Hello and welcome once again to Video World after a fortnight of great excitement on BBC
Television's political programmes about Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet reshuffle. More of that
in a moment. Our main feature in this issue is Campion, a full length drama based on one
of Marjorie Allingham's best selling crime stories. Albert Campion, her enigmatic amateur
detective played by Peter Davison, takes on a challenge of murder, mystery and intrigue
in Death of a Ghost. Another inventive hero stars in our documentary from the Horizon
series. Millionaire entrepreneur Clive Sinclair is a man of huge successes and huge failures.
But his stream of new inventions has often changed our lives. So what is it that makes
this fascinating man of many contradictions tick? Turning to sport we have the fourth
test match from Old Trafford, the one England had to win or draw to have a hope of retaining
the ashes. We'll also see how the Open Golf Championship had one of the closest finishes
for years with a three man play-off to decide the title. And how a record was broken at
Glorious Goodwood. But we begin with the Prime Minister's end of term government reshuffle.
And what a drama that caused with the biggest shock Sir Geoffrey Howe's removal from the
Foreign Office. His replacement, the untried and untested John Major, was not the name
on everyone's lips for one of the top three jobs in British politics. So Newsnight's Francine
Stock set out to discover more about him. John Major, most enigmatic member of cabinet,
has left the Treasury unnoticed for the last time. Today he was summoned by his Prime Minister.
In a few minutes she bestowed upon him one of the highest offices of state. His anonymity
is over. It was wholly unexpected. She invited me to sit down and offered me the job and
I was delighted to accept. It's a very exciting opportunity. Far from the conventional breeding
grounds of Tory ministers, John Major's childhood was spent in Brixton. His father was an actor
and circus artist. The family lived in rented accommodation. But his experience led, surprisingly,
to his becoming a young Conservative at 16. In 1965 he went to work in the city at Standard
Chartered Bank. Soon he was winning his political spurs on Lambeth Borough Council. In 1979
he was to become MP for Huntingdon. His contemporaries predicted then he'd be first in the cabinet.
And a colleague who's known him since Lambeth days says his appointment today will be a
popular one. I think given that Geoffrey Howe was going to be moved, John's appointment
will be very popular within the party. John has enormous support from all wings of the
party and has won a lot of praise for the way he's done the difficult job of keeping
down public spending. John Major was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury in June 1987.
His views on economic policy are considered as ideologically watertight as those of Mrs
Thatcher. And it was his adroit handling of last autumn's public spending round that brought
him good notices in both Whitehall and Westminster. But does he have the qualities to justify
his precipitate rise to Foreign Secretary? I think he's a determined person, but he's
a very pleasant person. I think he's one of those people who has the aptitude to carry
out quite difficult operations without infuriating a lot of people. And I think that would be
a very valuable asset as Foreign Secretary. And the problem is, of course, that he has
no background in foreign affairs. He will take a bit of time clearly to find his feet.
And people will say, well, he's been sent there by the Prime Minister to do what she
wants him to do. There will be fierce scrutiny of John Major's appointment. His relative
inexperience will be put against the record of his veteran predecessor, Sir Geoffrey Howe.
Sir Geoffrey was known on occasions to differ with the Prime Minister. He was, for example,
conspicuously more enthusiastic about Europe. So does Mr Major consider that Sir Geoffrey
has been dismissed for his views? Well, Geoffrey has been formally made Deputy Prime Minister.
He's going to be leader of the House of Commons. The Commons is about to be televised, and
it needs a really heavyweight politician to lead the Commons. I think he has an extremely
important role and will remain in that role no doubt for some time to come. He'll be in
the difficult position that on the one hand he will be seen rather as the Prime Minister's
man in the Foreign Office. On the other hand, clearly the Foreign Secretary is a very important
member of the Cabinet in his own right and not an appendage to Number 10. Mrs Thatcher's
choice has been radical and lends weight to intimations of Mr Major's greatness. Norman
Tebbit once tipped Major as a future leader of the party. He could leapfrog over more
experienced Cabinet colleagues on the way to Number 10. I think she's looking for younger
people who may be able to take on the role of leadership and trying to give them a broader
experience of government by moving them to a number of posts. And the Foreign Secretary
I think is a key stepping stone for many potential Prime Ministers. Sir Anthony Eden for example
and other political parties, the Foreign Secretary has often been the one before Prime Minister.
