Olivia Newton-John - Coming Home (2008)
Features: Rona Newtron-John, Olivia's sister.
Features: Rona Newtron-John, Olivia's sister.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Global superstar, Olivia Newton-John, is used to waking up in an unfamiliar city, but she's
00:09not usually as excited about it as she is today.
00:14That's because the place she's in this morning isn't just any old town.
00:18It's the city her father grew up in, the city of Cardiff.
00:22This is the place of my father's childhood, and so I'm very excited.
00:27It looks so beautiful out there too, and it's got the mist and the rolling hills, and it's
00:32gorgeous, I'm intrigued.
00:33Let's go!
00:37Olivia has come to Wales with her sister.
00:42They're on a special mission to discover as much as they can about the Welsh origins of
00:45the Newton-John clan.
00:47That's amazing!
00:49This could be them.
00:50I think it's them.
00:51Let me take a picture.
00:52In the next half hour, you'll see the two sisters making some unexpected discoveries.
00:57Oh, it is her!
00:59Meeting up again with a much-loved figure from their past, and consistently having a
01:04really good time.
01:06The part could be related to Cliff.
01:08There you go!
01:10I knew it!
01:16And only say, that you'll be mine.
01:23Ever since the 1970s, when she sprang to fame with songs like this, Olivia Newton-John has
01:28occupied a special place in the hearts of record buyers around the world.
01:36Her unforgettable performance as Sandy in Grease proved that she could act as well as
01:41sing, and the success of the film further increased the size of her already massive
01:46fanbase.
01:4830 years on from that high point, her appeal is as strong as ever.
01:52Not just in Australia, the country she's called home since the age of 5, but in America,
01:57Europe, and elsewhere.
02:02Now, this much-loved performer has finally made it to Wales, accompanied by her elder
02:07sister, Rona.
02:10Great friends today, like they were as children, the sisters have come to explore the ancestry
02:15of their thoroughly Welsh father, Brinley Newton-John.
02:21He divorced Olivia and Rona's German mother, Irena, when Olivia was 10, but he remained
02:26a key figure in her life right up until his death in 1992.
02:33My father was brilliant.
02:36My father was brilliant, very handsome, charismatic, beautiful singing voice, had a very illustrious
02:41career, was the youngest headmaster in Australia at the age of 40.
02:46I have very limited knowledge of his family, and I've always wanted to find out more.
02:54Rona's going to help me because she remembers being here when she was a little girl, and
02:59so she has some memories she'd probably love to share, and it's going to be interesting
03:03to see what she remembers.
03:06The sisters' first port of call is Cardiff Castle, where Welsh genealogist Michael Churchill
03:11Jones is waiting to greet them.
03:13Hello, Olivia, Rona.
03:15I've been researching your family tree.
03:17Mike has managed to trace Brinley Newton-John's bloodline right the way back to the 18th century.
03:23He can't wait to tell the sisters everything he's found out.
03:26We have deep Welsh roots for your family.
03:29We have the Johns, we have the Priests, the Richards.
03:32I could be related to Cliff.
03:34There you go!
03:36I knew it!
03:38After convincing the sisters that they aren't related to Britain's most venerable pop star,
03:43Mike goes on to fill them in on who they are descended from.
03:46Eager to convey the depth of his research, he throws dozens of names at them.
03:50All are of interest, but two stand out so far as both sisters are concerned.
03:57The first is that of their father's grandfather, James Newton.
04:01Olivia and Rona have known about him for the whole of their lives,
04:04but they've never known until now what he did for a living.
04:08James Newton was born in 1856.
04:10He's your great-grandfather, and he was a publican.
04:14There you go!
04:15I knew someone had a pub, so it all makes sense now.
04:17That makes a lot more sense about everything.
04:19Everything.
04:22The sisters are tickled pink by this revelation, but there's an even bigger surprise coming.
04:27It concerns James Newton's daughter, Daisy, who was their grandmother.
04:32Daisy Newton founded the Newton-John dynasty by inserting her father's name in front of her husband's
04:38on her children's birth certificates.
