- 6 days ago
A very special milestone this week as we celebrate and look back on 50 episodes of Unconventional Brits.
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00:00This is a programme that invites you to step into the worlds of local legends,
00:06celebrating the delightful diversity that makes Britain truly extraordinary.
00:11In today's show, we celebrate a milestone, 50 episodes of unconventional Brits.
00:16From inventors and dreamers to eccentrics, we've met the wild, the whimsical and the wonderfully weird.
00:23Join us as we revisit the most eccentric, artistic and downright fascinating characters
00:28who've redefined what it means to be British, one peculiar passion at a time.
00:36It all started in August 2024 when we met a young Pokemon prodigy and a man who makes houses for mice.
00:44I built him in a log pile and he does grow from there.
00:48We met a stuntman called the Flying Fish and a real-life Johnny Five.
00:54Hey! Call me Johnny Five.
00:58But it was the story of one man and his house of flowers that he dedicated to his late wife, which really moved us.
01:04We married at St. Tick's Church, just across the road.
01:13What?
01:1552 years ago, just over.
01:17She just started getting hanging baskets at first, and I just put her a couple of hooks up, you know, real flowers.
01:30And then where she used to get them closed, and she used to buy them from some other shops, but they kept dying.
01:36You know, sometimes a month and they were dead and you'd pay like £20 for them.
01:40So she decided to go on plastic.
01:42So these are the same baskets, but she had the real flowers in.
01:46As you can see, they come out of them all, the flowers.
01:49She loved all glittery, you know, like she'd get Del Monte clothes and that sort of thing, and she liked, you know, she didn't just want it plain, she wanted it, you know, and like she'd come home with six of these one day from work, you know.
02:10You know, the day after she'd come home with ten bunches of these and take them out and put new ones in.
02:21They're as they are when she died in February.
02:25I haven't touched them.
02:27I haven't touched them.
02:28Yeah, she was still working and she started feeling a bit ill and she'd had a few tests and that and then we'd gone to Charlie for some results of scans and things.
02:46And he said she had lung cancer and there was no treatment they could give her at all.
02:52And she had three months.
02:53I want you to take your last breath.
02:58Brow me heart.
03:05Lots of people pass a year old time, because like we table and chairs at front, we sit out when it's, you know, it's summer when it's like this, have a brew and that.
03:14And many people shout up, oh, how nice that is.
03:16One woman even knocked on the door, she said she used to drive past every morning.
03:21But wife used to turn the lights on every night, because they light up as well.
03:25And she fetched her a box of chocolate, she said, you make me day every time I pass.
03:34Whatever she wanted, I did for her, I always did.
03:36I loved it. Always.
03:39You couldn't have found anybody better.
03:44She were a one off.
03:47Be honest, I knew the first time I ever met her.
03:50You can tell.
03:53I miss her.
03:54In September, we watched as a woman walked her pet turtle, and an athlete ran the Great North Run in a suit of armour.
04:09I've heard that there's a car that sweeps at the back, so as long as I'm ahead of that, then I think I'll be quite happy.
04:14In Blackpool, we marvelled at huge kites, and rode strange contraptions along the world-famous illuminations.
04:20We had the butterfly cape, but now we've added the lights.
04:25One story really caught our eye, though, as a video rental store in Yorkshire was not all it seemed.
04:33We were in the middle of Covid, and we were going through all this old attic and stuff like that, and finding all these VHSs.
04:40And also, that hark back to something a little bit naughty was the concept of a speakeasy way back when,
04:47because obviously there was sort of this prohibition looming over us.
04:52So it was born out of a silly drunken conversation and a lot of attic diving.
04:59The concept itself is an 80s video shop with a dirty hidden secret.
05:04So you come in, you ask for the movie of the week, which you may have done 20, 30 years ago at your local video shop.
05:14And then if you get the video right, we open up a secret door, and you've got a world of cocktails and good times.
05:2280s music, and once a month we have currently Wakefield's longest-running stand-up comedy night.
05:31We still get it every week, and when we first sort of opened it up, you get people walking backwards and forwards going,
05:39a video shop in Wakefield? And then you sort of also get this wonderment, this amazement when the secret door opens up and people go through.
05:53The hospitality industry, especially in Wakefield, is something that we hold very, very dear.
05:57We have people that have worked within the hospitality industry in Wakefield for 20, 25 years working with us.
06:06But also, like myself, I've been here in Wakefield 10 years, and it has changed.
06:11The offering is no longer your two-pounder pie in places.
06:16You've got so many various different concept bars opening them up.
