:14:04were very much like today's allotments -
0:14:04 > 0:14:07small, cramped, and sometimes a bit disorganised!
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I wonder what Britain's first farmers would think of
0:14:11 > 0:14:14today's corn-filled prairies?
0:14:20 > 0:14:25As the forests shrank, it was make or break for much of our wildlife.
0:14:25 > 0:14:31Many plants and animals found the new open pastures very much to their liking.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36Wild flowers thrived in uncultivated field boundaries
0:14:36 > 0:14:40and lurking among them, the entrepreneurial harvest mouse!
0:14:40 > 0:14:44This creature has been living in our cornfields
0:14:44 > 0:14:49and taking just a small share of our crops ever since farming began.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54As harvest mice increased in number,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58so too did their archenemy - the barn owl!
0:14:58 > 0:15:00It was in these new open fields
0:15:00 > 0:15:04that it honed its hunting skills to perfection.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19As people power created the countryside we see today,
0:15:19 > 0:15:24the ancient forest and its wild animals eventually disappeared.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29But what was Britain like before the great wildwood?
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Well, there are more layers to peel back, if you know where to look.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38And they reveal clues to a much bleaker period of Britain's past.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45These clues can be found in the remote Highlands of Scotland.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51This strange woodland is home to the capercaillie,
0:15:51 > 0:15:57a rare and magnificent bird that likes to live in very cold places.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06And it's not alone. The trees also love the chill.
0:16:15 > 0:16:21It's February in the Cairngorms and this is the Caledonian pine forest.
0:16:21 > 0:16:27There are three dominant species here - the birch, the gnarled and the knotty Scots pine,
0:16:27 > 0:16:33and the rugged shrubby juniper - all of them capable of coping with intense cold.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38The birch sheds its leaves and shuts down all systems for the winter.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42The pine and the juniper adapt their leaves
0:16:42 > 0:16:47into these fine needles that lose much less moisture than a big leaf,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51and their sap contains the plant equivalent of antifreeze,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54so they don't go rock solid in the winter.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02This forest is so well adapted to the cold that today,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04most of Britain is just too warm for it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13But before the great deciduous wildwood, it was this forest that covered Britain,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and trees like this that were growing where your garden is.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23And that means that Britain must have been much colder than it is today.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25How do we know for sure?
0:17:25 > 0:17:30I can show you one simple but irrefutable piece of evidence.
0:17:30 > 0:17:36And to find it, I need to head to one of the tiny islands off our coast.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48'Cromarty, Forth, Tyne south-easterly veering southerly four or five,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51'occasionally six, then becoming cyclonic, perhaps scale eight later.'
0:17:51 > 0:17:59Sounds promising! You normally get to the Isle of May - that small island on the horizon there -
0:17:59 > 0:18:01by a little boat.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03But in this sort of autumn weather,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07I think it'd be a bit bumpy, so I've got an alternative lined up.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Today, I'm going by air,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16which will give me a bird's eye view of
0:18:16 > 0:18:19why this island is so special.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46The Isle of May is five miles out into the Firth of Forth.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52It's only a small island - about a mile and a half long - and it's shaped like a wedge of cheese.
0:18:52 > 0:18:58One side has got steep cliffs on it, whereas the other slopes gently down to beaches.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04And it's these beaches that have one of the best wildlife spectacles in Britain. Can't wait!
0:19:07 > 0:19:12It's this spectacle that shows just how cold it used to be.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24I'm keeping low so that I don't frighten them all off.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Yes, I know I'm wearing red, but as long as I don't stand up
0:19:27 > 0:19:30above the horizon and interrupt the skyline,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33they shouldn't see me and start lolloping off into the sea.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36There they are!
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Grey seals. They're one of the rarest seals,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42but Britain has 50% of the world's population.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47At this time of year, they come onto the beaches to rear their young.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52In hidden bays right across the British Isles,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55grey seals have come ashore to give birth.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59It's the pups I've come to see,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and the Isle of May is one of the best places to get close.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23But have you noticed something odd about these youngsters?
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Their colour!
