All Change at Longleat (2015) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3 of 3
1 There aren't too many Ceawlins in the world, though.
I haven't met another one.
Why did your father give you that name? He was, I think, the third King of Wessex in the sixth century.
I think his brothers were called Cerdic and Cynric, so I think I got off relatively lightly.
Change is coming to Longleat, the aristocratic house with lions in the back yard.
This national treasure belongs to a lord like no other.
Monogamy wasn't ever going to work for me.
But he's handed control to his son and heir, Ceawlin Sliding down these was a favourite as a kid.
.
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who has moved back in with his new wife.
Sort of a tingling feeling, cos it doesn't really feel real.
They are nobility.
They own this joint.
They are of a standing and a breeding in society.
Grand houses like this aren't easy to manage.
You have to be an entrepreneur to survive.
Hundreds of people now depend on them.
Many of you will notice a lot of changes this year.
I wouldn't have said Ceawlin got off to the best start ever.
Having two lords under one roof creates its own tensions.
They live in separate parts of the house, so they do like to lead reasonably separate lives.
I try not to do anything to irritate him.
Now they must try to make a home in this most extraordinary of houses.
He's inherited a massive responsibility and a huge amount of history.
We have to just not be scared to use it.
There's no point having anything if you don't enjoy it.
We haven't done this before.
It's October at Longleat, and the African residents are finally getting some peace and quiet.
The estate's still open, but with the summer holidays over, visitors are thin on the ground.
Lord Bath is in residence, as always, in his apartment on the top floor.
- Anything else I can do? - No, nothing else, thanks.
Thank you.
But downstairs housekeeper Bella is holding the fort.
Emma is in hospital after complications in pregnancy forced doctors to deliver her baby two weeks early by emergency Caesarean.
How is she? How is Emma? I think I guess she's well, but I don't know.
Jo told me yesterday that she was getting better.
How is the baby? The baby is OK.
Everybody says the baby is OK.
What's wrong with Emma? Something in her head.
Some headache.
I don't know.
But it must be strong, because she went to the hospital for a couple of days or more.
I hope it's nothing bad.
Emma's at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, where Prince William and Kate had their children.
After six days in hospital, she's about to be discharged, along with baby John, who was born weighing just under seven pounds.
Bit of a bumpy ride, but thank God he was OK.
Thank God they managed to find out what was wrong with me.
We got to a point where we thought, "Well, this is not just a normal headache any more," so we came up.
I had an MRI scan.
I got a neurologist and an endocrinologist and obstetrician, who, between them, took charge and said, you know, "This is something that needs "Needs urgent attention.
" Emma had a temporary swelling on her pituitary gland.
- Been quite traumatic? - Yeah, a little bit, yeah.
But then, the end, happy ending.
All is well now.
Now we just have a good monitoring of me and him.
9.
26 on Sunday morning, seeing him being hoicked out was fantastic.
It just happened so quickly, then suddenly, "Ta-da!", you know? I think he looks like, Ceawlin, no? So much! Look! Like a slightly Oriental version.
I know.
I think he looks a bit Chinese.
So going home to get ensconced and relax a little bit.
Bit nervous to go home, to be honest.
- I should have a tissue.
- I'm sorry, darling.
I guess everyone's emotional when they have a baby.
I haven't got a tissue.
Let me grab you one.
But they're so nice here.
Like, they're so nice.
They're just so caring and patient and everything.
They look after me so well and they look after him so well.
Any time of day.
Obviously he's up in the night, so it's, erm Well, thank God we've got some help at home coming to make me feel reassured.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Outside, their publicist has arranged for a photographer to get the first official record of the future heir to Longleat.
- Well done.
Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I did text you to tell you you were getting a ticket.
Yes, I saw that, I saw.
Now to fit the baby's car seat.
- How comfy.
- Good boy.
There's that bit there.
We need to undo Is that all done? - There's something here.
Yeah, how does that - That goes in here.
Prince William never had this problem when he brought George out! How do you Can I come around? I had it before, how it goes together, so No, that goes down.
What goes down? Oh, my God.
What are we going to do? Do you know how to do baby seats, anybody? After ten minutes, a nurse runs out to help.
Ah, yes! - Thank you very much.
- Take care, have a safe journey.
All the very best.
Thank you.
Hi, how are you? At their London house, a maternity nurse is waiting to meet them for the first time.
So wonderful to meet you.
This is John.
Hello.
Hired through an agency, Gilly will be living with the family, on hand to offer whatever support is needed.
Hello, Gilly.
How are you? I'm so happy you're here.
- Nice to meet you, hi.
- You too.
- Lily, did you miss us? Sh! - They're happy with him.
- Good, good, good.
- Obviously.
- I'm really relieved.
- He was a good weight, wasn't he? - Yeah, I know.
- That's fantastic.
Dinner in a minute.
He's very hungry.
How comfy is that?! Lily, this is the baby we've been telling you about.
Yeah.
You're very curious, aren't you? One day, baby John will be the sole inheritor of Longleat, an estate worth £190 million.
The legacy includes thousands of important artworks and antiques, some of national significance.
The house employs a full-time curator, Kate, to look after it all.
Her archives alone are so large she's got a whole wing of the house to herself.
This is quite an office you've got here.
Yes, it's called the in-tray.
Do you actually know where everything is? Mostly.
It's a sort of archaeological heap system, so the more urgent it is, the theory is the more adjacent and the higher up in the pile it might be.
OK, so on your desk? Desk is light reading.
But with 130 rooms in the house, there's not much time for light reading.
If this wasn't a private house Say it was a museum and this was a museum collection, you would have a dozen or more curators, all with different areas of specialist knowledge to manage it, without a shadow of a doubt.
- But there's only you.
- There's only me, yes.
That's why it's a tall order.
For the last year, Kate's been making time to plan for one of the biggest house renovation projects in decades .
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the repainting of the currently light green grand staircase.
The colour's been troubling you for some time? The colour is deeply troubling in the sense that it doesn't help any of the objects in the space.
That's the sort of thing that obviously would concern me.
The pictures do not look good against this green.
The green is recent.
It was done in the '50s by Lord Bath's father.
Kate wants to restore the staircase to a more historically accurate beige.
So the assumption is that the grand staircase area would look much like this.
We've kept it, thank goodness, as a reference point.
So it'll make it much, much more coherent to return to that traditional colour scheme rather than this completely inauthentic and possibly, to use a colloquial phrase, random green that we have now.
With the house so quiet, now is finally the perfect time to carry out renovations.
But to repaint will require taking down 58 priceless and very heavy old masters.
Moving any one of them is a major operation.
Is this the sort of thing that gives you sleepless nights? I think it should give you sleepless nights, because getting it right before it starts is crucial.
Dramatic change is the last thing head groundsman Paul is looking for.
His job, and that of his 21 ground staff, is to conserve the Grade I listed landscape.
Stunning, isn't it? Good place to get away from the madness occasionally.
Largely unchanged for more than 300 years, the grounds are widely considered to be among the finest in the country.
You just feel privileged to oversee something as magnificent as Longleat.
I care about the landscape.
It's important that we maintain the landscape that we see today for others to enjoy.
But change is in the air.
When Lord Bath ran the estate, he let it shut altogether in the winter months due to lack of visitor interest.
The new management want a new winter model.
I think it's possible, because Christmas is a festive time and people are off work and school for a long period of time, that we can be as busy as Christmas as we are in the summer.
Bob's decided to set up a brand-new winter festival at Longleat based on Chinese New Year.
He hopes the colourful decorations will draw huge crowds.
The significance of it for us is that I think this is really going to be the thing that makes our year.
If we do it right, we should set all kinds of records.
A handful of decorations have arrived early from China.
But they'll be 7,000 to go up in total.
A Chinese workforce will be flying in to do most of he work.
But Paul and his team have been drafted in to help.
Yeah, we might just want to move this in front and then put the other one We'll put it behind and see what it's like.
We'll just bring this one.
How does these fit into the Grade I listed landscape, do you think? Well, they don't, clearly.
You probably want to get out of the way, Bob.
The arrival of the lanterns is raising eyebrows around the estate.
Well, I've been at Longleat for many, many years, and I've never seen anything quite like this before.
The elephant has landed.