06:22You've got sort of tiki bars, you've got high-end cocktail bars, you've got great tapas restaurants, and they're all independent.
06:32So actually, one thing that we love about working in Wakefield is the fact that you don't have these big chains coming in
06:39and sort of stamping down your little man, because it's just all the little man.
06:43October brought us the World Conquer Championships.
06:53The people that come into the pub want to try something, and we try it. Anything for a good laugh.
06:59People bring them in for us, and they're all different sizes, so we sift through them to get a decent-sized one,
07:04and the little ones are no good, because as soon as you drill them all through it, it cracks away.
07:08So they come from all over the area.
07:09They slowly, slowly catch the monkey. That's what I like to say. A bit more technique.
07:15It's not just how, bwaaah, smash it. No, a little bit more finesse.
07:19They don't take it quite seriously at the beginning, because it's a bit of a laugh and a bit of a jolt,
07:25but then if they get through to the semi-finals, then the serious sight comes out, and they take it very seriously then.
07:31Also in October, we met pinball machine fixers, scissor makers, cocktail inventors, and art forgers.
07:49And we still had time to fling ourselves down a big hill in a silly car.
07:58A little bit slow.
07:59We're trying to find a little bit more speed for run two, but yeah, we're pretty hopeful that we only needed three pushes.
08:06So if we can just get away with two next time, we'll be really pleased.
08:09And being the month of Halloween, there was time for a spooky pint or two.
08:27These glasses have been up there for ages, and it just fell off. Yeah.
08:45And who can forget this prehistoric garden installation?
08:48When COVID was on, and we couldn't go anywhere, I have a big shed over there, and I had a load of stuff in there,
09:02and I'm thinking, what the hell am I going to do now?
09:04So I thought, I know, I'll build a dinosaur.
09:07And so I built the head originally, and then over the next two or three years, I built the body,
09:12which was like two halves of an Easter egg, which I built both halves, then I put them together.
09:17And when I did that, I had to put the legs on, and that's when I started to realise it was getting a bit big,
09:22because the legs were six foot long.
09:24Anyway, so I built that, then I put the tail on, and then I built the little arms that fit at the front.
09:29And then the vicar of St. Mitles Hool, the Reverend Anne Templeman, saw it and said,
09:37oh, we're going to have a Jurassic Church here in your garden.
09:41I said, oh, will we?
09:43And so she said, yes.
09:45I said, well, I'll tell you what, I'll do, I'll provide the dinosaur, you do everything else.
09:54Well, it's probably taken about four years, off and on.
09:56I mean, I've not worked on it all the time.
09:58The actual dimensions of it are 32 foot six long, and it's 14 foot high,
10:04and it weighs about two and a half tons.
10:07It's made out of plywood, expanded metal, sand and cement,
10:12the scaffolding poles inside as well as out,
10:15and there's quite a lot of steel engineering as well, so it hangs together.
10:23Apart from just the dinosaur, when you go through the fairy glen over there,
10:30we've got a giant spider, we've got a crocodile,
10:33and we've got some rather large vampire bats.
10:37We've got a ten-foot python, and all sorts of funny things like that in there
10:41for the kids to enjoy themselves next Sunday afternoon.
10:47Well, luckily, I don't have any neighbours anywhere on that side,
10:49and we only have one on the other side, and he's not bothered about it.
10:52Some were throwing stones at it, and as you can see, I've got a blooming greenhouse at the back,
10:58and it's cost me 90 quid in glass up to now.
11:08I don't know. I'd like to think we raise a couple hundred pounds on Sunday afternoon.
11:11But the church needs ongoing money as well, so it'll remind people that the church is there for everybody.
11:28Hi. Just go with the floor.
11:32She calls it the beast.
11:34The beast.
11:35Join us in part two for lid-painting, beard-growing, and competitive pie-eating.
11:48How are you?
11:49How are you?
11:50How are you?
11:51How are you?
11:52How are you?
11:53How are you?
11:54Welcome back to our review of 50 glorious episodes of Unconventional Brits,
12:10and we now find ourselves remembering November,
12:13a month in which we met a post-box topper knitter,
12:15a couple with many birds,
12:17and the inventor of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang mobility scooter.
12:21Well, everybody tells me it's a wonderful model.
12:26I can't say that myself, can I?
12:30In Blackpool, we explore the Hotelier's Incredible Basement Puppet Museum.
12:36I love crocodile sandwiches, but we have to make them snappy.
12:39Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
12:42That's a way to do it!
