Original subtitles

JOANNA LUMLEY: 'This country has been my home for over 65 years.

'But although I'm lucky enough to have seen a great deal of the world,

'there are still new places on my own doorstep for me to visit.'

What a place. Wow!

Oh, what a joy to see these beautiful birds up close.

'I'm on a voyage of discovery around our great country.'

This is Kashmiri spinach.

I'm a Kashmiri, you know, I'm a Kashmiri. Yeah.

'Finding out what makes Britain tick.'

Yeah.

'And revisiting some familiar old haunts.'

LAUGHTER

'I'll be covering all points of the compass.'

We're known as

the Game Of Thrones territory.

'Meeting the people who makes us unique.'

Do you think somebody's looking at you

and thinking, "Sandy's had a dram"?

So many people have said, "You'll make the 100."

I think you will. And so far, I'm 95 now.

Don't tell nobody! LAUGHTER

'Exploring amazing traditions.'

Isn't that fantastic?

Look at this, it's a mass of colours.

'And revealing some breath-taking sights along the way.

'This time, I'm travelling west, through Devon and Cornwall.'

This looks like something from a legend or a fairy tale.

'Sampling the delights of Somerset.'

Cheers, babe.

'And raising a toast to a musical hero.'

# Ain't that a shame. #

Adore it, one of my favourites. Lovely.

'But I'm starting my journey in North Wales,

'in the mountains of Snowdonia.'

Wow.

'For over 200 years,

'this was the centre of a powerful industry that shaped modern Wales.'

Look at this landscape, honestly.

It feels like the side of the moon or something,

it doesn't feel like the British Isles at all here.

Gosh, look, look, look.

'This astonishing landscape was created by Victorian slate miners,

'who extracted the precious material from underground,

'and then dumped the rocky waste on the mountainsides.

'At the height of slate production in the 18905,

'the mountains of North Wales

'were home to dozens of mines and quarries,

'employing around 17,000 men.'

'The town of Blaenau Ffestiniog

'became known as the town that roofed the world.'

Look at that on the hillside over there,

it looks like a kind of giants' graveyard.

'Former mine worker Brian Jones

'is taking me to a Victorian mining settlement in Llechwedd,

'abandoned for decades.'

Oh, look at this.

Brian, where are we up here?

I can see it's a sort of settlement of some kind.

This is a mill, this is the processing mill,

built in 1861. Wow.

Up to 100 men would be working here.

So, these big lumps of slate... Yeah.

...would be dragged up from the hole down there with this.

This extraordinary machine here. Yes.

That would be the winch, the winch house.

This big lump, up to three tonnes,

would be dragged across by a truck over to the mill. Yeah.

The men would be waiting here for it, they process it.

And that means chisels splitting it, what, into slates? Yes, yes.

'Until well into the 20th century,

'slate mining remained an extremely dangerous profession.

'To reach the slate deposits, miners would dangle from ropes.

'The slate was slippery, and there were frequent rock falls.'

This is the extraordinary thing.

You actually worked these quarries, didn't you? Yes, I did.

How did everybody get up here? They would walk up.

That... How long did that take you? It took about an hour and a quarter.

No! 50, you would walk up here, in all weathers.

And if you were a few minutes late,

then the timekeeper would be waiting for you

and he would send you home. "Try again tomorrow."

Look, down here, there's something going on.

That's still a mine, is it?

Yes, this is where they do the recycling.

Notice the way they're eating away into this tip. Yes.

There would have been three local mines tipping here. Yeah.

This is nothing but slate waste. Solid waste.

The Victorians seem to have thrown masses away.

They wasted 90% of the rock that was brought up from underground.

Huge quarries made, men going dangerously deep down.

Yes. How deep are they?

This mine here is the largest slate mine in the world.

That goes down to sea level, 26 levels.

1,400 feet.

50-odd miles of tunnels in there.

It's so extraordinary, isn't it?

We don't really think of things.

We look at our pretty houses and we take pictures of things,

and say, "Doesn't that look fine?"

We haven't any idea. No.

The hardship, and the toil and the struggle.

Oh, Brian, I'm so thrilled to have been here with you,

up on your mountain.

Yes. These are your mountains.

Yes. LAUGHTER

I feel they are, anyway. They surely are.

LAUGHTER

'The Welsh slate industry declined in the 20th century,

'but this region is tremendously proud of its heritage.'

STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS

'The old steam engines that transported slate

'from the quarries to the port have been lovingly restored.'

