Museums at Night

. Museums on Dell is across the country are opening their doors this

weekend for an eternal first double of music, live events and culture. I

am on the windy roof of the National Museum of Scotland to invite you to

the party. -- museums across the country. More than half the

population visited a museum or gallery last year, more people than

watch premiership football matches, so the statistics are impressive. I

want to know what is behind this current craze of culture? Coming

up, photographer Rankin gets down and dirty, turning an allotment into

an art gallery. At London's National Gallery, we go behind-the-scenes for

a sneak preview of the blockbuster show with Andrew Graham-Dixon. Simon

Armitage and Tom Price come overall Attenborough with a safari in a

museum without walls. A Cornishman ties knots in the wind to preserve a

horrible history. And in April, Mat Fraser is moved by Opera. And I show

you why I will never be on Strictly. Of course, a night in Scotland in

summertime starts late. The late sun floods in through the glass roof of

the museum. That is what this festival is all about. We think of

museums as being full of dusty objects, but they are full of

stories, the most extraordinary stories, which places like this can

tell much better than devices like this. But there are challenges, how

do they keep us coming back and wanting more? Through a process of

constant innovation and greater leaps of imagination. Museums At

Night is a great example of them doing just that. Our first stop is

Liverpool. Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce joined the crowds and the

festivities there to ask how museums and galleries have changed our

cities. This is William Brown Street, the epicentre of the Museums

At Night festival in Liverpool. It is fantastically exciting. This

Victorian Plaza is literally ablaze, full of culture. The whole city is

lighting up. The cathedral is eliminated. There are countless

exhibitions and performances across the city. The galleries, the

museums, the streets are packed with people. These big Victorian

buildings are the heart and soul of the city, and the reason that

Museums At Night is so special. To get myself in the mood, I have been

revisiting some of the city's cultural landmarks in daylight. We

live really go in Liverpool, you're never from world-class art. This is

Crosby beach. If you arrive in orderly Liverpool by sea, you do it

under the unblinking gaze of statues by Antony Gormley. They stayed out

to the sea lanes stand which money once poured into the city. Lots of

it was spent on museums and galleries. -- they stare out. Even

in the cold light of day, this 12 acre stretch of art and artefacts is

still impressive, William Brown Street. These galleries and museums

are civic celebrations of immense wealth. They are saying in their

Victorian way, we'll win the world and everything in it. And we are

going to rule the world. The statues are not of local boys. That is

Raphael, that is Michelangelo. This is the new Florence, the new Greece,

this is power. This is a grand reading room. It is a grand

structure with its classic Corinthian columns. People took it

and made it their own. As a kid, I remember that Israeli newspapers

were, so that is where unemployed old men would go to fill out their

betting slips and study the form. Although the street is imposing, it

is not very intimidating. It is a very open, democratic space. As a

kid, you were allowed to come into town because you are agreeing to the

museum. Your mum and dad knew you were safe, and it was warm. Perhaps

that is the strange alchemy of Liverpool. You can bring high

culture here and the city will turn it to popular culture. These

buildings are now the property of the people. In the 20th century, the

end of the Empire, wars, strikes and recession, these turned parts of

Liverpool into a ghost town. I can remember when this was completely

derelict, when it was a dark, for bidding place of cliffs, black

install on. No one could go there. But then, in 1988, I contemporary

art gallery was opened in the Albert Dock. Everybody went, what? That is

the last thing we thought the city needed at that point. A warehouse

full of abstract Expressionism. But culture went where politics had

failed. It eliminated this beautiful shared public space. 75,000 people

visited the gallery in the first two days. Culture is not just for when

you have got an empire. It is for when times are tough. The best art

comes out of the toughest times. That is when we need the solace.