12:44Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
12:47And we caught up with an artist with a uniquely creative take on recycling.
12:54I call myself MT Lids.
12:56My initials are MT, so that relates to the MT,
12:59but it's also what I class as an empty lid with a hidden surprise.
13:05I was actually inspired by another artist who is a street artist,
13:10and he goes by the name of My Dog Size.
13:12He came up with this idea for something called Free Art Friday,
13:16where he'd leave his artwork out for people to find,
13:19and if they found them, he took them home and kept them.
13:21And I thought that was a really nice idea.
13:23And that's where the pebble art came from.
13:26People painting pictures on pebbles, leaving them out.
13:29So I started with pebbles, and that started to build up.
13:38And I go to a lot of concerts, and I thought it'd be quite nice
13:41to paint pictures related to the bands of a Sid,
13:44and leave them lying around.
13:45I did that on some pebbles, but then I suddenly thought,
13:48possibly not the best thing to leave lying around a concert hall
13:52would be a pebble that might get thrown or something like that.
13:55I like to just leave them lying around the venue for people to find,
14:01and realise that they can take them home,
14:05because on the outside I always write it's free art.
14:09The Waterloo Music Bar in Blackpool, which is my main local venue,
14:15absolutely fantastic venue, gets loads of great,
14:19quite heavy punk bands and stuff like that.
14:22That's where I go quite a lot.
14:24The owner didn't know who I was for at least two years,
14:28so I'd go and secretly just learn how to walk around
14:33and place it as I was walking around and stuff like that.
14:36And it was quite interesting seeing, once he realised I was in,
14:40you know, some of the bar staff would run around to places,
14:45because I had certain places where I'd put them.
14:48And they've actually got a really nice collection,
14:51which is stuck on his wall in the backstage bar next to it.
14:56But yes, they discovered who I was because of my bracelets on my arm,
15:01because I do little videos of me doing these,
15:06and I post them on YouTube and I post them on my Instagram page.
15:10And they didn't see my face but they saw those,
15:12so one night they actually came wandering round the Waterloo
15:15looking at everybody's wrists and found me.
15:18But even then the boss didn't know who I was
15:20because they kept it quiet for a good year or so.
15:22The outside is, it's a print of my dog's paw print.
15:27He passed away, and when he passed away,
15:30I told the vet I was going to get a tattoo.
15:33And the vet said, well, would you like me to take a print of his paw?
15:38I got it tattooed on my leg.
15:39Again, when I was thinking about these lids,
15:42I thought, yeah, we can have the picture on the inside,
15:45but it really needs something on the outside as well.
15:48So I needed what, in effect, is a graffiti tag.
15:52So I came up with a stencil design.
15:55I painted it white first, and I stenciled the water splash,
16:00and then I stenciled the paw print on top of it.
16:07December, as you can imagine, was all about Santas.
16:10Santa school, Santa dash, and even Santa paddle boarding.
16:14We shed some light on the oldest Christmas tree,
16:18and the most festive car.
16:21I get a lot of people waving, kids waving,
16:23and people pulling me over, asking me to take pictures,
16:27and stuff like that.
16:28So, yeah, I get a good reaction out of it.
16:30But it was in Wigan where we caught up
16:32with a tasty December tradition, pie eating.
16:43It started many, many years ago,
16:45Harry's Bell Wigan, one of the pubs they own,
16:47and we was having a bit of fun,
16:49and we decided to put as many meat and potato pies on the table
16:53and let the locals eat them on the regulars,
16:56and see how many pies they could eat in three minutes.
16:59See, it was carnage.
17:00And then we got the binge eating society involved,
17:08and we got all kinds of authority involved,
17:12of saying, hang on, you can't get people eating
17:16and shoving pies down as quickly as possible,
17:18because there's a health and a safety issue in it.
17:20So I thought, oh, my God.
17:22So, we changed it, and we made it the world pie into competition.
17:26Get it, Aidan!
17:28Get your hand up, the first one to finish.
17:30And you've got an empty gob. Come on, get it in there.
17:32Meat and potato pie, a certain size, certain texture,
17:36and it's eating the meat and potato pie as quickly as possible,
17:40and it's the first person with an empty gob.
17:42It's as simple as that.
17:47I am the pie master.
17:48It is my competition.
17:50I decide at the end of the day.
17:52If I decide to change the rules,
17:54halfway through, I change them.
17:56My competition.
17:58My pub.
18:04Well done.
18:05We've got a winner.
18:06Go ahead, Aidan.
18:09Hello, man.
