0:00:02 > 0:00:04Welcome to The Arts Show. As elections loom on the near horizon,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07we'll be looking at the art of politics.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39This year is also the 50th year since the launch of BBC Two.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42We'll be dusting off some moments from the archives a little later.
0:00:42 > 0:00:43Here's what's coming up.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Created for BBC Two Northern Ireland, we look back at Alan Clarke
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and Danny Boyle's groundbreaking Troubles drama Elephant.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Renowned political cartoonist Ian Knox invites us to join him in his
0:00:55 > 0:01:00studio, where he combines artistic ability and social commentary.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Veteran journalist Eamonn Mallie gives us
0:01:02 > 0:01:06his take on the thought-provoking exhibition
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Art Of The Troubles in Belfast's Ulster Museum.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12And, Noel Thompson meets a man who has been documenting life here,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16including our politics, since the '70s - photographer Bobbie Hanvey.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36I'm here in the Linen Hall Library in Belfast,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39home to the Northern Ireland Political Collection,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43a huge body of local political literature and artefacts.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47John Killen is librarian here, author of The Unkindest Cut:
0:01:47 > 0:01:51A Cartoon History Of Ulster in the 20th century.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53How far back do cartoons go?
0:01:53 > 0:01:56In our context, the cartoon really is
0:01:56 > 0:01:59an 18th-century manifestation
0:01:59 > 0:02:01of political satire.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06It goes back to James Gillray in the 1770s, '80s, '90s.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11There are two that he did in June 1798,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15during the Rebellion, United Irishmen In Training,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and you can see he's already using the very coarse features
0:02:18 > 0:02:21that were very prominent in the 19th century.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22It's almost we're monkeys.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25- That's right.- Simian.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27The simianisation of the Irish face.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29They knew who they were writing for,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31and they were writing for a specific audience.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35That specific audience was the literate
0:02:35 > 0:02:37classes in the United Kingdom.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42With the spread of printing and newspapers and magazines in the 19th
0:02:42 > 0:02:47and certainly into the 20th century, it becomes how we view ourselves.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51This illustration, it's a little book, printed in Belfast, 1892,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55and it's called The Diary Of An Irish Cabinet Minister.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58You can see this melee, a sort of free-for-all.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02- All hell has broken loose. - This is local.- This is local.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04This is where we begin to look at ourselves.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07The people change, but the politics don't.
0:03:07 > 0:03:08That seems to be the way.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13There's a cartoon by Rowel Friers that appeared in the Irish Times
0:03:13 > 0:03:16showing the ballot box in one hand
0:03:16 > 0:03:18and the Armalite in the other.
0:03:18 > 0:03:24- That's 1982.- OK.- 60 years earlier, in Punch, we have this cartoon.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25There's the ballot box again.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28There's the ballot box again, and the pistol.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30And the fact that the likes of Rowel Friers,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32I grew up on his political cartoons,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and Ian Knox is the current social commentator,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38did they have to have a huge knowledge
0:03:38 > 0:03:40of previous cartoon history?
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Is that almost coming with the job?
0:03:43 > 0:03:45The two that you mentioned,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48they have their own intellectual view
0:03:48 > 0:03:52of not just life, but of art, as well.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56And it's a symbiotic combination of that in the cartoonist.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00And that's what gives their personal slant on the issues of the day,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02but also the way they depict it in art.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05- And, of course, they have to be funny.- They do.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09The best cartoons would bring a laugh or anger in an instant.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11Cartoons are very much like a joke.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14If you have to explain it, it's not worth telling.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16The punchline has to be got immediately,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20and the best cartoonists are masters at this.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22John Killen, thank you so much.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25We're going to bring Ulster cartoons right up-to-date.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29You may not know him, but you will most definitely know his work.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33Cartoonist Ian Knox has been documenting political life here
0:04:33 > 0:04:36through his cartoons for nearly a quarter of a century
0:04:36 > 0:04:38for the Irish News, and you will know his work
0:04:38 > 0:04:40from BBC Northern Ireland's
0:04:40 > 0:04:42former political programme Hearts And Minds.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46We went to his Belfast studio to witness his quick wit
0:04:46 > 0:04:48and his even quicker drawing skills.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Order, order, order!
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Order!
0:04:57 > 0:05:00It's a matter of pride for me that I draw things the way I want.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07It's ideas-driven. It's a high form of activity. But it ain't art.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14I always hope my mirror to what the world will be really distorted!
