Browse content similar to Modern Times. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Here in the British Isles, we have some of the world's most breathtaking landscapes. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:42 | |
Their foundations have a history which stretches back millions of years, | 0:00:47 | 0:00:52 | |
when the bedrocks of Britain were first laid down. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
The ice age carved and sculpted that bedrock, creating many of our lakes and valleys. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:05 | |
And as the ice melted, the seas rose, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:13 | |
shaping our beautiful coastline. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
As people prospered here, they tamed wild Britain to create | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
the patchwork countryside of our green and pleasant land. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:26 | |
And 200 years ago, the engines of industry stamped their own mark on the landscape, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:33 | |
but even this wasn't the final chapter in our story. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:38 | |
Some of the most important changes of all have happened in just the last few decades. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:45 | |
The Eden Project in Cornwall. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
I mean, it must be one of the most impressive recent additions to our landscape. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
Some have even dubbed it the eighth wonder of the world. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
But for me, it's a symbol of the great changes | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
which have swept across the British Isles in the last century. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
This was once the vast and muddy pit of an abandoned quarry, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:16 | |
transformed in less than ten years into a fertile garden, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:21 | |
The Eden Project shows our skills in turning wasteland into wonderland, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
but it also has an important message. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
It was built to tell the story of how we depend on the natural world, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:38 | |
and how nature is affected by our actions. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
And it's that story, more than any other, which has shaped our homeland in the last hundred years. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:47 | |
Our relationship with Britain's countryside stretches back thousands of years, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:03 | |
but we've never been more aware of our impact on nature than in the last century. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:09 | |
As we've become a more powerful force for change, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
we've also learnt to value and care for what we have, | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
a journey of discovery which began in the woodland | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
that once cloaked the British Isles. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
Even today, Britain's woodlands are special places. I love them, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
especially in spring, when the flora erupts with a sea of bluebells, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:33 | |
and the sunlight glints through the fresh green leaves with all the magic of a stained-glass window. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:40 | |
I reckon this natural beauty is among the best in the world. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:47 | |
A walk in the woods is something we all take for granted. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
But at the beginning of the 20th century, British woodlands were in crisis. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
There was less forest in 1900 than there had been for 10,000 years. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:04 | |
Another 500,000 acres fell during World War One, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
devastating what little forest was left. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
But as soon as the war was over, we began to try and redress the balance. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
Tree planting began on a massive scale, | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
transforming huge areas of open moorland and heath, in the great reforestation of Britain. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:44 | |
Our forests have more than doubled in size since the beginning of the century. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:56 | |
Love them or loath them, we now have some of the largest planted forests anywhere in Europe. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:04 | |
But most of this is not native oak or beech, | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
but foreign, quick-growing species of pine and spruce. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:15 | |
While these plantations boosted the quantity of woodland across Britain, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:21 | |
they did nothing for the quality of forest habitat. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
This canopy is so dense that it cuts out all the light. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
The roots of these trees are so vigorous they suck out all the moisture and nutrition. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
Virtually nothing can survive on the forest floor. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
These trees were grown for timber, not nature... | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
But up in the treetops at least, | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
there can be a surprising amount of wildlife. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
Goshawks are only one of around 50 different birds which live in these plantations. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:54 | |
There's one more creature that thrives in these pine forests. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
It's one of our most attractive and best-loved animals. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
The trouble is, it's fairly shy. Perhaps a few of these will tempt one of them down. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
It's a red squirrel, in full winter coat with those wonderful long, furry ears. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
I've caught glimpses of them on the Isle of Wight, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
but the closest I ever came | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
was Beatrix Potter's Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
when my mum read it to me as a nipper. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
A few nuts on a tree stump there, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
and here they are, within six feet of me. It's amazing! | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
Look at that tiny little hand! | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
There are only a few places in Britain you can get this close to a red squirrel. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:03 | |
Sadly, these beautiful animals have vanished from many woodlands, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
driven out by the introduced grey squirrel. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
Only in conifer forests do the reds seem to win out. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
So while these plantations might not be the prettiest places, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
they're a real godsend to some of our wildlife. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:07:42 | 0:07:43 | |
But it wasn't just forests that sprang up after World War One. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:54 | |
Britain itself was being rebuilt, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
making a land fit for the returning heroes. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
