Browse content similar to 12/08/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The images of desperate families, thousands of them still stranded on | :00:00. | :00:11. | |
Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq are beamed around the world. After ten | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
days only these fortunate few have made it to relative safety. Here | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
refugees from the mountain have been pouring in all day, tonight the | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
lucky ones will have found shelter in derelict buildings and schools. | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
But all are still worried about those they left behind, nobody knows | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
exactly how many are still stranded on that mountain tonight. We are | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
sending Tornadoes and Chinooks to support the aid effort. What is | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
driving the US response, the humanitarian crisis or the black | :00:42. | :00:43. | |
stuff. They dig graves four deep, one on | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
top of another, it is cheaper than cremation, this is how we bury the | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
poorest people in Britain. We are on our way to the cemetery now, we are | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
due there at two, we are trying to make it as good as we can for him | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
really. And... Nanu Nanu. His comedic genius | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
enthralled millions over a decade and the manner of his death has | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
shocked and saddened us all. Our guests share their memories. | :01:17. | :01:28. | |
Good evening, the race to save thousands of people stranded and | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
under siege by Islamic militants in the searing heat of Mount Sinjar | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
intensified today. With RAF Tornado jets and a small number of British | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
Chinook helicopters now joining the US military involved in the | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
humanitarian relief he have Ford, even if the Yazidi are eventually | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
brought to safety, is there the international will to create a | :01:50. | :01:59. | |
coalition to help the Iraqi Government to defeat the militants. | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
Is there any attempt to engage IS militarily. First we go over to | :02:05. | :02:12. | |
Iraqi Kurdistan. Who has been arriving today. We have stood at the | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
border today and we saw hundreds and hundreds of Yazidi refugee families | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
walking across, they carried nothing but their children and a few meagre | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
supplies. They were the survivors of the mountain. Some have walked for | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
days, others for hours, getting lifts where they could. They were | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
brought down from the mountain by PKK fighters, who saved their lives, | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
getting them past Islamic State checkpoints and finally to relative | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
safety here in northern Iraq. They came with nothing, driven out of | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
their homes. We talked of survivors who talked about relatives being | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
killed, shot or stabbed, and women and children being deliberately | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
targeted and stabbed. Many of them tonight of course seeking shelter | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
here. Some in derelict buildings, others on the floors in schools with | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
very, very meagre ration, all in desperate need of help. From the | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
stories that you hear from people coming in today, have we any | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
reliable estimates as to who is actually left on Mount sin area, how | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
many? Don, on Mount Sinjar, how many? We don't know how many, the UN | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
has said it is not clear. There is a long mountain range and there are | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
many thousands we believe. These are the people who are the frailest, | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
those less able to walk. One man I spoke today said what they needed | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
were blankets to carry the elderly, the sick and small children who | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
couldn't walks the distance. They are hoping for more supplies to be | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
dropped on the mountain. That is difficult, one helicopter carrying | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
humanitarian aid, bringing refugees out crashed on the mountain killing | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
the pilot and injuring many. So this is dangerous and they have to fly in | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
over hostile herry. Many of those helicopters shot as they go with | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
refugees on board. Whilst the Government here seems to be | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
increasing its commitment to the humanitarian mission in Iraq with | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
helicopters on the way, it is still resisting pressure to join in US air | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
strikes. So why the reluctance? Perhaps the memory of the vote | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
against military action in Syria when parliament was recalled almost | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
a year ago loomed large. Our investigations correspondent has | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
been looking into the calculation being made in Whitehall and is here | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
now. What is being discussed in Whitehall, and we have a ComRes poll | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
tonight that suggests a majority of those polled are in favour of | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
Britain joining America in air strikes? There is some contingency | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
planning going on at the Ministry of Defence. But at the moment there | :04:48. | :04:50. | |
just isn't the appetite to extend this beyond the purely humanitarian. | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
As you said there are Tornadoes in the air, they will be joined by | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
Chinook helicopters. We can safely assume there are a small number of | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
British Special Forces on the ground to help co-ordinate the aid effort. | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
As far as taking it beyond that, I don't think there is the momentum | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
yet. One source said to me tonight that the idea of British troops on | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