This is the two-year-old Museum of Liverpool. For Museums At Night,

this building is celebrating a little-known local hero. I have

never heard of him, but I know a man who has. This is P Bradley, he is

head of the collectors' club. This is what you do with what he

collects. This was a children's toy, invented by Plimpton and produced in

Liverpool in the 1930s. Back in the day, this was the future. It was

made of a state-of-the-art plastic called Bakelite. This year is the

80th anniversary of the invention. For Museums At Night, the

collectors' club is planning an extravaganza. We have collectors

coming from all over the country, bringing models, like the leaning

Tower of Pisa. We will have a model railway display. Anything you can

think of, someone will have built it. Architects from across the land

have brought their Bakelite dreams to the Museum of Liverpool to be

appreciated. This is the leaning town of Pisa. It is nostalgic, it is

touching, it is a little bit bonkers. But what a great tribute to

its inventor, Charles Plimpton, a Liverpudlian. Nostalgia is part of

the pleasure of museums, but some things from the past are less easy

to love. Take this flyover, a tangle of concrete, but it is playing a

part in cultural drama. It was built in the late 1960s, just behind the

museums of William Brown Street. In its own way, it is a museum piece

now. Some people want to knock it down. This flyover wind the much

coveted concrete Society award. Obviously, it is horrible. It is

falling to pieces, it has weathered badly, and people want to knock it

down. But there is a magic cure that could be woken up. A growing number

of people are beginning to feel the same. There are plans to turn it

into a magical skywalk, wrapping itself around the road system like a

coloured ribbon. That is the role of culture, to find the magic and

things and to wake it up, to make the things we have to live with

beautiful. The flyover with the lights on. I rest my case. It is not

just Liverpool. All over the country, doors are opening to let

people in and ideas out. Artist Spencer Tunick has been

photographing locals on the coast at Folkestone. The English National

Ballet commemorates the First World War at the Imperial War Museum in

Manchester. Public Service Broadcasting are performing. And

masterpieces are being taken all over the place. Big cities, small

villages and everything in between are involved. From Guernsey to the

Isle of Lewis and over 500 venues. You can see some of these events on

our website. So, museums are booming and we love them, but there have

been rumblings of discontent. There have been cut in arts funding and

threats of strike action by some museum staff. What is going on. I

have gathered together a panel the tellers. Bettany Hughes, Jude Kelly,

and Amit Sood, head of Google arts project. Welcome. I want to start

with you. We have heard this boom has been funded by a money and free

admission. Is it sustainable? Yes, it is sustainable because it is not

fuelled by lottery money and free admission. That is a big factor, but

the big factories when you open the doors and welcome people into their

own story of humanity. It is the capacity for them to

own story of humanity. It is the stories in a way that museums can

react to. Then you have an incredible dialogue which is

unstoppable. At one time is -- at one time, museums were talking down

to the public, but now the public are an integral part of how stories

get told. Across the UK, the word museum has stopped being something

that implies shrouded behind dust and closed doors. It is about life

and the possibility of knowing your history. That is an interesting

point. Before, we had this constant conflict with

point. Before, we had this constant Should it be entertaining or

enlightening? Is that a danger that places like this could be places for

entertainment and not enlightenment? I think that they

entertainment and not not mutually exclusive. This is a

entertainment and not storehouse for the collective

memory. There are as many museums as human stories to tell. Tonight is

carnival night, but every culture has a carnival. It is important to

have peaceful moments. We all need to come the museums and listen to

civilisation, to think. Actually, the public are voting with their

feet. 50% of us go to museums every year, 40 million people. You have

made museums part of your life with your Google project. You were

brought up in India. Where the part of your life then? Definitely not,

not in the way that they are now. That is probably the reality for

most of the people who live in -- on this planet. In the West, there has

been a great movement towards making culture part of daily life. That is

picking up in other parts of the world. I do not distinguish between

enlightenment and entertainment. I just want to have access. That is

the bottom line. That is interesting, because people

the bottom line. That is stories thereon. Then they do for

the research. People are becoming stories thereon. Then they do for

Forrester research. -- further research. People start

Forrester research. -- further educating. We do, but there is an

issue. Half of us visited a museum last year, but nearly half of us did

not. What can we do to encourage those people who do not come?

Museums are realising there are realising their massive potential,

around the country, there is this, realising their massive potential,

the storeroom behind realising their massive potential,

these incredible activities that they are starting to do,

these incredible activities that encouraging youth groups and theatre

and medical therapy. In one gallery in London, there was an old man who

went to painting classes and he was knocked over by a car and was in

hospital with no family and he said, will you ring my family? He meant

his art group in the museum. I think these museums are very muscular

places and they will keep on adding to what it means to be human. We're

just at the beginning of something that will get bigger. What in your

mind makes a very successful museum? At play set is welcoming and open

and a place that educates me but where can have fun and I think all

of these words are not easy to accomplish in one visit, which is

why we need to have online competence to carry forward that

experience or the experience before you come here but essentially, there

is no one definition. At least in my book. It should be different things

and different people take from that. Thank you all very much. We will be

back later. Imagine their stash some of the best art in the world is in

the best settings, the Yorkshire sculpture Park, a glorious opener

museum and we are offering sunset safaris around the grounds. We have

a look. Will we survive or be trampled?

