0:00:03 > 0:00:07WOLF HOWLS
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Turn off the lights, disconnect the doorbell
0:00:12 > 0:00:14and leave the trick or treaters to the neighbours
0:00:14 > 0:00:17because you won't want to miss a minute of tonight's show.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19We've got freakish films, witch trials,
0:00:19 > 0:00:23the best of non-fiction and a snapshot of fine art
0:00:23 > 0:00:26and photography from the National Gallery, here in London.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Coming up, Mark Kermode
0:00:29 > 0:00:33and John Sweeney investigate new film The Master.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38I'll be comparing Old Masters with modern photographers.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Miranda Sawyer reviews three of the short-listed books
0:00:42 > 0:00:45for this year's Samuel Johnson Prize.
0:00:45 > 0:00:50And we'll be summoning up a piece of Halloween gold from the TV archives.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58But first, from Shameless, Silk and Strindberg
0:00:58 > 0:01:01to a haunting Myra Hindley, via a role in Dinnerladies
0:01:01 > 0:01:05with Victoria Wood, it may come as a surprise that actress Maxine Peake
0:01:05 > 0:01:10has turned her talents to electronica, with music collective
0:01:10 > 0:01:12the Eccentronic Research Council.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Their latest concept album tells the tale of the Pendle Witches,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19a subject close to Maxine's heart.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22WOLF HOWLS
0:01:22 > 0:01:24BELL TOLLS
0:01:27 > 0:01:35Elizabeth Southerns, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Alison Device,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43Katherine Hewitt, Isabel Robey, Margaret Pearson and Alice Nutter.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49The Pendle Witches are a group of people from Pendle, Lancashire,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51who were accused of witchcraft.
0:01:51 > 0:01:57And they were just local people who were mainly very poor,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01uneducated, and who'd dealt a little bit in the selling of herbs
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and potions for illnesses.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08They were just women and men just trying to get by.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12I'm from Lancashire, from Bolton.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14So we always knew they were the witches from over the hill.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18I grew up in the shadow of the West Pennines.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21It was probably only when I got to about 17, 18, that
0:02:21 > 0:02:27I started investigating further, but I just thought this can't be true.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31So I went into a local bookshop in Bolton
0:02:31 > 0:02:38and got a couple of books and that's when I started to realise really that it was sort of a smokescreen
0:02:38 > 0:02:40that was based on conspiracy and paranoia,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42and the seriousness of it.
0:02:42 > 0:02:48I got in touch with Adrian rather embarrassingly through Facebook actually.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I just got a message from this guy saying,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53"I think you'd like my music," and I though, "Will I?"
0:02:53 > 0:02:57And he sent me a track over and I loved it.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59And then the subject of the Pendle Witches came up
0:02:59 > 0:03:03and we both had this passion to tell the true story.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05So we said, "Let's do something."
0:03:05 > 0:03:09# The A666, some call the devil's highway
0:03:09 > 0:03:10# And some call the road to hell
0:03:10 > 0:03:13# But I can't believe the devil came from Bolton
0:03:13 > 0:03:16# And gorged on black peas astride a small stone elephant
0:03:16 > 0:03:19# And I don't believe he was ever a fan of Chris Rea. #
0:03:19 > 0:03:21The album is a travelogue. It is based on a day
0:03:21 > 0:03:24me and Adrian came up to Pendle and had a good old mooch around.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Adrian sort of went away
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and wrote from the experiences that we had that day.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34I never thought of being in a band, and when I recorded this
0:03:34 > 0:03:36I still didn't think I was going to be in a band.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38And then we got a call saying they want to release it as an album
0:03:38 > 0:03:41and could we do a few gigs to promote the album?