the ground in Iraq was a complete non-starter. It just won't happen. | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Of course history doesn't help us here, because we put boots on the | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, we didn't in Syria, we had a limited | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
campaign in Libya. But of course none of these campaigns ended up the | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
way we wanted. But as these pictures are beamed around the world more, as | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
a kind of rumble comes at the thought of possible genocide, you | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
have tornado, supposedly on reconnaissance surveillance and | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
Chinook, we know they are taking in weapons, delivered by the Americans | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
for the Kurdish fighters of Peshmerga. What about an unofficial | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
mission creep? There is certainly that danger. There are three factors | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
that we have to look out for over the coming days. The first is, will | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
the situation on the ground change? One source said to me tonight that | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
if there was another seismic event, another humanitarian catastrophe | :06:11. | :06:12. | |
then ministers would have to rethink. The second thing as you | :06:13. | :06:19. | |
said there is a ComRes poll out that shows 45% people are in favour and | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
37% against air strike, that is not overwhelming but ministers look at | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
that. The most important thing is the Americans. So far the Americans | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
have not asked us, so I understand it, to get involved in air strikes. | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
And of course they haven't asked because they are not sure they will | :06:35. | :06:36. | |
get the right answer. Because they got the wrong answer over Syria. | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
Indeed. Thank you very much indeed. Two MPs who joining the call tonight | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
for parliament to be recalled so this can be properly debated are | :06:46. | :06:52. | |
Labour's Diane Abbot and David Lee from the Conservatives. First of all | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
Diane Abbot, why do you want parliament recalled? The region is | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
involved in crisis you have the Syrian crisis, Gaza and now this. We | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
need to stiffen the Prime Minister's line on Gaza and the state of | :07:07. | :07:09. | |
Israel. And we do need to discuss how we can make the most effective | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
humanitarian intervention in Iraq. We have a situation here where you | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
might want more humanitarian mission, you might want more | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
helicopter, you might want more planes, but if, as Caroline Wyatt | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
says, in order to get to the Yazidis on the mountain, they have to go | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
through fire, surely any humanitarian mission would have to | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
be able to defend itself? We need an international military effort. | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
Including Britain? This has to go to Security Council. This was what was | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
wrong the original war, I do not believe parliament will vote for | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
another unilateral American-British strike. You want parliament | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
recalled, do you want military strikes by Britain? Let's be clear | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
about what we are facing here. A massive humanitarian crisis millions | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
of refugees, widespread carnage, we are also facing an ideolgical crisis | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
here, the spread of Islamist thinking throughout the region and a | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
regional challenge. We need a strategy actually that approaches | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
the region as a whole. You voted against intervention in Syria? At | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
the time the reason I voted against it because I thought we were not | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
clear about who we were supporting. I was not against intervention, I | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
was against the intervention that was being suggested because there | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
was no strategy underpinning it. But here you two are from different | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
parties coming out tonight. The minority of MPs it says, calling for | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
the recall of parliament and you don't even have your Prime Minister | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
on board? I think you will find that increasing numbers of MPs think we | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
should come back and discuss the situation in the region. Let me say | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
this, the definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing and | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
expect a different result. Another unilateral British-American strike | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
in Iraq will end badly. This has been called genocide, is that a word | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
you would use? I think there is the potential for this, I think this is | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
the biggest challenge we have faced in 70 years. This could become a | :09:09. | :09:16. | |
regional issue and much bigger. I'm under no illusions, we are already | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
seeing this flag being flown in this country. There are over 500 British | :09:21. | :09:23. | |
known to be there. I have heard reports of dead ISIS people with | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
Liverpool Football Club membership cards. Turkey needs to close the | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
border, the regional powers need to step up. This is a British problem. | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
There is no British military. We need to challenge. This is a pretty | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
dangerous role? They need to step up to the responsibility. There is no | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
British military solution to the issue. We need to go to the UN. That | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
is what the UN is for. Is an international military solution, | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
which might include more forces, not in the air, but on the ground, a | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
possibility, and if it is, do you think British troops should be | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
involved? I think that the solution to this is going to take longer than | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
electoral cycle, this is going to take decades, this is going to need | :10:08. | :10:09. | |
