Episode 15 Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman

'Childhood holidays? Ho-ho, the anticipation seemed endless.

'The holiday itself? Well, it was over too quickly.

'So in this series I'm going to be reliving those wonderful times

'with some much-loved famous faces.'

THEY SCREAM

'Every day, I'll be arranging a few surprises

'to transport them back in time.'

Oh, look!

-SHE LAUGHS

-It's just as I remember!

'We'll relive the fun...'

HE SQUEALS WITH LAUGHTER

'..the games...'

-BOTH: Yes!

-We got 'em!

'..and the food of years gone by...'

Yummy!

Welcome to 1959!

-Total happiness.

-Yes, perfect.

'..to find out how those holidays around the UK helped shape

'the people we know so well today.'

Bruce Forsyth.

BRUCE FORSYTH IMPRESSION Marvellous, Len, you're still my favourite.

'So buckle up for Holiday Of My Lifetime!'

You know, Len, I'm quite enjoying being on me holidays with you.

'On today's journey through time, I'm in luscious Kent,

'picking up our mystery holiday-maker

'in a 1920s steam train.

'And, no, I'm not turning into a giant,

'this is a world famous little locomotive!'

HORN HONKS

Today I'm on my way to pick up a celebrity that's not only

a comedian but a lover of the great outdoors.

This is him as a young 'un.

He was born in 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire.

Now, this likeable lad became famous in the '70s

in one of the best comedy groups.

Now, does that ring a bell?

Another clue, and this is a "Goodie" -

he's a twitcher.

Yes, a birdwatcher.

You got him? You must have it by now!

We're on our way to meet the loveable Lancashire lad,

Bill Oddie.

Bill! I'm heading your way!

'73 years ago, Bill was born to parents Lilian and Harry.

'And though he was born in Rochdale, he grew up in Quinton, Birmingham.

'When his mum became ill and was hospitalised indefinitely,

'Bill was raised by his dad, an accountant,

'and his grandmother.

'He went on to study at Cambridge University

'and it was starring in drama club performances with the likes of

'John Cleese that whetted his appetite to later appear on screen.

'In the '70s Bill created and acted in hit TV comedy The Goodies,

'and soared to stardom.

'A father and grandfather, Bill's now best known for turning

'his lifelong passion for birds into a successful broadcasting career,

'and has presented long running series like Bill Oddie Goes Wild.'

I have now attracted an audience of about 20 cows.

'But today I'm choo-chooing into the station to find out how

'he used to spend his free time on holiday as a child.'

My god!

Well, it's always as well to have a second string to your bow, isn't it?

-Exactly!

-Yeah.

# When you grow too old to dance

# You can drive a train, boom-boom! #

Well, I tell you, was you expecting this?

Erm, no, I wasn't really, although I knew it was here.

'The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway

'is the Smallest Public Railway in the World,

'and has been transporting tourists on trips

'along its 13 miles of Kent track for 87 years!'

So, Bill, where are we going?

Well, I think you may have heard of it.

-We're going to Dungeness.

-Ah, right.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-The actual Dungeness.

-You've got the power station down there.

Ah, that's the thing, you have now,

but not when I first came here.

Right, well, we'll try and get rid of that for you

so it looks authentic.

-And what year is it?

-It was 1957.

-I was 13.

-Ah, I was an older boy!

I was 16.

-Right.

-Yeah, I was 16,

and it was the first holiday,

my first trip away with just a couple of other friends from school.

Well, let's go and get on one of the carriages

and we'll have a little natter.

-Yeah, and who's driving, then?

-Not me.

-First class?

-Always first class for you, Bill.

-Always first class, yeah.

'First class for a class act,

'and this dinky little number will get us to Dungeness in no time!'

'On the south-east coast of England,

'Dungeness is the most southerly part of Kent,

'and lies between Dover and Hastings,

'on the tip of the Romney Marsh peninsular.

'A 12 square mile spot, its 6,000-year-old stretch of shore

'is the largest in the whole of Europe.

'It's always been populated by fishing families who still

'form the backbone of local life.

'But the landscape was changed forever with the controversial

'power station built in 1965.

