Unconventional Brits: Episode One
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.