17/02/2014 Inside Out West

Hello from the Somerset Levels. We have been meeting people standing up

in the face of adversity. While the floodwaters shows no signs of

receding. Tonight, the army of volunteers helping to keep

communities going. I think the people of sunset are brilliant. Only

when you come down to these places and see the problems they have got

and how they are reacting to you helping, it is wonderful. Also, a

Bristol teenager explores the illegal practice of female genital

mutilation, taking place in her community. I was wondering if you

provide Sunat two females? And listening to his master's voice the

story of that famous dog. If you look up, you will see that little

statue. This is inside out West For the last two months, people

living and working here on the Somerset Levels have him inundated

with floodwater. And for the moment, there is little sign of improvement

on the horizon. Amid this disaster, stories have emerged of bravery

community spirit and genuine human kindness.

I've been reporting on the situation here on the Levels for the last

month, and as the rain has got heavier, and the floods have got

higher, the community spirit here has got even stronger. Since the

crisis began, Avon and Somerset Police have maintained a reassuring

presence in the worst hit areas And they've seen first`hand the

resilience of the local people. The community spirit is amazing

actually, I mean as you can see yourself, we've just popped into the

pub, everybody's there making coffee, making sandwiches, you

couldn't wish for better community spirit. But at the same time people

are just getting down, because there's only so much they can do.

The situation in Somerset has attracted the attention of people

across the country, and the efforts of local residents have been boosted

by volunteers from all over Britain, tackling important tasks such as

creating a safe walkway along the River Parrett here in Burrow Bridge.

This will enable police officers like Lynsey to check on houses that

have been cut off by floodwater and also provide a crucial access route

to the Saltmoor Pumping Station Everyone's mucking in. I got to work

but it was too wet to work, so I just thought I'd rather be wet here.

Save our pub! Whatever the motivation for getting involved the

work is incredibly physical. Rescue workers are braving treacherous

conditions, and having to improvise with whatever transport they can lay

their hands on. We're on a pontoon trying to deliver

sandbags down the road, and we're being buffeted by the sort of waves

you'd normally see rolling in off the Atlantic. I've seen people

surfing on the coast with less waves than this. Somerset's inland ocean.

You guys are all local, you'd normally be at work, but you've

given up your time. So that we can do this. Not even your spare time,

is it? Definitely not, no. We've brought the bags out to this little

bungalow behind me. They are staying put, despite the advancing water. By

all accounts they're still dry, but there is so much water around here,

and there is more due this afternoon. I'm not sure how much

longer they'll be able to stay. Aside from enthusiastic individuals,

organisations such as the Red Cross and Rotary have also been hard at

work. Robin Brown is the Rotary Community Resilience Officer for

Somerset. His team has been assisting the emergency services and

offering help, advice and even accommodation to those worst

affected. We joined him for a journey into the village of

Moorland. How do Rotary get involved in these sorts of operations? Well,

Rotary, for quite a number of years now, have been involved in an

emergency voluntary agency group, that's administered by the local

authority here. So it's a great way for us to be directed to do targeted

work, so we're sent to the areas where people really need our help.

Are you surprised by the number of people who've given up their time to

come and join this operation, helping people? This sort of a

situation just seems to bring the best out of people, I think. And of

course Rotary and others, this is the sort of thing that we get into,

giving our little bit back to the community, I think. And what better

opportunity to be out seen doing it now. As we move further into the

village, past the churchyard and village hall, and even a float from

the Bridgwater Carnival, the scale of the devastation really becomes

clear. Moorland was one of the villages that was watching while all

the people around them were getting flooded, and then suddenly a great

surge of water brought the floodwater in here, and they've got

it up to their downstairs windows. Ron Lancaster is returning to his

house for the first time in ten days to salvage a few remaining

valuables. I am in the process of trying to upgrade a little bit.

Extraordinary. Walking through a house full of water, it's just not

something you ever expect to see. And it really brings it home to you

the enormous damage it's causing. I mean, it's completely turned

people's lives upside down. There is some electrical things underneath.

I'd already got most of the furniture out, but I'm concerned

about these two items here, which are my own craftsmanship ` I'm a

potter and furniture maker. This is your work? That's my own work, which

I'd like to get out of the water. Are we going to try to get these on

the back of the truck? Well, that would be very helpful, if you could

do that for me. I'd like to help, yeah.

