'I'm Richard Wilson and I'm on a driving tour of the UK.'
The thing about the country lanes is that you never know
what you're going to see when you go round the corner.
'But I'm doing it without the aid of modern technology.
No satnav for me.'
Very twisty. Twisty-turny.
'I'm using the rather splendid collection of Shell Guides,
first published in the 1930s,
to see how Britain has changed over the decades.'
'The Shell Guides centre around the counties of Britain
and mapped out where to go, things to do...'
Oh!
'..and even what to eat.
When they first appeared,
going for a drive was a pleasurable experience...'
(GASPS) Oh, Mummy, Daddy!
'..something that's harder to accomplish today.'
(MUMBLES) I'm trying to reverse.
(HORN BEEPS) Oh, shut up.
'But I'm sure that me and my Daimler...'
Which I have christened Deborah.
'..will get us where we need to go.'
'Today, I'm in Dorset, in the South West of England,
using the 1936 guide, written by Paul Nash,
a county with a coastline dating back millions of years,
magnificent landscapes
and some of the most beautiful beaches in Britain.
I'm choosing to follow the guide's recommendations around the South
and travelling from east to west.
I'm sailing across Poole Harbour to Swanage,
before heading to Lulworth Cove and then on to Dorchester.'
It's obvious when you read the 1936 Shell Guide to Dorset
that the author, Paul Nash, loved Dorset,
and the overriding impression he had of the place
was a land of distant time.
But he was worried that Dorset might be ruined by developers.
I'm going to follow the guide
and go to some of the places that Nash enjoyed,
this window into the past,
to see if his worries were justified.
(ENGINE STARTS)
(HORNS BEEP)
The guide says 'the coast is the most compelling feature
of the county' and it's a good place to begin my adventure.
The ferry runs across Poole Harbour to Studland,
and the quick five-minute trip
cuts out a 25-mile journey around the bay.'
The first Guide to Dorset was written in 1936.
The car ferry was already in existence at that time
and he even puts in a handy little timetable at the back.
'It used to run twice an hour, now, it runs three times an hour.
Considering there are so many more cars on the road,
that's not such a a big change.
Well, that was the quickest ferry I've ever been on.
I'm driving three miles along the aptly-named Ferry Road
to Studland Beach, which the Shell Guide describes as
undisturbed, quiet and lovely.
Growing up on the banks of the River Clyde in Scotland,
I love being near water.'
This is one of Dorset's finest beaches.
It seems to go on for miles and miles and miles.
'There are very few locals about. Ah, he looks a friendly chap.'
Hello! Hello!
'Wait a minute...he's nude.'
You must be a naturist. I am indeed, yes.
A nudist. Yes.
What are you doing nude today in this freezing weather?
Well, I wouldn't say it was that freezing.
There's some sunshine and it can be quite warm.
Well, you're a brave man. Oh, yeah.
And you've got nothing on underneath that towel? Nothing at all.
(LAUGHTER) Well, it's very nice to meet you.
I won't keep you. OK.
You want to...? I wouldn't go in there, I'd go and get dressed.
Yes, well, you never know. I might try the water.
Thanks very much. Thank you.
'Rather him than me.
Think I'll keep all my wrinkly bits under wraps.
I need a cuppa to warm up after that.
Nash doesn't mention anything here about nudists,
but I've a feeling he wouldn't have approved.
My encounter on the beach reminds me of a quirky section of the guide
devoted to a giant ball.
Shell commissioned the up-and-coming artists of the day
to design posters to encourage people to take to the road,
and the globe appeared, memorably, in a 1932 poster.
I've driven a few miles along the Ulwell Road to Swanage
to see the Great Globe at Durlston Country Park.'
Built in 1887, it's one of the largest spheres in the world
and it weighs in at a hefty 40 tonnes.
It's made up of 15 pieces of Portland stone.
'The Great Globe owes its existence to a local Victorian businessman,
George Burt, who made his fortune in London
and wanted to give something back to his home town.
Now, what's this concrete slab?'
(READS) Persons anxious to write their names
will please do so on this stone only.
Ah, well, that's obviously to stop people writing on the sphere,
so since I'm here...
'It feels deliciously naughty indulging in a spot of graffiti.
