it's been the hottest day in august for 17 years, as large parts of the uk experienced high temperatures and the south of england baked in a heatwave. london reached just over 36 degrees celsius. people are advised to avoid busy beaches and maintain social distancing throughout the weekend, with the warm weather set to continue. sangita myska reports now from southend on sea. sun, sea, sand and social distancing. this is british summertime in our new normal. the sun—seekers of essex today flocked to southend sea front as temperatures here and across england's southern coast have soared. the government is urging people to keep their distance from one another, but with limited success. when we got here we suddenly realised there was a lot of people in a very small amount of space. so we're going to try our best to keep our distance from everybody else. it's difficult when it's so crowded everywhere, isn't it? yeah, not many people wear masks in shops around here, i've noticed. well, i was stuck in for three months. you've got to live, haven't you ? because we don't know when this is going to end. with thousands of people having now cancelled their foreign holidays, public health england recognises that they will instead probably flock to beaches like this one in southend. even so, they are urging member of the public, particularly those in vulnerable groups like the elderly and very young, to limit their exposure to the sun and make sure that they remain hydrated. archaeologist li xiuzhen. away from the beaches, now to something more modern. at frensham ponds in surrey, accomplished swimmers have found their own the british artist henry moore way staying cool. revolutionised the world but in another part of sculpture during the 20th of the same county, the heat century, changing the way we see the human body and setting his work has brought danger. in a natural landscape. thick smoke and lapping flames at the scrubland fire on a chobham common could be seen from over 30 miles away. his daughter, mary moore, talks to us now about her memories dozens of firefighters of her father and the ideas remain at the scene. further west, by the dorset that inspired him. coast, those at boscombe beach newsreel: the work of has so far managed to keep henry moore has been seen socially distanced. in almost every but with the weekend arriving country in the world. and temperatures rising, he has made a staggering total how closely those rules will be of something like 900 followed remains to be seen. sangita myska, bbc sculptures, many of them immense, as well as thousands of drawings and nearly a thousand graphics. i mean, i can't believe... news, southend, essex. ..because his work seems so comfortable that you can't believe there was a feeling that it was dangerous, that it was outrageous now on bbc news, witness history brings you five amazing and that it would defile youth. stories form the world of art. his first exhibition was in 1928. already his work was causing controversy. the art schools that he was hello and welcome to a special studying in called his work edition of witness history ugly and disgusting and that with me, razia iqbal, here at the british academy in london as we present he'd fed on a cesspit. five amazing stories from the world of art. what took people aback was a manner of expression that coming up, how the acclaimed british sculptor henry moore emphasised the sexual nature changed modern art. of his subjects and rejected the realistic treatment of the human figure. it was considered to be we speak to the man who wrapped primitive, decadent and savage the reichstag in 1995 and in a way, it was. and a nigerian artist inspired he wanted to arouse in us the by the oil pollution of her homeland. deepest forces and instincts. plus the pioneer who photographed tsarist russia in colour. henry moore: a great deal can still be done with 3—dimensional forms as a means of expressing what people feel about but first, we go to china, themselves and about nature and about the world where in 1974 an accidental discovery revealed one around them. of the wonders of the world. my father and his generation looked rather to ethnographic works, what they called a vast terracotta army which lay buried beneath the earth for more primitive works. than 2,000 years. my belief is that no matter what advances we make archaeologist li xiuzhen worked in technology, and in on the astonishing find. the controlling of nature, the real basis of life newsreel: it is a vast is human relationships. it is through them that we pottery army that is slowly being unearthed from the tomb where it has lain for more 00:04:34,921 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 than 2,000 years. are happy or unhappy. in 1950, his daughter mary, who had been born during the war, was now four years old and a great source of pride. our home and his studios were kind of interchangeable. he had a few basic subjects that he could not help from returning to again and again. one of them was the reclining figure. what is the particular significance of that? it may be that it connects the human figure with landscape more easily than what a standing figure could. and landscape is one of my great obsessions. another one was the mother and child. i have done many mother and child structures and most of them have been this idea of the larger form, in relationship with the smaller form in a protective sense and a sense of a gentleness and tenderness. moore remains a countryman at heart. his studios are surrounded by fields, hedges and woods. he is happiest seeing his sculptures in the open air. there was an exhibition in florence in 1972, which was a remarkable exhibition and it was a first in many, many ways. moore assembled in the fort and the ramparts, nearly 200 sculptures and 100 drawings. the big sculptures in the open air, each one sited by moore himself, was what made the exhibition unique. one would have to travel the world to see so much at any othertime. my father was very worried. he thought that people wouldn't go. tourism back in the 1970s was not quite such a big deal and getting to places was much harder. but in the end it was a fantastic success. something like 400,000 visitors. i think they need to be set outside. i always want to go up and touch them. but you can go up to them and run your hand around