These new and more spacious homes | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
would be affordable to everyone. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
It was the birth of Britain's suburbs. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
This is the Becontree estate, built between 1921 and 1934 | 0:08:22 | 0:08:28 | |
to house soldiers returning from war | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
and families from the over-crowded slum areas of East London. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
97 of theses houses went up every week | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
and suddenly people had space, | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
not just indoors, but outdoors too. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
They had these - | 0:08:45 | 0:08:46 | |
back gardens! | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
Britain began to bloom. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
It wasn't just flowers either. During the '40s, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
an amazing 10% of all the food produced in Britain was home-grown | 0:09:15 | 0:09:20 | |
in gardens and on allotments. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
And it was among the leafy rows of an allotment that my affair with gardening began. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:30 | |
I haven't stood on this patch of earth for over 50 years, | 0:09:32 | 0:09:37 | |
but this is exactly where my granddad had his allotment. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
I remember him leading me through rows of peas and sweet peas | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
from which dangled silvery lids | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
of Cadbury's cocoa to frighten off the sparrows. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:54 | |
It's almost as though time has stood still. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
But this is where I learnt the thrill of growing things. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
It's also where I found my first caterpillars, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
munching through the cabbages. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
Look carefully, and there's masses of wildlife in these little urban oases. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:17 | |
In fact, these green spaces | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
make up the biggest nature reserve in Britain. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
Added together, they cover a bigger area | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
than all our national parks combined. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
And we can all help nature out, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
by digging a pond, for example, or putting up a bird feeder. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:49 | |
Little things can make a big difference. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
And this is going to be my contribution | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
to helping out one of the garden's most important residents. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
The timid little bumblebee is in trouble. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
Populations have crashed, three species have become extinct, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
and another nine are critically endangered. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
It'd be heartbreaking to lose the buzz of the bumblebee | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
from our gardens and from the countryside, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
but with one of these, you can help them out. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
It's a bumblebee nesting box. There's even a transparent lid so you can see what's going on. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:27 | |
Put the lid on, pop it underneath a shrub to offer it shelter | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
and let the bees get on with it. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
The Second World War marked the beginning of the next great wave of change in our countryside. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:51 | |
AIR-RAID SIREN | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
This time, the battle came much closer to home. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
The bombing blitz of 1940 lasted for almost two months. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:04 | |
But as our boys fought bravely back, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
they weren't just defending the people of Britain. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
Because World War Two | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
also made the military into the custodians of the countryside. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
The MOD requisitioned huge areas of land for defence, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
and by 1945, they controlled a fifth of Great Britain. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
Some of our wildest corners came under military control, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
and off-limits to most of us, many have stayed wild. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
These areas are full of surprises. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
Nature thrives alongside the privates on patrol. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
These days, the military own a more modest slice of Britain. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
But even some of the land they've given back is helping wildlife. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
This massive structure is one of six shelters | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
built to house cruise missiles | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
during the Cold War here at Greenham Common. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
Underneath my feet, two metres of concrete, three metres of sand | 0:13:31 | 0:13:36 | |
and tonnes of topsoil, all put together | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
with the specific intention of resisting a nuclear attack. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
But the Cold War has ended, and the cruise missiles left more than ten years ago. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
So how do you turn a bleak old army base into a more natural landscape? | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
Well, nature doesn't need much encouragement to reclaim what was once hers. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:04 | |
Concrete and steel are no match for Mother Nature's adaptability. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
Even a barn owl has moved in. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
You can see evidence of his occupancy, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
not just from the droppings, but also from these - | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
pellets. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
Those parts of a bird's diet that it can't digest, it regurgitates | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
and expels through its beak. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
If you pick these apart, you can see what it's been feeding on. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
Small mammal bones, quite a lot of fur, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:55 | |
all of it indigestible. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
When I was a kid, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
we used to water these under a tap and tease them apart | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
and then lay out all the little tiny bones we'd find. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:09 | |
Morbid little school boys. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
It's not just barn owls who make use of these old buildings. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
Phew! | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
This might not be an ideal home as far as you or I are concerned, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
