0:00:03 > 0:00:06Welcome to Winterwatch with a difference.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10And if you think it's a bit chilly outside, then think again.
0:00:10 > 0:00:16We're going back 50 years to the Big Freeze of 1963, and we're going to be
0:00:16 > 0:00:22asking what impact this horrid winter had on us and our wildlife.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52As a naturalist, I really love winter.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54There's all sorts of exciting things going on.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00From the simple, like the barking of foxes or hooting of tawny owls,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03through to some of our greatest natural spectacles -
0:01:03 > 0:01:09vast flocks of waders gathering at their high-tide roost.
0:01:11 > 0:01:17Millions of starlings performing their fabulous aerial acrobatics
0:01:17 > 0:01:22and the sound of wild geese filling the air.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27Of course, with all the leaves off of the trees, it's often the best time
0:01:27 > 0:01:29to actually see the wildlife,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33as I am finding out here at Winterwatch HQ
0:01:33 > 0:01:36at the Aigas Field Centre in the Highlands of Scotland.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41But let's not forget that this is also the most challenging
0:01:41 > 0:01:44time of year, both for us, and for the wildlife,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49especially as our weather is becoming more and more topsy-turvy,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51more unpredictable.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53In some winters, like this one,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56the whole country is virtually underwater.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01But in others, Britain is covered with ice and snow,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04as in the winter of 2010.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13But that was NOTHING compared to 50 years ago.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19Now, I was just 18 months old back in 1963, when we experienced not just
0:02:19 > 0:02:26the worst winter in living memory, but the worst winter for 200 years.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31From Boxing Day 1962 to early March '63,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35the whole country lay under a thick blanket of snow and ice.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39And, for a while, it really did seem as if it would never come to an end.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It was called the winter to end all winters,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48but it's gone down in history simply as the Big Freeze.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50WIND HOWLS
0:02:52 > 0:02:54In a few moments,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57we'll take a look at a documentary that was made towards the end of
0:02:57 > 0:03:03this terrible winter, and it really does illustrate just how hard it was.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05But whilst you're watching this fascinating footage,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09do spare a thought for the plight of our British wildlife,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13something that the film-makers at the time didn't seem to fully appreciate.
0:03:15 > 0:03:16After you've seen the film,
0:03:16 > 0:03:21I'm going to explore what happened to our wildlife in the '63 winter,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25and what might happen if we suffered a similar Arctic freeze-up today.
0:03:28 > 0:03:29For the next 45 minutes,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33snuggle up in your centrally-heated living rooms as we're going to take
0:03:33 > 0:03:38a trip through time to when there weren't colour or widescreen TVs.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42It's the Big Freeze of 1963.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37For London, it was the coldest January
0:04:37 > 0:04:40since records were first kept in 1841.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43For Manchester, it was the coldest since records
0:04:43 > 0:04:45were first kept in 1888.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49For Aberdeen, it was the coldest since at least 1895.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52In Southampton, Bognor Regis and Worthing, it was the coldest
0:04:52 > 0:04:56since their records were started in 1900.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00When you've been through the sort of weather we've all endured
0:05:00 > 0:05:04these last seven weeks, there's some gratification in knowing that
0:05:04 > 0:05:07it's been more than just bad weather.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10This one has already earned its place among the five
0:05:10 > 0:05:13most spectacularly bad winters of the last 100 years.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It will go down in history and folk memory
0:05:16 > 0:05:20as that terrible winter of 1963.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23The events of it have hit us in a series of nasty,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25cold, isolated chunks.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27But if you put them all together,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29they form a continuous and developing story.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It is this story we're now going to tell.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34By the way, when we talk of temperatures,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37we'll be using the old Fahrenheit scale.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The Big Freeze began on December 22nd.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42On December 24th, Christmas Eve,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45the BBC's One O'Clock News bulletin said this -
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"It is snowing heavily in parts of Scotland,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52"and Glasgow has its first white Christmas since before the war.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55"In southern England, there's a chance of snow,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"but it won't be coming before Boxing Day."
0:05:58 > 0:06:01The forecast was right, and for most of Britain,
0:06:01 > 0:06:0426th December turned out to be everything a Boxing Day should be.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07The snow came down and lay where it fell,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09and the holiday was somehow complete.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15The new white world created in the night was something to be enjoyed
0:06:15 > 0:06:16for the sake of Christmas.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Snow-covered buses still ran,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and there was no reason to think this was anything more than just
0:06:23 > 0:06:26another cold snap, like last year or the year before.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30It seemed the whole thing was just perfect - the more the better.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Now this was beginning to look something like a winter.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36CHILDREN SHOUT PLAYFULLY
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Every sledge and toboggan was out,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46and those who hadn't even a tea tray made do.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50This was a holiday, and although it may seem fantastic now,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55far from spoiling the fun, for most people, the snow just completed it.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57So far, the snow was fun.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Mercifully, all the thousands of parents and children
0:07:00 > 0:07:02who built snowmen on Boxing Day
0:07:02 > 0:07:06didn't realise they would still be there in February.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10The first inkling we had that we were in for something exceptional
0:07:10 > 0:07:11came the weekend after Christmas.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Before the first snow had even looked like melting, in fact,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17while most of it was still lying where it had fallen,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20there came another and even greater blizzard.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22WIND HOWLS
0:07:22 > 0:07:25It was the worst blizzard for 15 years,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and in southern England, the worst avalanche of snow in living memory.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Again, it was the Southwest that bore the brunt,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44but it swept all the south and east of England.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47There were gusts of nearly 90mph, and it was bitterly cold.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The wind was so cold that the sea froze on the Essex coast.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05In places, temperatures went down to 19 degrees.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08It was in this blizzard that three people died battling against snow
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and two more were suffocated in a snowbound car.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23With this blizzard on top of the heavy Boxing Day fall,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25there were now drifts of 15 and 20 feet.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Motorists were advised to take no journeys whatsoever,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30not even essential ones.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Hundreds of villages were isolated, and so were towns like Weymouth,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Okehampton, Tavistock, Bridport and Blandford.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Dartmoor was like Siberia,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and the prison and Princetown were cut off for days.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48By the time this blizzard had finally blown itself out,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53200 main roads were impassable and 95,000 miles of road were snowbound.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57The dislocation of Boxing Day had become the chaos of New Year's Eve.
