1 Hail, fine fellows. It is I, Billy. Oh, yes! Oh, yes! (CHEERING) Back once again in your living rooms. I've lived in America almost half my life now. And in that time, I've seen a lot of airports and quite a few cities. And not much in between. But that, my friends, is about to change. Because I'm taking the train. Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga. Into the back yard of America. Yes, I'll marry you! (BOTH LAUGH) We're heading to the places you never get to see 30,000 ft in the air. (CHEERING) I think I've stumbled on a religious cult. And my route, Chicago to New York, the wrong way around. It's the story of this nation. Can you imagine bringing your bride out here? Honey, we're home! (BOTH LAUGH) 6,000 miles and 26 states. All steeped in living history. Yaheee! I gotta do something like that. (LAUGHS) So I sang my troubles away. A great, big, fat, epic story. I'm privileged and deeply honoured to be sitting with four people who changed the world. About people. I want to talk to someone like you. You understand me. Moving through a landscape straight from the silver screen. Looks like you could reach up and twist it with your finger. Nice little day trip, huh? That's exactly what they'd like us to think. Enough of this! Follow me. Welcome to Chicago. The industrial heart of America. Its road and rails touch all points of the US. And there are few places better to start my journey. This is Chicago Union Station. It's like a cathedral. It's like a temple to transport. TANNOY: Boarding passes... Isn't that the best noise? TANNOY: Those with children... Almost reminds me of going on holiday as a little boy. TANNOY: Have your boarding passes... For a nation that prides itself on looking forward, there is something reassuringly old-fashioned about the American rail system. The floors make a squeaky noise with your sneakers. It's all porters and conductors with hats and fob watches. Make no mistake. Getting the train here is an event. This is the Empire Builder. And it's going to take me all the way to Seattle. So. There are empires to be built, cups of tea to be had, and loafing to be done. Farewell! So long, Chicago! So long. Yeah! (TRAIN HORN BLARES) TANNOY: You've got two choices of eating on the Empire Builder. You've got the full-service dining car that does full-service meals only. (TRAIN HORN BLARES) The Empire Builder. As train names go, it's a bit more impressive than the 545 to Didcot. And that's as it should be. Because the first part of my journey is following the trail of the first settlers across the States. Chicago to Seattle. 2,000 miles and a lot of open space in between. This time of life I find I reminisce a lot. And it makes me reminisce... look, there's a man waving. And I used to have train sets. I never got one of those fancy electric ones. We got clockwork...(CHUCKLES) On the box, there was a picture of a huge locomotive, blazing through the night. Aglow with embers. And sweating men working as they trundled through the night. You open the box and there's this wee engine and three wee carriages. And a circle of track. Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga. You'd soon get really bored with it and start to leave a bit of the track missing. So your engine would skite off the track and skid across the linoleum in our house. Very warm memories, you know? That train stuff. TANNOY: Thank you for riding with us. Don't leave anything behind. Especially children. They're hard to return. A mere eight hours out of Chicago, and I'm in Minnesota, a state defined by its agricultural roots and painted in... ...wait for it. 27 million acres of corn. And would you believe it? My arrival is coinciding with the single biggest event in the Minnesota calendar. Welcome to Minnesota State Fair. This is a big deal around here. This isn't just a circus coming once a year. It started as an agricultural show in 1859. That was the year that Minnesota became a state. But now it's become everything from giant pigs to food on a stick. They'll put anything on a stick. Why, I'll never know. Americans have got a strange attitude to food. I've always thought it was kind of sinful to eat anything that comes to you in a bucket. But on a stick? I'm not sure. I haven't worked it out, yet. Every year, two million people gather to eat 35 miles of foot-long hot dogs, 20 million cookies and all manners of meatballs. (SNORTING) (MOOING) And all this nosh comes from a local source. A very local source. It's called the Miracle Of Birth. You can go and see things being born. (LAUGHS) It's a very good idea. It's kind of the opposite of a bull fight where you go and see things being slaughtered. I've just had a wee look. (LAUGHS) I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely! (CHUCKLES) Enough