0:00:02 > 0:00:03Hello and welcome to The Culture Show.
0:00:03 > 0:00:05This week we're coming from Light Show,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09a spectacular new exhibition of light sculptures and installations
0:00:09 > 0:00:13from the last 50 years, here at the Hayward Gallery in London.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20Tonight - an Alpine architectural delight,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Jonathan Miller's return to the stage,
0:00:23 > 0:00:25and the forgotten Spanish master, Murillo.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33First, funny man Bill Murray has carved out a career playing
0:00:33 > 0:00:37misfits and melancholy losers, but for his latest film,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Hyde Park On Hudson, he has taken on the challenge of recreating
0:00:41 > 0:00:45one of America's most revolutionary presidents, Franklin D Roosevelt.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Mark Kermode went to meet him.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56As the only president in US history to be elected for more than two terms,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00polio sufferer Franklin D Roosevelt was the saviour of a depressed
0:01:00 > 0:01:05America in the 1930s, thanks to his economic crusade, the New Deal.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08In Hyde Park On Hudson we see the subsequent birth of the diplomatic special
0:01:08 > 0:01:11relationship between Britain and America
0:01:11 > 0:01:14in the meeting of a president and a king.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20He's definitely younger than I'd imagine. For a king, you know?
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Is he?
0:01:22 > 0:01:25They both seem nervous. That surprised me.
0:01:26 > 0:01:27Without some help from us,
0:01:27 > 0:01:31Daisy, there soon may not be an England to be king of.
0:01:33 > 0:01:34So I'd be nervous, too.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40Set on the brink of World War II, FDR plays host to a stuttering
0:01:40 > 0:01:41George VI and Queen Elizabeth,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44who are there to ask for American support.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Seen through the eyes of FDR's distant cousin and habitual lover,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53the film offers a glimpse into the intimate back story to big historical events.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59You are going to be a very fine king.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04- I don't know what to say. - Your father would be very proud.
0:02:04 > 0:02:05I'm not so certain about that.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07HE COUGHS
0:02:07 > 0:02:10If I were your father...
0:02:14 > 0:02:15..I'd be proud.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Famously elusive when it comes to publicity,
0:02:21 > 0:02:26I met Bill for the exclusive UK broadcast interview about the new film.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29- What is this show called? - The Culture Show.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31How did you come up with that one?
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Tell me about playing Roosevelt.
0:02:34 > 0:02:40You've said that what you had to do was to find the things in the character that you most admired.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41How did you do that?
0:02:41 > 0:02:43He was a complicated guy.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46He came into a situation of the Great Depression.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52The preamble to war... the run up to a war.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56And he had to figure out how to solve those two things, which were huge.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02I think he really was a person that saw himself, observed himself,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04worked on himself.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I think he was an extraordinary person.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09What about on a personal level? One of the things the film does
0:03:09 > 0:03:13is that you see him dealing with the fact that he has polio.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Tell me about playing that and how significant that is.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20It's significant to me because I have a sister who had polio.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23It was kind of a funny fate that I get to play
0:03:23 > 0:03:27a famous person that had polio. And after just a couple of days wearing those braces,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31having to call my sister and apologise for all my behaviour my whole life!
0:03:31 > 0:03:37Women played a central role in Roosevelt's professional and personal life.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39By juxtaposing Laura Linney as his amorous cousin with
0:03:39 > 0:03:43his crusading First Lady Eleanor, played by Olivia Williams,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46and Olivia Colman's spiky Queen Elizabeth,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49the film reflects how women's roles were changing during his presidency.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52Do you mind if I call you Elizabeth?
0:03:55 > 0:03:56No.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00One of the things the film deals with is the stripping away of protocol,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03because we see British royalty arriving in this American household in which
0:04:03 > 0:04:06the Queen is referred to as Elizabeth.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09That was Eleanor Roosevelt again. She was the most democratic of all.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12She was the cutting-edge of the civil rights movement,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15the women's suffrage movement. She was a blade.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19The idea that you had to curtsy in front of another woman, that just rankled her.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24I have trouble curtsying in front of other women - who doesn't?
0:04:24 > 0:04:29You have an interesting relationship with dealing with Hollywood, dealing with the press,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32so how much does that appeal to you, the stripping away of protocol?
0:04:32 > 0:04:35I find that fuss causes tension.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39I overpack sometimes, but I don't pack extra people.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42My work is what I do. It is not necessary that
0:04:42 > 0:04:44I have a whole team of people.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49A film is a collaboration anyway. Why bring too many more people?