0:05:15 > 0:05:17That's what I do.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I'm a distorter of the truth, and a bringer of the truth,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21but I do it through distortion.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And the more distorted, the better.
0:05:24 > 0:05:25I like surreal worlds,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29that the punter sees something bizarre and weird.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38People like a fantasy world in a political cartoon.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41They like to be taken slightly away from the grim reality
0:05:41 > 0:05:44into a slightly different kind of grim reality.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50The political cartoonist knows which props to throw into corners
0:05:50 > 0:05:53and how to light the thing, how to make the composition work.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Satire's about getting at the truth, it's not necessarily...
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Although you may go overboard to caricature it,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03you're not actually trying to come up with
0:06:03 > 0:06:05something that isn't the truth.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07If you were, people would soon get fed up with it.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15Edwin certainly was quite statuesque in his individuality.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17He doesn't have a short neck.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21I construct the character I want to be in my cartoon.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25And I give them the personality I think they ought to have.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28I don't study them to see what they're actually like.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Nigel Dodds, looking the way he does, he makes my job much easier.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38He has something of the night about him, I think.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41I definitely think of him as somebody who you would see
0:06:41 > 0:06:43as the light's beginning to fade
0:06:43 > 0:06:46somewhere in North Belfast, near an old ruined building.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Gerry Adams is one of the very few upper-teeth men.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54And, of course, Ian Paisley is probably the only person
0:06:54 > 0:06:56who's caricatured all around the world, as he was,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58with his mouth open.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00He's never shown with his mouth closed.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06That's what caricature's all about, really,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10finding that thing which is unique and putting it down,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and not just the way it is - the way it isn't.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I do four of these each week for the Irish News.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25Which is as much as I possibly could do, I think.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27I'm getting on, you know.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32I operate on panic, due to basic laziness.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34So, if there wasn't something like a deadline,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36I would never, ever do anything at all.
0:07:36 > 0:07:42So, there's panic, and then there's insight, then there's genius.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47And then there's the drawing, and then you relax until tomorrow.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Political issues are fascinating.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52The world is all about political issues.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56It's not a job I would ever in a million years want to do.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58I wouldn't be any good at it.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00I can't organise anything.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03I'd be totally useless. I'd only make the problems worse.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04But that doesn't stop me
0:08:04 > 0:08:07having a go at other people who get it wrong, as well.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17I draw for a paper which is predominantly nationalist,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20or non-unionist, and yet nearly all the feedback I get,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23rightly, from politicians is from unionists.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26They're the ones who want originals, not the nationalists.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30There's a kind of discipline about nationalists
0:08:30 > 0:08:33which means that the cartoons are not quite as funny.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The whole world of unionism is much wilder and wackier.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Well, we have this extraordinary Keystone Cop-type day
0:08:45 > 0:08:50with the UDA driving into Larne and taking it over
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and doing pretty much what they wanted.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57So, it struck me that all the money that's been pumped into the UDA,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01they should really invest in a fleet of their own official cars
0:09:01 > 0:09:04so they could go on patrol up front.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11I suppose I want people, when they see the cartoon,
0:09:11 > 0:09:13to think, "He's got it exactly right."
0:09:14 > 0:09:18And, "That's very funny," and to laugh and be entertained by it.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23I don't expect to change their point of view. It'd be nice if they did.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28The way I do it is I mainly slightly subvert their preconceptions.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30That's the most, I think, I could aim for.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34But the day I actually think that I'm changing people's minds
0:09:34 > 0:09:37is the day that you can send for the guys in the white coats.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Because that'll never happen.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44And if I ever think that that's happening, I'm going to jack it in.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Currently running at the Ulster Museum in Belfast
0:09:59 > 0:10:02is a major exhibition, Art Of The Troubles.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05In partnership with Wolverhampton Art Gallery, it's a challenging
0:10:05 > 0:10:08and sometimes controversial body of work.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Eamonn Mallie was a reporter here throughout the Troubles.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15He gives us his personal reflections from the very unique perspective
0:10:15 > 0:10:19of both a chronicler of the era and a 20th-century art lover.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33What we see here is a combination
0:10:33 > 0:10:37at the hands of FE McWilliam, the Banbridge sculptor,
0:10:37 > 0:10:42is a marrying together of the beauty of the female form
0:10:42 > 0:10:44and the ugliness of war.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48This piece of work is more emblematic, I think,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51of our Troubles than anything else
0:10:51 > 0:10:54we have in this exhibition here in the Ulster Museum.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59This is the equivalent of Pablo Picasso's painting of Guernica,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01bombed, in northern Spain.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06McWilliam captured the end product, the horror, the ugliness,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10the grotesqueness of violence arising from the Abercorn bombing
0:11:10 > 0:11:12in this particular piece of work.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Some of the artists who are hanging on the walls,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35they're not art as we would readily identify with the Troubles.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37For example, Terry Flanagan.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Terry Flanagan was a beautifully lyrical landscape painter,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and here he is portraying a dead figure.