of this. Follow me. There's a cow actually giving birth over here. I heard the woman saying, 'vaginal canal'. This is serious stuff. Oh, it's just been born! This cow is showing good maternal instincts. It's just been christened, 'Donut'. Look, look, look! It nearly got up. Yes! That made my day. For over a hundred years, the Minnesota State Fair has provided the most unlikely marriage of agriculture and spectacle. The days of 70,000 farmers gathering to watch two trains drive into each other are long gone. (CRASH) But make no mistake. Minnesotans are still kind of weird. In a good way. But for all the mountains of food and high school musicals, the best parts of the State Fair are in the most surprising of places. I've been looking forward to the animal-calling competition. We are going to invite Fannie from the Minnesota RollerGirls to come on up. Fannie? (CHEERING) Cluck-cluck-cluck (SCREECHES) (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Well done! Fannie impersonated a chicken. Over two million people will turn up to the State Fair this year. Moo! And yet it never stops feeling small-town. (CHEERING) (ROARS) It's a place with a thousand neighbours all looking out for one another. (BLEATS) A place where no-one is made to feel a fool for taking part. I love that. (SQUAWKS AND SHRIEKS) (SCREECHES) (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) OK! It was lovely. Because although it's a huge enterprise, it had a lovely innocence about it. People doing animal impersonations and things like that. And most of them were awful. Which made it brilliant. But I did a good moo and I was talking about it to you, I think. Moo! (BRAYS AND LAUGHS) That was as good as any of theirs, you know? (BRAYS) (CHUCKLES) 1 I'm in Minnesota. 400 miles from Chicago and barely a quarter of my way towards Seattle through the back yard of America. The sleep last night was lovely. My only other experience of a train sleeper was in Britain. And I was shaking from head to foot. And I didn't like it. But this time, I was shaking from side to side. I rather enjoyed it. Reminds you of your mammy shaking you. I tried to take a shower. I thought, 'I must have a shower on a train.' I nearly broke my bloody neck. The train was trundling along. I was skidding around! (LAUGHS) As you probably know, I've got Parkinson's Disease. People with Parkinson's Disease should not have showers on trains. In much the same way as Vietnam veterans shouldn't go to firework displays in swamps. (CHORTLES) There's a lot of good reasons to get off a train. Fewer better than lunch. I'm deep in the suburbs of Minneapolis, looking for what I've been told is the best burger in the entire state of Minnesota. Matt's Bar is the home of the Jucy Lucy cheeseburger. The reason it's got that name is, the juice part is molten cheese embedded in a lagoon within the hamburger. It got the ultimate credence with a visit from President Barack Obama, who came here and enjoyed a Jucy Lucy. A presidential seal from a man whose first meal in Air Force One was a burger is no small thing in Minneapolis. This is a town that takes meat patties very seriously. And their success is in no small part thanks to the heavily inked grill master, Paul Reeves. You don't have a Jucy Lucy on there, do you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Haha! You do! (BOTH LAUGH) Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah! I had to do that. This has been going since the 1950s? Matt purchased the restaurant in 1954. And it wasn't on the menu. One of the regulars asked him to try putting cheese inside two patties. He wanted something different. So, Matt made it for him, crimped the edges. When he gave it to him, when he bit into it, the cheese came flying out and he said, 'Now, that's a juicy Lucy.' It's delicious! Now, in any other culture, to decree not one, but 17 burgers as having influence would be ridiculous. But not in America. For Time magazine no less, declared the Jucy Lucy one of the most influential burgers of all time. You've got to love that. Is the Matt guy still alive? No. You know, unfortunately, Matt had passed away... ..that morning when the President came in. He was almost 90 years old. God figured it was a tribute to Matt. (LAUGHS) And what he'd built. There's something quite holy about that! Yeah! (LAUGHS) The boss dies and the President walks in. That's pretty cool. Jucy Lucy burgers will remain with me for the rest of my life. They have avoided the chance to make it like a manhole cover. Normally in America, when you get something good, 'Let's make one six times the size and put more bacon on it. And more cheese.' There's one they advertise on television. A yard of bacon. (CHUCKLES) Contains a yard of bacon. (LAUGHS) It says, 'So much bacon you don't