0:08:57 > 0:09:011962 went out with the southern half of Britain
0:09:01 > 0:09:03littered with abandoned cars.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21In the last few weeks, most of Britain's motorists
0:09:21 > 0:09:25have gained a lifetime of experience of driving in snow.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27The Boxing Day snow had caused bad enough blockages,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29but that had been at holiday time.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Now, we were shivering to work again,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34and a way had to be cleared for essential supplies -
0:09:34 > 0:09:37lorries to docks and factories and shops,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39routes for buses and coaches and so on.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42But the residential roads, the roads where most of us live,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44they didn't have that sort of priority.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46By now, the pedestrian, like the motorist,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49has had plenty of experience in coping with snow and ice.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51We've learnt the hard way.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55To add insult to injury,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58many dustbins weren't emptied for three weeks.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01We discovered that our dustmen were also the road-clearing party.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03This was the result.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06We were even accused of causing a milk bottle crisis by hiding
0:10:06 > 0:10:08our milk bottles in the snow.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Finally, after five days' battling, milk roundsmen had to take the day off
0:10:12 > 0:10:16with exhaustion, and 15,000 London housewives went without milk.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22As we've said, the worst area hit by the blizzard was the Southwest,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24where almost all the roads were blocked.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29In fact, the A39 from Lynton to Porlock was blocked on December 30th
0:10:29 > 0:10:32and is still blocked to this day.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34There was a similar story of abandoned vehicles
0:10:34 > 0:10:37and snowbound roads in Wales and the Midlands,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and of course the M1 did keep open throughout.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44That's from London up to Birmingham and Coventry and the Midlands,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47although it was reduced to single-lane traffic on occasions.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53Now, except for the A681 up here, the Todmorden to Bacup road,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57all roads crossing the Pennines closed at some time or another.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01The Snake Pass, the A57 which goes from Sheffield to Glossop,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05was blocked and is still blocked now, and it'll be two weeks before
0:11:05 > 0:11:10they make any attempt to clear it because of the great walls of snow.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Scotland, of course, was badly hit up here.
0:11:13 > 0:11:20The A939, for example, which goes from Cockbridge to Tomintoul,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24and the A941 from Dufftown, the roads there are blocked
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and they've been blocked for some 50 days so far this winter.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30And if, like me, you've been motoring down in the southeast of England,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33it's been almost as bad. During the days of the big blizzard,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37so few cars reached London from the outlying areas,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41that parking meters, usually crowded in central London, went begging.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45It was estimated that only one in ten were in regular use.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Road clearing throughout Britain was held up by a shortage of rock salt,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52or rather by snow hindering the deliveries of rock salt.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57The first snowfalls quickly used up stocks in the cities and towns.
0:11:57 > 0:12:021,100 tons went in Westminster alone in the first few days.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Lorries couldn't get through to replenish them.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07But it wasn't just our road system that was chaotic.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10There was serious dislocation on the railways too,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13as any of you who had to travel by rail that first weekend of the blizzard
0:12:13 > 0:12:15doesn't have to be reminded.
0:12:15 > 0:12:22The 11.20am newspaper train from Manchester down to Brighton
0:12:22 > 0:12:24was snowed up for two days.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Now, perhaps you grumble like the rest of us in London
0:12:27 > 0:12:29at the tube's running up to 50 minutes late
0:12:29 > 0:12:33because of snow on the exposed part of the line.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Or, there again, perhaps some of you, some of the hundreds
0:12:36 > 0:12:39if not thousands of passengers who spent the chilling hours
0:12:39 > 0:12:42stuck or snowed down in the snows here on Dartmoor
0:12:42 > 0:12:45or else between Edinburgh and Carlisle,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49or perhaps between London and Birmingham here.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53The tracks disappeared under drifts of snow, but the trains
0:12:53 > 0:12:56miraculously kept moving, or, at least, most of them did.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59But points froze everywhere, and in many places,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02rolling stock froze solid and refused to move.
0:13:02 > 0:13:03There were casualties.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07In Lancashire, a signalman collapsed and died in the cold
0:13:07 > 0:13:08on his way to work.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11On Boxing Day, 18 people were killed and 30 injured
0:13:11 > 0:13:14when the Scottish express in the snowstorm
0:13:14 > 0:13:17ran into the back of a slow train.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19On all regions, trains were cancelled or delayed.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21In many cases,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24it was a matter of waiting for the ploughs to get through.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31On top of Arctic conditions,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35the demands on the railways got even heavier than usual.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36In badly hit areas,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39trains were often the only form of communication.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Men worked all day and all night to keep branch lines clear.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45These lines, already fighting against redundancy,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47suddenly became vital links.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Trains were diverted. Birmingham to London went via Oxford.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Expresses were cancelled and schedules thrown out of the window.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Up in Scotland, the main line between Edinburgh and Carlisle
0:13:57 > 0:14:01was blocked by an avalanche a quarter-of-a-mile long.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06CRASHING
0:14:08 > 0:14:12Not until hundreds of tons of snow and rock had been blown on the line
0:14:12 > 0:14:14was it considered safe to start shovelling,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and then it took 24 hours to get through.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25One goods train on Dartmoor got completely buried.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Two other engines went to its rescue with snow ploughs,
0:14:28 > 0:14:29but a blizzard was blowing.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33The drifts were 20-foot high and they got buried too.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37After which, the whole lot froze solid and it took 80 men
0:14:37 > 0:14:40over a week to dig them out and get them running again.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42Luckily, this wasn't the main line.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46If things were bad on the railway,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50they were equally chaotic at airports. Planes were frozen in.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52At London, one runway was kept going,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and flights were cancelled at the dozen.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59BA lost a quarter of a million pounds from cancellations.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03The paralysis of our roads, railways and airports was sudden
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and dramatic and the nation's resources of snow ploughs,
0:15:06 > 0:15:07shovels, rock salt,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10dynamite and muscle were quickly turned at getting
0:15:10 > 0:15:14the long-distance lorries and the mainline trains moving again,
0:15:14 > 0:15:15but that was cold comfort
0:15:15 > 0:15:19if you happened to live away from one of the Ministry of Transport
0:15:19 > 0:15:22trunk roads or else at the end of a British Railways branch line.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25For our villages and hamlets and farms, the big blizzard
0:15:25 > 0:15:29was the beginning of a monstrously memorable winter, of a tragic winter.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31By New Year's Day, at least 11 people had died
0:15:31 > 0:15:33as a direct result of the blizzard.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35At Marlborough in Wiltshire,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37a 60-year-old woman went out to exercise her dog.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41She was later found dead with the dog whimpering beside her.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46You had to go up in a helicopter to see the full
0:15:46 > 0:15:50effect of the blizzard, and the effect was total paralysis.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Farmers had stopped thinking about producing to survive,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56it was now a question of surviving to produce.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58For villages and farms all over southern England,
0:15:58 > 0:16:03the telephone was the only remaining link with the rest of the world.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Britain was no longer one island surrounded by water,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25it was hundreds of islands surrounded by snow.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Many places were running short of food,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30a Wiltshire orphanage with 30 children under five years old
0:16:30 > 0:16:33was cut off for three days and desperate for fresh milk.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36And trapped in the deep snow were some people needing
0:16:36 > 0:16:40medical supplies and help and expectant mothers with babies due.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44It's no wonder the helicopters had the busiest week in their history.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Devon and Cornwall were worst hit,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02but people were marooned over the country.