04:40But the sisters are about to discover that she wasn't quite as genteel as they've always assumed.
04:45She worked as a barmaid for some time.
04:48Did she?
04:49In her father's pub.
04:50I knew her, and she was very proper, and she was very strict, and she was quite tough.
04:56I mean, it blows my mind that she was a barmaid.
04:59She'd dress up in her Sunday best, and we'd go to church five times a day, you know,
05:03and she'd sit and play hymns at the piano, and she'd get dressed and undressed under her flannel nightie.
05:09She was so proper.
05:10To think, she would have died to think that anybody knew she was a barmaid.
05:15Well, we know now.
05:16Amazing. I love it.
05:17It's great.
05:18It's great.
05:23Proof that Olivia and Rona's hyper-respectable grandma was a barmaid during her youth
05:28comes in the shape of this photograph.
05:31It shows her posing with her sister outside the Cardiff pub they both worked in,
05:35the new Market Tavern.
05:37Look, look, look. There's Grandma.
05:39Unbelievable.
05:40Look at her posture.
05:43Armed only with the photo, the sisters decide to track the Market Tavern down.
05:47Their search begins in the obvious place, Cardiff Market.
05:51Excuse me.
05:52Yes?
05:53We're looking for the New Market Hotel, New Market Tavern. Do you know where it is?
05:57The Market Tavern used to be around the corner by the old arcade pub.
06:01Right.
06:02It's not the Market Tavern anymore. I think it's O'Neill's now.
06:05Oh, OK.
06:06Just find it outside.
06:07It's still a pub, though?
06:08It's still a pub, yeah.
06:09This direction?
06:10This direction, just out the side entrance of the market.
06:12Thank you very much.
06:13Thanks.
06:14I guess we go up this way.
06:15Although they've been given a good tip off as to where the pub might be,
06:18finding it proves no easy matter.
06:21That's because the area around the market turns out to contain
06:24a surprisingly large number of lightly looking taverns.
06:27Hello.
06:28I think we are, sorry.
06:30Guess what it's now called? Brains. Hang on.
06:32Go back.
06:33Brains.
06:34Go back, go back. They've changed the windows.
06:36Have a look at the chart. We can't see it.
06:38There's two lots of windows.
06:40Two sets of windows, and there's two sets of windows, but you can't really...
06:42Oh, there.
06:43There.
06:45Let's go in and ask them.
06:46Okay.
06:47Is this the pub they're looking for?
06:48The sisters aren't sure, and whoever's inside doesn't want to tell them.
06:53Who are these weird women at our window?
06:56Crazy women wanting to have a drink at Nine & Wine.
06:59Deciding they're in the wrong place, the sisters press on with their quest,
07:04only to spy a distracting sight.
07:06Pasties.
07:07The first pasty I've seen.
07:08Yum.
07:09Ooh, they look really good.
07:10Steak and kidney pie.
07:13Their enduring temptation makes them keener than ever to find the right pub,
07:17and moments later, a promising-looking building looms into view.
07:21O'Neill's. What about this one here? It's a pub.
07:24Oh, there you go.
07:26Is this the right branch of O'Neill's, though?
07:28The sisters aren't sure, so they decide to go inside and find someone to ask.
07:34They don't know it yet, but they're about to get an object lesson
07:37in what a small country Wales actually is.
07:40How are you?
07:41I'm Paul.
07:42I'm Olivia.
07:43Hello, Olivia.
07:44I'm Rona.
07:45Hi, Rona. You all right?
07:46Yes.
07:47We believe our grandmother worked here.
07:49We want to make sure we're in the right place.
07:51This is Market Tavern, New Market Tavern?
07:53Yes.
07:54This is it?
07:55Yeah, this is it.
07:56It changed 12 years ago.
07:58Paul Thomas, the manager of this branch of O'Neill's,
08:00isn't able to show Olivia and Rona any relics of the Market Tavern
08:04because the pub's been totally transformed over the past 12 years.
08:08But he is able to give them some very surprising news.
