0:00:12 > 0:00:17One Sunday morning, he went out with a mate to buy breakfast at Tesco's,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21and as he came out of the shop, he said to his friend,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25"You take the rolls back and I'll see you later."
0:00:25 > 0:00:28And that was the last anybody saw him.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45This was about the missing, about the people we might not know
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and that we can't see and that we can't find.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58There are all sorts of missing.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00The world is full of missing persons
0:01:00 > 0:01:02and their numbers increase all the time.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The space they occupy lies somewhere between what we know about
0:01:06 > 0:01:10the ways of being alive and what we hear about the ways of being dead.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15We wander there. Unaccompanied and unknowable. Like shadows of people.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Andrew O'Hagan's first book, The Missing,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49launched him to international acclaim.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53The book documented O'Hagan's investigations as a young journalist
0:01:53 > 0:01:57into why people in Britain go missing.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03The book slowly manifested into a very strange,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06episodic document that was both full of
0:02:06 > 0:02:11old-fashioned pavement pounding reporting,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13and a kind of meditation and memoir.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18It led him behind the tabloid headlines of notorious murder cases,
0:02:18 > 0:02:24to the unheard voices of the friends and families of the missing.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Now the book is being adapted for the stage,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32in a production that will premiere at Tramway in Glasgow.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35It will be Andrew O'Hagan's first play.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40One of the things that really gives you energy in the theatre is the possibility of total failure.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45That book, The Missing, that I wrote a long time ago,
0:02:45 > 0:02:50it's a stable thing now, it's still in print, it's got its life.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53That I could ruin it somehow.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Alongside the play will be a new artwork
0:02:57 > 0:03:00on the subject of the missing.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04It will be created by visual artist Graham Fagen.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09As a child, I thought pansies were beautiful.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11I loved the colour meld and mesh
0:03:11 > 0:03:15that you get in the face or head of a pansy.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19But I was very aware that if I told my peer group
0:03:19 > 0:03:21that the pansy was my favourite flower...
0:03:21 > 0:03:22LAUGHTER
0:03:22 > 0:03:26..I would be ridiculed just as I have been there.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Graham Fagen has exhibited around the world with work in various
0:03:32 > 0:03:36disciplines, including photography, sculpture, performance art
0:03:36 > 0:03:38and video.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44His latest commission will mark
0:03:44 > 0:03:48the reopening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52following two-and-a-half years of refurbishment.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00When we open our doors, people will expect to see Bonnie Prince Charlie,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02they'll expect to see Mary Queen of Scots,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05they'll expect to see Walter Scott - and they will -
0:04:05 > 0:04:10and they'll all be up on show. What they won't expect is to see missing people.
0:04:10 > 0:04:16It's great that the national galleries have had a really good think about this commission.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19It isn't the great and the good, it isn't the great Scots,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24it's the opposite end of that spectrum. It's people that are lost, people that are missing.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32As well as collaborators on the Missing project, Graham Fagen and Andrew O'Hagan
0:04:32 > 0:04:37have been friends since their childhood in the 1970s,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42when they were among the first residents of the new town of Irvine, in Ayrshire.
0:04:43 > 0:04:49'The other way in which Irvine differs from other new towns is that it's by the sea.'
0:04:49 > 0:04:54'The big advantage is that there's no possibility of anything like "new town blues" arriving here.'
0:04:57 > 0:05:02We left a tenement in Partick to go into a brand new house that,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06not only did it have an upstairs, not only were we the first people to be in it,
0:05:06 > 0:05:12- but it had a toilet upstairs AND a toilet downstairs.- You were posh.
0:05:12 > 0:05:13We were very posh.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24I remember seeing a sketch on TV about working class, middle class and upper class,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28and I remember at that time thinking about my own situation,
0:05:28 > 0:05:34- and my conclusion was that our family belonged to the upper class. - You wish!
0:05:36 > 0:05:40The estates were brilliant to be on then. The bins, playing in the bins.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43People say, "Oh, what a deprived, terrible time."
0:05:43 > 0:05:48There was nothing better than to be able to play, raking through the bins.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51And when the men came to take the bins away,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54you got a free holiday out of it to the midden!
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It was the only holiday we ever got, when the binmen took us to the midden,
0:05:58 > 0:06:04discovered that there wasn't only black bags in there, but a few kids as well.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08We will be building two-storey houses, each with its own back and front door,
0:06:08 > 0:06:09with a garden at the back,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13a place for the kids to play where Mum can watch them and they can play in safety.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21That illusion of security was shattered in April 1976,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26when three-year-old Sandy Davidson disappeared close to his family home.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36Sandy's younger sister, Donna, was just one-and-a-half at the time.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45We used to go through the fields looking for Sandy.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Classrooms of kids used to go out and search the fields
0:06:48 > 0:06:51and other areas, because it was a big news story,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54but it was also a big thing in our minds.
0:06:54 > 0:06:55Everybody thought
0:06:55 > 0:06:59if they could only find this wee boy then it would be OK.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05One of the things I remember is Sandy's picture appearing in the paper at the time.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09- I was eight, I think you were... - I was ten at that time.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13I guess that's how our generation remember and know about Sandy.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16It was the localness of it that made it
0:07:16 > 0:07:18part of our experience of growing up.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23It wasn't in the national press, it was in the Irvine Times.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28There was talk that maybe he had fell in the river.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33They dredged it, the frogmen searched it all and everything.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Yeah, yeah.
0:07:38 > 0:07:39I think somebody has took him.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41What makes you think that?