If you run a safari tour around the park in this land of, what is the

big game? -- Land Rover. People, very long way to see Henry Merwe. --

come a very long way. One of the beauties of having work like this in

this landscape is you can place them and you get that relationship

between the sculptures and the view across the valley. I remember being

overwhelmed when I first came here, just the size of this landscape and

all the different pieces was incredible. That is one of the

things I like most about this, it takes a lot of pretentiousness and

control out of the art. These pieces must compete with the trees and the

weather and in galleries, but is an environment that is fabricated and

you can end up feeling disconnected from the pieces but here, they have

to take their place amongst the real world. When you were talking to the

people about having work, do you have any say in when it goes? Yes,

luckily. I wanted to be discoverable but not alarming, like a man in the

bushes! We find a space that is but not alarming, like a man in the

flatter and you can have a very good view to the work from a long way

away. Is this your first piece? My first large-scale piece. And the

first PC. Is that exciting? Yes, very. -- piece here. What is

exciting is there is the fact that it is incongruous, this is a street,

urban scene. And why do I think that? Why do I make that assumption?

Urban, that is interesting, it is used in reference to black people or

black music. And yet, but is often the first reaction. City. For me,

the funny thing is the phone. What is going on in your head? I've

really like that. Thanks. -- I do really like that. This is a

galloping horse. Isn't that fantastic? Amazing. This is

amazing. Border. Very colourful. -- Buddha. This is one of your

favourites? I love that when you stand further down, you come over

the hill, the family, and they stop, they are looking at you. And that

contemplation facing your own. I have always felt that the park does

lend itself to that idea because these things are not put away at

night, when we go home, these pieces, particularly, they move

around. They will have picnics and parties and adventures! It just

feels very human and alive. This is such a lovely time, going into

twilight. I do not think I have ever been in here with the bluebells.

This is so magical. This is a fantastic work. Post a bid is called

Outclosure. I have never seen this looking quite so beautiful because

the sun has been high in the sky, but it is coming at you laterally.

-- this piece is called. This is done by hand have a sense of of

being very organic. It is beyond me, really. There is a little hole, just

there. Does take anything away, looking inside? It is not meant to

be seen. No? -- does it take. This place has spoiled me. All of my

favourite things are here. Art and nature. It is breathing at once.

This idea of a safari, putting everything in relationship to each

other, seeing how everything interacts, to get that sense of

space. It is pretty amazing. I think of this as my garden sometimes! It

is pouring down. Shall we go? OK. This is amazing. It is great to hear

voices like this. In the midst of these huge figures. This piece has

been produced by the International Festival, part of their pop-ups is.

-- series. It could be in a library or anywhere, and elevator, because

the idea is to engage people who might not be into the festival by

surprising them with performances. And it is working, definitely.

Composers have been And it is working, definitely.

setting it to their own music. This is a celebration of that. This

setting it to their own music. This girl, boy loves girl. And Chris

Elliott, singing. By Richard Wagner. What do you think of the show? It is

great. This is a fantastic invention. Museum is all about

stories and we are susceptible to stories. And it works well at night?

I am a night-time person. I do feel different in this museum because it

is a night-time. I am more amenable to everything. It feels less

stuffy, which is silly. You spend a lot of time in museums, you have a

show about museums? About 15 years ago, it was the research centre at

Leicester University that realised that this ability was one of the

areas that could do with an upgrade. Let us face it, most

museums have an old, Victorian view of the world. And people get left

behind and their voice of the world. And people get left

Disabled people are some of those people. I was commissioned to do

this Cabinet of curiosities, about how disability is being kept in the

box. And I talk about freak shows and my head singles, if you will!