0:17:02 > 0:17:0514 were stuck in a pub with a shortage of everything
0:17:05 > 0:17:08except whisky, others weren't so lucky.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11The helicopters got supplies through to the prisoners of Princetown
0:17:11 > 0:17:13who, by now, included all the prison officers
0:17:13 > 0:17:15and the whole population of the village as well.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21As blizzard followed blizzard,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24more and more farms needed supplies from helicopters -
0:17:24 > 0:17:27medical supplies, fresh vegetables, baby foods,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29even a load of coal on one occasion.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31If you were snowed up in the countryside,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35you really were snowed up, sometimes to the eaves.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37People in towns who complained about clearing the front path have
0:17:37 > 0:17:41never had to undertake an engineering project on this scale.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46But farms have to get food out as well as in.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Many couldn't even get it out of the ground and when they did,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51they couldn't get it away.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54That was when we had the vegetable shortage - prices of cabbages,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56carrots and potatoes shot up.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Over half the nation's broccoli crop was destroyed,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03sugar beet factories closed for lack of supplies, the milk situation
0:18:03 > 0:18:06was nearly desperate, Dorset farmers threw away a quarter million
0:18:06 > 0:18:07gallons in three days,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10because milk lorries couldn't reach collecting points.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15And of course, there were the animals - 6,000 of them
0:18:15 > 0:18:18on Dartmoor went without any food for four days.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Again only helicopters could help.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Worst hit of all were the sheep.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50In the murderous winter of 1947, 4.5 million died -
0:18:50 > 0:18:52nothing on that scale has happened yet,
0:18:52 > 0:18:54but it's been a terrible time for lambing.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03The full effects of the weather on sheep can't be measured yet
0:19:03 > 0:19:06because many ewes who haven't had lambs may have been
0:19:06 > 0:19:09critically weakened, but other animals who look less
0:19:09 > 0:19:11well-equipped for the snow have fared better.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13All the deer in Richmond Park have come through,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17but they've had to have three times the amount of supplementary feed
0:19:17 > 0:19:19and still they're getting thinner.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22All the same, the picture isn't one of universal dumb misery.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25These three stallions in Norfolk, for instance,
0:19:25 > 0:19:26had a high old time in the snow.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00Chaos on the roads and railways, chaos on our farms
0:20:00 > 0:20:04and villages, but also chaos for British sport.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06The Boxing Day programme was the first to be hit,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10all racing was cancelled, no rugby league games took place
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and only five first division football matches,
0:20:13 > 0:20:14but that was just the start.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Since then, little organised sport has, in fact, taken place.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19The football league fixture list
0:20:19 > 0:20:23and the FA Cup tie programme is in a glorious, chaotic mess.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27The latest count of matches postponed or cancelled is
0:20:27 > 0:20:31approaching the 500 mark and the season's already been extended
0:20:31 > 0:20:35once, so it looks like being extended again and again.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37Over 1,000 rugby games are being put off
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and not a single race meeting has taken place since the snow
0:20:40 > 0:20:44started and at a couple of greyhound meetings even the electric hare froze.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48For ordinary winter events,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50conditions were as bad as they could be.
0:20:50 > 0:20:51All the racecourses were the same
0:20:51 > 0:20:54and there was no need even to go out and inspect the course.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57One despairing glance was enough. In fact, the going was so soft,
0:20:57 > 0:21:02there was only one way of getting around the track at all.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08A few horses did manage to get some exercise,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11but the majority were snowed up in their stables.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The big joke was football, at least, it was a joke to some people.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19If you are a manager, a player or a Pools promoter, the laugh became
0:21:19 > 0:21:24increasingly more expensive as the fixtures came and went unplayed.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28When it came to making the draw for the Cup,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31the proceedings had a distinct air of farce.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35It became a case of the winners of the match between A or B will
0:21:35 > 0:21:39outplay home against either C or possibly D if it thaws,
0:21:39 > 0:21:40and it didn't.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Shovelling continued more as a gesture than anything else.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50One rugby league ground was cleared by using £5,000 worth
0:21:50 > 0:21:54of chemicals, but for most it was useless even to try.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56At Murrayfield, Scotland managed to play by using their new
0:21:56 > 0:22:00electric heating system and the boys of Chelsea soccer team finally
0:22:00 > 0:22:05got themselves a game by fixing up an away match with a team in Malta.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07Others had to content themselves
0:22:07 > 0:22:09with decisions from a panel of experts under Lord Brabazon
0:22:09 > 0:22:13which decided who would have won the matches if they'd been played.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18But for most of us, Saturday afternoons were
0:22:18 > 0:22:21the time for the big dig-out, the business of finding
0:22:21 > 0:22:24your own car, digging it out and finally persuading it to move.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28With no sport to distract Father,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30it was a case of find the shovel and get clearing.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39And when the steps and the pavement and the front path
0:22:39 > 0:22:43and the back yard were all clear, there was still the roof.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48All over Britain, the streets rang to the sound of shovels.
