17/02/2014 Inside Out London

Hello there, I'm Matthew White, you're watching inside out London.

Here is what is coming up. Battered by rain, high winds and floods. We

meet the villagers, struggling against the swirling River Thames. I

just want to get the baby out, get her a break.

Facing eviction, the Lambeth residents being turfed out of their

expense of council homes. They have not spent a penny on this property

and now it is, I will have that back, it's worth a lot of money now.

And dealing with their demons. How Shakespeare is being used to help

war better is overcome their traumas. It is amazing how playing

with someone else's emotions, without having to deal with your

own, is actually quite liberating. A ray of sunshine now, but the real

story has to be rain, rain and still more rain. There has been so much of

it, the River Thames has burst its banks leaving hundreds of homes

flooded and many more at risk. Our reporter has been spending time in

the flooded village of Wraysbury in Berkshire to see how local residents

are desperately trying to save their homes. For the residents of

Wraysbury, it's been a very bad week. So many houses lost, so many

people's lives ruined. I had a real real real bad day. Sure, lots of

residents had lots of bad days. I felt like I couldn't cope. I felt

like I was having a breakdown to be honest. One of major concerns people

have is that if they leave their homes then the hobbledehoys will be

in and stealing whatever they can lay their hands on. With much of the

village under several feet of water, many have been left stranded,

isolated and fearful. Local volunteers spent several days

offering what help they could. We need the army here, now!

Before the army finally arrived to supervise operations and relieve

some of the pressure. For many, though, there's been no choice but

to grit their teeth and tough things out. When I saw the water rising, it

just made me feel sick. It's coming in again, the sheer mess and

disruption to life. For 30 years, Tim O'Keeffe has run a boat repair

yard from his Wraysbury home, perched right on the edge of the

Thames. I don't have a normal day`to`day life at the moment. We

struggle round up here. With the dog. The ground floor of Tim's home

is completely waterlogged, and for the past week he's been having to

live out of his upstairs rooms. I've brought essentials up ` the

microwave, small mini grill, so I can keep hot food going, rinse

plates out with boiling water in bathroom, live off microwave meals

and frozen chips. The toilet is working. I only flush once a day.

I'm on a septic tank, so I dread to think where it's going. It's a

little bit Third World at the moment. Like many of Wraysbury's

residents, Tim has been regularly checking up on his neighbours.

Christine, you in? No sign of life ` there's not a dinghy tied to

railings so she's probably out at the moment. All through last week,

evacuations of some of Wraysbury's most vulnerable residents continued.

This was a baby. Just want to get the baby out. Yeah, three and a half

weeks. He's fine because he doesn't know what's going on but I've got a

four`year`old who wants to see his mummy. Mummy's going to cry. So I'm

just going to have a break and hopefully we'll all be together at

the weekend. The village may have taken a soaking, but the floods have

proved there's no shortage of community spirit here. There's a

step here. Anna Gibson was one of many burning the candle at both ends

to help out. I'll give you a holler if anyone says they need anything.

I've had about two hours sleep every night for the last 72 hours. I've

been doing stuff like going out knocking on doors, asking if people

are OK, we ask if they need food taking, food parcels, and gaffer

taping up doors, which also works as a form of waterproofing. Anna grew

up in the village primary school, where her father worked as a

caretaker. Since the floods started, school has most definitely been out.

The building has been acting as a command centre for the crisis. Many

of the village's children have been sent away to wait for the floods to

subside. For some parents, this is a painful separation. Coping has been

very difficult. I have three small children ` ages 11, 12, and14 ` and

all three of them different addresses at the moment. I really

miss the children not being here. There's no laughter in the house.

And it's really quiet. I don't like it. I want my children home. When

the last flood happened, we thought that we would made it fun. Soon the

novelty wore off when the flooding came back and it was a bit more of a

situation. Hi, Cameron. It's Mummy. You can come home soon. We're just

waiting for the water to come down a bit more. Miss you, too. Bea isn't

the only one who's had to send her children away. Tim's son normally

lives and works with him in the family boat yard, but business has

ground to a complete halt. I've had the business here for 30 years. To

see it like this is just demoralising and depressing. Your

life's work is going down the drain. It's cost me thousands already in

lost work and damaged equipment I shall probably be working rest of

year to pay off the debts I'm going to accumulate through not working.

We've thought of selling up a few times. It wouldn't take much more

now to lock the doors and walk away. It really does grind you down.