staying power and we need a strategy. Part of which will require | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
military force, but it will also require putting the biggest brains | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
in that region together to think about the future they want to have. | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
The borders concernedly are not being respected. We have to have a | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
view that the future of this region may have different countries in it. | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
If you agree that this is genocide, if you don't take action over this | :10:29. | :10:31. | |
what do you take action over? You go to the UN. People seem to have | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
forgotten what the United Nations is for. Let's go to the UN and have a | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
genuine international intervention. Wait a minute are you suggesting for | :10:40. | :10:41. | |
a minute that the Americans are wrong to take military strikes on | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
their own? Barack Obama has domestic consideration, I can't speak to what | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
the Americans are doing. I'm saying we have forgotten the role of | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
international institutions. This is a serious issue and all the more | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
reason to go to the UN. They are right for the air strikes to be | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
taken place, I don't need to be told about the imagery, I have watched it | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
and seen it. Do you want David Cameron to recall parliament now? | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
Yes I do, I wanted to him to recall it over MH17 and Gaza. These are | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
three big issues in the last four-to-six weeks and should be | :11:15. | :11:16. | |
debated in the House of Commons. Thank you very much indeed. In the | :11:17. | :11:19. | |
US President Obama has been accused of dithering over air strikes over | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
Islamic State from amongst others. Hillary Clintoned, who appeared to | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
castigate the President over the significance of their threat. Why | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
did he act when he did. There is the might of the Yazidis, but with the | :11:34. | :11:40. | |
Islamic State 40kms from Irbil, was it American investment and oil-rich | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
Kurdistan were suddenly in danger? In this town in northern Iraq, | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
Kurdish fighters prepare for the next battle with the heavily armed | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
militias of IS. IS took the town a week ago, the Kurds managed to | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
retake it on Sunday after American air strikes pushed the IS forces | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
back. The US has begun plying the Kurds with arms and ammunition, but | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
they say they urgently need more. TRANSLATION: All these weapon, PKCs, | :12:13. | :12:21. | |
IPCs, snipers, mortars, antitanks, all the weapons the other countries | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
have, especially with the Americans with its advanced military. The | :12:25. | :12:36. | |
Kurdish Peshmergas are experienced fighters, they fought back the Sunni | :12:37. | :12:44. | |
extremists of IS. This is the city that the US and the Kurds are so | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
desperate to defend. Irbil, the oil-rich capital of the Kurdish | :12:51. | :12:52. | |
regional Government, where the Americans have a consulate and other | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
facilities, and many other international companies have | :12:58. | :12:59. | |
offices. Back in the days when the US was close to Saddam Hussein, and | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
the Kurds were fighting against him, they complained they were ignored by | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
the Americans. Even after the chemical attack in 1988. But all | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
that has completely changed. Last week President Obama stressed his | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
support for the Kurds. I do think the Kurds used that time that was | :13:19. | :13:26. | |
given by our troop sacrifices in Iraq, they used that time well. And | :13:27. | :13:33. | |
they, the Kurdish region is functional, the way we would like to | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
see it, and it is tolerant of other sects and other religions in a way | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
that we would like to see elsewhere. So we do think that it is important | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
to make sure that space is protected. Iraqi Kurdistan is of | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
course attractive to America because of the oil. It is also a stable, | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
democratic and tolerant Muslim state. At the moment it is the only | :13:56. | :14:03. | |
secure, let as say, until recently it was the only secure and I could | :14:04. | :14:10. | |
say stable region in the Middle East. Iraqi steward Kurdistan is | :14:11. | :14:19. | |
wealthy, it has massive oil reserves, there is a new oil | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
pipeline through Turkey, built by the Kurdish government Government, | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
and production has been averaging 84,000 barrels a day. It is | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
surrounded by the Kurdish populations of Syria, Iran and | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
Turkey, giving it strategic importance. Speaking as a military | :14:36. | :14:42. | |
man and as you know an ex-NATO committee chairman. I would say that | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
Prague matically speaking if you look at a map of the world and look | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
at Turkey and Europe, that little bit of Kurdistan is like the end of | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
a comma. It is pragmatically speaking effectively the new south | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
eastern border of NATO. It remains to be seen whether the chaos | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
elsewhere in Iraq and the new arms supplies from make lead to pressures | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
for full independence for this semiautonomous state. For the at the | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
moment it is a country that's not quite a country, and the success | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
story of the chaotic Middle East. But for that success to continue, | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
the threat from Islamic State has to end. | :15:23. | :15:30. | |
Foreign affairs expert and Dean of Columbia University and covering | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
Iraq for the New Yorker joins me now. What would you say is driving | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
President Obama's intervention? I think he was advised last week that | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
there was a serious danger that the Islamic State could attack Irbil and | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
if not conquer it, certainly create a nasty fight in the city. That, | :15:52. | :15:59. | |