From a distance, it looks a bit peculiar, because Longleat is quite sedate -- you've got the great house, you've got English heritage, and then these monsters are being created in pink and yellow and purple.
So one has to be open-minded, however, it is a little bit odd.
It's definitely a risk.
I'm sold out on this.
I've been the cheerleader for it.
If it's a bit of a bust, the staff may question whether they want to believe in the next big idea.
As their estate is transformed in their absence, Ceawlin and Emma are still in London recuperating.
This is his room, his nursery.
This was my room when I was little.
The old artwork by me when I was at school.
So is this your room, Gilly? Yes.
Yes, it is.
This is my room.
We share this room.
Basically, when baby wakes up then we go a trip to find Mummy, don't we, young man? At all times of the day and night, we go trips to find Mummy.
For new mums it's all very new and babies make weird and wonderful little noises in the middle of the night.
It's hard for mummies to get to sleep when they're not sure of all the noises that they're making.
So you must be quite tired, aren't you? It goes with part and parcel of the job, really.
It's a really strange thing, isn't it? To be up at such strange hours.
- Yeah, that's right.
- Up and down.
A little journal, my scribblings.
It's just about when the baby gets up and when the baby feeds, what side the baby's feeding from, whether he's had a wet or a dirty nappy.
It's just so that at a glance if Mum wants to know, then she can have a little look through and she can find out.
It's quite You know what it's like yourself, you forget.
Emma's mum has been helping as well.
You know, this house, it has limitations.
Nowhere to put anything.
There's really hardly any place to put flowers, so we've got them just piled up everywhere.
I really do feel really, really tired.
I don't know why, I'm having plenty of sleep, but every day I think, "Oh, my God, I can't wake up.
" I bought some of those Pro Pluses.
I'm taking those.
Popping uppers.
One day, her grandson will be the Marquess of Bath.
It's going to be tough for him, isn't it? I think.
In a funny way, he's got his career mapped out for him, hasn't he? Obviously one day he's going to work with Ceawlin on the estate.
I think he'll be all right.
I just worry about him for the bullying and stuff.
Hello, how are you? Afternoon tea.
For now, he's merely cooed over.
- I'm dying for a cuddle.
- I love it when his eyes are open.
And John, you called him John.
John Thynne built Longleat, so we thought that was quite a nice reference.
That's a lovely reference.
I was slightly worried you were going to call him something strange.
- No, nothing trendy! - It's nice having an ordinary name, isn't it? - It is very nice having an ordinary name.
- Nice, ordinary name.
- Classic.
I was really pleased about that.
Back at the ancestral home, it's 6am.
In a temporary Portakabin village on the grounds, 100 Chinese craftsmen have arrived to set up the new festival.
Their job is to build thousands of giant lanterns to cover 30 acres of the Longleat grounds.
They'll be working seven days a week to get it done.
Very good workers.
Quick .
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is the only word I can describe.
Yeah.
Each lantern is created by building a metal frame and weaving silk around it.
They're best appreciated at night, when they'll be lit from inside.
This whole festival is about scale and scope.
Schedules are tight.
There's a VIP launch in just five weeks' time.
We're doing the right thing, but, yeah, it's anxious moments.
Still an awful lot of work to do between now and when the show opens.
Work is also beginning inside the house.
The grand staircase renovations are booked for a fortnight, but the adjoining corridors need clearing first.
It's a voyage of discovery, really, because you have to sort of break in.
Kate must take down Emma's wedding dress, which has been on display here since her marriage.
You couldn't possibly get into this by yourself, because this is so heavy.
I'm really feeble, I don't know how she managed to get through the day wearing this.
Emma didn't have to do a thing.
She had four slaves, willing slaves, to do all this.
Emma's dress was a couture creation which took six months to make.
The stuff you can see that's shining is silk taffeta, and then there's tulle, which is very fine silk net.
There's lace applique, so the sleeves have a real effect.
Suzanna, Emma's mother, had to spend a lot of time getting the worst of the grub off it, cos Emma wore it on a photo shoot in the woods.
I hate to disillusion people, the shoes were not the pair worn on the day.
They were utterly and completely trashed.
They were so muddy you wouldn't believe it.
Imagine going stomping through the woods in white silk shoes! Well done.
Bit of a killer, isn't it? If while I've got the top like this you can get an arm and then we can process towards the box.
Can you see where she went on a tramp through the bracken? So we just go and put it on the Minstrel's Gallery out the way in case anybody comes through.
Working in an English stately home is a new experience for the Chinese craftsmen.
- Of course they are very surprised.
- What do they say? They say, "Wow, all of this is owned by one family! Oh!" Yes.
We used to have to watch pretty carefully with what they do, because they don't really understand that we're a Grade I listed building, that they can't just drill some holes into the bricks and just repair it after.
It's turned out to be a fair bit of work to police them.
You guys have seen them all coming, but everybody is surprised at how big they are.
- We have to communicate the scale of them, right? - They are huge! It's nice watching it all bit by bit.
Yeah.
It's certainly something that Longleat hasn't seen before.
You wanted to top it, you certainly have.
- You don't see this every day.
- No, you do not.
You can just imagine, can't you? People coming down the drive and going, "Oh, my goodness!" What are we going to do next year? The plan is to move these three dragons, which are, I understand, are called We've got almost half of my team now being pulled across to do something that is not in any way horticulturally related.
Paul's really been the one coordinating the equipment to move around all the different lanterns.
We've rally pushed him, I'm afraid, for this.
He's done a great job.
He'll probably deny this, but I really think he gets a bit of juice from doing something different and being involved in something like this.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not going to do any damage to that.
We're certainly not, in any way, a traditional grounds and gardens department.
We do what we have to do and anything else that's asked of us.
In between, we look after the grounds and gardens.
Really, I don't get a choice.
I have to lead from the front and get involved.
'We do have a few Ugandan hippos.
'They're called Spot and Sonia.
'Even though they're four metres long, two-and-a-half tonnes, 'it's quite easy to lose them in this lake.
'They can go from one end of the lake to the other 'without us actually seeing them.
'They can hold their breath for about seven minutes.
' Good news.
Yeah, the best of news! - Best of news.
- Yeah, he's arriving.
We'll have our baby.
Ceawlin and Emma are finally returning home.
How are you feeling about it? Excited! Like everybody.
I wonder what life would be like for this little boy growing up here.
Oh, it'll be wonderful, I guess, with all the animals and all the park and everything.
I think it'll be a wonderful life.
I hope so! But to have a baby in the house is really exciting.
I mean, we coo over all the dogs that come in, so to have a real baby, it's going to supersede the petting of the dogs, isn't it? It brings that lived-in feel to a house.
It's not just a sterile home that people come marching through, it is a lived-in house by a real family.
So, you know, you've got the workers alongside the family, but it's their home, really.
The rest of us are just trying to go round them best we can.
Some children have nothing, you know, and others have some, but I think he'll have almost everything.
They're here.
They're right there.
- Great to see you.
- Yeah, you too.
How are things? - Yeah.
- Yeah? A little bit more grey hair than before? Come on out of the weather.
Hi, how are you? Isn't he sweet? Yeah, he's smiling.
We've been away for too long.
- Yay! My God, it's been ages! - Such a long time.
Hi! We're home.
Hi, Bella.
How are you? It's lovely to see you.
Hi, Carlos.
How are you? Baby time.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
- He's awake.
- So, finally! Here he is.
- No, no.
- He's been staring at everything.
He's been fed pretty recently, so he should be OK.
Maternity nurse Gilly is staying with the family for the foreseeable future.
She'll be sleeping in the nursery next to Ceawlin and Emma's bedroom.
What's for dinner? Chicken soup and spinach soup for the nanny.
She wants spinach soup.
She's going to need some strength, do you think? I think so.
It's three weeks before the VIP launch of the lantern festival that management hope will transform the winter visitor numbers.
Exotic creations are spreading across the estate.
But the festival is also supposed to feature some lanterns on the lake beside the house.
Under tight deadlines, the lantern team are desperate to start putting them up.
But this particular lake has two wild hippopotamuses living in it.
The Longleat animal keepers have insisted work can't start until they've made the lake safe.
I think if we Yeah, you see? Look, they're already starting.
I do not think these contractors, these builders, realise how much danger they are actually in with these hippopotamuses.
Even now, we're having this meeting, nobody said they were going to work over there and they're already there, so that's not particularly good.
We need to keep an eye on that.
So the reason there's four of you today, I'm afraid we do need a hippo watch.
Before anyone's allowed on the lake, the animal team must locate the two hippos.
Hippos are territorial animals, to say the least.
This is their territory, so it's a challenge for us.
In the wild, hippos kill more humans than lions do each year.
We really need to know exactly where they are at all times.
The boat team will be out here and just permanently letting us know where the hippos are.
As soon as they lose sight of them, it'll be re-laid down there and we'd have to stop work.
The lake also has sea lions, but they're not such a worry.
I mean, the sea lions are definitely more curious, but they're not vicious as such.
- Is that a hippo dead-ahead? - Yeah.
- I think so.
- Yeah, there's definitely a hippo.
Oh, good.
I'm glad they decided to get out of bed first thing this morning! - Oh, no, there's one there as well.
- There's one there.
Well, at least we've got confirmed sightings.
At this point, we could attach a little helium balloon to them.
Hippos located, another team start building a physical barrier.
While all this goes on, the lantern team can only wait.
Baby John is being taken for his first walk in the grounds of Longleat.
Thank God it's such a nice day.
- Hello.
- Morning, how are you? His first trip out.
That's amazing.
That is so clever.
Ah, there's some people.
They might have keys.
I forgot we were closed today.
I was like, "Come on, let's go and see the meerkats.
" Then I was like, "Oh, wait.
" We're going in now, we can let you in.
Oh, yay! Being the first-born, that means that all this will become his.
But not just become his like, you know, it's a toy to be played with.
The trees and the animals and the people that you're seeing out there, we all All our lives are really sort of intertwined with the family's.
Hi.
Hello.
How are you? Myself, I had quite an idyllic childhood, I must admit.
I didn't really I just didn't have a single responsibility until I was way into my teens.
It's a huge responsibility, I think, being a part of that family.
Certainly being a first-born I should imagine even amplifies that.
Tonight, this first-born is about to meet the head of the family.
We're going up to introduce John to his grandfather for the first time, which is quite exciting.
And, uh, yeah Oh, Ceawlin's back.
Hello.
We forgot wine.
We can't go up and see Dad without wine.
That white and that open red, I guess.
Last year, Ceawlin and his father fell out after Ceawlin took down some of Lord Bath's murals without permission.
Since then, Ceawlin has been trying to improve the relationship.
- Hello.
Hi! - Hi.
We've got something to show you.
Woof, woof, woof! Woof, woof! You don't have to get up.
Well, I'm going to kiss the baby as well as the - We brought you wine.
- Oh, lovely.
Well, let's drink it.
Would you rather have red or white to start? - Em Oh, red.
- Red? OK.
Look.
Him for you.
There we go.
- Oh, oh.
He started crying, but not while he was in my arms.
- No.
There you go.
- Quite hot, I'll take that off.
- Thank you.
Hello.
- Cheers to baby John.
- To John.
- To John.
Absolutely.
Is somebody coming, or Who's this? - Hi.
- Ah-ha.
Hi.
Mariella is one of Lord Bath's wifelets.
She lives in a cottage on the estate.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
- Good.
Do you want some wine, Mariella? - Well, congratulations.
- Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Ooh, what's that? The dog's just knocked a glass over.
We'll leave you to it and bring him up, perhaps, during the daytime when you've got more Yeah.
- OK? - Bring him up when he's awake and not crying.
Exactly.
We'll be up again soon.
- Have a nice evening.
- Bye.
- Bye! Bye.
It's obviously quite difficult for you that his wifelets are still around.
Oh, Lynn, come on.
It's you know, it wasn't part of the plan.
Let's leave it there.
Today, the ambitious renovations of the grand staircase are getting underway.
Curator Kate has been planning them for a year.
If you didn't feel anxious, you wouldn't do your job properly.
It's necessary, because you need to be on top form and concentrating on what you're doing and absolutely aware of what you're doing.
You need to be stressed.
House steward Jeff is responsible for managing the operation.
If something was to go wrong today, I would personally be upset that I've damaged something.
My main concern would be the artwork and just making sure that we don't risk it in any way shape or form by cutting corners or compromising in any way.
58 fragile and very precious old masters are being taken down and put into storage, so the light green walls can be repainted.
One of the most difficult to move will be the huge canvas at the top by landscape painter John Wootton.
It hasn't been touched for nearly 30 years and can only be reached by scaffolding.
We don't talk about value, so we don't say it's worth X or Y, I just want everyone to know how important the Wootton is to the collection.
My role is usually to bark if I see something that they might not have seen.
We have some difficult moves.
We have to go under hall lanterns and things.
It's difficult, particularly when they're carrying something big, always to be aware of all dimensions at all times.
A custom-made frame is required to carry the enormous painting.
Just need to be careful on the top.
There's an awful lot of flap in that.
'It's very unusual, in terms of my day-to-day job, 'so it's always quite exciting to do it.
'Quite nervous as well, but we've got some of the best art handlers 'in the country here, so I've got absolute confidence 'we've got everything we need to do it right today.
' OK, right, gents, with the frame 'It doesn't mean I won't be sweating.
' .
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be aware of the painting in behind.
We need to slide in right behind the painting.
It needs to come back about two inches into the frame.
A little bit more if you can.
Just rest on the edge there.
What we're going to do is transfer into the letterbox now.
- So we need to take the wait from the bottom.
Everyone understood? - Yeah.
OK, on three.
Two, three -- into the gap.
- Get comfortable? - Yeah.
Start to lower.
Nice and easy, nice and easy.
Nice and gentle.
Step towards me.
Back to me.
Are we clear? Right, nice and easy.
Handle's clear at the back.
Whoa, steady, steady.
Yeah, nice and easy.
My end? Bit more your end, Stu.
Stop.
Butch needs to let go.
- Stop.
- Steady, steady, steady.
A bit more your end, Stu.
We're leaning, I think.
Are we? Well done, everyone.
Work is finally progressing on the lake.
But the unique obstacles or working in a stately home and safari park have meant the lantern team are falling behind schedule.
They used to have an hour break, but actually the workers, they asked to shorten their break to 40 minutes.
It wasn't the manager's idea? Erm I think it's the manager's idea, yes, but obviously the manager gathered the idea into the worker's head.
As they hurry to stay on track, Lord Bath is about to get his first tour of the spectacle unfolding on his land.
It really is his estate, still, although he's much less engaged with it than he might have been a number of years ago.
I visit him regularly so that he has a chance to hear what's going on.
I'll show him some things.
Another wifelet, Trudie, will be joining the tour.
Are you going to be warm enough? You don't need a jacket? I should be OK, I think.
This is really you, isn't it? - This is really Lord Bath.
This is all of his colours.
- Yeah, yeah.
It looks a little bit like some of your dress right now.
Hello.
It's all most impressive.
Thank you, thank you.
Trudie's known Lord Bath for 16 years.
He's very easy to live with.
There's no trouble at all, you know.
He hasn't got any bad manners.
I don't like people with bad manners.
He's got no bad manners, so that's nice.
It's very comfortable.
He likes to do what I want.
3-D, Alice In Wonderland.
Look over there.
- Look at all those - Yes, yes.
It's a wonderful array of animals.
Yeah, he liked it.
Actually did a little bit more than I expected him to.
We went into the last tent.
I told him, "Why don't you just wait for us?" He was like, "No, I'd like to get out and see.
" So, good.
If the winter festival is successful, it will be a significant boost to Longleat's income, which currently falls off outside the summer months.
But without intending it, the Chinese contacts Longleat have made have given rise to a completely different opportunity.
We are actually talking, are we, about a full size - replica of Longleat House? - It's the house, it's the house.
- They want to use They want to use the house as a hotel - Right.
And then they want some of what would be the dining rooms and some of the other rooms, they would turn in to, you know, dining spaces for guests and meeting spaces and stuff.
- But yeah, the exterior - Unbelievable.
- .
.
is a full replica of the house.
- Right.
Bob's contacts want to build a second Longleat House from scratch in China and they'll give the family a share of the income it generates.
You know, something pretty much anywhere else that would be unimaginable, but in China, these things or things like this do apparently happen.