0:03:41 > 0:03:43And that's when I panicked.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45# My pal and I hit this particular road
0:03:45 > 0:03:48# Like Terry and June in a battered old Hillman Minx
0:03:48 > 0:03:50# Masquerading as an Eddie Stobart truck
0:03:50 > 0:03:52# To give thanks
0:03:52 > 0:03:56# And praise the Lord to those ladies known as the Pendle Witches
0:03:56 > 0:03:59# Those uneducated, mostly very poor, sometimes a little bit daft
0:03:59 > 0:04:01# But then, aren't we all?
0:04:01 > 0:04:04# Women who were by and large unjustly hung by cretinous agenda
0:04:04 > 0:04:08# Filled judges and their potty Reformation obsessed word editors
0:04:08 > 0:04:12# On the orders of the bully kings
0:04:12 > 0:04:15# Proof, if ever needed, that man can be a black dog. #
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Pendle Witches' sort of tragic story started with...
0:04:27 > 0:04:33Alison Device was...out on the moor one day and there was a peddler who'd come over
0:04:33 > 0:04:35from Halifax who was selling pins.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38She'd asked him for some pins and he'd said no.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42So she'd probably said, "On yer bike, mate," which was taken as a curse.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46He then supposedly fell down on the floor in extreme pain.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51Now, if you read the description, the gentleman had obviously had a stroke.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55But it was taken that Alison had cursed him.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59So then she was hauled in with her mother and the family
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and the families who had been sort of connected with them,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05all of them were accused of witchcraft.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08So that's how it started.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11At the time of the Pendle Witches, James I was in power
0:05:11 > 0:05:15and he completely believed that witchcraft was a threat
0:05:15 > 0:05:21and that anybody seen to be, God forbid, fiddling with twigs
0:05:21 > 0:05:24or anything like that, he would have them condemned as a witch.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27You had to be so careful about how you conducted yourself.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32You could be, as unfortunately these women were, murdered.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36# Hang the witch, oh, shut them up
0:05:37 > 0:05:44# It's a middle-class vendetta on women who were better
0:05:45 > 0:05:50# Sorry to murmur, praise heart
0:05:52 > 0:05:58# If you don't believe in Jesus, don't think there'll be a Christmas
0:05:59 > 0:06:04# Another day has gone, another witch is dead
0:06:06 > 0:06:09# Another day is gone... #
0:06:09 > 0:06:14I can see very clear parallels with today, how people are sort of
0:06:14 > 0:06:18swept under the carpet if they don't fit in, if they're on
0:06:18 > 0:06:23the margins, very poor, uneducated, we're not dealing with these people
0:06:23 > 0:06:29face on, we're just pushing them in cupboards and closing the door
0:06:29 > 0:06:32and hoping that they're out of sight, instead of dealing with it.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37The album is about smokescreens and I think what happens in this country today
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and throughout the world, governments are very good at pinpointing people
0:06:42 > 0:06:47who are accused of being the root cause of things when it's not really, it's just to deflect.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50We should never forget our history
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and maybe we'll get out of the mess we're in at the moment if we do that.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58# One last spell I offer up
0:06:59 > 0:07:04# Contains grains and worms and carrots
0:07:04 > 0:07:09# 16th-century Holland and Barrett, dear you
0:07:09 > 0:07:11# Snap my neck and wave goodbye
0:07:12 > 0:07:17# Every eye that sees is guilty
0:07:17 > 0:07:22# Of a subtle kind of cruelty. #
0:07:22 > 0:07:28Just in case 1612 Underture should have crept under your radar,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30it's out and available now.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34Now, there's a real buzz about Paul Thomas Anderson's new film,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39not least because it's loosely based on the story of L Ron Hubbard,
0:07:39 > 0:07:41founder of Scientology.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Mark Kermode went to see the film with Panorama's John Sweeney,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48a man who's come face-to-face with the organisation
0:07:48 > 0:07:50and knows it better than most.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58The Church of Scientology has long had strong ties with Hollywood
0:07:58 > 0:08:00and many of its stars.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Now, Paul Thomas Anderson,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07the wunderkind behind movies like Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and Magnolia, has released a film inspired in part by the life
0:08:11 > 0:08:14of L Ron Hubbard and the early days of the movement he founded.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The Master tells the story of a Navy veteran,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20drifter and down-and-out who falls under the spell
0:08:20 > 0:08:26of the charismatic leader of a new quasi-religion, the Cause.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33But above all, I am a man, just like you.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38In the States, it broke opening weekend records for an arthouse release