but it's been specially adapted to be hospitable | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
to one particular group of visitors. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
That's why these rafters are here and lumps of fabric | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
and pieces of timber fixed to the wall with gaps between them. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
There we are... | 0:15:41 | 0:15:42 | |
Look at that. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
It's a noctule bat. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
It's one of our largest. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
Quite sleek. Blunt snout, little rounded ears. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
You can see why they're sometimes called flittermice. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
It's like a mouse with wings. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
Bats like this have moved in all over Greenham. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:06 | |
I'll just let him go back to sleep. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
But the biggest change here is outside, peeling back the runway | 0:16:16 | 0:16:21 | |
to help one particular plant. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
Large areas have been seeded with heather, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
and you can see the young plants springing up everywhere. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
It will take some time before these are mature, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
but eventually this whole area will become heathland. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
And when it does, it'll look like this. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
Britain has some of the finest heathland in Europe, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
but over the last 200 years, we've lost more than 80% of it. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
So, projects like this one at Greenham are of real value. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:54 | |
And it's already attracting typical heathland wildlife. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
The pools created when the runway was removed are perfect for little ringed plovers. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:08 | |
Only a squadron of damselflies are stationed at Greenham today. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:18 | |
But there is one resident of the heath | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
who still has a lethal weapon. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
They're often hiding under old pieces of tin like this. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
But in this case, they're not. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
Nope! | 0:17:38 | 0:17:39 | |
An adder. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:46 | |
Isn't he great? | 0:17:48 | 0:17:49 | |
A wonderful black zigzag right down his back. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
It's our only venomous snake, | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
but they're generally fairly timid and just slither away. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
This one's sitting there at the moment. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
They feed on lizards and frogs. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
I've just disturbed its afternoon nap. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
I'd better give him his hiding place back. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
From beginnings as an air base in WWII | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
to a flourishing heathland in a generation, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
Greenham is a real success story. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
But the war also had more devastating effects on Britain. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:35 | |
Many shortages were caused by the disruption to shipping, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
some of them disastrous! | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Queues were the norm, and even many basic goods were being rationed. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
We simply needed to grow more food, and that put huge pressure on rural Britain. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:55 | |
Traditional farming gradually gave way | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
to more modern methods. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
Tractors replaced the working horse on our farms, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:10 | |
and with these new machines and chemical fertilisers, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:15 | |
even poor soils could be farmed. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
Many wild areas were ploughed up to make new fields. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
Modern farming is on an industrial scale. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
I can't think of anything more striking | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
to show just how much farming has changed | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
than these prairie-like fields - | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
vast monocultures with little room for nature. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
But things ARE getting better. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
Farming organically is one example of this. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
You can see the benefits in a field like this, at Vinehouse Farm in Lincolnshire. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:14 | |
Instead of being doused with weedkiller, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
these rows of organic wheat are sown slightly further apart | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
to allow mechanical weed control with a hoe. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
It's not so efficient as herbicide - | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
you still get field poppy and mayweed creeping up - | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
but not enough of them to compete with the crop, | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
but sufficient to produce seeds and support insects | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
that in turn provide a rich larder for countryside birds. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
But organic farming isn't the only way to help. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
Setting aside field edges | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
and other wild corners makes a surprisingly big difference. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
Wild flowers and long grass attract bugs and butterflies, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
and provide food and shelter for small mammals, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
And replanting hedgerows dug up in the past | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
provides homes for many more plants and animals. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
Some farmers are even growing crops just for the birds. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
This glorious display may be short-lived, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
but come winter, it'll provide food when there's not much else around. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
In fact, the sunflowers drew so many birds | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
that the farmer here decided to start up a new business. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
Four years ago, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:56 | |
this farm was producing 15 tonnes of this bird food a year. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
Now it's producing that much a week. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
It's an important part of the farm's income | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
and proves you CAN farm to profit both people and wildlife. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
But wildlife-friendly farming isn't the only way that Britain's agricultural landscape is changing. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:16 | |