A delegation of Chinese government officials is travelling to Longleat to meet the family.
The key person there is going to be the Minister Of Culture - for the Sichuan Province.
- Right.
OK.
So, he's the one that we want to make the impression on, he'll help them secure the land.
Right.
As plans begin for a second Longleat, promotion of the original remains as important as ever.
Today, we are shooting Hello magazine for Christmas and to celebrate the baby, I think, and to celebrate our Chinese Festival Of Light as well.
Hello! Hello, hello! Hi! - Nice to see you.
- Congratulations.
- Thanks.
How are you? Since becoming Lady Weymouth, Emma's been happy to court the press.
It's a very nice team.
It's always the same team.
And this will be our fifth article together, I think.
And they're very, very nice and they are very positive and happy and celebratory.
Whoa! That's amazing.
Who is that by? Like a mermaid.
What goes under this? Anything? Not much! First decision -- what to wear.
- What we do is we can bungee clip it at the back.
- Six weeks yesterday.
I mean, you've really gone down.
I don't know if it suits me.
- Next.
- Next.
- Ta-da! - Now, that's pretty, isn't it? - It's really The colouring - Glamorous.
- OK.
- Are you happy with that? - Yeah.
Look a bit different now! He won't recognise me! Hello! Baby John's presence is also required.
Hi! You'd better not pee on my dress, ha-ha! That Ooh! You like lights.
No, it's not.
It's not a very happy Christmas, is it? No, it's not! Emma, she's definitely the softer edge to everything else we're doing.
I just think she's just a fantastic ambassador and of course now with the new baby, we've really got a good one-two punch rack going for us right now.
- Try again.
- Come on, little John.
- He's not sure about all of this.
Welcome to the world of media, little John.
It is part of our brand that the family is involved and that's a double-edged sword because when you invite that kind of celebrity, you invite a fair bit of scrutiny.
- Now, you sort of have to be a little less attentive to John.
- OK.
And just be totally cool.
Yes.
- I kind of need - I'll hold him the other way? - Yeah, yeah, do.
This is all looking good, guys.
Yeah, I like that.
Hand on hip, kind of quite nonchalant.
- Yeah, good.
- Not with that face though.
Monkey! Who has control of the dog? If Monkey wants to be in it OK, let's go.
Go.
Now, here we go, yes.
Great! Fab! Into the lens! Gorgeous! - Oh! - We can't have that face.
- Oh, he's very calm, he never cries.
Fabulous! Hold it right there.
Hi! After nearly half an hour, the shot finally comes off.
- We might have got it.
- We've got it.
- We've got it.
We've got you.
We've got it, we've got it.
But the repainting of the grand staircase isn't going so well.
Lord Bath was never consulted and when he found out, he vetoed the work.
I think Lord Bath and Lady Bath liked the green scheme.
They want to keep the green.
They want to keep the 1955 scheme, which Lord Bath's father put in, to great dismay all around him! It's their house, so if they like the green, then the green stays.
It was something that was planned for approximately a year .
.
but nobody saw fit to consult my father, so he has understandably, I guess, taken umbrage and put a stop to it.
Their dispute last year meant father and son often communicated through third parties.
I assumed that he knew.
Yeah.
I've been going on for the last sort of 9, 12 months, just assuming that it had been run past him.
The paintings will now have to be re-hung against the light green.
There will be another point in the not so distant future where all the disruption has to happen again, so it's distinctly suboptimal.
It's not financially efficient and it's not time efficient and I'll leave it at that.
I'll see you later.
There's a further setback outside.
Some of the smaller Chinese lanterns are struggling in the English weather.
Head groundsman Paul is despatched to fix them.
He doesn't seem overly upset by their demise.
It's a design fault, rather than a growing aspect.
The wind is stronger than their manufacturing, so I think we might have to communicate with our Chinese friends and replace the flower.
The structure's failed again.
Not as strong as a tree, obviously.
It's an important day for Longleat.
The Chinese delegation is arriving to consider plans for a full size replica of the house in China.
- Hello.
How are you? - Good to see you.
- Nice to see you, too.
- Red.
I thought I'd go red.
- That's good, that's good.
- It's the right kind of red, too.
- Thanks! A bit tighter than it used to be, but anyway.
Just about fits! - How long are you going to be, roughly? - About ten minutes.
- OK.
Should we - Yeah, let's go down and check - Yeah, you go.
- Do you mind if we go on down? - No, I'll meet you there.
So, you should maybe look at the menu.
I'm just not sure about the wine.
The white wine's fine, but I think we should change the red.
OK, I'll sort that out.
The deal could provide a steady stream of income to help keep the estate in the family.
If this project happens, and if it's successful, one can imagine that John could be running a very, very international business.
Potentially.
- Oh, it's bright.
- It is.
- Good morning.
- Hello.
Mr Ziyang is the Cultural Minister for Sichuan Province, an area of China larger than the UK.
Securing his approval is vital for the project.
- The Viscount.
- Hello, pleased to meet you.
How are you? - This is my wife, Emma.
- Hello, how are you? We're very honoured that you've come to see us and travelled such a long distance.
Shall we go inside? Shall we take our seats? Ceawlin is hosting a gourmet lunch in the Green Library.
Can I just make a short toast, please? I would like to thank Minister Ziyang and the team from the cultural department for coming here today.
And cheers.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
First, for the Viscount and the Emma.
The wife of Viscount.
We will do our best to support everything in every way we can.
- Thank you.
- Cheers.
Formalities over, the food is served.
After a salmon starter, English lamb.
In Chinese culture, it's respectful for all the guests to make a toast to the person hosting the meal.
Now, are we draining it to the end? There's also a tradition of Gan Bei, draining your glass in a single gulp.
That's a big glass.
Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
I missed you.
Thank you.
Yes, minister.
I'm matching you, one for one.
- Gan Bei.
- Gan Bei.
OK.
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
OK? No, like this.
Clenched fist.
And then boom.
- Yeah.
- Gan Bei.
- Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
Baby Gan Bei.
I think it's time we had a full hug.
The minister doesn't want to leave without meeting the head of the family.
You're doing amazingly well.
Glen said he's known the minister for years, he's never known him to have a drink and he's never known him - to raise his voice in terms of having fun like that.
- Right.
- So, you can tell they're - I was saying, he's very animated.
Yeah, he's incredibly animated.
Hi, Dad.
Hello! It is a pleasure to meet you.
Well, it is my pleasure.
We wish you great health and longevity.
Good wishes for you too.
Thank you.
See you soon.
Mwah.
- Thank you, my Lord.
Thank you for doing that.
- Thanks.
- Terrific job.
- OK.
- OK.
Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Nice to have visitors? - Mm? - Nice to have some visitors? - Yes.
- Did you know who they were? - No.
But still, it's nice to have visitors.
Thank you very much.
See you in Chengdu.
- Yeah, success.
It was - See you in Chengdu.
There was obviously a lot of handshaking and hugging and some real enthusiasm, so that actually was probably pretty good.
- A success.
- Ceawlin seems to have enjoyed himself.
Yeah, I'm glad he took the load instead of me for that, but It is that sort of informal kind of formality he gets and really can have some good times, so he's He definitely took one for the team.
I'm glad it was him and not me.
Tonight, it's the VIP launch party for the Festival Of Light.
300 guests have been invited, including the media and friends and family.
The guest of honour is billionaire entrepreneur, Sir David Tang.
- How are you? - I'm very well.
- Good to see you.
Five, four, three, two, one! - Lord Bath didn't make it this evening.
- He didn't.
I talked to him earlier this morning.
He said he'd be looking out his window.
I think that's just where he is and I think putting Ceawlin in front and centre tonight was the right thing to do.
And he was really the biggest man in the room for most of our guests tonight, which is good.
And in some ways, it's not a bad thing that Lord Bath wasn't here for that because it lets him come all the way into his own.
I love this.
Longleat is sort of a big responsibility, but it's also a great joy and a very lucky sort of place to be.
It's important we had somebody to pass it on to, so thank God for John, we've got him.
I just want him to have a great childhood.
I had a lovely childhood with a loving family around me and I would give that to him.
So I want him to you know, be as happy as possible.
I suppose I can imagine in the future John growing up and getting married and starting his family here and hopefully we'll still be here.
So that will be fun for us.
