07/01/2013 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

Hello, and welcome to Inside Out for 2013. I was thinking in my head,

We add up the cost of one of Newcastle United's latest signings.

I knew I couldn't pay it back but I never thought I was going to get it,

and I was gobsmacked that I got it. We trace the roots of one of this

region's forgotten athletic greats. It just feels so proud and I am

thankful that at last his story has been able to be told. And capping

of 2012, a year in the life of our very own 100 club. I fell in love.

I bought a house. But now I am skint. We tried to keep the memory

of stillborn child alive. Life is too short. Just live it.

Stories from the heart of the north-east and Cumbria. This is

After a Merry Christmas comes the hangover, and perhaps you paid for

it using high interest short-term credit. From a payday loan company

like Wonga. Now, but Wonga logo will soon be emblazoned across T-

shirts of Newcastle United. It's controversial, because the company

says it is offering a bright new alternative to the banks, but its

critics say it is nothing more than a legal loan shark.

They're a good company and they are looking to improve the club.

Newcastle's a fantastic club. It's one of the iconic clubs of English

football. It's a massive coup for Wonga. The deal with Newcastle

United will launch the Wonga name around the world. Many Newcastle

fans will not be concerned about what name is on the front of the

team shirt, just as long as they are winning on the pitch, but for

others, it is simply not acceptable that Newcastle's multi-million pan

players will be earning money wearing a shirt making a product

which it is claimed exploits the vulnerable poor. You do it out of

desperation when you need it, and once the money has gone, that is

when the trouble starts. The growth of Wonga is phenomenal. He did not

even exist six years ago, yet now it is able to splash out millions

sponsoring one of the biggest football clubs in the richest

league in the world. Our goal is to reinvent credit for the 21st

century and that means being transparent about the real cost of

borrowing money, being upfront about that cost. No forms, no fuss,

no meetings with the bank manager. Money in your account in 15 minutes.

Easy, and if you are skint, oh, so tempting. To borrow �150, with the

interest, I would be charged �51.51. Which would be a total repayment of

�201.51. Stacey from Middlesborough says she borrowed a title of �400

in three loans from Wonga. I was vulnerable. I had separated from

the partner I was with. I wanted to just get away from all the stuff

that was going on in my head, and the easy thing for me was get a

loan, go shopping. Get some clothes, treat myself. But Stacey could not

pay the loan back on time, and her problems started. Wonga tried to

phone and I just ignored the phone, didn't answer none of it. And

because of that, it went up from �400 to �788.24. Wonga froze her

debt and two years on, she is paying it back at just over �8

month. Stacey is one of more than one million people in the UK to

have used Wonga, that is one in 60 of us. So what is it that appeals

to people about payday loans and Wonga? Well, the first thing it

does is it gives them access to many that the banks won't give them.

-- money. If people still have needs for things like to repair a

car, they need that money relatively quickly, and longer

provides that. The mainstream banks do not. Wonga is competing in a

crowded market place, up to 240 companies out there offering quick

loans, not all of them on the high street. And they are targeting a

new type of customer. Internet borrowers tend to be much younger.

According to Wonga, almost 70 percent are under the age of 35.

Most are single and two thirds do not have children. And it is

growing at a remarkable speed. More than five million British adults

are considering taking out a payday loan in the next six months. This

includes one in four of all under 25s in this country. Wonga says it

is going for a generation of people used to getting things fast. We're

there for people who, by and large, have options, credit cards, bank

accounts. You must have a bank account to receive a Wonga loan.

And they are telling us in their droves that they are rejecting the

overdraft model of the banks. They're choosing to use Wonga over

some of these traditional longer- term commitments like credit cards.

Sliders. That's how we roll here. You tell us how much you want, how

long you want it for, and we tell you how much it is going to cost.

They've spent heavily on a TV campaign, largely using daytime TV

slots, which also raises interesting questions about the

target market, because if they claim to be targeting those in

employment, daytime TV would not necessarily capture those people.

But they have certainly invested heavily, they have adopted their

grannies campaign. The message behind that is, if someone elderly

can understand the technology and the terms and conditions, then

therefore anyone can. The clever marketing is paying off. In 2011,

Wonga's profits went through the roof, up almost 270 percent on the

previous year. That's despite charging a notional annual interest

rate of more than 4,000 percent. Or, to put it Wonga's way, 1% a day.

