Unconventional Brits: Episode One

National World - Broadcast Video

This week, we meet a very young Pokémon prodigy, a miracle baby who isn’t a baby anymore, a beekeeper whose lockdown hobby is taking flight, and a man who builds villages for mice.

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, we'll meet a very young Pokemon prodigy, a miracle baby who isn't a baby anymore,

00:48a beekeeper whose lockdown hobby is taking flight and a man who builds villages for mice.

00:55We'll meet a young Pokemon prodigy, a miracle baby who isn't a baby anymore,

01:00a beekeeper whose lockdown hobby is taking flight and a man who builds villages for mice.

01:05We'll meet a young Pokemon prodigy, a miracle baby who isn't a baby anymore,

01:10a beekeeper whose lockdown hobby is taking flight and a man who builds villages for mice.

01:15We'll meet a young Pokemon prodigy, a miracle baby who isn't a baby anymore,

01:20a beekeeper whose lockdown hobby is taking flight and a man who builds villages for mice.

01:30I enjoy Pokemon because it's a fun interactive game and overall in the Pokemon community,

01:38it's a large community where everyone is all friendly and kind to everyone.

01:46I've got so good so fast as I come here every day and I play at least one game

01:52and I get plenty of help from the people who work here and the people who come in.

01:59So she's only been playing for about two and a half months.

02:02I've been coaching her for maybe a month and a half.

02:07She's seen quite exponential growth in how she plays.

02:13She can face against massive players that have been playing card games for close to 10 years

02:18and she's keeping up with them. Every now and again she's actually beating them.

02:21At her age, everyone that comes here is like, she's really good, we can't beat her.

02:26And there's a lot of potential in her.

02:31In the Pokemon card game, you have to fill your bench with useful Pokemon like Pidgeot

02:40to search your deck for any Pokemon card.

02:48And you'll draw a hand of seven at the start.

02:54And these are the cards you'll get to play.

02:56Not necessarily these, but you'll get seven cards to play.

03:02Some of them have special abilities and some of them are stronger than others

03:07as this is a Radiant, you can only play one in your deck.

03:12It can do quite a lot of damage, just like this can sometimes

03:17if you get enough prize cards out of your opponent.

03:21And this one is pretty strong compared to the rest of the Pokemon in this deck.

03:30My favourite character is the Eevee Pokemon and the Eevee Evolutions.

03:38I play the Pokemon card game because it's something I enjoy to play

03:43and it keeps me off of electronics.

03:49And your very special talent is to play while dressed up?

03:53Yeah.

03:54Tell me why you do that.

03:56I do that because I find it comfortable and I feel like it'll make others happy.

04:04Next we head northeast for the amazing story of a miracle Sunderland woman.

04:12In 1997, Bethany Hope Woolley, born 15 weeks early,

04:17was, as a baby, read the last rites.

04:2027 years later, in 2024, here comes the bride, Bethany Wilson.

04:25Born here, at Sunderland Royal Hospital, weighing just 1 pound and 13 ounces,

04:30baby Bethany had to be resuscitated six times

04:33and spent six months in the neonatal unit, battling for life.

04:37As Bethany told the Sunderland Echoes reporter, Chris Cordner,

04:40I never expected to live, never mind get married.

04:43Chris interviewed the couple ahead of the wedding.

04:45Bethany and Connor, congratulations.

04:48How are you feeling ahead of the big day?

04:50We're just overwhelmed.

04:52Nervous?

04:53Nervous.

04:54Really nervous.

04:55Yeah.

04:56We're three days or so away now.

04:59Yeah.

05:00Bethany, what a journey it's been for yourself.

05:02I know.

05:04Can you believe it's nearly here?

05:06No.

05:07No, I can't.

05:08Yeah.

05:09I really can't.

05:10I'm really excited as well.

05:11I didn't expect to be here, let alone just see us get married.

05:15It's just...

05:17Connor proposed on Christmas Day.

05:20It took us, was it three attempts to get it right?

05:24Yeah, three attempts to get the whole thing right.

05:27You couldn't get the ring out of the box?

05:29I couldn't get the ring out of the box at first,

05:31and then my mum made us do it again so she could record it.

05:35Bethany's mother, Louise, put her life on the line to have Bethany.

05:38She chose an emergency cesarean section

05:40to give her baby the best chance of survival,

05:42even though the doctors warned her she was risking picking up

05:45an infection that could kill her.

05:47Louise herself spent three months in hospital

05:49recovering from childbirth

05:50and couldn't hold her daughter until she was a month old.

05:53Things got worse when Bethany was two months old.

05:56She stopped breathing 50 times

05:58and was classed as clinically dead six times.

06:00Each time she was brought back to life,

06:02doctors said she wouldn't survive the night

06:04and she was given the last rites.

06:06But she kept on battling,

06:07and after spending the first 10 weeks of life on a life support machine,

06:10she somehow began to stop breathing for herself.

06:13She did really well at school

06:16and then she's been to college from being 17.

06:19She's done animal care.

06:21She's done cookery.

06:22She's done childcare.

06:23She's done lots of things.

06:25And now she's going to do another great milestone.

06:29Her next journey.

06:30Her next journey.

06:31As a missus.

06:32As we get close to the big day,

06:34the love of your lives, obviously,

06:36each other, devoted to each other, would you say?