0:04:49 > 0:04:51There's a whole lot of people to collaborate.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Despite Hyde Park On Hudson's fine performances
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and production design, narrative flaws mean it doesn't
0:04:57 > 0:05:01rank among Murray's best, but his best sets a very high standard.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!
0:05:05 > 0:05:08With you much loved comedy classics like Ghostbusters
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and Groundhog Day behind him,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Hyde Park complements the tone of his latter projects,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16which, though more serious, are still distinctively deadpan.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20These collaborations include Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation
0:05:20 > 0:05:23and Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Then, of course, there's his surprising encounter with
0:05:25 > 0:05:29the Wu-Tang Clan in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee And Cigarettes.
0:05:29 > 0:05:35You are Bill Murray! Bill Groundhog Day, Ghostbusting-ass Murray.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38- Who you gonna call?- I know that, just don't tell anybody.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42I don't all have my movies on a little shelf, or anything like that,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46but if you're going through the TV, sometimes, there's one of your movies.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49And sometimes you'll stop and go, huh. You know.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53I watched a movie I made a couple of years ago, called What About Bob?
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Which is incidentally a great film. It is really funny!
0:05:56 > 0:05:58It's funny.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful.
0:06:04 > 0:06:05I think they are all important.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09I really do. I work as hard as I can on all of them.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13You just want people to see it. You just want people to see it.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Bill, thank you very much.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18I really enjoyed that, especially the overtime!
0:06:21 > 0:06:25And Hyde Park On Hudson is in cinemas now.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29Next up - the Dulwich Picture Gallery is Britain's oldest public art gallery.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32And now it's getting something of a makeover.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Parts of it are being transformed into a 17th-century church
0:06:36 > 0:06:41to coincide with a new display of work by the great Spanish baroque painter Murillo.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45I went along earlier this week to take a look.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54When you think of 17th century's Spain's golden age of painting,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57the name Murillo is not the first that springs to mind.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Zurbaran, Velasquez, El Greco.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09In the 20th century, their masterpieces were deemed far
0:07:09 > 0:07:14superior to Murillo's luminous virgins and jolly urchins.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21It's hard to think of an Old Master whose reputation has fallen further than Murillo.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24In the 19th century he was regarded as a god.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Now, almost nobody has heard of him.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29In my book he was one of the great artists.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Not only that - his story is deeply moving.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36It's one of tragedy, compassion - ultimately hope.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41And I hope that this exhibition opens people's eyes to his true genius.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52So, meet the man himself - Bartholome Esteban Murillo.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58A wonderful self-portrait of a proud artist. Look at that.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03But what really strikes me about this picture is his face.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06There is something very wise, very compassionate
0:08:06 > 0:08:13but also very melancholy about that expression, and he had lived a hard life.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16His wife died after just 20 years of marriage,
0:08:16 > 0:08:22having borne him nine children, only four of whom survived.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26And Murillo in fact painted this picture, as the inscription
0:08:26 > 0:08:29tells us, for his children.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31And I think that his love for his own children and indeed
0:08:31 > 0:08:36for the children of Seville was very much at the centre of his life.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Murillo's best known in Britain for his sensitive
0:08:45 > 0:08:47portraits of street children.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Sadly, he had no shortage of subjects
0:08:51 > 0:08:55because, although art had blossomed in its golden age,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59by the second half of the 17th century, Spain was suffering.
0:09:03 > 0:09:09Seville during Murillo's lifetime was absolutely ravaged by plague,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11by famine, by crop failure.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14The population of the city halved.
0:09:14 > 0:09:21And the streets were full of beggar children, vagabonds.
0:09:21 > 0:09:26The pictures call attention to the plight of the city's poor children
0:09:26 > 0:09:28and they also ask a question.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30They say - what can we do?
0:09:32 > 0:09:37Murillo was joined in his quest for the answer by Don Justino de Neve,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39canon of Seville cathedral.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Wealthy and devout, he founded religious buildings
0:09:42 > 0:09:45offering sanctuary for the needy.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47In Murillo he saw a man
0:09:47 > 0:09:51who could paint powerful symbols of spiritual salvation.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54A lifelong friendship and patronage was born.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Their most ambitious project was the reconstruction of a local church,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02dedicated to the universal mother, the Virgin Mary.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23So, Xavier, you've turned the central hall of Dulwich Picture Gallery
0:10:23 > 0:10:25into the nave of a cathedral.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27What is the thinking behind it?
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Well, for me it was highly important to put the pictures
0:10:30 > 0:10:32back into their original context.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35When Murillo was asked to paint these by Justino,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39they were meant to go up high in the church of Santa Maria la Blanca.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Normally we see them in the Prado as paintings on the wall of an art gallery,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and you're saying, no, no, no - they're pieces of holy theatre,
0:10:45 > 0:10:46and they should have been up there.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48We can see the underneath of his foot.
0:10:48 > 0:10:49Exactly, and suddenly
0:10:49 > 0:10:53you are appreciating the arches within the composition.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57He is trying to echo the actual arch of the architecture in his composition.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00So he's taking everything into consideration.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02It's a wonderful piece of painting.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05It is - it's Murillo at his best. He's just come back from Madrid
0:11:05 > 0:11:09where he's looked at Velazquez, Titian, all the great Venetians.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12And he's really trying out his own technique.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15I can feel him, or sense him, looking at Titian.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17That's a very Titianesque dog.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22I think Venus in one of Titian's paintings has got a rather similar dog curled up.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24It's great domestic setting.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27The Spaniards regard this as la siesta time.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29They have fallen completely asleep.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33It's a siesta from which they are about to be awoken.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The cloud of their dreaming is being parted.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Of course, and she is basically instructing them
0:11:39 > 0:11:41to build a church dedicated to herself.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47And...there she is. At the far end.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53The ultimate image, perhaps, by Murillo of the Virgin Mary.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Murillo's Immaculate Conception Of The Virgin Mary
0:12:00 > 0:12:03is one of his most radiant paintings,
0:12:03 > 0:12:04but like much of his work,
0:12:04 > 0:12:09taken at face value, it was derided in the recent times.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13It's precisely the kind of painting
0:12:13 > 0:12:15that gave him for so long such a bad name.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18It has been dismissed, this kind of painting.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Chocolate box, saccharin, sentimental.
0:12:21 > 0:12:22But if you clear your mind
0:12:22 > 0:12:26of those prejudices and see it in the context of Murillo's life,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Murillo's Seville, you can see it
0:12:29 > 0:12:32for the radiant masterpiece that it is.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Look at the way that the Virgin rises up.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42The rhythms of her drapery, look at the way she is clothed in the sun,
0:12:42 > 0:12:43she treads on the crescent moon.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49And I love this joyful crowd of cherubim and seraphim.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54I wonder if Murillo thought of them as cherubim and seraphim
0:12:54 > 0:12:58or whether he thought of them as the souls...
0:12:59 > 0:13:01..of his own lost children.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Of the children that he and Justino de Neve did so much to try and help.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08I think it's an image of great hope.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13It's a way of telling the people of Seville that despite the darkness,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17despite all the loss, despite all the death - at the end,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19there is light at the end of the tunnel.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33And Murillo and Justino de Neve: The Art Of Friendship
0:13:33 > 0:13:36is on at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until May.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Next, the Royal Gold Medal is the most prestigious
0:13:39 > 0:13:41prize in Britain for architecture.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45And tonight it's being awarded to Peter Zumthor,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48one of the most elusive men in the profession.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50Tom Dyckhoff travelled to Switzerland to catch up
0:13:50 > 0:13:53with architecture's master of understatement.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Deep in the Swiss Alps, nestled between the mountaintops,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06is a masterpiece of one of the most revered men in contemporary architecture.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09A shaman. A mystic of his craft.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Peter Zumthor's only designed a handful of public buildings.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17He's an architect of quiet gestures.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19His buildings don't shout, they whisper.
0:14:19 > 0:14:20And yet he's been awarded
0:14:20 > 0:14:24architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Pritzker in 2009,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29and has just won architecture's highest accolade in Britain
0:14:29 > 0:14:30the Royal Gold Medal,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33which puts him firmly in architecture's Hall of Fame.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39He wants to create spaces that leave room for emotions and memories.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41An architecture of the senses.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Like a great poem or a piece of music, his buildings capture mood.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51The thermal baths at Vals encapsulate Zumthor's approach.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54The buildings feel like they have been hand-hewn
0:14:54 > 0:14:57from the mountainside, into layers of quartzite.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00To swim along these gurgling pools,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03particularly in the snow, is as close to a mystical,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07sensual experience as you're likely to get in contemporary architecture.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Zumthor's earth-bound designs are reticent but powerful,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20the kind of architecture that stays in your memory,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23ordinary buildings made somehow extraordinary.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Zumthor doesn't do flashy, he doesn't do show-stoppers.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31You won't find him on the celebrity circuit,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33but it is this very unattainability,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36the shunning of the showbiz of architecture
0:15:36 > 0:15:38that makes him all the more alluring.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44True to his publicity-shy persona, Zumthor's work and living space
0:15:44 > 0:15:47is in a remote village in the Chur valley,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49about an hour's drive from Zurich.