0:11:46 > 0:11:52This was a response, we're advised, to the death of Mr Flanagan's friend.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01CROWD CHEERING, DRUMS AND FLUTES PLAYING
0:12:08 > 0:12:11The artist Joe McWilliams is a very political painter.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15He's done Gerry Adams, he's done Padraig Pearse,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18he's done a lot of the Irish figures of history.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24In painting Sammy Wilson, Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson, the artist
0:12:24 > 0:12:29is focusing very specifically on his take at a particular
0:12:29 > 0:12:32moment in time on the Democratic Unionist Party
0:12:32 > 0:12:35and, clearly, it is not a very edifying take.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Clearly, he has very considerable - from what I see here -
0:12:38 > 0:12:40contempt for these individuals.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Sammy Wilson, the Lord Mayor of Belfast -
0:12:44 > 0:12:46he's like the court jester.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51There is something menacing about this mirror image, almost,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53sitting on Ian Paisley's shoulder.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59And yet you get that in contrast to the guffawing, avuncular,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01larger-than-life Paisley,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04the television image which people would know of Ian Paisley.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09I can only conclude that the artist is conveying another message.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12If you notice, there's a yellow streak
0:13:12 > 0:13:15down the middle of Mr Robinson's face.
0:13:16 > 0:13:22But who knows? Not a very flattering triptych, I have to say.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35This painting by Conrad Atkinson
0:13:35 > 0:13:39is living proof of how times have changed.
0:13:39 > 0:13:40For the better, I should say.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43In 1978, there was uproar
0:13:43 > 0:13:46when Atkinson wanted it hung on a wall here in the museum.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48There was an objection by the trustees, there was
0:13:48 > 0:13:51an objection by staff, I'm told, et cetera, et cetera.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55It's hanging here today. Would anyone notice? I doubt it.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58The world is changing. What's happening now?
0:13:58 > 0:14:00Martin McGuinness dining with the Queen.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05CACOPHONOUS METALLIC BANGING
0:14:06 > 0:14:11This exhibit piece of art is called An Bhearna Bhaoil.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Now, An Bhearna Bhaoil means "the gap of danger".
0:14:16 > 0:14:20This is a tying of history and reality on the ground together.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27The banging of the bin lids was the quickest way to get the word out
0:14:27 > 0:14:30to people who might have been wanted by the police,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33who might have been hiding in a so-called safe house.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38So, in a sense, these bin lids were the Facebook
0:14:38 > 0:14:40and the Twitter of that era.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46It's the genius of the artist, Locky Morris, to see how
0:14:46 > 0:14:52this simple bin lid could be seen in a sense of otherness.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55That's what distinguishes the ordinary artist
0:14:55 > 0:14:57from the extraordinary.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00EXPLOSION
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Having come in to see the exhibition for the first time,
0:15:05 > 0:15:11my visceral response was one of tension.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Tension in my chest.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Maybe it's because I lived through this period.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22Maybe it's because I was there in the aftermath of so many
0:15:22 > 0:15:26of the killings portrayed here, of the shootings, of the bombing scenes.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32So, hence this sense of tension for me
0:15:32 > 0:15:36as a living reporter, as somebody who, thank God,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38survived the era, the period.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46And the Art Of The Troubles exhibition continues
0:15:46 > 0:15:48until 7th September.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Now, when a politician gets their photographic portrait taken,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55it's a rare chance for us to look them squarely in the face.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57But they may end up revealing
0:15:57 > 0:15:59an awful lot more than they'd bargained for.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Noel Thompson went to Downpatrick to meet a man who has had many
0:16:03 > 0:16:06of our local politicians staring down his lens over the years -
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Bobbie Hanvey.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17We live in an age when we're bombarded with moving images
0:16:17 > 0:16:20of politicians 24 hours a day.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23But a single moment frozen in time can define for ever
0:16:23 > 0:16:25the way we think of a person.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28If you go somewhere like that, look,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31- you can do different things, you know?- Yeah.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34'Bobbie Hanvey has used the power of the portrait to explore
0:16:34 > 0:16:37'the torturous political landscape of Northern Ireland,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41'as I discovered on a shoot in an old hospital ward in his home town.'