know how to hold it!' And that's given over as an idea of something very good. They tend to go big. But they didn't go big. The Jucy Lucy was perfect size. You could even have two and not fall ill in the street. (TRAIN HORN) And so, it's goodbye, Minnesota and hello, North Dakota. If you like fields and all things udderly, this is the place for you. The home of Salem Sue, the world's biggest fibreglass cow. (MOOING) And Dakota Thunder, the world's biggest concrete bison. Naturally, milk is the official state drink. (TRAIN HORN BLARES) (STRUMS BANJO) Yet North Dakota still remains the least-visited state in America. But, looking out over the fields, you see clues that things are changing. We're on our way to Williston in North Dakota. It's one of those wee towns that radically changed. It had a population of 10,000. It was a ranching town. A farming town. And they were gradually losing the population. And then, all of a sudden, came fracking. And the oil. Fracking always seems like a swear word to me. Get your feet off the fracking table! However you say it, fracking is certainly divisive. Basically, it's a way of extracting oil and gas. And it's dangerous work. So it's well paid. Large pay packets for physical work in this day and age has brought people here by the trainload. And it's changed everything. Not least the landscape. It seems a sort of crime. I'm supposed to be more neutral than that, but it seems a crime against the earth to me. But anyhow, that's neither here nor there, the thoughts of an ageing hippy. But the population, in the oil boom, trebled to 30,000 people. So I'm not sure what to expect. You'd imagine locals would be reticent about so many new residents coming to Williston. But dignitaries from the Chamber of Commerce are keen to emphasise the benefits of living on top of an oilfield are available to all. Williston, North Dakota. Boy, there's no other place like it, right now. There's a lot of oil beneath our feet. Estimates are somewhere around seven billion barrels. At height, there are eight people per day... ..moving to Williston, North Dakota. Coming off the train with their backpacks and their suitcases. And their hopes and their dreams. Looking for that one chance. Maybe it's their last chance. But there is a chance here. At the height of the boom in 2012, there were 35,000 people in a town built for just a few thousand. The Walmart car park turned into a giant dormitory, where people like Sheila ended up sleeping in their cars. It was basically money. Things were falling apart in Alaska. I'm getting a little older. It might be my last time. I'm 71 years old. And I brought Mr Kab Taxi with me. For two years I slept in the back seat of my red pickup truck. And, as one car multiplied to six cars, it was very prosperous. (LAUGHS) Looking around now, prosperous is not a word I would use to describe Williston. How are you doing, there? Last year, the oil market crashed. Three-quarters of the well shut down and two-thirds of the population left almost overnight. Dormitory villages built to sleep hundreds of men are now eerily quiet. That pub rejoices in the wonderful title of No Place. Kris and Gloria's No Place welcomes bikers. What does that tell you about the bar? It tells you I'm not going in. Down here, we've got the strip joints, Whispers and Heartbreakers. In boom times, the girls are dancing on the poles, having $10 and $20 shoved into their bikini bottoms. Then the slump comes and their knickers are full of small change. You can just tell that this is a kind of has-been town. You know, to be travelling the country, you cannae just take people to Disneyland all the time. There's the Sally Army. I bet they're busy. For people outside, we're a light in the darkness here in this community. Were you here before the oil? We got here about four years ago, which is when the boom started taking off. So now, it's kind of a slowdown period. A lot of people have been laid off. When they lose their job, they often lose their housing. All within 24 hours. And there won't be many other chances of employment in a place like this. Right. We used to see 25 cases a week. Now we see 25-plus cases a day. Really? Yes. (SNORES) Our first winter here, we opened up the community centre as a heating centre. As a place for people to just come, sit and be warm. People come in. They take naps after a long day. We're fine with that. People take naps out there on our pews in our chapel. We bring them a blanket, cover them up. What's the forecast for employment around here? Depends who you ask! Oh, yeah. Many people say it'll be another rough year. I think we'll see more lay-offs. The economy is so uncertain now. Everyone's affected by it. We're all dealing with it. We do what we can with the resources we