18:10For Eid, you've just got to get it as quick as you can.
18:13It's shoving it down as quick as you can, but small chunks.
18:17But other people eat it big chunks, and it doesn't work for me.
18:21But you've just got to try and get it down as quick as you can.
18:25I've been on a couple of TV programmes,
18:27but it's not changed my life.
18:29I've still got to go work nine to five or work nights,
18:32but, yeah, it's not changed my life.
18:34The winners of these competitions go on to big things.
18:38They get interviews in magazines paid for.
18:40They're invited on television shows.
18:42They're invited all over the place.
18:44So, for them, it can be quite profitable.
18:47They can earn quite a substantial amount of money.
18:51I think the world record is about 23 seconds.
18:54It's unbelievable when you see them wazzing their pie down in such a time
18:59you just cannot believe how quickly they can get the pie down.
19:03And then they want a second pie after because they're still hungry.
19:06by a second pie there.
19:07Yeah.
19:08Come on.
19:09Come on.
19:10Come on!
19:11Come on!
19:13Come on!
19:15Do you want to do something?
19:16I don't know!
19:17Take it down!
19:18Come on!
19:19Come on!
19:20Come on!
19:21Come on!
19:22Come on!
19:23Come on!
19:24Come on!
19:25Come on!
19:26Take it down!
19:27Please.
19:28Yes!
19:29Come on!
19:30Come on!
19:31Come on!
19:32Come on!
19:33Are you on the top?
19:35Find out! Find out!
19:41Have you got an empty door?
19:49The New Year brought us medieval archers, swimming mermaids and flame-throwing restaurateurs.
19:57And we also went behind the scenes of a competitive facial hair growing club.
20:04Recently we've done the British Beard and Mustache Championships down in Plymouth,
20:07where I managed to sort of retain my British title and take it for a third time.
20:21There was one also in the Liber Beards, so in Liverpool.
20:24I've done a few comps with them where I won a partial category with chops, so that was exciting.
20:31I've seen some of the photos that have come out from recent competitions and things.
20:38A lot of them have pretty big beards, so my tactic is to go short.
20:43I was in the British Beard class, which had to be quite styled, and a lot of that was to do with the image as well.
20:50So I had the bowler hat and the bow tie and that kind of stuff. It's an image thing as well.
20:56I worked for a company, I had a clean shaving policy, and I was trying to get early retirement.
21:08As part of the fun, I sort of exaggerated one of my reasons for leaving, you know.
21:13I grew a beard. Do you know how much razor blades cost, you know?
21:20It was like, I've had enough of this, paying out for razor blades.
21:24I didn't realise I was going to be paying out a fortune for beard balms and oils and things like that, you know.
21:30What makes a good beard?
21:32I'd say patience, time, good genetics, going to the gym, which I don't do.
21:42So there you go, it's just good genetics.
21:44So I discovered the British Beard Club online, and I had wanted to grow a beard.
21:52So I was like, right, I'm going to grow a beard for a year.
21:55And then that sort of stumbled then into sort of the discovery that there was clubs.
22:00And then obviously after finding the clubs, one of the clubs that we met, the guys over in Liverpool,
22:06the Liver Beards, they were doing a comp, or they were involved in one.
22:12So I just went along to that.
22:14And, you know, I was quite surprised I didn't realise it was an actual thing to begin with.
22:18So it just came as an added extra onto the rest of it.
22:23I just wanted to just have a beard anyway, and couldn't really be bothered shaving at the time.
22:29So it just grew a little bit.
22:31If it got a bit stubbly, shave it off.
22:33But then when it sort of came to my surprise that it's quite a big thing,
22:38the sort of beard community, people wanted to grow it.
22:41And then seeing everyone else going, oh, they've got a good beard.
22:44I reckon I could do that.
22:45I can't, but I'll try.
22:47But yeah, that's basically it really.
22:49Just seeing a bit of that and then just carrying on with it.
22:52I've always, from being young, hated shaving.
22:56I've never been very good at it.
22:58I look like Edward Scissorhands has been at my face, if I do.
23:02So one of the reasons is to avoid that.
23:05And I think it makes me different.
23:08I just enjoy meeting the guys, and I think it quite suits me.
23:13My wife disagrees, but I think it quite suits me.
23:16I've got to sleep with one eye open in case she shaves you off in the middle of the night, to be honest.
23:20A lot of people, when they mention like, oh, what do you do at Beard Club?
23:23Do you just talk about beards?
23:25That's probably not really the best thing that we do.
