Unconventional Brits: Episode Two

National World - Broadcast Video

This week, we visit a house of flowers, art made of screws, a tropical jungle, and a hunt for rapper Snoop Dog in a very special car.

Transcript

00:00In the bustling tapestry of Britain, where centuries-old traditions blend seamlessly with modern life,

00:07there exists individuals who march to the beat of their own drum.

00:11Unconventional Brits is a captivating film series that dives into the lives of these extraordinary local characters

00:19who defy the norm with their unusual hobbies, quirky lifestyles and fascinating pastimes.

00:26Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics whose daily lives are anything but conventional.

00:33Whether you're inspired, amused or simply amazed, this is a programme that reminds us all of the beauty in being different.

00:43Coming up this week, a house of flowers, art made of screws, a tropical garden jungle

00:48and a hunt for rapper Snoop Dogg in a very special car.

00:55THE HUNT FOR SNOOP DOGG

01:14We married at St. Iggs Church just across the road.

01:17When?

01:1852 years ago just over.

01:25She just started getting hanging baskets at first and I just put her a couple of oaks up, you know, real flowers.

01:33And then where she used to get them, closed.

01:36And she used to buy them from some other shops but they kept dying.

01:39You know, sometimes a month and they were dead and you paid like £20 for them.

01:44So she decided to go on plastic.

01:46So these are the same baskets but she had the real flowers in and as you can see they come out of them holes, the flowers.

01:56She loved all like glittery, you know, like she'd get Del Monte clothes and that sort of thing.

02:04And she liked, you know, she didn't just want it plain, she wanted it, you know, like she'd come home with six of these one day from work.

02:13You know, the day after she'd come home with ten bunches of these and take some out and put new ones in.

02:19The razz they are, when she died in February, I haven't touched them, I haven't touched them.

02:35Yeah, she was still working and she started feeling a bit ill and she'd had a few tests and that.

02:43And then we'd gone to Chorley for some results of scans and things.

02:48And he said she had lung cancer and there was no treatment they could give her at all.

02:54And she had three months.

02:58I watched her take her last breath.

03:00It brought me out.

03:08Lots of people pass here all the time because like we get table and chairs up front.

03:12We sit out when it's, you know, it's summer when it's like this, have a brew and that.

03:16And many people shout up how nice that is.

03:19One woman even knocked on doors, she said she used to drive past every morning.

03:24But wife used to turn the lights on every night because they light up as well.

03:28And she fetched her a box of chocolate.

03:30She said, you make me day every time I pass.

03:37Whatever she wanted, I did for her, I always did.

03:40I loved it.

03:42Always.

03:46You couldn't have found anybody better.

03:50She was a one-off.

03:52To be honest, I don't know the first time I ever met her.

03:56You can tell.

04:00I miss her.

04:05Now, artists can sometimes be a bit screwy, but this guy in Sunderland is on another level.

04:11Well, I've worked with pixels for quite some time now.

04:15If you zoom in on a photograph close enough, just keep zooming in, zooming in, zooming in,

04:19you'll see thousands of dots.

04:21And I've had the idea of replacing those dots or pixels with screws,

04:26preferably straight out of the box, rather than using paint.

04:31I think it's more impressive to just use three or four tones to create something lifelike.

04:37The first piece I produced was Mauro Monroe, which to be precise had 26,304 screws in it.

04:44I made that in memory of my late father who passed away in 2020.

04:49It's been predominantly famous icons, singers, actors up to now,

04:54head and shoulders at around five, six foot high,

04:58because you've got to get that sort of dots per inch, that resolution from the screw.

05:03I'm hopeful for commissions, but when I'm trying to explain it to a potential client,

05:10this isn't my artist's impression of the subject.

05:14It's pixel perfect.

05:16Each screw represents a pixel.

05:18I've done this one the same time as I did David Bowie.

05:21I was grateful that the Hard Rock Café, Newcastle,

05:26exhibited not only David Bowie on stage,

05:31but also my piece on Freddie Mercury and also Elvis.

05:37So to see those pieces on display in Hard Rock Café,

05:41which I absolutely love the whole brand and the whole chain of Hard Rock Café, was a thrill.

05:49It was actually the original goal to just have one of my pieces on display in there.

05:54My ambition is to have Amy on display.

05:57I'm currently grateful to be sponsored by JT Dove Building Materials

06:04and Nordstrom Timber, based in Sunderland.

06:07And we've agreed on The Beatles next.

06:10It's my biggest challenge yet.

06:11It's going to be in the region of 20 plus thousand screws,

06:14measuring about six foot wide by three and a half foot high.

06:20And it's going to include all the members of The Beatles

06:23and a couple of hints of instruments in the foreground.

06:26Now we all know that the garden can sometimes turn into a bit of a jungle,

06:30but this chap in Yorkshire wants it that way.

06:33I began to get an interest in plants when I was very, very young.

06:36And it snowballed over the years, particularly once I got my first job.