Our lonely moorlands might seem untouched by human hands, but we've brought our animals even here. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:28 | |
At Kielder in Northumberland, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
the wildlife had to make way as farming spread in the post-war years. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
Subsidies encouraged people to dig drainage ditches, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
or burn off the heather to provide better grazing for sheep. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
But drying out the moorland like this | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
was bad news for the birds who came here to breed. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
They depended on the boggy ground and small pools | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
to provide them and their chicks with food. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
As the moors have dried out, bird numbers have plummeted. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
But all is not lost. Over the last few years, the landowners here | 0:23:10 | 0:23:15 | |
have been busy turning Kielder back into a haven for wildlife. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
The ditches have been allowed to fill in, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
the sheep have been moved off and the pools recreated... | 0:23:22 | 0:23:27 | |
using this. Gelignite. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
If you want to make holes in the ground, this is the stuff. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
It's quick, effective, cheap and, to be perfectly honest, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
extremely good fun! | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
All it needs is a bit of finishing off | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
with my trusty spade. When the autumn rains come, | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
it'll fill up, be colonised by moisture-loving plants and insects | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
and become, where it once was a bit of a desert, an oasis of life. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:52 | |
From uplands to lowlands, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
things are improving for wildlife in many of our farming landscapes. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
But back in the '50s, another problem was looming large. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
Pollution. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
Industry, sewage and agriculture all added to a noxious cocktail of nasties. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:17 | |
In 1952, the London smog was so bad | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
that it killed around 4,000 people. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
And many of our rivers were also sickened by this pollution. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
In 1957, the Thames was declared dead. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
Happily, things are much improved these days. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
New stricter laws have forced everyone to clean up their act | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
and the Thames is now among the cleanest rivers in Europe. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
Nature has moved back in. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
And all over the British Isles, | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
our rivers are the cleanest they've been for decades. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:05 | |
We've spent billions of pounds | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
on restoring them to their natural best. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
And one of the animals to have benefited the most is the otter. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
By the late '50s, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
the otter was fast approaching extinction in Britain, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
but with the clean-up of our waterways, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
their numbers have increased five-fold in just 25 years. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
And the work on our rivers goes on. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
Many were once straightened and dredged | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
but are now having their natural curves restored. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
These volunteers are creating a new bank. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
In the narrowed channel, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
the faster flow helps clean the gravels on the river floor. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
That can help many of the river's smaller inhabitants. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
It sets the stage for a magical event. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:20 | |
Adult mayfly only emerge on a few days each year. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:29 | |
Their graceful ballet lasts little more than 24 hours. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:34 | |
The flies provide a bonanza for many hungry hunters. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
Only in clean and unpolluted waters do so many small insects thrive. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:24 | |
Back in 1953, it wasn't just the quality of the water | 0:28:45 | 0:28:50 | |
that gave cause for concern. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
On January 31st, strong winds and bad weather | 0:28:55 | 0:28:59 | |
combined to create a high tide three metres above normal, | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
and the sea swamped much of eastern England. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
More than 300 people lost their lives, | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
and many more were left homeless, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
struggling to deal with the chaos left by the flood. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
It was the greatest peacetime disaster in our history. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:26 | |
To make sure such a catastrophe could never happen again, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
we built mile after mile of new sea defences. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:35 | |
Barriers like this protect great lengths of our coastline from the sea, | 0:29:37 | 0:29:42 | |
reassuring local residents | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
and allowing the land inside them to be farmed. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
But their is a downside to all this. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:49 | |
It may look like a slippery mud pit to you and me, | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
but this salt marsh is paradise for some of our wildlife. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:05 | |
Every handful of this gloop | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
contains masses of tiny snails, worms and shellfish | 0:30:08 | 0:30:13 | |
that make wonderful bird food. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
The creeks that crisscross the marsh are great breeding grounds for fish. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:20 | |
The trouble is, sea walls are bad news for salt marsh. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
By cutting off the land from the sea, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
these man-made barriers are killing off the marsh. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:40 | |
But the solution to this problem is surprisingly simple! | 0:30:40 | 0:30:45 | |
In a few carefully-selected locations, we're knocking holes in the sea wall, | 0:30:49 | 0:30:54 | |
allowing the sea back in, and sacrificing farmland to recreate marshland. | 0:30:54 | 0:31:00 | |
And you can see here that it's already beginning to work. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:06 | |
Last year, this was a barley field. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