Like many residents in Moorland Ron faces a long period of uncertainty

before he can move back into his house. But not everyone on the

Levels has such a positive outlook. I've never seen so many grown men

cry as what they have in the last month. And I admit I've been one of

them, and that be more than once. And I don't want to live the rest of

my life like this. Carroll and Christine Gray are racehorse

trainers, whose home and stables on the edge of Moorland are now

inaccessible. You cannot even get down there in a boat. It is too

dangerous to get down there in a boat. So all my pictures, all my

children's videos... Every treasured object except the necessary clothing

that we took is now underwater. We actually had to move out on January

third. Before it come into the village, it was with us a good month

before, and like even though that was the case, the water kept rising,

nothing was done to help anyone else in the village. Nothing was done of

any significance until it's all too late. During his career as a jockey,

Carroll overcame many injuries, including a broken neck, but the

fight to save his yard might be one that even he can't win. You suffer

with depression with riding injuries when you can't be doing what you

want and what you love, and basically this is the same thing but

it's worse because it's your house. If it wasn't for these horses,

keeping us going, keeping us working, keeping us focused, we

would be both of us would be mental wrecks. For several weeks, the

situation on the Levels has been devastating for the local community.

Yet with the help and generosity of volunteer groups and emergency

response teams, the spirit of the residents remains generally strong.

The worst of the weather appears to be over, but even when it does

finally improve, a huge and time consuming clean`up operation will

begin. We had some experience with the flooding last year, we can put

little teams in to help families put their homes back together again and

of course there's a lot of this I would like to think, will be covered

by the insurance companies, and so on. It is a long road ahead. Not

everyone in this area is optimistic that they have a future on the

Levels. Will you try and move back in? Will you try and get the stables

up and running again? As we feel now, no. I hope we'll be able to

continue training, somewhere else. But I think it's a waste of time

trying to come back here and resume the business. This isn't the first

time we're going through this. This is the second time within 12 months.

So, it happened last year and nothing was done. So what can you

tell me to reassure me that it's going to be different next year

Nothing. For those who do choose to rebuild their lives here, you can be

sure that the wider community will come together to help them plot a

route out of the darkness. , no the dog that inspired the famous HMV

logo. Next, to an issue which has cast a shadow over many young

women's lives, and killed. Female genital mutilation is rarely talked

about. That is changing now. The teenager has been looking at the

practice which 30 years after it was outlawed is still a part of some

teenage lives. It's half term at Bristol Airport and hundreds of

families are on the move. The first time I went to the airport I was

kind of excited, I guess. Everything was just bright and dazzling and

big. My name is Nasiim Ahmed. My ethnic background is Somali. As a

kid I loved going on holiday, but for some girls in my community, it's

more like a living hell. They're going to be cut. That's what people

call FGM or female genital mutilation. It's not talked about

much, especially in communities like mine where it still goes on. But

that's exactly why I want to talk about it. I think with a big topic

like FGM it's always good to just say how it is and tell it as you see

it kind of thing. I guess I should tell you what it is first. It

involves removing a girl's external genitals or part of them, yeah, not

nice, but what's that like? I'm on my way to meet someone who knows.

I'm feeling pretty nervous about meeting someone who's actually had

it done but I'm kind of eager to find out what they went through and

what they actually felt. Hello, Safia, I'm Nasiim. Safia was born in

Somalia but now lives in Bristol and was put through the terrifying

experience at the age of ten. The guy came in the house and my mum was

there and another two aunties and then they just... I don't know how

to explain, they just put me on the bed, not the bed, the table. I

remember my mum and another auntie holding me, my legs and putting me

down. And then the guy came and do that thing?.cut it off. Safia's

injuries made giving birth to her own babies more difficult. She

thinks she was lucky. My cousin she had FGM at the same time as me and

my sister, she just passed away because she was bleeding a lot. How

old was she? Nine years old. What happened to Safia's cousin isn't

just horrible, it's against the law in Britain. It has been for almost

thirty years. So what's going on? Why hasn't somebody stopped it? Most

girls are taken abroad to get it done, but when they come back at his

midwives like Alison who have to deal with it. When a girl is asked

in pregnancy, it might be the first time somebody remembers it. It can

bring back very unfortunate memories. It can bring psychological

issues. It is midwives who then have to deal with it. Education is really

important. It's a paramount part of being able to tackle this issue both

for communities and professionals. If education is what it is all

about, how come most schools don't teach it? He NSPCC says some

teachers don't even know what it is. But Sarah does. She used to be a

teacher. Now she helps them on the charity's FGM helpline. All my calls

have been from teachers who are concerned, not sure whether it's

something to be worried about and need to talk it through with

someone. And as with all forms of abuse, the message is don't wait

until you're certain. So if the teachers need teaching, who's

teaching them? I'm on my way to one Bristol school where people my age

are doing the teaching and teachers like Hazel are doing the listening.

