0:00:02 > 0:00:05This is the British Broadcasting Corporation.
0:00:05 > 0:00:0790 years, four hours and 27 minutes ago on the dot,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10the BBC sent its first ever transmission into the ether.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12OVERLAPPING RADIO VOICES
0:00:12 > 0:00:14MUSIC: "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley
0:00:14 > 0:00:15MUSIC: "Jumping Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones
0:00:15 > 0:00:20Hundreds of thousands of broadcasts later, The Culture Show is here at Broadcasting House
0:00:20 > 0:00:23where tonight, our schedule is packed with superstar novelists,
0:00:23 > 0:00:25lone warriors and ethereal artists.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32Lindsay Johns makes the case for Rambo the role model.
0:00:32 > 0:00:39Sandy Toksvig gives us the entire history of radio in just over a minute.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44Alistair Sooke heads to Edinburgh in search of Scottish painter John Bellany.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49And we get to sample the new Rolling Stones documentary, Crossfire Hurricane.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54# It's all right now In fact it's a gas... #
0:00:55 > 0:01:00But first, Andrew Graham Dickson takes to the plush avenues of New York's Upper East Side
0:01:00 > 0:01:04to meet a writer who needs little introduction.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Tom Wolfe, astute purveyor of the American zeitgeist,
0:01:07 > 0:01:11has turned his eagle eye to the bristling life of sun-soaked Miami
0:01:11 > 0:01:14in his first novel for eight years, Back To Blood.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Stratosphere, radical chic, the Me Generation,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25the right stuff, all brilliantly incisive terms
0:01:25 > 0:01:31invented by one of the great chroniclers of American society during the last 50 yeast.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Tom Wolfe, the man in the white suit
0:01:34 > 0:01:40with a sartorial style as elegant and as sharp as his writing.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44Wolfe adopted the white suit as a trademark early in 1962,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48when he landed a job on the New York Herald Tribune.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54The young dandy from Richmond, Virginia, certainly cut a dashing figure in metropolitan New York.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03But it was his distinctive brand of high-energy experimental reporting about popular culture,
0:02:03 > 0:02:08dubbed The New Journalism, that really got him noticed.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12"I don't know why anybody objects to the megalomania of the American automobile.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15They're not built to move your body in the first place,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17they're built to transport your mind."
0:02:21 > 0:02:25The '60s was the decade that formed Wolfe and one he was instrumental in defining,
0:02:25 > 0:02:31but he's probably now best known for his 1987 novel, The Bonfire of The Vanities,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35a blistering satire on New York's obsession with money, ambition and greed.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Now Wolfe's written a new novel, Back To Blood,
0:02:41 > 0:02:47which promises, or rather threatens, to do for Miami what The Bonfire of the Vanities did for New York,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51namely expose the simmering class and race tensions,
0:02:51 > 0:02:58the seething political corruption, and the human and sexual foibles of the city's residents.
0:02:58 > 0:03:05So, Tom, why did you choose Miami as the setting for this book?
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Well, my original idea was to write a book about immigration to the US.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15And then I don't know how it dawned on me, but wait a minute, Miami has everybody you can think of,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20including not just people from Latin America, but people from Russia,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22a huge Haitian population.
0:03:24 > 0:03:32and the Venezuelans are coming in now because of... Chavez.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Did you choose Miami as this...
0:03:35 > 0:03:38melting pot, I suppose would be the cliche,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42although in your book it's more like a simmering pot?
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Actually, I think of it as a melting pot
0:03:46 > 0:03:52that's full of... different metal units but they never melt.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55They kind of rattle.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57They rattle against each other.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02And the Cubans... politically dominate the place.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06It's the only city that I can find in the world
0:04:06 > 0:04:14that is run, politically, by people from another country
0:04:14 > 0:04:17with another language and another culture.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19It's a very unusual situation.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24And the American blacks who've been there a long time, usually,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29really resent the... Cuban police.
0:04:29 > 0:04:36"In slums like this one, Overtown, black people looked upon the Cuban cops as foreign invaders
0:04:36 > 0:04:39who one day dropped from the sky like paratroopers
0:04:39 > 0:04:44and took over the Police Department and started shoving black people around.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Black people who had lived in Miami for ever."
