:00:04. > :00:14.In the next half an hour: Coming to a standstill - we look
:00:14. > :00:14.
:00:14. > :00:19.back on the night the northeast ground to a halt and ask, why?
:00:19. > :00:21.normally it takes ten minutes took about three hours.
:00:21. > :00:31.Inside a treasure trove - how one Northumberland farmer's obsession
:00:31. > :00:36.with home movies is now a gift to us all. These guys are not hanging
:00:36. > :00:45.around, it is insane. It brings archives to life.
:00:45. > :00:50.And back to school when mum and dad are on the front line. Dear Dad,
:00:50. > :01:00.how would you? Stories from the heart of the North
:01:00. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:11.East and Cumbria. This is Inside So how long does your journey home
:01:11. > :01:14.from work take you? Ten minutes? Half an hour? I'm sure you won't
:01:14. > :01:19.have forgotten one night last month when it took some of us an
:01:19. > :01:29.astonishing six or seven hours to get home. So what went wrong? Just
:01:29. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :01:42.what was the cause of the gridlock Treacherous conditions on the road
:01:42. > :01:45.this afternoon. The roads have a lot of ice on them.
:01:45. > :01:55.One afternoon last month, this place and many others were at a
:01:55. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:01.Short journeys were taking hours instead of minutes. At that time
:02:01. > :02:06.beagle were leaving work, schools were coming out, the town went into
:02:06. > :02:08.gridlocked. So what happened to turn a regular commute into a
:02:08. > :02:11.nightmare? Looking for the source of gridlock, we've asked three
:02:11. > :02:21.commuters on different routes to re-live their experience and look
:02:21. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:28.for common causes for the chaos. Judith James is the head teacher of
:02:28. > :02:31.the Northern Counties School in Jesmond. Expecting the snow to
:02:31. > :02:41.cause problems, she's sorted out transport for her pupils and now
:02:41. > :02:41.
:02:41. > :02:47.begins her own journey to collect her son from his school in Wickham.
:02:47. > :02:54.I left at 4:15pm the. I got to the college at 9:40pm.
:02:54. > :02:59.The police are already gearing up for a bad night on the roads.
:02:59. > :03:08.started in the Silver Room, an assessment room, to co-ordinate all
:03:08. > :03:11.our resources. Elsewhere the snow and ice is continuing to cause
:03:11. > :03:14.severe delays. Across town in Gateshead on the
:03:14. > :03:23.Team Valley industrial estate Tony Turner is trying to get home to
:03:23. > :03:30.Cramlington. On a normal rush-hour it can take around 40 minutes at a
:03:30. > :03:35.maximum, it was 5.5 hours. If you compare it to when we had snow from
:03:35. > :03:43.November through to January, in those days the maximum was one or
:03:43. > :03:46.two I was. -- two hours. And it isn't just commuters on
:03:46. > :03:56.Tyneside who are suffering, Hazel Horman is on one of the few buses
:03:56. > :03:56.
:03:56. > :04:02.that makes the journey from Durham to Consett. A lot were standing,
:04:02. > :04:08.some people were trying to give their seats up to others. It took
:04:08. > :04:16.around 40 minutes usually, it was four hours. What normally takes
:04:16. > :04:20.around ten minutes took around 3 euros. It caught everybody out.
:04:20. > :04:22.For most it was just sheer boredom, sitting out the traffic jam, but
:04:22. > :04:26.for some waiting in freezing temperatures for buses that never
:04:26. > :04:28.turned up it was much more serious - one woman was rushed to hospital
:04:28. > :04:38.from Kingston Park having become hypothermic. So are there any
:04:38. > :04:45.
:04:45. > :04:55.common threads that led to our The roads have not been corrected,
:04:55. > :04:55.
:04:55. > :04:59.it is horrendous. Most of Tony Turner's marathon five
:04:59. > :05:05.and a half hours is crawling along the A1 - much of it is spent
:05:05. > :05:10.outside the Metrocentre. I would say the roads were not treated
:05:10. > :05:15.properly, or not treated at all. One road was just like a sheet of
:05:15. > :05:18.ice. Tony believes it was the
:05:18. > :05:21.treacherous conditions on the A1 that was slowing everybody down.