0:15:50 > 0:15:57You've won the Pritzker Prize and the Royal Gold Medal now - congratulations.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Talk to me about how you start work on a project,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02what the process is that you go through?
0:16:02 > 0:16:05The most important thing is to prepare the job.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08I am careful not to be caught
0:16:08 > 0:16:10with the wrong client.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15If it's only commercial, I am not interested.
0:16:15 > 0:16:21Not because I'm against business, but I don't trust so much
0:16:21 > 0:16:25the people who do something out of commercial reasons.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27For you it's about - what?
0:16:27 > 0:16:31It's about maintaining the quality of the finished project?
0:16:31 > 0:16:37Basically, what I am doing is sort of like a whole project.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39My approach is holistic.
0:16:39 > 0:16:40So there are no parts.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45No, "We did not have time to do this as there is no money."
0:16:45 > 0:16:47So that's what I am doing.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51If somebody wants a well-made building,
0:16:51 > 0:16:58costed and designed to its purpose and site, that is my client.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03#If somebody wants a Zumthor building, that's not my client.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05THEY CHUCKLE
0:17:05 > 0:17:07You see? I'm not a brand!
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Zumthor gained a degree of public recognition
0:17:13 > 0:17:17for bigger civic buildings like the Kolumba Museum in Cologne,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21where the building fuses seamlessly with the Roman ruins it houses.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25But it's his small projects like the Brother Klaus Chapel,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27commissioned by a farmer for his field in Germany,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30that reveal the essential purity of his designs
0:17:30 > 0:17:32and his ingenious use of materials.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34The chapel was built with concrete
0:17:34 > 0:17:36surrounding a framework of tree-trunks,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39that were then burned and removed.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42It is a very existential space.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47It talks about the wind, the rain, the snow, the weather,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52the stone and darkness, and light, and charcoal and...
0:17:52 > 0:17:53There was a fire.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56And you still can smell it!
0:17:56 > 0:17:59So that's, it's elemental, I guess.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02It's only two years ago
0:18:02 > 0:18:04that Zumthor finally designed a building in Britain -
0:18:04 > 0:18:08a temporary structure for the series of annual summer pavilions
0:18:08 > 0:18:10at the Serpentine Gallery.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14He's currently working on what he calls "a secular retreat" in Devon
0:18:14 > 0:18:18for Alain de Botton's Living Architecture project of holiday homes.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22This secular retreat.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27This is two blocks. And a big roof.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28You'll see. That's all!
0:18:28 > 0:18:31- It can't possibly be that simple? - Yeah, that's it!
0:18:31 > 0:18:34We made it like an invitation house.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38It works like it has, like, your hotel unit
0:18:38 > 0:18:41where you have your bathroom and toilet for yourself
0:18:41 > 0:18:44and then the big roof where you come together
0:18:44 > 0:18:46and eat and cook and talk and so on.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51I think it should be very good for you and for me
0:18:51 > 0:18:54to go there with your family! And you will feel really good.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57That is what I'm trying to achieve, that is all.
0:18:57 > 0:18:58THEY LAUGH
0:19:00 > 0:19:02MONASTIC MUSIC
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Like his secular retreat in Devon,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Zumthor's buildings are sanctuaries, spaces to withdraw to.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12His most modest building is St Benedict's Chapel,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15perched on a mountainside not far from his home.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18It's built on the same spot as an old baroque chapel
0:19:18 > 0:19:20that was destroyed by an avalanche.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23It's designed to conjure up memories of the old building,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27down to the deliberately nostalgic creak of its floorboards.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Zumthor's quiet architecture
0:19:30 > 0:19:32has been attracting more and more disciples.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36They're after what it offers - a kind of integrity or authenticity
0:19:36 > 0:19:39rare in today's globalised construction industry
0:19:39 > 0:19:44but more and more relevant in these times of crisis and austerity.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Now that he's been anointed by the high priests of the industry,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52many more will be converted to his way of thinking.
