01/05/2013 Newsnight

$:/STARTFEED. What sort of a country are we? On the eve of

elections the Prime Minister gets stick for appointing cronies to his

top team. Labour is accused again of being the trades unions catspaw,

and UKIP shout "vote for us we are not part of the establishment".

Times have changed yet old customs have survived. Just the

establishment even exist any longer, and if not, why does the Prime

Minister keep adding more products of Eton to his team. We go skiing

with the wounding of America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and

discover what the promise of mobility means. I'm too proud to

take my life. But for a long time it didn't sound like a bad idea.

years on screen, now the actor Bill Roache is named as a suspected

rapist. Should those accused of such crimes be entitled to the same

anonymity as the victims of the crimes? And the great director,

Peter Brook, talks life and literature and why people should

stop questioning Shakespeare's authorship. I wanted to write a

short little pamphlet to make fun, once and for all and destroy this

idiotic idea that somebody else wrote Shakespeare.

Who runs this place? It is the question any reporter worth their

salt ought to ask when they pitch up somewhere. But supposing this

reporter was to be deposited in Britain, if he or she picked up the

newspapers they might well conclude that the introduction of

universally free education in the 1940s hadn't changed much. On the

eve of local elections David Cameron is having to fight

accusations that his Government is some sort of make work scheme for

the products of Eton. Although it is not entirely true that

Methuselah was an eat tonia, the argument has been around for a

while. It is 50 years since a senior Tory talked about a magic

circle of Etonians making prime ministers.

Campaigning in the local elections the Prime Minister is keen to show

how in touch he is with regular folk. See for example how he eats

cheese! But increasingly he's having to answer charge that he and

his inner circle are some what a breed apart. But what he leads is

not so much a Government as a chum- ocracy. I appoint people because

they are good enough to do a job and they are the right people for

that job. I have people around me with all sorts of different

backgrounds and schooling, but the most important thing is are you

going to be good enough to do the job? So who is this supposedly cosy

group of chums? Well, the latest name in the frame is Christopher

Lookwood, he's just been appointed as the latest member of David

Cameron's policy unit, they are pals he and the Prime Minister,

they holidayed in Tuscany, he's also a pal of George Osborne. An

old school friend. From the elegality St Paul's public school.

Another recent apppointee is Joe Johnson, the brother of Boris

Johnson, both men, of course, attended Eton at the same time as

David Cameron. Coincidently so did David Cameron's Chief of Staff, Ed

Llewlyn, and another apppointee, Jessie Norman, also went to Eton.

That may leave Andrew Fellman feeling left out. He only knows the

Prime Minister from their days at Oxford together. It doesn't leave

much room for women, who of course don't get to go to Eton. But does

this really matter if this pool of talent is, from a small source.

This whole thing about a chum- ocracy has two negative effects.

There is the obvious one that people look at the Prime Minister's

operation and think it is completely staffed by his friends,

people from very good private schools. There is the perception

problem. I think the deeper problem is that actually it means that you

have a Downing Street operation which has such a narrow experience

of the country that it doesn't produce such good policy. It isn't

so effective politically at understanding the country. It is

that second problem that I think is the bigger one. And what about

Labour? Well they have their own inner circle in the shape of some

of the trades unions, Billy Hayes has donated money from his union to

Ed Balls. The head of the other trade unions gives money to Chuka

Umunna's office. As for Ed Miliband, the unions have signed up to

support him, he has received money from the GMB and the most powerful

union of all, Unite, led by Len McClues key. We should remember the

trades union movement founded the Labour Party in the first place.

Even so the Electoral Commission's data has shown they have given more

generously in the last two years, and given a greater total of

donations to the party. One former trade union official says all

unions are not equal, that Unite has become dominant in Labour

politics. Obviously Awe night are very influential in terms of the --

obviously Unite are very influential in terms of what they

give. They have a total political strategy, it is not just about

tweaking the purse strings. They are training up candidates,

training policy, and running independent campaigns, they have a

strategy outside of the TUC. In a sense they are not saying "your

money or your life", they are basically establishing an entirely

independent Labour movement if you like. What about those other

centres of power outside Westminster? The European Union for

example. These are some of their big players. You probably don't

recognise all that many of them. Estimates on the extent of EU

influence on the UK vary widely. But the House of Commons library

has calculated that between 1997 and 2009, only 6.8% of primary

legislation, acts of parliament, and 14.1% of secondary legislation,

those are the regulation that is implement law, came from the EU.