08:11I'm a distant relative.
08:12Are you?
08:14Paul, nice to meet you.
08:15What are you, a distant, distant, distant cousin?
08:17I think my mother.
08:18Yeah, my mother's fourth cousin, too.
08:20Oh, wow.
08:21So you're a fifth cousin?
08:22So I'd be a fifth cousin, yeah.
08:23My daughter's number six.
08:26Oh, that's wild.
08:27That's so wonderful.
08:28So that's quite crazy, isn't it?
08:29That is.
08:30And you're in this pub.
08:31That's even more crazy than you think about it.
08:32That's mind-boggling, isn't it?
08:33It's just an amazing thought.
08:36Olivia and Rona are thrilled to encounter a total stranger
08:39who's got a strong connection with their family.
08:42And Olivia's even more thrilled
08:44when Paul lets her have a go at her grandma's job.
08:47Nice and squeaky.
08:49I like this brains beer.
08:50Do you have to keep it on the bottom?
08:52Yeah, keep it right on the bottom.
08:53Right on the bottom.
08:54One more.
08:55You can have a drink and...
08:56Woo-hoo!
08:57And a workout.
08:58Look at that.
08:59It's perfect.
09:00It's perfect.
09:01Cheers.
09:02Cheers, Grandma.
09:04To bring their visit to the market tavern to a fitting climax,
09:07the sisters ask cousin Paul to help them recreate
09:10the old photograph of Daisy Newton and her sister
09:13posing in the doorway of the pub.
09:15It's something like that.
09:17Was it like that?
09:18It's a fun moment,
09:20but a more serious side of Olivia's character
09:23is about to emerge.
09:25Overwhelming.
09:28The research carried out into her family tree
09:31has disclosed that many of Olivia's ancestors,
09:34including Daisy Newton,
09:36lived in the area now known as Cardiff Bay.
09:39Olivia wants to know what might have drawn her forebears
09:42to that part of the world,
09:43so she meets up there with Wales' leading historian,
09:46Dr John Davies.
09:48A lot of my family came to Cardiff
09:50and I was wondering if you would know why that would be...
09:53Well, by the 1850s, 1860s,
09:55things were getting very difficult in the rural areas,
09:58whereas the industrial areas were booming
10:00and particularly Cardiff,
10:01because Cardiff began, of course,
10:03exporting coal on an enormous scale,
10:05so it was a magnet to people in the immediate vicinity
10:08in the Vale of Glamorgan and, indeed, further afield.
10:11Oh, I see.
10:12The speed at which it was growing.
10:19A fifth of the total trade in coal emanated from here
10:23in the later 19th century, making Cardiff
10:26by far the greatest coal port in the world.
10:29But then, of course, in the 1920s,
10:31the coal trade goes down very rapidly
10:34and the whole dock area was more or less abandoned.
10:38Cardiff had to find other functions
10:40and it found, in particular, an administrative function
10:43and here, of course, we've got the Welsh Senate,
10:45the Welsh Parliament, the Welsh Assembly.
10:47That's beautiful.
10:48It reminds me of the Opera House a little bit with the curves.
10:51Well, yes, indeed, that's true.
10:55Cardiff Bay is a very pleasant place these days,
10:58but when Olivia's relatives settled here
11:00back in the 19th century, it was anything but.
11:03Known then as Bute Town or the Docks,
11:05it was a harsh and sometimes frightening environment
11:08in which to live.
11:10Hingledy-pingledy, things were piled up quite suddenly.
11:14So some of the housing would have been pretty poor
11:17and, of course, crowded,
11:19and it developed a bad reputation quite quickly indeed
11:23within 12 years of the opening of the dock.
11:25The local paper talks about Bute Street being overrun
11:29by boarding houses and brothels.
11:32So it wasn't an area that people wandered around with impunity.
11:36My grandmother was a barmaid.
11:38What kind of life would that be
11:40and what would she have been seen as in that time period?
11:43I would have thought that a barmaid in Bute Town,
11:46in Tiger Bay indeed,
11:48would not have been considered one of the most suspectable people.