0:04:47 > 0:04:50You were never an armchair journalist.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53And you've not been an armchair novelist.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58How important do you think it is that you get out into the field, into life?
0:04:58 > 0:05:02Well, frankly, I think it's... all-important.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07And whenever a young writer,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and there are not many of them,
0:05:10 > 0:05:17pays me the compliment of asking me how to get started in this field of writing,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20I would say, "First, leave the building!"
0:05:20 > 0:05:25And just take a look at what's out there.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30I gather that somebody sort of got wind of this research that you were doing
0:05:30 > 0:05:33and actually followed you around for a while with a camera.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36I owe a lot to him. Oscar Corral is his name.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38He was a former reporter for the Miami Herald
0:05:38 > 0:05:43and he was the first person that took me to some of these places like Hialeah.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48So, Tom, what's the basic question you have? Is there something you want to know about?
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Where in the house would you typically find these figures?
0:05:52 > 0:05:53They're big figures.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59If you were trying to find the one big theme of Back to Blood, what would you say it was?
0:05:59 > 0:06:06My good friend John Timoney, who used to be Mayor of Miami, said,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11"New York is all about money, Washington is all about power,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13and Miami is all about sex."
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Well, there is a lot of sex in the book.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20When I was in Miami doing research, I went to a strip club.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I swear it was research!
0:06:23 > 0:06:28The image I remember most distinctly was of the girls,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31they're totally nude,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36and their backside is to the audience
0:06:36 > 0:06:40and men, you wouldn't believe how many numbers,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45come up with dollar bills and put them in the cleft of their bottoms.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50I'm talking about things that look like a peacock's tail, there are so many pieces of green paper.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55What I can't quite work out is whether you are fascinated by
0:06:55 > 0:07:01the... sort of seething weird energy of it all,
0:07:01 > 0:07:06or whether you think it is actually, you know horrible for these girls to be doing that?
0:07:06 > 0:07:09How desperate must they be? I can't work out your attitude.
0:07:09 > 0:07:19I don't have an attitude of Christian charity towards it the fate of these poor girls.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24So do you think that they are exerting their economic freedom?
0:07:24 > 0:07:32I wouldn't put it theoretically. I just think it's wild and somebody should write about this.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36I mean I love to find... I love to find things that are really extraordinary,
0:07:36 > 0:07:42that everybody knows about but they haven't been written about, like this Columbus Day regatta.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44HIPHOP MUSIC
0:07:44 > 0:07:49"'Come on,' said Norman with a lewdly happy face. This you've got to see."
0:07:49 > 0:07:55"Now it begins. The blonde with the breasts did a few mild shimmies with her hips,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59showing her chorus of admirers how taut her pectoral glories were,
0:07:59 > 0:08:04how they stuck out, defying gravity.
0:08:04 > 0:08:05'What begins?" she said.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09'The regatta is essentially an orgy,' said Norman.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14'That's what I want you to see.' But he wasn't looking at Magdalena when he said it.
0:08:14 > 0:08:21Like every other male in the boat, he only had eyes for the sprung-free naked breasts.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25At the end of writing the book, did you feel warmth towards Miami,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29did you feel Miami was a place that you loved or are your feelings more ambivalent than that?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33No, it was more, "Look at the people! They are remarkable!"
0:08:35 > 0:08:38I'm not saying, "Look how wacky they are, or how bad they are."
0:08:38 > 0:08:43It's just, "Get an eyeful! You're gonna enjoy this!"
0:08:43 > 0:08:46That has been my feeling in everything I've done,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51whether it was custom car makers in California or...
0:08:53 > 0:08:57You've identified something that is amazing and you want to tell the world about it.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01I love it when people say, like John Updike did,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04"Your book's not literature, it's journalism!"
0:09:04 > 0:09:09- I think, "Good! That's great! - "It must be a good book!"
0:09:09 > 0:09:12- I'd read it. - It's been a pleasure to meet you.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15And Back to Blood is out now.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Now, from Tom Wolfe to lone wolf.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23John Rambo has had something of an image problem since his first screen outing in the early '80s.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28His most recent film had a body count of 236 and was, in my opinion,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32both artistically bankrupt and morally repugnant,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34but tonight Lindsay Johns sets out
0:09:34 > 0:09:36to recast the bandanna-clad modern-day warrior
0:09:36 > 0:09:41as a misunderstood paragon of masculine virtue.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01To be honest, all this macho war play just isn't me.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06But that doesn't mean I can't have a role model who's synonymous with cut-throat combat.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18It's been exactly 30 years since Sylvester Stallone burst on to our cinema screens
0:10:18 > 0:10:23as the irrepressible Vietnam vet and green beret John Rambo.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28With his trademark headband, serrated hunting knife and laconic dialogue,
0:10:28 > 0:10:33he became legendary in the 1982 film, First Blood.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38Don't push it! Don't push it or I'll give you a war that you won't believe.
0:10:38 > 0:10:39- (GASPS AND CHOKES) - Let it go!
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Let it go!
0:10:48 > 0:10:54Now I'm willing to concede that in his various celluloid outings, Rambo's got a bad press.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Seen as a monosyllabic blood-thirsty psychopath,
0:10:57 > 0:11:03Stallone's character is constantly derided as a brute and as a Neanderthal.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14But those who criticise Rambo the loudest are often those who've never seen the films.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I believe that contrary to what most people think,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21Rambo is actually a multi-layered protagonist.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28An existential everyman and the perfect hero for our troubled times,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32complete with a fully functioning moral compass that we can all learn from.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36He embodies the very finest human virtues - valour, loyalty,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40strength, determination and stoic endurance.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Look closely at his ripped abs and chiselled pecs
0:11:45 > 0:11:51and you'll not find one single ounce of moral or intellectual flabbiness.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56His is a mindful, not mindless violence.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Consider the incredible loyalty he exhibits in Rambo III
0:12:09 > 0:12:12when he returns to rescue Colonel Trautman
0:12:12 > 0:12:16from a seemingly impenetrable Russian army fortress in Afghanistan,
0:12:16 > 0:12:21risking almost certain death into the bargain.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Why must you do this?
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Cos you'd do it for me.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35Consider Rambo's predilection for sagacious aphorisms about the nature of warfare
0:12:35 > 0:12:37and its effect on the human spirit.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43"To win war, you have to become war," he opines before combat in Rambo II.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49And when exhorting mercenaries to complete their mission and rescue the innocent in Rambo IV,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52he admonishes them with these chilling words.
0:12:54 > 0:13:01Live for nothing... or die for something.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06Think too, of when with clenched teeth he sews up his severed arm in First Blood,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09or cauterises his stomach wound in Rambo III
0:13:09 > 0:13:14with nothing more than gunpowder, fire and a grimace.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21HE CRIES OUT
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Such are the actions of a man taught to ignore pain,
0:13:24 > 0:13:30a man for whom self-mastery and self-control are the keys to winning at all costs.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Rambo is an ostensibly easy target,
0:13:32 > 0:13:41often dismissed as a hyper-masculine version of the ugly American abroad living out foreign-policy fantasies.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43But I believe that is somewhat misguided.
0:13:43 > 0:13:50It's deeply ironic and yet prophetic when we see Rambo fight alongside the Mujahideen in Soviet-era Afghanistan.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Colonel Trautman confers a warning
0:13:52 > 0:13:57that, given today's ever-increasing American and British military death toll there,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59makes for very uncomfortable viewing.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05If you'd studied your history, you'd know these people have never given up to anyone.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09They'd rather die than be slaves to an invading army.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11You can't defeat a people like that.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Rambo is also the perennial loner, a pawn in a bigger game,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21the outsider with a good heart who troubles no-one, unless they trouble him first.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25He's a drifter, at odds with Western society's meretricious values.
0:14:25 > 0:14:33There is, in short, a part of Rambo in all of us who dare to challenge orthodoxy.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Where the hell do you think you're going?
0:14:35 > 0:14:37Hey! I'm talking to you, goddamn it!
0:14:44 > 0:14:45Let me see some ID.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Thanks in part to Rambo, I've cultivated mental fortitude
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and a warrior spirit in the face of life's challenges.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Rambo's imbued me with a rage against injustice, whatever form it takes.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02Moreover, as an often outspoken, socially conservative,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06mixed race free-thinker, I'm used to being on the outside.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Rambo has helped remind me to rejoice in always being my own man,
0:15:10 > 0:15:16in knowing myself, in speaking my own truth and not worrying what others say.
0:15:21 > 0:15:28Now, if you were listen to the radio this afternoon, you may well have heard Radio Reunited,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31which marks the 90th anniversary of BBC Radio
0:15:31 > 0:15:36with all the BBC networks coming together for what may have been the biggest radio audience of all time.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41From today, the BBC will be broadcasting a series of 90 miniature programmes,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43one for each of those years.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45It's called 90 x 90.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51But is it possible to sum up the entire history of radio in just 90 seconds?.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53Famed for her Just A Minute appearances,
0:15:53 > 0:15:58Radio 4's Sandi Toksvig gave it a go in just a minute and a half.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08The BBC started in 1922, just ten years after the birth of Nicholas Parsons.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10In 1923, they charged 10 shillings for licences
0:16:10 > 0:16:15and as many listeners couldn't afford both a dog licence and a wireless licence,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19many dogs were abandoned, which is why to this day they prefer television.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24In 1926, a mad priest broadcast news of a murderous riot in Trafalgar Square,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27which many people believed because nobody knew what a spoof was.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Then things went quiet for a while,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32so quiet that one day in 1930 the equivalent of the Today Programme said...
0:16:32 > 0:16:36- "There's no news today, so instead here's some light music." - PIANO MUSIC
0:16:36 > 0:16:41In 1932, Broadcasting House was built and Reith said the penis on the statue of Ariel was too big.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45But listeners said nobody would see it on the radio, so that was all right.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Then in 1938, Arthur Askey invented the catchphrase
0:16:48 > 0:16:54when his hit show Band Wagon rolled into Broadcasting House with some pigeons and a goat.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59But the war intervened and it was left to It's That Man Again to lighten the British mood
0:16:59 > 0:17:04until Hitler was defeated, when everyone settled down to listen to Journey into Space, set in 1965,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06which in those days, was the future.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08Then came rock 'n' roll,
0:17:08 > 0:17:14which the BBC ignored until some pirates forced them to invent Tony Blackburn in 1967.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Since then, we've had such delights as Adrian Mole, The Hitchhiker's Guide,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21and a vagina monologue for the Culture Secretary.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24- We're going to be talking to Jeremy...(COUGHS) - LAUGHTER
0:17:24 > 0:17:28But we can forgive a few mistakes and radio is still going strong because it's got the best pictures
0:17:28 > 0:17:33and, as my time's up, that's where I'm going, the pictures. See you there, Mark.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38And over the next 11 days, BBC4 Extra will be playing every instalment of 90 X 90
0:17:38 > 0:17:42while other BBC networks will carry a selection.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48Next up - John Bellany, one of Scotland's most celebrated painters, turned 70 this year.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50To mark the occasion, the Scottish National Gallery
0:17:50 > 0:17:54is holding a special exhibition entitled A Passion For Life.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Alastair Sooke went up to Edinburgh to visit John,
0:17:57 > 0:18:05where he discovered the gallery could not have come up with a more appropriate title.
0:18:05 > 0:18:13In the summer of 1964, two unknown art students came here to the Scottish National Gallery,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15bringing with them their canvasses.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19Nothing unusual in that, you might think.
0:18:19 > 0:18:20But it was unusual.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24One by one they hung their paintings, not on the walls of this august institution,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26but tied onto the railings outside.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Of course, it was a big publicity stunt... and it worked.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37The two men were friends and fellow art students, Sandy Moffat and John Bellany,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41frustrated by the limited opportunities to show their work.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46Almost 50 years later, John Bellany is very much inside the establishment
0:18:46 > 0:18:49with this new retrospective at the National Gallery of Scotland.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52It's been a tumultuous life and career -
0:18:52 > 0:18:55roller coaster doesn't even come close.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00You could say that John Bellany as a young man was out of step with his time.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Pop Art and minimalism were the order of the day.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09Traditional figurative painting was deeply uncool for a young painter in the swinging '60s,
0:19:09 > 0:19:15but Bellany stuck to his guns and painted what he knew best.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17First of all your output is clearly prodigious,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20a word often used with artists but in your case it's really true.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26But also that your art is so enmeshed with your own personal life.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29That's what I think fine art is about.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31It's not about...
0:19:31 > 0:19:34anything else but that.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37You've hit the nail on the head.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40John's early works, which he showed on those railings,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42are centred around his birthplace,
0:19:42 > 0:19:48the small fishing town of Port Seton, a tight-knit Calvinist community.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51John attended three church services every Sunday.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56The paintings, like the town, are utterly dominated by fishing and religion,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58the two inextricably linked.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02It's a world where the fragility of life is all too apparent
0:20:02 > 0:20:06and no-one is left untouched by grief and loss.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Do you feel that in fishing communities,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12religion has to play an important part in those communities for a particular reason?
0:20:12 > 0:20:16They've been so embedded in their religious faith
0:20:16 > 0:20:20that you can't just drop it, it's right inside them.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Because, let's face it, the seas they go out in,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28I mean, the boat is nearly standing on its end like that.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32That sometimes happens and it just manages to right itself.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34But quite often it's gone.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37The sea is a killer when it feels like it.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42And that's why the fishermen... always have fear.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44They never go out without fear.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48If you go out without fear, there's a chance of tragedy.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53And it's this ominous aspect of the sea which you were painting so frequently in the '60s.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56- An ominous presence. - Sometimes really malevolent as in painting like Bethel.
0:20:56 > 0:21:04Yes. At the age of eight, that was the first time I went out on a boat.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09And It was called the Bethel. And I used that in many of the paintings.
0:21:09 > 0:21:15And it's a painting of three men standing on the boat with a big skate in front of them.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18- And it's very, very dark. - It's really dark!
0:21:18 > 0:21:22- This is almost a murderous painting in some ways.- It is.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27This is such a blunt, sort of brute vision of the universe, in a way.
0:21:27 > 0:21:33- Yes.- Where did that come from? Where does that come from? - It came from inside me.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35It is a spiritual depth.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39What I found, with this religious domination that was happening,
0:21:39 > 0:21:46something like that again reflects a storm and with the fishermen in front.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49- This is The Obsession. - Yes and it is an obsession with me.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52It just is there, I can't wipe it out.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55It has been there with me for the whole time I've been alive.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57There's another painting called The Waiting
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and it's three of the women waiting for the boats to come in.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06And the women are getting more and more frantic.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11And, of course, they're singing these kind of redemption hymns.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14And they are waiting and waiting for three or four days,
0:22:14 > 0:22:19singing the songs, and you can hear the lament...
0:22:19 > 0:22:22SIGHS
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Sorry.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27..going across the waves.
0:22:27 > 0:22:28You feel that. And you're...
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Then they're gone, that's it.
0:22:33 > 0:22:39In the mid-'80s, Bellany was a prolifically hard working artist but a hard drinking one, too.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42Liver failure took him to death's door
0:22:42 > 0:22:45but after a highly risky transplant operation,
0:22:45 > 0:22:51it was his urge to paint, his need to create, that pulled him through the darkest hours.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53Searing pain went on and on.
0:22:53 > 0:23:01And then when I came around properly, it was easing off a bit and the nurse came up to me.
0:23:01 > 0:23:07I said, "Can I have a piece of paper and a pencil, please?"
0:23:07 > 0:23:11She came back with a piece of foolscap paper and a pencil.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15And I did a little drawing of myself.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18And I think that that is the best drawing I've ever done in my life.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23And when I was doing it, it was three o'clock in the morning in a hospital bed.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28There was I sitting, the sweat was lashing off me onto the paper.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35And the paper was burning! It was on fire... when I was drawing it.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40I finished it and I laid back like that on the pillow
0:23:40 > 0:23:45and I just thought... "I am going to survive."
0:23:45 > 0:23:48"I am. I really am going to survive."
0:23:48 > 0:23:54And this was just the beginning. After the operation, John started painting like a man possessed.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59The doctors and nurses at Addenbrooke's Hospital let him turn his room into an art gallery,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02documenting his recovery.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04It really was a new lease of life.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07And his later work reflected it.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Do you think it is fair to say that the operation in '88
0:24:12 > 0:24:16ushered in a new mode of painting for you?
0:24:16 > 0:24:21That in the last two and a half decades, we suddenly see much more colourful work, for starters.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25After the transplant, I got out of the hospital
0:24:25 > 0:24:30and everything was in Cinemascope, bright brilliant colours!
0:24:30 > 0:24:38And I had been living under this... cloud or this curtain of black.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42- Is this why you've used much brighter colours in more recent...? - Because they're there.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44- But they were there before. - No, they weren't.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49I wasn't seeing them before, because they were under this haze.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54And it's such a joy, because I'm painting much more happy paintings.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01John, obviously this retrospective coincides, well, now you're 70,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and it looks like you are still painting as much as you ever did.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08- Is that true? - Probably more than I ever did.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13I think I've reached a stage now where I've done more paintings than Turner.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18And I love it so much. I love being alive.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21I love Edinburgh, because that's where it all started
0:25:21 > 0:25:25with encouragement, really, from the whole city.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28I'm looking forward to the retrospective at 90.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33I can't promise that, but I'll try my best.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39And A Passion For Life opens this weekend.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45Finally, to play us out, a preview of Crossfire Hurricane, which starts on BBC2 this Saturday.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48It's a documentary celebrating 50 years of the Rolling Stones
0:25:48 > 0:25:52with Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie telling their story in their own words
0:25:52 > 0:25:55and a few songs thrown in for good measure.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And for even more culture go to thespace.org.
0:25:58 > 0:25:59Good night.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05It's years since such crowds gathered to await an appeal verdict.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09But this was the Rolling Stones case with the fans out in force.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14When Mick Jagger was conditionally discharged and Keith Richard's sentence quashed,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17the pop idols drove off, the shadow of jail no longer over them.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25KEITH: I looked at it at the time as, "They can try all they want, they won't make this stick,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27because I've got all these people out there."
0:26:27 > 0:26:31And unless I murdered somebody, they're gonna insist that I'm out.
0:26:31 > 0:26:37MICK: You've been targeted, but then you revel in your rebelliousness,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39because people are doing that for you.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42People are saying, "Oh, it's awful! They have been targeted."
0:26:42 > 0:26:47It cemented our relationship with our generation, with the public.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And it sort of gave us a badge of honour, in a way.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55To me, it just made me think, "OK, now you know who I am,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59you've basically given me a licence now."
0:26:59 > 0:27:02It was Jesse James time. I mean, the cops turned me into a criminal.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06That's when I started to carry a shooter in America, you know.
0:27:06 > 0:27:12- So the outlaw was born? - Yeah. I mean, it was fully blown.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15That was when you really put the black hat on.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Before that it was just sort of off-grey.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24# I was born in a crossfire hurricane
0:27:27 > 0:27:32# And I howled at my ma in the driving rain
0:27:34 > 0:27:39# But it's all right now
0:27:39 > 0:27:41# In fact, it's a gas
0:27:41 > 0:27:45# But it's all right
0:27:45 > 0:27:46# I'm Jumping Jack Flash
0:27:46 > 0:27:49# It's a gas, gas, gas
0:27:58 > 0:28:03# I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag
0:28:05 > 0:28:11# I was schooled with a strap right across my back
0:28:12 > 0:28:17# But it's all right now
0:28:17 > 0:28:19# In fact, it's a gas
0:28:19 > 0:28:23# But it's all right
0:28:23 > 0:28:25# I'm Jumping Jack Flash
0:28:25 > 0:28:27# It's a gas, gas, gas!
0:28:27 > 0:28:29# Ooo! #
0:28:32 > 0:28:36In a way, I kind of felt everybody else was writing the script for me.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40"You're going to do what I can't!"
0:28:40 > 0:28:45"OK." That's a very easy role to slip into.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48There was this slot available and it was just built for me.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd