Browse content similar to 25/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to The One Show with Matt Baker. And Alex Jones. | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
Tonight's guest is many things. He's a journalist. And historian. An | :00:24. | :00:32. | |
author. And Britain's for most impersonator of British prime | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
ministers. Personally, I'm a great believer in bed. Wretchedness and | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
human degradation will be as remote to people of this country as the | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
wolves which once infested its forests. I think Blair could one day | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
be leader of the Labour Party, after me. Please welcome, Andrew Marr. | :00:49. | :00:58. | |
Brilliant. Last night we were talking about art and tonight we are | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
talking about impressions. You did your impression to Ed Miliband of | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
Gordon Brown. I did and I don't think he was impressed. I had the | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
producer in my ear telling me to stop it. I had to finish the | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
sentence. Afterwards Ed said he thought it was a good impersonation | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
but he looked like I had slapped him across the face with a wet fish. The | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
Welsh accident was OK with Lloyd George. The Welsh starts to go into | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
Pakistan in sometimes. I didn't want to say it but a little bit. We think | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
you have a good career as an impersonator so we have Alistair | :01:38. | :01:39. | |
McGowan to give you a nudge in the right direction. They have had a | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
masterclass. Yes, we have had a masterclass. How was Alistair? I | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
reckon he has quite a bit of talent but will he make it through Mike | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
strenuous Boot Camp? We will have to wait and see. What do you reckon? | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
Absolutely, 100%, yes. APPLAUSE | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
Very good. We will have the results later. That's why I don't have a | :02:05. | :02:12. | |
career. Also tonight, as our swallows fly south we have a | :02:13. | :02:14. | |
beautiful film from the Norfolk Broads where one family have set up | :02:15. | :02:17. | |
home on a motor cruiser. That is glorious. Lovely footage. But first, | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
if Alan Henning could have witnessed the vigil held for him in Bolton | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
this timeous night he would have heard glowing tributes from his | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
friends and colleagues. The aid worker and taxi driver is still | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
being held by militants and as MPs prepared to debate military action | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
tomorrow those closest to him came together in a show of solidarity, | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
support and hope. Trish Adudu was there. | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
Cab driver Colin Morris has known Alan Henning for nearly 18 years. | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
They used to work for the same taxi firm in Salford. Me and Alan both | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
used to do the dawn shift. We became good work mates. He was a bit | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
quirky. They called him Gadget and he had trouble remembering his jobs | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
on the radio so he would have a dictaphone and speak into it so when | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
he went to the next job he could bring it up and do it. He had a | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
little night Rider light on the front of his car. When you see the | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
images in the news of Alan being held captive how does it make you | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
feel? I saw him on the television and I thought I had been hit in the | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
face with a spade. It is someone that you know and suddenly it | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
becomes real. It is not the television any more, it is real. | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
Alan has spent the last 273 days as a hostage, held by the extremist | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
group Islamic State. This was Alan on Christmas Day last year, the day | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
before he was abducted. I think more people should show a bit more | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
charity. This way at least you see where it is going, to the right | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
people. Last year Alan felt he should be doing more than just | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
giving money to help the people of Syria. So he joined a convoy taking | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
food, water and medical supplies from Britain. Seeing what they need | :04:12. | :04:20. | |
actually get to where it needs to go. Within half an hour of crossing | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
from Turkey into Syria massed gunmen demanded the passports of everyone | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
in the convoy. They accused Allen of being a spy and took him away. -- | :04:30. | :04:37. | |
masked gunmen. Today people are gathering here at this vigil to pray | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
for Alan's early release and his safe return, as well as celebrate | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
his humanitarian efforts to help the people in Syria. This woman joined | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
Alan on an earlier aid convoy to Syria last August. I'm really hoping | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
and praying, as a Muslim myself and the people who have got Gadget, and | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
are Muslims themselves, will open their heart to see what kind of man | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
they really have in their company and that they are blessed to have | :05:10. | :05:12. | |
him in their company and that they will release him soon to his family. | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
Because, he really doesn't deserve to be treated in the manner that he | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
is. So what sort of man is he? Although he was this kind of | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
comedian actor Gadget, he was a man with a big heart and he spoke about | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
his family and children a lot on our journey. He is very much a family | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
man so helping the people of Syria came naturally to him. I think the | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
vigil is a perfect example of something Gadget would do. Had it | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
