0:00:07 > 0:00:08At the age of 14...
0:00:10 > 0:00:13..when me and the other kids in the D stream,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17we were put on a bus and we were taken out to see the bottle factory.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Many of us would gain employment and stay there until we were 65
0:00:23 > 0:00:25and be given a gold watch and thank you very much,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27if you lasted that long.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31# Any father would be glad to know
0:00:33 > 0:00:38# You went further than he'd dared to go
0:00:39 > 0:00:43# He would forgive you that you dared to dream... #
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I always would go into books for peace,
0:00:48 > 0:00:49go to a different world,
0:00:49 > 0:00:51where everything was all right.
0:00:53 > 0:00:54# Don't say a word... #
0:00:55 > 0:00:58I felt like a dickhead for even thinking I could be a writer.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06This working-class kid from Liverpool,
0:01:06 > 0:01:08who dropped out of school when he was 15,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11would become a musician, songwriter,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and one of Britain's most beloved and successful playwrights.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17His name is Willy Russell.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21# Tell me it's not true...
0:01:21 > 0:01:24He wrote the play and composed the songs for Blood Brothers,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27one of the longest-running musicals in West End history.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32And he has had the balls to write some of the most memorable
0:01:32 > 0:01:36and insightful female characters in British theatre history...
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Hiya, wall.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41..including Shirley Valentine...
0:01:41 > 0:01:43What's wrong with that?
0:01:43 > 0:01:46..and a role I played in a film called Educating Rita.
0:01:48 > 0:01:49For God's sake, come in.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54I'm coming in, aren't I, it's that stupid bleeding handle on the door,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56you want to get it fixed.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Willy and I go way back.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Willy will soon be turning 70.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06It has been a long, long time since I've played this riff.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10It's time for a fresh look at his creative legacy.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23Liverpool Lime Street.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27This is where I fell in love with Liverpool.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29June 14th,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31my first day of professional work.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Got off the train,
0:02:33 > 0:02:34absolutely laden with bags,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38and this woman came to me and said, "Come here, love,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40"them bags are too heavy for you, let me carry them."
0:02:42 > 0:02:43Fell in love.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55My destination in Liverpool was a place called the Everyman Theatre.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59It was where Willy and I first met,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02and where our professional dreams would begin to come true.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Willy was a resident writer at the Everyman,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08which was leading a theatrical revolution
0:03:08 > 0:03:11that put working-class voices centre stage,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and overthrew the idea that theatre was the exclusive preserve
0:03:15 > 0:03:16of the middle class.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22The extraordinary ensemble of actors I was part of
0:03:22 > 0:03:25included Jonathan Pryce,
0:03:25 > 0:03:26Bill Nighy,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Pete Postlethwaite, and others.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35My first thought upon meeting Willy was, what extraordinary hair!
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Willy! Oh, my God.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44LAUGHING: Stop!
0:03:46 > 0:03:48THEY LAUGH
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Hiya, sweetheart.
0:03:50 > 0:03:51Awww!
0:03:51 > 0:03:54- It's so lovely to see you. - And so lovely to see you.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56Where's your lovely hair gone?
0:03:56 > 0:03:57It's all gone, look.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58- No...- Yeah, it's all gone.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00- Ooh, it looks fab, actually. - Thank you, darling.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03- Good colour.- I modelled it on yours. - Yes, of course. I see that.
0:04:03 > 0:04:04Obviously inspired you.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06- Look at this.- What's that?
0:04:06 > 0:04:07There we go.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08HE LAUGHS
0:04:11 > 0:04:14# We may be mad, we may be sad
0:04:14 > 0:04:18# But we'll keep it in the family... #
0:04:19 > 0:04:21The grandeur of the Philharmonic pub
0:04:21 > 0:04:24is just downstream from the Everyman.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27So this was my local.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31And sometimes after a show down the road it would be mob-handed in here.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35The Everyman was at the centre of that revolution.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37What were your goals, then?
0:04:37 > 0:04:39I mean, did you want to entertain,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42or did you want to change people's lives,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43or cause a social revolution?