Everything you try and do just ruined. What we have got our

submersible pumps. They are pumping water out from under the floor of

the house to save the house from flooding. We have got a big hole in

the floor, just a couple of mirrors, but we have sunk the submersible

pumps here. And it worked, as David Randall knew, because as well as the

pumps, he had a look. Then in the half inches it would have been

flooded. Outside, it is about three inches above this level here. It has

been a wretched few days for Wraysbury. And it could be months

before normality returns. Here, you have a children's playground. Beyond

that is the village green, used for cricket. There's no cricket being

played now. It's more for boating than for cricket. It's a surreal

sight, and one this village has witnessed several times before. Most

residents lived through severe floods back in 2003, and some can

even remember the floods of 194 . I was nine, then. We were evacuated by

the Army on the Sunday morning, and we were away for six weeks, staying

with my aunt and uncle in Feltham. And when we came back it was another

six weeks before we could go out without wellies. So it was much

worse then? Oh, yes, it was worse than this! That's little consolation

for the beleaguered residents here. After several days of misery,

though, there are signs that ` for some ` things might be starting to

get better. She's back. The waters are going down slowly. It's nice to

have Sophie back home. At least I have one child out of three home.

Oh, my God. It was so tidy when we left. Meanwhile, Tim is concerned

about the welfare of his 13`year`old Alsatian, Buffy. What would happen

to her if you took her into the flood? It would kill her. Between

the cold water and the strong stream and all the muck in the water, it

really would finish her off. Morning! How you doing? There's

little to be done now but keep well stocked with supplies and dog food,

and mentally prepare for the hard work that lies ahead. It's all very

well bringing the soldiers in at this point but, once the water's

gone down and we're clearing the pollution and the sewage from the

roads and gardens and all the mess that's when we really need the help.

Many of us don't have flood insurance because we're uninsurable,

which means it would be nice if the Government could help us out a

little bit or even just kick the insurance companies into helping us

a little bit. So when will all this be over? Well, of course, there s

only one place to look for an answer ` the river ` and at the moment it's

still flowing strongly. It's deep and powerful. Those poor people I

hope they get everything dried out soon. Still to come tonight. Each of

these actors has seen action in the theatre of war, and the terrible

things they have witnessed comeback constantly to haunt them. It was the

ethnic cleansing, in particular the guys that found the first mass

grave. Back in the 70s, Lambeth Council signed up to an innovative

scheme to adjust levels of homelessness and saving old houses

from the bulldozers. They agreed to poor families moving into derelict

properties. Many people took up the offer and spent lots of time, effort

and cash doing those homes are, but decades on, this property is worth a

lot of money, and the council wants them back, which means that the

residents face eviction. Actress and Londoner, Linda Robson has the

story. One of the biggest property sell`offs is happening in Lambeth.

Over the last two years, the council has recouped around ?40 million from

auctioning off dozens of houses and flats. But the sell`off policy means

that hundreds of residents in this Labour borough are being forced to

leave their homes. The way that the policy has been enacted, it's

senseless. We're talking about OAPs who are going to be thrown out of

their homes. They're trying to get people like myself out, to sell off

the houses and make it far more gentrified. It's just this fire sale

mentality of we can get so much money from these properties and

that's all we're hell`bent on! Maritza has been cultivating the

garden of this Georgian house in Stockwell since she moved here over

three decades ago. Yeah, when I first arrived here, it had lots of

rubbish. You know, old broken bottles, vinyl settees, you name it.

I took five skip loads of rubbish out. The front room was so damp it

had mushrooms growing in it. There was no bathroom in this house. You

couldn't use the loo because the drains were all cracked. We had to

go two doors down to an outside toilet. In fact, before Maritza

moved in, this house and hundreds of others in the area had fallen into

such disrepair, the council couldn't afford to maintain them. But the

properties received a last`minute retrieve. A loose agreement between

both sides allowed the locals to live in the properties on a

short`term basis as long as they carried out the repairs themselves.

It was with their consent that people were here. It was not a

squat. It had a direct licence. Residents paid no rent to the

council. I have completely rebuilt it. All of the back has been

repointed, the windows are all replaced, the back door,

decluttering, new roof, had to excavate. There are many and hard

labour had boost the value of this house but 30 years on, the council

wanted back. She has been told she may have to move out. They have not

spent a penny on this property. They have sapped by, knowing I have been

improving it, and now, they want it back because it is worth a lot of

money. Many of the properties were built in deprived areas of Lambeth.

But times have changed and as fortune would have it, those same

holds are now situated right in the middle of a property hotspot.

Previously, it was pretty rundown. There were lots of squats in the

area. There were lots of council houses that needed work. Henry s

home is located in what is now a highly desirable enclave where

properties often sell for over 2 million. His three`bedroom house is

not worth that much but he has certainly increased its value over

the past 25 years. Putting floors and doors in, rewiring, from when I

first moved in, the cost of the house might have been ?40,000 and

now it is in excess of ?500,000 The council are now eager to secure

possession of this property. Henry has been served with notice to quit.

