Browse content similar to 02/12/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The chalklands of the South Downs. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
Farming country through and through. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
For centuries, these fields and leafy lanes | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
have gladdened the hearts of all who have lived here, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
providing a real source of inspiration. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
It's no surprise that this place nurtured | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
one of our best-loved naturalists. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
Gilbert White's engaging observations | 0:00:48 | 0:00:50 | |
inspired Charles Darwin and are still being read today, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
but it's not just the man. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:55 | |
I'll also be finding out about his pet. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
Ellie's got her own literary journey to go on. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
I'll be taking a leaf out of another book when I get into character | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
to experience life as Jane Austen lived it in the early 1800s. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
She spent the last decade of her life living here | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
and liked nothing more than getting out and about into the countryside. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
What do you think of the dress? | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
Meanwhile, Tom's gone in search of a healthy snack. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
Fancy some tasty greens? | 0:01:26 | 0:01:27 | |
Qualifies as one of your five-a-day. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
And that's a slogan that is now ten-years-old. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
In that time, it should have improved the nation's health | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
and maybe given a welcome boost to farmers' incomes along the way. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
But has it delivered? I'll be investigating. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
Adam's finding out whether the appliance of science | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
could give us healthier pigs. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:51 | |
In this laboratory they're using some of the latest technology | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
developed for some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
to find out if this pig potentially has a problem | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
that could affect pigs all across the UK. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
Later on, we'll be finding out how she performs. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
You're lovely, aren't you? | 0:02:08 | 0:02:09 | |
The South Downs. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
600 square miles of rolling chalk hills, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
dramatic heaths and ancient woodland. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
The vast park stretches from the coastline near Eastbourne | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
all the way to Winchester, 100 miles to the west. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
Captivating and timeless, it's a landscape that's been | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
an inspiration to some of its inhabitants. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
I'm in the village of Selborne | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
to discover the story of a man who lived here in the 1700s. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
His name was Gilbert White, a local clergyman with a natural curiosity. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:59 | |
Gilbert had a passion for gardening | 0:03:02 | 0:03:03 | |
which flourished into an obsession of observing all living things. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
Putting pen to paper, he wrote about what he saw. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
His letters were published as a book - | 0:03:12 | 0:03:14 | |
the Natural History of Selborne. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
It's said to be the fourth most-published book | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
in the English language, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
and it revolutionised the way we look at the natural world. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
To find out how, I'm meeting Ronnie Davidson-Houston. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
He's been studying Gilbert's life and work since he was ten, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
and I'm getting the impression he's a pretty big fan. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
I found this book which was just so beautifully written, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
so readable, and really appealed to me. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
-And has done ever since. -And have you collected all of his work since? | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
Well, I'm still trying. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:47 | |
I've got about 1,000 copies which are now in the museum here. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
-He was a very, very special man, wasn't he? -Absolutely. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
He's what we call the first ecologist. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
He took the whole of nature, including man, in his writing. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:03 | |
And he was the person who first started everybody bird watching. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:08 | |
And of course he inspired Darwin, among others. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
Gilbert's love of nature began in the garden of his country home - | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
today, a museum. His passion flourished. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
And I'm meeting deputy head gardener Rose Mallion, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
who is recreating Gilbert's garden by taking a leaf from his own book. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
-Hello, Rose. -Hello, Matt, nice to meet you. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
-Are you all right? -Yes, thank you. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
-Good. Busy planting? -Yes. We're planting out our bulb border | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
in accordance with the record Gilbert kept for us in his garden calendar. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
So we know exactly what he planted | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
-and the place in which he planted them. -Right. OK then. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
-So shall we pop up there, then? -Let's go up and have a go. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
What you need to do is get the bulb about three times | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
its own depth into the soil, and cover over with a trowel. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:53 | |
-Tulipa clusiana, that one. -What else would he have been planting? | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
He would have been planting double hyacinths, jonquils and tulips. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
That's what Gilbert called, "The rank clay that required | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
"the labour of years to render it useful." | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
He's got a lovely turn of phrase, hasn't he? | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
He's got a lovely turn of phrase, yes. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
And how did it expand from this border to more of the natural world? | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
He called himself an outdoor naturalist, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
and because he was outside | 0:05:16 | 0:05:17 | |
he was able to observe patterns in behaviour, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
the changes in the season - all those things, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
because he was out gardening, he noticed. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
Gilbert's passion for observing wildlife was born. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
It soon turned into an obsession that would continue | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
for the rest of his life. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
Whilst out in the garden watching the seasons change | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
and nature at work he would come and sit in a chair | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
just like this one up here, up on this little mound. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
CHURCH BELLS PEAL | 0:05:42 | 0:05:43 | |
Well, from here, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
he would soak up his natural surroundings like a sponge. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
He believed the more confined your sphere of observation, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
the more perfect would be your remarks. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
Very comfortable. Might get one of these at home, actually. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
And this was his sphere. The countryside around his home. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
His observations were recorded in a series of letters | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
bound into his book - The Natural History of Selborne. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
The 18th-century manuscript is held in the museum, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
and I've been given special permission to have a look. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
In his letters, Gilbert was describing things | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
that had never been written down before. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
Like this - the first-ever description of a harvest mouse. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
"They're much smaller and more slender | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
"and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour." | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
Gilbert's peers were describing new species as well, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
but there was something that Gilbert was alone in doing. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
He was questioning how animals lived and behaved. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
Listen to what he said about the nest of a harvest mouse, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
"Perfectly round, about the size of a cricket ball. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
"It was so compact and well filled, how could the dam" - | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
that's the mother mouse - "come at her young | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