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Or did you just want to pick up women? I don't know.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47HE LAUGHS
0:04:47 > 0:04:49Certainly the latter. No, I didn't,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52- because I was with Annie at the time, anyway.- Yes, of course.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55You wanted to do all that.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58My initial thing was, thinking back, I mean,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00I wanted to be world-famous, probably.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02- As all young writers want to be, you know?- Yes.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Liverpool is a city often pushed to extremes.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10In the 1970s and '80s,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13its back was up against a wall of urban decay,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16union-busting, and industrial turmoil.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Regional theatres were emboldened to challenge the deep despair
0:05:21 > 0:05:23associated with Britain's class divide.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30What do you think made that period, that Everyman period, unique?
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Money was put into theatre.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36- Yeah.- It meant that theatres like the Everyman
0:05:36 > 0:05:40could have a company of 15, 18 actors.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42Because the theatres were decently funded...
0:05:43 > 0:05:45..the directors could take a chance!
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Long before Willy dared dream of being a playwright,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54in 1961, at the age of 14,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57he had a musical encounter that changed his life.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00I walked into the Cavern for the first time
0:06:00 > 0:06:04and saw, you know, this incredible thing called the Beatles.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07- Yeah.- You know? And people with accents writing songs.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11And, oh, maybe it is possible, you know, for me to do something!
0:06:13 > 0:06:16The Beatles would be the subject of Willy's first breakthrough musical
0:06:16 > 0:06:17for the Everyman.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23The first thing I saw when I walked in here, in June 1974,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25was John, Paul, George, Ringo...& Bert.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27It was brilliant.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33The musical told the story of the rise and break-up of the Fab Four
0:06:33 > 0:06:34from Liverpool.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40And there were people in the audience here that first night
0:06:40 > 0:06:44who thought it was the Beatles really getting together
0:06:44 > 0:06:46- at the Everyman Theatre. - Oh, no!
0:06:46 > 0:06:49I say don't be an idiot, man, we've got to stick together.
0:06:49 > 0:06:50The money men are moving in.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Look, we could end up on the scrapheap after all.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57It was titled in this very pub.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01- Was it?- I was at the bar...- The Philharmonic!- ..with Alan Dosser,
0:07:01 > 0:07:02and we said...
0:07:02 > 0:07:04I outlined my idea,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07there'd be this other character in it, this narrator character.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09The Beatles.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Remember them, do you?
0:07:12 > 0:07:15They were a group from Liverpool.
0:07:15 > 0:07:16Everybody knew them once.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20The story of the Beatles is narrated by the character named Bert.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23The Beatles had got caught up in the power game.
0:07:24 > 0:07:25The money game.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28The play opened at the Everyman,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30and went on to become a smash West End hit...
0:07:32 > 0:07:34..and launched Willy's career as a playwright.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39So, Willy, what were the obstacles
0:07:39 > 0:07:43between you and what you aspired to be when you were young?
0:07:44 > 0:07:46I mean, as a kid, you know...
0:07:46 > 0:07:49If you had gone in our house and said, I'm going to the theatre,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52my dad would have gone, what, Noel bloody Coward and all that lot?
0:07:52 > 0:07:53Don't be so daft! You know...
0:07:55 > 0:07:57Willy was already writing and performing his own songs
0:07:57 > 0:07:59with a folk group called the Movers.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02To avoid working in a factory,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05he took a day job as a women's hairdresser.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09# Jimmy got married
0:08:09 > 0:08:11# to Judy or Jean... #
0:08:12 > 0:08:16A new girlfriend would turn him on to the theatre.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20I started going out with this girl,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23called Ann, Annie.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25She'd say something like, I'm going to see such and such and such
0:08:25 > 0:08:28at the Playhouse on Saturday. You know. I've got two tickets.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31So, I mean, I was trying to get off with her, you know?
0:08:31 > 0:08:33- Yeah!- I'll come to the theatre!
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Was there a playwright or a play that you saw
0:08:35 > 0:08:38that really sparked off some inspiration in those days?
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Shortly afterwards,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45Annie and I saw a John McGrath piece called Unruly Elements.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47In the mansions,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50in the mansions and rectors' well-ordered homes,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52there've been unruly elements.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55The whole thing was written in a scouse,
0:08:55 > 0:09:00but a kind of heightened, surreal, Liverpudlian idiom...
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Cook up a din-din, scoff for a trough,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05hug him and fug him and drop a few piglets.
0:09:05 > 0:09:11..revealing that ordinary, everyday vernacular
0:09:11 > 0:09:14can be capable of carrying great big themes,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and that's what John McGrath was doing with Unruly Elements.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21- Yes.- And that struck an absolutely massive chord for me.