06:42Having a new garden, which was essentially an empty space,

06:46I was able to start my interest in a much bigger way by planting bamboos.

06:52I got an interest in bamboos and particularly also in palms.

06:55And the hardy Chinese windmill palm was an ideal example of what I would try in Sheffield.

07:02So over the years, through trial and error, we eventually evolved into what was a jungle.

07:10One of the reasons I had such an interest in these things is that I was brought up on nature,

07:15natural history, David Attenborough travel films.

07:18But I only ever flew once because I was terrified.

07:21So I never went anywhere really tropical.

07:26And I've sort of tried in a way to create a sort of a little tropical environment,

07:31what I think is a little tropical environment here in our garden in Sheffield, really.

07:37So that's how it's evolved.

07:38And over the years, things have grown, some things have died, some things haven't tolerated the climate.

07:43So you end up with a sort of a mix of tropical looking plants,

07:48which are hardy in the Sheffield climate,

07:51which create a, you know, hopefully a sort of tropical atmosphere.

07:56That's what I'm trying to create.

07:58And also it's a nice garden to sit in and to enjoy the outdoor life, really, when the weather allows.

08:07This is a lovely timber bamboo. It's called the golden Chinese timber bamboo.

08:13It's Phyllostachys vivax, or we call it, it's a Latin name.

08:18It's a beautiful bamboo.

08:20It grows even larger than this, but this has achieved quite a large size here in Sheffield,

08:26despite being quite a windy spot.

08:29You need to give it extra feed and water to get it to grow to these proportions.

08:34But it's been here about 20 years now.

08:37I think I've probably got less species now than I did when I started.

08:41Probably well over 100 species, probably maybe 200.

08:47A lot of plants, quite a lot of plants are small, but there's a lot of, about 15 species of bamboo,

08:53several species of palms, quite a lot of rhododendrons now, which I've introduced more recently,

08:59particularly the larger leafed rhododendrons, some nice ferns.

09:03So there's a lot of plants, a lot of camellias and magnolias.

09:07So there's quite a lot of, quite a mix of plants here.

09:12Finally, let's join two Brits in Paris as they attempt to reunite Snoop Dogg

09:17with one of his old Cadillacs, as you do.

09:25Ladies and gentlemen, we have an issue.

09:27We've been called off the roundabout. The police are here in full force.

09:30It could be all over. Watch the rest of the video to find out.

09:34I'm Sam Harden. I'm from Fairham in Hampshire, which is very close to Portsmouth,

09:38and I'm sat in a 1968 Cadillac Coupe de Ville that used to be used by Snoop Dogg

09:43to open the MTV Music Awards in 2007.

09:47It has amazing paint that makes the world smile,

09:50hydraulic suspension that makes it jump up and down,

09:53and a vinyl interior that is wiped clean just in case the roof doesn't work in the pouring rain.

09:58So this car was found actually abandoned in a field in London

10:02after the closure of the London Motor Museum.

10:05The car itself had mould in it, it had a dead fox in the back,

10:08and even my valitor threw up in the back of the car trying to clean it.

10:12A full new paint job. We even cleaned up the interior a little bit,

10:16and we also got the hydraulic suspension working,

10:19as well as that audio system showing us that we are true Snoop Dogg fans

10:23cruising through the streets of Paris on a search for Mr. Snoop, D-O-double-G.

10:27So basically, we went to the amazing town of Paris,

10:30or is it the capital of France, shall we say,

10:34and we managed to cruise around the Arc de Triomphe,

10:37and that was on our own. People assumed that we were actually with Snoop Dogg,

10:41so they gave us authorisation to drive around the Arc de Triomphe,

10:44and they also allowed us to drive down the Chaise de Lyon,

10:47which is probably wrong, and there's people at home screaming at me right now saying,

10:51you're saying it all wrong, and I am right, I did get it wrong.

10:54But you know what, we had some fun, we were blaring Snoop D-O-double-G's music

10:58with some missing dog signs, and we had a right laugh.

11:01It was lots of good fun, and do you know what?

11:03Snoop has turned things around 30 years ago.

11:06There's no way in a million years that people would ever assume

11:09this lovely gentleman would be gracing the streets holding the Olympic torch,

11:13but I tell you what, he is family-friendly, he is well-connected,

11:16and he is super diverse, and I'm proud to say that I'm a fan.

11:20I'm not going to let you lovely people know if I met him or not,

11:23because I went above and beyond.

11:25We even got cardboard cutouts of Mr. Snoop, D-O-double-G,

11:28in the intari. If he didn't meet him, at least we'd have a back-up plan.

11:33But do you know what? All is not lost just yet.

11:38Right, let's get out of here.

11:40So there we have it, guys, we have done the Eiffel Tower,

11:42we have done the Louvre, and now it's on to Mr. Snoop D-O-double-G's hotel.

11:47Hopefully the police have got inside.

11:49Thank you, guys, for keeping us safe.

11:51Right, let's go!

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