0:07:41 > 0:07:45I just, I've just got a gut feeling that somebody took him.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I think he's dead, I don't think he's alive.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51I've thought that for years.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57People have always said to me,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00"How would you feel if they did discover his body somewhere?"
0:08:00 > 0:08:04It would be hard but it would be a relief as well.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Because then you know you can put him to rest
0:08:07 > 0:08:09and you can put your mind to rest.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11It's the not knowing that's the killer.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22The Sandy Davidson case is one of several featured in Andrew O'Hagan's new play,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25being produced by the National Theatre of Scotland.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32- What did he want to be? - What did he want to be? - Oh, a policeman. Definitely.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35The play is being staged by John Tiffany,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39who directed Black Watch, the National Theatre's biggest hit to date.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41I keep going back to the start.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48John Tiffany is a particularly taxing, exacting director.
0:08:48 > 0:08:55He's not the kind of guy who, you send your well made three-act play to and he just mounts a production.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59He's not that kind of director. He's famous for making the plays in the rehearsal room.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02What's good about there is it's not giving in to it.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11In terms of how the script's developed,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14he didn't leave himself out of the first draft,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18but he created another character who was a fictional seeker in the way that
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Andrew had been a seeker in The Missing.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Every day you think, "I'm going to wake up and find he's here
0:09:24 > 0:09:26"and none of this has happened."
0:09:26 > 0:09:29But it felt as though we were trying to dramatise something,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31because we were creating a character,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34and that character had a story, and it was a story that we had to tell,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and it didn't feel truthful or honest.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42You could look at the history of this. It's a hidden story, as I say.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49After the war it happened much less, what with the welfare state and that.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53- But recently...- It's getting worse?
0:09:53 > 0:09:57I think so, yes. Back to the Victorian era.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01So I took Andrew out one night and said to him,
0:10:01 > 0:10:06"how would you feel about it being something much closer to you and what your experience was?"
0:10:06 > 0:10:09And of course, that's scary.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12It's easy for certain people to disappear.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20- Would you like a glass of water? - No, I'm fine, I'm OK.
0:10:20 > 0:10:26It's weird that the person he's inhabiting is me.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30I'm still getting my head round that. It's quite odd to watch.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35This is actually quite harrowing material for a young man to hear.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39To be immersed in it every day, thinking about dead and missing people must have been massive.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44I think in the original situation I was in, my hand actually shook.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48It's very personal, the book is very personal, it's a real memoir in many ways.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51- Yeah.- So you haven't been wondering it before she says it?
0:10:51 > 0:10:54No, no, no. In this moment I am wondering, "Did he..."
0:10:54 > 0:10:57- It just needs to go a bit deeper. - Yeah, yeah, I get it.- Great.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00John was very clear that he didn't want it to be the machinations
0:11:00 > 0:11:02of the writing of a book,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05because, dramatically, that's not very interesting for an audience.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Seeing the character being affected by writing the book
0:11:08 > 0:11:10or the compulsion to write a book is more interesting.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Where is this search for missing persons leading me?
0:11:14 > 0:11:21I write up my notes. They become sentences, phrases, ways of seeing.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47When I was a young teenager, I sort of went in the huff with my mum,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and said, that was it, I was out of here.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00Fortunately for me, I lasted about an hour before I realised
0:12:00 > 0:12:05I had nowhere to go, and that home was the best place to go.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07PHONE RINGS
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Hello, Missing People.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Of course, we all have those times when we want to slam the door,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17but when we talk about 100,000 children
0:12:17 > 0:12:20under 16 every year going missing,
0:12:20 > 0:12:25that's overnight, and every one of those children is at risk.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Many of them end up in circumstances where they're sleeping rough,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31where, perhaps, they've found themselves being referred
0:12:31 > 0:12:33to a friend of a friend,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36and some of those friends of friends are not safe people.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39We know that there is a link between children going missing
0:12:39 > 0:12:41and sexual exploitation.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Graham Fagen has come to the London office of the charity Missing People
0:12:45 > 0:12:48as part of the research for his artwork.
0:12:48 > 0:12:54- RECORDING:- Missing People have been hugely important
0:12:54 > 0:12:59as emotional support and helping to coordinate, looking and searching
0:12:59 > 0:13:02for our son, and hopefully, to end up bringing him home.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06- RECORDING:- He literally walked out of our house laughing,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10in such high spirits, and never came home again.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16- RECORDING:- You sort of remember the things that Andrew likes to do.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23I can just picture him now, laid there, reading. Nice memories.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28If I start dealing with this on a personal level,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31I'm asking a personal question here, Martin.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34If I start trying to think about this on a personal level,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36it's very upsetting,
0:13:36 > 0:13:42and I'm trying to work on it in a matter-of-fact way.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47You're here every day. How do you cope, or how do you balance it?
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Every time people say to me, "It's just too difficult,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53"I don't want to imagine what would happen
0:13:53 > 0:13:57- "if my nine-year-old went missing." - Sure.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00I think, that's, in some respects, what we have to do.