23:29We just have a beer and have a chat and just take the mick out of each other, basically.
23:34Don't go anywhere, because in part three we'll find out why an artist made a song about her zebra crossing.
23:40Oh, and there'll be paddle boarding dogs, unicycling saxophonists, wheelie bin dippers, gravy wrestling and formation wheelbarrows.
23:47We think we're a bit like Morecambe and Wise or Spike Milligan.
23:50Other people might think we're just rubbish.
24:04February brought us a little local history as we explored a garden with a gravestone,
24:09and a woman who repainted a ghost sign on the side of her house.
24:14Um, this is it.
24:20We also met Portsmouth's most notorious football fan, had a brew in a Taylor Swift cafe,
24:25and delved into the world of steampunk.
24:28For ladies, corsets are always big, pantaloons are quite big,
24:32and goggles are huge in steampunk, because it's based on,
24:36it's kind of based on an alternate Victorian universe,
24:39where everything is steam powered, you know, from the Industrial Revolution.
24:43But the month's most bizarre story came when we met this artist.
24:51I was in Vienna.
24:52The crossings there have this really nice kind of, like, ticking sound,
24:56like when you can cross the street, they go kind of like...
24:59And then when it's getting towards the end of, like, the crossing time,
25:03and the lights are going to change, it speeds up like...
25:06Instead.
25:07And I thought it was just, like, a really nice aspect of the sound of the city.
25:11It's like one of these things that's kind of, like, mundane.
25:14It's something that is just kind of there all the time,
25:17and you don't really think about it.
25:18But it sounded really nice, and I wondered, like,
25:20what would it be like if you could hear, like, all of them all at once?
25:23And it was, like, this big kind of spatial thing.
25:28And I was walking down the road again,
25:30and I noticed that the lights were phasing at a different crossing, actually.
25:35And it kind of reminded me of that, and I thought,
25:37well, maybe I could apply, like, the same kind of idea to the Belisha beacons instead.
25:42It's just one of these things that, like, you see something,
25:47and you just start having a few ideas,
25:49and then you just kind of take it and run with it, I guess.
26:01So I just recorded, like, videos of them blinking on and off,
26:05and then from that I was able to kind of, like, extract the data of, like,
26:08all right, this is the precise time when it turned on,
26:10this is the precise time when it turned off.
26:12And then I did a little bit of maths to basically figure out, like,
26:16exactly how long it stays on and off for,
26:19and to try and, like, get these recordings synced up.
26:21So it's just synchronized up with the beacons, basically.
26:29The music lives online.
26:30It lives in a web page, and it's constantly unfolding,
26:33and people just kind of tune into it.
26:35But also then with the web page,
26:37I'll have the idea of, like, taking it on tour,
26:39moving it around, like, recording beacons in other, like, towns and stuff,
26:42and looking at the idea of, like, a touring exhibition
26:45that never actually moves, but it also kind of does move.
26:48I find it quite an interesting experience.
26:57Like, at first, it's almost a bit jarring,
27:00because it's, like, a lot of sounds that don't really seem to have a kind of pattern.
27:05But then as you kind of, like, listen to it for a few more minutes, you can hear things starting to come together,
27:12and every now and then you just get, like, a chord that just lasts for, like, a few beats,
27:18or you just hear, like, a particular rhythm where things have just kind of lined up in the right kind of way.
27:23And it's, like, these little bits of, like, order just kind of, like, popping up out of the chaos
27:28and then, like, melting away again.
27:29I put it on in the background sometimes while I'm doing other things,
27:32and I just, like, find it, like, kind of, like, relaxing.
27:35Like, am I an artist or am I just a person who does art?
27:42Like, there's kind of, like, a bit of a difference there, I guess.
27:44It feels a little bit different.
27:54The Felicia Beacons thing is more kind of just about, yeah, like, our urban environment
27:58and just something that I find really pretty and interesting
28:02and also this idea of, like, data and representation.
28:05Like, how can we look at the world in a slightly different way?
28:09Like, what is our relationship to the world?
28:11And how can we find new ways of, like, relating to things, I guess?
28:25I love that it's this kind of, like, mundane thing.
28:28We stop at zebra crossings all the time.
28:30We walk over zebra crossings all the time.
28:32And there's this, like, really interesting bit of life and complexity in them
28:37that people don't necessarily know about or don't appreciate.
28:41And so turning it into music is, like, creating a new way to experience this thing.
28:47Things can be mundane, but they can also be really beautiful as well.
28:50In March, we rode on a terrifying-looking passenger lift in Sheffield,
29:10used a force in lightsaber school, and slipped and slid into gravy wrestling.