You can see the remains of the stubble. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:11 | |
But in just 12 short months, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
it's already begun to be colonised by pioneer salt marsh plants | 0:31:13 | 0:31:18 | |
like this marsh samphire, which ironically is edible, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
just like the barley. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
But the big surprise is that knocking down the sea wall | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
and allowing the salt marsh to regenerate | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
might just be another way of controlling flooding. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
If there's a dangerously high tide, | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
these marshes should act like a sponge, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
absorbing some of the floodwater that might otherwise threaten towns and villages. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
It's a way of working with Mother Nature, | 0:31:46 | 0:31:50 | |
giving the sea room to breathe. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
So, everyone should be a winner - | 0:32:03 | 0:32:06 | |
less threat from flooding, more salt marsh | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
and more wildlife for us all to enjoy. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
In fact, coastal landscapes like these | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
are of worldwide importance for birds. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
Our salt marshes, sands and mud flats | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
provide vital winter feeding grounds | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
for more than six million wildfowl and waders. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
It's one of our most magnificent wildlife spectacles. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
Britain has many places of world-beating beauty, | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
and the '50s marked a milestone in their protection. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
It was in 1951 that we began to recognise the importance | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
of our best-loved landscapes by making them National Parks. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:55 | |
The very first of these was the Peak District, | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
and it's now one of the most visited national parks in the world. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
From the mountains of Snowdonia | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
to the romance of the Lake District and beyond, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
these parks are a celebration of our countryside. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
Who needs to go abroad when there's all this | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
right on your doorstep? | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
But however wild these landscapes look, | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
people play a vital role in looking after them, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
and perhaps nowhere more so than in the Norfolk Broads. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
If you like spending time on the water, this is the place to be. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:57 | |
There are over 115 miles of navigable channels here | 0:34:57 | 0:35:02 | |
and more than 40 lakes. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
It's the perfect place for messing around in boats. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:08 | |
But if it wasn't for people, | 0:35:11 | 0:35:13 | |
many of these waterways would gradually be taken over by the reeds and sedges, | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
and the broads would begin to dry out. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
For centuries, these fenlands have been harvested for roofing, | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
and the regular cutting has helped keep the plants in check. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
But since the '50s, this has become something of a dying art. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:40 | |
So what's the modern alternative? | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
A giant mowing machine! | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
It might not have the romance of the old-fashioned method, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:55 | |
but it certainly does the trick! | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
I don't much like emptying the grassbox on the mower at home. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
It must be tedious emptying this one! | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
It's specially designed for the fens, with rubber tracks | 0:36:06 | 0:36:09 | |
that don't sink into the damp earth. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
With regular cutting, the fens are kept under control | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
which also helps some of the broadland wildlife. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
Milk parsley, for instance, | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
can't survive in dense fenland where it struggles for light. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
But where the reed has been cut down and grows back less densely, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
then it thrives. I'm rather pleased about that. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
It's the food plant of one of my favourite British creatures. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
This tiny weeny little black caterpillar | 0:36:39 | 0:36:45 | |
grows up into something | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
altogether more spectacular. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:50 | |
The swallowtail. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:04 | |
The largest British butterfly, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
and one of the rarest. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:08 | |
It's a first sighting for me. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
It's an absolute thrill. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
Just look at that! I've wanted to see one of these since I was a lad. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
But they've become increasingly rare. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
It only survives in this part of Britain | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
and its future's dependent on man's continued intervention in the broads. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:38 | |
Without management, all this wetland would turn into woodland | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
and the swallowtail, along with many other unique fenland species, would simply disappear. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:47 | |
All across Britain, we've learnt a great deal about caring for the countryside. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:57 | |
But we've made plenty of mistakes too. Even quite recently. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:02 | |
In Scotland's remote Western Isles, we've discovered | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
how even a seemingly innocent action can have devastating effects. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
This is one of the rarest habitats in all Europe, | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
and today it's one of the windiest! | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
It only occurs in the Gaelic nations, | 0:38:17 | 0:38:19 | |
on the west coast of Ireland and north-west Scotland. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:23 | |
It's known by it's Gaelic name - the machair. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
On the Hebridean island of Uist, this unique coastal grassland | 0:38:28 | 0:38:33 | |
has been farmed for centuries. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
But never intensively. That's resulted in a scene | 0:38:36 | 0:38:41 | |
to make any botanist drool. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