:05:21. > :05:28.But the Highways Agency says it gritted the road three times that
:05:28. > :05:32.day. So what about Tony's reports of ice? That is the first I have
:05:33. > :05:36.heard, the reports we were getting were that the roads looked fine so
:05:36. > :05:43.why were be so gridlocked. And there are treacherous
:05:43. > :05:49.conditions off and onto the A1 at Kingston Park. There was a compound
:05:49. > :05:52.of ice, they won a number of blockages on the road and that had
:05:52. > :06:00.a knock-on effect to the traffic. Newcastle Council is responsible
:06:00. > :06:04.for gritting that section of road and the rest of the City. 12 hours
:06:04. > :06:09.before the first snow fell our gritters had been across the
:06:09. > :06:12.network. That was before the rush hour. Thinking back I do not think
:06:12. > :06:15.there is anything we could have done differently.
:06:15. > :06:25.So why, when the roads had been gritted, did they end up like ice
:06:25. > :06:28.
:06:29. > :06:32.rinks? You have a compound of snow it then but what lay at his melted
:06:32. > :06:42.by the traffic and then that turns into ice and it is a thick layer
:06:42. > :06:43.
:06:44. > :06:46.and it takes some shifting. We're crawling 50 or 20 feet at a time.
:06:46. > :06:56.Meanwhile Judith James' journey from hell is going from bad to
:06:56. > :07:01.
:07:02. > :07:09.I tried to go down to the bank, that was in a suspect the worst
:07:09. > :07:15.thing I could have done. We took the decision to close that road and
:07:15. > :07:19.it was not a decision we would take lightly. It has a knock-on effect.
:07:19. > :07:23.You feel powerless in your car. Were listening every 15 minutes to
:07:23. > :07:27.see what is going on and you cannot physically get out of the car and
:07:27. > :07:30.abandon it because she would lock up the roads even more, there's
:07:30. > :07:37.nothing you can do. And it's not just commuters who are
:07:37. > :07:42.stuck in the gridlock. Initially I could not get onto the road without
:07:42. > :07:46.being stuck in traffic for a good hour or so. And it's the 80% of the
:07:46. > :07:50.public do not want you in front of them. And they will not let you
:07:50. > :07:55.through. And then they complain when the roads are not salted. It
:07:55. > :08:00.can get frustrating. It is difficult to get a gritter are
:08:00. > :08:03.there because they do not have blue flashing lights. If they are in
:08:03. > :08:07.amongst traffic then they cannot get there without a police escort.
:08:07. > :08:17.And now to cap it all off there's been a major incident - it's miles
:08:17. > :08:18.
:08:18. > :08:23.away but the impact is felt on Tyneside. There was a serious
:08:23. > :08:28.incident and the vehicle at had an accident with a train, there was a
:08:28. > :08:31.tale back onto the A1 which did cos problems.
:08:31. > :08:37.By now a 100,000 commuters are crawling their way home. The ordeal
:08:37. > :08:43.is being monitored here by the urban traffic management team.
:08:43. > :08:47.snow was just one of the factors. A lot of people left work early which
:08:47. > :08:53.makes extra demand on the roads. On top of that on one of the road
:08:53. > :08:58.there had been a real incident. That quickly has a knock-on effect.
:08:58. > :09:02.All these things come together to cause this Perfect Storm.
:09:02. > :09:09.So can we definitively say what happened? The simple answer is snow
:09:09. > :09:12.means commuters go home early, jamming up icy roads. The roads are
:09:12. > :09:15.gritted, but not enough. It leads to a series of crashes, blocking
:09:16. > :09:25.major routes and more congestion. The perfect storm. But you know
:09:25. > :09:29.what? No-one can promise it won't happen again. If all these things
:09:29. > :09:35.come together at the same time there is not a lot you can do.
:09:35. > :09:40.only me, thousands of other people did not get back till 10pm or 11pm
:09:40. > :09:42.that night, it could have been avoided and should have been.
