1 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:33,560 Boundless horizons, endless ingenuity - this is Coast! 2 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,040 We're at our most inventive on our coast. 3 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:45,480 A tide of ingenious ideas breaks here. 4 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:52,360 Inspired by the challenge of the sea, bold inventions are born. 5 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:01,440 To find out why our shores are a spur to creativity, 6 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:05,640 I'm on a coastline full of innovation. 7 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,840 I'm forging a path around a very special island, a place awash 8 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:15,800 with fertile minds and original ideas for hundreds of years... 9 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:18,560 Anglesey. Croeso i Gymru. 10 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,280 Welcome to Wales. 11 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,320 While I'm seeking the ingenious on Anglesey, across the water 12 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:35,720 in France, Tess is discovering how a chance stop at a seaside town 13 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,520 changed British radio forever. 14 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,760 Light entertainment was hitting the British airwaves for the first time. 15 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:47,040 The radio was awash with sonic delights. 16 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,840 Engineer Brendan Walker is in Pembrokeshire, investigating 17 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,960 how a bridge taught the world a vital lesson. 18 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:01,520 This striking coastal crossing may look simple, but don't be fooled. 19 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,880 It's a seriously impressive piece of engineering. 20 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:10,240 In Portsmouth, Dick's on target to test an inspired answer to 21 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,400 a big question. 22 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:14,840 How do you disguise something like this?! 23 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:22,160 I'm following a path of coastal pioneers, 24 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,640 exploring our isles of ingenuity. 25 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,520 Anglesey's known as the Mother of Wales. 26 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,120 But for me, it's the mother of invention. 27 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:10,560 This rocky isle has earned its place on the world stage. 28 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,120 Its ports unite Britain and Ireland. 29 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:21,880 Its mineral wealth has long been sought around the world. 30 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,200 It boasts Britain's longest breakwater. 31 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:33,640 Surrounded by savage seas, its maritime history is 32 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:37,120 full of big ideas. 33 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,560 Coast has been here before... 34 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:41,920 Wow! Yes! 35 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,680 ..discovering how pilots fly our fastest combat jets... 36 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,840 ..and how the Land Rover, that feat of great British engineering, was 37 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,840 invented on this ingenious isle. 38 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:04,320 I'll be following another inspired idea, this - the Welsh Coastal Path, 39 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:09,720 on a route around the island that takes in 700 years of inspiration. 40 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:13,360 I want to find out why Anglesey is such a trailblazer. 41 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:19,920 I'm starting my search for answers at South Stack. 42 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:27,200 The lighthouse here has been protecting mariners since 1809. 43 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:32,080 But for one man, getting it built was a real test of ingenuity. 44 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:38,680 This rocky promontory has been a catalyst for creativity, 45 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,440 its very isolation a challenge to be overcome. 46 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,760 South Stack looks over the busy shipping lanes of the Irish Sea. 47 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,320 These treacherous waters had a fearsome reputation for luring 48 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:58,840 ships to their doom. 49 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,720 But the sheer inaccessibility of the stack defied attempts to get 50 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,440 a warning light built. 51 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:14,600 What finally persuaded a reluctant government to tackle the challenge? 52 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:20,560 This - a map of all the ships lost in just two years, 53 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:25,680 drawn by Holyhead harbour master Hugh Evans in 1807. 54 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,720 There are no pictures of this inspired and tenacious man, 55 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,320 just his words remain. 56 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:39,160 'I have particulars of 30 ships wrecked on shore. 57 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:43,320 '20 totally lost, with many lives. 58 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:45,680 'I respectfully submitted this as showing 59 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,400 'the propriety of erecting a distinct light on the South Stack.' 60 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:55,480 But Evans' challenges at South Stack had only just begun. 61 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,120 First there was the job of getting workmen, equipment, 62 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:03,280 food and water from the mainland out to this precipitous 63 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:06,240 and frequently storm bound lump of rock. 64 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,200 His ingenious solution? 65 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:20,320 A winch to haul up boats full of supplies for construction. 66 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:25,720 And as his own drawing shows, another design, a series of cradles 67 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:30,440 and pulleys that transferred goods and people cliff-to-cliff. 68 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,880 A rope bridge followed. 69 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:42,600 And finally, in 1828, another inspired idea. 70 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:50,880 Evans crossed the void with a scaled-down version of one 71 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:55,560 of Anglesey's most famous landmarks, the Menai Suspension Bridge. 72 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,600 But nature had more obstacles to challenge our ingenious mariner. 73 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:20,200 He knew that in low fog, all too common on this coast, 74 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:22,640 his new light would be lost. 75 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,960 How then do you warn the ships away from the coast? 76 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:36,360 Local historian Ian Jones is helping me 77 00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:40,160 uncover Evans' inventive solution. 78 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,280 Ian, what on earth is this? 79 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:46,560 Well, this is the incline that was blasted specifically for what 80 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:48,640 they called the low-light, 81 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:53,400 which was a movable light on a set of rails 82 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:57,680 that the keepers would lower down to below the level of the fog, so there 83 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:03,040 was a light visible for the captains of the packet boats to Ireland. 84 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:04,280 That's quite remarkable, 85 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:08,480 because this is a massive trench cut in the bedrock of the island. 86 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,600 How exactly did Evans get the light from the top of this 87 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,200 incline down to the bottom? 88 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,880 This is an artist's impression of the low-light. Oh, right. 89 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:20,560 The entire contraption slid down on those wheels to the 90 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,960 bottom of the incline. To the bottom of the incline, yes. 91 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:25,680 There were two lights inside with a clockwork mechanism, 92 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:28,560 and they were oscillated back and forth by the mechanism 93 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,280 to have a signature or a flash. 94 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,200 It was very original and unique to South Stack. 