They are, let us face it! And I try to assert that all museums, to

really upgrade stuff, we're not asking for a radical change but in

the collections and exhibits, there are artefacts steeped in the history

of visibility. Museums only tell one part of the story? Exactly. And my

remit was to suggest and knowledge ways that museums have been going

forward. But in Leeds, they are very good. The way that they can explain

these artefacts, not these old sentences of information. This is

about interacting, what you think about the thing and the impact.

These modern ways that museums do to really improve the experience. Thank

you very much. I will see you later. I hope so. What about these other

stories? Who will tell them? The Story Museum in Cardiff is taking

this challenge on by taking traditional curating and turning it

on its head. Artist Janette Parris is here to hear it a special

exhibition for Museums at Night. She will take inspiration from everyday

objects in the Story Museum. Donated by members of the public. I like

this museum because it tells the story of Cardiff and the history and

the history of the local people of Cardiff. She has asked more than 40

artists to create works of art based on objects in the museum. This

object, this is a Yemeni dagger, and a belt, one of my favourite objects.

This is about two different cultures mixing together. She will write a

song about this dagger to be performed. We have donated this

dagger as a reminder of the community that are here in the early

1930s. My father came, he settled down, he saved up some shillings and

he opened up his own cafe and restaurant. He met my mother. They

got married. My mother's family were not too happy because he was a

foreigner. But once they got to know him, they accepted him and they took

to him. This object, I gave this to the artist to recreate. A few years

ago he gritted his alter ego and he goes by the name of Dawn. This is a

very interesting project because it does relate to my transgender alter

ego. And this feather headdress is a very fantastic thing. The sensuality

about this is extraordinary. And painting the beauty and the

essential as of the feathers and the softness, something you want to

wear. I will have this image floating in the sky, like a feather

headdress become a slightly alien creature come to show off its glory

and beauty. And that is actually in that beautiful piece. It all but

miraculously survived a German bombing in World War II is the next

object. The shackle a doll. Dolls creep me out a little bit. This will

be a strange experience, staring up this to create this. I like to

create celebrity injury using everyday items find Randy has, so

food products or toast. I will use a blowtorch to burn his face into the

toast. Like this. This will make his eye. And with more detail, you can

get the rest of the nose and his face. Jeanette has chosen a film

about a local legend to inspire her other piece of work. It happens to

be on, this is fortunate. This is about Tommy, who was a fishmonger up

until the age of 82. He loved the dogs, and the people. He loved every

one of them. Tom, do you want a cup of tea, do you want this? It was not

like going to work. It was home from home. He would pick up different

languages, and eventually he was quite good. He was quite good at

Arabic. He even had a go at Chinese. He had a go at that. Jeanette is

turning Tommy's story into a cartoon, voiced by a comedian. The

sea, and you have to go. That is quite hard to see in a Welsh accent.

How would Richard Burton said? The big night is fast approaching. --

Burton say it. Local musicians are rehearsing the song about the

dagger. The new contemporary works of art are now ready to take their

place in the museum's display cabinets. Although it is a

contemporary painting, it has some traditional aspects about it. I

think it is exciting. I thought if I put lots of black around the edges,

it would make a nice contrast with the middle, and make the face stand

out more. It gives the different textures. When use the collar of the

sea, you have to go. Tiger Bay, hot fish and chips, on its way. The

exhibition has just opened. If you would like to see the animation

about Tommy the fishmonger, you can catch it online from Monday on the

website. I must admit to a bit of a TV crash. I love Andrew

Graham-Dixon. That is why we dispatched him to the National

Gallery and London, for a very private viewing of masterpieces. He

tried to convince to A-level students that M Brandt -- you try to

convince two A-level students that Rembrandt is the man. The National

Gallery at night can be an eerie, unnerving place.

The crowds have gone for the day, and yet, you're still surrounded by

faces. Old faces, young faces, petrifying faces. It is easy to

believe you're not alone. And I am glad to say, I am not. Debbie Daniel

and Megan Poulton are A-level art students from Mossbourne Academy in

Hackney and we are here for a special audience with one of the

greatest portrait painters who ever lived. Here we are. I want you to

meet an old friend of mine. I think of him as a friend anyway, Rembrandt

himself. Rembrandt produced over 80 self-portraits and each one

encapsulates a different chapter in his extraordinary life. He was

actually a young-ish man when he painted this picture, wearing his

very best clothes. Do you notice his hand innocently leaning on a ledge?