Clearly European regulations have an effect. Devolution certainly has

a big effect in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Less of an impact

in England, apart from the areas that have elected mayors. Even

despite all that it is still a pretty centralised society. There

is still a lot a Prime Minister with the proper backing and

organisation and will can do. was in 1440 that Henry VI founded

Eton College. Maybe it is significant that so many in British

public life come from such a narrow circle. But whether voters care,

whether it will make the slightest bit of difference to tomorrow's

elections in England and Wales, well that's another question. To

talk about this we have Sarah Wollaston, who is a Conservative MP,

who has questioned the number of old Etonians in Government. She

joins us from Exeter where the sun is apparently still shining. Dr

Milton Celiz is a political historian and -- Dr Anthony Seldon

is a political historian. Harry Mount is a journalist on the public

schools system, and Toni Pearce is the newly elected President of the

National Union of students. When she takes up her post in the summer

she will become the first leader in the organisation who hasn't been to

university. What do you think this appointments

policy looks like? I don't think it looks very good, does it? It is not

just from one sector of education, the public schools, it is from one

particular school. We have been a democracy for getting on for two

centuries, so it is bound to provoke all kinds of questions

about exactly how fair is Britain today? What do you think, Harry?

doesn't look great and they certainly are an elite, but what

they really are is an intellectual elite. For what it is worth Joe

Johnson got a first, Jessie Norman has written an intellectual

biography of Edmund Burke. I know some of them, not just because they

are friends. The more important thing is they are intellectual as

opposed they have been to a certain school or university. They are all

men, of course, Sarah Wollaston, what does it feel like to you?

other commentators have said it is about the appearance that it gives.

It is not just the message we give, it is the messenger that delivers

it that is important. About being much more inclusive. Go on? I think

also it is something about patronage. This is the heart of

this. We are also hearing about the problem within the Labour Party,

and if you take, for example, when David Miliband left for New York,

Ed commented if I'm Prime Minister I will make sure one way or another

that he service this country. What is that if it is not patronage. It

is about how we tackle how patronage operates throughout

Westminster. Toni Pearce you took at it from a different generation

and different background, what does it look like to you? It has a huge

impact on the way that people in this country see politics. And

their view of politics. This idea that politics is some sort of elite

club where only men who went to a certain school or university

together can get in and lead the country. I think it is really

concerning actually. It says a lot about the way this Government are

running the country, I think. Actually but that goes and is

symptomatic of a wider problem in the political system. And not

exclusive to the Conservative Party because the Labour Party is in the

same kind of boat? This idea it is full of different clubs of

different types of people who give jobs to people that they grew up

with or are friends W I take your point that these people -- I take

your point that niece people are intellectual elite. You get that

through a certain way and through privilege. Going somewhere like

Eton probably allows you to become an intellectual elite that going to

other places you get less of that opportunity. That is certainly true.