This is the Ffestiniog Railway.

It was opened in 1836, and it's still going.

And I'm gonna have a ride on it!

Aled, Emily. Hello!

You're volunteers, aren't you? We are, yes, yeah.

And she's in such beautiful condition.

Yep, very old. Absolutely, yeah.

How old is she? 150 years old.

N0, is she? Mm.

Used to work in the quarries.

How fast does she go? 20 miles an hour is her land speed.

OK, I won't delay you, how lovely.

Thank you. BOTH:

STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS

Thank you.

This is just absolutely gorgeous.

'Today, there are luxury carriages,

'but when the railway was first built,

'these were open wagons, piled high with slate.'

Travelling at this speed, you have time to take in everything.

Look at that waterfall.

The railway line now is turning, a huge curve to the left.

The slate is so close to us,

it's practically scraping the carriage windows.

It's absolutely amazing.

They built this little, narrow gate railway

just to skim along the side of the mountain.

It's a feat of engineering.

TRAIN WHISTLE

'The railway runs entirely downhill.

'When it was first opened, there were no steam engines.

'The drivers had to control the speed using only the brakes.'

It's such a journey.

I think it's about 14 miles from station to station,

from Blaenau down to Porthmadog.

Here we are, passing a little graveyard.

There are new graves, but all the old graves are made of slate.

And why not? Beautiful, lovely to write on.

And we're just coming to the sea in Porthmadog.

The end of a sensational little railway journey.

And we're here.

'It's a new day, and this is Carmarthenshire.'

I'm quite picky about the music I listen to in the car.

But there's nothing I love more than a male tenor voice.

Preferably Welsh.

# Go compare

# If money's tight We'll see you right... #

'Wynne Evans is the breakout opera star

'of those catchy price comparison commercials.

'The tune is actually based on a World War I recruitment song.

'And although it's twice been voted the most irritating out of the year,

'it's made Wynne one of Wales's most recognisable faces.

'In the centre of Carmarthen stands a special little theatre.'

WJo! ynne!

Croeso i Gaerfyrddin, welcome to Carmarthen.

Thank you so much.

What an enchanting theatre.

My mum and my dad saved it from demolition, back in the '805. Yes.

It was gonna be a shopping centre.

So I literally kind of grew up in this building.

Come and have a look, it's beautiful.

700-seater. Oh, Wynne!

What a darling place.

When we first moved in, the ceiling was on the floor. Oh!

My dad used to run around on the roof,

moving buckets around, so that the audience didn't get wet.

LAUGHTER

But apart from that, it was all good. Oh, my gosh.

'Since starting out here in Carmarthen,

'Wynne has gone on to perform

'with many of the world's leading opera companies.'

This is the land of song, isn't it?

Tell me why Wales is the land of song.

I think it's actually just opportunity.

There's a lot of male voice choirs.

You know, get four people on the corner, you've got a choir.

There's a lot of amateur dramatics here,

there's a lot of opportunity for people to sing,

and so singing isn't weird.

Singing is the norm.

Yes. Tell me, when did Go Compario come and knock on your door?

OK, so, that was in 2009.

The brief had been,

"Find a bloke who is the same singer as the actor in the ads.

"It would be great if he was Welsh, and fantastic if he was a bit fat."

And they thought, "This bloke doesn't exist."

And I walked in and the people that wrote the ad,

they looked at me, looked at each other.

They said, "Would you like to come for lunch?"

LAUGHTER

And that was it? And that was it, yeah.

You're dressed up when you're Gio Compario.

Do people recognise you in the street now, as Wynne?

I think so now, because you could be in a public toilet

and somebody would all of a sudden sing it to you,

which was more embarrassing than you like to remember.

But I was presenting a BBC programme,

and this woman came up to me and she said, "Excuse me.

"It's you, innit? From, erm, from that advert?"

And she said, "Oh, I was looking for you, actually,

"because my daughter's just turned 17,

"we're thinking about buying her a little car

"and we wondered what the insurance might be." Right?

So, I heard myself. It was like an out-of-body experience.

I said, "I dunno, it'll be about £3,000."

JOANNA LAUGHS Making a number up.

And she said, "That's ridiculous, It's only £2,400 with Direct Line."

And she walked off and left me standing there thinking,

"What am I doing? What has my life become?"

LAUGHTER

Will you sing me something? Of course I will, I'd love to.

I'd love to sing you a Welsh song.