95 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:44,640 Day and night, South Stack's warning light remains, 96 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:47,800 a beacon to one man's ingenuity. 97 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:53,040 Evidence that on our coast, the brightest minds shine 98 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:56,760 and rise to the challenge of nature's forces. 99 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,320 We're exploring why the coast inspired ingenuity. 100 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:15,720 New ideas spring from challenge and opportunity. 101 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:20,360 And not just on our own shores. 102 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:33,680 In France, the waters off Normandy at Fecamp created the right 103 00:09:33,680 --> 00:09:37,960 conditions for commercial radio to challenge the broadcasting 104 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:39,920 establishment in Britain. 105 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:50,200 Tess has crossed the Channel to discover why it was here that 106 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:56,040 a bright idea opened up a world of entertainment for British audiences. 107 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:01,480 MUSIC: La Mer by Charles Trenet 108 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,640 Fecamp. C'est charmant! C'est chic. 109 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:14,680 But there's more to this genteel seaside resort than meets the eye. 110 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,760 I've come here to investigate why this tiny place, 111 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:25,760 famous for cod, herring and Benedictine liqueur, was home 112 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:29,880 to Britain's first commercial radio station. 113 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:37,520 In the 1920s, broadcasting was tightly regulated. 114 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:41,640 The only broadcaster permitted on the airwaves was the BBC. 115 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:45,440 This one-station monopoly gave listeners two options - 116 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:47,960 tune-in to Auntie or switch off. 117 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,080 The British Broadcasting Corporation 118 00:10:56,080 --> 00:11:00,280 was set-up in the '20s, under Lord Reith. 119 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:01,680 It was a staid affair. 120 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:07,200 This son of a Presbyterian minister believed programmes should be 121 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:09,960 morally uplifting. 122 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:13,160 Not everyone agreed, but there was little alternative. 123 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,320 One man was looking for the chance to challenge all that. 124 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:32,520 In the summer of 1931, an Englishman touring the coast 125 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:38,680 in an extravagant open-topped car stopped to admire the view. 126 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:42,040 His name was Captain Leonard Frank Plugge, 127 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:46,040 and his grand plan was to transmit commercial radio to Britain. 128 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:52,760 But Captain Plugge couldn't set up a station to rival the BBC 129 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:58,320 on British soil without breaking the law. He badly needed a loophole. 130 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,240 I want to know why he found it in Fecamp. 131 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:12,280 First stop, Palais de Benedictine, 132 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:15,720 where I'm meeting Professor Sean Street. 133 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:20,440 It was here Plugge met the director of the town's Benedictine distillery, 134 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:25,120 who also owned the local radio station - Fernand Legrand. 135 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,320 No doubt they discussed their mutual enthusiasm over 136 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,520 a glass of the liqueur. 137 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:35,600 Plugge discovers Legrand has this radio interest, but how does 138 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:40,800 it sort of become a reality to broadcast from France to Britain? 139 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:44,680 Well, I think one of the things that Plugge very quickly realises 140 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:48,760 is that there is some downtime on a transmitter. 141 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:50,800 In other words, when the French aren't using it. 142 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,600 When the French transmissions close down at midnight, Plugge can 143 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,720 use the Radio Fecamp, later the Radio Normandy transmitter, 144 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,400 to broadcast into the prosperous South of England. 145 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,960 So, this literally starts - man with a box of records in the middle 146 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:04,520 of the night from a foreign country? 147 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:05,960 Absolutely, as simple as that. 148 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,560 At that stage, then, hardly a threat to the BBC? 149 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:11,360 You wouldn't have thought so, and if you look at the memos of the 150 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,320 BBC at that time, it's seen as, "Well, why should 151 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,680 "we be concerned about this?" You know, I think Reith actually says, 152 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:20,480 "Why would we be concerned about this? It's of no big deal at all." 153 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:22,120 That was to change, of course. 154 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:32,280 Legrand broadcast from his family home, and it was here Captain Plugge 155 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:36,640 set up the grandly named International Broadcasting Company. 156 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:43,480 On the 11th October, 1931, the IBC made its first 157 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:48,120 broadcast in English, in direct competition with the BBC. 158 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:55,680 'This is Radio Normandy, 159 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:59,960 'broadcasting on its new wavelength of 274 metres.' 160 00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:01,880 OLD-TIMEY MUSIC 161 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,240 Plugge had found the loophole he needed. 162 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,520 '..Presents personal personalities, 163 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,600 'intimate broadcasts by the great stars of our time.' 164 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:19,960 These early broadcasts were made using a small transmitter. 165 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,840 So, just how did Plugge manage to reach audiences 166 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:26,560 70 miles away in England? 167 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,800 His secret weapon was the English Channel. 168 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:36,320 Our ingenious radio buff realised its salt water would allow 169 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:40,120 Radio Normandy's signal to travel much further. 170 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,840 So, you can see, locating his radio station here in Fecamp meant 171 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:49,680 he vastly increased the range or the reach of his transmission 172 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,840 and was able to hit listeners in Eastbourne and Hastings. 173 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,280 But even that wasn't enough for ambitious Plugge. 174 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,560 Plugge commissioned ever more powerful transmitters. 175 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:07,400 In 1935, he built a 20 kilowatt transmitter with a whopping 176 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:13,360 170 metre antennae mast which became a local landmark here in Normandy. 177 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:20,360 By now, Plugge was reaching audiences as far away as the North of England, 178 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:25,160 causing a real stir in the sober world of British broadcasting. 179 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,560 Thanks to the sea and Plugge's powerful transmitter, 180 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,920 Radio Normandy flooded into Britain. 181 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:38,760 But what was it broadcasting? 182 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:45,080 Sean's found some old radio schedules that reveal just 183 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:50,040 what was so different about Radio Normandy compared to the BBC. 184 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:54,480 This is a page of the Radio Times from November, 1934. Right. 185 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:59,800 And it shows this very strict Sunday policy that Reith was very keen on. 186 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:01,560 Here for example, 5.15, 187 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:04,960 Hints for Daily Living, A Short Religious Service - 188 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:06,680 all very strongly religious. 