29:14If you are taken down into the basement of the pub,
29:17into this dirty, horrible little changing area with one shower
29:22for the 18 people who are taking part, men and women,
29:25there's only one changing room and one shower.
29:28But spring was definitely in the air for this man and his garden.
29:31All aboard!
29:32Well, it came about because I hadn't found me 00,
29:44and when the wife said I could have a reel,
29:46and I lost interest in that, and I started on this one.
29:48I always get a kick out of going through the tunnel and over the bridge.
29:52There's nothing particular because it's all special to me.
29:57I started in about 2005 and just been adding bits to it
30:05and making the machines and the railways and the carriages.
30:09It's just an ongoing thing, so there isn't really a timescale on these things.
30:13There were derelict gardens that were used many years ago,
30:34and I simply needed access to get material through for the garden,
30:43so I built the railway initially for that.
30:46It just became a hobby and just expanded from there.
30:51Yeah!
31:21But unfortunately it's just for family and we have tried to use it and give
31:27public train rides but it just gets too out of hand and we can't get insurance
31:32anyway so we just keep it for friends and family.
31:43Well it's got to the point now where it's in need of a lot of maintenance so
31:47before I can go any further I've got to put right what's been down for 15 years and
31:53repair the sleepers so I haven't got any specific plans other than make it look better.
31:59If you think you've seen some sights already April didn't disappoint bringing us unicycling
32:21saxophonists, a man in a wheelie bin and paddle boarding pets.
32:26It gives people the opportunity to come down, hire the boards, pop their dogs on and just
32:32get out there and have some fun with them, you know, pop on us up basically.
32:36But it was this unique low flying display team that truly took our breath away.
32:42We think we're a bit like Morecambe & Wise or Spike Milligan, other people might think we're
32:46just rubbish but we think we're quite funny and people do seem to like it at the shows
32:51and now we do so.
32:57We base ourselves on the Red Arrows with the adage that we are lower and slower and considerably
33:04older and not as good looking.
33:06But all that said, we run round the field doing what we would call formation manoeuvres and
33:15just try and make people laugh, you know.
33:18We have a great uniform, it's kind of the red t-shirt, white shorts, blue tights, red caps,
33:27giveaway sunglasses that somebody got from somewhere.
33:30These things have been going for 10 years.
33:32We just try and say to people, put your phone down for a bit, have a bit of fun with us.
33:39Who's going to want to watch a video clip of us?
33:41Nobody.
33:42So join in, you cheer, have a good day and be involved.
33:45We set up 10 years ago and Barlow has a very good carnival that operates through this village,
33:51fantastic summer day out.
33:53And we decided that we would form a sort of sister unit to the Red Arrows, the Barlow Red
33:59Barrows.
33:59And the intention at that stage was just to do Barlow Carnival.
34:05And we came to Barlow Carnival and of all things we won a bit of a prize, which was really
34:13well paid actually.
34:14It was 500 quid we won.
34:16And we never expected to win this money.
34:19And so at the end of the year, we were left with 500 pounds.
34:23And between us, we decided that a friend of ours who lives up in Dromfield had a little
34:29boy who got leukemia.
34:30I'm going back 10 years now.
34:32He was at Sheffield being treated and what have you.
34:35And we bought him a small laptop for him to use whilst he was undergoing his treatment,
34:41et cetera, et cetera.
34:42And it really got us addicted to fundraising.
34:45And we saw the potential of what we're doing and what we've continued to do for 10 years,
34:53which is basically push Red Wheel Barrows around the field looking very stupid and daft and
34:58all that sort of stuff.
34:59And we have a great time doing it.
35:02And we have a great camaraderie within the group who do it.
35:06It does us all a great deal of good to be involved in it.
35:10I think I can speak on behalf of everybody who's here today for the practice when I say
35:14that.
35:15It really is a fantastic, diverse set of people who come together and have a lot of fun.
35:20When it's back-to-back weekends, yeah, it is exhausting.
35:24And you get members of the public saying, oh, I'll have a go.
35:27And then when you say, you have to run with that wheelbarrow.
35:30Coming up in part four, circus stunt performers, fridge painters, brick collectors, Morris dancers,
35:42and, hang on to your chips, there's even seagull impersonators.
36:00Welcome back to part four and the month of May when brick collectors and Atlantic rowers rub shoulders
36:11and an artist decided her fridge was just too boring.
36:14My food was coming from a grey cold box.
36:17It wasn't right, you know.