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and has been hotly tipped for Academy Awards.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44While, over here, the film's allusions to Scientology
0:08:44 > 0:08:47have already caused a bit of a media stir.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52So I wanted to ask someone who's been up close and personal
0:08:52 > 0:08:55with the controversial church what he made of the film.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney has fronted two investigations
0:08:59 > 0:09:04into Scientology and its members, not the easiest of assignments.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08- You don't understand the nature of journalism, with respect.- No, no.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12- I don't understand the nature of you as a person.- Very good, thank you.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16- John?- Hi, Mark.- Welcome to the Culture Show.- Thank you.- Take a seat.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22So, John, we've just watched The Master together. I loved it.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25- What did you make of it?- I thought the film was extraordinary.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27I thought it was bold and good.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31I'm still troubled by my experience with the Church of Scientology.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35I found this film almost healing, in some sense.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38What's wonderful for me
0:09:38 > 0:09:41about The Master is it explains the birth of a cult.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Because the thing that really gets me
0:09:45 > 0:09:48and confuses all of my friends and people who think about it,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51ex-Scientologists, is how on earth do they fall for this?
0:09:51 > 0:09:55How do they fall for this man and this thing, this entity,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00this "church", and the answer is...he had charisma.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05And what's so brilliant about this film is you see how a man
0:10:05 > 0:10:10with immense charisma can mould people around him
0:10:10 > 0:10:12to believe he is someone special.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18He's been writing all night. You seem to inspire something in him.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23What we will do now will urge you toward existence within a group.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Paul Thomas Anderson has said that The Master is not meant to be
0:10:26 > 0:10:28a biopic of L Ron Hubbard
0:10:28 > 0:10:31but he accepts that there are very pronounced parallels.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Tell us, from your knowledge, what those parallels would be.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Let's start with, they call it processing,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Scientology calls it auditing.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44What happens is you go into a trance-like hypnotic state
0:10:44 > 0:10:48and you talk through your past lives on tape.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Are you thoughtless in your remarks? Do your past failures bother you?
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Is your life troubled? Is your behaviour erratic?
0:10:56 > 0:11:00The biggest thing of all is that Hubbard,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05the founder of Scientology, was massively charismatic and a conman.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10And in the film, the Master is massively charismatic and a conman.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14- You might learn something.- He's making all this up as he goes along.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16You don't see that?
0:11:18 > 0:11:21There's Jason Beghe, who's left the Church
0:11:21 > 0:11:24and he's said about Scientology that there has never been
0:11:24 > 0:11:27a mousetrap without some really good cheese in it.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29They love-bomb you to death.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35And at the beginning of the film, certainly, Phoenix is a wreck
0:11:35 > 0:11:38and the Cause does help him.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42They listen to him. There is some kind of weird family.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44And they look after him.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50If we are not helping him, then it is we who have failed him.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Perhaps he's past help.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Or insane.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59The Cause feels like a good thing for really quite a while
0:11:59 > 0:12:02and then it's suddenly when the sceptic arrives
0:12:02 > 0:12:04and questions the Master
0:12:04 > 0:12:08that it turns nasty and gets progressively darker and darker.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Good science by definition allows for more than one opinion,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15otherwise you have the will of one man, which is the basis of cult.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19And this is where we're at, to have to explain ourselves. For what?
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The only way to defend ourselves is to attack.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24From your personal experience,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27it's obviously struck a very deep chord in relation to Scientology.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Do you think it's possible to read the film in any other way?