combined with the humanitarian crisis on Mount Sinjar caused him to | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
react after a long period of being reluctant to do so. Do you think in | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
a way oil was the driver? I think it was interesting in the clip you | :16:11. | :16:13. | |
played where President Obama was explaining his decision, no I don't | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
think oil was the driver. But I thought it was unseemly for the | :16:17. | :16:22. | |
United States to announce this momentous decision after all the | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
President came to power promising to end the Iraq War, it is a very | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
important moment for him to deciding to back to combat. Without | :16:31. | :16:32. | |
acknowledging that the reason there were thousands of Americans in | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
Irbil, who had to be protected from the possibility of the Islamic state | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
entering the city is because Kurdish success and independence, all the | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
qualities your correspondent described rely on oil production. | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
The site of about 300,000 barrel days of oil production. The | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
Americans are there, along with many people around the world to get that | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
oil out of the ground. And given how poorly we were served by our | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
political leaders in 2003 as they explained the reasons for going to | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
washes I just felt it was sort of unseemly not to maintain silence | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
about the fact that oil is at the centre of the Kurdish dilemma. You | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
have called it absolutely the oilman's town. Just how disastrous | :17:18. | :17:26. | |
would it be if IS got their hand on it It is not just Irbil but to the | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
south in Kirkuk where the oilfields are located and where I think the | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
Islamic State has design that is are even more ardent than on Irbil, | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
because that is an area that has historically been disputed between | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
Iraqi Arabs and Kurds. It may be easier for the Islamic State to | :17:47. | :17:49. | |
build support in attacking oilfields and capturing some of that oil | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
production. Isn't it ironic that we have, you know, Barack Obama calling | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
now for this Government, a new Government of unity in Iraq and | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
backing the new Prime Minister against the outgoing Nouri | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
Al-Maliki, at the same time beefing up Iraqi Kurdistan to the point | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
where quite possibly America's idea that it would become an independent | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
nation, therefore undermining the whole idea of a united Iraq? This | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
has been a strain, you are dead right. This has been fault line in | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
American policy going back to the Bush administration. The premise of | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
the policy has been to promote unified Iraqi constitutional | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
Government in Baghdad, multisectarian power sharing, | :18:40. | :18:41. | |
sharing oil revenue, at the same time American policy has passively | :18:42. | :18:48. | |
allowed Kurdistan, because it has been successful and stable to build | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
up independent wealth, independent oil contracts, now they are pursuing | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
independent sales of oil abroad, and so at the very time when American | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
policy seeks to stitch Iraq together under great pressure, it is also | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
supporting Kurdistan, which has been tugging at the seams of Iraqi unity | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
for some time. Thank you for joining us. Robin Williams was the go-to | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
comedian and actor for many of us, he lit up any scene with his | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
unpredictability, Gooch ball stories and air of compassion. His death has | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
left millions of fan, fellow comedians and the American President | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
bereft, then tonight we learned the sad news the actor and comic, | :19:28. | :19:30. | |
suffering from severe depression had hanged himself at his home. The man | :19:31. | :19:39. | |
who came alive as Mork of Mork and Minutedy, and dazzled as Mrs | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
Doubtfire, and comic genius and inspired a whole host of stand-ups, | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
in a moment we will discuss his life. But first here is our | :19:49. | :19:56. | |
appreciation. Born in Chicago from British stock. He could do it all, | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
from stand-up to slapstick, to darker, serious roles. Please | :20:02. | :20:08. | |
welcome Robin Williams. He learned his craft in the early 70, battle it | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
out on the live circuit. His energy infectious, his audience often in | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
tears. You are following me, they are after me, they are after me, | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
they are after me. Siberian mine, here we go. But his big break came | :20:24. | :20:33. | |
on TV, a small role as a confused alien in Happy Days. I mean you no | :20:34. | :20:43. | |
harm, Nanu-nanu. That became the sitcom, Mork and Minutedy, a huge | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
hit at the time. But Williams will be probably best remembered for his | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
big screen roles. Surprise. From fun Disney block busters to intelligent | :20:55. | :21:05. | |
drama. Dead Poets Society, and Good Morning Vietnam, brought on the | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
critics. Good Will Hunting won him an Oscar. You know what occurred to | :21:11. | :21:16. | |
me. You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea of what you | :21:17. | :21:23. | |
are talking about. Why thank you. Today fans were laying flowers and | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
leaving messages next to that same bench in potsen to. -- Boston. Since | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
the start of his career Williams had been open about his struggle with | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
depression and drugs. Look at you drinking wine, and me just out of | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
rehab, thank you. It is like having a doughnut in front of a diabetic, | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
it is OK. You will mind me and Amy Winehouse going | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