0:22:48 > 0:22:49And inevitably,
0:22:49 > 0:22:55the snows of 1963 were compared with the big snows of 1947.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57But now, people were making comparisons of a different kind,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01comparisons of adversity, comparisons with the Blitz.
0:23:01 > 0:23:02Mr John Pedder,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06the postmaster at snowbound Lynmouth in Devon said this -
0:23:06 > 0:23:08"There's a real touch of wartime spirit,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11"a tremendous community feeling, people who have been
0:23:11 > 0:23:14"enemies for years are chatting with each other again."
0:23:14 > 0:23:17A single week was bringing more stories of grim endurance,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21courageous rescue, than ordinarily in a whole year.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26On Dartmoor,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29a party of soldiers had a very narrow escape from freezing to death.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Six young recruits, with only three months Army experience,
0:23:33 > 0:23:35had been sent out on a map-reading exercise.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38It very soon turned into a survival test.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46After two days of blizzard and 18 days of frost, two of them
0:23:46 > 0:23:49were finally located and rescued by helicopter.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51They were in a pretty bad way,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55but not as bad as the other four who were found here in a deserted house.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57After their tent had blown down in the gale
0:23:57 > 0:24:00and their boots had frozen, so they were impossible to get on,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03the four men had struggled to shelter in their stocking feet.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Three of them had to be carried out to the helicopter.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18All of them were frozen stiff and had severe frostbite.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21It had been quite a lesson, but not in map-reading.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Helicopters were also used to rescue two old ladies on Exmoor,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31both of them over 75 and for long time they refused to go.
0:24:31 > 0:24:32The RAF had been supplying them with food
0:24:32 > 0:24:34and they could see no reason to budge,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37but in the end they got so bored with their own company,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39they decided to move after all, if only for the trip.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47In Monmouthshire, there was another urgent job for helicopters.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Here, it was to pick up electricians and carry them and all
0:24:50 > 0:24:54their gear out to one of the most desolate spots in the country.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04..the high-voltage cable to use great lengths of rope which could be
0:25:04 > 0:25:08run out, attached to the helicopter and flown over the cables.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17With the rope looped over the cables, the men set out to walk,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20pulling the loop and knocking the ice off as they went.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23It was a long and bitterly cold operation,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26but they cleared the wire and kept the steelworks going.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37The longest walk of all or, at any rate,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40what must have seemed like longest walk, was from Fylingdales.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42This was the scene of the great airlift,
0:25:42 > 0:25:46but before the helicopters arrived, 100 stranded civilians
0:25:46 > 0:25:49took to the moors and walked back to civilisation.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00It was only four miles, but the drifts were 14 feet deep
0:26:00 > 0:26:02and the snow was very soft.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06By the time they reached the railway, most of them were done in.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Luckily, the line was still open and they reached home by train.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16With racing cancelled, the betting shops
0:26:16 > 0:26:19were as deserted as the courses, but not in Doncaster.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Here, a bookie had the brilliant idea of running his own
0:26:22 > 0:26:23races on the premises.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26The mice did show a tendency to fall off the course,
0:26:26 > 0:26:31but money changed hands, which, after all, is the only part that matters.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34By about the end of the first week in January,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36the story began to change.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Up till then, it had been the story of snow,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42now it turned into the story of ice.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47We'd already had blizzards on an almost unheard-of scale,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49now the unrelenting frost.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Nothing thawed, nothing melted and the frost went deeper
0:26:53 > 0:26:54and deeper into the earth.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00The roads and railways have had their turn, now it was the waterways.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Ice two-feet thick on the River Yare stopped
0:27:02 > 0:27:04shipping between Norwich and Great Yarmouth.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07The car ferry service to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight was stopped
0:27:07 > 0:27:10because of dangerous pack ice.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13At Torquay, the sea froze as it crashed over the promenade.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16The channel froze at Dover and Eastbourne.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18Across at Dunkirk, the ice stretched for five miles,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21so it looked as if we were going to be joined with Europe
0:27:21 > 0:27:22whether de Gaulle liked it or not.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28At Windsor, a man was seen riding a bicycle on the frozen Thames.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31At Kingston, the Thames froze from bank to bank for the first time
0:27:31 > 0:27:33since 1895.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38At Oxford, one Charles Easter drove his Austin 7 across the Thames to work.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43The first car river rally was held on the Thames at Bablock Hythe.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46A school of mullet was frozen in the ice in Southampton Dock
0:27:46 > 0:27:50and provided a freshly chilled picnic for some lucky gulls,
0:27:50 > 0:27:52but it was surely those two commuters skating to
0:27:52 > 0:27:57work in Leicestershire that provided THE picture of the Big Freeze.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01The canals froze first, just about all of them.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04The Grand Union was a strip of ice running from Brentford to
0:28:04 > 0:28:07the Midlands, but the bulk of our water transport goes along
0:28:07 > 0:28:12natural waterways and the first of the busy ones stayed navigable just.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25But many rivers froze up along the edges of the navigable channel.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27At some, the ice was two-feet thick
0:28:27 > 0:28:31and an iceberg ten-feet high was sighted at Greenwich.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33It grew so cold that diesel oil froze solid
0:28:33 > 0:28:35and beer and lemonade bottles burst.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48As the bitter weather went on, even the coast
0:28:48 > 0:28:50and harbour started to ice up.