"and administer a teat to each?" | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
You can hear the excitement in his words. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
By writing down his observations and questions, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
he had started the science of ecology. The study of animals | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
in their environment. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
His words would go on to inspire generations for centuries to come. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:30 | |
Gilbert continued his writing up until a few days before he died. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
And in his last letter, in the manuscript, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
he wrote to a friend, "I shall here take a respectful leave from you | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
"and from natural history altogether." | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
Two decades after Gilbert wrote about rural Hampshire, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
a few miles away in the village of Chawton, country life | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
was inspiring another great writer. Jane Austen. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
And this cottage is where Jane spent eight years of her life | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
and finished off Pride And Prejudice, Sense And Sensibility | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
and other literary works that made her a household name. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
Let's take a look inside. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
Jane's books reflect the everyday pleasures and pains of rural life, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
as witnessed by this passage from her novel Mansfield Park. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:35 | |
I'm going to find out what it was like to live here | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
in Jane Austen's day. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:53 | |
It's a great excuse to get dressed up. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
Jane Austen may have written Emma and Persuasion, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
among other books, here but did you also know | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
that she was a very accomplished pianist? Unlike me. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
She used to practise in this room every day before breakfast. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
So here we go. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:14 | |
PLAYS PIANO | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
-HITS WRONG NOTE -Oh! | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
This is what it SHOULD sound like. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
MUSIC: "I That Was Once A Ploughman" | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
Jane's handwritten notes on the score | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
show her obvious pleasure in the music. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
Louise, this is a lovely house. But it's not big, is it? | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
What was life like for the family back then? | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
I think it was fairly comfortable. Daily life would have been probably | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
quite straightforward, you know, you mentioned Jane playing the piano | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
and then she made the breakfast and then she would start writing. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
And we're told that sometimes Jane would suddenly leap up | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
and she had a great idea for one of her books | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
and might rush to her little table to write something down. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
How do Jane's books give us an insight into country life back then? | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Jane, when she famously gets soaking wet | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
and has to stay overnight at Netherfield, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
actually she can't take the carriage because Mr Bennett points out | 0:10:22 | 0:10:27 | |
that the horses are needed on the farm. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
So you just get these little glimpses, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
which would be absolutely normal for the readership then, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
but now we think, "Oh, interesting, | 0:10:35 | 0:10:36 | |
"they had a farm attached to the house." | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
So Jane lived in this relatively modest house | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
but her brother had an enormous estate. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
She was living in the shadow of his wealth. She was the poor relation. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:48 | |
Most people, of course, were poor or dirt poor, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
but in that upper strata, I suppose the Austens were fairly low down. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
But this is completely reflected in her novels. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
All of them deal with this issue of class and money | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
and where you are in that structure. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
Following in Jane's footsteps, I'm on my way | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
to her brother's impressive mansion. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
And I'm travelling just as she would have done. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
There we go. That wasn't too inelegant, actually. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
So why a donkey rather than a horse? | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
That's what I would have imagined. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
Rural people may not have had the money to actually own a horse. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
And a donkey invariably was a little bit smaller, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
a little bit easier to keep. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:34 | |
I imagine on a long journey | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
and perhaps without tarmac it might have been a touch on the bumpy side. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
In some respects, yes, but the way the carriages were built, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
they were sprung in such a way | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
that actually it give you a very comfy ride. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
I must say, it's the only way to travel now. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
Oh, wow. Joanne, this is the spot right here. Look at that view. | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
See you again. Cheers. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
This is my Jane Austen heroine moment. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
Come and look at this. I'm going to get into character. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
Chawton House, the home of Jane's brother Edward. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:15 | |
It's said to have inspired this passage from Pride And Prejudice, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
when the heroine Elizabeth gets her first glimpse | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
of the stately pile owned by Mr Darcy. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
You can imagine Jane Austen looking out over a scene like this, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
at the land being worked by heavy horses. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
And 200 years on, it's still being worked by heavy horses. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
I'd quite like to go and check it out, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
but I definitely need to get out of this rather impractical garb. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
Angie McLaren is the head horseman, and she's going to give me a lesson | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
in harrowing the old-fashioned way. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
It's a job to catch up here. How are you doing, are you all right? | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
I'm doing really well. Walk on. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:03 | |
Hey, Royston. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
So in Jane Austen's day, shire horses like Royston, | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
-would they have been quite a feature? -Definitely. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
It was all just farm equipment | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
and obviously a horse of this size can pull quite a bit of weight. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
-Yeah. -And what we're doing today is chain harrowing. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
What it's doing is dragging out all the old grass | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
and also any moss that's in there, and it aerates the soil. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
-So just taking all the dead stuff off the top? -Yes. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
-Would it be possible for me to have a go? -Yes. Certainly. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
-What do I need to know? -Ooh, lad. OK, these are your lines. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
-Make sure you don't put them round your wrist. -OK. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
And I'll give you the commands. To go left, you say, "Come over." | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
And to go right you say, "Get away." | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
-And to go just say "Walk on." -OK. Walk on! Walk on! | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
Good boy. Just keep a little bit of tension on here, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
-but not too much? -That's right. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
How important is it to keep shire horses in this context, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
where Jane Austen lived and in this landscape? | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
The public love to see the horses on the estate here | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
and to have them actually back on the estate | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
when they would have been here when Jane Austen was walking around, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
it's like going to work on a film set every day. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
It's absolutely amazing. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
I've been in costume already today - | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
I tell you, I feel like I'm in a movie as well. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
Thanks to the work going on here, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