0:14:00 > 0:14:06Maybe the fact that it affects me, speaking professionally,
0:14:06 > 0:14:08is maybe a good sign.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11It's maybe a sign that I'm dealing with it seriously, and,
0:14:11 > 0:14:16hopefully, I can deal with it in a compassionate and meaningful way.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Sometimes it just hits you so badly,
0:14:24 > 0:14:30that it's like a huge black cloud over everything.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36In 2006, Alan Templeton went out shopping for groceries
0:14:36 > 0:14:38near his Edinburgh flat.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40He has not been seen since.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46I find early morning, if I wake up, is the worst time.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52I have to fight myself, fight my imagination,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55to stop visualising him
0:14:55 > 0:15:02in some terrible situation, where he's frightened, or lonely, or ill,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04and that's not being attended to,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and nobody's picking up on it.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10If a letter comes in for him, which still, after five years,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15sometimes happens, that is absolutely gut-wrenching,
0:15:15 > 0:15:20having to write to whoever has written, saying,
0:15:20 > 0:15:25"well, Alan hasn't been seen for nearly five years," is awful.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30He spent whatever money he had on records.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35First of all it was Shakin' Stevens, wasn't it?
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Then it was Whitney Houston,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43and then it was the one with the red hair, T'Pau.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46- Do you remember, Pete?- He was 15.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50I am continually purifying, in theatrical terms,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55this relationship between documentary and fiction.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58The stories are very authentic, they're people stories,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and that's why they're so great to play, because these things actually happened,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05they were conversations that actually have taken place.
0:16:05 > 0:16:06It feels very authentic and very real.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11Today, the company are rehearsing a scene based on Andrew O'Hagan's
0:16:11 > 0:16:16original interview with the parents of another missing boy, Lee Boxall.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Everywhere, everywhere you can think of.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21And the press moves on, everybody moves on.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Police in London say they're now extremely concerned
0:16:27 > 0:16:30for the safety of the 15-year-old schoolboy, Lee Boxall.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Lee disappeared a week ago on his way to a football match.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Lee Boxall left his home in Cheam last Saturday. It's thought
0:16:36 > 0:16:40he was heading for either the Wimbledon or Crystal Palace grounds.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42He hasn't been seen since.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47What I'm saying, is it stronger, whether some people would say it was the perfect childhood?
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Well, that's true. And just leave it at that.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Yeah, and you're a bit like...
0:16:52 > 0:16:55- Some people would say it was the perfect childhood.- Yes, that's true.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01Well, Mrs Boxall's somebody who is stuck in a time warp,
0:17:01 > 0:17:06really, of grief, but also hope.
0:17:06 > 0:17:13She cannot accept that her son has disappeared,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16because there's no body or anything.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18- They were looking everywhere. - Everywhere.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21- Everywhere you could think. - Didn't sleep at all,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23we just sat up waiting for a ring at the doorbell.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27- We were just waiting.- By the telephone. It was like a nightmare.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29I mean, every day, you'd think...
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Every day, you'd think, "I'm going to wake up and find he's here,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36"and none of this has happened."
0:17:36 > 0:17:40The fact that the young writer, Joe's character, turns up,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43is hope, to keep the interest going.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Because as she says in it, the worst thing is
0:17:46 > 0:17:49when the press stop being interested.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52That's the worst time for these people,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54because it's like it's past, and it's gone.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Well, it isn't gone for them.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59And it never will be for her.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01I'd ring the newspapers,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04I'd phone them and I'd ask them to print something.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06I remember one of them saying,
0:18:06 > 0:18:11"I'm sorry, Mrs Boxall, he's just another missing child."
0:18:14 > 0:18:21We don't know, to this day, what happened to him in September 1988.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25We don't know whether he's alive, we don't know whether he's dead.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29If he is alive, why hasn't he contacted us?
0:18:29 > 0:18:33If he's been murdered, perhaps, how did it happen, and why?
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Where is his body? All these questions are unanswered.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Until the time comes, if it ever comes before we die,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45that we find out if he'd been, say, killed in an accident,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48at least we'd know what happened to him.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02Graham Fagen's artwork on The Missing will take the form of a video installation.
0:19:02 > 0:19:08I've decided to use my own home. I'm thinking what the experience
0:19:08 > 0:19:13might be like for a family to go through those sorts of emotions,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16of the experience that someone has gone missing.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19So, for example, I've been using very simple things,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22like maybe a shot of the mantelpiece,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and what we would do is pay attention
0:19:25 > 0:19:30to what was on my mantelpiece, and wonder why it was there,
0:19:30 > 0:19:31and, maybe accept it.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38If something is usually there, and it's not, then I'll add it.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46If it looks too set up, too contrived, I'll jig it about to try
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and make it part of the house.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Just have a seat there and just watch the telly.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02That's all you need to do.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05- I sleep, I usually sleep and watch the telly.- No swearing.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10That's when I shouldn't be speaking, where I was actually speaking,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and get a row for speaking, and get a row laughing.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16I shouldn't be laughing here.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I could never understand the art things, or the sculptures
0:20:24 > 0:20:27when he was doing it a wee years ago,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30so he just, "OK, you're doing good now.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33"You enjoying it? Yes, that's fine. OK, you carry on."
0:20:33 > 0:20:37I think, for me, to understand the subject area properly,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and to have that sense of compassion on the subject area,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43I need to be using people that are close to me,
0:20:43 > 0:20:49even though they're unknown to the viewers in the gallery.
0:20:51 > 0:20:58My dad wanted to film us, and he was making silly faces
0:20:58 > 0:21:00so we could laugh at it.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03I never fell for it. Thomas did.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06I was like, "What the heck are you doing?"
0:21:06 > 0:21:09And we both shouted, "This is lame, stop it."
0:21:11 > 0:21:13If he asks me to do anything,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16I generally do it to give him a hand and help him through.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21As long as he puts a bottle of whisky on the end, you know, that's it!
