Unconventional Brits: Episode 36

National World - Broadcast Video

In this week's episode, a university lecturer has been chosen to represent Great Britain in gymnastics, and ice-and-easy does it as we speak to a chainsaw-wielding artist at an ice sculpting festival.

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.

00:12Unconventional 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.

00:25Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics whose daily lives are anything but conventional.

00:32Whether 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 university lecturer has been chosen to represent Great Britain in gymnastics,

00:48and Ice and Easy does it as we speak to a chainsaw-wielding artist at an ice-sculpting festival.

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01:19so today's the third filed ice festival and today we've got an ice carving demonstration

01:26mid-morning and then we've got a trail of ice sculptures around town so we're encouraging

01:32people to wander around town it's very much about trying to put some footfall in the high street

01:37i like minus 10 minus 10 is like a nice so our freezers are set at minus 10 that's what we work

01:47in so we'll work we'll the sculptures we've got around the town that we pre-carved we will rough

01:52them out in room temperature and finish detail off so when i was doing les dawson for instance

01:55i roughed him out in room temperature then i went in the freezer got me pictures led dawson gurning

02:00all around me and then spent like about four or five hours carving his face and that's minus 10

02:05and that's perfect temperature for doing detail art as it gets colder when we're in alaska it was

02:10minus 35 degrees the ice just it the different temperatures it's changing it's like rock like

02:16your chisel start blunting and everything starts getting so hard and you it drains your energy and

02:21you feel so much more tired because it's so cold so all the different conditions vary when it's warmer

02:26you can carve things quicker but then you've always got things melting and things don't stick as well and

02:30things can fall off and when it's really hot the sun sort of changes the structure of the ice and

02:35things start rather than just melting they start flaking off like when you get charcoal and it crumbles

02:40that sort of happens it brings out the grain in the ice so it's such a lovely material but it's got so many

02:44different variations

02:45most of the shapes are linked to things here in st anne's so the one to my left here is the shannon

02:57class lifeboat so obviously the rnli here in town do a fantastic job in the town center we have a land

03:04sand yacht so the land yachting club are up at north beach here in st anne's so they're here to talk about

03:10all the great work they do we have a richard ansdell now a lot of the paintings at the town hall

03:14are linked to richard ansdell he was a very prolific painter in the area then we got les dawson so

03:20les has a very interesting face so the uh the ice carvers have decided that he had a really interesting

03:27face they wanted to have a try to do a caricature sort of very gurning sort of look so they they pulled

03:33that off they've done a really really good job of him so we use chainsaws chisels die grinders in

03:41the studio we've got a big band saw we use for cutting bits of ice out we've also got a big saw

03:45that you use for um planking wood so when you get a tree and you want to make planks out of it we've

03:50got a big saw that like that and we'll just we can slice the ice out of um uh yeah and we use like

03:56little little dremels we've got like little chisels that are really small and we've got big fat chisels

04:00we've got battery powered chainsaws which are really good uh still chainsaws so these are great

04:05these have got like carving bars so they're great for sort of carving there's like small bars come

04:09to a point the chainsaw end pretty much the same doesn't really change that much a bit bigger

04:14but where you can see the size of my bar there the bar in alaska i put the chainsaw and the bar

04:18would be touching the floor and when the fellow gave it us he goes here's a man killer and pass that

04:23to us and we were like flipping x and then you start the chainsaw on that and you rest on the ice and it

04:27just fell in just because the sheer weight of the bar and everything so yeah so we used loads of

04:32different diverse tools

04:33i'd been over to america on holiday many years ago and i saw a nice carving festival

04:43i was then asked to put an event on in the middle of winter and i thought well that would be a perfect

04:48thing and i did a bit of googling and i asked around and i just managed to find glacial art made

04:54contact with matt who's the carver here today and they've been an absolute joy to work with they

04:59are so creative and they're so so helpful

05:01the biggest thing we did was alaska we did this um we did a i think it was like five meter tall

05:12five and a half meter tall david david bowie it was a year after he died the sculpture had lots of

05:17elements of his career and so we had like the ganesha arms we had all the arms around him

05:21he had the ziggy stardust thing on his face and then we also had the bolt of lightning behind it

05:26he was sat in an hourglass and then we put some text um and so six days was four of us

05:30so that's the biggest thing i've physically ever made

05:32so when we first get here we want the ice this was all minus 25 last night when we put it in the

05:45back of our vans and it you want it nice and cold so it fuses together we squirt water and stick these