been any of us. More than 100 people have come to the vigil here in | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
Bolton today. I've come here to show my support, and hopefully the people | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
in Syria will listen and release him, that's all we are hoping. What | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
is going through your mind at the moment? Just get Alan home safely, | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
that's all I want. Just for his wife and family. And for his friends and | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
whatever, just get him home safely, please. The vigil is an interfaith | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
event with people from the Christian, Hindu and Muslim | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
communities all playing together for Alan. -- praying. He would want to | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
learn about different religions and he would ask about our faith and we | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
would say why not convert to Islam? You know so much about it. He would | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
say that you pray five times a day and I have too many other things to | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
do, like saving the world, like Gadget does, and that's the | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
character he is. Alan's family has sent messages to be read out at the | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
vigil. I ask you all to pray for Alan and all the other people | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
imprisoned worldwide. And on Monday, his wife issued an open appeal to | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
Alan's captors, asking them to free her husband and abide by the ruling | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
of their own chariot courts, which have apparently cleared him of any | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
involvement in spying. -- sharia courts. I wasn't sure what it would | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
be like but I was moved today. Especially to hear the true face of | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
Islam today, a peaceful religion and not what we see in the Middle East. | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
Sitting individual and seeing images of him on the screen and hearing | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
people talk about him, what was going through your mind? Obviously | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
your mind skips back to when I did work with him and the nights I spent | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
in the office talking to him. Those things come to your mind, but mainly | :07:34. | :07:42. | |
just want him home. Our thoughts are with the Henning family. We hope for | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
Alan's safe return. Andrew, you know the Prime Minister very well. You | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
have spoken to him many times. There is room is that other countries have | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
been paying up to free their people. How much do you think the Prime | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
Minister will be struggling with the fact that not paying up good effect | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
cost lives? This is one of the worst thing is a Prime Minister has to | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
deal with. The Prime Minister has to deal with lots of tough stuff but | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
this is personal and I'm sure David Cameron is sick to his stomach, and | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
losing sleep, at least I hope he is. There is no harder decision. The | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
French paid up again and again and other European countries have paid | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
up and by paying up have strengthened this horrible | :08:24. | :08:24. | |
organisation and allowed them to kill more people, of course. A | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
Frenchman has just died in North Africa when the French did not pay | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
up. So we all know this. The Prime Minister knows the right thing to do | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
and I'm sure he is clear about that but nonetheless he must be | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
absolutely sick. It is ghastly and horrible situation. We are now going | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
to talk about your book and Andrew's first novel is a political | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
satire in which some very dodgy dealings go on behind the door of No | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
10. But he isn't the first fiction writer to poke fun at the office of | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
Prime Minister. Here is Gyles remembering some of the leaders that | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
have been depicted on TV and film. He met them all, you know. | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
I have interviewed many prime ministers during my career, I can | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
tell you. Heath, Thatcher, Blair. But there is a handful that stands | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
out from the crowd. James Hacker. He had many a good idea, but when you | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
look at his story you can't help feeling there was something holding | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
him back. So far my premiership has been a great test. -- success. | :09:28. | :09:35. | |
Indeed. And I was asking myself what I could do to continue this run of | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
success. Have you considered inactivity? Hacker never seems to be | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
able to get the mandarins to do what he wanted. Sir Humphrey was a prime | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
example of a cabinet secretary who knew exactly how to pull the strings | :09:49. | :09:56. | |
of power. And Ross Prichard, a woman, who rose from stacking | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
shelves as a supermarket manager to making speeches at the dispatch box. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
Her tale is of a Prime Minister who surprised us all with some pretty | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
left-field ideas. It doesn't surprise me in the least that the | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
right honourable member 's opposite cannot stand the idea of having | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
their lives dictated to them from somewhere like West Yorkshire. Well, | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
get used to it. Some of us have had our lives dictated to us from London | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
for far too long! A show of defiance from the establishment of the | :10:29. | :10:30. | |
relocation of Parliament made our only other iron Lady luck like a | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
fluffy bunny. The lady is not the turning. And then we had a man more | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