the landscape today looks very much as it would have done in Jane's day. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:29 | |
Our idea of what it means to live healthily | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
has certainly moved on a bit since Jane Austen's day. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
We all know that we need to eat five-a-day. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
But has that expression really worked? Tom's been finding out. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
The fields of Lincolnshire. Vast acres of winter veg - | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
the kind of produce that finds its way to the nation's market halls. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:04 | |
Vibrant, colourful places where you can load up | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
on nourishing fruit and veg from home and abroad. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
Whether it's oranges from Morocco, a juicy melon from Spain, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:17 | |
or maybe some nice fresh sprouts from an English field, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
we all know that eating fruit and veg is good for us. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
And here at Coventry market | 0:15:24 | 0:15:25 | |
they certainly seem to have an appetite for it. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
But as a nation, we're eating less healthily than before, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
and that's despite one of the most famous health slogans ever. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
Five-a-day was launched ten years ago this month. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
It was the government's way of getting us to eat more fruit and veg, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
essential in the fight against things like heart disease, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
obesity and even cancer. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
A portion can be a medium-sized apple or banana, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:54 | |
three tablespoons of cooked veg, or even a glass of fruit juice. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
Easy, right? | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
Well, not quite. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:01 | |
A quick glimpse in our shopping basket shows us why. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
The original idea of the message was to encourage us | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
to eat more fruit, veg, and maybe salad. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:13 | |
But what about this? Ready meals? | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
It says it's got one of our five a day, so that's OK, right? | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
Well, that depends on your point of view. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
There are strict rules about using the official five-a-day logo, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
but it's OK to use the slogan | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
as long as what you're selling contains a portion of fruit or veg. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
And that could include the juice in your favourite breakfast drink | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
or maybe the tomato sauce in the beans you like on toast. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:44 | |
But is it OK to use the slogan on ready meals | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
and other processed foods? | 0:16:47 | 0:16:48 | |
Yes, you might be getting one of your five a day, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
but that often comes with increased amounts of salt or sugar. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
Food activist Kath Dalmeny thinks the public are being misled. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
Let's just have a look at some of these. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
This is a ready meal, and this, obviously, is an apple. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
Both claiming to have one of the five-a-day. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
-What issues do you have with these? -When the five-a-day message | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
was first invented to try and improve the nation's health, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
it's about eating more apples and oranges and broccoli | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
and cabbage and bananas, it's not about eating more ready meals. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
People were already eating enough ready meals. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
We don't need to be encouraged to eat more of those. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
We need to be encouraged to eat more of this. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
But this says one of my five-a-day, so what's your beef? | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
When you cook food, you might add salt, you might add some fat | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
or whatever to your own meal, but you would see how much is going on. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
When you put it into a ready meal, | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
there's all kinds of other products in here. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
The ingredients, you can see on the front, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
it says there's 2.96g of salt, which is, as it says, 49%, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
that's round about half of all of the salt you should eat in one day. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
-Just in one meal! -Let's have a look at what that means. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
We've got our little scales here. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
When you look at the pile of salt, what you're seeing | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
is national advice on how much salt you should maximally eat in a day | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
to maintain your good health and to avoid getting heart disease. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
So in that product there, there's basically half this amount. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:08 | |
Roughly. That's about right. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
There's a phrase that people use which is that the five-a-day message | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
gives a kind of healthy halo to products. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
People are dying to put it onto their packets | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
and give the healthy halo to the product, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
but when it sites appearing on salty products and very sugary products, | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
there's something going amiss. The message has been hijacked. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
It makes me angry, because a lot of effort has been put into it | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
by dieticians, by nutritionists, to try and reduce | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
cancer risk in this country, to try and reduce heart disease. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
This is serious stuff. This isn't a game. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
This is about getting people to eat more healthy fruit and vegetables. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
So are the British public being hoodwinked into buying stuff | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
they believe to be healthy, when the opposite may be true? | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
Terry Jones from the Food And Drink Federation | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
thinks the industry is very clear about what goes into their products. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
A few things that confuse me. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
An apple, clearly one of your five-a-day. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
But this ready meal also claiming to be one of your five-a-day | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
yet it comes loaded with things that might not be good for you. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
How can that be? | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
What you've got there is a composite product | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
that contains all manner of... | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
It's a meal in itself, and one of the key ingredients is vegetables. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:20 | |
And a portion, one portion of vegetables. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
But isn't putting five-a-day on some of these products giving them | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
a healthy mask which isn't justified by the ingredients? | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
No, I wouldn't agree with that. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
Because what you're doing there is providing really clear | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
information that shows you the calories, the sugar, the fat, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
the saturated fat and the salt. And you also know | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
that you could get one of your five-a-day from that. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
But this is more healthy than packaged food. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
On its own, absolutely. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
But we're in the middle of central London here. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
That's a raw sprig of broccoli. Is it the most convenient...? | 0:19:55 | 0:20:00 | |
But this is convenient. I can eat it raw. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
It's very healthy for me, isn't it? | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
I'd love to join you with that, but I don't want to spoil my lunch. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
What I'm saying is that where consumers struggle | 0:20:10 | 0:20:15 | |
to get all of their five-a-day, | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
this helps them to get that extra one or two. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
Five-a-day is a simple enough slogan, but has it delivered? | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
Later on I'll be finding out why even eating the fresh stuff | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
hasn't always been good news for our health or our farmers. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
This week, we're exploring the rolling hills of the South Downs. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:43 | |
Hidden amongst the broad, open landscape | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
is a rare and wild terrain. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
Traditional heathland. Once abundant, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
this low-lying heath now covers a tiny 1% of these Downs. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:57 | |