05:49pieces together but as i start working on you can already see now if i rub my hand on there it starts

05:53going clear

05:54we've done like ice ice bars in newcastle i think there's about 10 tons of ice in a freezer and

06:03then we carved it all over the course of three weeks and it was a new year new york theme one

06:07year so people would sit in at new york the another year was a parade ski

06:10they're the biggest amount of ice i've ever dealt with all at once

06:14it's a nice event because it's free when the ice carving demo starts around half eleven we'll

06:24expect a good crowd for that as well but it's just a nice thing to be able to put on sort of this time

06:29of year

06:29we do a lot for weddings for parties we do a lot on the lead up to christmas with similar

06:36sites type things for councils we've worked in film and tv we worked on game of thrones with a

06:41big set for game of thrones we do like launches for product launches for we do a lot for rolex

06:47we did we've done a few film launch as well we did planet of the apes the last planet of the

06:52apes we made a full-size horse with an ape on its back we set up in central london so it's quite

06:56diverse like one day i can be doing someone's wedding or 21st birthday and the next day we can

07:00be on a film set so it's quite exciting we do stuff for rolex every year time rolex release a new

07:05watch the same jewelers down south gets in touch we go and do we make whatever watch it is out of

07:11ice and they present it in um blenheim palace and then they have like you know for all the people

07:16who can afford rolexes they have all these people come and they they also have the new rolexes and

07:20people up in order and we do that every year and that's always nice because it's a beautiful

07:23sculpture you make but it's always different every year you go in there when you set up you've got this

07:27big sculpture spent age on you're really delicate you put it on this like priceless table it's all like

07:32oh i really once it's over me taking down i get outside and literally that into the back of the

07:37hand and it's great it's done its job everyone loved it and now it's just going to melt away

07:42and go back into the earth and we can make another one

07:44my name's uh dr chris mills and i'm a lecturer here at the university of portsmouth and i teach

08:13sport science so my everyday activities well i might be teaching students in a big lecture

08:20theater of maybe 200 students i might be in a lab environment or i might be teaching students how to

08:28apply practically the theoretical concepts and the theoretical underpinning of the science of technique

08:35or the physics of sport so not only do i sort of teach these mechanical principles and i do actually

08:41often use gymnastics as examples in my lectures and sessions but yes i'm a gymnast as well so i've had

08:48the the opportunity to represent great britain adult gymnastics at the 2025 masters world cup in likes of

08:58germany later this year the selection process actually was very competitive as what i had to do

09:06is i had to actually submit my routines on the different pieces of apparatus to a selection panel

09:14and then ultimately my score was compared to other gymnasts and i was lucky enough to get selected

09:23i think the key thing for me in gymnastics was that sense of progression so there's always something

09:28to learn there's always a different challenges for different pieces of apparatus that require

09:34different skill sets strength flexibility balance coordination all of those sorts of things and that

09:41really inspired me that sense of progression there was always something new to learn or a skill to

09:47perfect or a challenge to overcome so the key thing at the moment is refining the moves and the skills

09:55trying to get them as good as they can possibly be and as i start to approach the competition i have to

10:00put them all together in the routine that i'm going to use so i start to practice the routines in full

10:07and obviously it's not the just the gymnastics so especially as i've got a little bit older i need to

10:13consider the recovery the nutrition side but i also have to complement the actual gymnastics training

10:20with elements of strength and conditioning i do other sort of bits and pieces outside the physical

10:25gymnastics center to try to complement and rehab some of the injuries or try to reduce the chances of

10:35injury as well i often say to people oh you're you're never too old to start gymnastics and the reason

10:42for that is gymnastics offers a great opportunity to start with a forward roll a handstand forward roll a

10:51cartwheel or something like that so you can start at a very sort of basic skill level and then there's

10:57always something new to learn so we can always increase that skill level always try to perfect to

11:03move and more than that there's lots of different pieces of apparatus as well so sometimes if i'm having

11:08an an off day as such on pommel horse i'll go and swing on the rings instead and it's a different

11:15type of skill set and mentality which really sort of helps me on certain days where my body's or my mind

11:23is not quite there for a particular piece of apparatus so i can just move to something else

11:28the future for gymnastics i'm not sure i certainly i love gymnastics so i intend to keep training competing in

11:37gymnastics as long as my body will hold up and i can as for university i'm still working at the at the

11:45university here actively teaching students supervising students and i love my job as well

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