I could get a taste for this.
My memories of Swanage will be ones of big balls and nudists.
Following the guide, I'm heading further west along the coast
to view Nash's promise of Lulworth Cove
and to catch my first sight of the Jurassic Coast.'
I'm really looking forward to seeing it for the first time.
The guide was describing Lulworth Cove
as one of the most impressive and charming spots in Dorset.
Long-famous as a beauty spot, it deserves all homage.
So if I don't like it... I'm going to be in trouble.
'In the guide, Nash wrote about the many wonders
along the 95-mile stretch of coastline,
including Stair Hole
and the theatrical phenomenon of Durdle Door,
but he was really impressed by the Jurassic Coast
and the wealth of fossil remains to be found here.
Local geologist Richard Edmonds is here to tell me more.'
The Jurassic Coast is World Heritage.
When did that happen?
2001 and that's because we've got 70 million years here,
but the whole Jurassic Coast records 185 million years
of geological time.
And what we have is this complete record
through the Triassic and the Jurassic and the Cretaceous.
There's nowhere else in the world
where you can walk along a 95-mile section of coast
and walk through that 185 million years of time. Nowhere in the world?
Nowhere else in the world. It's incomprehensible.
It is. It is, it's a very hard - But not to you?
Well, we get very used to it. Yes, absolutely.
So is it possible that underneath all that lot somewhere
there are lots of huge things to be found?
There are fossils along the whole length of the coastline.
I realise my life has been missing something. (LAUGHS)
'The Jurassic Coast is certainly a window into an ancient world,
and I'm sure Nash would be delighted to know
that nearly 80 years after he wrote the guide,
it hasn't been affected by developers
and now never will be.
Lulworth Cove has looked the same for millions of years,
but there is one man who is taking the natural elements
and creating something quite extraordinary.
Adrian Gray is an artist and pioneer of stone-balancing art.
He spends hours scouring nearby beaches to select rocks
to create stunning sculptures.'
This balancing act is extraordinary.
So you've got to find the crunch point, as it were. Yes, exactly.
Can you feel it? You can feel it?
Exactly, I'm kind of listening with my fingers.
Listening with your fingers. I'm making minute adjustments...
Listening with his fingers.
Now, there's a thing you haven't heard for a while.
I'm a little bit wary of the breeze at the moment. Look at that!
'It defies gravity. The stones are perfectly balanced.
Amazing.'
Have you got to be an expert to do this?
Well... Yes. Yeah...
(LAUGHTER) I mean, the thing is, everyone can balance things,
it's kind of instinctive, but what I'm doing here, hopefully,
is I'm creating sculptures that have an intrinsic beauty.
A lot of people said they find them quite calming to look at.
The only thing about it is it is very calming to look at,
but then if you realise a tuft of wind can blow it away...
Ah, yeah. What I do is erm...
I fix them permanently. Ah.
If someone wants one, I will fix it permanently.
'Adrian's work is extraordinarily beautiful
and it's incredible how his modern art
blends in with the ancient landscape.'
See, it takes... It's really quite firm.
Oh!
'Oops! Time for a speedy exit.'
The Jurassic Coast, what I've seen of it so far,
is absolutely spectacular.
'But it's farewell to the coast for the moment.
Next, I'm off to inland Dorset and Hardy country.'
'I'm Richard Wilson and I'm exploring Dorset without a satnav.
Instead, I'm using the 1936 Shell Guide written by Paul Nash.
The next part of my journey
takes me to the home of Thomas Hardy, in Dorchester,
and back to the coast to discover relics even older than me.'
The author, Paul Nash, loved Dorset,
he thought it was a window into an ancient time,
but he was also worried
it might fall foul of the developer's bulldozer.
Nash wasn't the first to worry
about the beauty of this county being under threat,
100 years before him, one of Dorset's most famous authors,
Thomas Hardy, was writing about the same thing.
'Hardy was deeply concerned about the impact of the modern world
and how it might effect his much-loved Dorset.
I'm going to Hardy's hometown of Dorchester,
which the guide describes as an imposing, attractive town.
I'm on the A352 to see if it still is.'
It looks a rather charming little town,
very individual,
not taken over by high street giants.
'I'm meeting Alastair Chisholm,
an expert on Hardy who's going to show me where he lived and worked.'