0:28:50 > 0:28:51At several places, the sea froze,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54sometimes for a hundred feet out from shore.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56There was pack ice in most ports on the Humber.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00It forced a lightship adrift and there were sheets of ice in the dock
0:29:00 > 0:29:03at Chatham, Liverpool, Bristol, and Southampton.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05It was like a polar landscape.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Ships at their moorings were frozen in everywhere
0:29:16 > 0:29:18and some underways stuck fast.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21At Waltham, lifeboat men couldn't get to their boats for the first
0:29:21 > 0:29:22time in 40 years.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27Car ferry services were cancelled and so was the London-Paris train.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30The coastline of Britain was like an enormous deep-freeze.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39It was about then that we learned that the Soviet Antarctic base
0:29:39 > 0:29:44in Queen Maud Land had reported temperatures of 39 degrees,
0:29:44 > 0:29:4613 degrees warmer than London.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49For the first time in living memory, the Medway froze
0:29:49 > 0:29:53right across from Chatham to Rochester with ice two feet thick.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56The Navy had to use an icebreaker to keep Chatham Dockyard free.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Of course, not everyone found the ice a menace.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05What you lost on the football pitch, you gain on the ice rink.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10Suddenly Britain had become a winter sports resort.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13For most of us, the sport was improvised and unofficial,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17but in Lincolnshire the freeze made the professional ice race championship of Great Britain
0:30:17 > 0:30:21possible for the first time since 1959.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29At Ruislip, the water skiers managed to adapt themselves to the new conditions,
0:30:29 > 0:30:31with a car instead of a motorboat to do the towing
0:30:31 > 0:30:35a new sport was born. A pointless one, but new.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43It was also perfect weather for another more orthodox winter sport -
0:30:43 > 0:30:45ice yachting.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10If you haven't got an ice yacht of your own,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12you could always adapt a sailing dinghy.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26It froze so hard that, for only the second time since 1935,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29the great curling bonspiel, the Grand Match,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31could be held on the lake of Menteith.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33There were nearly 2,000 competitors.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Motorcycle scrambling was one of the few outdoor sports
0:31:37 > 0:31:39that could carry on uninterrupted by the weather.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42It set new problems, but it also gave it a new interest.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54As the cold got deeper still,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58the landscape of Britain took on a totally new appearance.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00One result of the deep and enduring frost
0:32:00 > 0:32:04was to produce fairyland sights no-one had ever seen
0:32:04 > 0:32:06and no-one may ever see again.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10This waterfall on Exmoor hasn't looked like this in living memory.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Perhaps even more spectacular are the Aysgarth Falls
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and while even this sight may not reconcile you to this winter,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40at least it's one of the few items on the credit side.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45In other parts of the country, things weren't quite so beautiful.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Chaos turned into crisis.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50It soon became clear that we simply couldn't cope
0:33:50 > 0:33:53with a cold spell of this severity and duration.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58Salt, water, gas, electricity, paraffin, milk, milk bottles,
0:33:58 > 0:34:03vegetables, coal, candles, disposable nappies -
0:34:03 > 0:34:07all of these were difficult or impossible to get at some time or other.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10And the water crisis is by no means over yet.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13In London alone the Metropolitan Water Board
0:34:13 > 0:34:15have had well over 3,000 burst mains reported
0:34:15 > 0:34:17since the cold weather started.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20In Birmingham, hundreds of underground service pipes froze solid
0:34:20 > 0:34:24and in the Manchester area the number of bursts of all kinds
0:34:24 > 0:34:27approached the 200,000 mark.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30In many parts of the country, water rationing was the order of the day
0:34:30 > 0:34:34and the emergency water tanker became a familiar sight.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38But for thousands of people
0:34:38 > 0:34:44this was the only supply of water there was, apart from melted snow.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46In other places, tanks were set up in the street,
0:34:46 > 0:34:50but even they froze up, and you needed hot water to thaw out the tap
0:34:50 > 0:34:53before you could get cold water to make hot water with.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02And after all this, when you've found enough buckets and kettles,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05carried them along the street, fill them up and carted them back again,
0:35:05 > 0:35:06you still couldn't do the washing-up
0:35:06 > 0:35:09because the waste pipe was frozen and the water wouldn't run away.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16The only ones who didn't mind were the children.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20School lavatories froze and that was the end of school.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23In parts of South Wales, even the 11+ was put off.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27120 schools in Hampshire never opened at all after the holidays,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30and in London over 20,000 children stayed at home.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34From every street in every town the same plea was heard,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37"Please send the plumber."
0:35:38 > 0:35:40But the worst failure was in electricity.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44The grid simply couldn't deliver the power fast enough.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47We got used to power cuts, at least in the London area,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50during the power workers' go-slow early in January.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53But once that unofficial dispute had been settled,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55we assumed - wrongly, as it turned out -
0:35:55 > 0:35:59that there would be enough electricity to go around everywhere.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01It soon became apparent that someone had underestimated
0:36:01 > 0:36:05our electricity requirements, even for a normal winter,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08and the buck of the blame was passed pretty smartly around,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12almost as quickly as the electricity was going through the grid itself
0:36:12 > 0:36:15during those frenetic days. The electricity board admitted
0:36:15 > 0:36:19that they had to make massive disconnections in the Southeast
0:36:19 > 0:36:21and practically no-one in the country
0:36:21 > 0:36:24had full power right through the crisis.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28The electricity people's advertising slogan,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31"Plug in electric living, that's all you have to do,"
0:36:31 > 0:36:34had by now a pretty hollow ring.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38In Piccadilly, the lights went out for the first time since 1949.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Hospitals were cut off without warning.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45Canterbury Cathedral blacked out in the middle of a service.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48Shops and offices kept going by candlelight.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51As the load increased, the supply dropped.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54And then came the worst - electricity cables
0:36:54 > 0:36:56from Britain's largest power station
0:36:56 > 0:36:59were short-circuited by freezing fog.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Men worked non-stop for 72 hours
0:37:02 > 0:37:06to clear the ice and get the supply going again.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10And, of course, when electrical power was cut, everyone turned to gas.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Many people, in fact, had their ovens on and open when heating.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18Faithful, constant gas - "You can rely on gas," the ad said.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23But, alas, we couldn't rely on gas. Gas couldn't cope either.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26The demand for gas rose everywhere,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29and where they could deliver they couldn't keep up with the demand.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33If you wanted coal for the fire, you had to go and fetch it for yourself.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42Reserves at the coal yard shrunk.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46The solid, frozen heaps got smaller and the demand became more desperate,
0:37:46 > 0:37:48but the coal couldn't get through.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Coal for gas for industry,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53coal to run the railway engines to pull the coal trains,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57coal to make electricity and after that coal for the ordinary consumer -
0:37:57 > 0:38:03the old and the sick, the ones who depended on coal to keep warm.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06And when the coal did arrive, it was frozen solid in the trucks
0:38:06 > 0:38:09and had to be thawed out before it could be unloaded.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13The heaps were hard as rock, but valuable as a gold.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19British Railways introduced a coal lift,
0:38:19 > 0:38:2120 special trains carrying 650 tonnes each
0:38:21 > 0:38:25shuttle backward and forward to the south of England.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Emergency lorries ran through the ice and snow in a never-ending stream.