have. (SNORES) In a country that can bail out bankers, I can never make up my mind about a room like this. This is our chapel. Is this where you have your services? My wife and I, she plays the guitar and sings, I play the drums so I don't have to sing. No-one wants to hear that! You play drums so you don't have to take part in the music? There you go! It's a side of the oil boom you never see on the television or the news. That it goes down as well as up. Exactly. I will say this. Americans have an indefinable can-do spirit. The men and the oil fields may be gone, but some haven't given up just quite yet. The bartender and the cab driver. We're gonna be the last to go. So I'm sticking it out. Unless we change our supply of energy, if we go to nuclear or something from outer space, we still need oil! (LAUGHS) (BANJO MUSIC) # Take me back to Williston I wanna be fracking again # I wanna be fracking again # I wanna be fracking again # Oh, take me back to Williston # I wanna be fracking again # I wanna be fracking again and again and again # Cos I'm an oil guy, an oil guy # Is that a different way of pronouncing 'an old guy'? # I'm an oil guy, an oil guy # And I don't give a shit # I've been away from Williston and I don't miss it one bit # Oh! (LAUGHS) 1 A cleaning lady in the hotel said, 'I love your glasses. 'Do people ever tell you you look like Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian?' I said, 'Yeah.' (IN AMERICAN ACCENT) It looks like you could reach up and twist it with your little finger. Gee, Mom, aren't the stars close? Imagine a place as big as Germany with a population of Birmingham. But really, really beautiful. That's Montana. You know the song, Where The Buffalo Roamed? This was it. As far as the eye could see. Millions of them. When European settlers moved across the West, they used to say, 'Every buffalo dead was an Indian gone.' So they tried to wipe them out. Passengers on these very tracks would roll through, shooting the poor beasts by the thousands. In 80 years, the buffalo numbers dropped from 60 million to 23. Just 23. It's nothing less than a miracle they've been brought back from the dead. Half a million and counting. There's even a campaign to try and turn these plains back into wild savannahs. To let the buffalo roam once again. They do things like that in Montana. Big things done in an understated cowboy way. (TRAIN HORN BLARES) (LEVEL CROSSING BELL RINGS) Welcome to Glasgow. That's right. Glasgow, Montana. It's an agricultural town. A ranching town in the middle of the rolling plains of Montana. And they've really taken the Scottish theme to heart. The school sports teams are known as the Scotties. The reason it's called Glasgow is because Jim Hill, the man who built the railroad between Chicago and Seattle, decided to have a stop here. And, as was his wont of an evening, to decide the name of the place, he spun the globe of the world, stuck his finger out and it stopped at Glasgow. That's why the next town's called Malta. (CHUCKLES) Isn't that pretty good? Probably Swaziland's a bit up the road. Just now, I'm going to go in to the radio station. As one does. And they have a kind of swap shop, where they swap stuff, so we'll just...come on in. Hello! Hello, how are you doing? Wonderful! Billy Connolly. We have matching hair! Welcome! (LAUGHS) Are you from Glasgow? Yes. Oh! Well, welcome to Glasgow! We are actually named after Glasgow, Scotland. I know. Yes! (BOTH LAUGH) Well, welcome. And welcome to the office shrine. Why Elvis? Well, I'm the manager here. And Elvis is in my heart. This is our office. Gosh! (LAUGHS) This is Elvis' office! And over here, this is a cookie jar. (CLATTERING) Oops! And this is a thimble. Oh, there he is. And this... ...is a pocket watch. And an Elvis knife! I've got about four of those. This is our cuckoo clock. # You ain't nothin' but a hound dog # (LAUGHS) Every hour we get to listen to him! (BOTH LAUGH) Oh, and this is the Elvis Pez-ly. My god. (LAUGHS) I'll be the one doing the show today, the Trad-e-o show that'll start in a few minutes. Great. Folks call in and trade stuff they don't want any more with those who do. In bigger cities, they always gasp that we do this, because you're meeting a complete stranger... One of the crew got stopped by the police this morning. (LAUGHS) The traffic cop invited him to go fishing this evening. (LAUGHS) So you were disobeying our laws? Yes. (LAUGHS) RADIO: Good morning, and welcome to Trad-e-o. It costs you nothing to participate. And just when you think things couldn't be more delightfully odd, I'm invited to join Haylie on her show. I got the distinct impression Miss Haylie is not one for taking no for an answer. We'll get the show under way after this. RADIO: # You want the value You want the savings # Two