11:53But I'm sure, somebody in your background,
11:55that they became respectable even if they weren't originally.
11:58Well, yes, I think she married Grandpa John, who was respectable.
12:01He was a carpenter and she took my sister to church five times a day
12:05on Sundays.
12:06Well, you know, there's nobody more reformed than a reformed ring.
12:12She was just one of those reformed people, always the worst.
12:15So if she was a barmaid, she might have married Grandpa John
12:18because he was a nice, decent chap.
12:22That's why she was so strict.
12:24She was so strict.
12:25I mean, she'd wash Dad's mouth out with soap if he said anything wrong.
12:29That's right, if he said anything bad.
12:30And yet she was probably the raunchiest woman out there.
12:33I mean, a barmaid in the docks, can you imagine? Daisy?
12:36Having found out lots about their grandma, Daisy Newton,
12:40Olivia and Rona are keen now to explore the ancestry of her husband,
12:44Grandpa John.
12:45He was born in a village called St Mary Hill,
12:48which lies some 20 miles west of Cardiff,
12:51and the sisters have decided to make that their next port of call.
13:13The village is tiny,
13:14just a few houses scattered around a 13th century church,
13:17but it makes quite an impression on Olivia and Rona all the same.
13:21God, how pretty is this?
13:23Gorgeous.
13:24I love this headstone.
13:26The old stone walls.
13:28It's beautiful.
13:30Several generations of the John family lived in St Mary Hill.
13:34The sisters have been told that a memorial to some of them
13:37can be found inside the church,
13:39and they're determined to track it down.
13:45Wow.
13:46Oh, my God, it's gorgeous.
13:48It's beautiful.
13:49It's beautiful.
13:50Someone said it's near the door, so...
13:53Oh, really?
13:55Let's have a look.
13:56That's a Thomas, and we're not a Thomas, and that's...
13:59Oh, look, there's a Jenkin John here.
14:01Where?
14:02But I don't recognise Jenkin, do you?
14:04I don't either, no.
14:05He said all those names.
14:06What else?
14:07William Rees, no.
14:08What's that one?
14:09Oh, look, there's another John here.
14:11Beneath lies interred David John of this parish,
14:16who died March 24, 17...
14:181784, that was the first date.
14:20That was one of them.
14:21I think.
14:22What's that say?
14:23Age 21 years, and his wife died April 1st, 1795, age 71.
14:28David John died April 1796.
14:31This could be them.
14:32I think it's them.
14:33Let me take a picture.
14:34Let's take a picture.
14:35You get there, and I'll take...
14:37The memorial commemorates two people
14:39from whom they're directly descended,
14:41and it's more than 200 years old.
14:44That's amazing.
14:47Astounded by their discovery,
14:49the sisters linger a while in the church.
14:52Then they stroll the short distance to a nearby house,
14:55Tyreguys, which another of their ancestors, Thomas John,
14:59ran as a pub during the 19th century.
15:02They're keen to see what the house looks like
15:04and find out more about Thomas and his family.
15:09It's this one, eh?
15:10Yeah.
15:11They've phoned ahead to say that they're coming,
15:14and they get a warm welcome from the house's current owner,
15:17Ray Meredith.
15:18Hello.
15:19Do come in.
15:20You must be Ray.
15:21Your guest.
15:22Hi.
15:23I'm Olivia, this is my sister Rona.
15:25Hi, come in.
15:26We know our brother used to live here a long time ago,
15:29and we were wondering if you could tell us something.
15:31Great, thank you.
15:34Ray has lived in Tyreguys, church house in English,
15:37for 25 years, and he's done a lot of research into its history.
15:41As a result, he's able to tell Olivia and Rona
15:44quite a bit about their ancestors, the Johns.
15:48And how long were they here?
15:49Do you know?
15:50Because we don't know anything about how long they were here.
15:52I'm not sure how long they were here.
15:53I know when they left.