# Trying to get me back to rehab He returned to treatment just weeks | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
before his death. One of the quickest, most intelligent and | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
gifted comedians of his generation. He leaves behind three children, | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
four unfinished films, and an influence that is far reaching and | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
in ble. To discuss Robin Williams and his | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
legacy is the comedian and writer Eddie Izzard and Amanda Palmer. You | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
knew him well, what was the source of his genius? I think he must have | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
got it through his parents, it is genetic, I think some of these | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
comedy tends to come through parents and stuff. He had that and nurturing | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
that and pushed it and made it work. When I was at stand-up workshops, | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
learning to do stand-up because I only did sketches there were | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
different types of stand-ups you could be, one was the God-like | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
genius and that was the Williams. You can get to that, but only if you | :22:48. | :22:56. | |
are crazy. All through his career he headed back to stand-up all the | :22:57. | :23:00. | |
time, he loved that immediate engagment with the audience? He did | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
love it. I wondered, I actually think he could have done it more, | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
because I think what happens in America if you get successful in | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
comedy you will go into a television series or film series, that becomes | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
key, it is a different thing to stand-up. So I feel he did | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
occasional stand-up tours after taking off into such a huge way. But | :23:21. | :23:25. | |
not all the time. It was, he was so wonderful at it, I don't actually | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
know why he didn't come back to it more. What do you think was the | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
source of his vulnerability, often I think when you see expressions that | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
are used in lots of films, he looked so kind of sympathetic towards the | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
other characters, he had this incredible kind of warmth? I mean | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
that was just Robin, he was a nice guy, when I first met him on a film | :23:48. | :23:55. | |
he was just very welcoming. And I said can you watch my video and he | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
watched it immediately, which was very, you would expect a lot of | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
pullback on that, but he was just, he was just a decent person. For a | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
lot of us he was right up there and it is too sad. In a strange way he | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
was nurturing of other people's talent and needed a lot of nurturing | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
in himself, in the end that is obviously what happened? I don't | :24:21. | :24:23. | |
want to get into that, but depression it clinical and some | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
people have it and some people don't. It just is a disease, you | :24:27. | :24:34. | |
know. He was brilliant and he, it would have been wonderful if he | :24:35. | :24:41. | |
could have gone on. Amanda Palmer I think I'm right in saying that you | :24:42. | :24:44. | |
tweeted last night that what you wanted was an emergency screening of | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
a Robin Williams film for you all, I think it was Good Morning Vietnam? | :24:50. | :24:58. | |
It was Dead Poets Society. How did you first encounter him, years ago? | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
I mean it was years ago. It feels like he was one of those people who | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
raised me in the 80s, because I was stationed in front of television | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
watching his movies from before I can remember. I think the first one, | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
I mean there was Mork and Mindy, but the first one was Moscow on the | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
Hudson. That was absolutely a brilliant film not mentioned much, | :25:24. | :25:25. | |
and I thought he was wonderful in that? Yeah, I mean it is like he has | :25:26. | :25:34. | |
been such a permanent part of the landscape, I was so, I was so | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
shocked to hear that he was gone. Because he's always there. And of | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
course now of course the Twitter reaction has been phenomenal, and | :25:44. | :25:49. | |
you are avid on Twitter. You get the sense of just how many people's | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
lives he touched? Yes, one of those beautiful things happened today | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
where a lot of people were talking about Dead Poets Society, that was | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
just one of those films with moments that resonated so deeply with | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
people, especially because of the suicide in the film. One my fans | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
sent me a picture of himself standing on a desk with the hashtag | :26:14. | :26:27. | |
#ohcampaignmycaptain. I sent one back with the one I had. It turned | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
into this beautiful viral tribute by hundreds of people taking pictures | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
of themselves standing on desks. You got a sense looking at the comments, | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
different films really touched and changed people at different times. | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
One of my fans tweeted about being on the brink of suicide himself when | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
he saw Dead Poets Society and said that film pulled him back from the | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
edge. So the profound irony of it all is heavy. You got a sense that | :26:57. | :27:02. | |
he delighted in some of his roles. Mrs Doubtfire was a role made for | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
adults as well as children? Yeah, I mean when he was doing comedy he | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
would do a thing which, I'm not sure if all of us comedians do, he was | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
making himself laugh. I'm pretty shower he was the first person -- | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
sure he was the first person in his audience. When I did this film with | :27:20. | :27:27. | |
him, the one I did, Gerard De Pardieu, he was in front of him ad | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
libbing and I started ad libbing and he was looking at us and I don't | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
know what he was thinking. Apparently even in Aladdin he was ad | :27:36. | :27:42. | |
libbing? It is all filmed beforehand, that is what he would | :27:43. | :27:45. | |
have done, he would have just gone off, the script would have been | :27:46. | :27:48. | |