During the past 200 years, stunning heathland like this | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
has been disappearing at an alarming rate right across the nation. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
So when the chance came up, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
a dedicated bunch of people made the bold move | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
of trying to protect this particular heath. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
They had the idea of turning back the clock | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
and working the land the old-fashioned way. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
They are members of the Lynchmere Society. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
Lynchmere is the local parish around here. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
What they did was dig deep in their pockets | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
and buy 307 acres of this heath. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
I'm joining them for a day on their heath, | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
and my host is Mark Allery, one of the joint owners. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
So what would have happened to this place, Mark, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
if the society hadn't bought it? | 0:21:42 | 0:21:44 | |
If these trees kept growing, it would become a woodland. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
We've got to keep cutting them down so the heathland plants can flourish. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
So what is a heathland? | 0:21:50 | 0:21:51 | |
Heathland is blueberry, like we're standing on, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
heather, surrounding us, and of course gorse and bracken | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
and all those plants that you associate with more open areas. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
Let me show you how this works. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
If we just put it under some tension | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
and then I'm just going to take a swipe through it. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
-Right. Just like that. -Just like that. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
So if you push it back under tension. And then slice through like a knife. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
-That's it. -I'm not as good as you. -You've got it. You've got it. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
That's not bad for the first go. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
When the society bought this heath, was it difficult to raise the money? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
It was a big local appeal and we had over 600 people | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
in the parish who actually contributed, raising over £100,000, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
which was matched by lottery money to buy the 307 acres of the commons. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
-So people obviously felt passionate about this place. -Yeah, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
that's one of the really good things, the local community | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
is very involved with the restoration of these commons to heathland. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
-And what did you do before that? -I used to build spacecraft. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
I was a rocket scientist. I know, I know! | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
This is easy-peasy compared to rocket science. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
It's not, that's the fascinating thing! It's an absolutely huge book. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
Every time I open another page, there's another book beneath it. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
I have to learn about trees, have to learn about soil, geology, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
landscape, history. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:00 | |
What's most important is, how did this landscape come about? | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
Who was using it? How did the community have the heathlands | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
200 years ago? And what were they doing that made it into a heathland | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
and what should we be doing now if we want to keep the heaths open? | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
Traditionally the trees and scrub | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
were harvested for firewood and bedding material. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
Today some of the cuttings are being used to make lunch. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
With the volunteer cooks busy in their woodland kitchen, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
there is a chance for me to see one section of heathland | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
that's already been transformed back to the way it used to be. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
Here's a patch that's been almost totally restored, Mark? | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
Yes. We cleared this area just a couple of years ago. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
And what would this place have looked like beforehand? | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
There wouldn't have been any heather, and you wouldn't have been able | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
to walk through here, the trees would have been so thick. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
The ultimate goal is to restore individual patches of heath, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
then open up corridors to connect them. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
And the society has an unusual request | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
for anyone visiting their land. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:10 | |
We'll be asking people to walk on the tracks, to walk off the tracks. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
-To trample. -To trample! -Just like the cattle. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
It's because bad soil here is a good thing. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
The nutrient level is very low, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
which is good because that keeps the plants struggling to survive | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
and that means that the rarer plants and the rarer wildlife | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
that lives in the habitat will do well. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
So you're actually doing the opposite to most husbandry, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
you want the poorest possible soil and you want people to walk on it. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
Yes, we do, yes. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:39 | |
Time for lunch, and a chance to meet some of the other landowners. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:44 | |
-Did you put some of your money into this? -Yes, we did. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
In fact, we put £1,000 in and to us that was a huge amount. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:53 | |
But we just thought gosh, you know, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:54 | |
put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
It's certainly hard work, isn't it? Why do you do it? | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
I grew up a mile and a half down the road, I used to play up here | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
a lot as a kid and that, and now I still get to play up here! | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
But there's a bit more of a point behind it, you know. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
Today's patch of heath has been cleared, but for Mark, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
the work doesn't end there. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
Once the birch has been cleared, some of it goes on bonfires, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
but other bits are put to use. It makes very good kindling. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
And anyone who's ever seen a Harry Potter film | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
might guess what birch can also be used for. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
-Isn't that right, Mark? -Yes. -For broomsticks! -Indeed. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:32 | |
That looks to be a very special kind of tool you're using. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
It's a broom squire's roundshave. They're very traditional tools | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
and tend to be made by local blacksmiths, or the broom squires. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
-So as well as the handle, we need the sweeping bit. -The head. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
-Why don't you pick up one of the bales over there? -One of these? | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
This looks about the right amount, does it? | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
There is enough for a broom in there. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
And what appeals to you about this, Mark? | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
It's a sense of connection with the landscape | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
and also the people who were here before. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
The house next to me was a family of broom squires about 100 years ago, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:05 | |
and I get a real sense of fulfilment | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
out of being out here working on the land | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
and doing the same kind of things that was used to maintain | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
the landscape, and will be in future, I hope. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
And I can't find a bigger difference, I don't think, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
from being a rocket scientist to a broom squire. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
It's not rocket science, is it, John? | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
With a few finishing touches from this expert in space age propulsion, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:33 | |
our traditional broom is ready for action. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
Ideal for sweeping up leaves. Or even... | 0:26:37 | 0:26:42 | |
It's not working! It's not working! | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
Exploring the grounds of Gilbert White's Hampshire residence, | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
it's easy to see why, with all this beauty on his doorstep, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
he came to be one of our most inspiring naturalists. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
Gilbert's stomping ground was the countryside around his home, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