weeks ago I had some gal selling her corrective pantyhose. (LAUGHS) So maybe she'll call back for it again. (BOTH LAUGH) RADIO: Quality office supply items to choose from. Gaffaneysoffice.com. Good morning, you're on Trad-e-o. CALLER: Hi, there. I'm trying to get rid of a bunny rabbit. OK, so we've got a bunny rabbit to give away. How old? I'm not sure. It's my sister's. She had it. I was supposed to take care of it for a while. I just can't have it where I'm living. OK. So, is it a giveaway or for sale? Uh...probably a giveaway. OK. So, a bunny to give away. Great. Thanks for the phone call. Thanks, bye. Bye. RADIO: You and your business... You guys need a bunny to take home? That's wonderful. (LAUGHS) It's a live rabbit? A live rabbit. (LAUGHS) We get a lot of animals. And welcome back to Trad-e-o. Also for sale, a high-back Victorian-style loveseat. It's tan, it has deep seating, needs to be cleaned, but overall, is in good condition from a smoke- free home. They're asking $100. I'm gonna do something different this morning. We don't attract many movie stars to Glasgow. We have in Billy Connolly. You are originally from Glasgow, Scotland. Yes. So you call yourself a Glaswegian, is that - I meant to ask. What do you call yourselves? I think it's Glaswegian. Or Glasgonian. I've never actually - Glasgonian? I like the sound of that. I've never heard an absolute answer to that one, so... I think we're the only people apart from Norwegians who use 'egian'. Yep. Well, I'm a Norwegian and a Glaswegian. Oh! So that works for me. Double. A double whammy. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much. You bet. It's a really impressive radio station. I've never seen such a collection of Elvis memorabilia in my life. It is...it is large. That is for sure. (LAUGHS) And all Shirley's private collection, so... Yes, it's extraordinary. She loves Elvis. Elvis tissue holder. In case you need a tissue while in the bathroom. Here's my coat that I wear on his birthday. I don't let people wear it, but I'll let you try it on. Now, don't laugh like a gay Elvis. Now shake it! Go on! (LAUGHS) There you go! Woo! (LAUGHS) That's great. Well done. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you! Oh, it was absolutely delightful. Bet you want to stay, don't you! Yes. Yes. I've fallen in love! (LAUGHS) Yes, I'll marry you! (BOTH LAUGH) If you've had enough of the rat race, come to Glasgow. It's like a slice of buttery toast. Homely and comforting. And it's indicative of Montana. This is a state you don't admire or appreciate. You love it. (MOO) 1 Lee Cornwell's clan are part of this land. Here since the 1890s, and one thing I know already is... ...he's not going anywhere soon. I've got a lot of memories here. I've been here 64 years, 15th August. Most of it was spent right here. Went to college for four years. When I graduated, it was like getting out of jail. All I ever wanted to do was this. (LAUGHS) Really? My mother was mad. She was mean enough. She told me I couldn't come back here unless I got an education. I was still scared of her, so I went. (BOTH LAUGH) There's a sense of the epic about the Cornwell story. What started as a few acres and a handful of sheep has now turned into one of the biggest free-ranging ranches in the state. Look at the sheer size of everything here. It takes four acres to feed a cow and a calf for a month. Really? How many cattle do you have? I've got about 4,500 calves. So, it isn't just ownership. You require the land? I'll let you do the maths. But put it this way. As far as the eye can see up here, Lee owns it. All the way north to Canada. Back when Lee's grandfather moved here, no-one wanted this land. The government had to give it away. Can you imagine bringing your bride out here? Honey, we're home! (BOTH LAUGH) And this is as good as it gets. You could plough it out but a lot of years, you wouldn't get your seed back. They were a lot tougher in those days than they are now. It was an opportunity to own something of your own. Yeah. If you're tough enough to stay and adapt, you can have some. I've got to show you my grandfather's second home. He and his partner made a dugout... ...in the hill right here. This is where they lived. I think this was the door. I grew up in Glasgow. So, fair to say I've seen some holes masquerading as homes in my time. But this lump of grass really takes the biscuit. They dug this thing out with shovels and thatched it with logs and brush. This is it? This is it. In 1893, in winter temperatures of minus 18 degrees, Lee's grandfather and his business partner called a ditch with some tarp for a roof a home. He and his partner, between the two of them, had one pair of shoes. The one that went with the sheep took the shoes. The other one wrapped burlap sacks