0:20:27 > 0:20:31I mean, most animals camouflage their young
0:20:31 > 0:20:33so that they blend into the background.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37But this little chap is almost snowy white
0:20:37 > 0:20:43and he's laying on either green grass or black and grey rocks.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47Even the most badly-sighted predator could pick him off.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Why?
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Well, this island didn't always look like this!
0:20:58 > 0:21:03These pups prove that once, Britain looked just like them -
0:21:03 > 0:21:05snowy white.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Then, they were camouflaged to perfection.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15They're a legacy of one of the most dramatic times in our history -
0:21:15 > 0:21:17the Ice Age!
0:21:17 > 0:21:20But what's that really like?
0:21:20 > 0:21:22It's bitterly cold
0:21:22 > 0:21:26and absolutely silent.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28A featureless landscape,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31a panorama of ice and snow.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40The Ice Age was simply monumental.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Birmingham would have been a mile and a half beneath my feet,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49which gives you some idea of the scale of this freeze-up.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54It would have continued northwards to Ben Nevis and beyond,
0:21:54 > 0:22:00out west across Wales and most of Ireland, and eastwards, right over East Anglia!
0:22:01 > 0:22:05This was a vast frozen desert
0:22:05 > 0:22:09where perhaps only the odd polar bear would have dared to roam.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Polar bears in Britain?
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Oh, yes. There's no doubt about it.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Their skeletons have been found from Oxford to Ullapool.
0:22:28 > 0:22:29So before the farms and fields,
0:22:29 > 0:22:34before the wildwood and the ancient pine forest,
0:22:34 > 0:22:39virtually the whole of Britain was like the North Pole.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45But what effect did all this ice have on the countryside we know today?
0:22:46 > 0:22:52Well, although ice like this may look pretty static, it's actually on the move.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55And it's not always just creeping.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00Sometimes, it slides along at over 30 metres a day!
0:23:02 > 0:23:04It's through this unstoppable power
0:23:04 > 0:23:09that ice has left its marks all over the British Isles.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Here in Killarney, in south-west Ireland,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17just as in my native Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District
0:23:17 > 0:23:19or the uplands of Scotland and Wales,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23the landscape has been entirely sculpted by ice.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27You can just imagine a wall of it, bulldozing its way through here.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32This is a classic glacial valley, broad, steep-sided
0:23:32 > 0:23:38and the surprising thing is that that ice only receded as recently as 15,000 years ago.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46The glacial bulldozers that re-shaped the entire British Isles
0:23:46 > 0:23:49wiped the country clean of life.
0:23:49 > 0:23:50But on the plus side,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55they left behind a dramatic and beautiful landscape.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10From craggy and perilous mountain ridges
0:24:10 > 0:24:14to the lakes that inspired Wordsworth,
0:24:14 > 0:24:19all were carved out by ice and all are evidence of the big freeze.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28But the ice didn't last.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Britain lay entombed within it for thousands of years.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37But then, quite suddenly, things began to change.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Temperatures rose from being like the Arctic
0:24:40 > 0:24:43to more like today's in just 50 years!
0:24:43 > 0:24:47And the entire ice sheet slowly turned to slush.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11From gentle, drippy beginnings,
0:25:11 > 0:25:17it wasn't long before huge torrents of water poured across our landscape.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35And all this water eventually reached the sea.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Today, because of global warming,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41we're worried that our seas may rise by a foot or two.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43But when the ice sheet melted,
0:25:43 > 0:25:49the sea rose not by three feet, but by 300 feet.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10The great melt put the isles into British Isles
0:26:10 > 0:26:15and, in so doing, it defined our national character.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19We built an empire because we're a nation of seafarers,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22not always in boats like this.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26And yet, 8,000 years ago, we weren't an island at all.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31I wouldn't have needed a boat. I could've walked to France from here!
0:26:31 > 0:26:38And if you find that hard to believe, you can still find signs of that ancient French connection.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43This is Bray, in County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland.