which included this. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
A hillside with dramatic views. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
Now obviously all the best vantage points are at the top, | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
so he did as any self-respecting Georgian man would do, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
and he had a path cut all the way to the summit. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
250 years later, the path is still intact. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
Over a quarter of a mile, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
28 switchbacks, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
takes you over 200 feet above the surrounding countryside. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:41 | |
It's called the zigzag path and I'm heading for the top | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
to meet a man with a longstanding family tradition | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
of looking after it. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
Chris Webb lives in the village | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
and manages the path for the National Trust. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
-Chris! -Hi, Matt. -How are you doing, all right? -All right, yeah. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
-This is the top then, is it? -It is. Yeah. You've made it. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
It's a bit of a thigh-burner. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
Chris, it's a belting view, this, isn't it? | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
We're about 250 feet above the village | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
and we're looking out across the west end of the Weald, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
towards the North Downs. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:10 | |
-Well worth the hike. -Excellent, yeah. It's a good day for it today. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
Chris has been working on the path for 35 years. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
And it seems to be in his blood. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:21 | |
I was working up here in the '70s as a schoolboy, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 | |
-helping keep the path open. -OK. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
My great-grandfather was maintaining the zigzag | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
for the first quarter of the 20th century. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
When they rebuilt the zigzag in the 1890s my great-great-grandfather | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
was involved in that as well. So a bit of a family tradition. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:40 | |
-You've always had a connection. -Absolutely. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
-I wonder how many times you've been up it, then. -Who knows? | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
Can't tell you. Several thousand times, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
I should think, over the years. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
Chris, you can see why Gilbert White wanted to have the path cut up here. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:58 | |
Get up at height, look over the surrounding countryside, | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
and just observe nature. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
Beautiful. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
Now earlier, we heard how eating your five-a-day | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
may not always be as good for you as you think. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
So what exactly are we doing wrong? Here's Tom. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
From the fields of Britain to the market stalls of the nation's towns, | 0:29:33 | 0:29:37 | |
there is a staggering choice of fresh, hearty produce | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
waiting to be snapped up. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
So that's 62 for those. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:45 | |
£1.42. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:47 | |
£1.42, you're there before me, thank you very much. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:49 | |
'But we've needed a push to get us eating enough of it.' | 0:29:49 | 0:29:54 | |
Five-a-day - a clear message | 0:29:54 | 0:29:55 | |
encouraging us to eat more fruit and veg. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
What could be simpler? | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
It should have delivered a healthier diet | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
and maybe provided a boost to British farmers along the way, | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
but it seems that after 10 years | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
we are more confused about the message than ever. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
As we heard earlier, | 0:30:12 | 0:30:13 | |
critics claim big business has hijacked the slogan | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
with some food companies putting five-a-day on things like ready meals | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
that are also high in salt, fat or sugar. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
But is it that simple? Is big business really to blame, | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
or did the message kind of misfire from the start? | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
We're not only eating less fruit and veg in total, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
we're also eating more fruit than veg. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
That could be bad news for our health, | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
since veg tends to have more essential vitamins and nutrients | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
than fresh fruit. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
Nutritionist Shaleen Meelu wants us to get the balance right. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
People often think, well, I've had my apple-a-day, | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
or I've had my banana-a-day. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:55 | |
What we're trying to aim for is variety and diversity | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
and to go for vegetable options, or pulses even count. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:02 | |
Dried fruit even counts. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:05 | |
People seem to be going, if they are going for anything, | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
for fruits generally, yes. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:09 | |
And I suppose the other thing with fruit | 0:31:09 | 0:31:11 | |
is that you can make it into juices like this, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
which are a very convenient way, | 0:31:14 | 0:31:15 | |
and they certainly claim, a lot of them, to have one of the five-a-day. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
And they do... They can count as up to one of your five-a-day, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
but I wouldn't be drinking juices all the time, | 0:31:21 | 0:31:25 | |
especially as dentists have started observing acid erosion | 0:31:25 | 0:31:29 | |
due to excessive fruit and fruit juice consumption. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
'Processing foods like the fruit in fruit juice drinks, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
'or the veg in ready meals | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
'can lead to a loss of some of the nutrients | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
'locked up in fresh raw veg.' | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
The kind of things that we get from vegetables | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
will help our blood cells, will help cell growth, etc, | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
help us feel energetic. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:50 | |
That's why it's really important to get a diversity. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
'Shaleen's thrown in some sweet potato, button mushrooms and pumpkin. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
'Stir-frying it like this is a good way to cook it, | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
'as it locks in a lot of the goodness. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
'Herbs and spices can be used to add extra taste.' | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
OK. On we go. Do you reckon there are a few of our five-a-day in this? | 0:32:08 | 0:32:13 | |
We're definitely getting there. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
If we put it on a plate and had at least half of the plate full of veg, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
a little bit of salad, that would at least be two to three portions. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:24 | |
And the point is that this is a way - | 0:32:24 | 0:32:26 | |
and it's very good - of eating more vegetables in particular. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
And a variety of vegetables. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
Definitely. And making it tasty. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
I think a lot of the time people don't eat veg | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
because it's so...boring. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
Eating more fruit than veg | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
is not only the wrong way to interpret the message, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
it has also meant that British farmers have missed out | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
on the benefits that five-a-day could have given them. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
The problem is that they can provide the veg we need, | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
but not the exotic fruit we've got a taste for. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
Here in Lincolnshire, | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
Andrew Burgess runs one of the country's biggest suppliers | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
of fresh fruit and veg. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:08 | |
At the moment, the emphasis has been too much on fruit. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
As a British grower, it's not actually helping us much, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
because other than the soft fruit and some of the apples, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
most of our stuff is imported. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
Whereas, we're producing good, wholesome British vegetables | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
right here in Lincolnshire. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
Five-a-day was never about improving the businesses for British growers. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
It was about improving the health of the nation. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
But obviously it is funded by the UK government | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