around his feet and stayed in the dugout. (LAUGHS) Get out of here! I'm sure it's kind of slumped in some. It was probably more palatial when it was freshly dug. (LAUGHS) It's not often you get to spend some time with someone whose identity and sense of history is so embedded in a place. But the thing I like so much about Lee is he wears his cowboy wisdom so very lightly. The younger generation... things happen so much faster than they used to. With all the electronics and that stuff. Yeah. It used to be that you had to look at a dirty magazine! (LAUGHS) We had a Playboy burning or two around our house, I remember when I was a kid. (BOTH LAUGH) They found 'em! My mom found 'em! There's cowboys, and then there's Lee Cornwell. It's not a simple or easy life, living up here. Far from it. But it's unhurried. And that's a precious commodity in this world. See? You get time to think this kind of stuff on a train. I'm heading to Shelby, Montana. Where 1,500 miles of oilfields and plains give way to the tail end of the Rockies. (TRAIN HORN BLARES) The town itself, an unlikely handful of shops and a bar on a street, has an air of a hundred sad country songs brought to life. # Eh-dee-oh-ay-oh Yo-de-lay-ee # But anywhere is worth making a stop for a chance to meet a yodeller. # The cattle are prowling # The coyotes are howling # Out where the doggies roam We'll do a little upbeat yodel. (YODELS) (CONTINUES YODELLING) # Oh-de-lay-ee, oh-de-lay-ee oh-de-lay-ee-ee # (LAUGHS) That was brilliant! That was a cowboy... kind of fancy cowboy yodelling. You've got a very pure voice. It's lovely. It's a joy to listen to. So you learned from your father? Yeah. My dad taught me how to yodel. Growing up, he would yodel whenever he was happy, which was usually on horseback, or up on the ski hill. He did a lot of old, old cowboy songs. That's what got me interested in cowboy music. (STRUMS GUITAR) (DISTANT TRAIN HORN) Oh, listen to that! It's lovely. # All around the water tank (TRAIN HORN) (BOTH SING) # Waiting for a train # A thousand miles away from home # Sleeping in the rain (SINGING DROWNED OUT) # Gave him a line of talk That really happened. # And he slammed the boxcar door # Me, a train and a yodelling cowboy in Montana. # Ah-dee-oh-lay-ee Oh-dee-oh-lay-ee-ee # I mean, seriously. Someone up there must like me. (STRUMS LAST CHORD) Oh, excellent! Excellent! (TRAIN HORN) 1 TANNOY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're closing in on King Street Station, Seattle. Final destination of the Empire Builder. (TRAIN HORN BLARES) If your friends and family are not there to meet you, it's because we're going to arrive quite early today. Early is a good thing. Not a bad day trip. Over 2,000 miles on the clock and I finally hit the west coast and one of my favourite cities, Seattle. Home to Amazon, Microsoft and, of course, Starbucks. Seattle is a thriving and hugely wealthy tech city. A thing you're reminded of every time you see the Space Needle somewhere in the skyline. This is the Seattle Space Needle. Designed by Chuckles Carlton. That's right, Chuckles Carlton. He doesn't sound much like an architect, does he? Because he isn't. He was the head of a hotel chain. He drew it on the back of a beer mat, believe it or not. In 1962. It was the sort of figurehead for the 1962 World's Fair. I could tell you a lot more stuff, but it's stultifyingly boring. These things are good to climb up on and to look down. That's Seattle, there. This is one of the most popular places in America to move to. You get the feeling that the people who are here are delighted to be here. It's a great sign, that. (HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF TRAFFIC) One of the first things you notice when you come to the west coast of America, whether it's San Francisco or Seattle or Los Angeles or Santa Monica, San Diego, all the nice places, is the number of homeless people. You immediately think, 'What's wrong with these towns that reject all these people from their housing system?' But it isn't quite the deal. You can fall off the system quite easily here because of debt. And rapidly. And once you're off the system, it's exceptionally difficult to get back on again. Plus, all the homeless people in America, whether they're from the east coast or the Midwest, they tend to aim for the west because it's warm. You might get a night's sleep without hypothermia. Well, here in Seattle, they've got tent cities. The aim is to get people back into the system. This is one, here. It's in the grounds of a church. So, let's go and have a wee look. We'll find Lance and see what the story is. I've never met him before, but he's been pointed out to me. He's got a big beard. Maybe the brotherhood of the hairy faces will get me a couple of paces. Are you Lance? I'm Lance. Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Tent City 3. Thanks very much. This is quite a unique affair, isn't it? We are. So, basically, we're open 24/7. We elect a set of five people to run the camp. They take six-hour shifts, take in turns. So - Who's 'we', when you say, 'we elect'? We elect as a camp. There's no staff here. Camp runs itself. All self-managed. We run a clean and sober camp. We've got oodles of rules. Oodles of rules! And it's - Do people react against the rules? Democracy in action. The dumb rule, next week, can get turned around again. Is the point of this to get people back into society, or just - The point is to get you out of the bushes and safe. If you're trying to get back into society, sleeping in the bushes isn't sleeping. You can't sleep with your eye open, watching your back. Yeah. So, people can come in here and be safe. Then if they're going to work or going to jobs, or waiting for disability or whatever, the point is keeping people safe. One thing that so many people have is a misconception of homeless. You know? Everyone has to be on drugs, everyone has to be... you know...freshly out of prison. There's a lot of people here who are working. They get up early and they head on to their job. You see every walk of life and every situation. I came here...my son died. And in order for me to pay for the tombstone, I couldn't pay rent. So here I am. I had to become homeless to pay my son's tombstone. My reason is I was married 17 years. Me and my wife, we just argued... just constantly. I have four kids. And that's not the example I want my kids to see. There's a myriad of stories. Everyone's individuals. Do you get people who want to live like this all the time and don't want to move on? I'm one of the senior campers. I'd love to move on. My finances aren't there. You know? I'm not getting assistance from anything. Uh... I'm a high-tech computer analyst. At the time when the jobs went to India at the time, so... I've got my issues, but sure, I'd love to move on. These are our family tents. I've lost track. I think there's 13 or 14 children in the camp right now. For me, it's wholesome. What's a family if you don't have a few little ones running around? Aah! Hey, can I get some of that? Could you help me? For some people who've got to the part of life where they haven't had grandchildren around, or even small kids, period, even the grumpiest old... you know, so-and-so person... ..can't have a lick of evil in them when that little face comes up, smiling. How are you gonna be mad? Whatever you're going through, that little baby's like, 'Hi!' (GIGGLES) How...? Come on! Those are bundles of joy, running around and spreading love. (LAUGHTER) This tent here is like... donations. So here's a place if you're looking for pants, a shirt or something. The donation quarter can hook you up. We've got a tent with power and tables for people to have their personal computers. My god. That's brilliant. That down here is a TV room. DVD player. Watching famous Scottish actors in old movies. Oh! (LAUGHS) (SHRIEKS) Yay! Yeah. Yep? Where does the money come from? Tent City 3 has all been private donations. Really? Uh, the whole history. We've recently gotten a bit of money from the city. We're hoping for more. It's funny. You can feel how together it is. You can feel the happiness right here in the street. We have our ups and downs. But it's a little community, you know? Yes. You can't fight each other. Bigotry with words. Reality will change people's minds. The camp's been doing that over the years. You could teach society a thing or two. (LAUGHS) We're trying to teach them that their prejudices about homelessness are wrong. I think it's absolutely remarkable. The peace, the tranquillity. You can feel it in the air. Yeah, I think so. And then again, we have our...ups and downs. People go berserk and... ...we rally together to take care of the problem. Everybody goes berserk. Yeah. Everywhere, every type of society. I think you ought to be really proud of what you've achieved here. Say 'hello'! Hi. Sometimes your heart sings a wee song to you. Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la. When you find something that's going according to your dreams. A society you think could exist, given half a chance. I think we've just experienced it. Human beings at their very best. At their trusting, loyal, hard-working, very best. I think it's remarkable. I'm deeply moved by it. I really am. My voice is getting shaky because of it. When you find someone who's doing something absolutely right, for the very best of reasons, it shifts your centre of gravity and silences you. It's a lovely, lovely thing. It's just happened to me. I wish them all the very, very best. I'm sure you do, yourself.