God save the Queen!
'But first, I've agreed to pick him up from his day job.'
Hardy himself was born just three miles away in a delightful cottage,
which you should visit, Richard. Well...
And then, of course, this was the town in which he grew up,
in which he went to school,
where he was apprenticed as an architect...
'It's slow progress back to the car.'
Thank you very much. Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
How do you do? I do do.
'The price of fame.' Now, come on, smile for me...
and I'll take it back to Yorkshire.
Oh, I thought it was me she wanted! Say cheese!
Come along, Richard. (LAUGHS)
Say cheese. Cheese.
Is this...? It's Friday.
It is. Friday. You know?
Is it...? Is it...? It is. It is.
It is, it's not a lookalike, it's the real thing.
It is, isn't it? It is! The voice. Our Tony's favourite!
It's the voice. The voice. It's the voice.
Hello. It's my husband's favourite.
You husband's favourite? You're not particularly keen?
Oh, yes. If he were still alive...
Oh, he loved your programmes.
(LAUGHS) Oh, let me take your photograph. Oh!
Oh, you are going to take a photograph.
I can't send it to him...
Oh, it's made my day! Fancy that.
Are you coming into it? Of course. Yes.
Yes. I'm not having that.
Careful, Eileen.
(LAUGHTER) Fabulous.
'I'm still not entirely sure they knew who I was.
Finally, we're off on the A35
to the tiny hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, where Hardy lived.'
It's a delightful cottage, as you'll see.
You've not visited it before? No.
No, well, it lives up to its reputation.
It is still comparatively isolated.
'There have been times on my solo journey
when I wish for some company.
But you know the old saying, be careful what you wish for.'
He changes the names of places, as you well know,
so Dorchester becomes Casterbridge,
Bournemouth becomes Sandbourne, and so on.
'Will he ever stop?'
He didn't like to be touched. Oh, really?
And I think that is something that, if you acquire celebrity,
as you will know yourself, people like to get up close.
You know what I mean? They do.
'He's got something to say about everything.'
And we're going to turn left at this crossroads...
'Ah, at last, we're there.'
Where are you? Ooh!
This is the back of the cottage, Alastair? This is the back, yes.
And on the other side, strangely enough, is the front. (LAUGHS)
'Isn't acute observation a wonderful thing?'
What room are we going to look at first, Alastair?
I think we'll look at the room to the left, the parlour. Yeah.
If there was going to be any fun, or a party, or a dance,
this, being the largest room, would have been where it was.
'After Alastair's grandstand performance on the way here,
the actual house seems a bit of a comedown.'
So this would have been the office. Yeah.
And there's no habitation for at least three miles.
You walk across the heath and then you come to Puddletown
or, as Hardy calls it, Weatherbury. Oh, violins.
They're there to remind visitors of just how important music was. Yeah.
And Thomas himself played... 'Alastair's a true Dorset character,
he really knows his stuff and it's wonderful to see
that Hardy's house has been lovingly preserved
and has escaped the clutches of developers.
Ahh, the tranquility of solitude.'
I was talking to Alastair
and I said I was reading The Return Of The Native.
He said, 'Oh, that's hard-going at the beginning.'
So I've decided to move on to The Mayor Of Casterbridge.
It's much more accessible.
And so, yes, I am becoming a bit more of a Hardy fan.
Look at this. I mean, this is beautiful.
That's unspoilt.
The lovely undulating countryside.
'I love the Guide to Dorset.
Nash put a picture of a dinosaur on the first page
as a reminder that they were the original inhabitants of this county.
And I'm heading back to the coast, to Osmington,
to meet a man who came face-to-face with Dorset's past
and the find of a lifetime,
Kevan Sheehan, beachcomber and fossil hunter.'
I'm being blown away.
'I think the best idea, rather than trek all the way down there,
is to wait for him to climb up.'
Kevan! (LAUGHS) Hello!
Lovely to meet you. And you. I'm Richard.
Nice to meet you. How are you? Not too bad. Come down the caff.
I thought you were going to say come down the cliff! (LAUGHS)
After you.
Oh, my goodness!
Gosh! Come and sit in here.