15:56I know that Thomas, who was your great-great-grandfather,
16:02was playing his trade as a carpenter from here up until 1861,
16:07because in 1861 he applied for a vigilist's licence
16:12and turned it into the bell.
16:14I think he must have been a bit of an entrepreneur,
16:17because he exploited the St. Mary Hill Fair,
16:20which was the biggest in Wales,
16:22the horse fair, which took place right opposite in the fields.
16:26Horse fair?
16:27Opposite, yes.
16:28It was the Gypsies' Horse and Cattle Trading Fair.
16:31Really, the licence was granted on the basis of the trade
16:35that would come from the horse fair,
16:37because, as you've seen, it's fairly isolated.
16:40Although I said Thomas was an entrepreneur,
16:42he painted the roof, or he whitewashed the roof,
16:46so that it could be seen from miles around.
16:49Smart, yes.
16:50No matter how drunk you were,
16:51you only had to stagger towards the whitewashed house.
16:56Thomas and Rhona are thrilled to hear so much
16:58about a relative of theirs who lived and died
17:00more than a century ago.
17:05As night begins to fall, they are both keenly aware
17:08that their quest to explore their Welsh ancestry
17:10still has a long way to go,
17:13but they're delighted all the same
17:14at the progress they've made so far.
17:17Oh, this is incredible.
17:19It's just amazing.
17:20We were just in the church,
17:21and just to see the plaque to ancestors of ours that have died,
17:25it's just amazing.
17:29We'll have some great dreams tonight, I think.
17:31We will, we will.
17:32Absolutely.
17:40Hold on, let's see the number.
17:42There's no number on it.
17:44When Olivia and Rhona wake up the next morning,
17:46their quest moves into overdrive.
17:49They head straight for St Mary's Street,
17:51in the centre of Cardiff,
17:53hoping to track down a building
17:54which played a key role in the lives
17:56of two of their great-grandparents,
17:58pub owner James Newton,
17:59and his wife, Elizabeth Richards.
18:03Elizabeth was a staunch Baptist,
18:06and it's the Baptist church
18:07in which she and James got married,
18:09Bethany Chapel,
18:10that the sisters are trying to find.
18:16Can't even see a number.
18:18There isn't a number on that one.
18:21They've been told that it can still be seen today
18:23in or near St Mary's Street,
18:25but they can't find it anywhere,
18:28and there's an intriguing reason why.
18:32Back in the 1960s,
18:34the by then disused chapel was purchased
18:36by the owners of Cardiff's largest department store,
18:39Howells.
18:40They didn't knock it down as you'd expect,
18:42but took a much odder course instead.
18:46They left it where it was,
18:48converting the lower half to a sales floor,
18:50and leaving the top half more or less untouched.
18:54Well, thank goodness.
18:56We need you. We're lost.
18:58Our genealogist, Michael Churchill-Jones,
19:00is the person who told the sisters
19:02about the chapel in the first place.
19:04Now he's going to put them out of their misery
19:06by showing them where it is.
19:09Straight in front of you
19:11is what was the outside of the church,
19:14Bethany Baptist Church.
19:16Isn't that beautiful?
19:17That is amazing.
19:19I was telling you about your great-grandparents,
19:21James Newton and Elizabeth Riches.
19:23They got married here on Christmas Day, 1880.
19:26They got married in a department store.
19:27That's hella heaven.
19:28I like that.
19:29I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
19:30I know it wasn't then,
19:32but if they had known...
19:33They were using this until 1964.
19:35Were they really?
19:36And they've moved to another part of Cardiff now, yes.
19:38It's great they kept that one piece, though.
19:40It's beautiful, isn't it?
19:41Is that a plaque?
19:42There's a plaque on the wall.
19:43Yeah.
19:44What does that say?
19:45It's commemorating the last martyr
19:48who burned the stake outside.
19:50Outside here?
19:51Outside here.
19:52His name was Rawlings White.
19:53He was a fisherman.
19:54Yeah.
19:55And it happened on March the 30th, 1555,
19:58under the great reign of Queen Mary.