and we're UK citizens and we would like the campaign to help us | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
at the same time as helping the health of the nation. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:41 | |
For the sake of our health and our food growers, | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
shouldn't we just eat more fresh fruit and vegetables | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
and less of the processed stuff? | 0:33:48 | 0:33:49 | |
Well, Terry Jones thinks that rather than hijacking the message, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:54 | |
processed food manufacturers are simply helping us reach our quota. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
I would encourage consumers to eat healthy diets. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:03 | |
And that means more fresh raw fruit and veg. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
It means more fresh fruit and veg, | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
but it means if they can't get every portion of their five-a-day | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
from fresh fruit and veg, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:12 | |
it means that manufacturers are on hand to provide that missing... | 0:34:12 | 0:34:16 | |
Perhaps that one missing, or two missing portions, | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
every day through composite products. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
This is about us trying to help consumers to make that change. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
But their starting point with five-a-day | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
-should be the fresh raw stuff? -Absolutely. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:27 | |
Simple. That's the message loud and clear. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:31 | |
Do we really need to be told what to eat? | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
Arguing either way about what qualifies precisely as five-a-day? | 0:34:38 | 0:34:42 | |
Surely it's down to the kind of common sense | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
your mum used to dish out with your meal - | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
make sure you eat those greens. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
Think you know better than mum or dad? | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
Could you come up with a better slogan than five-a-day? | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
Then we'd like to hear from you. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:00 | |
Contact us via the Countryfile website | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
and let us have your slogans to get us all eating more fruit and veg. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:07 | |
Now, over in the Cotswolds, Adam's got his hands full. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
This week he's finding out | 0:35:17 | 0:35:18 | |
how a glamorous multi-million dollar industry | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
could help improve the welfare of our pigs. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
Come on then, to your babies. There's a good girl. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:38 | |
I've got four different breeds of pig on the farm. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
This is the Kunekune, which is a New Zealand pig. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
And then I've got a pig called an Iron Age, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
which looks a little bit like a wild boar. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:48 | |
The Tamworth, which is a big ginger pig. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
And then the Gloucestershire Old Spot. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
And pigs, just like all other farm animals, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:56 | |
can suffer from lameness. | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
It doesn't matter whether they're large or small. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
And they can get an infection in their foot, | 0:36:01 | 0:36:04 | |
this is known as a clee, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:05 | |
where they've got two toes, and they can get an infection there | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
that then needs treating with antibiotics. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:10 | |
They can get it in their joints, | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
and also, they can have slightly twisted legs, | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
which can cause lameness too. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:16 | |
And it can be a bit of a problem, | 0:36:16 | 0:36:18 | |
but it's something that farmers have to manage. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
There you go. Go and get some breakfast. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
This is one of my Tamworth sows, that has been a bit lame. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:32 | |
Let's give her some food. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:34 | |
There's your breakfast. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
And on her toe here, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:38 | |
she had an infection. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
When a pig or any animal gets lame, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
you obviously need to treat it, | 0:36:42 | 0:36:44 | |
which takes up time and money from the farmer, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
and it causes a huge discomfort to the animal. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
And because of that discomfort, | 0:36:50 | 0:36:51 | |
it can affect the amount they eat, so they won't grow very well. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
If it's a sow or a boar it can affect their fertility. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:58 | |
So, really, lameness is a major problem. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
There are more than 400,000 sows in this country | 0:37:02 | 0:37:06 | |
and it's thought that about 5% of them are lame. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
But thankfully, help is at hand, | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
from quite an unusual source - Hollywood. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
How can blockbuster movies | 0:37:23 | 0:37:24 | |
like Avatar, The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings help a lame pig? | 0:37:24 | 0:37:28 | |
I'm off to Newcastle University to find out. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
The first thing researcher and vet Sophia Stavrakakis and I have to do | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
is attach some reflectors to a pig. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
I've been working with pigs all my life | 0:37:45 | 0:37:47 | |
and I've never had to put reflective stickers on them before. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
Sophia, this looks pretty high-tech. What's going on here? | 0:37:53 | 0:37:57 | |
We're using this highly specialised camera system here | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
in order to prevent lameness in pig production. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
And basically what we're doing is using 3D motion-capture technology | 0:38:03 | 0:38:09 | |
to measure movement, to measure gait in pigs. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
And gait is the way it walks - its steps, really. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
-Exactly. -And that 3D movement technology | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
is the sort of stuff you would see in animation films? | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
There are actual Hollywood movies | 0:38:21 | 0:38:23 | |
that have been based on animation obtained from such camera systems. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
And so, how do they work? | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
They emit infrared light, which is reflected by markers on the pig. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:34 | |
So those little dots on the pig are reflecting back. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
-They're reflecting back to the cameras. -OK. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
-So shall we go and have a look at how it looks on the PC? -Yeah. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
Here we see the actual capture of the pig with the markers on. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:48 | |
-So, the markers moving through this space. -Amazing. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
So there's the reflective marks, | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
so that you can see the shape of the pig walking across. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:56 | |
And so, this is much more than the human eye could detect. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:58 | |
We're filming at a much greater frame rate | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
and this enables us to see more than the human eye would be able to see. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:06 | |
So, as a pig farmer, | 0:39:06 | 0:39:07 | |
when you're picking your females | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
from a herd that you might want to breed from, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
you could potentially set up a camera, | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
walk the piglets through, and say, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
look, those ones have got certain angles on their joints | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
that may cause them to be lame in the future. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
And then you won't breed from it | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
and therefore, genetically, | 0:39:24 | 0:39:26 | |
you improve the ability of the pigs to move around? | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
Exactly, yeah. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:30 | |
So that would enable you to better select for breeding schemes. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:34 | |
It's very important for the pig industry. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:36 | |
When you think of pig farming, | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
you just think of smelly pigs and perhaps sausages and bacon, | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
but this technology is just extraordinary. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:43 | |
Yeah, isn't it? I think so too. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
This research is in its infancy, | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
but Sophia hopes to create a computer model of a healthy pig | 0:39:49 | 0:39:53 | |
to use as a reference point to spot potential lameness in pigs. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:57 | |
Another area the university is tackling | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
is the welfare of sows in farrowing crates. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
This is a typical pig maternity unit, | 0:40:06 | 0:40:11 | |
or farrowing shed, as it's known. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