No more quiet cups of tea alone for John Major. From this evening, for the grey man of the
Cabinet, life will inevitably become rather more colourful. Well, away from the hurly
burly of Westminster politics, some strange things have been happening in the cornfields
of southern England. Crop circles, mysterious rings of flattened corn have been appearing
with ever increasing frequency this summer. The country file decided to investigate. The
best, indeed the only way to make an accurate record of a crop circle is from above. Busty
Taylors got this off to a fine art. Over the years he's photographed hundreds of different
circles. But the first problem is finding them. Tucked away in the middle of a farmer's
field they're very easy to miss unless of course you go out of your way to look. There's
also a sort of grapevine that operates whenever a new circle's found and with his private
pilot's licence it's no problem for Busty and his friend Colin Andrews to take to the
air and see for themselves. There are those however who believe that a different form
of airborne transportation is actually responsible for causing the circles. A local farmer or
land owner around here rang up and said what are you chaps been up to? And I said what?
And he said my corn. And I said let's have a look, trundled over and there are these
extraordinary circles in his corn. And he was doing it lightheartedly but quite clearly
it wasn't our helicopter. Why was it quite clearly not your helicopter's doing it? Well
when you see these the corn is laid down in a spiral circle and the edges all round the
circle are absolutely untouched, absolutely sheer, where the helicopter, the wind from
the helicopter blows down and out and the grass or the corn would be dished out in a
saucer. A helicopter produces a wind downwards and that is not going to make an absolute
shear cut, you couldn't possibly do it because the helicopter would have to, even if it could
make it into that spiral, would have to arrive in one spot and disappear again without even
moving. But what about the effect of a stationary whirlwind? That's what Terence Meadon thinks
it is. I suggest that they are the result of air flow diverging around hills and being
deflected by hillsides in such a way as to form a kind of trailing vortex system off
the peak of the hill or off the top of the ridge. We have photographs of whirlwinds showing
that they are composed of two components, an inner column and an outer sheath, both
rotating in opposite senses. It's because of the law of conservation of angular momentum
that one would expect them to rotate in opposite senses as indeed they do. I think Stonehenge
might well have a part to play in all this, particularly with regard to this country.
We noted some time ago that the dimensions of these formations were consistent with the
dimensions of the circles within Stonehenge itself. Not only that, but that some of the
ley lines running through and to Stonehenge also we feel may well have a part to play
in the location of these things. And what about the UFO that Pat and Jack Collins reported
seeing one night on Stockbridge Down? As we came over the brow of the hill behind you,
you said to me, didn't you, cool, look quick at that. There was this circle with lights
all around the edge and would appear to have been spokes which were also lit. I saw this
enormous big thing, it was like sort of looking at a great wheel at a fairground, it looked
that size. Like Jack said, it was lit up the whole way round and the spokes were clear,
like electric light bulb lights and the spokes of the wheels, of this wheel, and they were
all lit up as well and it was standing up on end. We would love to think they were UFOs,
but basically we're looking for the middle ground. It's not a phenomena of any human
conception. It's just half way between being non-human and something extra terrestrial
or whatever you like. Frances Shepherd doesn't believe a word of it. History of this field
is that my family's owned it for about four generations since the late twenties and we've
had a period of about sixty years without seeing any circles at all and then 1983, rather
a shortage of news in the newspapers and a Daily Express reporter reported seeing a circle
here early one morning from the top of the hill behind you there and I've got a view
that perhaps he might have made the circle for a story because next day there was a three
page article in the Daily Express which is a heck of a lot of lines in a national newspaper
about crop circles. OK, why do you think it's a hoax? Well because if we look into the centre
over there you'll see that that ground has been trampled down much more than on the edge
because I reckon a group of people of linked arms walked round in a circle. The person
on the edge has travelled fastest than the chap in the centre who's stood on the spot
therefore he's stood the corn down more in the centre. You can clearly see this. Also
I reckon it was done at night time because the people didn't want to be spotted because
I'd be on their backs if they were caught and after dark probably a few pints of the
local 6X inside them they've lurched rather into the corn because the line is not sharp
but there's little marks where people have drunkenly swaggered out of line. We put Francis
Shepherd's theory to the test. We enlisted the help of a young farmer's tug of war team.
Would it be possible, we wondered, to create a crop circle without leaving any trace of
human involvement. They looked surprisingly practised as they made their way down the
track left by the sprayers to the spot that we'd chosen. They were armed with nothing
more than a stick and a bit of old rope. All right, let's keep this tight.