Mm-hm. And they say

it is one of the greatest love songs ever written,

and it's called Myfanwy.

I love that! Oh, I'm gonna cry.

I love that.

# Paham mae dicter

# O Myfanwy

# Yn llenwi'th lygaid duon di?

# A'th ruddiau tirion

# O Myfanwy

# Heb wrido wrth fy ngweled i? #

'The Brecon Beacons National Park sweeps across South Wales,

'520 square miles of rolling hills and lush river valleys.

'It's home to some of Wales's most glorious wildlife.'

Gorgeous birds. BIRDS CAW

There's so many up there.

Well, you should see about 100 today.

JOANNA GASPS

Shall I watch from the hide? OK, then.

'These red kites are native to the Welsh countryside.'

Oh, look at these birds.

'This is a feeding station, run by Peter Faulkner.

'Without the daily food he provides,

'the red kites' chicks would have a lower survival rate.'

SOFTLY: Look how close they come.

They're just skimming down, picking up a bit.

Oh, they're sensational.

'The red kite was common in medieval Britain,

'but by the end of the 18705,

'it had been hunted to near extinction.'

Look at those markings. Beautiful, russet-coloured tail.

And their small, beautiful heads and beaks.

So when you see them in the sky,

you'll always know that this is a red kite, and not a buzzard.

'The kites here in the Brecon Beacons

'are descended from just a handful of breeding pairs

'that survived in remote areas.

'Over the past few decades, the work of people like Peter

'means there are now over 1,800 breeding pairs in Britain.'

Oh, what a joy to see these beautiful birds up close.

Aren't they magnificent?

It's fantastic. It's how quickly nature can turn round.

If we give it a chance, if we just give it a hand.

SOFTLY: Fantastic.

'Across the River Severn lies Somerset.

'It's one of the West Country's loveliest counties.

'From the mysterious Glastonbury -

'mythical burial place of King Arthur -

'and the grandeur of Wells Cathedral

'to the towering Cheddar Gorge.

'But I'm not here for the scenery.'

Every English county has its own speciality food or drink.

But when you think of Somerset, you think of only one thing.

Ah! Look at these apples.

'This is Barrow Hill Farm,

'where they've been making cider for over 200 years.'

SONG: 'Up from Somerset'

# We'm come up from Somerset... #

Oh, Matilda, look at that!

'Matilda Temperley runs Barrow Hill with her father, Julian.'

# An' how the world do go

# And when you're wantin' anyone

# If you'll kindly let us know... #

What apples are those? This is Yarlington Mill.

Usually they fall on their own.

As you can see, sometimes they need a little extra hand.

'There are over 40 varieties of cider apple grown in Somerset.

'And here at Barrow Hill,

'they harvest around 1,000 tonnes a year.'

And some of them grow bobble hats like this,

just a little sweet tree.

Shall I...? They're not quite ready yet.

You can shake them, this row will be picked.

They'll fall on my head.

JOANNA LAUGHS

Isn't that fantastic?

Little apple tree, keep the rest, cos you're not quite ready yet.

How does that one taste?

Pretty challenging. LAUGHTER

'Cider apples are traditionally left on the ground

'to ripen fully before harvesting.'

It's like a Willy Wonka machine, isn't it? It's extraordinary.

That way, cos he's blowing up!

Ooh!

The leaves have gone all over there and apples remain, un-leafy.

Isn't that brilliant?

It brushes them up here,

and throws them up here, and off they go.

How many tonnes of apples go into the back there?

That trailer is two and a half tonnes.

Two and a half tonnes? And then they come back to your yard.

'Today, Brits are the biggest consumers of cider in the world.

'And over 50% of the apples we produce every year

'go to cider making.'

What a thunderous noise. What's happening here?

The apples are coming in here, they're getting washed,

they're going up to the mill. And they get milled,

and they get pumped over here to the belt press.

Oh, Matilda, barrel after barrel.

One of these barrels, they're 100 gallons.

But one of those big vats, the huge vat round the corner...

Yeah? ..that's 10,000 gallons.

And it would take one man 54 years to drink,

if he drunk eight pints a day.

So it's a lifetime of drinking, really, isn't it?

Can I taste some? Let's go.

Since we were talking about it earlier

and since you tasted that,

you know, that tiny little apple that... Yes! Yes, yes.

...made you maybe wince a little bit.

That apple was a Stoke Red apple,

and it makes a lovely single variety...