them. he wanted sculpture to be part of everybody‘s life and experience and enrich their lives. and we should go on fighting that fight. henry moore's daughter, mary. certainly the power of sculpture lives on in our next story. sokari douglas camp is an acclaimed artist based in london, but the inspiration for her work comes from her homeland of the niger delta in nigeria, a world of rivers and creeks that has been devastated by decades of pollution from the oil industry. i like metal because it has tensile strength that is fantastic. something very small can hold up something gigantic. i love the fact that you can stretch it in the most incredible way, make things that look like fabric and look soft. my childhood started off in independent nigeria and i was sent to boarding school in england so i had one foot in nigeria and one foot in england. my people, the kalabari, live on 22 islands in the niger delta and our transport was by boat. dugout canoes that women could take out and they would gather periwinkles on the mudflats and make the most incredible stew. you had oysters growing on the roots of mangroves, dangling in the water. nature was full. gradually these things have been dying out because of pollution. because of the way that oil is being extracted there. newsreel: oil was discovered in the niger delta in 1956 and now nigeria is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world. newsreel: the ogoni people say their homeland has been ruined by oil. we are going to demand our rights peacefully, nonviolently, and we shall win. ken saro—wiwa, poet, environmentalist and leader of the 0goni people. the nigerian government says he is a murderer and has sentenced him to death. ken saro—wiwa tried to get the oil companies to behave differently by talking. there was no violence involved. nigeria's military leaders provoked a storm of international outrage today when they went ahead with the executions of nine human rights activists, including the playwright and activist ken saro—wiwa. no—one could believe it — no—one could believe it. pure, pure sadness, yeah. ken's memorial was extremely important to me, to make sure people remembered him. this is a mini version of the real bus. the real bus is life—size. the memorial had ken's name on a banner at the front, and then on top of the bus were barrels with the names of the other eight that were killed at the same time. on it, it had words that ken saro—wiwa said in one of his last interviews, before he was executed. the battle bus had quite an adventure. the environmentalists from nigeria decided that they would like the memorial to travel to nigeria, and when it got to lagos port it was arrested by nigerian customs. because it was believed that it would cause havoc. it's still locked away. it's still arrested. 0ur problem is global. 0ur clothing, toilet seats, lipstick — everything has this crude oil element to it. it's an incredible product. it's a magic product. and yet it is killing us. so it keeps on turning up in my work. the wonderful sokari douglas camp. remember, you can watch witness history every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all ourfilms, along with more than 1,000 radio programmes, in our online archive. just search for "bbc witness history." our next story takes us to germany, where in 1995 a public art project was seen by millions. it became a symbol for berlin's renewal after the fall of the wall and the collapse of communism. it's the story of the couple who wrapped the reichstag. newsreel: it's an eccentric dream, but one that a husband and wife team have cherished for nearly a quarter of a century, and this weekend the bulgarian—born artist christo and his wife jeanne—claude began wrapping the german parliament building in silver fabric. it is very difficult to explain if you don't see it. no drawings, no sketch, no scale model can match the complexity of the project. the fabric is actually — it's not completely touching the stone, the surface of the structure. the project started in 1972. the cold war is still in full speed, you know — the berlin wall was built. permission to wrap the reichstag was refused three times. if the wall were not fell down, probably we'd never do the reichstag. for more than two decades, the artist christo and his wife jeanne—claude have wanted to work with the building that, for them, symbolised the cold war. you know, i was born in bulgaria in 1935. highly soviet—ic, communist country. and i escaped to the west alone, speaking only russian and bulgarian. coming from a communist country, i tried to do something involving the east—west relations. it's been bombed and set on fire, seen war and revolution. but never before has the reichstag been wrapped in silverfabric. we never can believe what is the project until we see it for real. christo himself is paying for the project, helped substantially by sales of his sketches and other work. the reichstag cost us $12 million in 1995. which is probably today about $20 million or $25 million. this project — we need to build an entire structure of engineers, specialists, lawyers, services. very much like building a highway or a bridge or an airport. it was wrapped by nearly 100 rock climbers. they came down, installing all this 100,000 square metres of fabric and matter for one week. jeanne—claude and myself, we are both together artist. and this, i miss so much jeanne—claude today. we were partners — we lived together, we would fight together. it was like an adventure that you cannot repeat it. newsreel: this novel treatment is, they say, in the classic tradition of art. the reichstag was a victorian building with lots of ornaments, decoration. suddenly it was changed, like a sketch. like what is essential, of the height, the width, the forms — they are all hidden by this fragile material they are all hidden by this fragile material that moved with the wind. it was in constant motion. newsreel: the building took on a shrine—like nature and was treated with something approaching reverence. it is very special and it always changes with the light. first time in history probably that this building is nice and makes people happy. i came to germany especially to see this project, and i think it is great. for two weeks, the area has witnessed one continuous party, with scenes reminiscent of when the berlin wall came down