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Don't blink.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45CAMERA CLICKS
0:16:45 > 0:16:49What do you think has helped make you a successful portrait photographer?
0:16:49 > 0:16:51The way I look.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54I'm not threatening to men, I'm not threatening to women.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56I don't look great,
0:16:56 > 0:16:58I'm not good-looking,
0:16:58 > 0:17:04and no matter how unattractive some of the people that I'm taking are,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07they always feel better when they look at me!
0:17:07 > 0:17:08HE LAUGHS
0:17:08 > 0:17:09Isn't that strange?
0:17:10 > 0:17:15Are you always trying to get people to reveal something of themselves
0:17:15 > 0:17:19that has not been seen before or that has not been seen publicly before?
0:17:19 > 0:17:21- I try and get the dark side of people.- Mmm.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24You know? I don't know how I do it.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27I'm successful a lot of the time. Sometimes, I can't get it.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Yes. Not everyone has a dark side. Or do you think everyone does?
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Everybody has a dark side.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34But if people knew you wanted to take their dark side,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37maybe they wouldn't be so happy about posing for you.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42Most hard men and paramilitaries like their dark side to be seen,
0:17:42 > 0:17:43because that's how they're known.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45And I say to some of the paramilitaries
0:17:45 > 0:17:49when I'm taking them, "Look at me as if you were going to kill me."
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Close your eyes a wee second, there's dust in your eyes. Duck.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Got him! An old trick I learned in Belfast!
0:17:57 > 0:17:59HE LAUGHS
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Over five decades, Bobbie has worked in many different genres,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06from daily news to longer-term projects,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08like the last days of the RUC.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Where do you rate your portraits in that body of work?
0:18:15 > 0:18:17I'd rate them at the top.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Because that's what I really wanted to do, photograph people close up,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24getting into their eyes, even getting into their soul.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Sometimes I managed it, and sometimes I didn't,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29- but that's it. - Let's go and look.- OK.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37So, there you have Ian Paisley up at the level of Carson at Stormont.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Tell us about the background to this picture!
0:18:40 > 0:18:43It was September 1985.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Got his number and phoned him up and I said,
0:18:46 > 0:18:47"Dr Paisley, Bobbie Hanvey here.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50"Yes, my friend, what can I do for you?"
0:18:50 > 0:18:53I said, "I want to put you up in the air, 40 or 50 foot,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56"in a cherry picker, beside Lord Carson's statue,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58"and I want to go up in a cherry picker, as well,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00"and take you like that."
0:19:00 > 0:19:02He says, "When are we going up?"
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Bobbie has shot portraits of paramilitary leaders on all sides.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10This one of Buck Alec Robinson
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and Gusty Spence reveals something unexpected.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18So, this is a photograph of two generations of loyalist gunmen.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21What message did you want the picture to get across?
0:19:22 > 0:19:25They just look like ordinary people.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27You know, they look like us.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- Alex looks like an old man, which he is.- He is.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32And Gusty's just happy and pleased to be there
0:19:32 > 0:19:36and there's no dark side to Gusty in that shot, you know what I mean?
0:19:38 > 0:19:40- They do what they have to do. - They've convinced themselves
0:19:40 > 0:19:43that there's a just cause for what they're doing.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46'Other portraits reveal something very different.'
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Cathal Goulding, chief of staff for the Official IRA.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56How about that? When he looked at me, it was like me looking at death.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58Death.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And the eyes are the things
0:20:00 > 0:20:03in that Cathal Goulding shot that stand out.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05You say they're dead eyes?
0:20:05 > 0:20:07It's like looking at death.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Very nice man.
0:20:09 > 0:20:10I liked him.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Do you feel that they liked the thought of being recorded
0:20:14 > 0:20:18for posterity, that a good photograph of them is something
0:20:18 > 0:20:22that will always be a record of them and their ego?