We cannot defend having people in houses that are worth an awful lot

when we would rather use that money on building new houses. To take an

example, one of the properties we sold earlier this year got ?2.2

million. Selling that one house means we can build five or six new

houses. Over the last three years, we have brought in so much money. We

want as much of that money as possible to go into housing. We

cannot actually get the details of when the many has gone. There has

been no transparency about this The residents facing eviction are part

of the self supported community which Henry believes is now being

destroyed. Within the local community, we are very helpful to

each other, helping to build and maintain the houses, trying to get

people like myself out. The community that is been here for over

30 years will dissipate. To stop the sale of further council properties,

the residents have been staging more protests. These are the postcards

that we have got printed. They are quite handy for handing out. We have

done demonstration that auction viewings. But they may be losing the

battle. Over 1000 residents have been evicted in recent years. Helen

reluctantly handed over her keys ten months ago. It was the most

stressful year of my life, trying to deal with the eviction and the court

dates and stuff. The date that I agreed to hand back the keys, they

had someone to change the locks They literally trampled me underfoot

trying to get into the house quicken. I was devastated. Helen

only agreed to leave her own home after the council promised

alternative housing for all of the residents. But now she believed she

was caused into substandard accommodation. Two months later we

were doing work on it and bits of the kitchen wall got damp and had

black mould. I went through this process of trying to get them to

come and repair it. A council worker came and looked at the place and I

never heard from him again. She was also offered a council towers. She

has turned it down. When I saw it, I just bursting to tears. It needed so

much work. In a last bid to stay in their homes, Moritz and the other

residents promised to pay a fair rent. But despite all the repairs,

many of the properties do not meet council regulations. To bring it up

to the standard required, we would have to spend hundreds of thousands

of pounds. We have got to use the money we have effectively. That

means building new council houses so that all families have a chance not

just a small number of people who have not been paying rent for 2

years. In the end, there are no easy answers. The council does have a

duty to maximise its revenue to provide good services for everyone

in the borough. It is just a shame that so many people have given so

much to their communities and are having to lose their homes.

There are now less than two dozen occupants are still fighting to keep

their homes. Julian and Henry will have their final say in court this

summer but for others, the decision has been made. I am sitting here

waiting for an eviction notice and did commence `` and it could come

any day. It is so cruel. This year, the final 5,000 British

combat troops are due to return home from Afghanistan. But for some,

their biggest battle may only just be beginning. Up to one in ten will

suffer from psychological problems such as post`traumatic stress

disorder, or PTSD. A unique London drama group, the Combat Veteran

Players, aims to help some ex`service personnel lay their

demons to rest. Chris Rogers has been following them as they prepare

to perform Hamlet at one of the Capital's most famous theatres.

This is no ordinary theatre group. Each of these actors has seen action

in the theatre of war. And the terrible things they've witnessed

come back constantly to haunt them. It was the ethnic cleansing ` and in

particular it was my group that found the first mass graves in

Bosnia. Eight months later I came home and I was crying over a pint in

a bar. There's a number of incidents that come back to me in my dreams.

They queue up like ghosts from the past and come visit in the night.

The former servicemen are about to take on a huge new challenge. Their

goal is to put on a performance of one of Shakespeare's most difficult

plays, Hamlet, here at the Globe Theatre, just a few hundred yards

from the original site where Hamlet was first performed over 400 years

ago. Set up two years ago by the Veteran's charity STOLL, the Combat

Veteran Players already have productions of Henry V and Midsummer

Night's Dream under their belt. A lot of what I work with is identity.

I think there's a lot of lost identity that happens when you're

transitioning from combat into civilian. It can take several years

before the symptoms of post`traumatic stress develop, and

the memories of what they've seen can ruin their lives. I find it

difficult to display any form of emotions really. Things that the

average civilian would class as a traumatic event I would think, get a

life. What's the matter with you? I was in a local village and actually

thought and believed that there were people spying on me. I thought there

was a guy on the roof with a sniper rifle. And actually believed this. A

while later I realised this was just a figment of my imagination. Many

veterans with PTSD break up with their partners, some end up living

on the streets, others even attempt suicide. I was starting to suffer

and worry now about some of the things I'd seen as a young soldier.

They were starting to bite back into my mind. I did rapidly decline very

quickly to start to want to destroy myself. The inevitability of it was

sitting in a car at three o'clock in the morning, unconscious with a pipe

in it. Whatever works for you. That is OK. It was almost like being back

in the armed forces. Meeting with the guys and the camaraderie,

engaged in something that was quite rewarding for my condition. And

actually it's a good laugh. I locked myself away from the world for a

long, long time didn't want to see anyone, and this is the first time

I've been in a room with a bunch of squaddies again. And the joviality I

think, believe it or not that's been quite therapeutic. Many of the

battle`hardened Veterans had never acted at all before joining the

group. But as director Jackie prepares to cast Hamlet, everyone's

hoping for a major role. Role of Hamlet. If you want to. Agreed?