0:09:21 > 0:09:27And, well, led me, in fact, to start trying to write for the theatre.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30In the Liverpool of the 1970s,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33the political humour of John McGrath
0:09:33 > 0:09:35was performed as one-act plays of theatrical subversion.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39- Eh, Dad.- What?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41They're knocking down the pie shop.
0:09:41 > 0:09:42Yeah?
0:09:43 > 0:09:44You don't seem very upset.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Oh, don't I?
0:09:46 > 0:09:49I thought they were your favourites, Palicier's pies?
0:09:49 > 0:09:51When I could afford them.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55It's the relentless advance of monopoly capitalism.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57SHE HUMS The Wedding March
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Hey! Eh! Palicier's porkpie shop
0:10:02 > 0:10:05had to be destroyed in accordance
0:10:05 > 0:10:08with the growth of a larger and larger businesses,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11as foreseen by Marx in the 1850s.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16How much of your, you know, your finding your voice and everything,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18when you started writing,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21how much of that was fuelled by anger, do you think?
0:10:21 > 0:10:23When I came to write Educating Rita, for example,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26I was fantastically angry,
0:10:26 > 0:10:32because when I tried to get back into education at the age of 21...
0:10:33 > 0:10:35..I was told, categorically,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38I remember being in the Council offices in Liverpool...
0:10:39 > 0:10:42..asking for a grant to do O-levels and A-levels,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and getting, finally getting this interview with this guy.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47He listened to my shtick, and he said to me...
0:10:49 > 0:10:52"What gives you the right to think you've got a second chance?"
0:10:53 > 0:10:55"You buggered up your years at school.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58"There are no more chances, son."
0:10:58 > 0:10:59- No!- Oh, yeah.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02They wouldn't give me a grant.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05I went and worked cleaning the girders in Fords,
0:11:05 > 0:11:06during the shutdown.
0:11:06 > 0:11:1235 feet above all this factory equipment with rickety old ladders.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16And I had enough money after three weeks of this
0:11:16 > 0:11:20- to pay my course fees for the rest of the year.- God!
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Willie eventually got his levels,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24gave up being a hairdresser,
0:11:24 > 0:11:25and qualified to teach.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29- You know I've always liked to write about kids.- Yeah.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31And certainly write for kids,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34so it was great for me to be able to do that.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Not far from his Liverpool neighbourhood,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39known as the Dingle, in Toxteth,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Willie worked as a remedial teacher for several years.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Ah! Pigeons!
0:11:46 > 0:11:49This local resident attended the school where Willie once taught.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52- Flown on Saturday. - Oh, wow!
0:11:52 > 0:11:56And then you fly up to, 500, 600, 700 miles, 1,000 miles,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00up to Scotland, a thousand miles in a day. But these are only babies.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02They stop off on the way, don't they?
0:12:02 > 0:12:03Yeah.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05On the way up to Scotland.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Did you see my film about the kids from Shorefields,
0:12:09 > 0:12:10called Our Day Out?
0:12:10 > 0:12:13It was about all the kids going out to Wales for a day.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16They end up lifting the animals from Colwyn Bay zoo.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18- Yeah.- Willie wrote that. - Did you write that?- Yeah.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21- Loads of kids around this area were in that.- Very good.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Right, just stop there.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28- Don't move. - Miss said we could get on.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30- Oh, did she now?- ALL: Yeah.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Well, let me tell yous lads something now.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Miss isn't the driver of this coach.
0:12:35 > 0:12:36I am.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Can we talk a bit, Willie, about Our Day Out?
0:12:38 > 0:12:41I mean, I saw it again just recently,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and I have to say, it still totally stands up.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I love it as a film.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49A lot of you wouldn't have been on a school visit before.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51So you won't know how to enjoy yourselves.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53So I'll tell you.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Listen, everybody.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59As a sort of extra bonus,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03we've decided to call in here and let you have an hour at the zoo.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04CHEERING
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Being a young teacher,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09I'd been on a trip very similar to that with a woman,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11a great teacher called Dorothy King,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13who was the prototype for Mrs Kay,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15and the same thing had happened.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18They'd sent a deputy head along, to try and control things.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Have we forgotten something?