into love than power, the most romantic Prime Minister of them | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
all, David. What a performance he gave trying to juggle running the | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
country along with his relationship with Natalie. It was the perfect | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
portrayal of managing a very tricky political situation. And since | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
bullies only respond to strength, from now on would I will be prepared | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
to be much stronger. And the President should be prepared for | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
that. It was the strength he displayed in another special | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
relationship with the USA that won him the respect and admiration of | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
his audience. A prime and I recall, who was much harder to love, was | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
Francis Urquhart, a dramatic manipulative politician if ever | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
there was one, someone I definitely would not want to be up on a roof | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
with. It gives me such pain to say this, but I don't believe you. I | :11:32. | :11:41. | |
don't believe I can trust you. Francis Urquhart was the depiction | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
of ruthlessness. There we are, possibly not the prime ministers you | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
thought I would be talking about, but a more entertaining bunch than | :11:50. | :11:51. | |
some we have had, and something for my memoirs. I bet that never happens | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
to Andrew Marr! LAUGHTER | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
You have got to love Hugh Grant in Love actually as Prime Minister. Do | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
you? I suppose so, it's a little bit sugary for me. Come on! At this time | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
of year. You haven't seen it, you have to watch it. It is | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
heart-warming stuff. Some of us have chilly hearts. Andrew, you have | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
written several historical and factual books but this is the first | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
foray into the world of novels. It is set in the future. Just a couple | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
of years ahead, a referendum and the entire political elite is in panic | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
about the outcome of a referendum we know could never happen, but it's a | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
European referendum and not a Scottish referendum and there are | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
all sorts of shenanigans around the Prime Minister. I think of him as a | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
Tory Jim Callaghan, a little bit more experienced and dare I say it a | :12:51. | :12:53. | |
little wiser than some of the politicians we have at the top at | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
the moment, a hero but bad things happen to him. It is full of | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
conspiracy theories. There are some secret organisations in there that | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
sort of exist. You talk about these tunnels under Downing Street. How | :13:08. | :13:10. | |
much truth is in this book and what do you know? I was amused that some | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
critics said this was impossible and this could not happen. There is an | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
organisation composed largely of ex-MI6 officers and someone who | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
helped private industry, just as my organisation does. I met its | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
managing director for breakfast a couple of days ago, it exists, it is | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
not a figment of my imagination. There is a complicated financial lot | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
in this way people try to short not one company or another but the | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
entire country without going to jail and they find a way to do it and | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
that is entirely possible and legal. There is a loophole in British law | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
and I know that after talking to the lawyers of big banks. The tunnels | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
under No 10, some of them exist. There is a tunnel underneath | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
Whitehall and under the Ministry of Defence connecting to the House of | :13:56. | :13:58. | |
Commons and the House of Lords. There are tunnels underneath | :13:59. | :14:00. | |
Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. Whether they connect | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
underneath St James' Park, as happens in my novel, I don't know. | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
Did you go down into these tunnels question mark know that I have | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
happened described to me very vividly. Everything else in No 10 | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
I've been to, the layout in the kitchen and the prime Mr's quarters | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
are accurate. There are various places bodies are dragged around, | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
and again it is accurate, architecturally accurate. There are | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
real people mentioned. Rory Bremner. There are three categories | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
of people. There are characters based on people I know, or mash ups | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
of people I know, I have to be careful because some of them are | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
awful and I would not want to be sued. Then there are people who are | :14:46. | :14:48. | |
clearly real people and it doesn't matter because they are heroes all | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
good guys. And then there is Dominic Sandbrook and then there is a few | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
people. Dominic Sandbrook is a historian who wrote a nastier review | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
of one of my books. LAUGHTER | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
I'm not a vengeful man. Really, Andrew? It was so preposterous that | :15:07. | :15:09. | |
I thought I'm going to get you for that Dominic Sandbrook and I have | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
done but I won't give it all away. As he reviewed this book? I'm very | :15:14. | :15:21. | |
glad you called him Daniel. He will be very angry. Sorry, Dominic. This | :15:22. | :15:28. | |
review has had some of the best -- book has had some of the best | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
reviews in my life and some of the West. If Dominic Sandbrook reviews | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