there and he would have gone off seven ways to Sunday. What influence | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
do you think he had on other performers and people like you? | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
Huge. It was immensely huge, you can't actually try to be someone. | :28:00. | :28:02. | |
You can't say I want to be that person, you can add little bits on | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
to your own style. My style was more Woody Allen with Billy Connelly and | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
Richard Prior mixed in. He hit this God-like genius place of being able | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
to do anything, it was political, fast, impression, he would run | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
through the audience, which was more like street performing, which was | :28:21. | :28:23. | |
unusual for stand-ups to do, they don't usually move off the stage. He | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
had this ability to take a room and take it to the stars really. You | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
mentioned Richard Prior and Connelly, where would you rank him | :28:33. | :28:43. | |
on the pan pantheon? He's right up there, and there should never be | :28:44. | :28:46. | |
number ones in creative things, but he's in the top ten of all time. | :28:47. | :28:52. | |
Maybe the top five. It is just, it is rather tragic. I didn't want to | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
come in here and do this, I thought I was discussing this with Steve | :28:56. | :29:01. | |
Coogan it looks like everyone jumps on telly and talks about people. I | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
wanted to say we're going to miss him. Thank you very much. | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
The battle between the on-line retailing megastore Amazon and the | :29:12. | :29:15. | |
international publishing house has reached epic and nasty proportion, | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
Amazon wants the publisher which includes imprints of Little Brown | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
and others, to drop the price at which it sells e-books and | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
publishers and authors are resisting. More than 900 authors in | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
the Sunday Times, many of them not published by the publishing | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
housemaid their anger claim. In a moment, the best-selling thriller | :29:36. | :29:42. | |
writer Lee Child who has sold 100 million books will tell us why he's | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
on the warpath against Amazon. First we have this. Here is a mystery | :29:47. | :29:58. | |
worthy of Chandler, a search for truth as riddled with conspiracy | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
theories as a Dan Brown novel. Both sides will say their motive is love | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
of authors and books in general. Is there something else behind this, is | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
the real root of this not laugh but that other great human motivator, | :30:16. | :30:21. | |
money. Amazon, according to some observers is preparing for a world | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
without publishers, a world where the vast majority of books are made | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
not of ink and paper but ones and noughts. Amazon wants to position | :30:31. | :30:35. | |
itself as the publisher of the future. They have a large e-book | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
sales team, they have their own in-prints, their own brands, they | :30:41. | :30:45. | |
have plenty of home brew and I guess indie authors on the site. They are | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
ready to take the next leap and almost bypass these publishers | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
completely. Hachett is one of the world's biggest publishers with | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
thousands of different titles, Amazon is trying to get them to cut | :31:00. | :31:03. | |
the cost of e-book, until they do sales of some titles on Amazon have | :31:04. | :31:08. | |
been affected. Authors say it is hurting them, 900, including Stephen | :31:09. | :31:16. | |
King and John Grisham have signed a letter saying they have been | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
affected by this. This is one of the novelists who signed the letter. The | :31:21. | :31:23. | |
industry is changing, there are a lot of negotiations to go on between | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
Amazon, the sellers, and the publisher, that is fair enough. That | :31:29. | :31:31. | |
they need to have those negotiations. But what Amazon has | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
done has used authors in this, and to the detriment of writers' sales. | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
You don't see any e-books on the secondhand book stalls of London's | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
South Bank, but there is plenty of evidence of a previous publishing | :31:47. | :31:52. | |
revolution. Amazon's argument is essentially this the e-book is | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
nothing more than the modern equivalent of the paperback. When it | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
was brought in, it radically reduced the cost of reading, and brought in | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
a whole load of new authors and reader, and it was at the time | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
fiercely resisted by some elements of the publishing industry. In | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
response to the authors' united letter, Amazon responded with a | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
website called Readers Unite, on it they say books compete against | :32:21. | :32:24. | |
mobile games, television movies, Facebook blog, free news sites and | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
more. If we want a healthy reading culture, they say, we have to work | :32:29. | :32:31. | |
hard to be sure books are competitive against these other | :32:32. | :32:34. | |
media, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
expensive. Amazon say that dropping the price of an e-book from $14. 99 | :32:40. | :32:48. | |
to $9. 99 would give authors a 74% sales boost. That means if an author | :32:49. | :32:56. | |
sells 100,000 copies at $14. 99, it will be 174,000 at $9. 99, it would | :32:57. | :33:03. | |
be more money. So says Amazon, everyone wins. But not every author | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
is buying the logic of those numbers. Amazon's argument is | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
predicated on the fact that all books will sell the same amount. | :33:14. | :33:19. | |
Perhaps it is true that a better-selling author will, if you | :33:20. | :33:24. | |
lower the price below ten dollars for a really Goodselling author they | :33:25. | :33:27. | |
will earn more. That isn't true of the broad range of the industry. How | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
does this particular story end? Well it is not clear, like any great tale | :33:34. | :33:40. | |
it will keep us guessing to the last page. | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
We asked Amazon to come on, but joining us now is Lee Child, the | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
best-selling writer. Amazon among others has made you a very rich man, | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
why are you biting the hand, you are not even a Hachette author? I love | :33:52. | :33:57. | |