36:19It needed to be something fantastic in my mind.
36:24I was tired of the grey.
36:26It just dawned on me, I need to paint that fridge right now.
36:31Talking of artists, here's a creative way of cutting down on the cost of paint.
36:37I don't know what I'm going to get when my model, which is just everyone I know who
36:43wears makeup, turns up.
36:46Some people have cases of makeup they've never worn.
36:50A lot of people have a lot of reds.
36:52And I think that's interesting because the red never gets used.
36:55It's a fantasy, isn't it?
36:57Ooh, I'm going to be that glamorous person with the red lipstick.
37:01Nobody wears bright red, I think.
37:03So I don't know what the model will be like or what the medium will be.
37:07It's very exciting.
37:08We've got a model coming this afternoon and we'll just see what comes out.
37:14I love it that you brought wine.
37:19Well, one has to do things with wine.
37:22Two months ago, a friend in Clear the Rose said, Margeet, would you like to have an exhibition
37:26space?
37:27And I said, yes.
37:28And I thought, oh no, what am I going to fill it with?
37:31I thought I want to do something different.
37:32What should I do?
37:33What should I do?
37:34And then this idea came up for an exhibition, which I've called All Made Up.
37:38It's an exhibition of portraits of people using not paint or charcoal, but their makeup
37:46as a medium.
37:48It's certainly bringing up really interesting themes, how you curate yourself to present
37:54yourself to the world, which is very topical of this time, you know, on Instagram.
38:00Which profile, which image are you projecting to the world?
38:03But on the other hand, is it actually creating a wall between you?
38:07Are you actually showing that you're vulnerable?
38:10She's at school today, previously.
38:12She hasn't been feeling like going to school.
38:14No.
38:15Well, you don't really in your teens.
38:17People are quite delighted to have their portrait painted, I think.
38:22I haven't shown many people yet, and really positive reactions so far.
38:28I must say that there is no one style, which is partly to do with the model.
38:33I'm getting a really different sense from each person.
38:36So some of the portraits are really abstract, with blocks of colour, and others are much more
38:42realistic.
38:45It does help that everybody who's posed for me is a friend.
38:49We're just sitting here, and I'm drawing, and occasionally we chat, we have a cup of tea.
38:54What a lovely thing to do.
38:56What a lovely way to be together.
38:58I like bronzy things, because normally I'm used to just, I put makeup on one of the way.
39:03Some of my portraits smell, actually.
39:06Yes, some people have brought perfume.
39:09A little bit more.
39:10Yeah.
39:11Here we are.
39:12Let's see.
39:13You're not quite there yet.
39:14Goodness me.
39:15I've never seen myself like this.
39:16You've been very kind.
39:17You've made me look younger anyway.
39:18So I love it.
39:19You'd be forgiven for thinking that some of our unconventional Brits might be in the midst
39:26of a midlife crisis.
39:27But we've featured many younger people over this last year too, from racing car drivers
39:31to golfers, and this impressive young stunt rider.
39:35Sometimes we're in public places most of the time, and just when they walk past seeing what
39:36he does training outside, they just stop and watch him, and you know, they're walking their
39:37dogs, and then they're intrigued, and they're like, wow, how old is he?
39:38And we're just going to be like, wow, how old is he?
39:39And he goes, wow, how old is he?
39:44And you say, wow, how old is he?
39:51And I don't know what he's doing.
39:52I've never seen him do it.
39:53You'd be forgiven for thinking that some of our unconventional Brits might be in the midst
39:58of a midlife crisis.