06:38Yeah, 100%.

06:42From lovebirds to bees next

06:44as we meet a man who's found the sweet taste of success.

06:48So I started last May with one beehive,

06:51which was a caught swarm.

06:53Our queen was called Phoenix,

06:54so she was a 2000.

06:56And it grew from there, really.

06:57I got given a beehive by another beekeeper

07:00and then I caught my own swarm.

07:01I put a bait box out, some frames in it,

07:04and bees went in and I caught another colony.

07:08And then from there, it just built up, really.

07:09I got to send queens to some other people,

07:11other beekeepers as well.

07:13So now, in the winter, I had seven colonies altogether

07:18and now I've got ten.

07:19I could have had more, but a few of them swarmed off

07:22and I haven't got much room.

07:24I do treat them like a family.

07:26As you know, we name all our queens.

07:27So all our queens have got individual names.

07:29They've all got individual personalities.

07:31Some are a bit skitty.

07:32Some are really calm and gentle.

07:35But yeah, it's like looking after,

07:38I say, one hive is about 30,000 bees,

07:40so 30,000 children mixed with girls, boys, and their queen.

07:44Yeah, so when a bee comes out of a cell,

07:47the first job the bee does is to clean her cell

07:50so the queen can lay a fresh egg in there.

07:52Then that bee is a nurse bee.

07:54They've got no wing muscles.

07:55They can't flap, they can't fly.

07:57It's just folded behind their back

07:59and they go around and do cleaning jobs around the hive.

08:02And as they get older, they have different jobs

08:04so they can be a queen attendant

08:06where they'll circle the queen to make sure she's laying well,

08:09to feed her, to water her.

08:11And again, you've got the ranks.

08:13You become a forager bee.

08:14In your last few days, where you can go out

08:16and you forage water, pollen, or sap from a tree.

08:21They've got basic brains, but they can picture,

08:24they can make pictures of your face,

08:25the contours, the smell of me, the smell of my smoker,

08:29so they know I'm coming.

08:30I've had places before where the bees know me,

08:34so they're fine, but when something else comes to me,

08:36so you were lucky,

08:38they're very interested in that person,

08:40so they will investigate.

08:42I would like, my dream is to have my own bit of land

08:46with a teaching hut in the back,

08:48beehives all around outside,

08:50then inside, of course, my house and my family,

08:52where we can have chickens and everything.

08:54And then next year we'll start extracting honey again

08:56and getting children in for lessons and teachings.

09:01Finally this week, when wildlife photographer Simon Dell

09:04spotted a visitor in his garden,

09:06he decided to make it feel right at home.

09:08Let's take a trip now to Sheffield

09:10and call at the mouses in their houses.

09:15It started around about 2018,

09:17and I was just taking photos of wildlife in the garden,

09:21which is a bit of a passion.

09:23Just cut grass, and I saw one little mouse come out,

09:26and it reared up like a macaque.

09:28I took a couple of photos,

09:29as you would with a wildlife photographer.

09:32I posted it online, and everybody loved it.

09:34It went pretty much viral from this one photo.

09:37People demanded to see more.

09:39So from that day, I started putting a little peanut tree

09:43just at the back of my ear.

09:45There were no villagers at the time, just one peanut.

09:47The mouse started to come out again,

09:49so I thought I better build it a little shelter.

09:51I'm seeing my birds, I'm kind of baiting them to come out,

09:54give them a bit of safety.

09:55I built them a little log pile,

09:57and it just grew from there.

09:59Anything you can imagine.

10:01It's just whatever fits into your imagination.

10:04You've got train stations, pubs, shops, cafes.

10:08You've got a bookstore.

10:10All the houses, I mean, some of the houses

10:12in the lower part are modelled on Hobbit Village,

10:15so kind of like that, which is really fitting in.

10:18You've got a wallet and grommet room

10:20over here with the wrong trousers.

10:22Everything's all made by hand from recycled materials.

10:25Yes, you make all the buttons yourself.

10:27Bits of wood, all I can find.

10:29Sometimes I go digging about in trash and skips

10:32if I see something I like.

10:34How many mice have you got at the moment?

10:36There's a good family in here.

10:39On a good head count, I think there's about 12.

10:42Seeing them when someone's in garden at the moment,

10:46not much chance.

10:48Have you got any future plans?

10:50Expanding the village?

10:52Maybe other buildings.

10:54We've been a village.

10:56I think it needs a schoolhouse.

10:58Some people have said a church maybe.

11:01Your imagination, there's no limit to it.

11:03Anything could pop up.

11:05You've got a big following on social media?

11:07I have.

11:08We've got a page on Facebook called

11:10George Mouse in the Logpile House.

11:12We've got quite a big following.

11:14We're on Instagram and Twitter and all social media.

11:17People love it.

11:19It gives them a bit of joy, doesn't it?

11:21It does. It gives everybody a smile.

11:24Keep my mind and body busy.

11:26Definitely.

11:28Does the village give you joy?

11:30It does.

11:32I suffer with depression.

11:34For a long time, I stayed in house a lot.

11:37Photography and doing this kind of got me out.

11:40It combines all my hobbies, all my skills.

11:43I've learnt a lot of new skills while doing it.

11:46It gives me a reason to get up again in the morning.

11:53.

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