POP ..dry cider.

JOANNA LAUGHS

So this is as dry as it comes.

But they always say this is a cider for cider connoisseurs.

It's made in the same way that you'd make a champagne.

Cheers. Cheers, babe.

It's gorgeous.

It's dry, it's delicious, it's mouth-filling.

You'd be quite happy to drink that instead of champagne any day.

Well, I'm glad you think so. I love it.

'I'd love to stay for another glass,

'but I've received a rare invitation to an ancient ceremony.'

'Devon has a landscape that's full of contrasts.

'From rolling green hills and picture perfect villages

'to the stark open splendour of Dartmoor.'

'With its rare native ponies and granite tors,

'Dartmoor is one of England's last wildernesses.'

'It's home to some of the largest concentrations

'of Bronze Age monuments anywhere in Europe.

'Like here, at Maryvale.'

These are the most extraordinary stones.

They're sort of standing stones,

some of them seem to have sunk lower into the ground than others.

It's a great, long, mysterious avenue,

stretching down there for just hundreds of metres.

Did this lead to a great chieftain's kingdom?

Or was it something to do with worship of some kind?

Nobody knows.

'It's a landscape that's been inspiring people

'for thousands of years.'

'Belinda Twigs and her grove of Druids have kindly allowed me

'to witness their celebration of an ancient Pagan feast.'

We have come from far and wide...

...to celebrate our Sauin together.

Let us take three breaths.

The first, for the earth beneath our feet.

What is Sauin, tell me?

Sauin is the Celtic ending of the old year

and the beginning of the new year. Yeah.

The time when ancient mythology tells us,

and ancient Druidic rituals tell us,

that the veil is thin between the living and the dead.

And that that's the time when we're most likely to be able

to contact deeply and strongly with our loved ones who've gone on.

'Druidry was the spiritual practice of ancient Britain

'which survived until the 7th century,

'when it was replaced by Christianity.'

'In the 18th century,

'it was revived when Romantic writers and poets

'celebrated Britain's Celtic past, reinventing ancient rituals.'

What is Druidry?

What are the beliefs?

It's, in the main, honour and respect the land, the earth,

the mother where we come from.

And for me, Druidry is about reconnecting,

remembering, "Actually, this is the reality."

Whatever feast we share with our loved ones here,

we will offer in spirit.

The real reality is the air we breathe,

and the sun in the sky, the clouds, the water.

And these stones remind me of this,

they're kind of the bones of human and land interacting together.

I declare this ritual complete.

A blessing on the new year.

Whoo!

APPLAUSE

It was lovely.

I think a lot of people just now are really lost, you know.

But I think it was such a wonderfully peaceful ceremony.

It was so full of love and blessings,

and celebration and kindness.

You know, there wasn't a single cross word.

LAUGHTER It was my pleasure.

Thank you so much for allowing us to be... Thank you for coming.

To watch, to observe and also, in a way, to be a small part of it.

'Cornwall is defined by its spectacular coastline,

'its mining history,

'its distinctive language and literary heritage.

'It's famous for pirates and smugglers,

'secret caves and mysterious shipwrecks.'

When I was young, I loved reading Enid Blyton.

The Sea Of Adventure, The Ship Of Adventure,

The Island Of Adventure.

And they went to distant shores,

and rocky castles and remote islands.

Ancl nowhere encapsulates their adventures more

than here, in Cornwall, St Michael's Mount.

'Mike Greg is the head boatman and harbour master.'

You literally ferry people to and fro like this all day long?

Yeah, there's a fleet of nine.

Continuously, as soon as the causeway covers,

we operate from one of three landing stages. Yeah.

'St Michael's Mount is a tidal island.

'At low tide, you can walk across to it on a granite causeway.

'But at high tide, the causeway is submerged

'and the only way to reach the island is by boat.'

Look at this.

Honestly, you couldn't dream of a lovelier place to come into.

A little harbour.

I think I'm gonna buy that house.

Think you'd get it for a good price, today's market.

LAUGHTER Except when the waves are high,

and they'd come dashing through the front door. Yep.

No, you can certainly experience a storm.

'Until the mid 19th century,

'before the expansion of nearby Penzance,

'this little harbour was part of a thriving fishing village,

'with its own chapel, schools and even three pubs.'

Look at that, you've done that before, Mike.

Once or twice in my day. LAUGHTER

Many a time in one day. HE LAUGHS

All right. Thanks so much. Thank you.