What is extremely unfair is the school system in this country that

the independent schools are some of the best schools in the world. The

state schools are some of the worst schools in Europe. So you will end

up with this situation. You don't mean all state schools, you mean

some state schools, and some private sector schools are very,

very good. Some of them are very bad too. There is a reason why you

end up with a skewed result of having the country run by public

school boys, which it is, it is because those public schools are

extremely good at teaching. There are some fantastic state schools in

Britain achieving not just great results but also doing some of what

the public schools do so well, which is to teach character and

attitude and determination to make a mark, to make a change. As

opposed to what, sadly, Governments left and right have imposed on

schools which is to render them little more than exam factories,

making the teachers and students feel that the passing of exams is

all that matters. That is not why Etonians get to the top, it is

because they have a confidence and connections, and everything that

Toni was talking about, it is more than just that. A bigger point here

is Eton teaches something else, which is boys, they don't teach

women. I don't take the point at all that these people are by nature

the most capable people in the country. They may well be, that

could be complete coincidence, I find it very hard to believe that

the six most talented people in the country are men and they went to

Eton. It could be, but it would be a great coincidence. Sarah

Wollaston the interesting question, David Cameron is a highly

intelligent man, if he knows, as he must know what this looks like, why

does he keep on doing it? I do not know. I think it has to change. It

could be so different. Today I met with the head of science and

technology from a fantastic state Community College in my

constituency, and he was appointed by interview. That's what the

public would expect. Would Government expect him to be

appointed by patronage? Think we would be outrageed if that happened

in the state sector, we wouldn't want surgeons appointed by

patronage. Does it matter, is it damaging? If Joe Johnson turns out

to be exactly what Cameron is looking for, if he gives the

Conservative Government a coherence that Cameron is rather lack to date,

then I think people will forget where he's come from. But if it is

just more of the same then I think it will really matter. Yes it does

matter. I think that there should be perhaps more people, more of an

open process, I think we also have to remember that all leaders tend

to, in China and Russia, tend to appoint people they know. Because

heeders are highly exposed and you like -- leaders are highly exposed

and you like to appoint people you know and trust or who share the

same kind of assumptions you do. Previous politicians have done

exactly the same thing. When Tony Blair appointed Charlie Faulkner

his old flatmate, or Derry Ervine the old barrister in his chambers.

The moment you appoint a 40-year- old, former journalist on the FT

with a first from Oxford, no-one would have questioned that until

suddenly you hear he went to Eton, it is appalling therefore. There

are trigger words we think some how it is awful because of being

associated with certain places. That is a form of reverse snobbery.

That would be true if every other cabinet we had ever seen wasn't

made up of this kind of political elite. It is a problem when every

time we see a cabinet formed we see more men than women, we see

increasing number of people going to private school, not just in the

cabinet but wider politics, particularly at the highest levels

across different political parties, I do think it does matter when

people are more disenfranchised than ever with the political system,

it bears huge importance. If we want people to participate in

democracy and get involved in civil society. It turns you off politics?

It turns me off wanting to be involved in politics or thinking

that I'm going to be leading civil society. Because I'm not a man, I

didn't go to Eton, I have not been to university and that's already

kind of sets me apart from these people. There is no barrier actual

lie holding back these people, I mean -- actually holding back these

people, I mean one of the most powerful women died a few weeks ago

and she wasn't held back because she didn't go to Eton. Those

barriers aren't there saying because you didn't go to Eton?

not sure that isn't there in 2013. I'm more with Toni, we are a

democracy we not only have to be fairer but be seen to be fairer to

women to all kinds of minority groups. What about quotas, wouldn't

it be crazy to appoint a woman to the job because she's a woman

rather than brilliant. We have to do much more than we are doing at

the moment. This country is not becoming more fair or more open to

minority groups and to people from ordinary backgrounds, it is

becoming if anything less. This is worrying. I think that schooling is

absolutely fundamental. We need to be doing for more our state schools,

not just to teach them really well, which the Government is trying to

do. But to give them the kind of confidences that Toni has.

unfairness is in the schools system. You can teach character and

confidence. I think we can also give these people more connections,

more of a sense of a leg-up and then we can have a society that

many people don't feel alienated from. Sarah Wollaston do you feel

excluded? No, I don't feel excluded. The point is Government works

better without patronage. Look at what happens to select committees,

they are more effective since we got rid of the whips appointing

them. They are more effective at challenging and holding Government

to account. That is why it is so important to get rid of patronage,

we will be better off for it. Some of the best advice any of us get is

from people who have a different world view and who we don't agree

with. This point about class, this obsession we have with class, you

are absolutely right, it is the mention of that magic word "Eton"

that conjures up all sorts of illusions. Are we getting over

that? Eton is and is opening an academy, it is trying to reach out

T has lots of bursaries. I think many more public schools could

follow Eton's lead. But many more other schools could follow the kind

of confidence building and the sense almost of entitlement to have

a good job. But public schools generally, and Eton particularly,

people in this kind of elite, they are a million miles away from the

majority of people who live in this country. That is the real problem

here. Actually I don't want my Government to feel a million miles

away from my experiences and my life. I know that the people I grew

up with, where I group up in the south west absolutely wouldn't want

their Government to feel a million miles away, and yet they do. There

is no way they could have that idea? I don't disagree with you. I

think something has to happen to make Britain a fairb irand a more

democratic -- fairer and more democratic country. If these people,

regardless of where they come from can institute changes to achieve

that and get voter turnout and participation in politics and civil

society, which afterall is the closest they have ever had to an

idea with their Big Society! If all this actually means something then

maybe these people will have achieved something. I'm not going

to ask you with what the fees are at your school? A lot. Thank you

all very much. Coming up, should people accused of

sex crimes remain anonymous until proven guilty. We talk to the

theatre director, Peter Brook. Theatre cannot be a mass medium and

thank good television has taken its place.