20:01He was a...
20:02Having got to see the bottom half of the chapel,
20:04the sisters are keen now to see the top half too.
20:10Enter Gareth Glover, Howell's in-house historian.
20:14He's delighted to have the chance of showing the sisters
20:16something very few people ever get to see.
20:19Thanks, darling.
20:21OK.
20:22We're now on the first floor.
20:24Here's the Bethany Chapel. It's still existing.
20:26Kept as it was in 1806.
20:28That's gorgeous.
20:30The chapel's not the only thing Gareth's got up his sleeve, though.
20:35He wants to show the sisters something else.
20:38The house in St Mary Street,
20:40in which their great-grandmother grew up.
20:42The main reason we're up here
20:44is because number 13 was actually your predecessor's property.
20:48Right. Oh, was it?
20:49You were actually able to work out which number 13 St Mary Street was.
20:52Yes, yes.
20:53And you're standing right next to it.
20:54Oh, this is?
20:55No, this building here.
20:57That beautiful old one.
20:58On the end.
20:59Oh, my God.
21:00Now, it didn't have the fancy...
21:0113 St Mary Street, Elizabeth Richard's family home,
21:05was purchased by James Howells in 1863
21:08and then cunningly adapted to form an integral part of his stall.
21:12But as you can imagine, with most Victorian properties,
21:16they were very good at putting facades on buildings.
21:19One of my favourite sayings is
21:21they were into the sort of fur coats and no drawers.
21:25And that's what this building is all about.
21:27Because at the end of the day, if you look at this...
21:29I can give you a photograph of this building here now.
21:31Here's number 13.
21:32And as you can see, what Mr Howells did
21:34is he bought all the properties up the row
21:36till he got to number nine,
21:38and then he put a fancy Victorian front on it.
21:43There was absolutely no reason for him to change the back of the building,
21:46so those windows are probably the very same windows
21:48your ancestors looked out of.
21:49Yes.
21:54Having focused so far on the lives of deceased relatives she never met,
21:59Olivia wants to concentrate now on her late father, Brinley Newton-John.
22:04But the school was...
22:05Were there boys and girls?
22:06No, there was girls.
22:07There was boys and girls, but they were on the other end.
22:10In the 1930s, when he was in his teens,
22:13Brinley attended Canton High School in Cardiff,
22:16which has since become Chapter Arts Centre.
22:19Norman Williams, another former pupil,
22:21has found a lot of material relating to Brinley in the school archives.
22:25He intends to show it to Olivia
22:27just as soon as he's given her a brief rundown on the ethos of the school.
22:31That would be the girls' school entrance, certainly would.
22:33The segregation was strict.
22:35Were they strict? What happened if the boys went down there?
22:38Well, if the boys actually looked out the windows at the girls,
22:42they had the cane.
22:43Oh, good!
22:45Boy, that was... No wonder Dad was a disciplinarian.
22:48Indeed.
22:49And if you walked past a piece of paper on the floor without picking it up,
22:54you had the cane.
22:56I believe in that one. That's good.
23:00As they reach the top floor of the old building,
23:03Olivia hears music coming from a nearby room
23:06and stops to look inside.
23:07Can I have a look?
23:08That's right. That used to be the staff room.
23:17A group of youngsters from a local school
23:19are rehearsing a choral performance they're due to give in a few days' time.
23:23The quality of their singing makes Olivia reflect
23:26on just how important her Welsh ancestry could actually be.
23:31Yeah, it's lovely. Lovely, isn't it?
23:34You had a choir for a long time?
23:36Oh, yes. Yes, for a long time.
23:38Oh, beautiful Welsh voices. Yes.
23:40That's where I get my genes from, my Dad.
23:42I see.
23:44LAUGHTER
23:58Music, singing in particular,
24:00was something that Brindley Newton-John excelled at.
24:03But he had many other talents too.
24:06Most of them first emerged during his time at Canton High School,
24:10as Norman is able to prove.
24:12My father was quite an academic.
24:14Yeah, I know, he was. He was brilliant.