Start it all again! And be all over the house in different corners.
I haven't met another one.
Why did your father give you that name? He was, I think, the third King of Wessex in the sixth century.
I think his brothers were called Cerdic and Cynric, so I think I got off relatively lightly.
Change is coming to Longleat, the aristocratic house with lions in the back yard.
This national treasure belongs to a lord like no other.
Monogamy wasn't ever going to work for me.
But he's handed control to his son and heir, Ceawlin Sliding down these was a favourite as a kid.
.
.
who has moved back in with his new wife.
Sort of a tingling feeling, cos it doesn't really feel real.
They are nobility.
They own this joint.
They are of a standing and a breeding in society.
Grand houses like this aren't easy to manage.
You have to be an entrepreneur to survive.
Hundreds of people now depend on them.
Many of you will notice a lot of changes this year.
I wouldn't have said Ceawlin got off to the best start ever.
Having two lords under one roof creates its own tensions.
They live in separate parts of the house, so they do like to lead reasonably separate lives.
I try not to do anything to irritate him.
Now they must try to make a home in this most extraordinary of houses.
He's inherited a massive responsibility and a huge amount of history.
We have to just not be scared to use it.
There's no point having anything if you don't enjoy it.
We haven't done this before.
It's October at Longleat, and the African residents are finally getting some peace and quiet.
The estate's still open, but with the summer holidays over, visitors are thin on the ground.
Lord Bath is in residence, as always, in his apartment on the top floor.
- Anything else I can do? - No, nothing else, thanks.
Thank you.
But downstairs housekeeper Bella is holding the fort.
Emma is in hospital after complications in pregnancy forced doctors to deliver her baby two weeks early by emergency Caesarean.
How is she? How is Emma? I think I guess she's well, but I don't know.
Jo told me yesterday that she was getting better.
How is the baby? The baby is OK.
Everybody says the baby is OK.
What's wrong with Emma? Something in her head.
Some headache.
I don't know.
But it must be strong, because she went to the hospital for a couple of days or more.
I hope it's nothing bad.
Emma's at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, where Prince William and Kate had their children.
After six days in hospital, she's about to be discharged, along with baby John, who was born weighing just under seven pounds.
Bit of a bumpy ride, but thank God he was OK.
Thank God they managed to find out what was wrong with me.
We got to a point where we thought, "Well, this is not just a normal headache any more," so we came up.
I had an MRI scan.
I got a neurologist and an endocrinologist and obstetrician, who, between them, took charge and said, you know, "This is something that needs "Needs urgent attention.
" Emma had a temporary swelling on her pituitary gland.
- Been quite traumatic? - Yeah, a little bit, yeah.
But then, the end, happy ending.
All is well now.
Now we just have a good monitoring of me and him.
9.
26 on Sunday morning, seeing him being hoicked out was fantastic.
It just happened so quickly, then suddenly, "Ta-da!", you know? I think he looks like, Ceawlin, no? So much! Look! Like a slightly Oriental version.
I know.
I think he looks a bit Chinese.
So going home to get ensconced and relax a little bit.
Bit nervous to go home, to be honest.
- I should have a tissue.
- I'm sorry, darling.
I guess everyone's emotional when they have a baby.
I haven't got a tissue.
Let me grab you one.
But they're so nice here.
Like, they're so nice.
They're just so caring and patient and everything.
They look after me so well and they look after him so well.
Any time of day.
Obviously he's up in the night, so it's, erm Well, thank God we've got some help at home coming to make me feel reassured.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Outside, their publicist has arranged for a photographer to get the first official record of the future heir to Longleat.
- Well done.
Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I did text you to tell you you were getting a ticket.
Yes, I saw that, I saw.
Now to fit the baby's car seat.
- How comfy.
- Good boy.
There's that bit there.
We need to undo Is that all done? - There's something here.
Yeah, how does that - That goes in here.
Prince William never had this problem when he brought George out! How do you Can I come around? I had it before, how it goes together, so No, that goes down.
What goes down? Oh, my God.
What are we going to do? Do you know how to do baby seats, anybody? After ten minutes, a nurse runs out to help.
Ah, yes! - Thank you very much.
- Take care, have a safe journey.
All the very best.
Thank you.
Hi, how are you? At their London house, a maternity nurse is waiting to meet them for the first time.
So wonderful to meet you.
This is John.
Hello.
Hired through an agency, Gilly will be living with the family, on hand to offer whatever support is needed.
Hello, Gilly.
How are you? I'm so happy you're here.
- Nice to meet you, hi.
- You too.
- Lily, did you miss us? Sh! - They're happy with him.
- Good, good, good.
- Obviously.
- I'm really relieved.
- He was a good weight, wasn't he? - Yeah, I know.
- That's fantastic.
Dinner in a minute.
He's very hungry.
How comfy is that?! Lily, this is the baby we've been telling you about.
Yeah.
You're very curious, aren't you? One day, baby John will be the sole inheritor of Longleat, an estate worth £190 million.
The legacy includes thousands of important artworks and antiques, some of national significance.
The house employs a full-time curator, Kate, to look after it all.
Her archives alone are so large she's got a whole wing of the house to herself.
This is quite an office you've got here.
Yes, it's called the in-tray.
Do you actually know where everything is? Mostly.
It's a sort of archaeological heap system, so the more urgent it is, the theory is the more adjacent and the higher up in the pile it might be.
OK, so on your desk? Desk is light reading.
But with 130 rooms in the house, there's not much time for light reading.
If this wasn't a private house Say it was a museum and this was a museum collection, you would have a dozen or more curators, all with different areas of specialist knowledge to manage it, without a shadow of a doubt.
- But there's only you.
- There's only me, yes.
That's why it's a tall order.
For the last year, Kate's been making time to plan for one of the biggest house renovation projects in decades .
.
the repainting of the currently light green grand staircase.
The colour's been troubling you for some time? The colour is deeply troubling in the sense that it doesn't help any of the objects in the space.
That's the sort of thing that obviously would concern me.
The pictures do not look good against this green.
The green is recent.
It was done in the '50s by Lord Bath's father.
Kate wants to restore the staircase to a more historically accurate beige.
So the assumption is that the grand staircase area would look much like this.
We've kept it, thank goodness, as a reference point.
So it'll make it much, much more coherent to return to that traditional colour scheme rather than this completely inauthentic and possibly, to use a colloquial phrase, random green that we have now.
With the house so quiet, now is finally the perfect time to carry out renovations.
But to repaint will require taking down 58 priceless and very heavy old masters.
Moving any one of them is a major operation.
Is this the sort of thing that gives you sleepless nights? I think it should give you sleepless nights, because getting it right before it starts is crucial.
Dramatic change is the last thing head groundsman Paul is looking for.
His job, and that of his 21 ground staff, is to conserve the Grade I listed landscape.
Stunning, isn't it? Good place to get away from the madness occasionally.
Largely unchanged for more than 300 years, the grounds are widely considered to be among the finest in the country.
You just feel privileged to oversee something as magnificent as Longleat.
I care about the landscape.
It's important that we maintain the landscape that we see today for others to enjoy.
But change is in the air.
When Lord Bath ran the estate, he let it shut altogether in the winter months due to lack of visitor interest.
The new management want a new winter model.
I think it's possible, because Christmas is a festive time and people are off work and school for a long period of time, that we can be as busy as Christmas as we are in the summer.
Bob's decided to set up a brand-new winter festival at Longleat based on Chinese New Year.
He hopes the colourful decorations will draw huge crowds.
The significance of it for us is that I think this is really going to be the thing that makes our year.
If we do it right, we should set all kinds of records.
A handful of decorations have arrived early from China.
But they'll be 7,000 to go up in total.
A Chinese workforce will be flying in to do most of he work.
But Paul and his team have been drafted in to help.
Yeah, we might just want to move this in front and then put the other one We'll put it behind and see what it's like.
We'll just bring this one.
How does these fit into the Grade I listed landscape, do you think? Well, they don't, clearly.
You probably want to get out of the way, Bob.
The arrival of the lanterns is raising eyebrows around the estate.
Well, I've been at Longleat for many, many years, and I've never seen anything quite like this before.
The elephant has landed.
From a distance, it looks a bit peculiar, because Longleat is quite sedate -- you've got the great house, you've got English heritage, and then these monsters are being created in pink and yellow and purple.