six years ago. everybody who comes to see the project, and there were five million people in two weeks in the reichstag, they know that they were seeing something that would never happen again. newsreel: last night was the final and the biggest party, with 100,000 people swarming around the building well into the early hours. today the dismantling work began and germany's former and future parliament building came blinking into the summer sunshine. after two weeks it's gone forever. cannot be repeated. something happened — it will stay forever in that particular unique moment. the world —famous artist christo. and for our final story we go back more than 100 years to a time when the tsar still ruled russia. while the world was using black and white film, a pioneering russian photographer, sergey prokudin—gorsky, developed a new method of colour photography and used it to document life in russia before the revolution. the results, as you'll see now, were stunning. my grandfather, sergey mikhaylovich prokudin—gorsky, was one of the pioneers of colour photography. it is a unique example of this quality of colour. this is close to a 100—year—old production. at that time, you have to realise that the only photographs in colour were taken indoors. and he was probably the first to do a lot of work outside. this is a very nice picture on the mariinsky canal, where he had done a lot of shots. you really feel you are seeing something natural. you can really feel that this guy was very so pleased, probably, to be taken. and at the same time, the composition of the picture is great. he was able to travel anywhere in the empire. he got permission from the tsar to travel everywhere, even the part which was very difficult to access. bukhara is today in uzbekistan, but at the time it was turkestan, which is really in the south—east of the empire, bordering iran, afghanistan and china. my grandfather was somebody who was extremely open—minded. he was really a renaissance man. in his work he tried to show the different categories of people in terms of religion, origin. this is a jewish school with, i would say, the teacher and some pupils. at the origin, the images were obtained by projecting the free negative on glass in black and white, through a colour lens for the projection, creating the colour. this is the original lab book of my grandfather with a lot of technical description, and the more you learn, the more you find this person extremely attractive, quite fascinating. the grandson of pioneering photographer sergey prokudin—gorsky. that's all from witness history this month at the british academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. but for now, from me, and the rest of the witness history team, goodbye. hello there. for the second friday in a row, some of us have experienced some extreme heat drifting up from the near continent. in fact, the first friday of august saw temperatures peaking at 36.4 degrees in central london, and the heat was pretty widespread across the midlands, central and southern england, widely seeing those temperatures in excess of 30 degrees. that said, not for all. in parts of north—west wales and the outer hebrides, we saw temperatures only at around 16 or 17 degrees, and here there were some showery outbreaks of rain. so over the next few hours those temperatures will fall into single figures. by contrast in the south—east it's going to be a very uncomfortable night for getting a good night's sleep. we wake up on saturday morning, perhaps low to mid 20s. so that means plenty of sunshine around, albeit hazy for the weekend. we keep the heat in the south—east for some very warm nights to come, much fresher in the far north—west. that's because we are under this influence of high pressure, but there is a weak weather front slicing across the high. now this is just a band of cloudy, really. maybe the odd spot of light drizzle, but it's the dividing line between the fresher air up into the north—west, and circulating around that high is a north—easterly breeze that will just make it feel a little more comfortable, perhaps, along those exposed east coasts. at the same time, after that warm and sultry start, the temperatures in the south are set to climb once again. so widely we are going to see mid to high 20s, possibly into the mid—30s once again. further north and west, that's where temperatures should be, really, for the time of year. 17 to 22 degrees. that weather front could spark a few showers through the night, but generally speaking it will be a quiet night, and a quiet start to sunday morning once again. again it's going to be another uncomfortable night down into the south with low 20s to greet us first thing on sunday morning. we could see a few isolated showers here and there across eastern england on sunday, but generally this weekend it's with a dry story with some hazy sunshine coming through. again, that north—easterly breeze just peppering the feel of the temperatures, really, across the east coast. highest values on sunday afternoon are 32 degrees. now that heat is set to stay with us, and it could, as we go into next week, trigger off the risk of some sharp and thundery downpours. that's it. have a great weekend. this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: an air india plane with nearly 200 people on board skids off the runway at an airport in kerala. 18 die and dozens more are injured. the united nations is warning of a humanitarian disaster in lebanon after the beirut explosion. many are still missing. hundreds of thousands are homeless. there is a massive clear up going on. they come from all over the country and the devastation here is enormous. strike action could be on the cards over british airways' plans to cut cabin crew and their pay. and combatting coronavirus latin american style. how venezuela's military is enforcing its lockdown.

Related Keywords

Lagos , Nigeria , Afghanistan , United States , Niger , Niger Delta , Nigeria General , United Kingdom , Iran , Uzbekistan , Lebanon , China , Kerala , India , Russia , London , City Of , Essex , Beirut , Beyrouth , Germany , Kalabari , Rivers , Mariinsky Canal , Vologodskaya Oblast , Bulgaria , Berlin , Venezuela , Nigerian , German , British , American , Bulgarian , Razia Iqbal , Henry Moore , James Reynolds , Mary Moore , Sea Sun , Southend Sea , Ken Saro Wiwa ,