'And though it may appear to be super industrial here, it's home to

'some of the most diverse wildlife in the whole of the UK.

'No wonder it's popular with conservationist Bill!

'Today I'm taking him back to re-live those exciting days

'when he travelled here as a teen with his mates...'

It was an adventure. We had no idea what it was really going to be like.

'..enjoying the sights, smells and noises

'in a wildlife lover's paradise!'

If we went over there now

we'd be drowned out by...

HE CROAKS

Really?

'And we'll see just how those days in Dungeness shaped Britain's

'best-known birdwatcher.'

This isn't just a matter of saying, "Oh, isn't this cute?"

It's a little bit of life in your hands.

'Before any holiday truly begins, first you must set out on a journey.

'We all remember that eager anticipation of the golden moments

'that lie in wait at our magical destination.

'Today, we're squeezing into carriages 66% smaller

'than the average sized train! Whoo-hoo!'

-11...

-Oh, gor blimey! I'm stuck!

BILL LAUGHS

-Right, there you go.

-You in?

-Yeah.

'And we're off!'

-So, Bill, tell me, why Dungeness?

-Why Dungeness?

Cos I've never, ever been on a normal holiday.

My mum was in hospital right the way through the period I was growing up.

My dad really didn't get about very much.

Like so many schoolboys of my age, my era, 1940s, you know,

I used to collect birds' eggs.

Three of us set out, 1957, at the age of 15 or 16,

to go to the nearest bird observatory,

and that was at Dungeness, and you'll get, sort of,

training in bird watching and bird ringing and all that kind of thing.

There were one or two specialities.

I remember stone curlew is one of them that we hoped we would see.

And did you see one or...?

We did eventually, it took a bit of finding cos, well, you can hear 'em.

BILL WHISTLES

It's as though there's a bird in this carriage.

-BILL LAUGHS

-That was so realistic!

'In 1957, Bill and his birding buddies caught two standard sized

'trains to get from Birmingham to Dungeness.'

You must have been so excited, the three of you, off on an adventure!

It was an adventure, we had no idea what it was really going to be like

to be away from families and all that.

But mainly we didn't know what it would look like,

and I remember we'd been told where to get off, er, to coin a phrase.

There's nobody there, there's no station, it's just a platform.

You get off, walk towards the sea,

you'll see a lighthouse in the distance, you know.

-Well, it's kind of like a treasure hunt, isn't it, that?

-Yeah.

-It really is.

-Are you excited to come back here, or...?

-Yeah.

-Yeah!

'In 1957, the world was a very different place.

'Britain was experiencing a post-war boom, and Prime Minister

'Harold "Supermac" Macmillan's slogan was,

"You've never had it so good."

'One of the top selling tunes of the year was That'll Be The Day

'by Buddy Holly & The Crickets.

Whoa-r-r, That'll Be The Day!

'The BBC's Panorama broadcast an April Fools Day report

'claiming to show spaghetti being harvested in Switzerland!

'A fresh-faced Patrick Moore was the first person to pilot

'a non-fiction astronomy series.'

It's coming out, yes - there is the Moon.

And not long after The Sky at Night's television debut,

Russia launched the Sputnik satellite -

the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere,

followed by the first space pioneer - a dog.

A Russian husky called Laika...

To begin Bill's adventure back on Dungeness soil,

I've brought him to where his holiday of a lifetime began.

Well, Bill, is this how you sort of remember it to be?

Absolutely and completely, yeah.

This is flashback time, serious flashback time.

Let's face it, there's plenty of parts of Britain,

let alone parts of the world,

where you have a big flat area like this.

It would have a park on it, a theme park,

or it would have been a new town.

And obviously, this is well protected.

Other than the two power stations,

Dungeness has barely changed in 57 years.

And to preserve the abundance of wildlife,

it's been declared a National Nature Reserve,

Special Protection Area,

Special Area of Conservation

AND a site of scientific interest!

Phew...that's a mouthful.

That power station arriving and being constructed,

would that have affected the birdlife here?

Well, it wasn't as bad as we expected, cos to them,

those great big concrete...monstrosities

are actually cliffs.

But the big one...