The APR alarms a lot of people but it is unrelated entirely to the

actual cost of the service. We charge 1% interest per day. The

average loan is actually about 16 days, so you are looking at about

16 percent of interest, or �1.60 per 100 borrowed. But for some,

however you break it down, Wonga's words just will not wash.

Wonga.com - straight-talking money. With companies like Wonga, they're

signing up to 4000% APR which is a huge amount og money. People who

are in financial difficulty will always struggle to pay that back

and will get themselves into a real mess with it. Unlike most other

countries, we do not cap what these companies can charge, so that even

if people manage to pay off their Wonga loan, they might well be

taking out another loan to pay off That. And people get stuck in a

cycle where they are borrowing to pay off borrowing and actually not

being able to pay the basics that they need to do. Pamela Smith

applied for a Wonga loan to pay for car repairs, knowing she had a poor

credit rating. I am totally blacklisted. I cannot get... I

can't even get gas meters changed from token meters to credit meters.

That's how bad my credit is, because of my history. To go on

there and get a loan and have it in the bank within... It was about six

or seven minutes. The money was in the bank. Oh, easily. And I was

gobsmacked that I got it, and I was thinking in my head, I put in for

300, knowing I couldn't pay it back, but I never thought I was going to

get it. I got a loan with Wonga a couple of months ago. It was my

daughter's birthday, I had nothing. I must know at least 20 or 30

people of my estate who have had a Wonga loan. And a lot of us are not

working at the minute. You know, struggling. We do not always get it

right. Our aim is to get it right as much as possible, and if someone

has got genuine problems, and we try and help them. Shirt

sponsorship at Newcastle United began in the 1980s. Typically, up

to now, the Browns have had strong local ties. -- brands. But Wonga is

different. It's no North East connection at all. It employs not a

single person in the region. In fact, its headquarters are here in

London, just around the corner from London Zoo. Wonga has evolved into

one of the big beasts of personal finance. It's worth hundreds of

millions of pounds. Wonga is moving into a region with high numbers of

people experiencing financial difficulty. The Citizens Advice

Bureau here in Newcastle is helping hundreds who are deep in debt.

probably see about 15,000 debt problems year. This year, we reckon

we are dealing with �20 million worth of debt and a lot of that

will be payday loans. Government figures show the north-east has a

higher personal bankruptcy rate in any other region in the country. 26

percent struggle financially to make it to payday. Wonga says the

deal with Newcastle United is not about winning more customers in an

area with high levels of deprivation. If we wanted to target

people specifically in the North East, there is a lot cheaper ways

to do that. This is not about selling loans to anyone. Newcastle

are part of the Premier League, which is the most viewed football

league in the world, so it gives them access not only to a local

audience but then a national one and therefore an international one

as well and if they truly have global ambitions in the future, the

fact that their name will be on show at over in East Asia by next

year, it's them a very good head start. And Wonga needs to develop

new markets, because the payday loan gravy train in the UK may be

about to come to a grinding halt. And it is due in part to pressure

in the House of Lords from this region's greatest Paralympian.

wanted to put my name to an amendment to restrict what they

were able to do, because they are making huge amounts of money out of

people who really cannot afford it. There's a lot of talk in some

European countries about an upper On what loan interest rates could

be. If that was ever to be contemplated here, wouldn't that

through your wholethis list model out the window? That's a very hard

question to answer, because no one has defined what a Might look like

or who it would affect. -- would and nut throwing your whole

business model out of the window? No one knows what a cap might look

like. What we are all four is better regulation of the sector,

and better practices across credit and financing general. I do not

think this is the End of the payday loan industry. I want them to

operate in the way in which they do in other countries, where actually

they do not cause these kind of problems, but in order for that to

happen, we need to What these companies can charge. The amendment

we've got through the Financial Services Bill will certainly help

with that. I concern is obviously that is a power for the new

regulator to use. It's not a definite that it is actually going

to happen, and that power will not come into play until 2014, so I am

now campaigning to make sure we get these caps in place a lot earlier.