Many tributes were paid today to three British soldiers who were

killed in a bomb explosion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. They

bring the total number of daeds to well over 1,000. Modern medicine

has aided many who once would have doid from their wounds to survive.

What happens to those young men and women after the noise of battle has

died, and they have had to rebuild their lives in new bodies. We have

been to Colorado where several hundred disabled veterans have come

together to learn how to ski as part of their rehabilitation. This

report contains some graphic images, and they talk as soldiers talk, in

pretty direct language. The Colorado mountains.

400 disabled American veterans from all conflicts arrive for a week of

skiing and rehabilitation. Thank you so much for your service to our

country. Thank you for thanking us. Come closer, I like it when the

guys come closer. Alan Babin, a battlefield medic was seriously

injured during the invasion of Iraq. It was one of the fiercest battles

that the 82ndair bourne had been in since World War II. During the

battle, about three hours into it, one of his fellow paratroopers was

on the bridge and raised up to look and see what was coming. He was hit

with a gunshot wound to the head. A call for a medic rang out. Alan

left the safety of a covered position and ran through effective

gunfire to render aid. When he was hit. It was a gunshot wound to the

abdomen, through and through shot by an AK 47, however Alan lost 90%

of his stomach, his spleen, part of his pan crease, it grazed his liver

and diaphragm. The battle was so severe they couldn't extract him,

he lay on the hood of a gun truck for three-and-a-half hours. For me

first there is no thinking, when someone needs your help, you are

there to help, that's that. I just knew I had to be somewhere because

somebody needed me. Alan's wounds from the battlefield were very

severe, but when he got to Walter Reed, April 26th and started

undergoing more surgeries, he started to improve a little bit.

But the weekend of May 10th Alan contracted meningitis and suffered

a stroke. Then for about two years Alan existed. Since 2001, almost

7,000 American service personnel have been killed in Iraq and

Afghanistan, 50,000 more wounded. Tell me what all this is? Ask him.

One of the event's big donors and architect of America's foreign

policy is America's former deputy secretary of defence. This is a

demanding version of boot camp. They are pushed to do things they

are afraid of and they thought they would never do before. Having done

that it keeps them going through the year. When I was no longer

having any official status to allow me to come I thought I want to

still come but I can't come and say I was a former X, Y or Z. I thought

the easist way is to be a sponsor. I could be a sponsor just giving

money and not turning up. I turn up because I find it very satisfying.

Sergeant Dino Cedeno lost his leg eight month ago. I grew up in

Queens all my life. When we were attacked it changed lives. I was a

New Yorker and I felt there was a debt to be paid. One way or another

I could have done more than donate sandwiches and donate blood. We

knew we were going for Afghanistan after we got back from Iraq, it was

a matter of time. On a routine foot patrol his platoon entered the

village, he could see the ground had been disturbed, all the signs

of an IED. When I scanned and moved I couldn't find it t I know it is

right there, it is so obvious, unless they are trying to trick you

to come over here to mess around somewhere else. The next thing I

know I wake up Stateside and in a world of pain. Back in the states

Dino struggled with his injuries. I'm too proud to take my life. But

for a long time it didn't sound like a bad idea. I didn't, I knew

my left leg could be amputated right to the hip. I didn't know my

near future, what it was. I begged my wife to get a divorce, she

doesn't deserve this. I felt like I failed her, I failed my friend, I

failed my buddies. Because they are over there fighting and I'm over

here trying to piece myself together, I guess. I thought it was

over. I did have a falling through with alcoholism but I realiseed it

is not, I can't do it. It is no excuse for it. I can only cry so

much. I can only look myself in a room and think woe is me for so

long, I have to keep going. Slowly the process of healing began.