(READS) Large bricks, one and six, sma-
If you have the right money, you can have - Oh, that's ice cream,
I thought you were selling bricks.
'I love places like this. Eccentric and very British.'
So you're a bit of a magpie.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, if it's not nailed down, it's mine.
(LAUGHS) Can I touch it? Yeah, please.
What is it? That's an ammonite.
It's a large aquatic snail. How old would this be?
I'd put it at about 100 million years old.
100 million years?
'That really is old.'
But that is a nautilus.
'Ah, a marine mollusc.'
That's not a face, is it? No, no, no.
(LAUGHS) I thought that was an eye.
Now, that is a tooth of one of these large marine reptiles.
It would be about that length.
What's this bit in here? That's the nerve.
The nerve... I found it in two inches of water.
'Five years ago, Kevan hit the fossil-hunter's jackpot.
He now has an extinct species named after him, pliosaurus kevani.'
What about this dinosaur you found?
Well, it just so happens I've got a picture of him here.
(LAUGHS) This is one I made earlier. That's handy.
That's the beast. Gosh.
Now, what is it? It's a pliosaur.
It's the largest of the marine reptiles.
And this is a particular nasty beast.
So how long would that whole animal be?
I would say about the length of a London bus. It would be huge.
'It took Kevan five years to find, excavate and assemble
all the bits of the skull
before he sold it to the museum in Dorchester.'
Are we allowed to ask what you got for it?
Yeah, you can ask me.
(LAUGHTER) What did you get? I got ten grand for it. Ten grand.
'Ten grand for old bones, I wish my rate was that high.'
And is this the museum's best piece now?
It's their pride of place, yeah.
Having met you and I've met Attenborough, so... (LAUGHS)
..I wouldn't say my life's complete,
but it's...it's good fun. (LAUGHTER)
'Mentioned in the same breath as an Attenborough, that's high praise.'
Nash was worried about preservation.
But, of course, preservation is not just about buildings.
As an actor, it's the loss of ancient dialects that worries me,
so I've arranged to meet someone
who's keeping the ancient Dorset language alive
and he's promised to buy me a pint.
Hello. Hi, nice to meet you.
Hi, I'm Richard. Hi, how are you doing?
'Bonny Sartin has lived in Dorset all his life.
For the last 50 years,
he's been the frontman of a folk band, The Yetties.
He's something of a custodian of local dialect,
versions of which are still spoken today.'
This is very nice. Cheers. Good, I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Yeah. I've got a little passage
from Under The Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy... Yeah.
..which I would like to read to you.
I expect you to answer questions on this later on, OK?
And do it properly. (LAUGHS) OK, try me.
Righty-ho. (READS) I was settin' eatin' fried liver and lights.
I well can mind - ah, I was! And to save my life,
I couldn't help chawing to the tune.
I shall never forget that there band!
(LAUGHS)
Very good. I think I understood that...
I'm pleased about that. ..pretty well, by and large.
In his guide, Paul Nash says,
"Dorsetshire has a distinctive tongue to this day,
that is to say, it has the individuality
that the voice of a fox hound, maybe it's said to possess,
over the voice of other dogs."
I'm not sure I like the comparison,
but, yeah, it is a distinctive accent.
But you've got to learn to count, of course.
One, two, dree... Dree. ..vor...
Vor. ..vive... Vive.
..zix... Zix. ..zeben...
Zeben. ..eight...
Eight. ..neun... Neun.
..ten. Ten. You've passed.
(LAUGHS) When do you want your certificate?
Ooh, no, I'm not very good at accents.
'The Dorset dialect is a bit of a tongue twister,
but fantastic that it's being kept alive.
When Nash wrote the Shell Guide,
he was concerned that development might rob this county of its beauty.
Well, from the places he recommended,
the developers have been held at bay
and his window into an ancient world is flourishing
and protected for ever more.'
This is the most beautiful aspect...
..and I could stand here for hours.
Not that I'm going to.
'Next time, I meet some lovely Essex girls...'
You've all got your ice creams.
I'm not going to share my ice cream with you.
'..go out on a boat and eat the catch of the day...'
This was probably caught just out here.
'..but find it difficult to navigate on land.'
Are the Roman remains up here?
They're not up here? Oh, somebody's sent me on a wild goose chase.
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