I'm doing about three times the width of Phil. It was roughly at this point that serious
doubts crept in and all thoughts of little green men were replaced by images of large
ruddy ones.
Well, we sort of comb it, spread the wheat out on the ground, even it up, make it look
a lower spaceships land.
You do look as though you've done it before.
Rent a circle.
Seriously, have you done it before?
Well, that would be telling.
A trade secret.
Yes, I wouldn't like to say. I think there'd be many farmers in Hampshire that might be
knocking on our door.
We identify very quickly those circles that are hoaxed and we have seen three this year
that have been hoaxed. The lie of the plants within the genuine phenomenon is entirely
different to anything that can be hoaxed and has been hoaxed.
Have you ever been taken in?
Not as yet. Not as yet. But we don't set up to be taken in. We obviously, we are wanting
to get on with the job and to break beyond this hoax nonsense. There is a genuine phenomenon
here, one which now we have to get to the bottom of.
From mysteries in southern England to sporting struggles in Scotland, we go over now to the
Open Golf Championship on the final day at Troon with Harry Carpenter.
Let's begin the story by looking quickly at the overnight leaderboard. If you remember
Wayne Grady of Australia was ahead by one stroke from the American Tom Watson, another
American Payne Stewart one stroke further behind and then a lot of people in close pursuit,
most of them Americans. Now one name is not on that board. The name of the 1986 Open champion
Greg Norman who started the day at five under par, in other words seven strokes behind his
fellow Australian leader Wayne Grady. Well Norman teed off just after one o'clock and
took the course by storm. When he came to the fifth, he'd already had birdies at the
first four holes. 210 yards. Greenan, this one's called. And he flirted with that bunker
there on the right, right distance with a long putt. At the short fifth now Greg Norman
has putt, must be at least 20 yards, probably 25. This is for a two. Now surely he can't
make it five in a row, not from that range. Oh my goodness. Well, what is 18 off of 72,
about 57 or something like that. It's a brilliant birdie. Five in the row. Norman then at his
ball, his third shot at the sixth, and this has got an awkward lie as well. I'm afraid
this won't be so easy. Quite a display of golf shots. The slope from the side of the
wing there is downhill to that flag, and I suppose having the tight lie, the sand iron,
a great third shot. Greg Norman has this at the sixth hole for his sixth consecutive
birdie to take him to 11 under. Never in doubt. Another of the many American challenges, Mark
Alcovecchia achieved an outrageous three at the par 412th with this amazing piece of luck
off the bank. Straight in. That took him to 11 under. The 16th green now, and Greg Norman,
he has done some amazing things in his career, and well what a cheer there'll be if this
goes in. This putt, you see, see the hole there, is for an eagle three, and if he gets
it it would put him 14 under par. Good effort, but it wasn't quite on line, but that'll be
a birdie, he'll go to 13 under. That was a terrific second shot. 13 under, just two holes
left. Norman's figures show nine birdies, just one drop shot, a course record 64. When
he came off the practice ground before going out this morning he told a colleague of mine
that he thought he would need to shoot a 63 if he were going to win the open. Alcovecchia
second shot to the last after that massive drive. This can only be a sort of flick with
a nine, or a push with an eight, or a big smash with a wedge, but don't go too far.
Just to stay in the lead in the open on his own. Just lacked the speed to hold the line,
and now we have a tie at the head of things. The 18th, Alcovecchia for a birdie three to
tie with Greg Norman, and right in the middle, a terrific finish for Mark Alcovecchia. Round
68, that's the situation with Wayne Grady with one hole left. A three to win, a four
to win. What a pleasure Tom Watson has given all of us this week. The magic record of six
holes. Well done. So now we had a three-way playoff. The first playoff in the open championship
since 1975 when Tom Watson beat Jack Newton at Carnoustie over an extra day's play of
18 holes. Now this time the rules were different. They would play over four holes, stroke play,
and the holes were the first, the second, the 17th, and the 18th. Mark Alcovecchia,
well, well, well. And he's finished with a three. So Alcovecchia the champion, a worthy
champion, and a touch of good fortune at the 12th hole where he kicked straight into barrel.
So a new name on the old trophy. Alcovecchia took away a first prize of 80,000 pounds.
Not that that mattered. It was the trophy that was important. On the second day of glorious
goodwood, Zilzal, the outstanding miler in Europe, smashed the course record. Rejoin
the race in the closing stages with Peter O'Sullivan. And it's Zilzal coming there,
this unbeaten colt very strongly now with Chardy over on the far rail opening verse
between Horses and Pat Edery desperately looking for room now on warning as Zilzal goes to
the front from Green Line Express. Warning's not going to get there. Zilzal now going to
get challenged by Mark of Distinction who's coming there well towards the stand side.