And, in the UK, we keep around 60% of our pigs indoors. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:18 | |
And so, these sows, the mothers, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
would have been kept in straw yards | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
and then brought into these crates a week before they give birth. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:28 | |
And because the sow is so big and the piglets are so little, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
one of the major causes of death in piglets | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
is the sow crushing the piglets. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
And that's where the crate comes in. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
It restrains the sow, so that when she lies down | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
she can't flop down sideways and squash them underneath | 0:40:42 | 0:40:46 | |
and the piglets have a safe haven to go. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
And in the UK, there are some people who feel | 0:40:50 | 0:40:52 | |
that this system still isn't ideal, | 0:40:52 | 0:40:56 | |
so here at Newcastle University, they've developed an alternative. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
By understanding pig behaviour, and the needs of a sow, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
the research team have designed a new farrowing pen. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
I'm meeting head stock man, Darren Bloomfield, to find out more. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
-Darren, good to meet you. -Nice to meet you. -So where are these pigs? | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
-Round the corner. -Let's go and have a look. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
Darren, why did we need to come up with a new design? | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
This design has been put together by Newcastle University | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
and the Scottish Agricultural College in order to cater | 0:41:27 | 0:41:29 | |
more for the welfare of the sow as well as the piglets. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
The piglets are, of course, important but the sow has her needs as well | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
and her behavioural needs are met more with this particular system. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
So how does it work, then? | 0:41:38 | 0:41:39 | |
Well, we want the sow to use specific areas in the pen. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
We have the nesting area here with straw in it. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
When she starts to get ready to farrow, | 0:41:44 | 0:41:46 | |
she'll require the need to bed-make, so she'll come into this area and | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
start carrying some straw around and she'll start bed-making in this area. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:54 | |
We also need a specific toilet area. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:55 | |
She'll come out here to defecate and urinate | 0:41:55 | 0:41:58 | |
and keep her bedding as clean as possible. | 0:41:58 | 0:41:59 | |
-There's also water out there so she can drink. -What's this board here? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
-What's that about? -The sloping board is key to the design, really. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
The biggest problem, if we just had a right-angled wall here | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
and the sow went to lay down, she'd go down against the wall | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
and the piglets would be squashed underneath her. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
By putting this sloping board in, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:15 | |
the sow will actually slide down the board, the piglets will | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
disappear under there, they won't be crushed | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
and they'll come out of the ends and they'll be perfectly safe. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
In the UK, we always seem to be a step ahead of the game. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
Our legislation on animal welfare is a lot better than other countries, isn't it? | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
Yes, it is and I'm proud to be a British pig farmer, really. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:32 | |
What we try and do, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:33 | |
we try and come up with solutions before we need them. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
This is an alternative | 0:42:36 | 0:42:37 | |
and pig farmers all around the world are all coming to look at this | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
sort of design and thinking maybe this is the way forward in the future. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:44 | |
I'm not sure this piglet will ever make the dizzy heights | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
of Hollywood, but it's great that farming is embracing new technologies | 0:42:55 | 0:42:59 | |
and developments all the time and even as a small-scale pig farmer | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
I'm warmed by the fact that our pig industry is in good hands. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
Do you want to go back to your mum? PIGLET SQUEALS | 0:43:06 | 0:43:09 | |
Next week, I'll be in the Forest of Dean, | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
learning about the ancient art of sheep hefting. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
Back on the South Downs, I'm off to find out | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
about a local agricultural revolution. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:31 | |
It's something that's changing the face of the countryside around here. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
Believe it or not, this rather romantic stretch of road, | 0:43:34 | 0:43:37 | |
the A272, is what is now becoming known as England's wine trail. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
Where better to start than one of Britain's first modern commercial vineyards? | 0:43:43 | 0:43:48 | |
The Romans and medieval monks made wine in the UK, | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
but the story of commercial wine production here is much more recent. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:58 | |
Hambledon Vineyard on the southern edges of the Downs helped | 0:43:59 | 0:44:03 | |
transform English winemaking when it opened in 1952. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
Footage from 1981 shows just how much interest this venture generated. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:13 | |
Experts from winemaking countries abroad have paid us very great | 0:44:13 | 0:44:19 | |
and flattering compliments. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:22 | |
Bill Carcary ran the vineyard from the 1960s | 0:44:22 | 0:44:24 | |
until his retirement in 1995. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
What was the reaction to having grapes grown here? | 0:44:27 | 0:44:31 | |
The villagers, they thought we were mad. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
English wine had got a very bad press. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
Mainly it was apple wines and things like that. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
When they started making wine with the grapes, | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
people came from miles around to see it. | 0:44:42 | 0:44:45 | |
How were things done differently back then to how they're done now? | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
Harvesting is the main difference. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
Local villagers came up and picked them into small baskets and they | 0:44:51 | 0:44:56 | |
were all transported on a wheelbarrow and straight up round to the winery. | 0:44:56 | 0:45:02 | |
The grapes were crushed then and then put in the press. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
It was a hand press with a fair amount of pressure put on | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
to get the juice out. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:11 | |
And it's not just the process that's changed since those days. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:15 | |
If you'd come to an English vineyard 15 years ago, | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
they'd most likely be growing German grapes like Riesling | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
for still wine, but now things are quite different. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:24 | |
Today's vineyards are fizzing... | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
..for chalky soils here in the South Downs have similarities to | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
the Champagne region of France. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:36 | |
That means you can grow Pinot Noir, Chardonnay | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
and Pinot Meunier grapes - | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
the key ingredients for upmarket sparkling wine. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
From Hambledon, I'm moving on to one of the UK's newest vineyards, | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
Hattingly Valley. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
Owner Simon Robinson began turning arable land over to vines | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
four years ago, but this year he's been hit hard by one of the worst | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
summers for a hundred years. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
So how does the business model for grapes differ from traditional farming? | 0:46:01 | 0:46:06 | |
Grapes and making wine are much longer term investment, | 0:46:06 | 0:46:11 | |
a much bigger investment. And this year, I have to say, has been a terrible harvest. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:17 | |
-Oh, yeah. -Absolutely awful. -Yes, we're squelching here, aren't we? | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
Awful harvest. A lot of people have lost everything. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
We simply didn't have the sunshine and the heat. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:27 | |
A lot of grapes simply didn't manage to mature enough | 0:46:27 | 0:46:29 | |
and you can see on the vine over here, these are Chardonnay, | 0:46:29 | 0:46:34 | |
and they're still pretty hard. | 0:46:34 | 0:46:35 | |
So have you got enough even to go into production or is this | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
just a write-off year for you? | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
No, it's not a write-off year, we are in production, | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
-but not nearly at the levels that we would have hoped. -Right. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:46 | |
While some vineyards scrapped their harvest this year, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
Simon did send in the pickers to salvage what | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
they could just before a cold snap a few weeks ago. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