189 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:09,200 Not entertainment, it mustn't be entertainment. 190 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:14,040 Compare that with the IBC programme schedule from Radio Normandy. 191 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:18,840 You have, for example, tangos here. Mm, military big band music. 192 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,560 You have astrology on a Sunday, soccer pools broadcast... 193 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,880 This is gambling on a Sunday. Oh, very dodgy stuff. 194 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,440 And Wincarnis Concert, now that's alcohol. 195 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:32,640 So, you've got astrology, alcohol and gambling on a Sunday. 196 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,280 Not only is it entertainment, but it's breaking all the three 197 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:37,840 rules that Reith would have said were the cardinal 198 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,040 parts of what Sunday broadcasting should be on the BBC. 199 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,760 The BBC felt they owned the schedule, 200 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,040 they wanted to set the tone for the nation. 201 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:50,360 There's a famous line in one of the BBC handbooks from around this 202 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,520 time in which Reith himself actually says, "The BBC believes in giving 203 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,320 "its audience something slightly better than it thinks it wants." 204 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:01,400 'And now here's a signature tune that will be a prelude to a whole 205 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:03,480 'heap of future entertainment.' 206 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:06,440 # How we doing? Hey, hey... # 207 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,560 Plugge was pioneering a new way of making radio. 208 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,880 'What better start to the day could you have than the infectious 209 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,280 'cheerfulness of Browning and Star?' 210 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,160 # We won't be happy But we won't be happy 211 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:21,440 # Till we make you happy too! # 212 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:27,360 Radio Normandy sizzled with song, sophistication and style. 213 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:30,760 Light entertainment was hitting the British airwaves for the first 214 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:36,160 time on a Sunday. The radio was awash with sonic delights. 215 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:40,000 His exploits influenced a whole new generation of listeners 216 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,240 AND broadcasters. 217 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:47,040 Roy Plomley, known later for the BBC classic Desert Island Discs, 218 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,720 got his first break on Radio Normandy. 219 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,720 'Hello, everybody, this is Roy Plomley speaking. 220 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,080 'I hope you're spending a happy weekend and that the programmes 221 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:01,000 'you're hearing from Radio Normandy are contributing to your happiness.' 222 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,080 But it wasn't all about programmes. 223 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:08,920 Plugge gave his name to the art of PLUGGING commercial products. 224 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:11,560 For him, radio was a money-maker. 225 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:15,080 He wanted to know what his station could sell. 226 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:16,440 Face cream. 227 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,000 To prove to advertisers that listeners were a genuine market, 228 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,360 Plugge and a friend found a recipe for some face cream, 229 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:27,440 mixed it up and advertised it by making some 230 00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:29,400 grand claims on the radio. 231 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:33,280 # Keep young and beautiful It's your duty to be beautiful... # 232 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:36,280 'Here is a very interesting announcement for everyone, 233 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:39,040 'more especially for our lady listeners. 234 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:43,400 'Renus Cream softens, nourishes and beautifies the skin, while 235 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:49,280 'during the day it forms a perfect foundation for powder and rouge.' 236 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:51,720 # ..if you want to be loved 237 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,640 # If you're wise Exercise all that fat off... # 238 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,480 It flew off the shelves. 239 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:00,880 Plugge had to employ an industrial chemist to meet demand. 240 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,240 Plugge had proved that not only did Radio Normandy have an audience, 241 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,840 but it could also sell products. 242 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:13,480 With its heady mix of entertainment 243 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:17,840 and advertising, Radio Normandy's Sunday broadcasts apparently 244 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:21,760 captured 80% of the British audience. 245 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:25,880 Leonard Plugge's son, Frank, remembers the uproar. 246 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,920 Your father caused the BBC a real headache, I gather. 247 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:31,640 Yes, questions were being asked in Parliament to close this 248 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,160 radio station down. 249 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,480 Oh, yes, so 20th, July 1933, "Does the BBC rule the waves? 250 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,440 "A move to close Fecamp." 251 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:41,160 My father told me that some MPs were 252 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,920 suggesting that he should be arrested and sent to prison for what 253 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,960 he was doing. Of course, he wasn't doing anything illegal at all. 254 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:49,120 What comes of this? 255 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,560 Well, the BBC had to change, didn't they? 256 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,800 Rather than Lord Reith continuing with his ban 257 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,920 on all dance music on a Sunday, they jolly well had to start doing 258 00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,080 it themselves. 259 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:01,680 'And now the International Broadcasting Company's 260 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,640 'transmission is drawing to a close.' 261 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,600 In 1939, the outbreak of war 262 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:12,040 brought Captain Plugge's radio adventures to an end. 263 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:16,360 But by using an inspired seaside location and the power of the waves, 264 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:20,560 he'd ensured entertainment was here to stay. 265 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,240 # Radio Normandy Calling you! # 266 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,880 From an inauspicious coastal town in France, 267 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,760 an inventive man changed the sound of radio in Britain forever. 268 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,760 # You know it stands for Radio Normandy, coming through 269 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:38,840 # A lot of enjoyment for all! # 270 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,600 'Good night and happy dreams.' 271 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:02,160 We're discovering why we're at our most inventive on the coast. 272 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:11,840 I'm on Anglesey, finding out how the sea inspires us 273 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,640 with creative solutions to perennial problems. 274 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:28,280 We look to our seas to feed our endless appetite for fuel, 275 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:31,560 being ever more inventive in our search for energy. 276 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,760 But this pursuit has taken its toll. 277 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:55,880 I'm on my way to find an ingenious alternative to fossil fuels. 278 00:21:55,880 --> 00:22:00,920 A world-beating idea to get energy from the sea itself, 279 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,720 at the very edge of the Menai Strait. 280 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,920 Exposed to the elements, Anglesey is the perfect place 281 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:16,080 for renewables like wind, wave and tidal power. 