This...this was some kind of water outflow

and about 100 yards offshore, it sort of bobbles up

and it became known as The Patch,

because it was obviously attracting fish

and the fish were attracting sea birds.

People sit there with their telescopes,

watch birds coming in to The Patch

and many, many really good, interesting, rare sea birds

have been seen.

Talking of telescopes,

do you go anywhere without your binoculars with you?

No. You can tell a non-birdwatcher -

and I hope this doesn't apply to you, mate.

First thing you do when you buy a pair of decent binoculars,

throw the case away - you don't need it, all right?

-Yeah. You just...ever ready.

-Have 'em ready, exactly.

I left my binoculars at home. And...I wish I hadn't, Bill.

Mainly because my first surprise

is a visit to the top of this lighthouse,

which has the most spectacular vista...

Lovely! I've always wanted to do that.

I want to find out how Bill's childhood passion for nature

would influence him throughout his life.

Lighthouses have been keeping the ships

navigating the dangerously narrow Dover Strait safe since the 1600s.

This beauty was built in 1904,

but as soon as the power station came along,

it didn't take a bright spark to realise

ships couldn't see it anymore, so a new one was built.

Because this old one was in use during Bill's trip in the '50s,

he couldn't go up it.

But now he can, so manager Jill has agreed

to give us the keys - ho-ho! - which came into the family's hands

as a bit of a surprise!

My father came by this lighthouse in 1984.

We were going to an auction to buy a car

and we ended up with a lighthouse.

-He bought it in an auction?

-Yes.

-How much did he pay for it?

He never told me.

He said, "Good daughters don't ask those questions."

Well, thank you so much for allowing us to visit.

We're going to start our way up.

Bill and I had better brace ourselves -

made with 3 million bricks, it's 150 feet high

and there's no lift!

"Dungeness Lighthouse - any person entering these premises

"does so at their own risk."

-Yeah.

-Lead on.

The 169 steps to the top are NOT for the faint-hearted -

or this couple o' creaky fellows.

How's the knee then, Len?

Well, the knee is holding up, thank you.

-We've got two good knees between us, I think.

-I think so.

BILL LAUGHS

Well, this is my first - I'm a lighthouse virgin.

I've been up a few in my time.

You never forget the first time.

I can't wait for Bill to see the extent

of his holiday turf from 1957 -

if we can actually get out to the viewing platform.

-Are we going to go out in this...?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-What, through here?

-Yes.

-There I am - come on, Bill.

-I don't know what to do, either.

LEN LAUGHS

-Look at you!

-Now what do we do?

-Take my arm.

-We'll do it that way.

-Leg first.

-Argh! That's it, that's it...

-Hey!

-Excellent.

-Cor, this is...

-Fantastic, isn't it?

-Look at it.

-That's fantastic.

-That is a view.

-See the wind farm right on the horizon there?

That's sort of where Dungeness starts or ends,

whichever way you look at it

and it's been built up over the years to come further and further out.

Way up here, you can see where the sands meet the water -

and what a wonderful but harsh landscape

for a teenage boy's holiday!

You must have been a determined young lad to have

got off at that station

and marched your way across that...you know?

-I mean...we didn't quite know what we were coming to!

-Yeah.

As far as we knew, it might be a lovely beach resort

with lots of palm trees and lots of birds.

But...hey, if you're going to be determined and reckless,

-I think 16's probably the age to do it.

-I agree.

Well, I think it's time we went back in before my wig blows off.

But bird obsessed Bill's got other ideas...

I bet there's a few birds been seen from up here.

You can imagine a bird of prey circling around, couldn't you?

And it's a bit breezy today...

TAPPING

What? Who?

Ah!

# The phantom of the lighthouse is calling me... #

BILL CHUCKLES

Characterised by its unusually mixed terrain,

inland is a mass of marshland.

You look at all those bushes, you know -

at ground level, you can't see that.

No - I don't think they were there when I first came.

This time of year, if we went over there now,

we'd be drowned out by...

HE IMITATES CROAKING

-Really?

-Yeah.

I don't know my mother-in-law was going to be over there.