Yep, that's me joining in on the stage. So, guys, how do you think

today went? Amazing, we had a good discussion. We should be talking

about it more often in schools in assemblies. What people my own age

are saying seems to make sense. That's why Hazel, who runs a school,

came to listen ` because she's got worries of her own. We've been

having some concerns around the time that some children are having out of

school, particularly the younger children aged six, seven, eight and

talking to social services and more particularly the police, we began to

gather some information that children were having time out not

just for holidays, that maybe something was happening in their

lives that gave us great cause for concern. What Hazel has just told me

isn't just shocking, it's suddenly made FGM seem much more real. But if

girls from her school are having it done, where are they going? In

Singapore, a type of FGM called Sunat still goes on. Are British

kids ending up there? I'm going to ring them to find out, pretending

I've got my own daughter. Hello I'm calling from the UK, I was wondering

if you supply Sunat to girls? OK, and my daughter is British, is that

all right? Yes, that's all right. So after just one call I've found a

clinic that'll do it and it says it doesn't matter that I'm British

Another one even tells me the price. That's just ?17. But a third clinic

makes me really angry. It says it can remove most of my daughter's

genitals. That really shocks me. I've called

six clinics. Three say they'll do it. The woman didn't seem like she

cared at all about where I'm from, where I was, what I wanted. But I'm

not the only one that's shocked by these calls. I think it's really

worrying. What I heard was a very serious child protection concern and

a very illegal activity. It's against the law for any child to be

taken out of the UK to have FGM That's information that we really

would want to share with the Met Police and to share with law

enforcement internationally. It s reckoned 20,000 British girls are at

risk every year, so how come no`one's been done for it? Alison

Saunders is the right person to ask. She's the Director of Public

Prosecutions. It is very difficult to prosecute because people don t

come forward. It normally happens to young girls. They don't want to get

the family into trouble, they don't know they can talk about it. It is

really difficult to get the evidence. People should report any

concerns I have. That will help those to get towards a prosecution.

That makes me think what these Bristol teenagers are doing is even

more important and they want every school across the country to copy

their idea. Fahma is a mate of mine and part of the Bristol project Two

weeks ago, she set up a petition asking the man in charge of schools

` Michael Gove ` to teach all kids about it. Michael Gove cannot ignore

us any more. By seeing how many people care about this, he needs to

contact all schools. Teach FGM in all schools before the summer

holidays, before the cutting season starts. I'm glad people my age are

leading the fight, because I think our generation can help stop it The

future is in our hands and it's important that we start from the

bottom and build it up. Oh, and guess what? My mate Fahma's petition

has already got 200,000 signatures. Not bad in a fortnight. She hoped it

would get Michael Gove to listen. Now he wants to meet her. Result!

Now almost everyone knows the HMV logo. The dog listening to the old

gramophone must be one of the most recognised trademarks of all time.

But did you know the image was inspired by a stray dog found

roaming the west country? BBC Radio Bristol's Steve Yabsley did and now

he's on Nipper's trail. The "His Master's Voice" logo is

recognised all over the world ` but its story begins right here in

Bristol. Like me, these medical students are young and eager for

knowledge about the city's famous characters. Let's join their walking

tour of the city as they hear about a little dog that lived in a theatre

in 1884 and is immortalised to this day in the famous music industry

trademark. He was called Nipper as he used to bite the ankles of people

on stage and people behind the scenes. His master was a set

designer. When his master died, Nipper went to live with his

master's brother who was a painter in Liverpool. Years after Nipper

died, his brother painted this image which he could remember. He called

the painting His Master's Voice and sold it to the gramophone company

for ?100. HMV. And if you look up you will see this little statue `

students walk past him every day and do not know who he was. It surprises

people they would've bought plastic every day and not known. Of course,

everybody has heard of HMV. For someone so famous to come out of

Bristol, everybody likes that. Nipper's statue sits on what was

once the old Coliseum cinema and now he stares longingly across the road

at the place where he was taken in as a stray, the Prince's Theatre.