Oh, Mike, this island is more beautiful

than I could ever have imagined. It's an incredible place.

There used to be over 200 people on the island, once upon a time.

As many as that. Now we're down to 24.

Yeah, so all the green areas...

25. 25. 25. Forgot about our new resident.

'The mount was originally a Benedictine monastery,

'named in honour of St Michael, patron saint of fishermen.

'Until the early 15th century,

'it was owned by the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel,

'its sister island in Normandy, on the north coast of France.'

'On the cliffs below the castle lies an extraordinary garden.'

Darren? Nice to meet you.

Darren, I can't believe this garden, it is just spectacular.

'Darren Little is the head gardener.'

Look, it's just growing up. Terraces, terraces, terraces.

It's kind of part rock garden, part garden garden.

It is, it is sort of gardening on the edge, if you like.

This just looks like South Africa.

Yeah, we've got Aloe polyphylla from the Drakensberg mountains.

We're one of the fewer places...

Is that the round one with the spirally...?

Yeah, we call it the spiral aloe, is its common name.

What likes growing here best of all? Cos this is quite exposed, isn't it?

Everything is kept really low to the ground for that reason, right.

But if you have a look, we also grow a lot of succulents.

Succulents are actually grown in the granite itself

cos granite absorbs the heat and radiates the heat out.

So it's its own little microclimate.

Darren, I don't think I've ever fallen in love with anywhere

quite so quickly.

'The mount's crowning glory is the castle,

'now the home of the St Aubyn family.

'It can only be reached on foot, up an astonishingly steep path.'

'There are no shortcuts, not even for royal visitors.'

This side feels much more like a castle.

It's got these great gun emplacements, and...

buttresses and things.

Wow, in the mist,

this looks like something from a legend or fairy tale.

Hi, Joanna. Oh, Duncan. Welcome.

'Duncan, the castle steward,

'is like a charming, walking guidebook.'

So, what was this?

It was originally built as the monks' refectory,

so probably one of the oldest parts of the building.

Look at these windows!

So, we're just moving through to the Blue Drawing Room.

This is where Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth have been received.

Oh, isn't that beautiful?

And the fire would have been lit,

and they might have had tea at a table.

Do you think? I expect so.

HE LAUGHS Yes.

And look now, a great big courtyard. That's the north terrace.

Oh, I want to go on the north terrace. Into the mist.

'The heart of the castle

'is the ancient chapel dedicated to St Michael.'

Isn't it enchanting?

'At the head of the St Aubyn family are Lord and Lady St Levan.'

This is old, isn't it? It is.

This goes back to when? 12th century.

In 1658, my ancestor bought it for £1,900.

And in your family ever since? Yeah.

Is this still used as a church?

It is. We have services at Christmas and Easter

and Sundays, from middle of May to the end of September.

Do you have christenings here, and things like that?

F

Very soon?

Exciting! LAUGHTER

How exciting.

What's this? That's our bells, rings our bells.

Stop, you don't have bells that ring do you? We do.

Yeah, do you want to ring them? Yes!

You just press the switch.

Will the island think something's happened?

Just press that, I think.

BELLS CHIME

BELLS RING

LAUGHTER

Will you ring the bells at the wedding?

Oh, yes. Surely, yeah, yeah. For sure.

Well, I think that was... LAUGHTER

...fantastically exciting.

LAUGHTER

'From the far west of Cornwall, I'm travelling east along the coast,

'to a gorgeous Devon bay famed for its temperate climate

'and a certain je ne sais quoi.

'The English Riviera.'

NEWSREEL:

é

é

'French it may feel,

'but the accommodation Torquay is famous for

'is quintessentially British.

'The bed and breakfast,

'immortalised in Fawlty Towers by Basil, Sybil, Polly and Manuel.

'In the heart of modern Torquay

'is the latest incarnation of the B&B.'

Hello. Welcome to The 25!

I'm Andy. This is Julian, and this is Patsy.

Andy, Julian. No, stop it! LAUGHTER

Absolutely is. Patsy, meet Patsy.

Little Patsy. Oh, how fantastic.

I bet you're dying. Come on through.

Come on, Patsy. Come on, Pats.

Come on, Pats. Oh, is that me or her?

LAUGHTER

'Andy and Julian have just six rooms and no other staff,

'so they can control every detail of their guests' experience.

'Andy designs all the bedrooms.

'And Julian is the chef.

'Their personal touch

'has helped them achieve an astonishing accolade.'