282 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:23,920 But at the 300-year-old coastal mansion of Plas Newydd, 283 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:25,520 there's something new. 284 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:32,240 The first of its kind and size in Britain, an innovation that 285 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:35,760 could revolutionise how we generate energy. 286 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:42,920 What an enchanting setting, beautiful view, tranquil, clear air. 287 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,040 Yet until recently, this stately home had the dubious 288 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:50,560 honour of being the National Trust's most polluting property. 289 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,600 I want to find out how it's been transformed into one 290 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,440 of its most energy efficient, thanks to cold seawater. 291 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:05,720 Plas Newydd contains precious art, 292 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:09,920 but being so close to the shore, these treasures are daily 293 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,480 exposed to the cold and damp of the Menai Strait. 294 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:18,480 To preserve the art 295 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:22,720 and antiques in here, the National Trust battled to keep Plas Newydd 296 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:29,240 warm and dry by guzzling up to 128,000 litres of fuel oil every 297 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,680 year, sometimes as much as 1,500 litres in a single winter's day. 298 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:49,600 The National Trust needed a radical solution - and they found one, 299 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,080 a brand-new way of harvesting heat direct from the sea. 300 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:03,480 Trust environment advisor Paul Southall helped make it a reality. 301 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,080 So, how does this wonderful device work? 302 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,840 It's been a unique challenge, shall we say. 303 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,880 The easiest way of describing it is there's two pipes that go into 304 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:16,360 the Menai Straits that go out about 50 metres, one takes the seawater 305 00:24:16,360 --> 00:24:20,240 out of the straits to take it to a pump house building, and then it 306 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,520 passes through a heat exchanger and goes back into the Menai Straits. 307 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:26,400 In the meantime, we've gathered, on average - 308 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:31,160 today, for example - about 17 degrees of latent heat energy from the sea. 309 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,440 OK. Shall we go and have a look in the building? Yeah. 310 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:44,200 Wow, on the outside, this looks like a garden shed, 311 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,800 but in here it's all so hi-tech. 312 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:46,960 Lots going on. 313 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:52,600 Once collected, the seawater passes over a heat exchanger. 314 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,680 The energy extracted is sent up to the house. 315 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,000 Then it's compressed until there's enough heat to warm 316 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,080 the radiators and keep the house at a constant temperature. 317 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:12,920 For every unit of energy needed to run the system, 318 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,040 four units are generated. 319 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:22,320 It saves around £40,000 a year on fuel oil alone. 320 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:28,800 Do you think that harnessing the sea through heat pumps might be 321 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,840 something that could spread like ripples out from here? 322 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,160 It already is. I mean, we've had a huge amount of interest, 323 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,480 we're sharing the design, the technical information now 324 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,640 so that hopefully it will filter out. 325 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:44,800 But, yes, the appetite is there, people want solutions. 326 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,200 With thousands of miles of coastline to choose from, 327 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,920 it's the perfect innovation for islands like ours. 328 00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:59,960 Plas Newydd has gazed across the Menai Straits to the misty 329 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:03,640 mountains of Snowdonia for nearly three centuries. 330 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,120 What started out as a house in a beautiful setting has been 331 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:12,280 transformed by ingenious thinking into an inspired notion that 332 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,560 warms the heart and fires the imagination. 333 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:44,000 We're on the trail of creative thinking around our shores, 334 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,760 and it comes in many forms. 335 00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:57,720 Harvesting the sea's riches in the teeth of storms pushes 336 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,280 men beyond their everyday limits. 337 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:09,480 And it was this that inspired one generation of trawlermen 338 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:13,360 sailing out of Lowestoft in the swinging '60s. 339 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,120 In response to the hardship of life at sea, 340 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:23,000 they reinvented themselves with a splash of colour - 341 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,120 a unique flowering of fashion that marked them out on shore. 342 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:33,240 MUSIC: All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks 343 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,600 They used to call us young fishermen "the millionaire weekend boys" 344 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,000 because we had that much money to spend. 345 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,800 The trips used to last 12 days and then on the 11th day all 346 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,440 the crew would be getting a bit excited cos we knew that then 347 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,720 we were going back to Lowestoft and we'd have our two days in harbour. 348 00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,160 Well, our two days in harbour, we used to make the most on. 349 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,080 But most of our money we used to spend on our suits. 350 00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:04,760 I'm Jo Neve, and I worked at Laurence Greene the tailor 351 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,640 and we used to make all the suits, just about, for all the fisher boys. 352 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,160 How many suits did you have then? 353 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,560 Five, six. I had six, yeah. Oh, you beat me then. 354 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:19,000 One day, this lad came in and he said, "I've had this, I've had that, 355 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:20,600 "what's that over there?" 356 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,320 So I said, "Well, that's the ladies' swatches." 357 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,280 And he said, "Well, could I have it?" 358 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,400 I said, "Well, of course you could." 359 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:32,240 And from then, of course, everybody wanted to outdo one another. 360 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,760 MUSIC: My Generation by The Who 361 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,320 I started with a pale blue, bit conservative. 362 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,800 I had blue! Then I went to purple. 363 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,800 Someone would get a powder blue, someone said, 364 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,960 "I'll beat you, I'll get a different colour. I'll have a yellow," 365 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:50,040 And then someone said, 366 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,200 "If you're going to have a yellow, I'll have a red." 367 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,640 And that's how it went, all the colours under the rainbow. 368 00:28:54,640 --> 00:29:00,120 And it just went on and on even to a bright check like this one, 369 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,360 any colour under the sun, really. 370 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:05,080 What was your first suit, Ray? Pea green suit. 371 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:11,160 Oh, I never had the pea green. I think I had the mustard. 372 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,840 When we were at sea sometimes, I would do a bit of doodling 373 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,920 and then I'd think, "I don't know, I think I'll have a nice red colour." 