0:21:25 > 0:21:29There's public faces as well as the private faces,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and one of the public faces that I'm probably going to use
0:21:32 > 0:21:34is Madeleine McCann.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39I guess, to do with her as a person, and missing in her own right,
0:21:39 > 0:21:44but probably as well as a kind of symbol of missing.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Could you take Kate's book, Elspeth?
0:21:47 > 0:21:50Just sit and read it, and I'll move round you,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52you don't need to go anywhere.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55I'm going to be close on the book, I'm not going to be on you.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59It seems that the most appropriate way to bring Madeleine in
0:21:59 > 0:22:02is to bring her into my home in some kind of way.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07I thought about maybe using newspaper or TV footage,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10but Kate, her mum, has just brought a book out.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13I'm going to bring Kate's book about Madeleine into the house
0:22:13 > 0:22:19and find it in parts of the house through my journey with the camera.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52When you're dealing with this subject,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55sometimes what people are experiencing is unspeakable.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02I think the grief is so, it's so unspeakably horrendous
0:23:02 > 0:23:05that there's no words that can articulate it.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10If you dwelt on it you'd be awake at night.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12That's what you see when you look at this case,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14they could come here and live in bedsits.
0:23:14 > 0:23:21- And nobody knew they were here? - They could be done away with.- Yeah.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23What does that mean?
0:23:25 > 0:23:28- That's for other people to answer. - That's for us!
0:23:30 > 0:23:33- Don't quote me on any of this. - No, you're right.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38You won't be able to quote me on any of this!
0:23:40 > 0:23:44- Shall we go back?- It was that thing of almost knowing it.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50I'm just learning the lines and muddling through it.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52- They're not asking the right questions.- Who?
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Us, the reporters, we're not asking the one question we should be asking.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57And what's the right question?
0:23:57 > 0:23:59I'm playing two policeman.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03One, a younger policeman. One, an older one.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07I'm playing Mr Boxall whose son went missing
0:24:07 > 0:24:12and I'm playing an old woman, which is how I see my career going.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16That's what they did. They found him dead, poor soul. What a state.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19I'll tell you something for nothing, though.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23You need to watch your van. They'll tow you as soon as look at you,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26those men and their big woolly hats under their work hats.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Traffic wardens. Nigerians.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33They come over here, they hardly know what a car is where they come from.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36He's got men playing women, he's got women playing men,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38he's got old people playing young people.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It's a really amazing thing to watch. There's a fluidity
0:24:41 > 0:24:45about the identity of these characters that John's homed in on.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47That seems wholly appropriate to me.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50It strengthens the audience's experience, I hope,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53of how unfixed people really are,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56how untethered to the world they can be.
0:24:57 > 0:25:03- And then he got a date to go up to court.- Court?!- That's right.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06He stole a pair of gloves.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10What kind of daft thing is that to steal out of a shop, a pair of gloves?
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Did you ever know anybody that stole gloves?
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I want some battered trainers for you, John. I don't like those.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20- They don't seem right, do they?- Have you spoken to your inner Mr Bennett?
0:25:20 > 0:25:23I've spoken to my inner Mr Bennett.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26One pair of my shoes, Mr Bennett's shoes, we haven't got yet.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31So I'm using these in rehearsal,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35but it's quite clear to us now he's lost all interest in himself, really.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40So they're not going to be very glamorous shoes for Mr Bennett.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45But if you want to come over there, I'll show you the glamorous shoes I get to wear.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48I liked the idea that all they changed was the shoes,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50so when we come to a new character, you know,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Brian playing an old lady would put on a pair of cerise slippers.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56The audience would learn very quickly to go,
0:25:56 > 0:26:01"Ooh, what shoes are they wearing? That's going to give me a clue as to the character."
0:26:02 > 0:26:05These are my shoes.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07They're a fair height.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10They're becoming very important to us, the shoes.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16- And then he got a date to go up to court.- Court?!- That's right.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19He stole a pair of shoes.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23What kind of daft thing is that to steal out of a shop, a pair of shoes?
0:26:23 > 0:26:27- A pair of shoes... - Gloves, wasn't it?!
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Sorry.
0:26:29 > 0:26:30A pair of shoes.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34(That's your fault. That's your fault.)
0:26:49 > 0:26:53The second part of Graham Fagen's artwork will be constructed around
0:26:53 > 0:26:57a journey starting from Irvine, Graham's childhood home.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03Usually, when I'm making a video work, I work with a small crew.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07What was interesting for The Missing was maybe not to do a journey
0:27:07 > 0:27:11with a crew in tow, but maybe just me with a camera.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17And maybe I became this sort of character
0:27:17 > 0:27:19that was on the journey, or certainly,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23the lens of my camera became this character that was on the journey.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32Obviously, the start place, I'm thinking about this seascape,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36I guess to use the seascape as something that's quite open,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39perhaps optimistic, but looking beyond,
0:27:39 > 0:27:45looking out there to a future or the possibility of going yourself.
0:27:48 > 0:27:54So the viewers are seeing my camera, probably roundabout there,
0:27:54 > 0:27:55jigging about as I'm walking.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00So it's almost like trying to take the viewer to that place.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04That kind of feel or that kind of aesthetic is going to be
0:28:04 > 0:28:07quite important as a vehicle for trying to get
0:28:07 > 0:28:09to the emotional side of the subject.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16There were signs that at one stage she might have tried
0:28:16 > 0:28:18to escape from her attacker,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21run up that embankment and been dragged back.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23The murder hunt began.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Police combed the backcourt and the railway embankment.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30They questioned nearly 900 people in the Barrowland that night
0:28:30 > 0:28:31and the following night.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36As she says, the Barrowland was the place to be.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41- It was that.- What would the young ones say? The in-place, that's right.