So one has to be open-minded, however, it is a little bit odd.
It's definitely a risk.
I'm sold out on this.
I've been the cheerleader for it.
If it's a bit of a bust, the staff may question whether they want to believe in the next big idea.
As their estate is transformed in their absence, Ceawlin and Emma are still in London recuperating.
This is his room, his nursery.
This was my room when I was little.
The old artwork by me when I was at school.
So is this your room, Gilly? Yes.
Yes, it is.
This is my room.
We share this room.
Basically, when baby wakes up then we go a trip to find Mummy, don't we, young man? At all times of the day and night, we go trips to find Mummy.
For new mums it's all very new and babies make weird and wonderful little noises in the middle of the night.
It's hard for mummies to get to sleep when they're not sure of all the noises that they're making.
So you must be quite tired, aren't you? It goes with part and parcel of the job, really.
It's a really strange thing, isn't it? To be up at such strange hours.
- Yeah, that's right.
- Up and down.
A little journal, my scribblings.
It's just about when the baby gets up and when the baby feeds, what side the baby's feeding from, whether he's had a wet or a dirty nappy.
It's just so that at a glance if Mum wants to know, then she can have a little look through and she can find out.
It's quite You know what it's like yourself, you forget.
Emma's mum has been helping as well.
You know, this house, it has limitations.
Nowhere to put anything.
There's really hardly any place to put flowers, so we've got them just piled up everywhere.
I really do feel really, really tired.
I don't know why, I'm having plenty of sleep, but every day I think, "Oh, my God, I can't wake up.
" I bought some of those Pro Pluses.
I'm taking those.
Popping uppers.
One day, her grandson will be the Marquess of Bath.
It's going to be tough for him, isn't it? I think.
In a funny way, he's got his career mapped out for him, hasn't he? Obviously one day he's going to work with Ceawlin on the estate.
I think he'll be all right.
I just worry about him for the bullying and stuff.
Hello, how are you? Afternoon tea.
For now, he's merely cooed over.
- I'm dying for a cuddle.
- I love it when his eyes are open.
And John, you called him John.
John Thynne built Longleat, so we thought that was quite a nice reference.
That's a lovely reference.
I was slightly worried you were going to call him something strange.
- No, nothing trendy! - It's nice having an ordinary name, isn't it? - It is very nice having an ordinary name.
- Nice, ordinary name.
- Classic.
I was really pleased about that.
Back at the ancestral home, it's 6am.
In a temporary Portakabin village on the grounds, 100 Chinese craftsmen have arrived to set up the new festival.
Their job is to build thousands of giant lanterns to cover 30 acres of the Longleat grounds.
They'll be working seven days a week to get it done.
Very good workers.
Quick .
.
is the only word I can describe.
Yeah.
Each lantern is created by building a metal frame and weaving silk around it.
They're best appreciated at night, when they'll be lit from inside.
This whole festival is about scale and scope.
Schedules are tight.
There's a VIP launch in just five weeks' time.
We're doing the right thing, but, yeah, it's anxious moments.
Still an awful lot of work to do between now and when the show opens.
Work is also beginning inside the house.
The grand staircase renovations are booked for a fortnight, but the adjoining corridors need clearing first.
It's a voyage of discovery, really, because you have to sort of break in.
Kate must take down Emma's wedding dress, which has been on display here since her marriage.
You couldn't possibly get into this by yourself, because this is so heavy.
I'm really feeble, I don't know how she managed to get through the day wearing this.
Emma didn't have to do a thing.
She had four slaves, willing slaves, to do all this.
Emma's dress was a couture creation which took six months to make.
The stuff you can see that's shining is silk taffeta, and then there's tulle, which is very fine silk net.
There's lace applique, so the sleeves have a real effect.
Suzanna, Emma's mother, had to spend a lot of time getting the worst of the grub off it, cos Emma wore it on a photo shoot in the woods.
I hate to disillusion people, the shoes were not the pair worn on the day.
They were utterly and completely trashed.
They were so muddy you wouldn't believe it.
Imagine going stomping through the woods in white silk shoes! Well done.
Bit of a killer, isn't it? If while I've got the top like this you can get an arm and then we can process towards the box.
Can you see where she went on a tramp through the bracken? So we just go and put it on the Minstrel's Gallery out the way in case anybody comes through.
Working in an English stately home is a new experience for the Chinese craftsmen.
- Of course they are very surprised.
- What do they say? They say, "Wow, all of this is owned by one family! Oh!" Yes.
We used to have to watch pretty carefully with what they do, because they don't really understand that we're a Grade I listed building, that they can't just drill some holes into the bricks and just repair it after.
It's turned out to be a fair bit of work to police them.
You guys have seen them all coming, but everybody is surprised at how big they are.
- We have to communicate the scale of them, right? - They are huge! It's nice watching it all bit by bit.
Yeah.
It's certainly something that Longleat hasn't seen before.
You wanted to top it, you certainly have.
- You don't see this every day.
- No, you do not.
You can just imagine, can't you? People coming down the drive and going, "Oh, my goodness!" What are we going to do next year? The plan is to move these three dragons, which are, I understand, are called We've got almost half of my team now being pulled across to do something that is not in any way horticulturally related.
Paul's really been the one coordinating the equipment to move around all the different lanterns.
We've rally pushed him, I'm afraid, for this.
He's done a great job.
He'll probably deny this, but I really think he gets a bit of juice from doing something different and being involved in something like this.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not going to do any damage to that.
We're certainly not, in any way, a traditional grounds and gardens department.
We do what we have to do and anything else that's asked of us.
In between, we look after the grounds and gardens.
Really, I don't get a choice.
I have to lead from the front and get involved.
'We do have a few Ugandan hippos.
'They're called Spot and Sonia.
'Even though they're four metres long, two-and-a-half tonnes, 'it's quite easy to lose them in this lake.
'They can go from one end of the lake to the other 'without us actually seeing them.
'They can hold their breath for about seven minutes.
' Good news.
Yeah, the best of news! - Best of news.
- Yeah, he's arriving.
We'll have our baby.
Ceawlin and Emma are finally returning home.
How are you feeling about it? Excited! Like everybody.
I wonder what life would be like for this little boy growing up here.
Oh, it'll be wonderful, I guess, with all the animals and all the park and everything.
I think it'll be a wonderful life.
I hope so! But to have a baby in the house is really exciting.
I mean, we coo over all the dogs that come in, so to have a real baby, it's going to supersede the petting of the dogs, isn't it? It brings that lived-in feel to a house.
It's not just a sterile home that people come marching through, it is a lived-in house by a real family.
So, you know, you've got the workers alongside the family, but it's their home, really.
The rest of us are just trying to go round them best we can.
Some children have nothing, you know, and others have some, but I think he'll have almost everything.
They're here.
They're right there.
- Great to see you.
- Yeah, you too.
How are things? - Yeah.
- Yeah? A little bit more grey hair than before? Come on out of the weather.
Hi, how are you? Isn't he sweet? Yeah, he's smiling.
We've been away for too long.
- Yay! My God, it's been ages! - Such a long time.
Hi! We're home.
Hi, Bella.
How are you? It's lovely to see you.
Hi, Carlos.
How are you? Baby time.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
- He's awake.
- So, finally! Here he is.
- No, no.
- He's been staring at everything.
He's been fed pretty recently, so he should be OK.
Maternity nurse Gilly is staying with the family for the foreseeable future.
She'll be sleeping in the nursery next to Ceawlin and Emma's bedroom.
What's for dinner? Chicken soup and spinach soup for the nanny.
She wants spinach soup.
She's going to need some strength, do you think? I think so.
It's three weeks before the VIP launch of the lantern festival that management hope will transform the winter visitor numbers.
Exotic creations are spreading across the estate.
But the festival is also supposed to feature some lanterns on the lake beside the house.
Under tight deadlines, the lantern team are desperate to start putting them up.
But this particular lake has two wild hippopotamuses living in it.
The Longleat animal keepers have insisted work can't start until they've made the lake safe.
I think if we Yeah, you see? Look, they're already starting.
I do not think these contractors, these builders, realise how much danger they are actually in with these hippopotamuses.
Even now, we're having this meeting, nobody said they were going to work over there and they're already there, so that's not particularly good.