374 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,120 So, I'd colour this in red. 375 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:24,040 It's got the shawl lapels, the half-moon pockets, quite big cuffs. 376 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,720 What colour lapels, do you want the same colour as the suit? 377 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,720 Said, "No, if I've got purple or red, I want the white lapels 378 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,400 "and the white stitching around the pockets." 379 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,320 After we finished, we'd have a look at it and say, 380 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:38,600 "Yeah, that seems all right." 381 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:43,200 And then we'd get in from sea, you'd go up to the tailors and you'd say, 382 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,240 "I want a fishing suit similar to this." 383 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,160 A half belt at the back, they used to have two pleats, 384 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:54,800 one pleat, three pleats and some would even have a contrasting colour 385 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:56,800 inserted into that pleat. 386 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:01,120 I've also got a press cutting from 1961 about the fishing boys 387 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:02,200 and their suits. 388 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,240 Yeah, we were quite famous, really, cos everyone could see the coloured 389 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,160 suits and everyone knows, yeah, they're the Lowestoft fishermen. 390 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,000 This only happened in Lowestoft, didn't it, Ray? 391 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,080 Oh, yes, nowhere else had it. 392 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,240 They thought we were bonkers. We probably were, yeah. 393 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:23,280 I think a lot of it was the fact that they'd been in dirty, filthy, 394 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:27,680 fishy clothes for ten days, coming ashore and getting cleaned up and 395 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:32,520 completely reinventing themselves with a suit as well as being clean. 396 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:39,520 We wanted to say to the people - this is who we are, we're fishermen 397 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:42,920 and we're outrageous, we enjoy our time, we've got 48 hours, 398 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,720 we're going to do what we're going to do. So that's what we done, 399 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:47,240 we got the brightly coloured suits 400 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,440 and we thought the fishermen suits was a badge of honour. 401 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:14,480 We're exploring our ingenious isles to see how they inspire innovation. 402 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:21,240 Where rivers meet the sea, we need all our inventiveness to connect 403 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,840 what nature divides. 404 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,840 Bridges are monuments to ingenuity, standing up to the stresses 405 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,040 and strains of coastal life where wind 406 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,600 and weather push technology to its limits. 407 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:49,360 The elegant suspension bridges of the Severn Estuary. 408 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:52,480 In Scotland, a steel giant - 409 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:57,640 the world's largest cantilever bridge, crossing the Firth of Forth. 410 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:02,720 But at Pembroke Dock in West Wales, 411 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:07,040 engineer Brendan Walker is discovering how a box girder bridge 412 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:12,040 held a deadly secret that challenged design worldwide. 413 00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:24,040 The Cleddau Bridge, a stunning piece of architecture. 414 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,720 This striking coastal crossing may look simple, but don't be fooled. 415 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,680 It's a seriously impressive piece of engineering. 416 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:38,960 The bridge spans the mighty Cleddau Estuary, a channel for industry. 417 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:44,600 More than half a mile, or 800 metres long, 418 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,240 four and a half million vehicles thunder across 419 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:48,560 the bridge every year. 420 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:02,320 Before it was built, 421 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,400 this Pembrokeshire community was divided. 422 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:10,120 By the 1960s, though, Britain's economy was on the rise. 423 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,040 A new motorway system was being built, 424 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,320 fuelling demand for ever more ambitious crossings. 425 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,920 But how do you span a busy tidal estuary like this? 426 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:26,960 With a box girder bridge. 427 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:32,360 A tried and trusted design as far back as Victorian times. 428 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:33,920 And with new materials 429 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,760 and modern engineering, it seemed ideal for this coastal crossing. 430 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,360 But how did it work? 431 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,520 First off, I'll put down some pier supports. 432 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:48,800 Now, I'll put down the road. 433 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:56,560 But as you can see, it's actually quite flimsy. 434 00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:58,920 I could add extra layers to the bridge, 435 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:03,400 but to make it sturdy enough to carry traffic safely is going 436 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,760 to require a lot of material and it's going to get heavy. 437 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,720 The top and bottom layers do most of the work, 438 00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:15,840 so in a box girder design, we remove the heavy material in the middle. 439 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,080 I've actually added a little stiffener to keep 440 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:22,800 the shape of the box. 441 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,960 So, if I put that on the piers now, you can see 442 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:30,440 I have a structure which is lightweight, uses minimal material, 443 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:36,560 but crucially is strong, strong enough to carry plenty of traffic. 444 00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,640 That, at least, was the theory. 445 00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:55,600 But at Cleddau, construction was well underway when, 446 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,280 on the 2nd of June, 1970, the unthinkable happened. 447 00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:12,160 At this point where the traffic now crosses the estuary, 448 00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,000 the bridge gave way. 449 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,480 The box girder beneath me collapsed, plummeting almost 40 metres to the 450 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:22,720 ground below. That's the equivalent of falling almost ten storeys. 451 00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,640 The disaster took a heavy human toll. 452 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,880 Four men lost their lives, five more lay injured. 453 00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,720 Among them, 35-year-old Evan Phillips. 454 00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:54,520 His widow, Anne, still lives near the bridge 455 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,600 in the town of Pembroke Dock. 456 00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:58,880 Put the flower on there. 457 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,840 What's your memories of what happened that day? 458 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:06,800 Well, I remember getting up in the morning and my little boy was 459 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,560 hanging around his dad, he wouldn't leave his dad early 460 00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:14,720 in the morning, and he went off to work early and then in the afternoon 461 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:21,080 I sat out in the garden on a blanket with my son and this friend of mine 462 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:28,320 came down and she said, "The bridge has collapsed." And I thought... 463 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:35,440 But I didn't know at that stage that Evan was on the bridge itself, 464 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,160 and of course I didn't know until midnight. The police came with 465 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:45,040 half a boot and they said, "Was your husband wearing these today?" 