0:28:41 > 0:28:42It was the in-place to be.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Half the men in there were married, mind you. Is that not right, Jeannie?
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Aye, married. Taking off their wedding rings and sticking it in their pockets,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51that was the Barrowland for you.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54It's amazing to see how the actors are playing it,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58because they find comedy in this situation
0:28:58 > 0:29:00as well as very deep tragedy.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05ARCHIVE RECORDING: Inside the ballroom, sometime after 11 o'clock,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Helen Puttock, who was seen with a tall man who had reddish hair.
0:29:08 > 0:29:13He was polite, well-spoken, did not appear to do heavy manual work
0:29:13 > 0:29:16and might make reference to the Bible.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Newspapers dubbed him Bible John.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23- A right cold night. - There was a freeze on.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28This is a scene in the play where the young writer tells the story
0:29:28 > 0:29:34of Bible John and the influence that that killer had in Glasgow.
0:29:34 > 0:29:40It intercuts his researching, that story, with his meeting
0:29:40 > 0:29:46and interviewing the sister of the third victim and her friend, Marion.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52Marion, previously, was wearing a pair of quite fancy gold high heels,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56but we were slightly concerned that they looked a bit Saturday night
0:29:56 > 0:30:02as opposed to meeting a journalist to talk about someone you knew
0:30:02 > 0:30:05in the '60s who was murdered by Bible John.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10So the gold shoes, unfortunately, got substituted.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15I remember checking the prices of the high heels in the window of Gordon's shoe shop.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17In number 64?
0:30:17 > 0:30:20This is a map that we got from the Mitchell Library
0:30:20 > 0:30:24of the East End of Glasgow, around the Barrowlands and Trongate from 1969,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27which is the year that Helen was killed by Bible John.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29It's cold but we weren't in a hurry.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32We stopped and looked in the window of the pawnbrokers.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34As I press play on there,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37it goes on to there and then there are certain actions...
0:30:38 > 0:30:43- We looked in the window of the pawn shop.- 215 Gallowgate.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46So you're pointing that way. George Square, more north, Joe.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49For the finished production of Tramway,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53images like these will be projected onto a screen 15 feet high.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Obviously, I'm not controlling the screen,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59but we want to give the appearance that I am making it all move around,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02so it's very much like a dance.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06I have to learn the counts of when to touch it, when to move it.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08The other one, Helen's one, stuck with them
0:31:08 > 0:31:10and went in the taxi towards Scotstoun.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12'It's something I quite enjoy as an actor,'
0:31:12 > 0:31:15learning all that. Some actors, it drives them nuts.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18But I quite like it, the challenge.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20We'll see if it goes well or not.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23If you do that, then...
0:31:23 > 0:31:25HE LAUGHS
0:31:25 > 0:31:29If it doesn't, then I'll be running for the hills.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Graham Fagen's journey has taken him to London,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42the end of the line for many of the missing.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Maybe it's about that searching, searching for something else,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53searching for hopes, searching for something that's better,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56searching for a new beginning, perhaps.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00People think that they can come to London and try and have that and try and get that.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07It's a bit of a cliche, London, where the streets, in theory,
0:32:07 > 0:32:08are paved with gold.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Even people that work here find life in London tough.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27If you're coming here lost and vulnerable
0:32:27 > 0:32:31then there's people here who could easily prey on that.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03It's probably the most inconspicuous that I've felt with the camera.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11I'm surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people here,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15but I feel quite autonomous and alone.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29We're just on the edge of Soho.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31We're at Piccadilly Circus.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35When it gets dark, I'm going to move into Soho to do some walking about.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40I guess what I'm thinking is that'll be the end of the journey.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50A girl who I knew quite well in Glasgow,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54she was in our company quite a lot, our peer group,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and she disappeared.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01She didn't tell anybody that she was going to disappear or go anywhere.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03It's just she wasn't around any more.
0:34:05 > 0:34:11A good few months after, I was down in Soho with my girlfriend
0:34:11 > 0:34:14and there was a record store and I was flicking through the records.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18And Elspeth said, "There's our friend."
0:34:18 > 0:34:21She could see her standing in the doorway.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24So I said, "Oh, yeah. Let's go and say hello."
0:34:24 > 0:34:27And she looked up and saw us
0:34:27 > 0:34:30and went into the doorway that she was standing at.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35She was obviously working.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37She was obviously working in a trade
0:34:37 > 0:34:40that she didn't want us to know about.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45People like that make a very deliberate choice.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50They want to go missing, perhaps. They want to find their own space.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Maybe they need to go away from the place that's familiar
0:34:54 > 0:34:57in order to be who they feel they need to be.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05We're not asking the one question we should all be asking.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07And what's the question?
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Well, nine young women's bodies have been found, right? And I've checked,
0:35:11 > 0:35:16- hardly any of them are reported as missing.- That's correct.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Well, that's the question. Why weren't they reported?
0:35:22 > 0:35:27As a young journalist, Andrew O'Hagan was sent to Gloucester
0:35:27 > 0:35:30to cover the discovery of human remains found at the family home
0:35:30 > 0:35:33of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38The Wellington Arms, I did a few interviews in there.
0:35:38 > 0:35:44It was a rough pub, closed down now.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50The old place had that atmosphere of sort of lostness.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53I remember writing that in my notepad at the time,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56how depressed it seemed here.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03- TV REPORTER:- With the expectation that more human remains may yet been found,
0:36:03 > 0:36:04the house in Cromwell Street
0:36:04 > 0:36:07is still the centre of the police operation.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09Body number seven was discovered in the cellar,
0:36:09 > 0:36:11like three found earlier.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15The first three bodies were unearthed in the garden.
0:36:15 > 0:36:21I was looking to explain how it's plausible in a civilised society,
0:36:21 > 0:36:26one with a welfare state, one with a social work department,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29with a sense of community.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32What was it in a community constructed like that,
0:36:32 > 0:36:37that would allow so many of those women to go missing and never have been missed?
0:36:37 > 0:36:40Did you know any of the girls? The victims?
0:36:40 > 0:36:46- I don't know any girls like that. - Like that?
0:36:46 > 0:36:48They should knock it down.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57There it is.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00The gap.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04It's not a gap in anybody's memory, though.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23- TV REPORTER:- Juanita Mott was an unemployed 17-year-old
0:37:23 > 0:37:28when she left nearby Newent to travel to Gloucester in April 1975.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30She never returned.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Lynda Gough was a 19-year-old seamstress in Gloucester
0:37:33 > 0:37:36who was last seen in April 1973.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38Police enquiries at the time came to nothing.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43And Alison Chambers was 16 when she moved to the city in 1979.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46Her mother received an unaddressed letter later that year,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49but Alison herself was never heard from again.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04They had lives, parents, boyfriends, doctors, right?
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Nobody noticed they'd gone?! And for all these years?
0:38:08 > 0:38:10They were able just to pick them off.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14- They were easy to kill, somehow. Nobody noticed.- Easy to kill?
0:38:14 > 0:38:20- And the Wests knew how to home in on girls like that. The unattached. - The missing?- The killable.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22That word rung around my head, and has been
0:38:22 > 0:38:25ringing around my head all the time I've been writing the play.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30Killable. I wrote it in my notepad and scored it under several times.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33They were able to come here, live in bedsits and...
0:38:33 > 0:38:37- And nobody knew they were here? - They could be done away with.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41What does that mean?
0:38:41 > 0:38:46- That's for other people to answer. - It's for us!
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Don't quote me on any of this.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53These girls were part of the non-elect. They were killable.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57Through economics, social factors,
0:38:57 > 0:39:04psychological trends in their own family, but also, societal trends.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07They were actually forgettable. And they WERE forgotten.
0:39:09 > 0:39:16- And you never saw her that day?- Not any day. Not that day, not any day.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20- And you never went to the police? - Some of us aren't like that.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22We don't go to the police.
0:39:24 > 0:39:31- And, erm...? And then... - Then she turned up.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33Years later, in the basement of that house.
0:39:41 > 0:39:47They've actually knocked two houses down here, number 23, which was beside number 25.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51The house of horrors, as all the papers called it at the time.
0:39:53 > 0:39:59What was enacted here was unspeakable. And I think it still haunts everybody
0:39:59 > 0:40:03who ever had anything to do with the case, and anybody who was in this street.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20More female remains were discovered in this field
0:40:20 > 0:40:24by the village of Much Marcle, where Fred West had grown up.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41We know that the women whose remains were found in Cromwell Street,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44in this field, and at Midland Road in Gloucester,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47where there's always been suggestions there were many more.
0:40:47 > 0:40:54And they, in a sense, are the ultimate figures in my mind,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57as far as The Missing, the book and the play goes,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00these people who were not only never reported as missing,
0:41:00 > 0:41:05but never confirmed as having been victims at all.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10They just vanished into thin air, and I strongly believe that this field and fields like it
0:41:10 > 0:41:14all around this part of Gloucester may contain secrets that we will never find.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29- CHURCH BELL TOLLS - The image is so powerful anyway,
0:41:29 > 0:41:35and then to give it extra attention with the gong, it's almost too much.
0:41:35 > 0:41:42I don't know. I don't know how you feel about it. So...
0:41:42 > 0:41:44With the journey now complete,
0:41:44 > 0:41:49Graham Fagen is bringing his ideas together with the help of a film editor.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52From what we did before, these images have changed,
0:41:52 > 0:41:53and there's been slight...
0:41:53 > 0:41:59- OK. Cut here.- That's what I was asking, if you wanted the code.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03To reflect contrasting aspects of The Missing,
0:42:03 > 0:42:09the artwork will be seen in two synchronised parts on two separate screens.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11So what's been tough for me is,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14I've been able to see one screen at a time,
0:42:14 > 0:42:21and on bits of paper, I try and put these two things together.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Two stories would work separately, and when you have them together,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30suddenly there was a new story, and suddenly, shots that feel
0:42:30 > 0:42:32very lonely on their own
0:42:32 > 0:42:35- suddenly came in and looked completely different.- Yeah.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38Somebody's living room contrasted with, I don't know,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42the streets in London, it sets up that dynamic.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45Hopefully it will be very easy for a viewer at the gallery
0:42:45 > 0:42:49to know they're in a public place but they're also in a private place.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54What I'm thinking of doing in the gallery is arranging the screens in such a way that
0:42:54 > 0:42:58so as one as may be viewed in kind of peripheral vision to the other,
0:42:58 > 0:43:04so the viewers need to make a decision and actually physically
0:43:04 > 0:43:07move themselves to look at one place or to look at the other place.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14The other thing that we're starting to find as we're seeing the two screens together
0:43:14 > 0:43:16is sound starts to become very interesting.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20CHURCH BELL TOLLS
0:43:20 > 0:43:24It's got the Six O'Clock News sting, hasn't it?