0:13:25 > 0:13:27- Are you supposed to be in charge of this lot?- Why? What's the matter?
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Children?! They're not bloody children, they're animals!
0:13:30 > 0:13:32It's not the zoo out there, it's a bloody zoo in here.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Would you mind controlling your language
0:13:34 > 0:13:36- and telling me what's going on? - Right. Come on, where are they?
0:13:36 > 0:13:38- ALL: What?- Call yourselves teachers?
0:13:38 > 0:13:41- You can't even control them.- Now, look, this has just gone far enough.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Will you tell me exactly what you want, please?
0:13:43 > 0:13:45CLUCKING
0:13:49 > 0:13:51Right.
0:13:51 > 0:13:52And now I want the rest.
0:13:52 > 0:13:53GROANS
0:13:58 > 0:14:00QUIET CHIRPING AND SQUEAKING
0:14:04 > 0:14:06BLEATING
0:14:06 > 0:14:07BIRD CALLS
0:14:13 > 0:14:16I wrote the whole thing in four and a half days.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21We bring them to a crumbling pile of bricks and mortar,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23and they think they're in the fields of heaven.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25You are on their side, aren't you?
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Absolutely, Mr Briggs, absolutely.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33You won't educate them, because nobody wants them educating!
0:14:33 > 0:14:36- Listen, Mrs Kay... - No, you listen, Mr Briggs!
0:14:37 > 0:14:41If these kids and all the others like them had real learning,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44the factories of England would empty overnight.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46And don't you try and tell me that
0:14:46 > 0:14:48there's kids that, given the choice,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50would still stand on production lines and empty bins.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55There would be more TV commissions...
0:14:57 > 0:14:58..all of which were set in Liverpool,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01with stories that centred around working-class families
0:15:01 > 0:15:02and communities.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07A recurring theme begins to emerge in Willie's work,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11and can be found in the made-for-TV play, Terraces.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13An individual refuses to conform to the pressures...
0:15:13 > 0:15:15All right, Sue, love, can we have a word with Danny?
0:15:15 > 0:15:18..or expectations of family or friends.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23I mean, OK, you don't want to be bothered painting the house,
0:15:23 > 0:15:24so what we've decided, Danny,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27is a few of the lads and myself have agreed that we'll do it for you.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30When neighbours decide to paint their homes yellow
0:15:30 > 0:15:32to honour the colour of the local football team...
0:15:32 > 0:15:33We'll get cracking, then.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36One resident dares to refuse.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38- Eddie.- What's that, Del?
0:15:38 > 0:15:41You lay one hand, one finger on an inch of this brickwork,
0:15:41 > 0:15:42and I'll have the coppers on you.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44- Danny?- Danny, we're offering to do your favour.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47We'll even paint it back to normal when the final's over.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49- No, thanks.- I wouldn't push it too far, Danny.
0:15:49 > 0:15:50I'm not pushing it at all.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Listen, mate. We came around here to make things OK between us.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55If you want to start being unreasonable...
0:15:56 > 0:15:57I'm warning you.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59They won't play with me.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03They said our house is a house for freaks.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05CRYING
0:16:07 > 0:16:08See?!
0:16:10 > 0:16:13See what you and your stupid bloody ways have done?
0:16:14 > 0:16:15He's a brilliant character.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19But at the same time, you can see what a nightmare it is for his wife,
0:16:19 > 0:16:20- can't you?- Oh, yes.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23You can't blame his wife for what she does, and what the kids do,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27- cos the kids go through hell because of him, you know?- Yeah.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28No!
0:16:39 > 0:16:40Me leg!
0:16:40 > 0:16:42If you look at Terraces,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46you could see it almost as a Western, a mini-Western,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48- couldn't you?- Yes, yeah.- You know,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53the single dude standing against the crowd for what he believes in.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03I always thought there was something about you, now I know what it is.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05You need treatment, you do, do you know that?