466 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:46,440 And I said, "Yes." 467 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,800 So, it was more or less confirmed then that it was Evan, you know. 468 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,720 But the rest of it... 469 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:01,880 ..I'd rather forget. 470 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:09,120 He was such a lovely man, you know, and I don't want people to forget. 471 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:20,440 Cleddau's collapse changed forever the lives of the families who 472 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,320 lost loved ones. 473 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,440 But worse was to come. 474 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:26,440 The disaster here was just 475 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:31,000 the first in a series of devastating bridge failures. 476 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,920 Just a few months after the Cleddau Bridge came down, 477 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:38,600 the Westgate Bridge near Melbourne in Australia fell, 478 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,600 this time killing 35 people. 479 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:47,520 Less than a year later, another collapse - Koblenz, Germany. 480 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,680 The disaster at Cleddau had already sparked worldwide alarm. 481 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:57,200 In Britain, the government halted box girder construction and even 482 00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,600 considered closing some of the new bridges built using the same design. 483 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:06,000 What was going on? 484 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,800 I'm going inside the bridge to find out. 485 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,200 Wow, it's amazing, it's so much bigger inside than it looks, 486 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,680 and being able to see straight down the centre as well just gives 487 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:24,160 that real sense of space. It's like a hidden world in here. 488 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:31,600 The box shape is clear, 489 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,640 and you can see how the bridge is strengthened within. 490 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:42,600 So, this is a diaphragm, it acts as a support inside the box girder 491 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,920 a little bit like a supporting wall inside a house. 492 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,480 It transfers the weight of the bridge itself 493 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:52,640 and the roadway above and all those vehicles down through to the 494 00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:56,200 piers beneath me and into the ground below. 495 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,680 But not all these supports are the same. 496 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:09,800 Unlike the diaphragm over there, this one has been encased in solid 497 00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,640 concrete to give it extra support. 498 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,760 But why did this superbly engineered bridge need such a substantial 499 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:18,040 modification? 500 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:30,280 Investigations into the bridge collapses uncovered 501 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,640 a catalogue of failures. 502 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,720 Consultant engineer William Day worked on the reconstruction 503 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:37,760 at Cleddau. 504 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:44,120 The fundamental problem was that people were pushing the materials 505 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,160 and the theories to the limit. 506 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:50,400 We had concepts and designs in the '50s and the '60s 507 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:54,320 reliant on standards which were way out of date. 508 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:59,360 The collapse here changed forever the way in which 509 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:03,400 we look at engineering, and we actually completely revisited 510 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:06,480 the whole business of designing steel structures as a result. 511 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,440 Box girder bridges were being expected to take ever greater 512 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:16,040 stresses and strains, and at Cleddau, 513 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,480 one element fundamentally failed. 514 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,280 The enquiry revealed that a diaphragm, 515 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,800 one of the supporting walls inside of the structure, simply wasn't 516 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,760 strong enough to support the loads it was under during construction. 517 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,640 And the results are pretty clear to see. 518 00:40:38,720 --> 00:40:42,440 Cleddau was the last major bridge to collapse in Britain. 519 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:47,160 Its failure 45 years ago sparked action worldwide. 520 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:59,360 Tragedy and innovation are woven into its very fabric. 521 00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:04,680 Today, the bridge stands proud, a monument to inventive engineering. 522 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:27,160 At the wild edges of our islands, nature's ingenuity is clear to see. 523 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:46,600 Here on Anglesey, plants and animals thrive by adapting. 524 00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:50,680 At South Stack, choughs use the cliffs for protection, 525 00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,680 returning to the same rocky niche year after year. 526 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:03,600 And at Newborough, behind one of our most important dune systems, 527 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:09,720 ravens and rare red squirrels thrive in a man-made pine forest. 528 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:18,120 But I've come here to find out how human ingenuity working with 529 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:21,000 nature wove a winning combination. 530 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,880 This is one of the finest coastal dune systems in Britain. 531 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,920 And it's here thanks to the strong westerly winds 532 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:36,640 and a plentiful supply of sand. 533 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:41,880 Together they make a mesmerising, mobile landscape of shifting sands. 534 00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:54,760 Once, Newborough had been prized as fertile farmland, 535 00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:59,720 but in late medieval times, our coast was on the move. 536 00:42:59,720 --> 00:43:04,920 Freak weather all over Europe made wind-blown sand a real threat 537 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:09,240 that could and did swallow coastal villages whole. 538 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,400 Marram grass was the ingenious solution, 539 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:19,880 planted to bind the dunes with its vigorous root system. 540 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,680 Marram thrives in this harsh environment thanks to some 541 00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:28,080 adaptations. 542 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:32,960 It has an in-rolled leaf which helps to prevent it from drying out 543 00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:36,920 and it keeps pace with dune growth by sending out new 544 00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:38,920 roots as it gets buried. 545 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,680 At first, it was forbidden to cut the marram. 546 00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,960 But as the plant spread, 547 00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:52,080 locals found an inventive way of harnessing nature. 548 00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:59,360 By the 1700s, they'd created a thriving industry weaving 549 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,480 goods from the grass. 550 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,760 Weavers were still plying their trade on Anglesey 551 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:08,960 well into the 20th century. 552 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,040 Hi, Nick. Hi, Graham, very good to meet you. 553 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:16,720 Graham Williams is Reserve Warden and keeper of the marram grass. 554 00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:20,080 I've brought here a marram mat. This is marram? 555 00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:22,240 This is marram grass, yes, that's right. 556 00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:26,680 Wow. It feels very durable, thick, tough. How old is this? 557 00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,520 Probably 100 years old, something like that. Terrific. 558 00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:31,000 And it's still here. 559 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:35,280 Yeah, that lasts. That's lasted longer than any of my doormats. 560 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,920 The marram mats proved so durable, 561 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:41,880 they soon caught on with Anglesey's farmers. 562 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:46,480 So here we have a "tas wair", a haystack, but on top of it we can 563 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:51,600 see here there is grass matting made of marram grass, and this was to 564 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:56,200 protect the crop in this inclement climate that we have here in Wales. 565 00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:01,320 It's a very, very clever adaptation to locally available raw material, 566 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,600 isn't it? The idea of just going down to the beach and 567 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,680 cropping marram grass and using it to keep your hay dry, really clever. 568 00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,640 It is clever and it just shows you how ingenious the Newborough 569 00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:11,680 people were. 570 00:45:18,720 --> 00:45:21,720 So, how do you harvest marram grass? 571 00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:24,080 It's a protected plant again now, 572 00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:27,400 but Graham is taking me to some that can be cut. 573 00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:35,400 Here we go, that looks OK, yeah. 574 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,560 Let's see if I can succeed in harvesting a bit of marram. 575 00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,520 The harvested grass was arranged in upright heaps, 576 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,000 known as stooks or gafrod. 577 00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:55,840 Oh, look at that! There you go. 578 00:45:55,840 --> 00:45:58,800 Magnificent, this is a work of art on a beautiful day. 579 00:45:58,800 --> 00:45:59,840 It is, isn't it? 580 00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:14,520 Today, just one person on Anglesey still weaves marram - Enid Mummery. 581 00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:20,400 Enid learned the craft from the last two weavers on the island. 582 00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:24,800 At 73 years old, she's determined to keep the skills alive. 583 00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:27,560 I'm plaiting some marram. 584 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:28,920 It's a very beautiful plait, 585 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:31,480 it looks as if it's got more than three strands in it. 586 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:36,400 It's one stalk but it's got five in it, you see. Ah, clever. 587 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:40,240 You've got five and you bend it, bend it there 588 00:46:40,240 --> 00:46:44,760 and then you feed it in from the other side, under. Yes. 589 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:46,760 And over. Oh, that's fiendishly difficult. 590 00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:53,000 Yes, well, that's how they did it, over and then under again 591 00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:56,880 until it runs out, but there's another one in there all the time. 592 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:58,560 That's the principal of it. 593 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,040 You've got to be very dexterous, haven't you? Yes. 594 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,640 Weavers, all women, learned their trade young 595 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:12,600 so their fingers would be nimble enough to overcome its intricacies. 596 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:17,160 Once they've got these plaits the right length, then 597 00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,000 they used to sew them together, you see, with the marram again 598 00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:23,400 until they got the width of the mat. 599 00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:28,840 Marram was the ultimate adaptable material. 600 00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:35,920 Planting it had saved Newborough from the encroaching sand, 601 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:37,880 and by harvesting the grass, 602 00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:40,960 this ingenious community worked with nature 603 00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:45,600 to create a craft that sustained them for hundreds of years. 604 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:05,120 Our coast - a magnet for new ideas. 605 00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:10,920 But why does inspiration so often strike at these outlying edges? 606 00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:20,880 As an island nation, times of conflict often inspire invention. 607 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:25,760 Our shoreline is awash with ingenious defences. 608 00:48:27,720 --> 00:48:31,960 But in the open seas, war is a cat and mouse game, 609 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,800 staying unseen as vital as firepower. 610 00:48:38,720 --> 00:48:43,680 At Portsmouth Naval Base, Dick's finding out how, before radar 611 00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:48,120 and computer technology, a bright idea from the world of art 612 00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,160 helped hide our ships in plain sight. 613 00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:56,880 I'm an ex-military man, I understand camouflage on the land. 614 00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:00,120 Soldiers have been hiding themselves for centuries. 615 00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,800 But when it comes to coastal camouflage, is there more to 616 00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:04,160 that than meets the eye? 617 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:06,480 How do you disguise something like this?! 618 00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:26,920 These days, the Navy relies on hi-tech solutions to stay hidden. 619 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:31,560 But in the First World War, once spotted, ships were easy targets. 620 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:41,960 By 1917, Germany declared unrestricted war at sea, 621 00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:43,760 targeting all shipping. 622 00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:49,040 U-boats, wolves of the sea, prowled the English Channel 623 00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:51,320 on the lookout for merchant vessels. 624 00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,240 Britain faced starvation. 625 00:49:59,240 --> 00:50:01,520 What could protect our ships? 626 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:06,640 This man, Norman Wilkinson, looked in a really unlikely direction - 627 00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:08,160 to art. 628 00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:11,680 I want to see how on earth art could save our fleet. 629 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:19,840 Marine artist Norman Wilkinson was on active service when art 630 00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:24,120 and his experience of the sea inspired a radical idea. 631 00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:26,640 It would revolutionise naval camouflage. 632 00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:35,600 At the turn of the century, art was embracing the new. 633 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:39,480 Distorted images were all the rage. 634 00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,840 One movement, called vorticism, stunned Norman. 635 00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:51,040 It exploded on the art world as war began, 636 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:54,480 using startling optical tricks to confuse the eye. 637 00:50:56,240 --> 00:50:58,240 This gave him a brain wave. 638 00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:03,320 It was pointless trying to hide a huge warship by blending in. 639 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:07,400 So why not do the complete opposite? Paint it bright, vivid patterns. 640 00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:14,680 By painting ships with these dazzling shapes, 641 00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:18,240 he thought they'd be harder to target. 642 00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:20,720 He named it dazzle camouflage. 643 00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,240 I'm meeting his granddaughter to find out more. 644 00:51:29,240 --> 00:51:30,880 What sort of a man was he? 645 00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:36,440 Oh, brilliant, very amusing, very charismatic, very determined. 646 00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:38,720 Was it that determination that made him successful 647 00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:40,560 where other people weren't? Oh, yes, yes. 648 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,120 He drew some sketches which he took to the Admiralty, 649 00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:45,760 and said, "I think this would work." 650 00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:49,160 "Oh, no, no, no. Rubbish, won't work." "I think it will work." 651 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,120 I assume during that period he must have been completely... 652 00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,440 Completely focused, completely focused. 653 00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:56,600 Just so determined to get this to work 654 00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:59,840 and to get people to understand what he was trying to say. 655 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:08,240 In one month of 1917 alone, U-boats sank almost half a million tonnes 656 00:52:08,240 --> 00:52:10,280 of shipping. 657 00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:13,040 The Navy desperately needed a big idea. 658 00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:17,920 Had Norman Wilkinson found the answer? 659 00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:21,920 With his team of artists, he set to work. 660 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:26,400 In their studio, they used a periscope and turntable to see 661 00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,240 whether dazzle really could baffle the enemy. 662 00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:36,960 The theory was simple. 663 00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:41,040 In nature, contrasting stripes distort and confuse. 664 00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:45,200 On the move, it's hard to tell the outline of one zebra from another. 665 00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:48,120 With inspiration from the vorticists, 666 00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:51,160 Norman took this a vital step further, 667 00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:55,720 painting ships not to just confuse, but mislead the eye. 668 00:52:57,800 --> 00:52:59,400 Nick, lovely to meet you. 669 00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:01,440 'Nick Scott-Samuel studied the technique.' 670 00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:03,280 I suppose my first question's got to be, 671 00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,720 what did the dazzle camouflage actually do? 672 00:53:05,720 --> 00:53:09,200 Basically, you've got a series of perceptual tricks which 673 00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:12,640 fool the observer into seeing something that isn't really there. 674 00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:14,600 So, I've got some examples here. 675 00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:16,840 You can see there's the before and after picture. 676 00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:20,400 Huge difference there, cos this is really confusing. 677 00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:22,520 Yeah, the pattern here is made up of thin stripes, 678 00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:24,560 then over here it gets to thicker stripes, 679 00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:27,680 and that's a very strong queue to how far away things are. 680 00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:29,680 If things are small, we think they're far away. 681 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,440 If they're big, they're close? Exactly. 682 00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:34,160 I don't know which way around that is. 683 00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:35,840 If that was sailing straight past you, 684 00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:37,440 you'd think that bit was further away 685 00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,880 than that bit in the middle there, so it changes the angle. 686 00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:42,920 If you're trying to work out where to take-up position to fire a torpedo, 687 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:44,160 you'll be in the wrong place. 688 00:53:49,920 --> 00:53:53,600 In the heat of battle, submarine commanders had just seconds 689 00:53:53,600 --> 00:53:55,880 to glimpse and get a fix on their target, 690 00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,320 before they too risked being seen. 691 00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:04,720 It was no easy task, and dazzle was designed to make it harder. 692 00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:10,200 Now, with Nick's help, I'm going to see 693 00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:12,640 if I can torpedo my very own destroyer. 694 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:21,240 I've got a scaled-down dazzle boat and a makeshift submarine. 695 00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:22,840 My assignment? 696 00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:26,600 To gauge distance and direction accurately and in seconds, 697 00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:29,680 just like a U-boat commander. 698 00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:33,040 To start with, the target's stationery. 699 00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:39,760 OK, here we go. You've got three seconds, and up periscope. And down. 700 00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:43,160 Now I've got to plot on the map which way it's facing. 701 00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:46,120 Happy with your choice? Nope. 702 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,240 Right, could be like that. 703 00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:52,000 No, I'm going to stick with the first one, I'd say it was like that. 704 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,160 You reckon it was like that? It's the wrong orientation. 705 00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:58,200 I was a jaw dropping 45 degrees out! 706 00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:00,160 A waste of a torpedo. 707 00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,920 Right, the dazzle boat's moving, again I want you to tell me 708 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:05,920 which direction it's going in, it's going around a course. 709 00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:07,640 OK. Are you ready? Yeah I'm ready. 710 00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,800 And up periscope. 711 00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:12,560 And down. 712 00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:15,760 I think it's going that way, I need to look again 713 00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:19,280 but it did seem shorter, so I'm assuming its coming towards me. 714 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:21,440 By now, I could have been spotted. 715 00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:25,720 It's not that easy! 716 00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:34,200 Finally I'm on target, but now enemy destroyers have me in their sight. 717 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,960 Looking at my performance there, I think the dazzle camouflage 718 00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:43,760 confused me enough that the captain would be quite grumpy with me. 719 00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,000 Yes, it would have been enough for you to have not been 720 00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:47,600 in the right place to fire a torpedo. 721 00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:50,040 That is quite impressive, the dazzle camouflage worked. 722 00:55:56,160 --> 00:55:59,280 Both British and US navies dazzled the Germans 723 00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:01,040 with their painted ships. 724 00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:07,000 After the war, a Royal Commission on awards to inventors gave 725 00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:09,880 Norman £2,000 for his ingenuity. 726 00:56:11,720 --> 00:56:14,840 Norman Wilkinson came up with one of the most ingenious 727 00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:17,200 innovations in our coastal history. 728 00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:20,320 Standing out saved our ships. 729 00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:21,640 Simply dazzling. 730 00:56:33,240 --> 00:56:37,640 MUSIC: Calm Sea And Prosperous Voyage by Mendelssohn. 731 00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:49,000 On my coastal exploration, I've seen how our shores offer 732 00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,800 challenges that nurture ingenuity. 733 00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,320 Sea and shore together inspire creativity. 734 00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:14,240 Mendelssohn composed this overture in praise of calm seas 735 00:57:14,240 --> 00:57:16,120 and a prosperous voyage. 736 00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:25,440 On Anglesey, the music of the waves is never far away. 737 00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:30,400 But at Cemaes Bay, it's the sea that's composing its own song. 738 00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:35,760 BELL RINGING 739 00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:48,560 St Patrick's time and tide bell, one of 12 around our shores, 740 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:52,600 designed to remind us of rising sea levels. 741 00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:02,840 The sea makes the bells sing with each tide, it's a constantly 742 00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:07,280 changing tune, and in the words of the artist who designed it, 743 00:58:07,280 --> 00:58:09,960 it's a piece of music that never ends. 744 00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:19,400 But with the song of the sea ringing in my ears, 745 00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:24,240 my journey on this island's coastal path has come to an end. 746 00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:33,440 I've discovered my own isle of wonders here on Anglesey. 747 00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:39,240 The rise and fall of tides echoes the ebb and flow of ingenious ideas 748 00:58:39,240 --> 00:58:42,120 that we find all around our shores. 749 00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:47,080 Here on our salty margins, we look out, not in. 750 00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:49,680 No barriers, no limits, 751 00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:55,560 it's here on our coasts that the waves of creativity first break.