0:26:43 > 0:26:50Just wait for the tide to go out, and something strange appears.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Trees - fossilised trees.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58But they've not been washed up here by a storm.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02They're lying precisely where they once grew 8,000 years ago.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05And there are drowned forests like these off Dorset,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Wales and the Isle of Wight.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10That's because back then,
0:27:10 > 0:27:15the Irish Sea, the North Sea, the English Channel -
0:27:15 > 0:27:19all of them were dry land.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30But when the great melt came and the seas rose by 300 feet,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34we were cut off from mainland Europe for good.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38The British Isles were born.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Even in a boat like this,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53it would take months to explore every nook and cranny of coastline.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58Mind you, it would be good fun trying!
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Our coastline has always inspired us and drawn us to it.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08What's remarkable is that we've got so much of it!
0:28:08 > 0:28:11If you could stretch it out in a line, it would reach
0:28:11 > 0:28:14all the way to Australia.
0:28:14 > 0:28:1811,000 miles of cliffs,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21coves, bays and beaches.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35The rising seas created not just mainland Britain and Ireland,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38but thousands of other islands.
0:28:38 > 0:28:45All told, the British Isles contain 6,289 of them!
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Many of these islands were isolated so suddenly by the rising seas
0:28:57 > 0:29:00that no animals reached them,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03unless they could fly!
0:29:03 > 0:29:08Some became massive bird cities, and this is one of them.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Bass Rock - absolutely crammed full of gannets.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26Every year, more and more gannets come to this island to breed.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Today, there are over 100,000 of them,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33packed onto one cramped lump of rock!
0:29:40 > 0:29:45Watching them dive into the sea at over 60 miles an hour
0:29:45 > 0:29:48leaves you as breathless as the birds.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07There are dozens of these island sanctuaries around our coast
0:30:07 > 0:30:13and one of my favourites is Skomer, off the southwest corner of Wales.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33Puffins...
0:30:33 > 0:30:36aren't they great? Smaller than most people think...
0:30:36 > 0:30:41about the size of a pigeon, but each one standing guard over
0:30:41 > 0:30:44its rabbit hole. It might be eight or nine feet long,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49but at the end of it - a single chick, known as a puffling.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54What a treat. I think I deserve some refreshment now!
0:31:00 > 0:31:05Mmm! Oh, just what the doctor ordered - Scotch whisky.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09And just the sort of thing to set you musing on old times...
0:31:09 > 0:31:11very old times.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16Over the last 12,000 years, Britain has seen some amazing changes
0:31:16 > 0:31:20due to ice, rising seas and us.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24But if you delve back into really ancient times,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27then it all boils down to rock...
0:31:27 > 0:31:30even the contents of this glass.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32It's that important.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Now, this bar has behind it
0:31:35 > 0:31:39over 250 different Scotch whiskies...
0:31:39 > 0:31:41I bet you wish you were here.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44..and they all taste different,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48that's the amazing thing. Now, let's just take... Which one?
0:31:48 > 0:31:51This one.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54Quite dark in colour.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02And when you smell it, what do you get?
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Honestly, you get... Oh, gosh!
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Remember your grandma's Christmas cake, full of that whisky she said she never drank?
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Oh, it's really rich and fruity.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14It's...deep,
0:32:14 > 0:32:19and this comes from sandstone with peat overlying it,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23and once you know that, you can almost smell the heather.
0:32:23 > 0:32:29And it's very smooth, very smooth and very aromatic.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Sandstone. Now, then...
0:32:33 > 0:32:35This one here...
0:32:35 > 0:32:38This one comes through granite.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40Oh, now, look at that.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Colour - midway between the two.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46Nose...
0:32:46 > 0:32:48astringent, not heavy...
0:32:51 > 0:32:54..and much less organic on the palate.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Phew! And quite fumy.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Sandstone, granite, what else have we got? Limestone...
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Oh, clean. We're almost talking chalk stream here.
0:33:06 > 0:33:07And this one?
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Fiery.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16If you lit a match now, I'd probably do a dragon impersonation,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20which is very fitting because this water, before it makes the whisky,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23percolates through volcanic rock.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26It really isn't imagined.
0:33:26 > 0:33:33You really can taste it from all of them, proving the point that it's the water that makes the whisky,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37which makes it different. If it's percolated through different rock,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41picked up different kinds of minerals, different kinds of ions,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43they're all there in that bottle.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46It's all down to Britain's foundations.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48But there must be some more different ones...