We need to keep an eye on that.
So the reason there's four of you today, I'm afraid we do need a hippo watch.
Before anyone's allowed on the lake, the animal team must locate the two hippos.
Hippos are territorial animals, to say the least.
This is their territory, so it's a challenge for us.
In the wild, hippos kill more humans than lions do each year.
We really need to know exactly where they are at all times.
The boat team will be out here and just permanently letting us know where the hippos are.
As soon as they lose sight of them, it'll be re-laid down there and we'd have to stop work.
The lake also has sea lions, but they're not such a worry.
I mean, the sea lions are definitely more curious, but they're not vicious as such.
- Is that a hippo dead-ahead? - Yeah.
- I think so.
- Yeah, there's definitely a hippo.
Oh, good.
I'm glad they decided to get out of bed first thing this morning! - Oh, no, there's one there as well.
- There's one there.
Well, at least we've got confirmed sightings.
At this point, we could attach a little helium balloon to them.
Hippos located, another team start building a physical barrier.
While all this goes on, the lantern team can only wait.
Baby John is being taken for his first walk in the grounds of Longleat.
Thank God it's such a nice day.
- Hello.
- Morning, how are you? His first trip out.
That's amazing.
That is so clever.
Ah, there's some people.
They might have keys.
I forgot we were closed today.
I was like, "Come on, let's go and see the meerkats.
" Then I was like, "Oh, wait.
" We're going in now, we can let you in.
Oh, yay! Being the first-born, that means that all this will become his.
But not just become his like, you know, it's a toy to be played with.
The trees and the animals and the people that you're seeing out there, we all All our lives are really sort of intertwined with the family's.
Hi.
Hello.
How are you? Myself, I had quite an idyllic childhood, I must admit.
I didn't really I just didn't have a single responsibility until I was way into my teens.
It's a huge responsibility, I think, being a part of that family.
Certainly being a first-born I should imagine even amplifies that.
Tonight, this first-born is about to meet the head of the family.
We're going up to introduce John to his grandfather for the first time, which is quite exciting.
And, uh, yeah Oh, Ceawlin's back.
Hello.
We forgot wine.
We can't go up and see Dad without wine.
That white and that open red, I guess.
Last year, Ceawlin and his father fell out after Ceawlin took down some of Lord Bath's murals without permission.
Since then, Ceawlin has been trying to improve the relationship.
- Hello.
Hi! - Hi.
We've got something to show you.
Woof, woof, woof! Woof, woof! You don't have to get up.
Well, I'm going to kiss the baby as well as the - We brought you wine.
- Oh, lovely.
Well, let's drink it.
Would you rather have red or white to start? - Em Oh, red.
- Red? OK.
Look.
Him for you.
There we go.
- Oh, oh.
He started crying, but not while he was in my arms.
- No.
There you go.
- Quite hot, I'll take that off.
- Thank you.
Hello.
- Cheers to baby John.
- To John.
- To John.
Absolutely.
Is somebody coming, or Who's this? - Hi.
- Ah-ha.
Hi.
Mariella is one of Lord Bath's wifelets.
She lives in a cottage on the estate.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
- Good.
Do you want some wine, Mariella? - Well, congratulations.
- Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Ooh, what's that? The dog's just knocked a glass over.
We'll leave you to it and bring him up, perhaps, during the daytime when you've got more Yeah.
- OK? - Bring him up when he's awake and not crying.
Exactly.
We'll be up again soon.
- Have a nice evening.
- Bye.
- Bye! Bye.
It's obviously quite difficult for you that his wifelets are still around.
Oh, Lynn, come on.
It's you know, it wasn't part of the plan.
Let's leave it there.
Today, the ambitious renovations of the grand staircase are getting underway.
Curator Kate has been planning them for a year.
If you didn't feel anxious, you wouldn't do your job properly.
It's necessary, because you need to be on top form and concentrating on what you're doing and absolutely aware of what you're doing.
You need to be stressed.
House steward Jeff is responsible for managing the operation.
If something was to go wrong today, I would personally be upset that I've damaged something.
My main concern would be the artwork and just making sure that we don't risk it in any way shape or form by cutting corners or compromising in any way.
58 fragile and very precious old masters are being taken down and put into storage, so the light green walls can be repainted.
One of the most difficult to move will be the huge canvas at the top by landscape painter John Wootton.
It hasn't been touched for nearly 30 years and can only be reached by scaffolding.
We don't talk about value, so we don't say it's worth X or Y, I just want everyone to know how important the Wootton is to the collection.
My role is usually to bark if I see something that they might not have seen.
We have some difficult moves.
We have to go under hall lanterns and things.
It's difficult, particularly when they're carrying something big, always to be aware of all dimensions at all times.
A custom-made frame is required to carry the enormous painting.
Just need to be careful on the top.
There's an awful lot of flap in that.
'It's very unusual, in terms of my day-to-day job, 'so it's always quite exciting to do it.
'Quite nervous as well, but we've got some of the best art handlers 'in the country here, so I've got absolute confidence 'we've got everything we need to do it right today.
' OK, right, gents, with the frame 'It doesn't mean I won't be sweating.
' .
.
be aware of the painting in behind.
We need to slide in right behind the painting.
It needs to come back about two inches into the frame.
A little bit more if you can.
Just rest on the edge there.
What we're going to do is transfer into the letterbox now.
- So we need to take the wait from the bottom.
Everyone understood? - Yeah.
OK, on three.
Two, three -- into the gap.
- Get comfortable? - Yeah.
Start to lower.
Nice and easy, nice and easy.
Nice and gentle.
Step towards me.
Back to me.
Are we clear? Right, nice and easy.
Handle's clear at the back.
Whoa, steady, steady.
Yeah, nice and easy.
My end? Bit more your end, Stu.
Stop.
Butch needs to let go.
- Stop.
- Steady, steady, steady.
A bit more your end, Stu.
We're leaning, I think.
Are we? Well done, everyone.
Work is finally progressing on the lake.
But the unique obstacles or working in a stately home and safari park have meant the lantern team are falling behind schedule.
They used to have an hour break, but actually the workers, they asked to shorten their break to 40 minutes.
It wasn't the manager's idea? Erm I think it's the manager's idea, yes, but obviously the manager gathered the idea into the worker's head.
As they hurry to stay on track, Lord Bath is about to get his first tour of the spectacle unfolding on his land.
It really is his estate, still, although he's much less engaged with it than he might have been a number of years ago.
I visit him regularly so that he has a chance to hear what's going on.
I'll show him some things.
Another wifelet, Trudie, will be joining the tour.
Are you going to be warm enough? You don't need a jacket? I should be OK, I think.
This is really you, isn't it? - This is really Lord Bath.
This is all of his colours.
- Yeah, yeah.
It looks a little bit like some of your dress right now.
Hello.
It's all most impressive.
Thank you, thank you.
Trudie's known Lord Bath for 16 years.
He's very easy to live with.
There's no trouble at all, you know.
He hasn't got any bad manners.
I don't like people with bad manners.
He's got no bad manners, so that's nice.
It's very comfortable.
He likes to do what I want.
3-D, Alice In Wonderland.
Look over there.
- Look at all those - Yes, yes.
It's a wonderful array of animals.
Yeah, he liked it.
Actually did a little bit more than I expected him to.
We went into the last tent.
I told him, "Why don't you just wait for us?" He was like, "No, I'd like to get out and see.
" So, good.
If the winter festival is successful, it will be a significant boost to Longleat's income, which currently falls off outside the summer months.
But without intending it, the Chinese contacts Longleat have made have given rise to a completely different opportunity.
We are actually talking, are we, about a full size - replica of Longleat House? - It's the house, it's the house.
- They want to use They want to use the house as a hotel - Right.
And then they want some of what would be the dining rooms and some of the other rooms, they would turn in to, you know, dining spaces for guests and meeting spaces and stuff.
- But yeah, the exterior - Unbelievable.
- .
.
is a full replica of the house.
- Right.
Bob's contacts want to build a second Longleat House from scratch in China and they'll give the family a share of the income it generates.
You know, something pretty much anywhere else that would be unimaginable, but in China, these things or things like this do apparently happen.
A delegation of Chinese government officials is travelling to Longleat to meet the family.