Wonga says it is beating the banks because it provides a fast, high-

tech service not previously available. For some, it is the

wrong rant in the wrong city. But Wonga is here to stay, despite the

recession. Growing fast thanks to our continuing love affair with

credit. If you have taken out a payday loan,

it would be great to hear how you got on. You can share your

experience by leaving a comment on my blog. Just go to

bbc.co.uk/chrisjackson. He was one of the greatest ever

British athletes, Arthur Wharton. He was the first ever professional

black footballer. He was the world record holder at 100 yards. His was

an illustrious career that history has all but air rushed it out,

until now. It starts in a little fishing port

in West Africa, in 1865. A boy is born. He became arguably the

greatest sportsmen northern England has ever seen, but you have

probably never heard of him. I just feel so proud of his achievements,

and so thankful that last his story has been able to be told. He was

the pioneer. He is a part of history. We all start somewhere,

and we start with Arthur Wharton. This is what began the whole story.

I found it in this old box that belonged to my mother. It is a

photo of Arthur Wharton, who sheila Leeson believed to be a distant

relative. She did not know it but he had a remarkable story. He was

born in James Cant on the Gold Coast, now gone. His Scottish

father was a Methodist preacher and his Ghanaian mother a troubled

Princess. Arthur left for Britain to train as a preacher himself but

he found his true calling in the Darlington is central to the story.

It is where Arthur made his name. He played football for Darlington.

He was a first class cricket to put an even better goalkeeper. He was a

show man. He would swing on the crossbar and catch the ball between

his knees. He also played for Middlesbrough, Rotherham... He was

playing so well at Preston sign him. They were the Barcelona of their

day. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The world's first

black professional footballer. British Cycling -- cycling champion,

cricketer and rugby player. If we look at his sporting achievements

in the context of the day, it would be like Usain Bolt turning up for

what Manchester United on Saturday. If he was doing that, we were

thinking the greatest athlete as ever lived. So why hasn't everyone

heard of him? The reason is because he had a scandalous family secret.

This is my mother. Also in the box was a picture of Arthur's sisters.

This is after's father. Reverend Henry Wharton. Offer was married to

the sister of Sheila's grandmother. The photo is of entire African

family and a box of his personal belongings point to a closer link.

In the box was his idol. I found these verses underlined. A thorn in

the flesh. The messenger of Satan. For this thing I besought the Lord

thrice. I think he's trying to tell me that he committed adultery. He

had been with my grandmother three times and she had three children.

It made it Shelagh realise why her grandmother was banished from the

family. Because Arthur Wharton was actually the grandfather she never

knew. Sheila is heading from her home in Yorkshire to Ghana. It is

the last chance she will ever get to trace her family roots. It feels

fantastic. I never thought I would be here. It says Reverend Henry

Wharton Memorial Methodist Church. This is where Arthur's father,

Henry Wharton, preached. Arthur, I think, in his later life, forgot

about his religion. Because of his love affair, Arthur lost his family

and then his celebrity status. He ended up as a miner near Doncaster,

living in poverty. He had gone from being somebody well known and faded

in the country to practically being a nobody, and he was buried in an

unknown graves. An undignified end for a champion whose life had

started so promisingly. This is the school that he attended. He was the

first man to run 100 yards in ten seconds. He was also the first

black professional footballer in England and therefore in the world.

But hardly any of the current pupils have heard of an illustrious

performer one. The discovery of Arthur Wharton as an old boy is so

wonderful. We would like to emulate him, followed in his footsteps. It

makes me feel proud of my school, of gone and Africa. Shaun

Campbell's mission was to get recognition for Arthur Wharton, too.

First through a statue. When I first decided to run a campaign, I

wondered how many statues there were two black British achievers

out there. It took two-and-a-half months to find one. He will

eventually unveiled a 17 ft high a statue. Until then, he's small

replicas have been bought by football's most powerful

organisations. We have won at Wembley Stadium, one at FIFA or.

England and UEFA. We can go through lists of footballers. David Beckham,

George Best, Bobby Moore... The any footballer with a statue in the

highest places of world football is Arthur Wharton. The statue is only

one part of it. The rest is about spreading the word. He has the ear

of the British High Commission. He has the ear of local dignitaries.

And he has even blacked his way onto national television. Ghana has

perhaps the most iconic sportsmen in the history of the world.

the timing of the campaign could not be better. In Europe now, where

there are wars being waged against racism in football, someone like

Arthur Wharton could be the symbol of overcoming racism. There are

some was loved by many across the north, he had to fight his own

battle. When they reported on matches, for example, they would

refer to him as the dark one or say that he had a monkey type features.

In 1886, the people of the North East of England called for Arthur

to play for England. He was denied the opportunity because of the

colour of his skin and nearly 100 years later...