0:17:05 > 0:17:06You're soft in the head, son.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12I've never been blind to the fact, when we behave tribally,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14that people can easily be turned,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16especially en masse.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25It has been a long, long time since I've played this riff.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34# Tell my mama not to wait for me
0:17:34 > 0:17:37# I got a job with the MSC
0:17:37 > 0:17:40# As a shoe shine-y boy... #
0:17:42 > 0:17:43# And I can shine those shoes
0:17:43 > 0:17:45# So the shoes will shine
0:17:45 > 0:17:47# Like the sunshine shining on the local line
0:17:47 > 0:17:49# I'm a shoe shine-y boy... #
0:17:53 > 0:17:54The film Dancing Through The Dark
0:17:54 > 0:17:56was based on the play Stags And Hens,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58written by Willie in 1978.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02It also featured his talents as a songwriter,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06and his uncanny skill at writing strong female characters.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17I was fortunate enough to get my foot in the door at the Everyman,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19and just as the Everyman was rife
0:18:19 > 0:18:22with world, kind of, social politics,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25it was the beginnings, for me,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27of notions of feminism.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31It was the first place I ever heard that notion discussed, you know?
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Yes, yeah.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Somebody said of a very early play of mine,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38it's a bit sexist, isn't it?
0:18:38 > 0:18:39And I thought they meant sexy.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41SHE LAUGHS
0:18:41 > 0:18:42It's not sexy at all.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44And I learnt very fast about all that.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47So do you think you're a feminist? Or were you a feminist, then?
0:18:47 > 0:18:49- Did you become one? - I think, naturally,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52I was naturally inclined to be but I have some of those male...
0:18:52 > 0:18:53ignorances, you know...
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Again, we're talking about the late '60s, early '70s.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Stags And Hens was written before Educating Rita...
0:19:00 > 0:19:01Right, girls.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04..but also has a Rita-like character named Linda.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Right, here we go.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09One for you.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11One for you.
0:19:11 > 0:19:12None for you.
0:19:12 > 0:19:13Oh, hey, why don't I get one?
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Bride-to-be.
0:19:15 > 0:19:16At her hen party...
0:19:16 > 0:19:18You can have mine, Linda...
0:19:18 > 0:19:20..deep doubts about her wedding plans,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24and the life of a housewife which awaits her begin to take hold.
0:19:24 > 0:19:25LAUGHTER
0:19:28 > 0:19:30So that's what you call a blow job!
0:19:30 > 0:19:31LAUGHTER
0:19:33 > 0:19:34I love being out with you lot.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38Sometimes you don't half bring me down.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41You just never do what you want to do, any of you.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43You just do what you're told to do.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45I think that was the only play I ever wrote
0:19:45 > 0:19:48which came from an idea for a set...
0:19:49 > 0:19:51- Oh, right, really? - ..which was the ladies and gents.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57There was an immediate theatrical audacity to it.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02His hobby, is it? Looking down bogs?
0:20:08 > 0:20:10He was drinking Lambrusco.
0:20:10 > 0:20:11And Southern Comfort before that.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14To focus it in the ladies and gents
0:20:14 > 0:20:16meant that it was dramatically viable.
0:20:16 > 0:20:17A lot of drama goes on there.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20A lot of drama, the real truth gets told, doesn't it,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23between what's happening on the main floor.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26And don't you go telling no-one you're not getting married to Dave,
0:20:26 > 0:20:27because you are.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29Tomorrow.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Piss off, little man.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47- Oh!- Da, da, da, da!
0:20:47 > 0:20:50- Oh, my God, it's amazing, Willie.- Hey?
0:20:51 > 0:20:52So, Willie,
0:20:52 > 0:20:57was it this fantastic toilet that inspired you to write
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Stags And Hens/Dancing Through The Dark in the toilet?
0:21:01 > 0:21:02This has always been a legendary loo.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05I've always been aware of it and so I think this may well have fed into
0:21:05 > 0:21:10the idea. It gave me the idea that you could set a play
0:21:10 > 0:21:12in the ladies and gents.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15HE LAUGHS
0:21:20 > 0:21:21You're used to doing this, aren't you?
0:21:21 > 0:21:23That's better, yeah. That's it.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Yeah, there's something you don't know about me, Willie.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27LAUGHTER
0:21:29 > 0:21:30Hiya, wall.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34What's wrong with that?
0:21:35 > 0:21:38There's a woman three doors down talks to her microwave.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39The film Shirley Valentine,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41starring Pauline Collins,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43was an international hit written by Willie.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47It's a story about a 42-year-old woman
0:21:47 > 0:21:49in the grip of a deep midlife crisis.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I like a glass of wine when I'm doing the cooking.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Don't I, wall?
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Don't I like a glass of wine when I'm preparing the evening meal?