That is a kind of coded message, because there was a famous painting

by an Italian artist called Titian of a famous poet. Poets were looked

up to in a way that painters were not looked up to, especially in

Holland. Painting himself like that was Rembrandt's way of telling

everybody, I am a painter, and painters are every bit as important

poets. Look up to us, look up to me. What do you think of the look in his

eyes? It is like he has asked you a question and he is expecting an

answer. He has an eyebrow raised. What do you think the emotion is? It

is almost like he is posing, putting up a facade, like a front, but when

I look into his eyes, I almost see pain and sadness, like something is

going on with him, but he is trying to hide it. That is what I see as

well. When you look in his eyes, maybe everything is not quite right.

There is an explanation for Rembrandt's sadness in a nearby

painting of his wife. She is dressed up as the goddess of flowers,

fertility and spring. He has painted her in the persona of flora. The

painting is a kind of lucky charm for their marriage. The hope is that

she will be many children, just as spring bears many flowers. It seems

to be going with the hope of children, and love, and happiness.

And yet it is a very sad painting. Not only would a lot of those

children die young, but she died very young as well, within a few

years of the picture being painted. After his wife's death, Rembrandt

was devastated. Within ten years, he had put himself back together again.

To worse the end of his life, he produced some of his most passionate

portraits. These faces still speak to us across the centuries. I became

Rembrandt painted this picture, he was nearly 63 years old, he has not

got long to go in his life. He has been financially ruined, he has lost

his house. It is really quite bleak for him. What do you think of this

phase? He is very honest. I think he puts a lot of his emotions and life

into his paintings. You really feel you're in the presence of

somebody's feelings. It is like a piece of motion hanging on the wall,

not just an image. Rembrandt ended his life alone and impoverished, but

many of his portraits expressed the wealth and power of 17th-century

Amsterdam. Tonight we are being allowed behind the scenes at the

gallery for a private viewing of the portrait that has not been seen by

the public for over six years. It has been restored to its original

glory. As ever with Rembrandt, things are not always as they seem.

Here it is. You have been working on a massive Rembrandt. It is a very

exciting picture. It is impressive because it is unusual for him to do

a big equestrian portrait. The exciting thing we learned a few

years ago is that there is another painting underneath it, I completely

different one. This is when you prepared earlier. Have a look. This

is the x-ray of what is underneath the surface of the painting. In this

case, you can see the shape of the sitter. If you turn the thing 90

degrees, you can see there is another figure, so this can this has

been reused. To me, it looks like the same figure. We cannot be sure,

but it is the same sort of face. If it is the original person, it seems

that the first one is quite modest, he is standing by a at his home. It

makes you wonder if he saw this more modest version of a country squire

and said, no, I want more. Rembrandt thought, I better do what he says.

One of the wonderful things about seeing a painting in this situation,

almost on the operating table, you get a sense of what it is about.

Rembrandt is about tremendous baldness. What do you think when you

look up at that phase? He is really confident, in a composed way. I know

I am the man. I like that. I have really enjoyed going round with you.

I am really glad that you like my friend. There will be a major

Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery in the autumn.

Blockbuster is a word we have associated with action movies and

superheroes, but now it is regularly used to describe exhibitions.

They are much needed to generate cash, but at what cost? I am very

biased. Our Blockbuster gave me my life as I know it. I was five years

old, and some wanted me to the Tutankhamen exhibition at the

British Museum. It was very boring, and we queued for hours. But I

remember that moment when I walked in, and there was this boy king

covered in gold. All the fairy tales I have heard, they are true. I did

not go to any museums for the rest of my childhood, but that moment

made me want to be a historian. The modern Blockbuster has a problem. It

is expensive to get into, ?16 a ticket. When you get in, you can

only see the back of other peoples heads. Museums and galleries

released of people in. The quality of the experience can be dreadful.