When you heard for the first time

that you were the first in the world, how did you hear?

It was a cold, wet wintery day in January. Yeah?

And we were just having a nightmare.

We'd had a bad day stripping walls, everything was going wrong.

And then the phone rang and it's,

"Can I speak to the manager, please?"

And then suddenly, Andy goes, "Oh, I need to sit down."

LAUGHTER

Some people might think that going to a B&B

is kind of an old-fashioned way of doing things.

Do you think you've changed the perception?

Torquay is famous, of course, for Basil Fawlty and Fawlty Towers,

but things have moved on so much since then.

Right, Joanna, just this way. You're in one of our suites.

Here it is. Look at that, starry, starry night behind the bed.

Oh, my heavens. You've got a TV there in the shower.

A TV in the shower? You'll never get out of the shower.

'Well, unless there's a greater temptation.'

If I put that back there, only I will know it's gone.

That is... unbelievable.

SHE LAUGHS

I don't know if you mind having a naked man...

No, I pretty much love that. ..In your room. Wonderful.

Andy did a spray job on him, and I put the lamp on his head, so...

Does he have a name? He's called Manuel, actually.

Oh. We are in Torquay after all.

'After a blissful night,

'I'm back on the road and nearing the home straight.

'But first, I'm visiting one of Britain's oldest communities.'

I sometimes think that actors are a bit like nomads,

travelling all over the place, living out of suitcases,

going from job to job, maybe film locations, theatres.

But at the end of our tour of duty, we go back home.

But there's one very special group of people for whom the road is home.

'They're the travelling showmen,

'the families who run funfairs up and down the country.'

I love it.

This is a place of dreams.

'The Coles are one of the travelling show families on the south coast,

'part of a historic community with a unique way of life.'

I just can't tell you,

the thought of coming down to a travelling showman's yard

and YOURS, Charles Coles.

We're pleased to see you here. Look at this.

This is where I actually live in the winter, it's my winter quarters.

That's the storage area down the bottom.

That's where we store and maintain the rides.

It's like the backstage of a theatre. Yes.

You're a showman, aren't you? Well, that's what we do.

We are a completely different way of life. Mm.

You know, we are verified showmen, we're show people.

'Charles and his family are part of a distinct cultural community.

'They even have their own professional guild.'

It gets in your blood.

One of my grannies was on the stage.

And she picked up with my grandad,

and then they went into the fairground business.

Another one of my grannies, they were scrap metal people,

the same as my great grandad. Yeah.

And the show started, we'll say, in the late 18005.

And they decided, "Well, we're gonna be fairground people."

And how many generations? Five.

And my daughters are coming along now to make it six.

Charles, this is the bit that dazzles me most about the yard,

this fabulous wagon.

It's what I live in.

I've got one daughter over that side. Yeah.

And my other three daughters are this side.

Oh, my gosh. And another one here. Yeah.

That's my mum, actually. Your mum?

Yeah, we've had to move her over with us

to keep an eye on her, cos she's in her late 805.

I shouldn't say that,

I should say that she's maturing gracefully. She's maturing.

She's maturing gracefully, that's what I should say.

'Charles's wife and all four of his daughters

'work with him in the funfair.

'There are roughly 24,000 travelling show people in Britain.'

MUSIC: 'Let's Twist Again' by Chubby Checker

F

F

This is a cheap family day out.

It's quite cool,

I had my 21st birthday party at the Battersea Park Funfair.

Did you? SHE LAUGHS

Battersea Park. Yeah. And I was 21, so I should have known better.

F

We've still got the favourite, the dodgems.

Would you like to come in and meet my daughter Taylor? Yes, please.

Hello, Taylor.

Oh, this is the hub of where it all happens.

She's been working since she could walk, like me.

See this plate on there? Look, this one?

That's nearly 200 years old.

That's my original great, great grandad.

N0?! That is, yeah.

Come off of one of our very, very first steam engines. Oh!

And then it was down to my great grandad.

Yeah. And that's my dad there.

We've come down to Perspex now,

we can't afford brass plates any more.

And then me, and now my girls.

You know, we're not fly-by-night people. No.

We're in for the long haul. Yeah.

How old are you, Taylor? 24. 24.

Do you think you're gonna go on with it? I hope so.

I like it, so... Yeah. How lovely.

Come and meet my wife.

She comes from a travelling family from Newmarket.

Does she? Yep.