very first or second day I was terrified, she popped me on the

Walker and put that belt on me and literally kicked me, go, you will

walk with one leg, you will hop. Want you to remember what it is

like to be tall again. I wanted to quit. Previously a keen snowboarder,

today is Dino's first time back on the slopes as an amputee. We are

going to this way, we don't care, we are snowboarders, we are chill

td axed we don't wear ski suits et cetera. Lock no. Confident, don't

Heel side turn right from the start. When the opportunity came for me to

starting to snowboarding I was thrilled, I was excited. But when

it had the realisation kicking in that I'm an amputee, and it is no

longer the same as it has been for the last 20 years I became angry. I

was frustrated. Because now I have to relearn something I have loved

doing. For crying out loud, my leg just popped off! The knee has

several gyroscopes and microprocessors to constantly think

I can go from a slow crawl to a full sprint. I can go up the stairs,

down the stairs, down the hill, it knows the angles. I'm still

learning how to use it. There is so many features behind it. It brought

back a sense of normality to me. was nervous about coming here. I

didn't know who these people were and I didn't know if they knew me

or my situation so I was pretty much sceptical about this whole

thing. We arrived not prepared for the emotions that we were going to

experience watching, not just Alan ski, but blind skiiers on the side

of the mountain and amputees. Saturday morning, before we got

ready to leave I asked him what his favourite part of the clinic had

been, fully expecting him to choose an activity. He said I felt normal.

For a mother with his level of injuries and the impact that it had

on our lives it was huge because for Alan to suddenly feel normal I

was going to do whatever it took to get him involved in these types of

things. At the end of the week I was feeling so much better about

who I was. Yeah! How ya doing! consequences of war are highly

visible here, what about those who make the decisions to go to war?

have heard too much glib commentary that people who make these

decisions don't appreciate what is involved. I think the people I have

known who have had to make them, whether it was about Desert Storm

20 years ago or about Afghanistan and Iraq Wars more recently are

quite aware of how terrible it is. But they have to weigh the

consequences of taking on those risks and dangers with the

consequences of not taking them on. What I have gained in the last few

days will give me the right ammunition to keep the fight at my

job, to feel me, to physically push me out there. There isn't anything

that this is going to stop me. is just day one of another 31 more

years to go. It is a whole other way to start it. We're out of here.

These are the cards I was dealt so I'm going to play my hand. I don't

think any of us anticipated the level of injuries that some of

these men and women were going to be coming home with. The impact

that it would have on the rest of our lives because for us the war

continues on a daily basis. That report from Jonathan Bell. The

formal police statement just said that an 81-year-old man had been

arrested in connection with the rape of a girl that occurred 41

years ago, everyone knows the man is Bill Roache, the world's

longest-serving soap car, playing Ken Barlow, he was tonight charged

with two counts of rape. Are we entitled to know that before a

single word has been heard in court. Recently Mr Roache recently claimed

that anyone accused of rape should be entitled to the same anonymity

grant today their alleged victims. Anybody can make an allegation,

until an allegation is proven or going to court there should be

anonymity for both parties. These people are instantly stigmatised,

some will be innocent and some will not. Until such time as it is

proven there should be anonymity for both. Let's discuss this now

with Christine Hamilton, who along with her husband, the former MP

Neil Hamilton were both falsely charged of sexual offences and with

Sarah Green from the Campaign Group End Violence Against Women. You

were falsely accused, you were never even charged, how long-

lasting was the damage? We were accused of actual rape, not just a

sexual offence. We were held at Barkingside Police Station, and

that is when we were accused, for five hours. Which was a pretty

horrendous experience. By the time we came out of the Police Station

we were told we were being asked to go to Barkingside because nobody

would know we were there. By the time we came out the whole media

were there. Somebody told them they were there. We were on bail for two

weeks before the police backed down and accepted that we had never even

met the girl in question. I don't feel that our names should ever

have been out there. The only reason that the world, if they

wished to know, knows who she is, is because she sold her anonymity

to the News of the World. I think what she did, her name is Nadine

Milroy Sloane, I can say that because she took �50,000 in

exchange for revealing her name from the News of the World, she did

a massive disservice to genuine rape Vic tills, because any time a

-- victim, because any time a girl like her calls wolf it makes it

more difficult for a genuine victim to be heard. Let's loaf aside the

particular circumstance of that particular -- leave aside a

particular circumstance of a circumstance woman. This was a

woman falsely accused and held up to public approbium and nothing

happened? It is terrible to be accused of a crime that you haven't

committed. There are provisions in place, including restricted

reporting and contempt of court. Fundamentally the presumption of

innocence, because it is not a conviction, it is about your name

being known in the public sphere. We need to go right down to the

legal basic, why do we know who is accused of a crime. In our legal

system in the open justice system, part of our democratic ways of

doing things, we know when someone is accused of a crime. The state

makes that known in order that somebody who might be able to

coroborate, somebody who might give extra testimony can come forward.