BILL WHEEZES WITH LAUGHTER

The marsh frogs, which have come over from France, somehow -

I don't think they swam The Channel - they're all over the place here.

And the noise - it's a bit later in the spring, when they spawn.

So I'm pretty sure they'll be going at it so loud.

I think it's time to make the descent.

THEY IMITATE CROAKING

OK...

'Bill's passion for all things animal

'is rubbing off on me already!'

-That was good.

-It was, wasn't it?

-That was interesting.

-The knee's feeling it, though.

-A little bit, yeah.

THEY LAUGH

Nothing an ice pack won't sort out, though.

Dungeness may be largely unspoilt,

but it has subtly changed over the years.

And what historian Owen Leyshon

doesn't know about the lay of this land isn't worth knowing!

Dungeness used to be called Nanny Goat Island

and this was before the power station was built.

It was an isolated community and so, to get their milk,

each dwelling, each house, had a goat

which wandered around or got tethered for milking purposes.

Today, we've lost the goats and the sheep as well,

and so the bushes have taken off in the 1950s and '60s

and we have quite lush, wooded areas on Dungeness

which wasn't the case back in the '30s, '40s and early '50s.

600,000 people visit Dungeness each year.

Before its decommissioning in 2006, the first-built Dungeness A

was the oldest operating nuclear power station in the world.

The second, Dungeness B, is capable of supplying energy

to more than 1.5 million homes.

The public can take a free tour of the station

to learn all about electricity production.

With hundreds of miles of trails to choose from,

the Romney Marsh Countryside Project, set up in 1996,

encourages people to enjoy the countryside

with guided walks and cycle rides.

Camber Sands is a five-mile stretch of glorious golden beach

and is crying out for a holiday-maker's bucket and spade!

Just a stone's throw from here is Rye's Old Pier Amusement Arcade.

Old pennies, that stopped being circulated in 1971,

can be bought from the Heritage Centre

so you can play fully working machines

dating back to the 1900s - what fun!

Part of the magic of any childhood holiday

is the excitement of staying somewhere new -

the sights, sounds and smells

of those hotels, motels and campsites.

When Bill went to Dungeness in 1957 to learn about all things birdie,

he stayed in these cottages that were built in the 1800s.

Once the royal naval signal station,

they became the Bird Observatory Headquarters in 1952.

There's the name - "Dungeness Bird Observatory."

That still excites me, just to see those words.

Bryan Murray's been a trustee of the Observatory for years.

-Bryan, is it?

-Bryan Murray, yeah.

-Hi, Bryan.

-How do you do?

-I'm OK, thanks.

-Bryan - Len Goodman.

Bryan's going to show Bill where him and his pals

bunked for their week's trip back in '57.

Back then, Bill paid four shillings to stay here,

but there would have been no hot water or electricity.

Eh...luxury! Look at that.

We didn't have white or magnolia...

And forget en-suite bedrooms -

Bill and his pals slept in a pretty primitive dormitory.

Well, it wasn't like this. I mean, it so wasn't.

As I remember, I don't think there were bunk beds.

I don't think there were beds at all, literally.

It was just, sort of, a sleeping bag on the floor.

I bet you three young lads, away from home,

all kipping down together - you had some laughs, did you?

There is a fun element.

It's like a sleepover, in a way, something like this

and it's a little bit rough and ready - it was then.

Let's push on.

THEY LAUGH

Despite its name, the observatory wasn't just about bird watching,

but a place of monitoring and conservation,

all under the watchful eye of one man.

The warden, who is long gone now, was a very famous man called Bert.

What he did do was wake us up - this was early September -

at something like 3.30 or 4.00 every morning.

He would wake us up, say, "Come on, everybody out, everybody out",

and it was our job to go round a number of these traps

and drive the birds into the trap.

It sounds rough, but it isn't - the bird would be unharmed.

But then, if we caught something at the end,

he would be measuring the bird, weighing the bird,

ringing the bird, releasing the bird.

And it was a great way of actually learning stuff, you know?

At 15 or 16, you didn't know

about how to even identify a lot of the birds.

Do people, if they happen to see a nest or whatever,

do they jealously guard it and don't tell others?