it in the same way as everyone else he has his job cut out. How have you | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
cope with those bad reviews? It is hard. It is more personal with it | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
being a novel than a factual book. Absolutely and I get slightly | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
deflated by the bad ones and inflated by the good ones so it is | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
up and down. If they were all bad I would be nervous but there are some | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
good ones. Too good and too bad so it divides people like Marmite. How | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
can you know if it is good or bad, you have to go and buy it. Head of | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
State, lovely black cover with a door knock on it. Irresistible. | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
There you go. They say that one swallow doesn't make a summer so | :16:15. | :16:16. | |
it's a good job that thousands of them arrive every spring here. You | :16:17. | :16:22. | |
will see large groups of them around perched on telephone lines preparing | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
to fly across the Sahara to winter in South Africa. Mike Dilger has | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
found one swallow family that might be happier booking a cruise. | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
The Norfolk Broads are one of the UK's most important wetlands and | :16:35. | :16:42. | |
other setting of some of the voting adventures in the swallows and | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
Amazons books by Arthur Ransome. But 80 years after those books were | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
published, I have come to find some real-life swallows who are doing a | :16:49. | :16:55. | |
bit of voting of their own. The lady and is a traditional wooden broad | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
both. It is used as a tour boat, taking visitors to spot wildlife in | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
these magical waterways. But for the last couple of summers, people have | :17:07. | :17:08. | |
not just been watching wildlife from the boat, they have been watching | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
wildlife on the boat. A family of swallows have taken up residence on | :17:13. | :17:19. | |
board. If you put your head around the corner and look through this | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
gap, you can see the nest. It is a mud nest, stuck to the wall. I | :17:23. | :17:29. | |
concede weeks poking out. Can I look round the side? -- you can see beaks | :17:30. | :17:39. | |
poking out. Fabulous, three chicks. I worried like anything about having | :17:40. | :17:42. | |
them nesting on board. I thought this was not a wise place for them | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
to be. As it turns out, they knew best. Last year, we had two broods | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
successfully raised from that nest, and despair of swallows came along | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
in the third week of May. -- this pair of swallows. I have just heard | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
a buzz, which means one of the adults must have with straight in. A | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
swallow uses its tail as a weather, moving it up, down and side to side | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
to allow the bird to make precision movements in the air -- it uses its | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
tail as a rudder. You might think that having nesting birds on board | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
would be bad for business, and the Lady Ann would have to be moored | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
until the chicks fledged. But these parents go where the nest goes. | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
Swallows are fast flyers, capable of flapping their wings 14 times a | :18:28. | :18:37. | |
second in both speed. Look at that. 400 metres away from where you more | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
the boat, the birds are whizzing around, feeding and popping straight | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
into the nest. Amazing. Their streamlined body shape and wings | :18:48. | :18:49. | |
make them very efficient flying machines. Looping around the back of | :18:50. | :18:58. | |
the boat. It is a perfect habitat when you think about it. All manner | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
of aquatic insects emerge. There is so much food for them. A swallow | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
chick's weight will increase tenfold in the first days of its life. The | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
parents will catch around 6000 insects, who bring them out of the | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
sky to feed their chicks in just one day. They are like our own bird | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
protection Society, but instead of us protecting the birds, the birds | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
are protecting us from the biting insects. It is a win-win situation. | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
Midges and horse flies, beware. Keeping track of the boat is quite a | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
feat, then these birds are built to travel. This is a species that has | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
fabulous eyesight. They use visual markers to go all the way from South | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
Africa to the UK commerce so suppose finding your boat is no problem. At | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
first, you think, how do they put up with this moving target? But as you | :19:52. | :19:54. | |
have said, they can manage coming from Africa, so they are capable of | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
finding me, whether I am a mile that way or a more the other way. They | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
are cool with it. Wonderful. Here they come. It is a mobile home. On | :20:07. | :20:16. | |
the swallows do benefit from life on a houseboat. They are constantly | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
working different areas and resources that are full of insects, | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
and you are a protector as well. I am. Any predators come near this | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
boat during the daytime, uncle Ross will sort them out. Ross's | :20:31. | :20:37. | |
hitchhikers are a hit with the tourists as well. These are wildlife | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
tours with a twist. I have seen some birds nesting in wacky places, but | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
this location has to take the biscuit. They should change the name | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
of this boat from the lady Ann to the swallow of the Norfolk Broads. | :20:51. | :20:58. | |
From the Norfolk Broads to the north-east. This is a cardboard box | :20:59. | :21:06. | |
that was in our band, and there they are. That was taken a couple of | :21:07. | :21:09. | |
weeks ago -- in our band. Your mum sent back in. What would Mike Dilger | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
said that? They are beauties, aren't they? Really amazing birds. They | :21:17. | :21:26. | |