Consultant winemaker Emma Rice takes the grapes from vine to glass. | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
So is all of this just for the grapes that are grown here? | 0:47:01 | 0:47:05 | |
No, we have partner vineyards from all over the country. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:07 | |
In Hampshire, we're quite central, | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
so we have client vineyards in Dorset through to Kent. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
Wow, what is this? This is an enormous piece of kit. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
This is our press - it takes between four | 0:47:15 | 0:47:17 | |
and five tonnes of whole bunches of grapes. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
-With stalks and everything? -With stalks and everything. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
It's very important with the traditional method, sparkling wine process | 0:47:22 | 0:47:27 | |
that you keep the bunches intact as long as possible. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:30 | |
Crushing whole great bunches helps the initial | 0:47:30 | 0:47:33 | |
fermentation in these huge steel tanks and after just a few weeks, | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
the juice is already starting to develop a flavour. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
It's not unpleasant, is it, but it's quite sour? | 0:47:41 | 0:47:43 | |
It's basically come to the end of its fermentation, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
so all of the sugar has now been fermented and turned into alcohol, | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
so you're left with the alcohol and the acidity. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
For a sparkling wine that's going to be aged for quite some time, | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
it's quite important to maintain a high level of acidity, | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
so it can last through the ageing process. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
After eight months in the tanks, the wine is bottled | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
and left for another two to three years to go through a second | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
fermentation when those all-important bubbles form. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:12 | |
Now the good stuff! | 0:48:12 | 0:48:13 | |
So here we have a 2010 - | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
this was the very first harvest from our own vineyards. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
-So it's quite a significant bottle? -Very significant bottle, yes. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
It's not been released yet, so this is a special exclusive. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
-Exclusive for Countryfile. Oh, wow! That looks amazing. Cheers. -Cheers. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:31 | |
-Very nice. -Thank you. -Very, very nice. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:39 | |
I could stay here and party all day with this. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:41 | |
-Well, we've got 65,000 bottles next door. -Perfect. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:46 | |
If you're after something sparkling this Christmas, | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
then we've got just the thing - the Countryfile calendar for 2013 | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
made up of all the winning entries from this year's photographic competition. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:04 | |
Here's John with all the details. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:06 | |
The Countryfile calendar has been raising | 0:49:06 | 0:49:09 | |
lots of money for the BBC's Children In Need appeal for more than | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
a decade now and for the 2013 edition, | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
we had a fantastic number of amazing photographs sent in by viewers to choose from. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:21 | |
So if you want these beautiful shots on your wall | 0:49:21 | 0:49:24 | |
next year, you can order a copy right now, either on our website, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
that's... | 0:49:28 | 0:49:29 | |
..or by calling the order line on... | 0:49:31 | 0:49:33 | |
To order by post, send your name, address and cheque to... | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
..and please make your cheques payable to BBC Countryfile Calendar. | 0:49:56 | 0:50:01 | |
Remember, the calendar costs £9 | 0:50:01 | 0:50:03 | |
and at least £4 from every sale will go to Children In Need. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
You'll find all the information and more on our website. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:12 | |
Now it's time for the Countryfile forecast for the week ahead. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:57 | |
This week we're in the South Downs, | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
where I've been leafing through the life and work of Gilbert White, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
one of our earliest naturalists who lived here in the 1700s. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
While Gilbert's main passion was observing his natural | 0:53:19 | 0:53:22 | |
surroundings, like many animal lovers, he also had pets. | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
One of them was particularly charismatic - | 0:53:25 | 0:53:28 | |
he was called Timothy and he was a tortoise. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:33 | |
Now Gilbert was an inquisitive gent, | 0:53:33 | 0:53:35 | |
so an exotic pet like Timothy was an obvious subject for investigation. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:41 | |
Ronnie Davidson-Houston is a Gilbert White enthusiast. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
Timothy was really one of his best friends. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:47 | |
'I'm meeting him to find out what Gilbert discovered about his treasured tortoise.' | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
And what work did he do with him then, | 0:53:51 | 0:53:53 | |
because he put him through various tests, I understand? | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
Yes, yes, really people knew very little about tortoises, | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
so he shouted at him through an ear trumpet to see if Timothy could hear. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
-Any reaction? -Apparently not, no. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
He dumped him in a bucket of water to see if he could swim, | 0:54:05 | 0:54:11 | |
and he couldn't and poor Timothy must've been so distressed, | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
but he was not a turtle. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:16 | |
One should say "her" because Timothy was found out later to be a she, | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
but it's much easier to say "he". | 0:54:22 | 0:54:23 | |
Timothy, the female tortoise, | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
became a mischievous resident of Gilbert's home. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:31 | |
In one of his letters, Gilbert referred to Timothy as, | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
"So old a domestic who behaved himself in | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
"so blameless a manner in the family for nearly 50 years." | 0:54:37 | 0:54:41 | |
Timothy had a roguish habit of escaping from his garden home. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
One jaunt took him out into the nearby farmland only to be | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
discovered several days later, which has given me an idea. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:54 | |
Well, we're going to have a go at recreating one of Gilbert's | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
many quests to find his tortoise. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
Now, sadly, Timothy has long since left this world so we have a stunt | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
stand-in, Saffy, on her last outing before hibernation, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:10 | |
so I'll pop you in there | 0:55:10 | 0:55:12 | |
and it's over to the search party that are ready and waiting. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:17 | |
Saffy will, of course, be supervised on her adventure | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
and to find her, a bunch of keen treasure hunters will follow the clues. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:24 | |
The first is on a plastic tortoise in the veg patch. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:27 | |
Ronnie's in character to provide some expert knowledge | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
and my two kids have come along to join in the fun. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
Here comes the first question... | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
-..where did Gilbert White's love of the natural world come from? -The garden. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:48 | |
The garden! Very good. So, everyone, to the garden, go! | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick! | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
-It's here. -You got it? -That. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
We've got it. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:07 | |
Right, next clue - "Find the spot where | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
"I like to look out" from Gilbert White. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
-It's exhausting, this. -CHILDREN SHOUT | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
-Hello, everyone. -Sorry we're late. Little legs. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:30 | |
What's the next clue, Gilbert? | 0:56:30 | 0:56:32 | |
Ah, that's another tortoise and that's in one of my favourite | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
bits of the garden, called the Six Quarters, behind the hedge there. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:40 | |
-Go for it! -Oh, right. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:41 | |
-Let's have another look here. -No. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
-This one's not plastic. -It's real. -Oh, Saffy. -Fantastic. | 0:56:55 | 0:57:00 | |
-Well done, everyone. -Yeah, good hunting. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
Give yourselves a round of applause. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
Oh, wow! Let's have a look. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
Saffy's adventure has come to an end - | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
an award-winning performance as Timothy, the real star of the show. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
Well, that is the end of the treasure hunt | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
and the end of the programme. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:20 | |
Next week, we'll be on the South Gloucestershire border | 0:57:20 | 0:57:23 | |
behind the scenes at one of our top dressage stables, | 0:57:23 | 0:57:26 | |
and what does it take to keep one of Britain's oldest trees healthy? | 0:57:26 | 0:57:29 | |
We'll be finding out. Hope you can join us then. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:53 | 0:57:57 |