Or are they quite open about it and say, "You've got to come down here,

"there's a nesting pair of...lesser spotted whatnots"?

Less spotted whatnots? You see, there speaks a dude.

Everything's lesser spotted.

A dude being a well-spoken, posh, well-meaning birdwatcher

who's probably got the gear, but doesn't really know that much

and would never, ever talk about a lesser spotted whatnot, would they?

I apologise.

Well, that's me told!

I may not know my birds,

but while Bill was studying his chaffinches,

I was studying me cha-cha-chas!

So, we know where Bill used to stay in 1957, but decades ago,

accommodation for holiday-makers was like hens' teeth

here in Dungeness.

In the 1920s, railway workers bought old rolling stock for ten quid

and converted them into holiday homes.

Today, they can sell for a fortune

but in the '30s, families rented them for £3 a week.

We came here and stayed at this bungalow,

which is a converted railway carriage

and it's still here.

I can remember coming on the train, I'd have been about three.

We said, "Can we go to the beach, Mum?"

The beaches were absolutely divine, and it still is.

We stayed there until, when it was time for a meal,

my father would open the bedroom window and whistle.

And we'd say, "That's Dad", and we'd come flying home for our dinner

and it was all very exciting.

When I look back, it was bleak, but we never thought it as bleak.

We just thought it was beautiful, because actually, then,

the sun shone all day long, we never had bad weather,

that I can remember.

But that's us - when you're children,

you never remember the bad.

You only remember the good.

Bill may be best known for his encyclopaedic knowledge

of all things feathery,

but he made animals appealing to the masses

thanks to his comedy background.

Literally a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me

and for this dragonfly.

# There will be bluebirds over

# The white cliffs of Dover... #

Oh, incidentally, by the way, in case you've ever wondered,

there won't.

I want to know how he got into entertainment,

and as he's completely at home in the comfort of a twitcher's hide,

'it's the perfect place to find out how he flourished.'

Let me ask you, Bill - you've come back here,

as you know, from when you were 15, 16.

Did you have any idea how your life was going to go?

Not in any way. At that stage, I certainly hadn't a clue.

I was quite lucky in having a dad

that...had ambitions for me, actually.

He lived vicariously through me, to a point, and as regards a job,

when I went to university

and just before I was about to leave university, I still had no idea.

Talking of university, you met John Cleese there.

-What was he like?

-Not just John -

Eric Idle was there, Graeme Garden, Graham Chapman,

Tim Brooke-Taylor was in the same college.

So, yeah, a whole bunch of people

who happened to get together at that stage.

How did you then get into showbusiness?

I think the word has to be "accident".

The show from Cambridge, 1963,

we went to London, we went to America,

and when I got back to London in 1965,

it was like...some moment.

I remember thinking, "I think this is what I do, now."

How did The Goodies come about?

We wanted to do something very visual,

based on cartoon values and silent movies,

that sort of thing.

You just came along, really, and just...

But we were not unknown, you see.

That's what people perhaps don't realise.

We had worked on other shows.

Bill has many strings to his bow - in the '60s and '70s,

he released numerous singles,

naturally tinged with his fabulous humour.

-# We're gonna knit

-Baby, gonna knit all day

-# We're gonna knit

-Gonna knit my blues away

# Ah, knitting's better, better, better... #

I heard a rumour - that's all, a little rumour -

that...two of your LPs were produced by George Martin.

Yeah, that's true.

None other than The Beatles' music producer!

This is memory lane.

It was like going round full circle -

you started off in '57,

coming down here and looking at birds

and then you sort of drifted back into that.

Well, it never stopped, you see.

The secret to this piece of fortuitous timing,

em...was that I had never stopped being a birdwatcher.

The Goodies ended about 1980 - I think it was TV-am,

they were in the habit of ringing me up and saying,

"We'd like to do a little wildlife piece", you know.

And it really went from there.

I suppose what I felt was, "Oh, wait a minute,

"they're accepting me as being a wildlife person

"as well as just a gimmicky comic who happens to know something about it."

One of Bill's fondest memories from 1957

was being sent out by the observatory warden,

to help pop small rings round birds' legs

to monitor the population.

-So, Bill...

-Yeah.