0:12:30 > 0:12:33It's not absolutely about Scientology, even for me.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36You don't have to be in the least bit interested
0:12:36 > 0:12:39in the Church of Scientology or have ever heard of it
0:12:39 > 0:12:42to find this film an amazing piece of art.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45It's a love affair between two men.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49It's a film about a charismatic domineering personality.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51It could also be about other cults.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55Do you think there's any particular reason why this film exists now?
0:12:55 > 0:13:01I think Scientology used to have an octopus-like grip on Hollywood.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06And that is weakening. It should have been made 20 years ago.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09But it's great that they've done it now.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12- John, thank you very much. - Thank you.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14And The Master is out on Friday,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17going on general release in two weeks' time.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22Next, a groundbreaking new exhibition at the National Gallery,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25which for the first time in its 150 years of history
0:13:25 > 0:13:29is devoting a major show to the subject of photography,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33specifically the links between photography and painting.
0:13:33 > 0:13:34I went along to find out
0:13:34 > 0:13:38what we might learn from this double exposure.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45In 1839, a new technology revolutionised the image.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46Photography. Almost immediately,
0:13:46 > 0:13:52it sparked a heated debate that's still going on today.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55So, can a photograph be a work of art?
0:13:55 > 0:13:57It's an old chestnut
0:13:57 > 0:13:59and personally I think the answer's straightforward - of course it can.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Every time the photographer depresses the shutter,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05all kinds of artistic decisions are being made,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09about focus, about light, about composition.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13And yet in many people's minds, questions still hover.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18Isn't photography too easy, too mechanical, too much of a shortcut?
0:14:18 > 0:14:22Can a photograph ever be really as truly
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and deeply expressive as a great painting?
0:14:29 > 0:14:32To explore, I've come to the National Gallery's
0:14:32 > 0:14:36first major photography exhibition, which has Old Masters of painting
0:14:36 > 0:14:39rubbing shoulders with groundbreaking photographers,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41past and present.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Pioneers like Julia Margaret Cameron were convinced that
0:14:43 > 0:14:49photography could be art, and used smudged paint effects to prove it.
0:14:49 > 0:14:55But, 150 years later, photography was still painting's poor relation.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00In the '70s, Craigie Horsfield was one of the first contemporary artists to make a breakthrough.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07I remember, 20 years ago,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10you were well known for bridling if anybody called you a photographer.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12You said, "No, no, I'm an artist,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14"and I happen to use a camera some of the time."
0:15:14 > 0:15:18If you were showing Gilbert & George, it's photography, or is it?
0:15:18 > 0:15:19Warhol - is that photography?
0:15:19 > 0:15:22It's such a nebulous description,
0:15:22 > 0:15:28and it doesn't actually apply to most of what we see and experience.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33Horsfield's work challenges some perceived limitations of the photograph -
0:15:33 > 0:15:36that they're small, slight, quick to reproduce,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38lacking the weight of painting.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40He produces only one image,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43emphasising the uniqueness of the object itself.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49I notice that you are one of the few in the exhibition
0:15:49 > 0:15:51who doesn't have a sheet of glass
0:15:51 > 0:15:54interposed between image and audience.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57To me, that has the effect of drawing me
0:15:57 > 0:16:01into the photographic paper, almost beginning to see
0:16:01 > 0:16:05the photographic paper itself is another form of skin on which these pigments,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08these shapes, these forms have been imprinted.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Is that part of your intention?
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Yes, it is an aquarelle paper, where you have this tactile surface.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16If you look very closely,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20you can see the stippling almost as if it was the pores of the skin,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22but, of course, it is an illusion.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24There's a strong sense of enigma about it.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29I have this sense that he's really thinking about something that's been said to him.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32There's almost like a sense of clenching in his cheek muscles.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34There is.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37But this is surely one of the fascinating aspects of making art,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and especially making pictures,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43that this is a story.