0:38:29 > 0:38:35As a coal board official said, "We were on a knife edge."
0:38:35 > 0:38:37Crisis...
0:38:37 > 0:38:40crisis...
0:38:40 > 0:38:42crisis.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44What would have happened to the country
0:38:44 > 0:38:46if the freeze had gone on for another week?
0:38:46 > 0:38:49We shall mercifully, we hope, never know.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53On January 25, warmer air moved in from the Atlantic
0:38:53 > 0:38:56to cover Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and by the morning of the 26th covered the whole of Britain,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02and that was the thaw.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06We never thought slush could look so beautiful.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08People even started to see their lawns
0:39:08 > 0:39:10for the first time since Christmas.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Of course, it brought out the bursts.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14This one closed London's Southampton Row,
0:39:14 > 0:39:19but after being frozen stiff for 35 days it was a small price to pay.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23It wasn't even the fast, dangerous thaw we'd been warned of.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25It was slow and mild.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28It seemed too good to be true.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31It WAS too good to be true.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Three days after the thaw, the freeze was back with a vengeance.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41The blizzards followed.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Again, the West Country took the first onslaught,
0:39:44 > 0:39:46but Wales caught a packet as well.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04When the blizzard stopped,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07we took stock again and found it was worse than ever.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12On 8 February 70 people were marooned in cars and lorries around Dartmoor.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Had they gone by train, they wouldn't have fared much better -
0:40:15 > 0:40:1830 people were trapped in a train on Dartmoor too,
0:40:18 > 0:40:2250 in Argyllshire and another 18 in Ayrshire.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25The London train was eight hours late to Edinburgh.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29London to Stranraer passengers were 17 1/2 hours late.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33All the same, rail travellers were at least spared the ultimate indignity.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43All over Britain, motorists and highway authorities
0:40:43 > 0:40:45started digging out yet again.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47This time, it was worse than ever before.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Again, 200 main roads were blocked
0:40:51 > 0:40:56and now not 90,000 but 130,000 miles of highway were obstructed by snow,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58most of them paralysed.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Scotland and Cornwall were completely cut off.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Again, there were large-scale rescue operations.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10The chief one was the relief of Whiddon Down.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12This party of Royal Marines from Lympstone
0:41:12 > 0:41:14were digging their way to the village
0:41:14 > 0:41:16where hundred motorists and lorry drivers
0:41:16 > 0:41:19who abandoned their vehicles had taken shelter from the blizzard.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22When it was over, five feet of snow had fallen
0:41:22 > 0:41:25and it was known they were desperately short
0:41:25 > 0:41:27of food and blankets and that the power had failed.
0:41:27 > 0:41:32Whiddon Down wasn't equipped to take on 100 cold and hungry visitors.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39The Marines couldn't get through on the first day
0:41:39 > 0:41:40and nor could the snowploughs.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42It was learned that most of the castaways
0:41:42 > 0:41:45were spending the night in the village school room.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Next day, the snowploughs were at it again.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51By the time the clearance squads got through,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54100 drivers had had a night to remember.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57It was a night when the southwest broke another weather record -
0:41:57 > 0:41:59snow on the ground for 45 consecutive days.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02But by now the hard-hit Southwesterners
0:42:02 > 0:42:05were being warned of another new danger -
0:42:05 > 0:42:08a quick thaw with high winds and floods.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10The floods came.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19The River near Boscastle in Cornwall burst its banks
0:42:19 > 0:42:23and a wall of water four feet high smashed through the village.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Flood warnings were out all over Devon and Cornwall.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28The blizzard was still raging in Scotland,
0:42:28 > 0:42:34and in Boscastle they'd have willingly had it back in exchange for this.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37Of course, the freeze has had its lighter moments
0:42:37 > 0:42:38as well as it's tragic ones.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41In the years to come most of us will have some kind of story to tell
0:42:41 > 0:42:44about the great winter of 1963,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47but it was left to the wife of the Minister of Power,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51Mrs Richard Wood, to supply the bathos of the big freeze.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55I refer, of course, to the tail of the black woolly pants.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58When her husband was bothering himself with power cuts,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01gas rationing and coal shortages, Mrs Wood was quoted as saying,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04"English people don't wear enough clothes,"
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and she allowed herself to be photographed in black fishnet tights
0:43:08 > 0:43:13and black woolly pants with a little bit of white trimming at the knee.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15The Big Freeze has happened.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19It takes its place in our history, but how did it happen?
0:43:19 > 0:43:22What is the explanation that our weather experts offer
0:43:22 > 0:43:24as the cause of it all?
0:43:24 > 0:43:30Well, stage one. On December 21 this Siberian anticyclone
0:43:30 > 0:43:34started to move in our direction, but the westerly Atlantic winds,
0:43:34 > 0:43:38which usually keep it at bay, suddenly weakened and...
0:43:38 > 0:43:42the Siberian anticyclone moved right across to us.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44And by December 22, it had hit us.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48It was here and the Big Freeze had begun.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50Then stage two, another anticyclone
0:43:50 > 0:43:52that usually stays in Greenland, up here,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55came down to join the Siberian one.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58This brought a lot of freezing air from the North Pole with it.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00That was the Boxing Day snow.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03Then came stage three.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06The weekend after Christmas a belt of warm air
0:44:06 > 0:44:10tried to get up from the south, but by now the cold front here
0:44:10 > 0:44:13was so dug-in that it beat back the warm air.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15The result of this was a clash
0:44:15 > 0:44:20and the blizzard which particularly struck the Southwest.
0:44:20 > 0:44:21Then came stage four.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26On January 4, the warm air tried once again to get up to us.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31It got a bit further this time, but the cold air stayed dug in
0:44:31 > 0:44:33and the warm air went over the top of cold
0:44:33 > 0:44:36so that you've got this curious layer thing
0:44:36 > 0:44:38and the freezing rain was the warm front,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41raining through the cold underneath it.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44On January 14 and 15th came stage five.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48Now the two anticyclones, the Siberian one and the one from Greenland,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50split and started to go back to where they came from.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53Now, what should have happened was that it should have
0:44:53 > 0:44:56let in this warm air from here and there should have been a thaw.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58But...oh, no.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Because on the night of January 15th came stage six.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05The warm air changed its mind, didn't come down to us at all,
0:45:05 > 0:45:10it veered right away from us and went down here towards the Bay of Biscay.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14And the Siberian anticyclone, finding everything clear again,
0:45:14 > 0:45:16moved into the attack once more,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19and the blizzard began all over again, the air got colder
0:45:19 > 0:45:22and colder and the really deep freeze was on.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Anyway, that's how it happened, but why did it happen?