Being a black player, a goalkeeper, playing in the 1800s, that is mind

boggling. I did not know anything about Arthur Wharton until six or

seven years ago, which is a crying shame. Now, if you speak to Rio

Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, and they all know about him. We are doing

our bit to get his name up there. They are doing exactly that out in

Ghana, too. It is Arthur Wharton's birthday, and in the place where he

was born, a football tournament held in his honour.

This is a deprived community. A gentleman such as Arthur brings

hope that despite adversity and obstacles, one can make it through

and reach for the top. Football is in their blood and then to know

that the world's first black footballer actually came from Ghana,

it makes them think, I knew it anyway! Arthur Wharton has finally

come home. And in a sense, so has his granddaughter. She now has one

last surprise. Local journalist Ernest has been doing some digging

into the African side of her family. What we have now is a lot from your

great-grandmother's site. He has tracked down not just one or two

relatives but an entire family she let never knew she had.

APPLAUSE. Here is your family assembled. My work is done. I have

realised, as a child I had always said to my mother, have I got a

grandfather? And she never answer any. I am very proud to be a member

of your family. I just feel very emotional. It is very emotional to

be here with you all. And thank you. We are very happy because this is

the first time I have heard of white people tracing their black

ancestors. She has come over to look for us. Football is known as

the beautiful game and it unites people. Look at what is happening

here today. We are all united, people from all over the world

coming together, or because of one man and his journey. It is a

culmination in my life. It is the most greatest day of my life. I

just could not understand why it had been hidden away all those

years. I think my mother would say, I am sorry I did not tell you what

was happening, but I am pleased that you have found him. She would

probably be saying, up there, well done, Sheila.

The now a treat. 2012 was an amazing year. With the Jubilee, the

Olympics, the Paralympics, but just as important to our individual

events in family life. So the BBC here invited 100 people born

between 1912 and 2012 to share their highs and lows of a momentous

year. The film first premiered on assistant programme Look North with

specially composed music. We liked it so much we thought you would

I started proper school. I learned to ride my bike without stabilisers.

I got a letter of the Queen. I went on holiday. I finished chemo.

went back to Zimbabwe. I made my mum proud.

I went to Barcelona. I wrote a letter.

I learn to walk again. # I honestly believe I found myself.

Prom dress was a success. Been gigging. Love living.

I sat beside Michael Phelps. I know my purpose.

# Another year begins, with crazy dreams and endless possibilities.

# We plan, we hope. We fail, we cope.

We stand, destructed, gazing at the sky.

-- distracted. With link and then another year's

gone by. My partner change my life. I got first-class honours. I won.

I found love but then I lost love. I volunteered. My niece beat the

odds. A year of highs and lows. turned 30. With my mates. A baby in

February. And another on the way. had a baby after four years of

trying. I am in remission. Living life without love ones. My daughter

learned to talk. I got my British citizenship. I received a British

Empire medal. I took the risk. I fell in love.

I bought a house. And now I'm skint. We tried to keep the memory of our

stillborn child alive. Life is too short. Just leave it. -- just live

it. I ran the coast-to-coast in 27 hours. Struggling to find a job.

kids left home. I took my parents on a cruise. I retired from the

police and resumed making Cumberland sausage. I had breast

reconstruction surgery. I was published by the Fortean Times.

We run, we stall. We trip, we fall. And stand destructed, staring at

the sky. -- distracted. I am proud to be Cumbrian. # We blink and find

another year's gone by. I waded through floodwater. The weather has

affected my livelihood. I met my soulmate. I tried exciting

new things. I sailed the South China Sea. Not an athlete, but two

stones lighter. It's been a bittersweet year. Our house went up

in flames. I became a grandmother. I received an unwanted diagnosis.

This year marks the start of something new. I climbed

Kilimanjaro. # And the seasons turn. And the memories burn. Faces of

loved ones appear. When shall I see you again?

I had tea at the Ritz. Fired a or it winning cheese. I'll BA a great

grandfather up. I made a complete recovery. I turned 70. I turned 18.

My brother received recognition finally. I am struggling and

without my wife. I fulfilled my ambition. I bought a Mini.

daughter got married, finally. years of service. # We Say Goodbye.

We stand, distracted, gazing at the sky. We blink, and find another

year's gone by. We had our diamond wedding. I became a great grandma.

Still loving life. I have accepted a tyre will not be seen Dorothy

again until she comes home. I am I walked the length of Hadrian's

A unique historical record of 2012. Next week we have another