That's my wife Lorraine. Oh, Lorraine, it looks so beautiful.

Is that common, that travelling showmen marry into each other?

Yeah, because it's the circles we move in.

Thank you so much.

I love it. Would you like to come in and meet my daughter Lydia?

This is beautiful, this is called a Sizzler.

Yeah, this is the Sizzler.

Oh, Lydia. This is your baby.

This ride, similar to this,

has been about since just after the war. Yeah.

Ancl, Lydia, as the future goes forward, what do you see?

É

é

é

F

é

F

F

é

And if we didn't have you, there'd be no joy in the world.

That's the truth of it.

Ancl, Lydia, one last question.

May I go on a ride?

Ancl, Lydia, may I go quite slowly? LYDIA LAUGHS

Ancl, Charles, will you come with me?

Do I have to? LAUGHTER

This is my ideal speed.

So here we go, then, Joanna. So, here we go, then.

Move back and hold tight. I know, lean in and hold tight.

I've always loved fairgrounds.

I'm gonna come and be a bearded lady for you.

Don't let yourself go, don't do that.

'West Sussex is home to some classic English countryside,

'from the windswept freedom of the downs

'to the splendour of historic Arundel.

'But just 44 miles from London, near the busy town of Horsham,

'a different landscape has taken hold.'

Oh, look at that.

'One that looks more like the African Savannah

'than our green and pleasant land.'

Hello, pig-wee.

Look at those long snouts and tall, long legs.

'This is the Knepp Castle Estate -

'until 20 years ago, a traditional commercial farm.

'Now it's an ambitious experiment in rewilding,

'where nature has been allowed to run its course.'

Oh, look at the cattle.

You never see cows under trees. No.

We only ever see cows in big, open meadows.

It's gonna be a very hot day, so they might hang out here all day.

'It's owned by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell.'

When you first started this, Charlie,

did something immediately, like nettles or thistles,

rush to the fore? It was torture because, you know,

we'd been taught to be neat and tidy in farming.

And by the end of 2009,

we had 10% of the park covered in creeping thistle. Yeah.

And I was just thinking,

"Well, what are...? We can't let this happen."

Outraged! LAUGHTER

That was the first major lesson. Wasn't it, Izzie?

Yeah. Where we got just... The hands-off thing,

we've just gotta keep waiting and waiting.

We'd made this kind of pledge

that nature was gonna be allowed to do its own thing.

'Charlie and Izzie started their experiment

'in response to a huge decline in the UK's biodiversity.

'Since the war,

'97% of our wildflower meadows has disappeared

'and thousands of miles of hedgerows have been ripped up.'

'The rewilding project has helped the Knepp Estate

'become a haven for bird life.

'It now has one of the highest concentrations of songbirds

'in the south of England,

'including rare nightingales and turtle cloves.

'But there's a larger bird that's making a spectacular comeback.'

Oh, I can see one!

Look at that stork.

Oh, look at them all.

CLACKING

That's an amazing bill clattering they do, it's kind of a display.

It's partly territorial,

and they also communicate with each other like that.

So they put their beaks back and they've got this pocket,

which resonates the sound of the clacking of the beaks.

CLACKING

They used to live here, didn't they? In England?

The last white storks to breed in Britain,

that we've got a written record of, were in 1416.

And so, these successfully fledged chicks this year here,

for the first time in over 600 years in Britain.

So, here, where do they nest?

They love it in the tops of these oak trees.

There were some really big storms that came through

in January and February.

And we thought, "My God, those nests will never survive."

And absolutely fine.

This is perfect habitat for them because it's heaving

with grasshoppers, with all sorts of insects.

Just can't be happier seeing these creatures here.

Aren't they fine?

What is this?

Just a little bit of height in this flat country.

Oh, I love this. Treehouse, a treehouse.

Could there be anything more desirable,

probably in the world, than a tree house?

JOANNA GASPS

Look at this. What are we looking at?

What you're looking at here is ex-arable land,

ex-dairy land, that is now being used

for a different purpose and a different future.

In my head, I'm seeing corridors of rewilded areas like this,

snaking through the landscape,

allowing nature to spread and to move.

Everything you're talking about is rewilding our brains...

Exactly what it is. ..as much as the land.

Got to suddenly think differently about things.

We've got to remember that we are moving,

in terms of climate heating, five kilometres north a year.

Five kilometres!

So how is life gonna cope with that move?

You know, the plants and the insects,

everything has got to be able to move with it.