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Now, many countries are impoverished when it comes to rocks.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Take Holland. Cheeses? Gazillions of 'em!
0:34:01 > 0:34:05Rocks? You can fit 'em all in this box.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08Poor Holland.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12But Britain... Ah-ha-ha! Just you wait!
0:34:14 > 0:34:21Remember that final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they put the box in the middle of that warehouse
0:34:21 > 0:34:27and they pull out wide and it's absolutely massive? This is it!
0:34:29 > 0:34:31MUSIC: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK THEME TUNE
0:34:44 > 0:34:49If you wanted proof that Britain "rocks", it's right here.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53Over ten million samples,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57weighing in excess of 4,000 tonnes!
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Doesn't it make you proud? These are your roots here!
0:35:00 > 0:35:02I wonder where Ilkley is...
0:35:02 > 0:35:04"Swindon".
0:35:04 > 0:35:07Ilkley - that's my roots.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10"Dallow Road...North Grimstead...
0:35:10 > 0:35:14"Cornish Hush". Oh, what a lovely name!
0:35:14 > 0:35:17"Roselle Wood, Cardigan".
0:35:17 > 0:35:20But to find Ilkley,
0:35:20 > 0:35:22I'm going to need a bit of help!
0:35:27 > 0:35:29Up there.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Yes! Ilkley!
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Look at that!
0:35:41 > 0:35:46Millstone grit that made the house that I grew up in.
0:35:46 > 0:35:52And somewhere here, in one of these boxes, will be the stone that your house is made of.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56You see, there's much more to rock than flavouring whisky!
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Ultimately, our landscape
0:36:00 > 0:36:02is governed by the rocks beneath its surface.
0:36:02 > 0:36:09More than the forests that covered Britain, the ice that scoured it and the meltwater that washed over it,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12it's rocks that are at Britain's heart.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15The Millstone grit of Ilkley defines its character,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19not just the buildings, but even what grows here.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22It makes the moors drain so poorly
0:36:22 > 0:36:25that it's very boggy - a tough place to live.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28But there's one plant that absolutely loves it.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31This - sphagnum moss.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Its cells are tremendously water absorbent
0:36:34 > 0:36:38and they turn this area into one gigantic sponge.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Yet just a few miles away, well-drained limestone dominates,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50so there are no bog plants here.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Just like your garden, it's the bedrock
0:36:53 > 0:36:57that dictates the fertility, drainage and pH of the soil.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01What's more, every rock
0:37:01 > 0:37:05has its own tale to tell of how it came to be there.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08And with a bit of detective work,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12it can take you back not thousands, but millions of years.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17This is the River Weaver, in rural Cheshire,
0:37:17 > 0:37:22and here, a typical riverbank flora of red clover and hogweed,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26nettle and thistle, plantain and hemp agrimony.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30But if I wander a little bit further on, it all changes.
0:37:32 > 0:37:38Gone are those tall and luscious wild flowers, native of rich soils,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41and in their place, scentless mayweed, sea aster,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44with those soft pink daisy flowers,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and grasses that you'd normally find at the coast.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52But here, we're fully 30 miles from the nearest sand dune. So what's going on?
0:37:52 > 0:37:54I'll show you!
0:38:00 > 0:38:03You might think I'm driving around Cheshire at night,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05but you'd only be partly right.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10I am driving around Cheshire, but 700ft underground.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Right underneath those plants!
0:38:16 > 0:38:18This is where it's at.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25I need a special piece of kit.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28This should do.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35All I need to remember is what order to press the buttons.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04I think that should be enough.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09Look at that!
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Salt!
0:39:14 > 0:39:16Essential on your fish and chips
0:39:16 > 0:39:21and vital for keeping our roads free of ice right through the winter.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24But what's more, it's sea salt...
0:39:24 > 0:39:2730 miles inland.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32Those seaside plants up top are here because of the salt in the soil.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36And all this salt can mean only one thing -
0:39:36 > 0:39:38this place was once an ocean.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42300 million years ago, Britain was underwater!
0:39:42 > 0:39:45We were flooded by the Zechstein Sea,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50which was as rich in salt as the Dead Sea, and it covered Europe.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56This is what nearly the whole of Britain would have looked like -
0:39:56 > 0:40:01a vast, shallow sea, which only our hilltops would have poked through.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Slowly, but surely, the sea dried up,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08leaving millions of tonnes of salt behind.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15So just a small, out-of-place, salt-loving sea aster
0:40:15 > 0:40:20can tell you what Britain was like 300 million years ago!
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Our rocks not only create landscapes,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31but they've also affected our history.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34And one rock in particular is responsible for altering
0:40:34 > 0:40:37the face of modern Britain.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42It's the reason we have our canals and our railways.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49The Empire we once had was built upon it.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Today, many of our industries still depend on it
0:41:00 > 0:41:05and several of our major cities are only where they are because of it!
0:41:22 > 0:41:24What is this super rock?
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Coal!
0:41:32 > 0:41:36At the height of production, 200 million tonnes of coal
0:41:36 > 0:41:40were extracted from the earth every year in Britain.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45It was because we had so much coal that we became a world leader,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48something we're still living off today.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04But how come we had so much in the first place?
0:42:10 > 0:42:14It's a remnant of a time when Britain looked like this...
0:42:15 > 0:42:18..a massive tropical rainforest.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22320 million years ago,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26virtually the whole of the British Isles - from Aberdeen to Zennor -
0:42:26 > 0:42:30was covered in tree ferns and ancient palms.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Most of today's trees hadn't even evolved!
0:42:33 > 0:42:37And as the forest died, it decayed...
0:42:37 > 0:42:39eventually being compressed into coal.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45In every town and every city,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48however obliterated the landscape might seem to have become,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53there are still clues to the making of the British Isles.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Often, they're hard to spot, but some of the most dramatic
0:42:57 > 0:42:59are simply staring us in the face.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Take Edinburgh, for instance.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09These are the Princes Street Gardens
0:43:09 > 0:43:14and they're a beautiful place for locals to sit on sunny days,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18but I'm not here to look at the flowers, beautiful as they are,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22I'm here because the gardens offer the best possible view of that...
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Edinburgh Castle.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29But what is this strange mound that the castle sits on...
0:43:31 > 0:43:35..and the entire City of Edinburgh surrounds?
0:43:36 > 0:43:38I'll show you.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44340 million years ago, where the drains now run,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46there would have been not water...
0:43:49 > 0:43:52..but molten rock...
0:43:52 > 0:43:54lava!
0:43:55 > 0:43:59The castle perches on the remains of a mighty volcano!
0:43:59 > 0:44:03It was a volcano the size of Mount Etna.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07We can only imagine what an eruption would've looked like!
0:44:17 > 0:44:20And Edinburgh wasn't alone.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Throughout our history, volcanoes have erupted
0:44:23 > 0:44:27all over the British Isles, from Skye to South Wales.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31We really were a land of fire.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38Every square inch of the British Isles has so many stories to tell
0:44:38 > 0:44:42simply because this country of ours has seen so many changes.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47From Gravesend to Gateshead, we've been cloaked in tropical rainforest.
0:44:47 > 0:44:52From St Austell to St Paul's, we've been flooded by deep oceans.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57We've been a vast and arid desert.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00As if that were not extreme enough,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04we've endured phases when we looked more like the African savannah,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07complete with lions and hippos.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15And just like a wise, old relative,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19the British Isles will recount the stories of its chequered past
0:45:19 > 0:45:22to anyone curious enough to ask.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Our landscape has had 3,000 million years to evolve
0:45:29 > 0:45:32and change and change again.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Every one of these changes
0:45:36 > 0:45:40has left its mark on the countryside we call home,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44and created a land so diverse and so rich
0:45:44 > 0:45:47that anyone with an eye for beauty
0:45:47 > 0:45:52and an ear for a good story will find spellbinding.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06Wherever you live, there are clues to the making of the British Isles
0:46:06 > 0:46:08right on your doorstep,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12all you have to do is get out there and look.