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It's not them and their ego, it's them and their tradition.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31A lot of people mightn't like them, but they had the support and,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34whether we like it or not, they ran Northern Ireland for 30 years.
0:20:34 > 0:20:35Nobody could stop it.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43I don't want to photograph politicians any more.
0:20:45 > 0:20:46Why?
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Because I don't believe them any more.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52I think people were more honest during the Troubles.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56And is that what you think or what you try to capture with your lens,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58that honesty, that rawness?
0:20:58 > 0:21:01There's an awful honesty about brutality.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06OK. Let's have a look at me here.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09I look like bloody Keith Richards in that one!
0:21:09 > 0:21:10HE LAUGHS
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Originally commissioned by BBC Two Northern Ireland,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27it's a film with no story
0:21:27 > 0:21:31and very little dialogue is spoken for most of its 40 minutes.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34But it was produced by a future Oscar winner, Danny Boyle,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37and directed by revered film maverick Alan Clarke.
0:21:37 > 0:21:4025 years on, Elephant is now at cult status,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44considered to be one of the most striking and dramatic portrayals
0:21:44 > 0:21:46of the Troubles.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56In 1987, Danny Boyle, then head of the drama department
0:21:56 > 0:22:01at BBC Northern Ireland, invited director Alan Clarke to Belfast
0:22:01 > 0:22:06to discuss a new screenplay for a BBC Two drama about the RUC.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11One of the writers, Chris Ryder, took him on a tour of the city.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Here you were, driving along a suburban street.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Then all of a sudden there would be a house and I would have told them,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21"Well, at three o'clock one morning, somebody hammered the door
0:22:21 > 0:22:23"and as soon as the front door was opened
0:22:23 > 0:22:25"the person in it was gunned down."
0:22:25 > 0:22:28What struck him was the calm brutality of it all.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34Clarke went back to Danny Boyle with an idea for a very different film,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37showing a series of sectarian murders
0:22:37 > 0:22:40with no explanations and no real beginning or end.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43It would mirror the deadly stalemate here,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45the unmentionable elephant in the room.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Elephant was the first time I'd ever stood in front of a camera,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52the first part I'd never got in any kind of a film.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54So, it made it all the more exciting for me on the day.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56I had to walk along here, nice and gently,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59without drawing any attention to myself particularly.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I had to ring on that doorbell and then I had to wait
0:23:02 > 0:23:04for what felt at the time like an eternity
0:23:04 > 0:23:06before somebody actually came to the door and answered it.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13GUNSHOTS
0:23:13 > 0:23:14But Alan Clarke was fastidious in exactly
0:23:14 > 0:23:16how he wanted you to do what he wanted you to do.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I can remember talking at one point, saying to him,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21"Do I know this guy? Do I hate this character?
0:23:21 > 0:23:23"Is there venom behind what I'm doing here?"
0:23:23 > 0:23:25He said, "Absolutely not."
0:23:25 > 0:23:27He wanted nothing. he said, "No expression at all."
0:23:27 > 0:23:29A documentary is people,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32is one in which people portray themselves.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37A drama is one in which actors are paid to portray other people.
0:23:37 > 0:23:38OK.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40And the poor guy died about there.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45It's kind of a shock to see it.
0:23:45 > 0:23:46It is a shock to see it.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51And to see how simple the whole thing was.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54You really did feel like you were...
0:23:54 > 0:23:56It felt like you were looking at something very real.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59But when you saw it in the end, it was quite stripped bare.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03You felt kind of naked about it, I think.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Elephant was largely improvised on location,
0:24:06 > 0:24:08a product of the director's imagination.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13It was an unusual film, because, A, there was no script,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15so we didn't really know what was happening.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Most of the crew didn't know from day-to-day
0:24:17 > 0:24:20exactly what we were going to shoot.
0:24:20 > 0:24:21GUNSHOT
0:24:24 > 0:24:27The content was very unsettling for the crew
0:24:27 > 0:24:30and I know a lot of crew didn't really want to work on it.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34He spent a lot of time on his own, walking up and down
0:24:34 > 0:24:36with a big coat on.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38I don't think he was very well at the time, either.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Elephant was broadcast in January, 1989.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46The following day, there were outraged accusations
0:24:46 > 0:24:49that it sensationalised sectarian killing.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53We wanted to try and bring to the attention of everybody, really,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55who should be concerned about Northern Ireland
0:24:55 > 0:24:57that the situation is continuing.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59Some days you would have had tit for tats,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02two in the morning, two in the afternoon..