Yeah, just a bit shocked at the moment, wow.

The character of Hamlet has some chilling parallels with Shaun's own

life. When he does his To Be Or Not To Be, when I read that through

that knocked me straight back because he was going through the

motions of trying to kill himself, been there, and I immediately

thought good lord so when I play that part it's going to be quite a

challenge. To see just what they've taken on, a

visit is arranged to the Globe on the South Bank of the Thames.

It's chillingly, frighteningly, excitingly awesome. It's a first

chance to tread the boards of the reconstructed Elizabethan theatre.

The next time they're here there'll be an audience of up to 1,500

people. To be able to test those acoustics and hit the back wall just

amazing. Feels good, the bigger the audience the better.

The team return to the STOLL Charity buildings in Fulham to begin intense

rehearsals. Rehearsals are going well but Shaun

has been putting off tackling Hamlet's first big speech, 'Too too

solid flesh', which muses on life and suicide. I just wanted to avoid

it all the time, and I eventually said let's get this out of the way,

let's go for it and I dug really deep in a rehearsal to feel what

it's really like to lose yourself to become emotional. He breaks down

during the rehearsal. I remember thinking I've done it,

I've actually got over the hurdle now, and probably going there it's

helping me face my demons from the past, and it's educating me it's OK

to let the emotions out. Like many who've seen action, Shaun

has regular therapy sessions at the charity Combat Stress.

His psychiatrist believes the theatre group has a part to play in

the rehabilitation process. It allows them to test themselves in

terms of their emotions and how they interact with people. So we had the

contrast with somebody being scared to go to Sainsbury's at 11 o'clock

on a Saturday morning, versus that individual acting before hundreds of

people. It won't cure them but it certainly will help.

It's amazing how doing things from a third party point of view, and

playing with someone else's emotions and not having to deal with your

own, is actually quite liberating and I think in the long term I'll be

able to integrate them back into my own personality.

But just how close are they to their ultimate goal ` performing at the

Globe? Jackie arranges a small preview in a West End theatre.

So it's getting real now. This is the first time they get to put their

performance to the test in front of an audience.

I just get so nervous, I don't know why, at least I'm not throwing up I

used to throw up before I went on stage so I'm getting there. When you

walk in expecting the worst and hoping for the best, and the best

does happen you walk away with a lot of pride and I thought they did

fantastic today. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. I was very

impressed. In this setting, the play comes over so powerfully. For the

first time in front of an audience, and now it is the hard work, we have

to get another 60% out of us. These guys amaze me everyday. Pulling out

talent they never knew was there. That is the most rewarding thing

I've ever done. And good luck to them when they take

their play to the Globe Theatre later this summer. That is nearly

all for this week. Before we go let's have a quick look at what is

happening next week 's programme. It is home to some of the UK's

rarest world life `` wildlife, but is it under threat? 300,000 birds

come here for the winter. To place an airport here is of great concern

to us. This is an international significant. We find out how the

humble Post Office helped win the First World War. Censorship very

much was enforced and the post office were responsible for

overseeing and managing that censorship row says. And we unveil

how London plans to become the dance capital of the world. We have the

artists, the audience, we just need a little bit more space and

infrastructure. If we have that we will really take London to the top

of the Premier league. And that is all from this week. If

you have missed any of the night show, you can catch up on the eye

player. Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90

second update. An independent Scotland can keep the

pound. That's the message from First Minister Alex Salmond who insists

it's better for UK business. He accused Westminster parties of

bullying for ruling out a shared currency. Full story at Ten.

Ten million pounds is being promised by the PM to help small business hit

by recent storms. Severe flood warnings on the Thames have been

downgraded, but experts say water levels could rise again.

A co`pilot from Ethiopian Airlines has hijacked his own plane. He took

control when the other pilot went to the toilet. He asked for asylum

after landing in Switzerland. He's set to become Italy's

youngest`ever prime minister. 39`year`old Matteo Renzi is

promising many reforms. He's mayor of Florence ` but has never been an

MP. We've got tablets, smartphones and

laptops. But nine`out`of`ten of us still prefer the TV. New figures

suggest we watch nearly four hours a day ` slightly less than in 201 .

Hello, I'm Asad Ahmad with the latest from London. Flames erupting

from a pavement near King's Cross this morning. Around fifty people

had to be evacuated. The cause is thought