Amazon, I have grown up with Amazon, they started around the same time I | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
started, I have a lot of good friends there. The point is exactly | :34:02. | :34:06. | |
that. If you have a good friend who is misbehaving, you don't | :34:07. | :34:09. | |
immediately shoot him in the head and bury them in the woods. You take | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
them aside and have a quiet word with them and you say come on pal, | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
you are out of line, shape up and behave properly. That is what the | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
authors do, me and the other 900 authors that is what we are saying. | :34:23. | :34:25. | |
Do you buy the argument that this is just the version of the pre-Second | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
World War move to paperback? No Amazon sold that sort of stuff, | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
there is a specialised branch of science you can examine the | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
propositions with, it is called arithmetic, their numbers about how | :34:41. | :34:45. | |
many people will buy it at $15 and how many people will buy it at $10, | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
Amazon does not run two different patrol legal universes selling at | :34:51. | :34:53. | |
two different price, the best they can be saying is for every 100 | :34:54. | :35:00. | |
people buying at $15, there are 174 at $10. What publishers do is sell | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
the hundred to the people prepared to pay $15 and those prepared to | :35:06. | :35:10. | |
sell $10 and make more money than Amazon says they will make. We are | :35:11. | :35:14. | |
talking about the argument about more people reading the books in a | :35:15. | :35:17. | |
minute, do you think that am zone is squeezing the author, they may be | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
squeezing the publishers but are they squeezing the author? | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
Inevitably by connection. They are squeezing the customer most of all | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
by depriving the customer of what they want. What does the customer | :35:31. | :35:35. | |
want? ??FORCEDYELL The customer wants the books she wants to read, | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
and Amazon is not delivering them at the moment. They are doing a go-slow | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
on Hachette authors? They came out and said they are taking steps to | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
reduce the play of Hachette books. So the customer waiting for her | :35:50. | :35:52. | |
favourite book is not getting it. Very weird for a customer-centric | :35:53. | :36:03. | |
company. They are using the customers as pawn, you have to ask | :36:04. | :36:06. | |
what is behind that. If more people read because of e-book, let's take | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
you, your new book is coming out next month, it is ?20 but on Prime | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
it is ?so and the kinkedle offer will be -- the kinkedle offer will | :36:17. | :36:24. | |
be ?8. 03. If people can't afford it at ?20 they can at ?10 you will get | :36:25. | :36:28. | |
a new reader. I don't think there is a significant number of people who | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
will say ?8 is better than ?10 having bought the machine. I don't | :36:33. | :36:35. | |
think that is a significant difference. Is the difference now | :36:36. | :36:38. | |
that people might not like the Kindle as it stands right now, but | :36:39. | :36:44. | |
technology moves so fast, times within months and years they will | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
produce something more akin to the paperback experience but on Kindle? | :36:49. | :36:55. | |
We already have the paperback, Amazon is fatastically ambitious | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
they want to change the world and dominate, and the Kindle hasn't | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
worked as well assam zone wanted it to. -- as Amazon wanted it to | :37:05. | :37:12. | |
America is two years ahead of the UK market, the Kindle is so 2012, some | :37:13. | :37:18. | |
people tried it and liked it and some didn't, and most people | :37:19. | :37:20. | |
completely indifferent. It has settled into a good solid niche, | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
fine from a business point of view, but not good enough for Amazon, they | :37:25. | :37:27. | |
want to take over the world. If something comes up that is genuinely | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
much better than Kindle, you would agree that authors might be a bit | :37:33. | :37:37. | |
luddite? I don't care how it is delivered, I mean they can hire | :37:38. | :37:45. | |
Scarlet Johansson to whisper it in your ear, fine, as long as you hear | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
my story. Books can't get any cheaper than now, it is not feasible | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
to make them any cheaper, they are extremely cheap right now. In | :37:55. | :37:59. | |
Charles Dickens' England they were seen as shameful and reserved only | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
for those suffering extreme destitution, but pawers' funerals | :38:04. | :38:15. | |
not -- paperes' fume recommends are about, local councils have a duty to | :38:16. | :38:20. | |
fund them. It is a sign they are on the rise. It is a sign they are | :38:21. | :38:24. | |
hidden, we have been to Leeds to follow the story of one man's death. | :38:25. | :38:33. | |
At this cemetery in in Leeds they have just buried man on top two of | :38:34. | :38:40. | |
others. Eventually there might be four or five people in this one | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
plot. People who often die alone, without the means to pay for their | :38:46. | :38:58. | |
own burial. This is what used to be called a pauper's grave, and more | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
and more are being dug across the country. This man was someone we | :39:04. | :39:10. | |
wanted to find out about him. There are people who haven't got family or | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
friends or anyone there is sadness there when you are doing it, | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
unfortunately it is part of the job, you know you are helping somebody at | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
the end of the day. Ahead of the funeral, this social worker is | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
overseeing arrangements. Last year in England alone, local councils | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
paid for more than 3,000 people to be buried in this way. I wouldn't | :39:31. | :39:37. | |
like it if somebody I loved or was being buried and nobody else was | :39:38. | :39:45. | |
there. Local councils must bury people whose relatives are unwilling | :39:46. | :39:51. | |
or able to afford their funerals. Bilal has found out that Malcolm had | :39:52. | :40:00. | |
no family and no funds. We know the 64-year-old had lived here and | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
become increasingly reclusive over time. We have come to meet a | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
neighbour, Leslie, who worried when she hadn't seen anything of him for | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
a bit. We know his habits and going to the shop once day, when we hadn't | :40:13. | :40:17. | |
seen him for a couple of days we investigated to see if he was OK. | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
The estate agent that has been helping him out came down with a key | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