So we know that we have to reconnect our landscapes

just for the survival of most of our species.

Can you see it, a proper turnaround, coming?

Do you smell it in the air?

I think it could happen very, very quickly,

a revolution like this could pick up speed, and then just go bang.

This is fantastic here.

I love it, it's 44 miles from London and it feels as though...

you're in the middle of Africa!

I think this is the future.

'My adventure is almost over and I've returned to where I started.

'London, my home town.'

'When I began my journey at Tilbury Docks,

'artist EVEWRIGHT showed me a remarkable collection

'of photographs of the Windrush generation.

'There was one face in particular I wanted to find out more about.'

Allan Wilmot.

He was with The Southlanders, wasn't he? That's right.

Yeah, yeah. A great band.

Yeah, yeah. Hugely popular over here.

'After a bit of searching,

'we've managed to track Allan Wilmot down,

'and I can't resist the opportunity to meet a musical hero.'

F

F

# Ain't that a shame. #

Adore it, one of my favourites. Lovely.

MUSIC: 'Ain't That A Shame' by Fats Domino

'Mr Wilmot arrived in Britain from Jamaica in December 1947.

'Seven years later, he formed The Southlanders,

'touring alongside Shirley Bassey and Tommy Steele.'

MUSIC: 'Earth Angel' by The Southlanders

Angel

Angel

é

How many in the group? Four.

Four of you? Four, four of us.

Ancl had you known each other before?

Yes, well, one is my brother.

And Ken, he's the one that started it all, Ken Hunter.

And he had a friend, Frank. Yeah.

And that was The Southlanders. Wow.

'54 to, 74, that's a good run. Yes, yes. 20 years.

Well, the funny part about it, it looks like yesterday.

MUSIC: 'Alone' by The Southlanders

# Why must I be alone?

'In 1941, aged just 16, Allan Wilmot volunteered to join the Royal Navy,

'serving on a patrol ship escorting minesweepers

'and picking up survivors in the West Indies.

'Three years later, he joined the RAF Air-Sea Rescue team.'

The funny part about it is, for a good period,

I was a what you call a suicide crowd, minesweeping.

Gosh. You can just die like that.

Yeah. Every day you... Every day,

so I thank God I lived to see another day.

I've been through that.

You know? But you had an honourable war record.

I mean, fantastic, Navy and RAF. Yes.

And then I transferred now to the RAF Marine section. Yeah.

That is, we're securing the fliers who...

realised they can't make it and they head for water, yeah.

And we'd got to go there and pick them up

before they get froze to death.

We saved... Actually, I think 17,000 lives we saved.

My gosh. All different nations.

Gosh. Yeah.

The country's changed a lot now, hasn't it?

Since you first arrived here. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

I made up my mind a long time.

I said to myself, "I've got to make it here." Mm.

You know, I'm not going to let anything get me down.

You know? For instance, now, people used to call us names

You... You go in and you hear, "Hello, darkie!"

So, you say, "Hello, whitey!" JOANNA LAUGHS

And they can't figure out.

They say, "He call me whitey, it's not right."

You know? So I got over that.

But there again, the whole world has changed.

First time, it was all black versus white.

But now it's mostly white faces supporting the black faces today.

Yes, thank goodness. You know?

Thank goodness. And I hope it goes on.

I am happy that I've lived to see a change in this country.

Yes. You know, we British, we are never in a hurry.

HE LAUGHS

We all get there eventually.

Eventually. We get there.

Oh, gosh, it's been such a pleasure talking to you.

Thank you so much, Mr Wilmot. And it's a pleasure to be alive.

It is, isn't it? HE LAUGHS

So many people said, "Well, don't worry, Allan.

"You'll be around, you'll make the 100."

I think you will. I think you will.

And so far, I've made 95 now. Oh!

Don't tell nobody. LAUGHTER

MUSIC: 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks

# As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset

# I am in paradise

# Sha-la-la

# Every day I look at the world From my window... #

What an extraordinary journey this has been.

After a lifetime of travelling all around the world,

I've discovered that the country

that has surprised and dazzled me most

is the one I've taken for granted.

Come on!

'I've travelled the length and breadth of this land.

'And what I've learned, above all, is that...

'we are a community. We are a sort of family,

'and our strength lies in our differences.

'So no matter how far I travel,

'no matter what wonders I see,

'there's one thing I always remember.'

There's no place like home.

# As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset

# I am in paradise... #

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