0:43:24 > 0:43:28And of course, we don't have to have the bong on the cut.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Well, that was one of my first thoughts, should we take the first bong?
0:43:32 > 0:43:38- And then go for the one after.- Yeah. - Shall we try?- Try it?- Sure.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42MUSIC PLAYS AND BELL TOLLS
0:43:57 > 0:44:01I've just realised that I used to come here as a kid when it was the Transport Museum.
0:44:01 > 0:44:06- Oh, right.- I'm pretty sure. It brings back a lot of memories.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10The production team of The Missing has moved to Tramway.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12And tonight is their dress rehearsal.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16The spider that's running the floods, just like run it
0:44:16 > 0:44:18so it doesn't look as hateful.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31We just need to decide what surface it's supposed to be.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35- Are you looking for a different surface from that? - Yes, that and that.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39There should be three different textures.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48But at Tramway,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52it's not just the play that is only a day away from facing the critics.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59So, we're across the corridor from T1, which is the theatre.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03And this is the gallery space I'll be showing Missing.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06We're getting there, slowly but surely.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11OK, so, the screens are here, they've just arrived,
0:45:11 > 0:45:16they're in these crates. So, they don't look like very much.
0:45:16 > 0:45:22But they are very expensive.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26To complete the set-up of his art installation,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30Graham Fagen needs to make some last-minute adjustments to the film.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33But first, he must wait for his editor to arrive.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44We still have some technical problems that we want to solve over the next 24 hours.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48There's still a black panel there on the LED which shouldn't be there.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53- Those lights went out.- Got a taxi this morning to come to the Tramway,
0:45:53 > 0:45:58and halfway along the motorway, I shrieked to the taxi driver,
0:45:58 > 0:46:00said, "I've forgotten the cello!"
0:46:00 > 0:46:03I think it's called actress slowly losing marbles.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13There's one or two imbalances in the sound
0:46:13 > 0:46:17that we're going to have to attend to over the next few hours.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20And the actors too have one or two little changes still
0:46:20 > 0:46:22that need to be absorbed by them in the script.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30This is purely a theatrical experience that people are getting with this.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32And me too, for the first time tonight.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46DRILLING AND HAMMERING
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Let's see what we've got here.
0:47:02 > 0:47:03Yeah, yeah, we can have that one.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12So, what you're saying is, you want the previous dialogue to continue?
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Laurie, I need both hands, just a second.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16HE LAUGHS
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Sorry. Just for a while!
0:47:19 > 0:47:25So we're still hearing "You scummy bastard." Oh, sorry, Laurie.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29- You didn't hear that, did you? - THEY LAUGH
0:47:29 > 0:47:33The dress rehearsal is about to start. And it's the last chance
0:47:33 > 0:47:37for Joe McFadden to practice with the full-sized screen.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40It's bigger than I thought it was going to be.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44I might be jumping up in the air. It's very impressive.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48We told him how Helen and me are going down the coast!
0:47:48 > 0:47:50They went under the bridge at Central Station!
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Up the Hielenman's Umbrella!
0:47:53 > 0:47:58Then after a drink at the tavern, up to the Barrowlands.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01To the dance hall! Address showing as 244...
0:48:01 > 0:48:06I had always hoped that the technology that's in this production
0:48:06 > 0:48:11wouldn't overwhelm the basic, human material in the script.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16This is really all about the characters.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19It's about Mrs Boxall sitting on the edge of her sofa,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23trying to maintain a sense that her son, Lee,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27who disappeared five years before, is still alive.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32The whole question is evoked in images, in lighting
0:48:32 > 0:48:33and absences on stage.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40# Here I am... #
0:48:40 > 0:48:43In a sense, the cello is the protagonist of the soundtrack.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46# Here I am... #
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Particularly Brigit's presence on stage, as well as playing,
0:48:50 > 0:48:54just presents this almost ghostly, haunting quality.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59It's about solitude and aloneness as well as loneliness.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03# Here I am
0:49:04 > 0:49:10# Here I am
0:49:11 > 0:49:22# Waiting to hold you. #
0:49:22 > 0:49:26APPLAUSE
0:49:28 > 0:49:30Some people love this production.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Other people find reasons not to. That's the way it goes.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36I'm quite happy to take it on the chin. You can't sit around
0:49:36 > 0:49:40crying into your cornflakes about what critics are going to say.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44I've never done it so far and I'm not going to start with this. HE PRETENDS TO SOB
0:49:53 > 0:49:56It's opening night at Tramway.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01But the critics won't be the only ones reviewing the work.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Graham Fagen and Andrew O'Hagan
0:50:03 > 0:50:08will be seeing each other's completed projects for the first time.
0:50:18 > 0:50:24- I don't know any girls like that. - Like that?
0:50:24 > 0:50:26They should knock it down.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41CHILD CRIES OUT
0:50:41 > 0:50:46MECHANICAL WHIRRING
0:50:50 > 0:50:53Graham's piece is full of a sense of motion on the one hand
0:50:53 > 0:50:54and stillness on the other.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58It's full of a sense of belonging on the one hand
0:50:58 > 0:51:01to a domestic space, to a family, to a duvet, on the one hand,
0:51:01 > 0:51:08and on the other, lostness, the sense of urban chaos, neon lights,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12people constantly moving away from where they belong.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14The two together are quite moving.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19It's a question that I'm sure we all ask ourselves -
0:51:19 > 0:51:21why does somebody go missing?