and unfortunately we found him dead at the bottom of the cellar stairs. | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
There is something very poignant about the fact that the social | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
workers are involved, the fact that probably it will be the Leeds | :40:35. | :40:38. | |
council who pay for the funeral. Did you hear of any relatives? No. I | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
have never seen visitors go to Malcolm's house at all. No friends, | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
no family or anything. So as far as we were aware had he nobody. It | :40:49. | :40:56. | |
appears Malcolm was an agonisingly shy man. We couldn't find a picture | :40:57. | :41:01. | |
of him anywhere, we knew he was a printer until he was injured in a | :41:02. | :41:04. | |
bicycle accident. He lived here first with his parents and then | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
alone for nearly 40 years after they died, becoming more and more | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
withdrawn. It seems he left nothing. Leslie and her neighbours have | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
raised ?45 for a wreath. The kind of funeral that he will probably have | :41:19. | :41:28. | |
used to be called a paw per's -- pauper's funeral, how do you feel | :41:29. | :41:31. | |
about that? Everybody goes in a box, the sad thing is not having anybody | :41:32. | :41:35. | |
at the funeral, that is why a few neighbours have got together and | :41:36. | :41:43. | |
would like to say goodbye to him. In the past there was a real stigma | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
attached to pauper's funerals. If relatives could afford a Guinea, | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
their loved ones got a shared grave with their names listed on a head | :41:52. | :41:56. | |
stone. But the poorest were wrapped in a sheet, wheeled over from the | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
work house and buried in communal graves. And the numbers are | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
astonishing. Here at Leeds Beckett Street cemetery, 180,000 people lie | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
beneath the grass, many unmarked and unremembered. We are on our way to | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
the cemetery now. We are due there at 2.00. We are trying to make it as | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
good as we can for him really. Tim is the local funeral director, he | :42:24. | :42:26. | |
says he has seen a rise in the number of burials like Malcolm's, | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
paid for by the council. Sometimes the only people who attend are the | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
minister and undertakers. But Malcolm's neighbours are looking out | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
for him. These people who have made the effort, or who will be making | :42:40. | :42:42. | |
the effort to come along to the service thought something about this | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
chap. To have made the arrangements. They have put their hands in the | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
pockets to buy flowers so he didn't go without any flowers, they have | :42:52. | :42:54. | |
spent time talking to the person who license taking the service, and -- | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
who will be taking the service and giving background information. He's | :43:00. | :43:02. | |
somebody who has been respected even though he might have been a loner or | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
someone who liked to keep himself to himself. Pauper's funerals are now | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
called section 46 funerals. Although it is difficult to obtain figure, | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
recent research suggests in England the numbers have gone up nearly 40% | :43:17. | :43:28. | |
in five years. Whilst the state is the last safety net for people like | :43:29. | :43:31. | |
Malcolm, those who have organised the service still want to send him | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
off with as much dignity as funds allow. Another familiar sight on the | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
lane would be Malcolm on his bees Celt, a slim dark-haired man and | :43:42. | :43:47. | |
always clean shaven, but wearing inconspicuous clothes. The minister | :43:48. | :43:52. | |
Victoria Carter believes it is her job to make sure everyone is treated | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
the same in death. We always try our best to try to find out as much | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
information as we can, to try to make the social services funerals | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
just as personal as every other funeral. We Raul like all -- all | :44:07. | :44:17. | |
like to be buried with members of our family, they may have been alone | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
in life at least they are buried with people like them. We now commit | :44:23. | :44:29. | |
Malcolm's body to the ground. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to | :44:30. | :44:36. | |
dust. A section 46 funeral costs Leeds council around ?1700. Most | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
here are buried not cremated because it is cheaper. To him be glory | :44:42. | :44:49. | |
forever. Amen. In England half of the people given a section 46 | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
funeral are under 65. Three-quarters are men. Goodbye Malcolm, go in | :44:54. | :45:05. | |
peace. Margaret and Jennifer are sisters who knew Malcolm as a boy. | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
Do you think there is still a stigma attached to a funeral like this? | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
There shouldn't be, because you know if you believe in God and we do, it | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
doesn't matter whether you have a penny or a million pounds. It | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
doesn't matter to God. What do you think this shy man would have | :45:29. | :45:31. | |
thought about lots of you turning up for his funeral? I think he would | :45:32. | :45:36. | |
have been shocked, to be quite honest. He wouldn't have come. No he | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
wouldn't. He wouldn't have turned up. He wouldn't have come to his own | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
funeral, he would have been too shy. He wouldn't have turned up! When | :45:46. | :45:49. | |
this grave is full, there will be a head stone engraved with the names | :45:50. | :45:55. | |
of all the people inside. For Malcolm Horncastle it will be the | :45:56. | :45:58. | |
mark of a life lived quietly, something to remember him by. | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
That's all we have time for tonight, we end the show with a final bit of | :46:04. | :46:08. | |
home spun wisdom, curtesy of the late, great Robin Williams. Good | :46:09. | :46:18. | |
night. Mork alling Orson, come in Orson, Mork calling Orson, come in | :46:19. | :46:33. | |
Orson, yo battle star gigantic ia. What have you got to report? I don't | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
have much value in this universe, I know a few people are happier than | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
they would have been without me, as long as I have that I'm as happy as | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
I can be. I will catch you next week, nanu-nanu. Some showers | :46:50. | :46:59. | |
through the night and a fresh start to the day. | :47:00. | :47:00. |