What exactly is this?

LAUGHING: That's a good question!

Um...it's called a Heligoland trap.

Heligoland is a little island which I think is owned by Germany,

had a bird observatory on it, years and years ago,

and somebody invented this in order to catch the birds to ring them, OK?

In my day, schoolboys would move forward into those bushes

and just chivvy the bird up this funnel,

which is getting smaller and smaller and smaller,

till it gets to the end bit, and chivvy it into the box,

take the box out.

-Let's imagine - '57...

-Yeah.

-You and I got down there...

-Yeah.

Shall we go and do a bit of chivvying?

Yeah, we'll do a bit of chivvying. We'll go and drive the trap round.

That's the noise - psh-psh-psh-psh!

Psh! Psh-psh-psh-psh...

-Psh-psh-psh-psh. Psh-psh-psh-psh.

-Psh!

-Psh-psh-psh-psh.

-Ooh...oh, oh...

-Psh-psh-psh-psh.

-Psh!

You sure I'm doing this right?

Psh-psh-psh!

'Well, no birds are showing up today,

'so I think you'd better use your imagination.'

-Bird flies in there, and then...

-Through the door.

Yeah, that's good. You're getting the idea.

-I've got the knack of this, now.

-I think so.

-I put my hand in there.

-There you go. That's good.

-Like that? Ooh...

-To the manor born.

-Ring it?

-Yeah. Then, eventually...

It was as if it was here.

That moment...you can imagine it, especially if you're just up,

you haven't been before.

It's really exciting and just now...

You never know what's going to come out.

Sometimes you don't know what's going to come out, exactly.

Bill and I may not have had a close encounter

with any tweeters today, but every year in Dungeness,

200 different species fly in and around these glorious shores.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

have been on the go here since 1906.

The man-made lakes created back in the '50s

attract many winged wonders, like the great crested grebe.

Down the coast at Rye Bay,

they enjoy Scallop Week every February -

a festival celebrating seafood dishes.

Foodies come to indulge in the cookery schools

and tasting events on offer.

Delicious.

Dating back to 1623,

The Pilot Inn has always been popular with the locals.

Centuries on, it's a modernised family-run pub,

renowned for serving some of the finest fish and chips in England.

Back in '57, the birds Bill and his buddies saw

with would be noted each day back at HQ,

and there's a special treat for Bill -

Bryan still has his logbook!

Oh, WEO - that's me, yes.

"Red-necked phalarope, one."

-Oh...

-What we found here, Bill, is your actual entry

from September '57.

BILL CHUCKLES

And despite my tender years, I could write reasonably legibly

and use some extraordinarily presumptuous, big words.

Look at me...

BILL LAUGHS

"During the afternoon one party visited the Midrips whilst another

"proved their skill at hitting tin cans with stones on the beach.

"And seeing remarkably few birds at the same time.

"The day was tinged with melancholy and regret.

"Some exceptionally appetising meals

"were cooked in the evening..." That's nice.

"..and the company retired fervently praying for a premature rush

"in the next morning, before their time expired."

That is so flippin' pretentious! Tells a story, doesn't it?

You look back through these things.

Having read that, it was obvious you were going to be a comedy writer.

I think I already was, having read that! Either that or a complete prat.

No holiday experience is complete without sampling the local food.

Those new tastes and textures, so different to home,

transform our palate for ever.

Unless, that is, you're Bill Oddie!

When he came here in his teens, he couldn't splash out

on a freshly caught fillet of fish costing a whopping 20 pence!

Baked beans back then were 5p for a large tin

and not surprisingly,

they were Bill's - and the housewives' - favourite!

# Heinz 57, Heinz 57

# You'll have meals to plan each day, you and Heinz can make them gay

# Get together right away

# With Heinz 57. #

For Bill and his pals, beans on toast was the diet of kings

after a long day of learning at the observatory.

Don't worry about the Hairy Bikers, this is

you and I doing beans on toast.

I put you in charge of the beans...

-Yes.

-..and I'll put myself in charge of the toast.

-Yes, OK.

It's not going to make a series, you know that.