24:16That's right, indeed.
24:18And he did appear in a few plays in school.
24:23And that's one.
24:26And if you can pick him out...
24:27Let's see if I can find him. Hang on a second.
24:29There he is.
24:30That's right.
24:31Not only was he in the play, but he was also in the orchestra.
24:34Oh, what was he doing there?
24:36In the violin section.
24:37Oh, well, I didn't even know he played violin.
24:40Now, that's a new one.
24:41Above all else, Brindley Newton-John was an amazing linguist.
24:45He won a scholarship to study French and German
24:47at Cambridge University in 1933.
24:50And a few years later,
24:51he put his knowledge of one of these languages to dramatic use.
24:58Soon after World War II broke out in 1939,
25:01Brindley signed up for the RAF.
25:06He never got to fly a Spitfire, though,
25:08because his superiors saw a way of harnessing his linguistic skills.
25:15He was posted to a top-secret government centre
25:17at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire,
25:19where a team of experts had succeeded in cracking the famous code
25:22known as Enigma, on which the German war machine relied.
25:31Over the next few years,
25:32Brindley and others exploited this breakthrough brilliantly,
25:36helping Britain to win the war.
25:40Olivia isn't entirely sure what her father did.
25:43Writer Stephen Mallinson, who's researched the subject thoroughly,
25:46is about to let her know.
25:48Well, Bletchley Park at that time
25:50had some of the brightest brains in the country
25:53working on finding a way of decrypting Enigma-coded traffic
25:58and then finding a way of using that information.
26:01When you say traffic, you mean the information going back and forth?
26:04Backwards and forwards between radio transmitters and receivers
26:08on the German side.
26:10So your father's job was to take those decrypts,
26:14which was basically raw German in five-letter groups,
26:21and to convert that into something that was intelligible.
26:24He would spend evenings working very hard
26:27to try to understand what this technical German was trying to convey
26:32and convert that into messages
26:34that would then get propagated across the Allied command.
26:38I kind of feel very proud because from what you've been telling my dad,
26:42my dad sounds like a bit of a hero, doesn't he?
26:44I think your dad absolutely was a hero.
26:46When he went to Bletchley Park, he was, I think he was a flying officer.
26:51When he left Bletchley Park at the end of the war,
26:54he was a wing commander, which is a meteoric rise
26:57and demonstrates the great talent your father had
27:00and all that he did.
27:13Wow.
27:15This is where he grew up?
27:17Yes, five years.
27:18So you remember it?
27:19I remember.
27:20Do you?
27:21Seven years old.
27:22Olivia and Rona's stay in Wales is coming to an end now.
27:25There's just enough time for one last visit
27:27to the house in which their father grew up.
27:30What they don't know is that someone from their past
27:33is waiting inside to greet them.
27:3687-year-old Mrs A Rona Lansdown is Brindley Newton-John's sister
27:41and Olivia and Rona's aunt.
27:43She's a little bit worried about how this meeting might turn out.
27:49She hasn't seen either of her nieces since her brother died
27:52and travelling down to Cardiff from her home in Yorkshire,
27:55she'd begun to worry that they might not recognise her
27:57after all this time.
28:01Will they or won't they?
28:03We're about to find out.
28:06It's auntie!
28:07It is her!
28:09Oh, it's auntie.
28:13Oh, it's so great.
28:15It's so great.
28:16I wish that my dad could have been here to see his sister again.
28:21You're the best surprise I've had in many a year.
28:24It was a lovely surprise and she's a delight.
28:27I've always remembered her as a lovely, warm, sweet person
28:31and my dad adored her, so that was very touching.
28:35So far as Olivia is concerned, the reunion with her aunt
28:38represents a fitting climax to what's been for her
28:41a visit she'll never forget.
28:43I have enjoyed it very much.
28:45It's been exciting, it's been stimulating
28:48and it's been mind-boggling.
28:50It's been amazing.
28:52I'd love to come back.
28:54I don't know when it'll be, but I'd love to.
28:58It's been really lovely.