0:25:02 > 0:25:05By stripping away all the propaganda, all the explanations,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08the justifications, the "what about-tery"
0:25:08 > 0:25:11that you had in Belfast, this was just a way to show that,
0:25:11 > 0:25:16underneath it all, the core of it all was this regular, relentless,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19coruscating sheer violence
0:25:19 > 0:25:22with no rhyme nor reason in most cases.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It was becoming normal, and he was trying to show
0:25:25 > 0:25:29that it wasn't normal, and I think that got a reaction
0:25:29 > 0:25:31cos I think it made people think,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35"Gosh, really, this isn't normal. This isn't a normal way to live.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38"This isn't a normal society we're living in."
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Clarke had been suffering from cancer throughout the shoot
0:25:41 > 0:25:43and died the following year.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46But for a film that was only shown once on television,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Elephant has been incredibly influential.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52You talk to any director and they hear that you've worked on Elephant,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55they're quite... They ask you questions.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59I think a lot of film-makers took to heart
0:25:59 > 0:26:01a lot of what Alan did in that movie.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05In 2003, director Gus Van Sant
0:26:05 > 0:26:08won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival
0:26:08 > 0:26:11for a film which borrowed heavily from Alan Clarke.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Depicting shootings at a US high school, his Elephant uses
0:26:14 > 0:26:18the same unflinching tracking shots of victims and killers.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22The camera just sits there.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24It looks and it looks and it looks
0:26:24 > 0:26:26and it won't let you tear your eyes away.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28He was a very political film-maker.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31In this case, he had a very, very precise point that he wanted to make
0:26:31 > 0:26:33and I don't think you could have made it any better.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Well, that's almost it from The Arts Show for this month.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55You can join me live on Twitter now and you can keep up-to-date
0:26:55 > 0:26:59with all arts and culture on BBC Radio Ulster's Arts Extra
0:26:59 > 0:27:01weeknights at 6:30pm.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05I'm back in May, but we leave you with another moment
0:27:05 > 0:27:08from the BBC Two Northern Ireland archive.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12In 1993, a fresh-faced up-and-coming comedian
0:27:12 > 0:27:15who knew how to spin the comic art of politics made his appearance
0:27:15 > 0:27:19on the arts show The Hungry Eye. Good night.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21APPLAUSE
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Thanks very much. At the minute, we've got
0:27:23 > 0:27:26a new battalion of the Army over here on our streets
0:27:26 > 0:27:29and because they've taken their helmets off and put their berets on,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32they're now called the Frank Spencer Regiment.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35What's actually happening is, instead, at the checkpoints,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38of them asking you for ID, they just stand at the window and go...
0:27:38 > 0:27:40HE GIGGLES
0:27:42 > 0:27:44And all the boys are having great fun with it in Belfast.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47The lads are at the checkpoint, they go, "Excuse me.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50"You got any means of identification on you?" "No, I haven't, mucker,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53"but I'm Betty and she's Jessica. Know what I mean?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55"Ah, go on, give us Phantom of the Opera."
0:27:55 > 0:27:57"Tell you what, you stick the roller-skates on,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59"I'll tow you down the road."
0:28:00 > 0:28:03It's true. It's true. And also, I've noticed, culturally,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06it's really, really good. Thomas the Tank Engine is actually now
0:28:06 > 0:28:09in Irish over here, and I was thinking for Northern Ireland
0:28:09 > 0:28:12they shouldn't have it in Irish, they should just abbreviate it.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16For Northern Ireland, it should be Thomas the Tank.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Or maybe just Thomas the Saracen.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21I think Ringo Starr could have a lot of fun with that.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24It was a boring day for Thomas the Saracen
0:28:24 > 0:28:27as he escorted the Republic of Ireland team to the ground.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Oh, there's a police checkpoint with the two Land Rovers,
0:28:30 > 0:28:31Annie and Clarabell.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35"Hello, Annie." "Hello, Thomas. Any means of identification?"
0:28:35 > 0:28:37"Didn't you know, Annie? I'm in the Masons?"
0:28:37 > 0:28:40"Oh, sorry, Thomas. On you go."
0:28:40 > 0:28:41It's true.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43APPLAUSE