0:16:43 > 0:16:44We know that it's not real.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47It's not this person in this place.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50It's an account of somebody who we've never met,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52who we will only know this about.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54- Yeah.- And...
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- It's almost like the Mona Lisa quality.- Well...
0:16:57 > 0:17:00- Except he's not smiling!- It's something that art can do, isn't it?
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Horsfield's work has been described as painterly
0:17:06 > 0:17:07in both its process and its nature.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10He paved the way for some of the artists here,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13many of whom explore the relationship
0:17:13 > 0:17:15between photography and art history.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22Richard Learoyd uses a 19th-century process,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24a camera obscura,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27a gigantic photographic device the size of a room.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32The image is projected directly onto the paper itself,
0:17:32 > 0:17:34making each image unique.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Sittings can last for days.
0:17:39 > 0:17:40All of this effort,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43all of this labour into the camera obscura effect.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46What is it, the effect you're trying to get? What's the sensation?
0:17:46 > 0:17:50The sensation is the power of the photograph.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53I think that making photographs in that way
0:17:53 > 0:17:55creates image of a scale
0:17:55 > 0:17:58without a printmaking process intervening.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02This process is incredibly good at giving people
0:18:02 > 0:18:05a centre of gravity, giving a sense of weight
0:18:05 > 0:18:09and three-dimensionality that defies the photographic surface.
0:18:09 > 0:18:15Learoyd's work is often directly inspired by existing works of art.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17The National Gallery reveals the connection
0:18:17 > 0:18:20between his aesthetic and that of the painter Ingres.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25My references and the things that I sort of am drawn to
0:18:25 > 0:18:26are actually painterly.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30It's a funny relationship that I have with photography.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34I think I am slightly unusual in that I take...
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Sometimes I take a very literal interpretation of an image that I like.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42But when I was looking at this photograph for the first time,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45- I did actually think of Ingres... - Yeah.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47..with that lost profile of the face
0:18:47 > 0:18:51and this tremendous sensual focus on flesh itself.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55That flesh is something that people are invited to scrutinise.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59It's only your children or your lover that you ever get to look at
0:18:59 > 0:19:04so closely, to see, well, actually he's got hair here,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08and the pores of the skin are quite smooth, so you can evaluate his age.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10Maybe he's not in a manual profession
0:19:10 > 0:19:15because his fingernails are quite, you know, they're pretty good.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17There's a softness of the skin.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19You make a lot of decisions about somebody
0:19:19 > 0:19:21when you can look at them incredibly closely.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Can a photograph
0:19:24 > 0:19:28be expressive in the same way, as deeply, as profoundly
0:19:28 > 0:19:34of somebody's sensibility, as a painting or a sculpture?
0:19:34 > 0:19:37I think yes, but it isn't a casual yes.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41I think that photography has enormous problems.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44The medium has enormous problems.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46The equalisation of technology,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49the fact that everybody carries a phone,
0:19:49 > 0:19:51everybody makes photographs all the time.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54It's almost as if everybody was wandering the streets
0:19:54 > 0:19:56with a canvas, painting constantly!
0:19:56 > 0:19:57Yeah, yeah.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00How much more difficult would it be to produce a Titian?
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Well, yes, that's a good point.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07It can be, at its best, incredibly moving, photography.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09But it moves in different ways. It's a very complicated area.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11You can get pictures that are emotional
0:20:11 > 0:20:14because of what they're showing you rather than what they are.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19I think that what I'm interested in is photographs that are moving
0:20:19 > 0:20:21or emotional because of what they actually are.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Next up, the Samuel Johnson Prize,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31shining a light on the very best non-fiction writing.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Miranda Sawyer picked three books on the shortlist to see
0:20:34 > 0:20:36who scaled the heights this year.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43'The Samuel Johnson Prize is Britain's most prestigious
0:20:43 > 0:20:45'award for non-fiction,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48'and has previously been won by books on subjects
0:20:48 > 0:20:51'as diverse as China's great famine under Mao,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53'an account of our fascination with whales,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56'and the story of a real-life Georgian murder mystery.'