0:19:55 > 0:19:56Now, it's been six long years
0:19:56 > 0:20:00since Jonathan Miller last directed a play on the British stage.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03But now he's returning for Northern Broadsides's production
0:20:03 > 0:20:07of Githa Sowerby's long-forgotten classic Rutherford & Son.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Alan Yentob visited rehearsals
0:20:09 > 0:20:14to find out what's tempted Miller out of retirement at the age of 78.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Cecil Sharp House,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23home of the English Folk Song and Dance Society.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Just around the corner from London Zoo.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Currently it's home to two big beasts of English theatre,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Dr Jonathan Miller and Barrie Rutter,
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Artistic Director of the theatre company, Northern Broadsides,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40in the storming role of Rutherford,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43a tyrannical patriarch from the industrial North.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Because it's life?
0:20:46 > 0:20:50I've lived here nigh on 60 years and I'll tell you, life's work.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Keeping your head up and your feet on the ground - that's life!
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Sleep, begetting children and rearing them up
0:20:57 > 0:20:59to work after you're gone. That's life!
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Work and more work, and six foot of earth at the end.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06That's life!
0:21:06 > 0:21:09One of the things that impressed me apart from the play
0:21:09 > 0:21:12is this extraordinary achievement of my host.
0:21:12 > 0:21:13In other words, Barrie Rutter,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17who has established over the course of the last 20 years
0:21:17 > 0:21:22one of the most important dramatic institutions in this country.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26- You really think I'm going to give in?- I know you'll give in.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29- Well, I'm not.- What will you do? - That's my business.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31- Curse it.- Nowt! That's what he'll do.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34That's what you've done these five years, and what's come of it?
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Rutter believes in Northern voices
0:21:36 > 0:21:40doing classical work in non-velvet spaces.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45It starts with him there. Ignore me entirely!
0:21:45 > 0:21:46HE LAUGHS
0:21:46 > 0:21:52The play is noteworthy, not only as it was written in 1912 by a woman
0:21:52 > 0:21:56but because Miller is on record as saying it's as good as Chekhov.
0:21:56 > 0:21:57I have a right to get paid!
0:21:57 > 0:22:00I have a right to have my children live respectable!
0:22:02 > 0:22:05I raised you all up a class.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08I've a right to expect you to stay there!
0:22:09 > 0:22:14John Rutherford is a widower, the owner and master of a glassworks.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The survival of his business and the status it brings to his family
0:22:18 > 0:22:19is what drives him.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Janet, his daughter, has been ground down
0:22:22 > 0:22:27by years of looking after her father. His two sons live in his shadow.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29All are trying to escape in their own ways.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31John, through his new invention.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35If he thinks he's going to pick my brains, he can think again.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39And Dick, a priest, by moving to a different parish.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42Wear your collar stood at the back if you like.
0:22:42 > 0:22:43It's all one to me.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46You were no good for my purpose, and there's an end.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Everything Rutherford stands for is threatened
0:22:50 > 0:22:54when a visit from an angry villager bring a shocking revelation.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58You think you're so grand, with your big 'ouse and high ways!
0:22:58 > 0:23:01And your grandfather, a potman like my own!
0:23:01 > 0:23:05You, with your son that's laughing stock of t'parish
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and your daughter that goes with a working man behind your back!
0:23:09 > 0:23:11So goodnight to thee!
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Very good. A bit more clarity.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18With the accent, it's a little bit hard.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20It is a foreign language to some people.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23It just needs to be a little bit more clarified.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Oooh! Careful, Mr Miller! We've been touring for 20 years.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32We play Winchester, Southampton! Portsmouth! We're not that foreign!
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Well, at that speed it is, but it's very, very good.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40So who was Githa Sowerby?
0:23:40 > 0:23:43This portrait was painted just after
0:23:43 > 0:23:47the great success of Rutherford & Son on the London stage.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50As the daughter of a Gateshead glass manufacturer,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52she wrote about what she knew.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Even so, when it opened to rave reviews,
0:23:55 > 0:24:00the fact that the author, GK Sowerby, was a woman, was not mentioned.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04The Telegraph did an amazing review of the play.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07A week or so later, the journalist put another thing in the paper,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10saying, "Had I known it was a woman who had written it,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12"I wouldn't have given such a favourable review."