0:22:01 > 0:22:02Chips and egg.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Shirley Valentine began as a play at the Everyman,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08starring Noreen Kershaw.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13But her unexpected illness forced Willie to step into the breach.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15It would be somewhere down in that, kind of,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20very spot down there that I walked on and said to these poor people
0:22:20 > 0:22:21who thought they were going to see
0:22:21 > 0:22:23a great performance by a great actress,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"Do me a favour, just pretend I am 42-year-old woman."
0:22:26 > 0:22:28And they did.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31- AS SHIRLEY:- You know, if I said to my fella,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33we're off to Greece for a fortnight, just me and Jane,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35he'd think it was for the sex!
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Wouldn't he, wall?
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Well, two women, on their own, going to Greece...
0:22:40 > 0:22:41It's obvious, isn't it?
0:22:41 > 0:22:43I wouldn't mind.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45I'm not even particularly fond of it, sex.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49I think sex is like Sainsbury's, you know.
0:22:49 > 0:22:50Overrated.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Course, it would have been different if I'd been born into
0:22:53 > 0:22:54the next generation,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56our Melandra's generation.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57They discovered it, you see.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59The clitoris.
0:22:59 > 0:23:00The clitoris kids, I call them.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03And good luck to them. Don't begrudge them a thing.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Mind you, it was different in my day.
0:23:07 > 0:23:08LAUGHTER
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Do you know, when I was a girl, we'd never even heard of the clitoris.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17No-one had! In those days everyone thought it was just a case of
0:23:17 > 0:23:19in, out, in, out, shake it all about.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Stars would light up the sky, and the earth would tremble.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25The only thing that trembled for me was the headboard on the bed.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29At the end of that year, in the awards,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Noreen won the award for Best actress,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and I won the award for Best Supporting Actress!
0:23:35 > 0:23:36SHE LAUGHS I love it!
0:23:36 > 0:23:37So did I!
0:23:39 > 0:23:41You have written some amazing parts for women,
0:23:41 > 0:23:43I mean, it can't be argued.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47I mean, you know, Rita, obviously, and Shirley Valentine,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and Stags And Hens, Dancing Through The Dark.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52I mean, just fabulous, but where does that come from?
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Where does... I mean, did you ever doubt that you could do it?
0:23:56 > 0:23:59They are so genuine and authentic, those voices.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03It's the one question that's been put to me...
0:24:04 > 0:24:06more than any. And I've never, ever...
0:24:06 > 0:24:07THEY CHUCKLE
0:24:07 > 0:24:09..and I'm trying hard now, Julie.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12I've never been able to come up with,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15I think, a satisfactory, you know...
0:24:16 > 0:24:18..pithy answer to that.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21All I'm doing is getting an education, that's all.
0:24:21 > 0:24:22Just trying to learn.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25And I love it, it's not easy.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28I get it wrong most of the time, I'm laughed at half the time,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30but I love it because it makes me feel as though
0:24:30 > 0:24:31I'm in the land of the living.
0:24:32 > 0:24:33And all you try and do
0:24:33 > 0:24:34is put a rope around me neck
0:24:34 > 0:24:35and tie me to the ground.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38Are you going to pack it in?
0:24:47 > 0:24:52The frustration at the battle that Rita has on her hands
0:24:52 > 0:24:55is one that I felt in everything, as a man.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Shirley I wrote when I was coming up to my 40th birthday,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06so every doubt that she has and every bit of questioning...
0:25:06 > 0:25:08You know, I was feeling that as a male,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12coming, approaching kind of middle age and stuff like that.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I've led such a little life.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Why do we get all this life if we don't ever use it?
0:25:22 > 0:25:24Why do we get all these...
0:25:26 > 0:25:28..feelings...
0:25:30 > 0:25:32..and dreams, and hopes...
0:25:35 > 0:25:36..if we don't ever use them?
0:25:38 > 0:25:42When I write, it has to come out of a process of imagination.
0:25:42 > 0:25:43But once it is out...
0:25:45 > 0:25:48..usually when the production's up and running,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50I start to sit back and, "Oh, my...
0:25:50 > 0:25:53"Oh, my, that's so... that's so much about me."
0:25:53 > 0:25:56- So you discover that later? - You discover it later.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59As you can imagine, I've seen Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine
0:25:59 > 0:26:01a few times in my life.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05It's not by accident that my character, Rita, was a hairdresser.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08I'm just giving her a blue tint,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11that's what we used to do when I worked in a hairdressers.