With nearly 3,000 seats, it was one of Britain's largest venues for

drama, opera and musical comedy but it all came to an abrupt end when it

was bombed in the Second World War. Time to turn detective on the Nipper

trail. I've invited Bristol theatre writer Richard Hope Hawkins to take

the lead ` our first clue is on a garage forecourt. It was the most

lavish of theatres, the best provincial theatre in the country.

72 of the most lavish pantomimes ever. We're talking extravagance.

Next stop is only a few steps away at the University of Bristol's

Theatre Collection to have a look for any evidence of Nipper's showbiz

lifestyle. What is this? Apparently, this is a costume from the theatre

from a pantomime dated 1884. That is the year Nipper was born. He was a

stray dog, found outside the theatre. This is one of the only

known photos of Nipper who was a terrier cross ` or should that be a

cross terrier? Tell me a bit about the job that Nipper potted`macro

owner would have done. Lots of shows. He would have been employed

full`time. Some of the actors were top performers. They would have

probably patted Nipper. Yes, and I think they would have regretted it.

Now we know when Mark Barraud died, Nipper went to live for a short time

with his artist brother Francis Barraud, where the dog left a

lasting impression...on canvas. In fact, the painting His Master's

Voice was so successful in the Gramophone Company's campaign that

in 1900 they registered it as a trademark. The image was also

recreated in thousands of different products and souvenirs ` many of

which have become collectors items. Nipper has cropped up all round the

world Some of the biggest examples are these stained glass windows in

New Jersey, and there's a 25 ft tall four`ton giant on top of the old RCA

Victor building in New York. Even Bristol's Banksy has painted his own

version on a wall in Shoreditch in East London. Of course, these days

Nipper has a rival for the title of Bristol's most famous dog ` and once

Gromit even took over the HMV role for a while. The real Nipper died a

few years before His Master's Voice was painted. But other dogs have

played the part over the years. One of the earliest was in this quaint

promotional film from 1900. This modern day lookalike appeared at the

civic unveiling ceremony at the Bristol statue in 2001 ` it turns

out he is a she called Nippey, who has had a star`studded career

spanning 12 years as the official HMV dog. Now she's retired and

living a happy life of leisure in Somerset. She obviously lives up to

her namesake! Thing is she still got it? Yes. She has got a lovely

temperament. How old is she now Nearly 17. What is that like in

human years? Something like 112 She's doing extremely well. A long

life, and the glamorous life. Very true. The chippy, a bit of a diva?

No, she was good. She kept her paws on the ground. It was a great

experience. There is and about Jack Russell is proposing would like ``

there is something about Jack Russell 's people seem to like. You

might think Nipper belongs to Bristol but I've come to another

place that also proudly claims him as theirs. Kingston`upon`Thames in

Surrey is where Nipper spent his last days ` my first stop for clues

is the local museum. Tell me about this model of Nipper. He would have

been in the shop. We think he dates from 1919. He is made of papier

mache. He's very popular. How well`known is Nipper in this area?

People know now because of Nipper Alley as. Ah, Nipper Alley ` it

turns out the man behind this is the cartoonist Patrick Blower. He and

fellow artists campaigned for the alley to be named after the HMV dog,

which also conveniently helped put their gallery on the map. And guess

who opened it? This is Nipper Alley. We are proud we have a bit of

history here. It looks great. Follow me down the alley. There is probably

no gratia alley. Here is our sign. That is fantastic. It is a dog head

height. If you are shooting dogs can read. And guess who opened it?

That's right ` our very own Nippey from Somerset. This is a toilet

gallery. We produced a series of artwork. Sculptures, installations,

everything to do with Nipper, HMV, Anil record. What about the logo

itself? Why has it been so iconic? I think it is a weatherhead is ever so

slightly cocked in wondrous bafflement `` I think it is the way

the dog's head is ever so slightly cocked in wondrous bafflement.

Appropriately enough, Nipper is buried just over that while. So

Richard III and Nipper were both buried under car parks. This is

Nipper's final resting place. You'll be pleased to know that, according

to Patrick, Nipper is still listening to the latest technology.

That is just about all we have got time for tonight. You can find out

what stories we are filming next on our Twitter feed. If you would like

to send as an e`mail: From all others here on the Somerset Levels,

thank you for watching. Good night. Next week, we investigate new

concerns about heart surgery at Bristol Children's Hospital. It is

not like you had bad care, you had no care at all.

Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90 second update.

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