:09:42. > :09:46.not think we could have done anything different people stop it
:09:46. > :09:51.could happen again, it may not, we decide to see how the weather
:09:51. > :09:57.presents itself to us. From now on I will certainly have my eight
:09:57. > :10:01.Wellington boots and the car. I that leave my car in the end so why
:10:01. > :10:07.it would certainly packs a bit and then a bit more about it when it is
:10:07. > :10:10.weather like that. As you look around an historic
:10:10. > :10:16.market town like Morpeth, its very famous people and events are there
:10:16. > :10:19.for all to see in monuments, plaques and even street names. But
:10:19. > :10:21.what about the day-to-day lives of regular townsfolk? Fortunately a
:10:21. > :10:24.local farmer who was a real enthusiast for cine-film captured
:10:24. > :10:34.decades worth of astounding memories of how we used to live. A
:10:34. > :11:04.
:11:04. > :11:09.Time passes so quickly that what is ordinary today becomes tomorrow's
:11:09. > :11:12.extraordinary record of the past. Something they know only too well
:11:12. > :11:19.at the Northumberland Archives near Ashington. They've taken delivery
:11:19. > :11:29.of a treasure trove that fascinates everyone who sees it. I'm pleased
:11:29. > :11:31.we have found a home for these. They have been in storage for years.
:11:31. > :11:41.Tom Temple spent a lifetime documenting Morpeth at work, rest
:11:41. > :11:48.
:11:48. > :11:53.It was before my time but it is all recorded on film. Just like the man
:11:53. > :11:57.who took the jump with a cigarette in his mouth, he plans still with
:11:57. > :12:07.the cigarette in his mouth. ticket for his own benefit really,
:12:07. > :12:10.didn't he? Yes, he went to show us all for Northumberland. We used
:12:10. > :12:13.Askham to show it again, show it again!
:12:13. > :12:17.20 years later the same event. By the 1950's Tom was using colour
:12:17. > :12:24.film little else had changed and if you were for the high jump there
:12:24. > :12:29.was certainly no soft cushioned landing back then. This is some of
:12:29. > :12:36.the best footage from his films. He is down to their seaside for the
:12:36. > :12:44.day and it its -- and it is the racing. These guys are not hanging
:12:44. > :12:50.around, these people are really going at it, they are flying. It is
:12:50. > :12:55.insane. These guys are hanging off the sides of the cycles with their
:12:55. > :13:02.bombs in the water. Absolutely brilliant. -- their arms in the
:13:02. > :13:05.water. Let us be honest, we do you rather see what is happening and
:13:05. > :13:07.read about it? It brings archives to life.
:13:07. > :13:17.Within a generation these scenes would disappear from our landscape,
:13:17. > :13:24.but Tom who ran the family farm also captured life at home. I
:13:24. > :13:31.remember my little or RAF car. I would come down this drive and I
:13:31. > :13:38.have light four-wheel-drive ever since. I remember when I went to
:13:38. > :13:45.school I went on a pony. I used to beat Leeds -- iced be led by my
:13:45. > :13:49.brother. Those were the days. Have you remembered the East? No, I do
:13:49. > :13:57.not, but I am sure there on film. I'm sure that grandmother is
:13:57. > :14:04.feeding them from here in one of the songs. And the pigs, yes. As a
:14:04. > :14:12.child I got in with them. And I was pushed into the food. It was a
:14:12. > :14:15.proper farm, wasn't it? It was. has bombs from the 1920s. Yes,
:14:15. > :14:17.especially of things happening on the farm, that was his main
:14:17. > :14:20.interest. The films are an unparalleled
:14:20. > :14:30.archive of life on a Northumberland farm a record of machinery and
:14:30. > :14:41.
:14:42. > :14:49.Picking up a pick. A squad of men on top. Manpower. Or women power,
:14:49. > :14:59.in this case! It makes you see the difference between farming then and
:14:59. > :14:59.
:14:59. > :15:06.now. So much more sociable. That is our original. It is showing that we
:15:06. > :15:13.were growing, Whiteley, crops. Which we don't do today. And the
:15:14. > :15:18.reason is economics. Vegetables are frequently hauled up and down the
:15:18. > :15:27.country two times rather than taken just 15 miles into the market in
:15:27. > :15:32.Newcastle. Tom inherited the family business. Even back at the
:15:32. > :15:36.beginning, the family thought to capture it in a photograph. So his
:15:36. > :15:43.film-making is as much of a family tradition as farming. His sons know
:15:43. > :15:51.what he would love most. He would disappear for hours into
:15:51. > :15:57.the sitting room. He liked both.