Equally so somebody who can refute it and say no, that person didn't

do it because they were with me that night. That is why we make the

names of the accused known. We have a special exemption of victims of

sexual offences, I think the mistake really comes in when we

start saying there is parity between the two sides. There isn't

parity between those accused of crimes and victims. We will come to

the victims in a moment or two. What do you make of the argument

that it service justice? In the vast majority of rape cases the two

people concerned they know each other, there is usually absolutely

no evidence whatsoever, it comes down to one person's word against

another. If you say you need to name the alleged perpetrator

because then other people will come forward. First of all you are

assuming they are guilty. I don't like this phrase. It is not a

presumption you are guilty, it is letting the community know that

somebody has been ayes cues of a very serious crime. What is known

about rape of the What if it is a tissue of lies. Our own criminal

justice statistics show those who commit rape commit it again and

again, and interviews with men who admit to committing rape show men

commit it again and again. It is something we have to have on record.

You are making the assumption that every man accused of rape is guilty

of rape. I'm not making that presumption. The man unjustly

accused of rape, let's take Bill Roache, I have to idea, let's sume

he's 100% innocent, he's an internationally known star, his

name is around the world, even if he's completely cleared at the end

of the day and totally 100% innocent, there will always be a

huge number of people who will think no smoke without fire. The

person who accused him we will never know who they are. We have to

depend in our open society with open justice we have to have the

presumption of innocence. You were never convicted of everything.

don't have open justice in this. You have to remember the protection

is there for the victims. It don't apply in any other crime. It is a

special crime, because of what rape and sexual offences are, because of

who commits them and why and how. It should apply to the perpetrator?

They are not equal parties, state is accusing someone of a crime, the

witness is a person in their own place. The person is protected

because of the known shame around sexual offences and many victims

wouldn't report. There is no shame about being accused falsely? It is

not the same. We only have to talk about Jimmy Savile and the evidence

that emerged. The case in Rochdale and child grooming prosecutions

where you have perpetrators committing many crimes against many

victim who is are targeted usually because of their vulnerability.

Girls and so on. They are not equal parties, they are not the same.

have turned the whole basis of British justice on the head, ever

since Magna Carta, the whole basis of the system is the accused and

accuser should face each other in open court. It is not what happens,

the state faces those accused. fully understand why people who

have been raped want anonymity, I'm not saying they shouldn't have it.

I just think, it used to be the case that everybody was named, or

everybody was anonymous, I think the pendulum has swung too far.

There are plenty of cases, I'm not going to name them, where the men

have been accused and hung out to try and they have been proved to be

innocent. We know who they are. If you name them you add to their

agony. If the consequence of the change in the law you seek was that

fewer rapists were convicted, would you think it was a good thing?

is why the Government has thrown it out. The coalition Government

looked at this and looked at the arguments made for having anonymity

for those accused, they were deemed less significant than the damage

that would be done by having anonymity. Let her answer the

question. There is no law that you can frame that will be right in

every circumstance, of course there isn't. It is not going to be

possible to do that. I just feel that of course some men will get

away with rape, of course they will. Men get away with it every day.

can do something about it. Some women, we know they cry wolf.

just in March the CPS published a very authoritative and

comprehensive report on called false allegations, it looked at 18

months of cases, a really interesting report and well

reported, it looked at the fact that false allegations for rape are

no different than they are for any other crime, they are single-

significant statistics, it is a myth and very damaging rape myth

that women make it up. It is not the case. Those who do, who are

actually accused and found for doing false allegations tend to be

very vulnerable people. It is almost impossible to come up with

any statistics that are foolproof, by definition we don't know do we.

I know the statistic that only 6% of rapes are coming to conviction,

it is 6% of reported rapes. The CPS decides, it is not because a woman

is lying it is just because the evidence is perhaps flimsy and they

are not going to get a conviction. That is not why a lot of cases

don't reach it is because victims have to pull out. Now for something

entirely familiar, did Shakespeare write Shakespeare. People have been

claiming that he was a front or a fraud for 150 years and really his

plays were written by Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, the Earl of

Oxford, Lord Lucan, Shergar or Dale Winton. Now, forgive the very sub-

Shakespearian cliche, one of the grand old men of theatre has told

everyone to snap out of it. When Peter Brook speaks, people tend to

listen, Stephen Smith certainly did. I just wanted to write a short

little familiar flet to make fun and destroy it by a -- pamphlet to

make fun and destroy for once and for all that someone else wrote

Shakespeare. While Peter Brook ought to know, the veteran director

of Shakespeare, this was his Tempest, he's taking on the

stubborn conspiracy theory surrounding the Bard. If he was a

phoney, and didn't write the plays he would be derided by his rivals.