The key person there is going to be the Minister Of Culture - for the Sichuan Province.
- Right.
OK.
So, he's the one that we want to make the impression on, he'll help them secure the land.
Right.
As plans begin for a second Longleat, promotion of the original remains as important as ever.
Today, we are shooting Hello magazine for Christmas and to celebrate the baby, I think, and to celebrate our Chinese Festival Of Light as well.
Hello! Hello, hello! Hi! - Nice to see you.
- Congratulations.
- Thanks.
How are you? Since becoming Lady Weymouth, Emma's been happy to court the press.
It's a very nice team.
It's always the same team.
And this will be our fifth article together, I think.
And they're very, very nice and they are very positive and happy and celebratory.
Whoa! That's amazing.
Who is that by? Like a mermaid.
What goes under this? Anything? Not much! First decision -- what to wear.
- What we do is we can bungee clip it at the back.
- Six weeks yesterday.
I mean, you've really gone down.
I don't know if it suits me.
- Next.
- Next.
- Ta-da! - Now, that's pretty, isn't it? - It's really The colouring - Glamorous.
- OK.
- Are you happy with that? - Yeah.
Look a bit different now! He won't recognise me! Hello! Baby John's presence is also required.
Hi! You'd better not pee on my dress, ha-ha! That Ooh! You like lights.
No, it's not.
It's not a very happy Christmas, is it? No, it's not! Emma, she's definitely the softer edge to everything else we're doing.
I just think she's just a fantastic ambassador and of course now with the new baby, we've really got a good one-two punch rack going for us right now.
- Try again.
- Come on, little John.
- He's not sure about all of this.
Welcome to the world of media, little John.
It is part of our brand that the family is involved and that's a double-edged sword because when you invite that kind of celebrity, you invite a fair bit of scrutiny.
- Now, you sort of have to be a little less attentive to John.
- OK.
And just be totally cool.
Yes.
- I kind of need - I'll hold him the other way? - Yeah, yeah, do.
This is all looking good, guys.
Yeah, I like that.
Hand on hip, kind of quite nonchalant.
- Yeah, good.
- Not with that face though.
Monkey! Who has control of the dog? If Monkey wants to be in it OK, let's go.
Go.
Now, here we go, yes.
Great! Fab! Into the lens! Gorgeous! - Oh! - We can't have that face.
- Oh, he's very calm, he never cries.
Fabulous! Hold it right there.
Hi! After nearly half an hour, the shot finally comes off.
- We might have got it.
- We've got it.
- We've got it.
We've got you.
We've got it, we've got it.
But the repainting of the grand staircase isn't going so well.
Lord Bath was never consulted and when he found out, he vetoed the work.
I think Lord Bath and Lady Bath liked the green scheme.
They want to keep the green.
They want to keep the 1955 scheme, which Lord Bath's father put in, to great dismay all around him! It's their house, so if they like the green, then the green stays.
It was something that was planned for approximately a year .
.
but nobody saw fit to consult my father, so he has understandably, I guess, taken umbrage and put a stop to it.
Their dispute last year meant father and son often communicated through third parties.
I assumed that he knew.
Yeah.
I've been going on for the last sort of 9, 12 months, just assuming that it had been run past him.
The paintings will now have to be re-hung against the light green.
There will be another point in the not so distant future where all the disruption has to happen again, so it's distinctly suboptimal.
It's not financially efficient and it's not time efficient and I'll leave it at that.
I'll see you later.
There's a further setback outside.
Some of the smaller Chinese lanterns are struggling in the English weather.
Head groundsman Paul is despatched to fix them.
He doesn't seem overly upset by their demise.
It's a design fault, rather than a growing aspect.
The wind is stronger than their manufacturing, so I think we might have to communicate with our Chinese friends and replace the flower.
The structure's failed again.
Not as strong as a tree, obviously.
It's an important day for Longleat.
The Chinese delegation is arriving to consider plans for a full size replica of the house in China.
- Hello.
How are you? - Good to see you.
- Nice to see you, too.
- Red.
I thought I'd go red.
- That's good, that's good.
- It's the right kind of red, too.
- Thanks! A bit tighter than it used to be, but anyway.
Just about fits! - How long are you going to be, roughly? - About ten minutes.
- OK.
Should we - Yeah, let's go down and check - Yeah, you go.
- Do you mind if we go on down? - No, I'll meet you there.
So, you should maybe look at the menu.
I'm just not sure about the wine.
The white wine's fine, but I think we should change the red.
OK, I'll sort that out.
The deal could provide a steady stream of income to help keep the estate in the family.
If this project happens, and if it's successful, one can imagine that John could be running a very, very international business.
Potentially.
- Oh, it's bright.
- It is.
- Good morning.
- Hello.
Mr Ziyang is the Cultural Minister for Sichuan Province, an area of China larger than the UK.
Securing his approval is vital for the project.
- The Viscount.
- Hello, pleased to meet you.
How are you? - This is my wife, Emma.
- Hello, how are you? We're very honoured that you've come to see us and travelled such a long distance.
Shall we go inside? Shall we take our seats? Ceawlin is hosting a gourmet lunch in the Green Library.
Can I just make a short toast, please? I would like to thank Minister Ziyang and the team from the cultural department for coming here today.
And cheers.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
First, for the Viscount and the Emma.
The wife of Viscount.
We will do our best to support everything in every way we can.
- Thank you.
- Cheers.
Formalities over, the food is served.
After a salmon starter, English lamb.
In Chinese culture, it's respectful for all the guests to make a toast to the person hosting the meal.
Now, are we draining it to the end? There's also a tradition of Gan Bei, draining your glass in a single gulp.
That's a big glass.
Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
I missed you.
Thank you.
Yes, minister.
I'm matching you, one for one.
- Gan Bei.
- Gan Bei.
OK.
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
OK? No, like this.
Clenched fist.
And then boom.
- Yeah.
- Gan Bei.
- Gan Bei.
Gan Bei.
Baby Gan Bei.
I think it's time we had a full hug.
The minister doesn't want to leave without meeting the head of the family.
You're doing amazingly well.
Glen said he's known the minister for years, he's never known him to have a drink and he's never known him - to raise his voice in terms of having fun like that.
- Right.
- So, you can tell they're - I was saying, he's very animated.
Yeah, he's incredibly animated.
Hi, Dad.
Hello! It is a pleasure to meet you.
Well, it is my pleasure.
We wish you great health and longevity.
Good wishes for you too.
Thank you.
See you soon.
Mwah.
- Thank you, my Lord.
Thank you for doing that.
- Thanks.
- Terrific job.
- OK.
- OK.
Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Nice to have visitors? - Mm? - Nice to have some visitors? - Yes.
- Did you know who they were? - No.
But still, it's nice to have visitors.
Thank you very much.
See you in Chengdu.
- Yeah, success.
It was - See you in Chengdu.
There was obviously a lot of handshaking and hugging and some real enthusiasm, so that actually was probably pretty good.
- A success.
- Ceawlin seems to have enjoyed himself.
Yeah, I'm glad he took the load instead of me for that, but It is that sort of informal kind of formality he gets and really can have some good times, so he's He definitely took one for the team.
I'm glad it was him and not me.
Tonight, it's the VIP launch party for the Festival Of Light.
300 guests have been invited, including the media and friends and family.
The guest of honour is billionaire entrepreneur, Sir David Tang.
- How are you? - I'm very well.
- Good to see you.
Five, four, three, two, one! - Lord Bath didn't make it this evening.
- He didn't.
I talked to him earlier this morning.
He said he'd be looking out his window.
I think that's just where he is and I think putting Ceawlin in front and centre tonight was the right thing to do.
And he was really the biggest man in the room for most of our guests tonight, which is good.
And in some ways, it's not a bad thing that Lord Bath wasn't here for that because it lets him come all the way into his own.
I love this.
Longleat is sort of a big responsibility, but it's also a great joy and a very lucky sort of place to be.
It's important we had somebody to pass it on to, so thank God for John, we've got him.
I just want him to have a great childhood.
I had a lovely childhood with a loving family around me and I would give that to him.
So I want him to you know, be as happy as possible.
I suppose I can imagine in the future John growing up and getting married and starting his family here and hopefully we'll still be here.
So that will be fun for us.
Start it all again! And be all over the house in different corners.