:15:57. > :16:03.He liked being called a market gardener. That was his pride.
:16:03. > :16:07.It may only have been a hobby, but thank goodness he kept his work.
:16:07. > :16:13.The footage makes you realise how much has changed, and reminds us
:16:13. > :16:22.what hasn't. The Hopkins remains an annual event even if the sideshow
:16:22. > :16:32.attractions no longer makes such frequently extravagant claims. And,
:16:32. > :16:33.
:16:33. > :16:43.yes, we have had bad winters before! Some traditions, we never
:16:43. > :16:46.
:16:46. > :16:52.forget. The whole collection has been digitised for austerity. It is
:16:52. > :16:57.available for the public to view at the Northumberland archive.
:16:57. > :17:03.What I like most is that there is 50 years of films. He has spent a
:17:03. > :17:10.lifetime. Nobody was interested in them, and we're very lucky to have
:17:10. > :17:14.got them. He would be over the moon.
:17:14. > :17:18.Tom Temple was found that any event which brought the community
:17:18. > :17:24.together. If you are of a certain age there is every chance that he
:17:24. > :17:32.caught you on film. The only person missing is Tom himself, really did
:17:32. > :17:42.he step in front of the camera. You hardly see him. He is taking
:17:42. > :17:43.
:17:43. > :17:48.the shots, like he always did. We got one of him blowing his nose.
:17:48. > :17:58.One man with a passion has given Northumberland a lasting legacy. He
:17:58. > :17:58.
:17:58. > :18:43.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:18:43. > :18:49.passed away in 1984 but his work Her I have put some extra footage
:18:49. > :18:55.on my website for all to see. It you think you may have been caught
:18:55. > :19:05.in any of that footage I would love to hear from you. You can get in
:19:05. > :19:12.
:19:12. > :19:17.To a very special primary-school in North Yorkshire. A third of the
:19:17. > :19:27.pupils have parents serving abroad, mainly in Afghanistan. We were
:19:27. > :19:33.
:19:33. > :19:37.given exclusive access. This is RAF Leeming. The largest base in the
:19:37. > :19:47.north. 1800 servicemen and women live and work here along with their
:19:47. > :19:48.
:19:48. > :19:55.families. It is also home to RAF Leeming Community Primary, the
:19:55. > :20:04.school behind the wire. On the surface, the school is like any
:20:04. > :20:10.other. But here is the difference. 98% of the children here have one
:20:10. > :20:16.or both parents serving in the military. The evidence is
:20:16. > :20:22.everywhere. Outside each classroom, a list of names. Children with
:20:23. > :20:29.parents serving overseas, the majority in Afghanistan.
:20:29. > :20:34.One third of the class have somebody away at the moment.
:20:35. > :20:39.Jessica is four and has just started class. Her father is going
:20:39. > :20:45.to have cast and in a few weeks' time. He will be going for four-
:20:45. > :20:50.and-a-half months. -- to Afghanistan.
:20:50. > :20:55.Once I have gone, will she act differently? Will she realise that
:20:55. > :21:05.he's not around any more and go looking for me, and ask? She is
:21:05. > :21:05.
:21:05. > :21:11.very good at signing for me. Nine-year-old Lea one possmac
:21:11. > :21:15.father went to the Falklands in the summer. He is part of a permanent
:21:15. > :21:22.military presence on the islands. He might be home in time for
:21:22. > :21:28.Christmas. I miss him, really. I was getting
:21:28. > :21:34.upset at school but I kept it to myself to stop others getting sad.
:21:34. > :21:40.One might teacher's of what it says, home and away. I just keep looking
:21:40. > :21:44.up at it, to remind me when I am doing my work.
:21:44. > :21:48.Many of the youngsters here go through intense and emotional
:21:48. > :21:57.periods when their parents are away so the school has a net or to help
:21:57. > :22:04.support those pupils. -- a network. This is the lunchtime club.
:22:04. > :22:10.Children and encouraged it to e- mail their parents abroad.
:22:10. > :22:17.Deer Daddy, how are you? I am fine. I have been doing reports on
:22:17. > :22:23.horses... Morgan's father is in Afghanistan
:22:23. > :22:29.for seven months. He said that my e-mails where
:22:29. > :22:35.lovely. The children do not tend to
:22:35. > :22:39.understand where their parent has gone for such a long period. But
:22:39. > :22:46.Morgan understands. She has no idea where it is, but the school help
:22:46. > :22:52.her understand. Military life also means moving
:22:52. > :22:56.around a lot. Personnel get posted from base to pace around the
:22:56. > :23:02.country at a couple of years. That means the population of the school
:23:02. > :23:07.is constantly changing. The average time a child spends here is one
:23:07. > :23:11.year, seven months. Research suggests that regular moves means
:23:11. > :23:17.that children often disengage when they know they are leaving,
:23:17. > :23:22.friendships, learning, behaviour, all slap. But there are also
:23:22. > :23:25.positives. There are children here who have lived all over the world
:23:25. > :23:29.and the bring those experiences into the classroom. Service
:23:29. > :23:36.children can be very good at making new friends and welcoming new
:23:36. > :23:41.people. They find it leaving the hardest.
:23:41. > :23:47.We try to get children ready to leave, we get into think through
:23:47. > :23:53.their successes, what they're doing, to get a more positive mindset on
:23:53. > :23:58.hitting the ground running at their new school.
:23:58. > :24:06.Craig is about to leave for Afghanistan. Within hours the
:24:06. > :24:10.advance party will be there. We have done this before. It is in
:24:11. > :24:18.our mind set and we are raring to go now. The sooner we get out there
:24:18. > :24:25.of the sooner we get back. We have to be strong. If we are not
:24:25. > :24:35.strong back at home, they cannot do their job. You can fall to pieces
:24:35. > :24:50.
:24:50. > :24:54.The next morning, Jessica's name is added to the list. She is not alone.
:24:55. > :25:04.A few days later there are many more children with parents are we
:25:04. > :25:14.in Afghanistan. -- away. It is December and the build-up to
:25:14. > :25:16.
:25:16. > :25:26.Christmas has started. Morgan's family are finding it tough.
:25:26. > :25:28.
:25:28. > :25:36.Dear Daddy, Hello Again. I got a letter from Santa yesterday...
:25:36. > :25:42.This is the first debt trap he has been away from us. -- the first
:25:42. > :25:49.long trip. He finds it difficult as well, we're a very close family. It
:25:49. > :25:59.will be hard. You just have to get on with it. You cannot wall in
:25:59. > :26:09.
:26:09. > :26:16.While some fathers are our way, we wanna and her sister expecting
:26:16. > :26:26.there has to retire on. -- to retire on. They are making a banner
:26:26. > :26:30.
:26:30. > :26:40.to welcome him home. -- to return. I am really looking forward to see
:26:40. > :26:44.
:26:44. > :26:49.him. I'll just jump on him, give him a peck Cuttell. -- big cuddle.
:26:49. > :26:56.Craig has been in Afghanistan for five weeks to maintaining
:26:56. > :27:06.technology for forces across the country. This is the standard
:27:06. > :27:06.
:27:06. > :27:16.accommodation that all personnel get. These are my little personal
:27:16. > :27:19.
:27:19. > :27:27.touches from Mike Dowdall, Jessica. -- from my girl.
:27:27. > :27:31.Day Squadron are in an increasingly intense country. An attack by the
:27:31. > :27:38.member up -- a member of the Afghan security forces to police a week
:27:38. > :27:48.after our filming. You try not to think about what is happening out
:27:48. > :27:48.
:27:49. > :27:58.there, what is going on in the news. When the Internet allows they can
:27:59. > :28:00.
:28:00. > :28:10.speak directly. It is almost Christmas. Time for the Nativity
:28:10. > :28:16.
:28:16. > :28:22.play. 1, 2, 3... Cheese!
:28:22. > :28:32.Morgan's father sent her a puppy as a present. Polland Jessica got to
:28:32. > :28:37.