0:20:59 > 0:21:03The six books on this year's shortlist are equally broad-ranging,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06but my selected three have a few themes in common.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10They're all weighty, scholarly tomes that analyse war and human conflict.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14They shine a light onto our more brutal and vicious traits,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17but also offer a glimpse of redemption.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Mount Everest is the looming presence at the centre of
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Into The Silence by Wade Davis,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30a gripping account of man's first attempts to conquer
0:21:30 > 0:21:32the roof of the world
0:21:32 > 0:21:36in a series of expeditions between 1921 and 1924.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Wade Davis, who is an award-winning anthropologist
0:21:42 > 0:21:45and explorer in his own right, is brilliant at plotting
0:21:45 > 0:21:49the history behind the British desire to conquer Everest.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51By 1912, we'd lost the race to both poles,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54so scaling the largest mountain in the world
0:21:54 > 0:21:57became absorbed into the colonial effort,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01in Davis' words, "A grand imperial gesture."
0:22:03 > 0:22:07But the backdrop to this epic quest was the battlefields of World War One,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11where men were subjected to an onslaught of death and destruction.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
0:22:16 > 0:22:19'In the noise and chaos and horror of the battle,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21'all communication collapsed.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23'Those few who advanced slowed
0:22:23 > 0:22:26'and faltered, burdened by their loads,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28'leaning and bowing into the storm
0:22:28 > 0:22:30'as if to limit exposure to the land.'
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Out of the 23 climbers who took part in the world's first
0:22:35 > 0:22:36Everest expeditions,
0:22:36 > 0:22:4017 had experienced the horrors of the trenches.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43This is the final attempt here,
0:22:43 > 0:22:461924, and we see Mallory and Sandy Irvine,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48who accompanied him.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Mallory was the most illustrious climber of his generation,
0:22:52 > 0:22:53so therefore the most famous.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57And this one here is the very last photograph taken of Mallory
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and Irvine as they set off from camp four
0:22:59 > 0:23:02to make their assault on Everest,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and neither of them came back.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12Whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit is still disputed.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14The three expeditions to conquer Everest had failed.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19But man's obsession with defeating it never ceased.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23I'm not normally into stories of exploration
0:23:23 > 0:23:27and British derring-do, but this book is much more than that.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29For a start, it's beautifully written,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33and the way that Wade Davis explores human suffering
0:23:33 > 0:23:35and the effect of World War One
0:23:35 > 0:23:38on the individual and national psyche
0:23:38 > 0:23:40makes this book genuinely moving.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46But less than 20 years after the First World War,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48violence and fighting had returned to Europe,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52this time to a country at war with itself.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57The Spanish Holocaust, written by Paul Preston,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01an academic and a leading authority on modern Spanish history,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04is a chilling yet powerful account of the mass slaughter
0:24:04 > 0:24:07committed by Franco's troops during the Spanish Civil War.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12In Spain, there is what has often been called the pact of silence.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15That was an important part of the transition to democracy.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17When Franco died,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22people were terrified that there wouldn't be a democratic transition,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25and therefore there was this kind of tacit agreement,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28"Let's not rake over the past."