0:26:11 > 0:26:12I was the world's worst hairdresser.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19Women wept with joy in the streets when I gave up hairdressing.
0:26:19 > 0:26:20Is that a book you're reading?
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Yeah, yeah.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Willy could connect to being a hairdresser
0:26:24 > 0:26:26from first-hand experience.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28It's what he did for several years,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32before he was motivated to return to school, and become a writer.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Bondage books.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37So many people now, it's a given that they go to university.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41- Yeah.- And the idea that learning and education
0:26:41 > 0:26:44could give you a route to a different place,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46a place you might, like me, want to go to,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48- like Rita wanted to go to.- Yes.
0:26:48 > 0:26:49That's gone!
0:26:49 > 0:26:53People don't see education in terms of social mobility any longer.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55So does that mean that Rita has now become a historical play?
0:26:55 > 0:26:57I think Rita is a history play, yeah.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01Now, fortunately it has, at its centre,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05the universality of one human being trying to achieve something.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08And that's, you know, that is contemporary.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly
0:27:11 > 0:27:13"into our hearts and our bones." Paul Simon.
0:27:14 > 0:27:20Had you any inkling that it would take off
0:27:20 > 0:27:23the way in which it would?
0:27:23 > 0:27:25No, none whatsoever.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28I thought we were going to do a nice little run at the Donmar.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30- Yeah.- And then, suddenly, ooh!
0:27:30 > 0:27:32I remember on the first night, I was terrible,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34I just didn't think I'd got it.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36No confidence at all.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39And Mark and I holding hands backstage,
0:27:39 > 0:27:40going, "Here we go, then."
0:27:40 > 0:27:41And he had some Valium!
0:27:41 > 0:27:43I shouldn't be telling you this, viewers...
0:27:43 > 0:27:45LAUGHTER
0:27:45 > 0:27:49And so we had a quarter of a Valium each before we went on
0:27:49 > 0:27:51and I think that's what did it, everybody.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53I think I'd had a quarter bottle of whisky,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55and Mike Ockrent had done the same, and Mike didn't drink!
0:27:57 > 0:28:00And then after the play were some legendary uncles
0:28:00 > 0:28:01at the Philharmonic pub.
0:28:03 > 0:28:09I remember being here one night with a raucous group of rugby players.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13A young actress leapt up onto a table
0:28:13 > 0:28:17and proceeded to out-sing them in absolute filth.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22And now, would you like to reprise that moment, Julie Walters?
0:28:22 > 0:28:24THEY LAUGH
0:28:24 > 0:28:25I'm not getting up on the table.
0:28:25 > 0:28:26No, you're not!
0:28:27 > 0:28:28- Do I remember it?- No!
0:28:28 > 0:28:30HE LAUGHS
0:28:30 > 0:28:32Oh, yes, I remember how it starts, anyway. It's...
0:28:34 > 0:28:38# A trace of lipstick on an old French letter
0:28:39 > 0:28:43# A dose of syphilis that won't get better
0:28:44 > 0:28:47# And when you piss, it stings
0:28:47 > 0:28:52# These foolish things remind me of you. #
0:28:55 > 0:28:58So, Willy, where does that determination,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Rita's determination, where does that come from?
0:29:00 > 0:29:05That determination to break out and to not conform.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Do you know, I don't think I know the answer to that question.
0:29:07 > 0:29:08Well...
0:29:09 > 0:29:10What are we doing?
0:29:12 > 0:29:13We'll go on to the next one, Willie.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18'Well, actually, I think the answer is obvious.'
0:29:19 > 0:29:23The steely determination to succeed comes from Willy Russell.
0:29:24 > 0:29:25It's all right, oh, little heart.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28It's OK. No, I'm not your dad.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31I'm not your mum, either.
0:29:31 > 0:29:32You're very beautiful.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34Look, very photogenic.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36I'm thinking of going into this, actually, pigeon fancying.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39- It's going to go. - He won't go, it's all right.
0:29:39 > 0:29:40If he goes, he'll just go back to my loft.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43LAUGHTER
0:29:43 > 0:29:46- Hasn't shit on you, has he? - It's good luck! I've heard.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48That's good luck, Tommy, there.