I just heard that they're going to make a movie about it, told from the cops' angle. The working title is 'Bad Loo Tenant'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjcZmdoqNv4

At 7'30"

When I was a teenager I spent a summer living on Burgh Island, working as a general dogs-body in the pub, called the Pilchard Inn. (My eldest brother was the manager at the time.) I have many fond memories, and one of them was riding on the 'sea tractor' - only when the tide was in, of course: you could walk across to the mainland when the tide was out. The tractor's driver was Jimmy, a short, stocky guy with a wild, red mutton-chop beard who liked to drink cider (the lethal kind: cloudy, lumpy, and warm). It wasn't the tractor in the picture, of course, but a huge affair with four massive truck tires. I think this is it: . Occasionally he'd hit some soft sand and we'd have to carry the 'grockels' (tourists) off the tractor, then dig the beast out once the tide had receded. Anyway, the hotel and the island were in a sorry state when I was there; the hotel was pretty much empty year-round, and the 'staff' that ran the restaurant, the pub and worked as lifeguards were a wild bunch. (We all lived in an old wooden shack with straw mattresses.) Looks like it got tidied up in recent years, but the hotel has a storied history, with guests like Agatha Christie and Noel Coward (so they said).