0:24:28 > 0:24:31So in a way, I wanted to, if you like,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34to break the pact of silence.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36I felt someone had to do it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:42On 18th July, 1936,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46on hearing of the military uprising in Morocco,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50an aristocratic landowner lined up the labourers on his estate
0:24:50 > 0:24:52to the south-west of Salamanca
0:24:52 > 0:24:55and shot six of them as a lesson to the others.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Aguilera's cold and calculated violence
0:24:59 > 0:25:02reflected the belief common among the rural upper classes
0:25:02 > 0:25:05that the landed labourers were subhuman.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08You use the word holocaust, it's a Spanish holocaust.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13- Why did you choose that word in particular? It's quite loaded. - What I wanted to do was to shock.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18I wanted a word that would capture my sense of indignation,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21my sense of horror at what had happened.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Franco had such an amazingly good press in the Anglo-Saxon world.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28He's still thought of as this gallant Christian gentleman,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32when in fact the piles of dead bodies over which Franco clambered
0:25:32 > 0:25:36to get to power were something I felt needed attention being drawn to.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40There were evenings when my wife would come home from work
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and she would find me literally weeping over the keyboard.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46It was appalling.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Steven Pinker's The Better Angels Of Our Nature
0:25:54 > 0:25:57offers a more optimistic outlook for mankind.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Pinker is a polymath and author of several popular
0:25:59 > 0:26:02science books about language and the human mind.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08In this, his latest work, he argues that over the course of human history,
0:26:08 > 0:26:10violence has declined
0:26:10 > 0:26:15and we are now living in the most peaceful era of our species' existence.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18It sounds a bit too good to be true.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22But Pinker's argument is convincing as well as thought-provoking,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26and it's backed up with an incredible amount of research,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29masses of data and graphs that chart violent incidents over time
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and adjust them according to the world's population.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'Critics have been raving about this book.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38'It's been called "brilliant" and "mind-altering".
0:26:38 > 0:26:41'Pinker believes that the pacification of the world
0:26:41 > 0:26:44'is a steady and ongoing trend.'
0:26:44 > 0:26:47The women's liberation and civil rights movements
0:26:47 > 0:26:51illustrate how far we've come from fighting each other
0:26:51 > 0:26:53to fighting for each other's rights.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58So, Steven, I've read two other books on the shortlist
0:26:58 > 0:27:01that are essentially full of mankind's brutality.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06And yet your book is trying to give us a reason for optimism.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10I kept coming across these statistics that no-one else seemed to know about,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13that violence seems to be in decline
0:27:13 > 0:27:15in multiple ways.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17So many people think that things are getting worse,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and being privy to these studies showing that it is the other way around,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24I thought that the news had to get out.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27What would you like people to take away from your book?
0:27:27 > 0:27:31One is a sense of gratitude for the institutions that have made life pleasant
0:27:31 > 0:27:34in ways that we sometimes don't appreciate,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37and also the knowledge that it's not hopeless,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40the world is not a hellhole, we've been doing something right.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Thinking that we can reduce war still further is not romantic,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47it's not idealistic, it's completely practical.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Thank you, Steven, and I'd like to say that I spent ages reading thousands and thousands of words
0:27:51 > 0:27:53of how terrible people have been to each other,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57and you have given me a glint of hope, so I'd like to say thank you very much.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59My pleasure, thank you!
0:28:01 > 0:28:05And next week I will be looking at the other three nominees on the shortlist.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09But finally tonight, a piece of unexpectedly terrifying telly
0:28:09 > 0:28:11first broadcast 20 years ago today.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Following a public outcry and a slew of complaints,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17it was deemed too disturbing ever to be repeated in full -
0:28:17 > 0:28:22quite an achievement for an entirely fictitious spoof documentary.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25But here, for one night only, resurrected from the BBC crypt,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Ghostwatch will play us out.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30And remember, it's not real. Good night.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Sarah, Sarah, are you all right?
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Suzanne's a lot quieter now.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43But they won't move. They won't listen to me.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48I think Suzanne's in some kind of a state of shock.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51MIC FEEDBACK
0:28:51 > 0:28:53What do I do? I can't leave them.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Sorry, I've got to take this out. It's making a terrible noise.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58BANGING
0:28:58 > 0:29:00I don't know what's going on.
0:29:00 > 0:29:01Can you hear this?
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Smithy? Michael? Dr Pascoe?
0:29:04 > 0:29:06There are credible noises
0:29:06 > 0:29:09coming from the walls and from the ceiling.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11SCREAMING
0:29:11 > 0:29:13# Tonight on Halloween. #