And for hundreds of years, many ground-nesting birds | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
have come to the machair to breed, like the rare corncrake... | 0:38:50 | 0:38:53 | |
..along with many wading birds. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
But many of these birds are now under attack from an alien invader. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:08 | |
There can be over 100 of these hungry predators in a square mile of the machair. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:16 | |
They're surprisingly elusive, often lurking in disused rabbit holes. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:20 | |
But sooner or later, they have to come out to feed. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:23 | |
Hedgehogs, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:45 | |
introduced to the island in the '70s. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
And they've developed a taste for eggs. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
It's no laughing matter for these birds, destroying their nests. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:17 | |
The only solution is to hunt down the hedgehogs | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
and either kill them, or take them back to the mainland - | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
both controversial options. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:27 | |
It was humans who brought hedgehogs to these islands, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
but it's the hedgehogs who'll have to pay the price. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
This little chap faces either death, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
albeit a humane one, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:42 | |
or an uncertain future hundreds of miles from home. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:46 | |
But one thing's certain - if the hedgehogs remain, | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
then the wild birds of the machair will face continued decline. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:54 | |
We have to make difficult decisions like these | 0:40:57 | 0:41:00 | |
even here in the wildest corners of Britain. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
But they're even tougher where people have a greater impact. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
There she is! CHILDREN GASP | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
In 1904, there had been only 8,000 cars in Britain. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:19 | |
By 1950, there were two million, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:23 | |
and that number had doubled by the '60s. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
The fabulous Morris Minor 1000! | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
With more cars, we wanted more roads, and bigger ones. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:36 | |
Motorways arrived in Britain. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
These giant highways | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
cut great swathes of destruction through the countryside. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
The M1 was opened in 1959 and today we have 4,000 miles of motorway. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:56 | |
But nature still manages to put in an appearance. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
Wild verges attract insects and small mammals - | 0:42:04 | 0:42:09 | |
food for kestrels. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
They're a common sight on our main roads, | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
and on the M40, they get extra special care. | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
Five chicks. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
These nestboxes make up for a lack of natural nesting sites. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
And they're carefully monitored to see how the birds are getting on. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
Each chick gets its own identity tag, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
so researchers can follow up on these birds in later life. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
Back in the nest, the chicks are left to express their opinion of recent events... | 0:42:56 | 0:43:02 | |
..and wait for mum to bring back dinner. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
As you and I whizz past, it's hard to appreciate | 0:43:17 | 0:43:21 | |
just how remarkable these little birds are. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
The chicks need a constant supply of food, keeping both parents busy. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:36 | |
But they almost seem to relish practising their hunting skills. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:41 | |
Just how do they keep their heads so still? | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
It's amazing. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
One of Britain's natural wonders, | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
and we drive past it every day. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
Roads are the veins and arteries of our modern world, | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
but the urban heart of Britain beats in our towns and cities. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:04 | |
Since the turn of the century, that urban sprawl has sprawled ever further. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:10 | |
We're one of the most intensely urban cultures in the world, | 0:45:14 | 0:45:18 | |
with 90% of us crammed into the concrete jungle. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:22 | |
London is most crowded of all - | 0:45:24 | 0:45:27 | |
7 million people packed into 67 square miles. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:31 | |
Every acre is worth more than £3 million. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
But even here there's room for wildlife. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
I'm eight miles from Euston station, | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
six miles from Big Ben and right under the flight path to Heathrow. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:51 | |
But I'm also slap bang in the middle of a great big nature reserve. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:57 | |
The London Wetlands Centre, | 0:46:03 | 0:46:05 | |
just round the corner from Hammersmith Bridge, | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
shows just how much we've come to value our wildlife. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
100 years ago, this was a series of four concrete reservoirs | 0:46:13 | 0:46:18 | |
supplying water to the capital. But it was abandoned in the 1980s. | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
It could have become a housing estate or a factory site. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
Instead, due to a spot of enlightened thinking, it became a little patch of paradise. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:33 | |
We've come a long way since 1900, | 0:46:59 | 0:47:03 | |
and of that we should be proud, | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
but not complacent. There's still plenty of room for improvement. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:11 | |
Even little things, like a new home for these sand martins, | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
can reap big rewards. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
One way or another, we can all choose to play a part | 0:47:18 | 0:47:23 | |
in caring for our countryside. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
The London Wetlands Centre is living proof that even in the middle of the urban jungle, | 0:47:26 | 0:47:32 | |
there's still room for wildlife. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
A century ago, a place like this would have been unthinkable. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:38 | |
But today, it's part of a growing trend to enrich our landscape. | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
That's the sort of thing that gives us hope for the future | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
of the natural history of the British Isles. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 |