-BOTH:

-# Every little bean should be heard as well as seen

# And every piece of toast should...

# Please you the most

-# So let's... #

-Who did the cooking, Bill? Was it yourself?

I don't remember anybody cooking, and I should imagine we had gas,

although even that might have been a bit too modern.

We probably just found a couple bits of driftwood and rubbed them

together till we had a spark.

-Or we ate them cold.

-Here we are. Ooh, lovely.

Yum-yum! 'Simple but hearty grub.

'I mean, the bird fanciers staying here

'weren't likely to rustle up duck a l'orange.'

Well, I know that your staple diet back in '57 was beans,

-but now, what's your favourite?

-I'm not a foodie, at all.

The ambience of a place and the friendliness,

-that is what matters to me.

-My taste is very basic. I'm egg and chips.

And you must be a ham, egg and chips man?

No, I was brought up that way, which is probably why I'm not now.

My dad did all the cooking.

Sadly Bill's mother was in a psychiatric hospital for many years,

so Bill was brought up by his dad and then his granny.

Single parenting was tough in the forties and fifties,

funds would have been tight,

but Bill's doting dad did his best for his only son.

When I had to admit to myself I was interested in the birds,

I asked my dad for a pair of binoculars

for my 10th, 11 birthday, something like that, got a little bird book

and that was it.

Once a bird-watcher, always a bird-watcher.

It's not just rare birds that can be glimpsed here,

it's also a fine place for fishing.

To become a member of a sports angling club

costs about ten quid a year -

or you can sea fish for free.

With its deep fast water, it's world famous as a hot spot for cod!

Ooh, I love cod!

The late English film director Derek Jarman

made a famous postmodern garden

on the shingle shore here, which can be admired from the road.

And during the war, large concrete structures called sound mirrors

were designed as an early warning system detecting enemy aircraft.

Three different designs of this cunning invention can be seen

at Greatstone, just outside Dungeness.

Despite its wild appearance,

Dungeness really gets under the skin of many who come here.

But there have been times

when only a chosen few would be allowed onto its hallowed turf,

as long-term resident Dilys remembers.

When my father brought me the first time he said,

"I'll take you to the end of the world and you'll never go back."

"Well, what are we doing living here?"

But I love it.

Outside people originally were not allowed to come here to live.

My mother-in-law lived here, and she came in 1914.

I came here to live in 1946,

but during the war no-one was allowed to come here to stay.

Because the soldiers were here, it was all mined.

Being a stone's throw from France, during the Second World War,

PLUTO - that's "pipeline under the ocean" for you and me -

was in Dungeness.

It pumped much needed fuel for the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The destruction caused by the post-war clear up is

almost impossible to imagine more than 60 years later.

Here on the RSPB reserve, the artificial lakes,

the landscape just feels a bit lusher.

We're a little further away from the sea,

feels a bit more of a jungle, but in the comfort of the hides

and the visitor centre you can get to see a wide range of birds.

Back in '57, Bill wasn't as hands-on with the birds on Dungeness

as he would have liked, so I've organised a real "tweet"

and am taking him deep into the woods

to meet Martin Randall from the RSPB.

Having you here must be like royalty turning up.

Must be like the Queen coming in.

-Absolutely.

-Me?

-Yes, you!

-Like the Queen?

You are the queen of bird-watchers. You are.

You are beloved by these men, they all aspire to become you.

'Many species are on the decline, so the RSPB have 60 nest boxes

'to encourage breeding, and in this one are two baby tree sparrows.'

When I was a kid, just near where I lived in Birmingham,

there was a flock of a couple hundred tree sparrows,

all around the country, just in the fields.

'To help track the population,

'Richard will be ringing the babies with their own unique number.'

-Ooh, little baby.

-There we are, little baby tree sparrow.

They've got a lovely chestnut cap, and this baby,

it's not quite got its chestnut hue yet.

And also they've got a little black spot on the cheek.

But on the adult they've got a beautiful pure white cheek

with a little black spot on it.

I've been entranced by Bill's enthusiasm for birds,

so I'm loving learning more about all this.

I am, I'm becoming a fan!

How old is that little birdie?

-This bird is now...about ten days old, I think.

-That old?