Museums are thinking about how to deal with it. But the thing that

happens is that people share a story and they speak about the story they

have seen together. In some respects, the Blockbuster takes over

from the Saturday night show. There are other kinds of blockbusters that

I am interested in. We did a festival of deaths. It was massively

successful. Thousands of people came, but they came, but became four

different experiences. Was it free? 50% of it was free. In one museum,

we put on a massive exhibition, people had to pay. On the other side

of the gallery, it was free, and it was deserted. We have done this

thing called Vikings Live. We take the exhibition to cinemas around the

country. You still pay ?15. It is not free, but it is like a private

viewing, and you can see the objects. It is important for things

to be free, for people to have tasters of the cannot afford it. One

area which is almost always free is online. Is there such a thing as a

cultural Blockbuster online? The closest thing I guess you get to

Blockbuster online is a viral video of the cat or a child doing

something funny. There are blockbusters online, but all the

true cultural Blockbuster is? We are in the early days of what is

possible, extending the life of the Blockbuster from the physical to the

digital. That is exciting. One of the problems is the reverse of

that. People go to these blockbusters and one of the reasons

it is so stock is because they are looking down at the device, or they

have an ideal thing in, and in a way, technology is going -- slowing

the thing down. I think people are trying to work out the right way to

engage people in a physical environment using digital

technology. No one has figured it out perfectly. It will take

innovation and experimentation. Some people will get it right and some

will get it wrong. The ones who get it right well make more

blockbusters. What about this extraordinary thing of being able to

see the object and have it explained that the same time. What can

technology do for museums? Are we just in the free tells of what can

be achieved? No doubt. We have got to collaborate. Museums and Google

have got to speak together. Museums are never going to go. We have been

collecting objects for 50,000 years. We have been putting them around in

our homes. We will always want that live experience with the real thing.

I think we will move forward. We will have museums and technology. I

want to make it clear. You cannot live without the live experience.

People think that the online experience. People coming the

museums, but we have seen some of the highest growth in museum

attendance when stuff is happening online. What do you mean by the

transition from the physical to the digital? You're sitting at home, you

do not have time to go to the museum, but can you still get a

taste of culture online. We do not go to a website every morning. We

taste of culture online. We do not not go to a news website. We do not

taste of culture online. We do not go to the Tate Gallery website and

check for artwork. That is the exciting part, when it incorporates

into your daily life. Were going to have to stop there. Thank you.

Millions of us visit his aims and galleries every year but millions do

not. If people cannot come to a museum, should we take museums to

them? That is exactly what Rankin has done. He turned an allotment

site into an art gallery. And against the clock! These are

brilliant, I think. That is wonderful. Very flattering. Some

lipstick! Ragan's subjects are drawn from the world of pop, politics and

fashion. I love this image. I like the quirkiness. Madonna? Debbie

Harry! Very glamorous. During Museums at Night, he will turn to

the green fingered folk of Nottingham. Over one day, he will

show a photographic exhibition right here at St Anne's Allotments. I

first got my allotment in 1972. We did not have a garden. I had for

young children and I said to my wife, I am going to grow my own

food. When factory supervisor Charlie was made redundant at 55,

his allotment became more than a source of food. I am not one to sit

and vegetate, if I did not have this, I would not be here. I would

be dead and buried. I love it, everyday. These are one of the

world's oldest. On this last 75 acre site, over 555 gardeners dig and

prune all year round. -- round. My husband and myself are going to be

in a portrait together. He is a love of my life. He is the man who saved

me. We spent every Sunday here together. I hope he can capture just

a little bit of our relationship, really. There is the manager for the

programme that teachers inner-city children to play musical

instruments. These gardens are in the heart of one of the places that

I think a few years ago had troubles, problems with gangs. A lot

of people here do not realise they have this amazing site in the middle

of the city. When I walked, it was such wonderful atmosphere, very

peaceful, considering we are in the city. It was like stepping into the

past. Retired drama teacher Pat Robertson has found a new lease of

life in her 60s. I have done 14 marathons around the world but I am

so glad that I keep fit because the allotment is hard work.

The challenge will be to capture this bread, history and character of

this unique place. And in one day. Keep smiling! Nice to meet you. Just

step up, just there. That is great. I love that. I am sorry. I never do

not wear lipstick! Irony enjoy the fact that you meet so many different

characters doing what I do. -- I really enjoy. Having a laugh,

getting them to give you something and you have people who are quite

shy, people are very outgoing, and that is what is great about this, it

is never the same. I was expecting someone to be very officious. But he

made me feel very comfortable. He was saying nice things. That helped

me. That is better. Smile. I just love this. Did you build that? Yes.