really are lovely. That is uncanny! Well, Andrew, Alistair is back on | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
the sofa. We will hear some impressions from you now, following | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
your brilliant Gordon Brown one. It is time for... Andrew Marr, the man | :21:34. | :21:42. | |
of a thousand voices. We have set the bar high. How did it go? It is a | :21:43. | :21:51. | |
very difficult thing to teach. Andrew has made improvements | :21:52. | :22:00. | |
already. Good luck. So Andrew is going to do three voices and you | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
have to guess what each one is. I have chosen a line from a Noel | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
Coward song, bad times around the corner, so it does not give anything | :22:09. | :22:12. | |
away. We have made it harder for you. This is the first voice you | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
have to guess. There are bad times just around the corner. There are | :22:18. | :22:24. | |
dark louts hurtling through the sky. -- dark clouds. Is it William Hague? | :22:25. | :22:36. | |
It was! It was the tempo that gave it away. We worked on the tempo and | :22:37. | :22:46. | |
the accent. We have not got a lot of time. Here is your second one. It is | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
no good whining about a silver line. We know from experience. It | :22:53. | :23:02. | |
could be Prince Charles or Boris? Or anybody. Dominic Sandbrook? Wasn't | :23:03. | :23:21. | |
Prince Charles? It was. We will keep our voice down. That is Boris! What? | :23:22. | :23:35. | |
The Mayor of London. That was the best one. Andrew, we have spoken | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
previously about how drawing and painting have helped you cover from | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
yours truly. Carrie Grant has spoken to a musician with a very similar | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
story, but she has never met a man like him before. | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
Sometimes a hit record takes on a life of its own, and the song | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
becomes a far more famous theme than the singer himself. | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
# Never known a girl like you before. Many have mistaken the voice | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
on a girl like you for Bowie or Iggy pop, but its composer and singer | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
Edwyn Collins just takes that as a compliment. The song he wrote 20 | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
years ago has helped him turn his life around not once, but twice, and | :24:22. | :24:24. | |
the girl he was with when he wrote it is still very much by his side. | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
In 2005, nearly a decade after he wrote the song, Edwyn suffered a | :24:31. | :24:33. | |
devastating stroke, leaving him unable to walk, talk or read. His | :24:34. | :24:40. | |
wife and manager, Grace, has been with him as he led the do it all | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
over again. -- he learned to do it all over again. I was terrified that | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
I was in dos Edwyn. I was hoping against hope that that would not | :24:52. | :25:02. | |
happen --. I would lose Edwyn. My pupils were not dilating. But thanks | :25:03. | :25:13. | |
to the intervention and the decision to operate on Edwyn, here's here. -- | :25:14. | :25:22. | |
he is here. It is testament to why it is a good idea to give something | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
a chance, because it was the most remarkable fightback. Amazing. At | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
the time, it looked like the end of Edwyn's long musical career, which | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
started in the early 80s with Glasgow band Orange juice. After the | :25:36. | :25:43. | |
band split, Edwyn worked as a solo artist and producer, building his | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
own studio. In 1994, he wrote A Girl Like You. Was it a love song's when | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
you wrote the song, did you want to write a song about Grace? No, it is | :25:55. | :26:03. | |
not about me. No. It is an imaginary girl, I suppose. | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
# There's too many protest singers, not enough protest songs. I love | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
that line. It is so contrary to the rest of the lyric. And it is | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
suddenly stuck in there. I am making a statement, making an attitude and | :26:21. | :26:29. | |
making a point. It was a time in his life when he felt he had something | :26:30. | :26:32. | |
to say about the music business and what people's attitudes were. He | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
liked to mess with people's minds. Did I? Part of the appeal of the | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
song is its distinctive, dirty sound, created with the very best of | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
old and new technology. This little orange box from the 1960s made all | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
the difference. Without it, it would sound like this. And with it... | :26:54. | :27:13. | |
Yeah, that is dirty. # I've never met a girl like you | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
before. A Girl Like You was a hit right across the world, selling more | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
than 5 million copies on the way, a phenomenal success they have had to | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
lean on heavily to fund Edwyn's recovery. How important was it for | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
you to be able to sing again? Very important. Grace told me to get on | :27:33. | :27:48. | |
with things, my singing. She harassed me. Over and over again, | :27:49. | :27:56. | |
practice. # I've never met a girl like you | :27:57. | :28:01. | |
before. It was not a gift, it was hard work. | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
Why do you think A Girl Like You was such a big hit? It is catchy. It is | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
more famous than you, don't you think? , and, Grace. Sorry, Edwyn | :28:16. | :28:23. | |
full of -- come on, Grace. Thanks to Edwyn and his wife. | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
Andrew, you empathise. That is really moving. A beautiful bit of | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
film, and the fact that he is carrying on and still going | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
forward. I was lucky that I did not lose my voice, but for a singer to | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
be in that position and come back is astonishing. That is when you see | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
what people are really like. What a night we have had. It is all we have | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
time for. Andrew's new book Head Of State is out now. Alistair, thank | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
you. I will be watching Andrew's develop that as an impressionist | :28:55. | :28:57. | |
within the restful but tomorrow, join me and Chris and Danny Baker. | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
See you then. | :29:02. | :29:03. |