'Don't be shocked by the pliers,

'popping this metal ring on is completely painless.'

And where's Mum now, she's shot off?

She'll be out looking for food, along with Dad.

So what happens if they come back and they've all gone?

There's a stuffer in the hole so they can't get in.

So they come back and be a little surprised and fly off again,

probably eat the bit of food they've brought back,

but then they'll come back again and the stuff will be gone.

Once the birds are hatched and doing pretty well in the nest,

it's amazing what can happen and they DON'T get spooked about it.

-It's very nice, though.

-I know.

All snuggled.

One thing we're doing with the adults here

at RSPB Dungeness is colouring them.

So that we can see them in the field and identify them with binoculars.

So we can try and get a handle on how many we've got.

Would you like to hold one?

You little beauty. Very sweet, aren't they? Bit petite.

-I love a petite bird.

-You do, don't you?

I think I'm getting more and more spiritual as the years go by,

cos this isn't just a matter of saying, "Isn't this cute?"

or, "Wow, it's a tree sparrow", it's a little bit of life in your hands.

-Oh, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-That's always a privilege, thank you so much.

-Yeah.

Lovely, lovely thing to behold.

Yeah, well, I remember when I first held a bird, was...

Might have been here.

I remember that being a really important moment,

a really important moment, and it's just mind-blowing, it's beautiful.

Beautiful, beautiful.

If it wasn't for places like this and people like this,

I dread to think what would happen to the bird population.

So, well done, the pair of you.

Seeing Bill up close and personal with his feathered friends

shows exactly why he's Britain's best-loved bird expert.

-There he is.

-Since his early days in the comedy nest,

his talent knows no bounds,

and he's still a popular broadcaster and writer.

Oh, long may it continue! Go on, Bill!

But sadly, today's Oddie odyssey is over.

I'm going to treasure the adventure

I've had with this larger than life national treasure...

I'm stuck. HE LAUGHS

..as we hurtled at speed to a bird lover's paradise.

HE WHISTLES

Re-living the memories of Bill's first holiday with his pals.

Well, it wasn't like this. It so wasn't.

We've had song...

# Every little bean should he heard as well as seen... #

..a lot of laughter...

LEN CHUCKLES

Look at you. Come on.

HE MAKES BIRD NOISES

Really? I didn't know my mother-in-law

was going to be over there.

..and as you'd expect, there's one thing that

really gets Bill's heart aflutter.

It's mind-blowing, it's beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful.

It's been wonderful to see just how Dungeness made him

the witty and warm wildlife enthusiast we all know and love.

But I can't let Bill leave without a little memento.

Well, Bill, I've got a couple of things here for you. Oh, yes.

Firstly, a field guide to the birds of Britain and Europe

from the fifties, when you would have been coming down here.

Yes, absolutely, this was the book which revolutionised

bird-watching for everybody, this is Roger Tory Peterson,

actually an American, and he developed

this new type of field guide.

You can imagine it was, "Whoo!", the Bible, it really was.

Hold on to your knickers, because also, here is a scrapbook,

"Holiday of my Lifetime."

This little book is filled with memories from Bill's time

back in distinctive Dungeness.

His holiday here undoubtedly made him

more interested in nature than he already was.

So I've got him one last surprise.

I revel in nostalgia, and every time I look at this, I shall think of you.

Oh, thank you very much.

But I've got to tell you one thing - I am never, ever doing Strictly.

-Bill, it's been an absolute pleasure and a joy.

-It certainly has.

But it's not just Bill who's been whisked down holiday memory lane.

-Shall we take the beach?

-I think so.

-Here we go.

-We're a couple of swells.

Over the last few weeks there have been some ups...

some downs...

-This is quite worrying.

-I'm here to protect you.

-You are here.

..and even more downs.

-No!

-BOTH: Aghhhhh!

We've had good clean fun...

No, don't do that! Don't do it! Sit down, you're rocking the boat.

..and even a bit of dirty dancing.

# Dee dee dee da da, baba ba ba ba... #

You are a natural.

But the memories will last another lifetime.

-Wahey!

-Dave, you're getting a ten from Len - fantastic.

That's the first one I've ever had.