0:24:14 > 0:24:18You found it appealing, partly, and this is interesting in itself,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22because, as you say, it reminded you of Chekhov.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27Now, of course, Chekhov was a physician, a practising doctor.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30What does that sensibility, that connection you have with Chekhov,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34how does it connect to theatre?
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Well, I don't want to draw too many comparisons between Chekhov
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and myself, but both for me and Chekhov
0:24:42 > 0:24:48there was a pre-occupation of observing the negligible details
0:24:48 > 0:24:52of human behaviour from which you hoped to be able to draw conclusions
0:24:52 > 0:24:55about what was wrong with the patient.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00That, I think, was for me, transferable into the theatre.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04I suspect that it was what was transferable into the theatre
0:25:04 > 0:25:05when Chekhov was writing.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09You have ruined my life.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11You, with your getting on!
0:25:11 > 0:25:14I have loved in wretchedness.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17All the joy I have ever had, made wicked through fear,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21and you, who are you?
0:25:21 > 0:25:22Who are ya?!
0:25:23 > 0:25:27I mean, I remember hearing someone talking about the theatre,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30saying, "I go to the theatre to be taken out of myself,"
0:25:30 > 0:25:33and it's usually said by people who have nothing to take out.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37I think the most important thing about going to the theatre
0:25:37 > 0:25:40is that you go in order to be taken INTO yourself
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and to reacquaint yourself with aspects of your own life
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and also the aspects of the negligible lives
0:25:47 > 0:25:50of those who surround one.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53That, actually, what is the case
0:25:53 > 0:25:57is that we have this short, negligible existence,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00and then we are forgotten.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10And Rutherford & Son runs at the Viaduct Theatre in Halifax
0:26:10 > 0:26:15from 8th to 16th of February before beginning a national tour.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20That is almost it for tonight. For more culture go to:
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Next week we have Lichtenstein, Cerys Matthews,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26crime-writing, and we'll reveal Your Paintings,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29works of art you, the public, own.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33But to play us out, a band hotly tipped for big things.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38AlunaGeorge have been short-listed for the BBC's Sound of 2013 poll
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and the BRITs Critics' Choice Award.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45They're here with us tonight to play You Know You Like It. Good night.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53# Some people want me to be heads or tails
0:26:53 > 0:26:58# I say no way Try again another day
0:26:58 > 0:27:04# I should be happy not tipping the scales
0:27:04 > 0:27:08# I just won't play Letting my life get away
0:27:08 > 0:27:13# I'm no fool, no, I'm not a follower
0:27:13 > 0:27:19# I don't take things as they come if they bring me down
0:27:19 > 0:27:21# Life can be cruel
0:27:21 > 0:27:24# If you're a dreamer
0:27:24 > 0:27:29# I just wanna to have some fun Don't tell me what can't be done
0:27:29 > 0:27:32# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:27:32 > 0:27:35# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:27:35 > 0:27:37# You know you like it but you're scared of the shame
0:27:37 > 0:27:40# What you want, what you gonna do?
0:27:40 > 0:27:43# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:27:43 > 0:27:46# Follow me cos you know that you wanna feel the same
0:27:46 > 0:27:48# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:27:48 > 0:27:51# What you want, what you gonna do?
0:27:53 > 0:27:56# Yeah, hoo!
0:27:56 > 0:27:59# If you wanna train me
0:27:59 > 0:28:02# Like an animal
0:28:02 > 0:28:07# Better keep your eye on my every move
0:28:07 > 0:28:10# There's no need to be
0:28:10 > 0:28:13# So damn cruel
0:28:13 > 0:28:17# Baby, you got nothing to prove
0:28:17 > 0:28:22# I'm no fool, no, I'm not a follower
0:28:22 > 0:28:28# I don't take things as they come if they bring me down
0:28:28 > 0:28:33# Life can be cruel if you're a dreamer
0:28:33 > 0:28:36# I just wanna have some fun
0:28:36 > 0:28:39# Don't tell me what can't be done
0:28:39 > 0:28:41# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:28:41 > 0:28:44# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:28:44 > 0:28:47# You know you like it but you're scared of the shame
0:28:47 > 0:28:50# What you want, what you gonna do?
0:28:50 > 0:28:52# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:28:52 > 0:28:55# Follow me cos you know that you wanna feel the same
0:28:55 > 0:28:58# You know you like it but it drives you insane
0:28:58 > 0:29:00# What you want, what you gonna do? #