0:45:26 > 0:45:30Some American weatherman has come forward with a fascinating theory.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32If you remember, what started the whole thing off
0:45:32 > 0:45:33was those westerly winds.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36They should have kept out the Siberian anticyclone
0:45:36 > 0:45:38but they didn't. Why didn't they?
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Well, the Americans say that the reason is to be found here,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45in the Pacific. Of all places, near Hawaii.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47There's a patch of the Pacific Ocean,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49hundreds and thousands of square miles,
0:45:49 > 0:45:51that suddenly last summer got unusually warm
0:45:51 > 0:45:54and has stayed like that during the autumn and winter.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56As a result, so much moisture has been sent
0:45:56 > 0:46:00up into the atmosphere here that it switched all the upper air currents
0:46:00 > 0:46:03and exaggerated their north-south swings
0:46:03 > 0:46:06so that the cold air has been sent first up the north
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and then plunging right down here into the south
0:46:09 > 0:46:12where the Gulf of Mexico has had an unusually bad winter,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15it's swung up again and then down, descending on Europe.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20So they say we can blame the freeze-up on the Hawaiians.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25And what does the Big Freeze cost? First, in human life.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27The latest unofficial estimates for this country
0:46:27 > 0:46:33put the death toll at 120 directly attributable to the very cold spell.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35The severe weather filled the nation's hospitals,
0:46:35 > 0:46:37and in the London area,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40emergency bed services red warning was in operation.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44Hospitals refused routine admissions so as to cope with emergencies.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Babies and old people were particularly hit by the intense cold.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51But on the other hand, the rest of us have evidently
0:46:51 > 0:46:53had fewer common colds and flu this winter.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Insurance claims for snow and ice damage
0:46:58 > 0:47:00are expected to top £15 million.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04The road clearance bill is expected to come to over £20 million,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07it's £3 million at the most on average.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10And millions more will have to be spent in repairing the roads
0:47:10 > 0:47:13and motorways cracked by the freeze.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Buildings and construction work has been at a standstill.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21In all, the interim estimate of the physical cost to the nation
0:47:21 > 0:47:25is said to be £150-£200 million.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29And many believe this to be an underestimate.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32But what the Big Freeze has shown is that the country is simply
0:47:32 > 0:47:35not geared to meet an abnormally savage winter.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Techniques of snow clearance don't seem to have advanced much
0:47:38 > 0:47:42since the Arc, let alone since 1947, the last major freeze-up.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45Many authorities still don't stockpile much rock salt,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47although a process has been developed
0:47:47 > 0:47:50for storing it in the open without it caking.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Again, most county and borough surveyors are still saying
0:47:53 > 0:47:56that the expense of mechanised snow clearance isn't justified
0:47:56 > 0:48:00although the cost of the most sophisticated piece of equipment
0:48:00 > 0:48:03is tiny compared with the millions this winter has already cost us.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08A snowplough and blower, for instance, costs £7,000.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11And now that the power cuts are, we hope, behind us
0:48:11 > 0:48:14are we going to forget about that gap in our electricity supply?
0:48:14 > 0:48:17When pushed to it, at the height of the power crisis,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20the electricity people said it would need £90 million -
0:48:20 > 0:48:23the price, incidentally, of two Polaris submarines -
0:48:23 > 0:48:26to close the gap, and give us a small margin of safety.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29Spreading this capital cost over 25 years,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31which is the normal accountancy procedure,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34it shouldn't add more than sevenpence-ha'penny
0:48:34 > 0:48:36in the pound on every electricity bill,
0:48:36 > 0:48:38just the price of four candles.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41And what good has come out of the Big Freeze?
0:48:41 > 0:48:45So far at least one piece of parliamentary legislation is in the offing.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50And that is at long-last a compulsory freeze-free domestic water system -
0:48:50 > 0:48:52interior plumbing, lagging and so on.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57But only for new homes, it won't affect the 14 million old houses.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Apart from that, we can only hope that the public and local authorities
0:49:00 > 0:49:04who were caught with their pants down will pull their socks up,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06if you see what we mean.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08For the rest of us, it's probably cured us
0:49:08 > 0:49:11of dreaming of a white Christmas for the next 10 years or so.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15And for the history book there's one more spectacularly cold winter
0:49:15 > 0:49:17to set beside the famous ones
0:49:17 > 0:49:22like AD 764, 1684,
0:49:22 > 0:49:241740, 1881,
0:49:24 > 0:49:271940 and 1947.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33During the day, it's been snowing in most of southern England and Wales.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36And we're told it's freezing too.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41But at least we've been through the Big Freeze of 1963.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43Part one?
0:50:17 > 0:50:21What an extraordinary film. Amazing.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23And when you look at it,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27it's hard to imagine how we as a nation actually survived that.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30And if it happened today, I know one thing,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32there'd be a shovel shortage.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36But what that film didn't explain is what effect the Big Freeze
0:50:36 > 0:50:40had on our British wildlife.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43Winter is always a tough time for wildlife.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45It's not only the coldest time of year,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48but the days are really short and food is scare.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54So wild creatures have to battle extra hard just to survive.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59Now some, like bats, hedgehogs and dormice, opt out altogether,
0:50:59 > 0:51:03they hibernate. Others migrate.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Birds such as swallows and cuckoos leave our shores each autumn
0:51:06 > 0:51:09to spend the winter in sunny Africa.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15But many wild creatures can't hibernate or migrate,
0:51:15 > 0:51:16or they choose not to.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20For them, getting through the winter simply becomes a case
0:51:20 > 0:51:23of finding enough food to keep their energy levels up.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26For small birds like these tits,
0:51:26 > 0:51:31that means eating about a third of your body weight every single day.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34It means feeding from dawn, all the way through till dusk.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39Now, in mild winters, finding food is relatively easy,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42but as soon as there's snow and ice on the ground,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45then things get really, really tough.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52Even during the fairly short cold snap in winter 2010,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54many creatures struggled to cope
0:51:54 > 0:51:59as a thick layer of snow made it much harder for them to find food.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04All of our wildlife suffered, but birds were especially badly hit.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11So just imagine what it must have been like for them back in 1963
0:52:11 > 0:52:14when it wasn't just incredibly cold,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17with snow covering virtually the whole country,
0:52:17 > 0:52:20but also, it went on for so long.