0:51:21 > 0:51:23What's it like? And through Graham's piece of work,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26you actually saw first-hand what it was like.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28You actually see through the eyes of a missing person,
0:51:28 > 0:51:33so you see somebody walking away from their home, into a town centre,
0:51:33 > 0:51:38and it looks very much like a town centre that they don't know. It's somewhere new to them.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42But it also didn't cast any judgment.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47It didn't say that that was right or wrong, that there was reasons,
0:51:47 > 0:51:52and I think the piece really left you with a sense of every story is different.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01I was very struck by these images of bin bags, for example,
0:52:01 > 0:52:05litter on the ground, where you got the sense of
0:52:05 > 0:52:10the kind of debris that's around emotionally when somebody's not there.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23In a world that's filled with disappearing things...
0:52:23 > 0:52:25- A wee boy.- That's right.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29'Sandy Davidson, who went missing from Irvine, of course,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33'who Andy and I remember, and Sandy is one of the main'
0:52:33 > 0:52:36points of reference through the play.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39That was hard. That's probably why I'm feeling sad.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44- That wee boy, Sandy. - That's right. Sandy Davidson.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47That boy was two years old when he went missing.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50I remember his face, it's imprinted in my memory.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52I think a lot of people were like that at the time.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Just a wee blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59It learned everybody a lesson that when children went out,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03even to the door, they were watching where they were going
0:53:03 > 0:53:06and where they were, just round you.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09It was a very, very sad time for everybody.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19The wee boy went into the garden with his dog.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22It was a warm day and his coat was found on the path by the river.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27'It's a detective story in search of himself,'
0:53:27 > 0:53:31in which he himself becomes like one of these lost boys, in a way.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34But out of that comes something much bigger
0:53:34 > 0:53:38that looks at a society that can be so displaced itself
0:53:38 > 0:53:43that it can allow people to slip through the cracks in the way it's done.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53I think the word that stays with me after the play is this word, killability.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Just the fact that in society we have people who are
0:53:56 > 0:54:01so vulnerable that they can be described as having this killability.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07That's one of the gut feelings I'm leaving with tonight, is that feeling of helplessness.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11If you're right, then how do you become killable?
0:54:11 > 0:54:15- That's for other people to answer. - No, it's for us.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20- Don't quote me on any of this. - Is that what it's about?
0:54:20 > 0:54:22As I say, it's just us talking.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28I think the fact that an entire evening of theatre is devoted
0:54:28 > 0:54:32to thinking about those people is in a sense a kind of tribute
0:54:32 > 0:54:34and a way of mourning,
0:54:34 > 0:54:39and that therefore you accept the different ways that people
0:54:39 > 0:54:41describe the people they have lost.
0:54:42 > 0:54:49I think it is really possible for art to almost enhance the way you feel,
0:54:49 > 0:54:54but somehow to have images that almost anchor
0:54:54 > 0:54:58some of the emotions, I found really helpful.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01I felt positive after seeing the play
0:55:01 > 0:55:05and I felt positive after seeing the installation.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Graham Fagen's Missing will join the permanent collection
0:55:12 > 0:55:16of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22The play of The Missing also looks set to travel beyond Tramway.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25I'm 100% positive this will have another life.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28I think it's really important to start off with
0:55:28 > 0:55:30the communities that this play is about in Scotland.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I'm really hoping we'll be able to take this play
0:55:33 > 0:55:37to those new towns, first of all, and then see what the response is
0:55:37 > 0:55:41and definitely take it on a tour further afield from there.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Both projects are over for now.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50But the families of the missing go on waiting.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56When I saw you last in this room,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Lee had been missing for five years, and now for 21 years.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05It's clearly important to you to keep things here for Lee...
0:56:05 > 0:56:08..in case he comes back.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13That's the hope. We always hope that one day he'll come back
0:56:13 > 0:56:15and his room is just the same.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20I mean, his clothes obviously won't fit him, but we've kept it, everything.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25When you came here to talk about Lee with us,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29Lee's room was almost as it was the day he disappeared.
0:56:29 > 0:56:35Covered with posters, but as time goes by, the posters,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38one by one, they've started to fall off.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43You know, with the passing of time, things change.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02The biggest change is that our daughter Lindsey is now married.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06She has two little children
0:57:06 > 0:57:07and we love them to bits.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12- So that's opened up a whole new side of your lives?- Yes, absolutely.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17I've retired early so I can spend more time with our grandchildren.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20- That's your excuse! - Yeah, that's my excuse!
0:57:21 > 0:57:24We've got to focus on them, and my daughter,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27- to help us through.- Sure.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35Subconsciously, I don't know whether I'm imagining it's Lee that's come back to us somehow,
0:57:35 > 0:57:37but sometimes I even call him Lee.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41Me, too, it's really strange, because he's so much like Lee.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43Not looking...
0:57:46 > 0:57:49That memory of Lee living here will never leave us.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03I think...
0:58:03 > 0:58:07recognising that human beings are people who are fragile
0:58:07 > 0:58:11and vulnerable, even if they're also strong and sturdy
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and capable and competent,
0:58:14 > 0:58:18is one of the truthful things about being human
0:58:18 > 0:58:21that I wish we recognised more commonly.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd