20/02/2012 Inside Out North West

Tonight, we are on Liverpool's famous waterfront and find it now

plans for major developments. Those plans are by one of the north-

west's most influential developers. They have developed the Mersey

Docks, Salford Quays, the Trafford Centre, the airports centre, they

are transformational. But they are also ruthless in the pursuit of

their own goals. Also, we investigate the mysterious

sightings in Windermere. You can see a dark object. This is four

metres in length. The bit which is sticking up, that is estimated at

one meeting in height. And at Lenny Henry on finally embracing

Shakespeare's. I was scared of it, I thought it was a construct for

Keep your eye on this area over the next 50 years and much of it should

changed dramatically. The developer Peel wants to create a development

called Liverpool Waters alongside Wirral Waters. Their plans expend -

- extend all the weight of the Manchester is ship canal in a

scheme called Ocean Gateway. As our political editor reports, some

people living near to the projects think that Peel is pushing too hard.

From the way we travelled to how we shop, to what we watch, Peel has

already shaped the way we live. Now the property company has plans to

transform it. Peel are one of the most impressive countries --

companies in the property scene in Britain. They have developed the

Mersey Docks, everything at Salford Quays, Trafford Centre, the airport

centre, they are transformational. They are also extremely ruthless in

the pursuit of their own goals. Take Salford Quays. It is now home

to the BBC and Media City. Some remember it as a busy docks, part

of the Manchester Ship Canal. used to have the Flying Angel.

There was summer to get a bed for the night. It was a vibrant place.

Dynamic. Cargo from the four corners of the world. There were

loads of big families working on the docks. All of this was timber.

Ships were lined up. It was busy in the 60s and early 70s by the 1980s,

the canal was struggling to cope. It was ideal for the ships of the

time, over 100 years ago. But since then, ships have got larger,

containers have taken over. The big ships could not get down the canal.

They were too wide and too long. After trade dried up, an

entrepreneur called John Whittaker seized his opportunity. In 1988, he

bought the Manchester Ship Canal, creating an artery through which

Peel's future fortunes would flow. But opponents at lunched together

afterwards, it was a stormy meeting with accusations of devious contact

being levelled in all directions. John Whittaker, a man of few public

words, said nothing during the meeting. Afterwards, he dismissed

his critics fears. I think there is a certain amount of the old brigade

or the old shareholders not accepting defeat like gentlemen.

was privileged enough to interview him, one of only two people. He is

an absolutely fascinating character, very intense, but also very driven.

He is a devout Catholic. He is passionate about the North of

England. He could have done what he has done had made more money by

doing this in the south of England. He could have sold out at various

points. He is absolutely committed. That commitment led to one of the

longest planning battles of all time and ultimately the Trafford's

shopping centre. Now Peel is planning something bigger. The

Ocean Gateway. It is a series of developments starting at the River

Mersey and stretching down the Manchester Ship Canal to the centre

of Manchester itself. It is hugely ambitious, 50 projects over 50

years, costing �50 billion. Transport is key. It involves the

modernisation of the docks at Liverpool and Birkenhead,

developing ports in Warrington and Salford and the expansion of Barton

Aerodrome. Green energy is another priority. He wants a wind farm in

bull -- in Frodsham and biomass energy plants. There are also plans

for massive regeneration in Liverpool and Wirral. The scale of

the development is so vast that there is only one way to see it

We are now flying over Birkenhead. This is going to be redeveloped as

Wirral Waters. On the other side of the River Mersey, the plan is to

develop Liverpool Waters. You can see the huge scale of the project.

Remember, this is only the start of the Ocean Gateway. For Birkenhead,

it is an opportunity to catch up. Liverpool Waters already has

planning permission. As you can see, hearing Birkenhead, we have got

fairly desolate at the moment. Anything that happens here will be

seen as a bonus. Will it look really different? Yes, it will look

radically different. It will probably give people in Liverpool

the same sort of pleasant iconic you. -- pleasant iconic view.

of the best use is reserved for customers at Woodside Ferry

Terminal. The cafe owner is excited at the potential business

opportunity. You get on the ferry and look back at Wirral and

Birkenhead and the skyline is near enough exactly the same as it was

10 years ago. People lacked confidence. They think, there is

our big cities. Let us be part of what is going on. The plan is not

just to develop Liverpool Waters but also -- Wirral Waters but also

live Mark and Patrick. It is also a Unesco World Heritage Site. But

does not just cover the famous Three Graces. It stretches all the

way up the river. The docks are historic you recognise, even though

they are now derelict and redundant. You have got to look to other

cities for inspiration, like Amsterdam. They can build

sustainable developments in a modern way around the historic

waterways. It is a conversation with the locality. Here we seem to

have got a set of plans which bills Shanghai on Mersey. The city

council says Peel has already compromised enough. Let us not

water down the scheme too much. Let us look at what it has to offer

because this is about attracting business to the city. It is not

just building the infrastructure. It is about making sure we can

attract business. We have got to say, look at what is on offer.

it came to it, you would rather have the regeneration, the business,

Thant the Unesco heritage site badge? If it came to it, I would

prefer the regeneration and investment rather than keeping a

certificate. We have moved from Liverpool and Birkenhead, the start

of the Ocean Gateway project, and we are travelling over the

Manchester Ship Canal. This entire area is part of the corridor which

was an be regenerated. It goes or the way over to Manchester itself.

-- it does all the way over. Communities in the way can feel

pushed around. Peel wants to build a biomass energy part in Trafford.

Local campaigners fear that although it has been rejected by

the council, it is not the end of the matter. Peel will probably

appeal. There will be a public inquiry. They are pretty up-to-date

with public inquiries. They have got the money to employ barristers

and experts. We spoke to one of the directors on our sister programme,

Sunday Politics. He accepted that these developments can accept --

upset people. We take seriously the consultation and we contact as many

people as we can do. It is not always easy for people to

understand and accept change when it affects them locally.

consult, but do you compromise? do compromise. We absolutely do.

Peel has ever lost a planning battle. One council leader who is

used to dealing with them supports the Ocean Gateway but says you have

got to push them. They make good profit margins on developments and

what they try to say is that they cannot afford to put the extra

facilities in. That is where the robust discussions take place

during the planning progress. Unless they engage with their

communities in a way that is more positive than they have done in the

past, in the future, they will not get much development. Peel has

already left its mark on bits of the region. The only thing my

father would recognise anywhere on the docks would be the Swimbridge

behind me and the water. Whether he would approve of it, we would never

know. I would dearly love to be able to walk him around here.

of us will not get to see what Peel has planned either. The Ocean

Gateway will not be completed for 50 years. If it succeeds, the

region's fortunes will be more closely aligned to Peel's fortunes

Coming up, Shakespeare with a Northern twist.

It was a sort of revolutionary things to do in 1992 with a bunch

of Northern actors using their Northern cadences.

The Lake District has always attracted visitors to see its

wildlife and natural beauty but more recently visitors have been

drawn to help solve a mystery of the deep. We sent Jacey Normand to

investigate. Some people would have you believe

that the local waters of Windermere have something lurking in them.

Sightings of a creature not dissimilar to the Loch Ness monster

have caused a stir in the normally quiet waters of the Lake District.

Tom Noblett, a local hotel owner, believes he is not alone in the

water. That looks cold down their! Is at

freezing? Very cold. You have been swimming once before, haven't you?

One morning, before our Channel Swimming, and we almost had the

lake to ourselves, about 5:30am, 6:00am, and we left to swim across

the lake, knowing the leg would be ours. -- the lake. We got to an

area here which is called the Deeps. You always get an eerie feeling

when you cross here because the name gives it a mysterious feel.

I felt something brushed past me which caused me to stop and in a

split second something lifted me up and dropped me down. I turned to

Andrew, who was on the swim with me and I asked, what the hell was

that? What was it? It felt like a mysterious submarine or something

that had gone past underneath. We did not know, we did not know

anything about any monsters. This was not the first strange encounter

at Windermere. Linden Adams was at the top of Gummer's How when

something caught his eye. Fortunately for us, he is a

professional photographer. This is pretty much the view.

are the pictures he took. What do you think it is? It remains a

mystery. I took a series of photographs, eight photographs. It

lasted for about 10 minutes. There is a dark object just cutting along

the top of the water. On a block you can see this. -- a blow up. The

bit that -- the bit that is sticking up has been estimated at

one metre of height. Did you get home that night and tell everybody?

Quite the opposite, really. It is quite strange, thinking am I go on

to release the images to the general public? It was the last

thing on my mind. What did you think you -- they would think?

I was crazy. You start questioning what it could be and you Chekhov A-

list in your mind, could it be a dear? -- what it could be and you

start to Chekhov. I got on board with Dr Ian Winfield and his team

for a scent -- scientific study. The computer does a lot of the work.

It is just monitoring the fish populations in the lake, which we

have been doing for many, many years. It is fair to say that if

there was anything out he would have detected it by now. I think so.

We have been doing it every month since 1990 during the day and the

night. If anything large and unexplained is here, I think we

would have picked it up. A number of people seem to think they have

experienced something, so what do you think it is? I don't honestly

know. If it is a fish, if it is a metre or so, it would be a large

pike or something. Pike and salmon can really make the lake report. --

ripple. Judging absolute size is very difficult. What do you think

it is? I think the size of something has been misjudged. There

are a lot of otters in the area and a couple of them swimming around on

the lake on a calm day can look very big. Windermere does not give

up its secrets easily and it is only when you come out here that

you can appreciate the tricks the waves and play with light and shade,

so is Bownessie and alive and well and looking down their, or is it a

case of mistaken identity? -- lurking. Lisa Clarke is an expert

in marine zoology. In the UK we get a lot of large fish in our rivers,

we get the Atlantic salmon for example. They can grow to one metre

in size. The ferox trout are very ferocious, they are very large and

can grow up to a metre. Pike can grow up to considerable sizes in

terms of freshwater fish and they grow up to one metre. It is quite

reclusive, it tends to dwell at the bottom. Going further afield, out

to the coastal waters, you have the basking shark, a marine species

which can grow to considerable sizes, up to 26 ft and more.

have looked at Linden's photographs. What do you think? In my opinion it

is an animal. It could be a sturgeon. From not witness accounts

I have looked at and descriptions, this could be one of the more

likely fish. They are known to grow to a considerable size, in excess

of 16 feet in length, and even up to 20. Linden's photographs are

quite significant to you, aren't they? Yes, they are the best

evidence at the moment of the sightings. There had been no

photographs so far but these are quite clear, the clearest to date.

It is an animal of some description in my opinion, an animal that was

moving against the current of the lake and appears to be a quite

considerable size. It needs more investigation and it needs a long-

term investigation to give it the best possible chance of discovering

what it is. I propose to do much more in-depth studies with a team

of other professional researchers and a disciplinary team and we

ought to do that over the summer. With Lisa convinced that his

photographs are genuine, I went to see Daetech, for -- specialists in

forensic visual computing, whose analysis is used by police forces

all over the world. Do any of the four pictures make

you think they could be something lurking? There is 1, which is this

one. We can see quite clearly that something is quite long in length.

It looks like ahead here, possibly. We are trying all kinds of four

elements of analysis, trying to increase the size. What does it

look like to you after doing that? It is certainly an object. We are

not sure whether it is an object or an animal. There is certainly

something in the water. Like most great mysteries, we found something

but the results are inconclusive, which is not bad news for everybody.

We asked Cumbria Tourism what they thought it was.

There are so many theories. could be a giant pike or slim

throwback to the ice age. -- some. Is it your interest in keeping it a

mystery? They have done that very well in Scotland and I have kept

visitors coming back year after year. -- they have. No sightings so

far. I would love to. I will keep my eyes glued. We came looking for

it with the family. You are admitting you don't really want to

find out in case it is a big eel or pike? Whatever it is, I am sure the

mystery will continue. 20 years ago, if you went to see a

Shakespeare play, you would expect all the actors to speak in a

particular way, but that changed in 1992, winner but -- a theatre

company was set up to speak to the Bard's words in a Northern accent.

We went along to meet the man who created Northern broadsides.

Barrie Rutter is the creator of the Northern Broadsides Theatre Company.

Richard III was the first play to be performed by them and they

performed it here, in Hull. Fellow actors thought I was mad. It

was a kind of revolutionary thing to do in 1992. Classic plays with a

bunch of Northern actors, using their Northern cadences. A

newspaper had printed "An hoss, an hoss, muh - spelt muh - kingdumm

for an hoss!" Of course I didn't do the line like that. It was "A horse,

boom, boom, a horse, boom, boom, my kingdom for a horse, boom boom!"

Northern broadsides has worked with many actors over the years but one

in particular lost his career in a very different director despite

direction after playing a famous Shakespearean lead.

Lenny Henry surprised everybody in 2009 when he took the role of

Othello for Northern Broadsides. Othello launched me as a serious

actor and it was fantastic. For the first time people saw me in another

light. I love being a comedian because it is my job but I love

movies and seen drama and I am always crying at the back. I wanted

to be in a play where I make people cry and Barrie gave me the chance.

What was it like to work with Barry? I had been scared of

Shakespeare as something for posh people who wear tights and speak

with a lisp. My league! I did not imagine for a second that it was

that people like me who talked a bit like this. He said, let's

approach it like this, your dad was a foundryman, mine was a trawlerman,

let's go to work. The fact that Northern Broadsides allows people

from all over the country to participate men's -- meant that my

resistance was broken down. They are part of the landscape and we

should be thankful to them because they make it welcome to people who

don't necessarily speak with a Received pronunciation accent.

Northern Broadsides is about to embark on a five-month tour. We

caught up with Barrie, in Stoke mack, rehearsing Love's Labour's

Lost. It is a real boxer of verbal

fireworks. You can't hope to get every single word or witty conceit

within it, but it is delightful to play and I am hoping it will be

delightful to watch. A Barrie is playing the part of the

schoolmaster but he is also directing accompany a 17 actors.

I play Don Adriano de Amado. To congratulate the princess in her

pavilion in the posteriors of the day which the rude multitude call

the afternoon. He is a fantastical Spaniard and a

braggart and he is very full of himself that he is possibly not as

intelligent as he thinks. I play Costard, the clown.

There has been a degree that nobody should mess with women and he is

caught in the park with one. I play the Princess. She is a bit

bolshie, she is not one of the fainting, falling in love, running

after men, she is a real woman with an old head on her shoulders.

There is a bit of extra pressure because the rehearsal will be

watched by a small audience. We have an open day where we invite

friends to come and absurd, no matter what stage we are at. By

less polished, the better. This afternoon they will see the big

event before the messenger comes in with the news.

For those of you who have never seen Love's Labour's Lost, here is

what happens. At the end of it, myself and Adam,

who plays Costard, have a bit of a fight, which ends up as a Morris

dance, as all good fights do! They have me dancing in this,

fighting with sticks, throwing knives and all sorts.

Where does the messenger fit into this merriment?

There is a famous interruption near the end of the play where the

Princess gets the news of her dad's death and has to leave and they

also, but we are in love with you. That is the last of the title. --

the lost. It is the day before opening night

in Stoke and everybody is getting ready for the dress rehearsal.

This is the last chance to put anything right. If you have not

learnt it by now it is your own stupid fault, really. I am feeling

surprisingly calm. A couple of weeks ago on was pretending to be a

glamourous Princess and now the make-up and hair people are turning

me into one. I want actors to be comfortable, know what they are

doing, and then through the next 36 hours they will get the inspiration

of an audience and the extra sparkle and twinkle that naturally

happens. The moment when everything comes

together, it is just like, it took -- it has landed. A little pleasure

bottom gets pressed. It is quite delightful when that happens,

whether you're doing Othello all this bloke.

They have come a long way since that first performance of Richard

III in 1992. Up at it was not all plain sailing.

There were problems and cynicism but we transcended it all.

"Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law! March on, join

bravely. Let us to it pellmell. If not to heaven, then hand in hand to

hell!" That is all for this week. If you have missed any of the

programme you can watch again on the BBC iPlayer. You can follow us

on Twitter. The address is on the screen now. I am back next Monday