39:59But we've featured many younger people over this last year too, from racing car drivers to golfers,
40:04how old is he and they don't quite believe questions they don't quite believe what they're
40:08watching yeah they're just standing there yesterday they were coming in he was like are you pedro and
40:12he was like yep yep i am he said that pedro pavlov and what did you say yes yes we're here in south
40:20shields at planet circus and this is pedro pavlov my brother got him his first balance bike at the
40:26age of two for his birthday and ever since then he's kind of just flew with it and then a couple
40:30years later he got his first revy which he'd ride around all day long he did a couple of small
40:34jumps and as soon as we realized how good he was on a motorbike that's when we got him the offset
40:38which is the bike he's on now i jumped my airbag ride my bike
40:42and i play video games and play video games where did you get the idea to ride bikes
40:52when i first saw pooper jump when you first saw uncle peter jumping yeah yeah so i've been performing
41:00since um the age of eight been riding bikes since i was three and yeah basically been on bikes and
41:07in circus since i was born through generations of my family uncle pooper always been my motorbike
41:14trainer the best the best one it was one day that my dad brought me a bike back from my birthday
41:20and then he had a chat with the lads and then got me training with them and just it's been an ongoing
41:26thing since then and obviously now my nephew's watching me and obviously doing this yeah i was
41:32seven when i started training uh performing at eight and then like i say we've got pedro and tiago
41:37who's also basically training now um they go in the globe when they fancy it when they ask to go in
41:44pedro recently did a couple of shows in the globe of speed which is the everyone should know as the
41:50metal cage and when multiple bikes go inside and spin around at the same time but mainly they've
41:55taken to jumping and ramps so we're just yeah proud to watch them and you know when they're up for it
42:02they come and come and you know knock on my door knock on the door come on let's go we want our bike
42:08so it's whenever they feel like it and want to obviously train they get out and they get on their
42:12bikes yeah he's got his first event in scarborough this year so he'll be joining in omg stunt show
42:19obviously he'll be introduced with our fmx display so it'll be between me and him and the other lads so
42:25be great to have him doing what he does as well and joining yeah it's definitely nerve-wracking i mean
42:31he's come off his bike a couple of times and he's like mom i'm fine and i'm like i'm not you know but
42:35obviously because he loves it that much i can't stop him and i wouldn't want to stop him yeah there's
42:39sometimes i'm like just please take over because i just can't watch anymore but no he is he's very good
42:43at what he does and i see listens to his uncle a lot into what he has to do what he should do what
42:48shouldn't do it's incredible to see someone find something that they're that they enjoy that much
42:54at such a young age i mean i think you find people at my age that still don't know what they're doing
42:58with their life and for someone to know at such a young age of what they want to do you know it's
43:02always been man this is what i want to do i want to bike and i want to jump and i want to go on the
43:05globe and i want to be like my uncle he says he wants to double backflip so that's his um that's his
43:11thing so hopefully please no and do a double backflip a double backflip i thought it was a
43:16single one oh no it's getting worse you just can't put your finger on what makes a brick
43:23unconventional whether it's dancing willow sculpting planet making or just having a unique talent
43:30but when it comes to unique talent we got into a bit of a flap about this one
43:42hi i'm cooper wallace i'm 10 years old also known as seagull boy and this year and last year i won the
43:55european gold screeching championships it was about three years ago this year that i got bit
44:01by a seagull on a beach and my sister chased it down a beach with a spade trying to get revenge
44:07so we had to teach her how seagulls are nice now and she's better now with seagulls
44:14i thought i was nervous last time but it was a whole like new thing this year it was so crowded
44:23they didn't even bother leaving the door on they had to take the door off i was really shocked like
44:29i mean even if i don't win this it's just a load of fun like everyone's just doing a crazy thing
44:37um and if we don't win it's just a load of fun so it didn't really matter if i won or not i just
44:42liked the fun we were at a soft play center and shelby had lost cooper and at this point cooper
44:49always did the noise anywhere we were there was the he was making seagull calls um so i told her
44:56to stop listen can you hear him yeah look he's up there look he's at the top of the he's at the top
45:01of the soft play um and the gentleman on the next table just could not stop laughing he's he you just
45:07don't hear seagulls in soft play very often um he saw on radio five live um that there was this seagull
45:17competition so we started having a google while we were sat there and looked at it decided this was
45:23crazy um oh it's in belgium we're not going told my parents about it and then uh decided that it's only
45:30a short drive from calais let's do this who else can make a seagull like cooper so we uh got in
45:38touch with claude and off we went after you won uh gold that um your life is never going to be the
45:44same again and did it change it's changed like a whole lot it's not been it's never going to be the
45:50same that's true um so it's always mine uh yeah after uh representation of uh this uh championship
46:01okay cooper are you uh ready to perform okay please uh also outside quiet please thank you very much
46:11you have a little routine okay yeah seagulls like routines okay i will uh give you space three two
46:21one
46:41i scored um 81 points
47:10and if i got two more points and i would have been um getting a medal like i think it was the
47:18third that i would have got oh immensely proud it's it's crazy an absolute whirlwind again um so proud
47:27never thought it was possible that you could get a medal in seagull screeching um to do it twice in a
47:33row twice in a row has been amazing apparently we're going every year that's it now this is now a regular
47:39thing unfortunately but it's it's all a bit of fun it's uh now it seems to be an annual thing now so
47:46it's a fun weekend anyway seagull boy and seagull will return
47:50okay so
47:57you
47:58you
47:59You
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