There were many other writers and they were as bitchy and gelous as

all writers were. Here was a successful writer, but nobody wrote

a pamphlet, left a little note or stood at a street corner or stood

up in a pub to say this guy is a fake. And it took two centuries

before it suddenly occurred to somebody and that was this man with

this good-given name of Mr Lun ee who defended Shakespeare. I know a

bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxslips and the wild valleys

grow. When plays like A Midsummer Night's Dream were put on, a

century before the didgeridoos were added, Shakespeare must have been

on hand to cover the awkward moments. When I did my first

production at Stratford, in the middle of the first scene change,

they were out on where the curtains closed, there was an enormous clash,

all the scenery had collapsed. But he knew immediately that he had to

find ways of improvising and filling in five minutes. Were you

watching what was going through your mind? I was just hoping that

he could go on filling it. He did it by, he had a little front stage

speech to do, he did it by marvellous pauses, and filling them

with a look and a smile. Brook directed this acclaimed adaptation

of the Lord of the Flies. And the job before this was a musical in

the West End, if you can believe it. But his reputation is as a prophet

in the wildness, turning his back on easy hits, in favour of

exploring Shakespeare in Africa, the Middle East and the Australian

bush. There are directors who stay in this country who do very well,

who accept various gongs and so on, and from their perspective you were

roughing it out, you were out in the back of beyond sometimes.

Because I mean all that is secondary. Never, never to be

imprisoned by that need to do the next play, to make a hit, because

you are in a series of hit and you have to continue with it. Never to

this day have I done that. The rise and fall of President

Hollande, unpopular with the French because of unemployment and the

economy has been followed with interest by Peter Brook, who has

lived and worked in Paris for many years. He is in very, very great

trouble. Only time will show whether what a lot of people said

before he was elected, which was that while he was apparently a

charming, intelligent, witty cultivated man in every day life

and had been secretary of the party for a long time, he never had any

administrative expowerence at all in Government.

Peter Brook, during his most recent excursion on to the London boards,

he says he now favours the most strict back production possible.

He's still a true believer in the power of theatre. Theatre cannot be

a mass medium, and thank good television has taken its place. So

it is no longer elitist to say that a theatre with 500 seats is doing a

very valuable service to the 500 people who prefer to go there than

to do 100 other things. What about the old country? How is that

looking from the other end of the Eurostar tunnel? My impression is

that what is strong in England, very strongly in London, very

strongly in everything that's creative is that there is, once

again, a tremendous vitality, a tremendous surge of creativity.

People say that this was the conference of the Olympic Games,

that is too easy an answer, but in the flux of time, this is returning.

So England, I don't feel at the moment, is a defeated country.

Although the problems are as big as anywhere in the continent. So the

moment is ripe for you to return here, Peter? Maybe, why not.

not. Why stay over there, why deny us. Because I have got so much

going on! Tomorrow morning's front That's it, let us leave you with

something rather astonishing, a clever bunch of people at IBM have

made the smallest movie ever produced. They have manipulated

individual atoms in a top-frame film. If you want to try it at home

you need magnification of 100 million or so. This is individual

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds

atoms, the very smallest particles Good evening. Tomorrow most places

will begin on a dry, some what chilly note. We have got a bit more

cloud to the south-east and the North West corner, but inbetween

some sunny spells developing, across Scotland some rain generally,

maybe a bit of hill snow mixed in there as well. A few rain showers

by the afternoon, scattered across Northern Ireland. The rain could be

quite heavy for the Western Isles, and temperatures in tornaway really

struggling. -- Stornaway really struggling. Looking at highs and

lows of 13, it might be a grey day. A better chance of keeping some

sunshine for England and Wales. There is a small chance of a shower

developing, you will be unlucky if you do catch un. 15-16 degrees

could be possible, a few degrees higher in a few place, 17-18. For

south-west England, the south coast having cloud. For North Devon and

Cornwall we will keep hold of sunshine. A small risk of a shower

for Wales. But overall it is dry and it is bright. On Friday the

cloud increases to the North West, across Scotland and Northern

Ireland, that rainband turns heavier and starts to move its way

further south. Although it will cloud over across England and Wales,

we are still just about keeping hold of sunshine for south-east