But it's Zilzal from Green Line Express and Mark of Distinction. Zilzal is going to win
it in great style at the line. Zilzal is the winner. Green Line Express is second. Mark
of Distinction's in a photo with most welcome for third. And now for news of the fourth
Ashes test, here's Ritchie Benno. Well, for the Old Trafford test match, there were changes
made to the England side. The Australians went in with no changes. They kept Trevor
Hones as their one spinner. Didn't bring in Tim May, the off spinner. England won the
toss and decided to bat. They also won the toss for the ball. The reader ball was used
in this match, whereas Dukes had been used in the earlier games. We join play now with
England 89 for three. Steve War is the bowler and Robin Smith is taking strike.
A couple of loose deliveries and they've both gone for four. Robin Smith tracking that long
hop from just outside the off stump square. It's his favourite stroke. And a fine shot.
He really gives it the full treatment. He plays it short of a length, halfway down the
wicket, and Smith makes no mistake at all. That's a lovely shot. It wasn't a good ball
and it really stood up there. Wide in the way of that brutal square cut, which Robin
Smith loves to play. Yes, you can't avoid to give Robin Smith rooming. See that? Two
feet outside off stump, short of a length. Absolutely perfect for the square cut. And
Robin Smith didn't disappoint. Both targets change with 54. Robin Smith and England have
a chance. Nicely turned to the wicket for three. Take that, Mr Hughes. There's not much charity
out there now. Robin Smith stuck into that short ball. Oh, good ball. The flipper has
done him. Trevor Hones has slipped the flipper through to David Gower and that is brilliantly
bowled. Absolutely right. The man that's just told you about that knows all about flippers.
And Trevor Hones, letting that one come out of the bottom of his hand, skidding on to
David Gower, Gower misreading the length. Hones has done it. That is the wicket. And
will both of them be able to forgive himself is the second question to answer. Hones deceived
him, brought him down the track and slipped it through his guard. Both of them couldn't
resist the attempt to hit it. That's four. Slightly overpitched. Lawson to Russell. He's
given him. And Russell out. LBW to Lawson. He scored one. And now England in real trouble
at 147 for six. Oh, that's out. It simply exhausted the patience of John Embry. He probably
spotted a googly but played it atrociously. That's a good hit. Straight down the ground
for six. Pick it up very cleanly. There's a beautiful strike. Once again off the back
foot where he's been so strong all day. And 100 for Robin Smith. A standing ovation and
applause from everyone on the field in the Australian side. Oh, got it. Well, only just.
Lawson has clapped both hands to his head and Porter is just thinking about the awful
possibilities there. But Foster has gone with a beautiful piece of field placing and very
well bowled with a slower ball from Lawson. But it was so close to getting away. Lovely
shot. First four of the day to Smith. That's his 13-4. That's a lovely shot. Hit through
that that wasn't quite a half volley. Close and given. Well forward Fraser had a long
look so did umpire Meyer. And Lawson takes number six with Fraser LBW for two and England
252 for nine. That's a great shot. It's on the up that got hold of it. That's his 15th
boundary. I think England will be quite happy with 260 on the board considering the things
that have gone on. Well that might be out in fact. It is. What a way to go. Court, square
cuts, top edge. Caught by Hones and the end of a great innings 143 and England all out
for 260 and that's Merv Hughes's first wicket. And it was undoubtedly one of the very best
innings played by an England batsman in recent years in this country or overseas. Wonderful
knock of 143 from Robin Smith. Lawson six for 72 used his head all the way through.
A thinking bowler and he did great things out there for Australia. The story of the
match England against Australia this fourth Cornhill test at Old Trafford. England 260
and 264. Australia 447 and 8141. Australia won the match by nine wickets. Well here at
the ground today there was another big story apart from Australia regaining the ashes after
55 years. There was the announcement of an English 11 which is contracted to go to South
Africa for a tour in two summers out there. Mike Gadding is leading the side so those
players contracted to go to South Africa. That will cause a lot of heart burning amongst
the selection committee. They will have to make big changes for Trent Bridge already
it's been announced by Ted Dexter that it's most unlikely that any of those players will
be thought of for the Trent Bridge or the oval test matches. And now Horizon.