You said those trees? He has a right attitude towards people. He talks to

you. Mike Hedges known you for years. -- like he has no new. --

known you. Just a little bit. He is quite short. Nothing wrong with

that! Very determined. They try harder, apparently! I definitely try

harder! You never know what to expect. It was quicker than I

expected. It was done in no time. Yes, I was more nervous. I feel very

privileged to have had the chance to meet everyone. I am overwhelmed.

Hopefully, I did something that people will look at and it will

capture the spirit of the place and the people. I just look at this and

say, there is a spirit here and I can feel it. I think is -- my thing

is, if I can get something out of this, this is a good photograph,

that is all I can do and all of the people outside will come in and they

do not like that, I can handle that. I just did the best I could do. --

and if they do not like it. It was great, yes. He made me look

20 years older! I love that! I made sure that I was looking up. It was

lovely. The whole exhibition is fantastic. Yes. The people make this

place. That is what you can see in this.

Such a very lovely, calm group of people. I should get an allotment,

sort my head I'd! -- out! OK, he was a pencil and we might take this for

granted. But try telling that to the Museum of pencils in Cumbria, and

there is also a museum for dog collars and Oriental plasterwork and

lawn mowers in stock would. We went to some of these to meet some of the

men and women who are so passionate about preserving history, they do it

for free. Summoning the wind is a very old form of magic, it involves

a windy day, putting the wind into the rope and you put this to a

sailor and when he once wind, he will on Taiwan of these knots. --

and tie. -- untie one of these knots. Come one through. Graham, who

has curated this collection for 28 years, believes that magical charms

have been part of our lives. This museum is important because it

covers an area of folklore and history that is ignored by almost

every other museum. There are nearly 4000 artefacts you, from charms to

historical archives. People seem to think we are some sort of shrine to

evil. We are not. We shall curses and charms. Witchcraft or pagan

magic has been practised in Europe for centuries and it was not judged

to be Satanic until the 15th century. The state, fearing a spread

of heresy, made it measurable by death. One of the more poignant and

powerful displays in this museum is this list of 1000 names and we could

have had more, people who would have been executed. It has to be said,

they were mainly poor woman. We had Matthew Hopkins, the witch finder

general. He made his living by persecuting these people. Joyce and

Graham do not I into this fairy tale idea of an evil which but they

believe that the supernatural has always been part of our lives. This

peddler effigy, mass produced during the war, was used to curse the

archenemy. It is very ancient magic but it is also something that is

continually reinvented and made relevant to the time that it occurs.

It is a way for people to cope with the challenges of their lives.

Something that gives them courage and hope and, essentially, it is a

very positive force. So, we're going to draw on the magic of the candle,

filling this museum with candles and our objects will look amazing. On

the other side of the country, Doctor Mike ridges will be burning a

different kind of light. Gaslight. Welcome to the Museum of Gas and

local history. There was once a time and every time had a gas works but

this is the last of its type. It might have just rotted away but

today, it is an ancient monument. They are keen to tell visitors that

before the discovery of North Sea gas, the country was fuelled by gas

extracted from coal. When we get children coming here, someone who

has never seen coal, we must explain what it is. And how the process

works but it becomes caulk. -- by which. When gas came about, and made

a tremendous difference. All these things have a tremendous effect on

the lives of women. One of the phrases I have heard most frequently

altered by women when they come here is, I had one like that when I was

first married! What we have here is Victorian technology and domestic

nostalgia. When all the dials and clocks have stopped, museums like

this one keep history alive, even in its smellier corners. From Museums

at Night, their shrines Gaslight as the porn from Robert Lee Stevenson

is recited. We're very lucky with the lab before the dawn and before

you hurry by with your ladder, see a little child and nod to him tonight.

This is a first. This is a Silent Disco. Headphones on! Yes! OK, thank

you all. And to everybody here Abbey National Museum of Scotland for a

terrific evening. It is about time we find out who looks good on the

dance floor! Life that audition for stricter come dancing! -- Strictly

Come Dancing. Because I'm happy! Museums at Night continues after

this online. Martha Carney is at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester.

Bill will be talking about biplanes. And Public Service Broadcasting will

perform at the RAF Museum in Henley. Join us from ABM on the website. --

from 8pm. Because I'm happy... There we have it, museums or enjoying a

golden age and if they continue to surprise and enlighten us connect

with us, we will continue to come here because they are our great

houses of ideas and knowledge that will shape us and our lives.