0:52:20 > 0:52:26Some birds didn't hang around to see how bad things were going to get.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Large flocks of lapwings, starlings and thrushes
0:52:29 > 0:52:34were seen heading south almost as soon as the first blizzards hit.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36But they were the lucky ones.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41Those birds that stayed to wait for the thaw were soon in big trouble.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47Imagine being a wren, weighing just a few grams.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Wrens have to eat almost half their body weight a day
0:52:50 > 0:52:53just to get through the night alive.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57And when the entire landscape is covered with snow and ice,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59that's really, really difficult.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Not just wrens, all of those other birds
0:53:02 > 0:53:05that were trying to feed on invertebrates were in trouble,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09things like goldcrests and long-tailed tits.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13These birds didn't die in their tens of thousands, sadly,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16they died in their hundreds of thousands.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21But it wasn't just the small birds that struggled to survive.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23As we saw across the whole of the country,
0:53:23 > 0:53:28virtually every stream, pond, lake and river was frozen solid.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35The impact on Britain's water birds was absolutely catastrophic,
0:53:35 > 0:53:40cutting off their food supply and leaving them with nowhere to go.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44Back in 2010, we saw that birds that depended on water could
0:53:44 > 0:53:48radically change their behaviour in order to try and survive.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Normally shy birds such as this bittern
0:53:52 > 0:53:53became much less elusive
0:53:53 > 0:53:57as they searched desperately for something to eat.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And water rails turned into ruthless predators.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03This one killed and ate an unfortunate meadow pipit.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09But of course, in 2010 we were only cold for a couple of weeks.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Back in '63 the whole of Britain was frozen to a standstill
0:54:13 > 0:54:17for two whole months - January and February.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21And our water birds really suffered.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23When things get cold and nasty,
0:54:23 > 0:54:28species like kingfishers normally flee to the south and the west.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31But back in 1963 this didn't happen.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36Particularly because the south and west, as we've seen, was hardest hit.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39But also, because the sea froze.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42So kingfishers couldn't even find a refuge there.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48And it wasn't just the resident water birds that suffered.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51Every winter, Britain's coastal estuaries
0:54:51 > 0:54:55and marshes play host to millions of waders and wildfowl -
0:54:55 > 0:54:59ducks, geese and swans - that come here from the Arctic in search
0:54:59 > 0:55:02of a milder climate and plenty of food.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05Most years that strategy certainly pays off.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10But how did they cope during the Big Freeze of '63?
0:55:10 > 0:55:12Well, these wintering wildfowl
0:55:12 > 0:55:16did manage to last longer than many other species of birds.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18They are quite tough and they also managed
0:55:18 > 0:55:22to find a few patches of open water where they could gather and feed.
0:55:22 > 0:55:28But as the winter went on, even they began to struggle.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33There's no doubt that for these birds it was a really challenging time.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39So did any creatures actually benefit from the Big Freeze?
0:55:39 > 0:55:42Well, not surprisingly with all of these birds dying,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45scavengers and predators did particularly well.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47So foxes, they were OK.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51And birds of prey like buzzards and kestrels, crows and magpies.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55But perhaps surprisingly, even some of our smaller species
0:55:55 > 0:55:58managed to get through by changing their diet.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02Starlings and sparrows, which normally eat grain, turned cannibal
0:56:02 > 0:56:06and started eating the corpses of their cousins
0:56:06 > 0:56:08that had died of starvation.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12By the beginning of March, with no sign of the snow melting,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16it must have seemed as if the Big Freeze would never end.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21But within a week, the thaw had finally begun
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and it was time to count the cost.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29It was estimated that over half of all Britain's birds had died
0:56:29 > 0:56:31as a result of that terrible winter.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Frankly, it's unimaginable, isn't it?
0:56:38 > 0:56:40And yet, really surprisingly,
0:56:40 > 0:56:44it didn't make that much difference to their numbers in the long-term.
0:56:44 > 0:56:49Take the wren, for instance - within five years it had bounced back
0:56:49 > 0:56:54to the levels it's population was at before the Big Freeze.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59And by the mid-1970s it had even become Britain's commonest bird.
0:56:59 > 0:57:00Now it might seem odd
0:57:00 > 0:57:03that this Big Freeze didn't have the negative impact
0:57:03 > 0:57:08on our bird populations in the long term that we might have suspected.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11But many of these birds have evolved to cope with these
0:57:11 > 0:57:13sorts of natural disasters.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15You see, they can have several broods a year,
0:57:15 > 0:57:17and produce quite a lot of young.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19So as long as they can breed successfully,
0:57:19 > 0:57:21they can soon bounce back.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25But what would happen if we had another Big Freeze today?
0:57:25 > 0:57:29Which of Britain's birds would be the winners and which the losers?
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Our countryside has changed dramatically in the last 50 years.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38And as a result, I think that our farmland birds
0:57:38 > 0:57:40would be in big trouble.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44That's because in our desire to produce cheap food,
0:57:44 > 0:57:45farming is now so efficient
0:57:45 > 0:57:50that there are virtually no spare seeds or grain left in the fields
0:57:50 > 0:57:51for the birds to eat.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57On the other hand, birds that visit our gardens
0:57:57 > 0:58:00would probably do much better than they did in 1963.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03We now provide enough food to give them
0:58:03 > 0:58:07a lifeline even in the hardest winter weather.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12So in just half a century, the span of my own lifetime,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15things have certainly changed for Britain's wildlife.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19What an extraordinary story
0:58:19 > 0:58:20of how we and our wildlife
0:58:20 > 0:58:25lived through the hardest winter in the last two centuries.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27Will it ever happen again?
0:58:27 > 0:58:31Well, given that we are experiencing more and more extreme weather events,
0:58:31 > 0:58:35which scientists are putting down to global climate change,
0:58:35 > 0:58:37I wouldn't be at all surprised.
0:58:37 > 0:58:39Goodbye.
0:58:49 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd