0:00:00 > 0:00:03Hello and welcome to the Culture Show.
0:00:03 > 0:00:05This week, we're in Bexhill,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08enjoying the great British summertime at the Delaware Pavilion.
0:00:08 > 0:00:14Built in 1935, it was the UK's first major modernist public building.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16It's a classic venue with a new rooftop installation
0:00:16 > 0:00:18inspired by a classic film.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20More of that to come.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23First, here's a glimpse of what else is coming up
0:00:23 > 0:00:25on this week's show.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Extreme dance with Elizabeth Streb.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36A tour of Olympic architecture.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38A fire garden at Stonehenge.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41And Ben Drewe, aka Plan B.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52But first, one of my highlights of this summer's London 2012 festival
0:00:52 > 0:00:56is in Bexhill, a sleepy seaside town on the south coast of England,
0:00:56 > 0:00:58now the site of a patriotic homage
0:00:58 > 0:01:01to one of the finest film finales of all-time.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19The Italian Job is a perfect piece of 1960s British film-making.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25A brilliantly entertaining slice of flag-waving nostalgia.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Complete with Minis in Union Jack formation.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31A cast of homegrown greats.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38And a raft of killer one-liners.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
0:01:46 > 0:01:48The plot revolves around a small-time crook
0:01:48 > 0:01:49played by Michael Caine
0:01:49 > 0:01:54who travels to Turin on a mission to nick £4 million of Italian gold.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57It's basically an excuse for an extended car chase
0:01:57 > 0:01:59in which the might of the great British Mini
0:01:59 > 0:02:03triumphs over Italy's pathetically inferior Fiat.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09But it's perhaps best known
0:02:09 > 0:02:12for one of the most memorable final sequences in film history.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17Disaster strikes
0:02:17 > 0:02:21just when our boys think they are home and dry with the stolen gold,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25and our hero announces the film's final cliff-hanging line.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Hang on a minute, lads.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29I've got a great idea.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31Er...
0:02:32 > 0:02:33Er...
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Fast forward 43 years to 2012, and the artist Richard Wilson
0:02:38 > 0:02:41has come up with the frankly brilliant idea
0:02:41 > 0:02:43of replicating the final moments of that film
0:02:43 > 0:02:46by hanging a full-scale replica bus off the roof
0:02:46 > 0:02:49of the Delaware Pavilion, here in Bexhill-on-Sea.
0:03:00 > 0:03:01So, Richard, we have a coach
0:03:01 > 0:03:04teetering on the edge of the Delaware Pavilion.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07It's called, Hang On A Minute, Lads, I've Got A Great Idea.
0:03:07 > 0:03:08Where did the great idea come from?
0:03:08 > 0:03:11It came from many, many different notions.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14As you say, teetering on the edge. It's half on something solid.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17It's half in open space. We're right at the water's edge here.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19We are on land, but we have the sea there.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21The sea runs to the edge and we've got sky.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24We're dealing with the edge of the building.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26It's lots of little things that come together
0:03:26 > 0:03:28to build something of a cliff-hanger.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30And that word was right. OK, we need a structural dome.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32We need to draw people's attention to the building.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35This iconic thing - what can I do that's iconic as a cliff-hanger?
0:03:35 > 0:03:37I started to think about that moment
0:03:37 > 0:03:41of the coach in that wonderful film, The Italian Job.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44What can I do like that? It was just so obvious. Do it!
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Don't find something like that.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Just reenact that iconic cinematic moment on this iconic building.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54I've played with facades and now I want to play with an edge.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57For over 20 years, Richard Wilson
0:03:57 > 0:04:01has been creating epic, site-specific installations.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05In Liverpool, in 2007, he chose to play with our perceptions of surface
0:04:05 > 0:04:09by spinning a circular section of a building's facade.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13For his seminal piece, 2050, he flooded a room with oil
0:04:13 > 0:04:15with a waist-high walkway
0:04:15 > 0:04:18that allowed visitors to enter into a mirrored illusion.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25In 2000, he displayed a 15% cross-section of a ship.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30His next project, Slipstream, will reveal the solid embodiment
0:04:30 > 0:04:33of the void left by a spinning stunt plane,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35and is set to dominate the Heathrow terminal.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40In these gigantic works, Wilson is asking us to look again
0:04:40 > 0:04:42at the world we take for granted.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48I'm taking imagery which is current, and it's understood.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51If I'm working with a vocabulary of forms that I've invented,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54like a couple of my colleagues, where it comes from the imagination
0:04:54 > 0:04:58but doesn't have a reference point, you're struggling a bit.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01But if I take objects that exist in the real world, people know those
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and they're already having a relationship with them.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08What do you think it is about The Italian Job
0:05:08 > 0:05:12that captures the imagination after all these generations?
0:05:12 > 0:05:16It's an amalgamation, it's a caper, an action adventure, it's a comedy.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19It's Keystone Cops meets The Lavender Hill Mob.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23It's our lads going off and ripping off Turin's Fiat factory
0:05:23 > 0:05:26and getting the gold and bringing it back.
0:05:26 > 0:05:27I could eat a horse!
0:05:28 > 0:05:32To spend all that time and effort and money to do something like that.
0:05:32 > 0:05:33And then to completely botch it at the end,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35it's like watching England play football.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40If you go through with this, you've got to win.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43If you muck it up, don't ever think of coming back here,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45except in your coffin.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47One of the interesting things about The Italian Job,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51in its original script form, it was a darker story than we now know.
0:05:51 > 0:05:52It became more comic.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56And again, it seems you can see that in this piece.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59On the one hand, it is funny and charming, on the other hand
0:05:59 > 0:06:01there is an element of jeopardy involved, isn't there?
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Well, there is, and it's an interesting conversation.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08People have been asking about longevity and what will happen after this? I'm saying, in a way,
0:06:08 > 0:06:13it needs to go to an audience that understands the film. They'll get it.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16If you took something like this to Japan,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18that imagery talks of something else.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21That terrible tsunami, and ships on buildings.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24It has a completely different ring.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28So it's a very difficult one to place because it conjures other thoughts.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32In terms of film, there are two things that people are sniffy about,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34comedy and action.
0:06:34 > 0:06:35If somebody makes somebody laugh
0:06:35 > 0:06:38or if it is spectacular they go, "OK, well, it's not art."
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Do you find the same thing true in the sculpture world?
0:06:41 > 0:06:46That if it makes you laugh, it can be looked down on?
0:06:46 > 0:06:49I've been very fortunate in my career.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52There's always been a slight element of humour.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55If you, for example, take the piece up in Liverpool,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58you're doing something with architecture that it doesn't do.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Architecture doesn't move. So people go, "Oh, my God".
0:07:01 > 0:07:06It's that, it's a strange relief action. It's like "Oh, I get it".
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Have you seen that happening here with this?
0:07:13 > 0:07:15When we pulled up, you do stop.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Well, what's sometimes seen as a dirty word by a lot of artists, I love it.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21I like that notion of specatacle, the wow factor.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23I like the idea that you are held in your tracks,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27you look, and then you start to rationalise.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30What's also great is,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33you don't need to be versed in art grammar to get it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36It's this thing that looks as if it will fall off the edge of the building.
0:07:36 > 0:07:37And that arrests you in your step.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43I like the idea that there's so much information and imagery
0:07:43 > 0:07:46pouring into us now, that I want to get that snapshot look on things.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50And by doing that, I have to do that little conjuring magical moment,
0:07:50 > 0:07:52which is the structural daring, basically,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54where you're seized and arrested at that point.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58You look, then you can stay and contemplate, or you move on.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01- It's a great piece. Congratulations. - Thanks very much, Mark.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06You can see Hang On A Minute, Lads, I've Got A Great Idea
0:08:06 > 0:08:08until October 1st.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Now we move up a gear to extreme action company Streb
0:08:12 > 0:08:14and their latest daredevil display.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15Called One Extrordinary Day,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19it's the brain child of American choreographer, Elizabeth Streb,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22who allowed us to film their top secret rehearsals for a performance
0:08:22 > 0:08:24at seven London landmarks.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28If you want to know more, you can follow them on Twitter.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35- All right, climbing. - I'm watching him climb.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Describe Streb to you? A wild crazy adventure.
0:08:45 > 0:08:46It's cool, man.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49As far as I'm aware, Streb are the only people who do this.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52It's about being up in the air and staying up in the air
0:08:52 > 0:08:54for as long as possible.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57It's also about taking a hit, as well, when you get to the ground.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Everything you train for as an acrobat or a dancer
0:08:59 > 0:09:02is completely irrelevant in Streb.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05That's the foundation of being a true action hero.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25I think of Streb as action's answer to rock'n'roll.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Like the sort of renegades of rock'n'roll.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32The real old rough-and-ready rock'n'rollers.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34Yes!
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Action was always meant to be transgressive
0:09:37 > 0:09:39and really be dangerous like that.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Just remember what Elizabeth talked about yesterday.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Find your perfect line.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Tip!
0:09:53 > 0:09:55I loved Evil Knievel. I loved Houdini.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58I loved all of the Niagara daredevils,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01especially the ones that designed barrels to go over Niagara Falls.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04I thought "Cool!"
0:10:04 > 0:10:07One woman, Annie Edson Taylor,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10she was the first woman and she was about my age, 63.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13I'm 62, I'm a little younger.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Imagine a 63-year-old woman getting in a barrel and going over,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19and she survived!
0:10:21 > 0:10:23I can't really say my best pieces,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26but the ones that interested me the longest have to do
0:10:26 > 0:10:31with me not knowing before I start what the possibilities are.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35So if I remain as ignorant and as gracefully ignorant as I can,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37then I can ask more pertinent questions
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and come up with more surprising physical action.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18There is a piece I wanted to do.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22It sort of mimicked something I saw in Las Vegas a couple of years ago.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24It was the Bellagio fountains.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26I wanted to figure out how to get
0:11:26 > 0:11:28bodies to do what the water was doing.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33I've got 33 bodies falling in all these different formations
0:11:33 > 0:11:36from all these different levels.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39One at a time, two at a time, eight at a time, 17, 20 at a time.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42They come down and land either flat on their stomachs
0:11:42 > 0:11:44or flat on their back.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47They have about two-thirds of a second, shockingly enough,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50that's all they have, to do whatever moves they want to do,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52flip, turn, rotate, twist.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56They have to then organise their bodies perfectly horizontally
0:11:56 > 0:12:00to land all at once in a perfect line.
0:12:00 > 0:12:01They have to start getting up
0:12:01 > 0:12:05before they even land or they're stuck there for a couple of seconds
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and then someone else is going to land on them.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11They do this activity, falling, climbing, falling, climbing
0:12:11 > 0:12:13for about 18 minutes.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16It's the most grisly, brutal dance
0:12:16 > 0:12:18that Streb has ever made.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20I find it the most moving.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22It's hard to find people
0:12:22 > 0:12:25who are willing to put their bodies through this.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27A number of them have walked away.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Some of the London dancers just, you know,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33they kept getting broken noses and having their shoulders pull out
0:12:33 > 0:12:37or feeling vertigo from some of the things we've asked them to do.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42That happens in New York too. People just run from the room.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44INDISTINCT SHOUTING
0:12:44 > 0:12:48We have half London dancers that we've been working with for three or four months.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52I have 18 dancers I brought from the United States, from New York,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54that we've been working with for six months,
0:12:54 > 0:12:56some of them for two years.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00I think that we've married those two together in this beautiful garage.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04We are going to go out there, very much like an Olympic team,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08we are going to, really, we're going for the gold.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11From the early morning until very close to midnight,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14we are going to be doing seven events
0:13:14 > 0:13:17all over a particular area of London.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Just a couple of notes, guys, if you all stay here.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26- You all right?- I'm good.- How long was the dance?- About 19.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Wow!
0:13:28 > 0:13:32One Extraordinary Day is the most difficult,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36most complex plan we've ever been able,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39with thousands of people helping us, to come up with.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Because of a lot of co-operation from the river, from the engineers,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45from the city of London.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48From the Mayor's office, from the London Olympic Committee,
0:13:48 > 0:13:53we've got the permission to engage in these places and space.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58I can't predict how people will respond to it.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00I believe, if I'm being accurate with my aim,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03that it's something people will always remember.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05If that wasn't true I will have failed, I think.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11It's all top secret. So top secret, not even we know what's going on!
0:14:11 > 0:14:14I'm a Leo, so keeping it a secret is very hard for me!
0:14:17 > 0:14:20You have one day. It's one shot. It's one performance.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23I think we'll put on a pretty incredible show.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27We are not able to get on these buildings, some of these places.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32I've had to create facsimiles so I can try and imagine and replicate
0:14:32 > 0:14:35what the physical sensation is going to be for the dancers.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39We will be on them for the first time on that One Extraordinary Day.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41We are kind of marauders of the night.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44So if you see some movement up in high places,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46at odd times, it might be us.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Next we move on to ambitions of an Olympian scale,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59but more to do with distinctive design than human endeavour.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Tom Dyckhoff took to the streets
0:15:01 > 0:15:03to explore the merits of Olympic architecture.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09The Olympics is an institution
0:15:09 > 0:15:13that celebrates physical perfection and sporting achievement.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16But it's also become a way of demonstrating national pride
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and bigging up the host city
0:15:18 > 0:15:21so that millions of people around the world and visiting tourists
0:15:21 > 0:15:24can see just how brilliant we are.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26And nothing symbolises this more than the architecture.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Not the old fusty stuff, the historic things,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33but the dazzling new array called Olympic architecture.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39But hosting the Olympic Games is a gamble with an awful lot of money.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41So what's the best way to spend it?
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Well, the usual way is to do it is old-school,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49like Beijing 2008 or Athens 2004,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53blowing your billions on cavorting buildings that simultaneously
0:15:53 > 0:15:55display whatever propaganda message you want.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58In Athens, that meant reminding us that when the Olympics began,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Greece ruled the world.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04And Beijing made it clear who's in charge now.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06However, once the show's moved on,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10you are usually left with rather expensive white elephants.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Remember this one?
0:16:13 > 0:16:15No, nobody else did either.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17In Montreal 1976's case,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22it took 30 years to pay for an iconic stadium no-one's ever heard of.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34So what does London 2012's Olympic architecture represent?
0:16:34 > 0:16:35In the final phases of construction,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39getting up close and personal is still tricky.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41But in the stakes of iconography,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45it's easy to see there are some show-stoppers.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48And in terms of Olympic white elephantitis,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51they seem fairly immune.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53Cycling is a sport we're good at
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and it looks like we're good at designing the arenas too.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00The Olympic Velodrome is camera friendly,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03but for my money, so much more.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08My second postcard-friendly lovely is the Aquatic Centre
0:17:08 > 0:17:09by Dame Zaha Hadid.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12More of a conceptual and financial risk,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15poetic beauty like this doesn't come cheap.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18But at least it's been a gamble that's paid off
0:17:18 > 0:17:21both practically and aesthetically.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28And then there's the main track and field stadium, a stickier prospect.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Described by one critic as painfully pragmatic,
0:17:30 > 0:17:35it's the one venue that seems to have underwhelmed and disappointed us all in the run-up to the Games.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39Iconic, it isn't, but it's actually the most radical building of all.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43The stadium's future use is still being decided, but its architects,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Populous, made plans for it not to be here at all.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Everything you see above ground was designed
0:17:50 > 0:17:53to be taken down like Ikea shelving and used somewhere else,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55maybe at the next Olympics.
0:17:55 > 0:17:56Now, that is radical.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Temporary and mobile architecture of this scale is an idea
0:18:02 > 0:18:05that dates from the 1960s and a visionary group
0:18:05 > 0:18:07of architects known as Archigram.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10One of its founders, Peter Cook,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13was a consultant for the design of the stadium.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17Often more like science fiction and fantasy,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21their futuristic designs were all about adaptability, even mobility.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And these ideas have filtered through to many of the structures
0:18:25 > 0:18:27built to accommodate the 2012 Games.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32This concept of the Olympics as a travelling roadshow
0:18:32 > 0:18:36has been watered down considerably, but it has left its mark.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41With the same flexibility as a wedding marquee,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44the basketball arena may end up at the next Olympics in Rio.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47And the shooting gallery in Woolwich
0:18:47 > 0:18:50may be seen again in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56In Athens, out of 32 sporting venues, 22 were permanent and purpose-built.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00In London, it's only six. And that shows you that something's changed.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03These buildings aren't set to be added
0:19:03 > 0:19:07to the list of architectural Olympic follies.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09In a very British way, what is beautiful and radical about them
0:19:09 > 0:19:12is their very practicality.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14And I believe it's this approach
0:19:14 > 0:19:18that will become the future model for hosting the Games.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Next up, having just directed his first feature film, ill Manors,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and with a new album of the same name about to be released,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30there's no doubt that Plan B is a busy man.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34But he still found time to meet up with Miranda Sawyer.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40In the 1980s, a disenfranchised community
0:19:40 > 0:19:43found a powerful new form of expression, hip-hop.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Artists like Public Enemy took what was party music
0:19:48 > 0:19:52and cranked up the politics and the power against Reagan's America.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55# Fight the power
0:19:55 > 0:19:57# Fight the power. #
0:19:57 > 0:20:01For almost three decades, the sound of hip-hop has been everywhere,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05yet its political rage has been pushed underground.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09But this year a young British artist
0:20:09 > 0:20:11brought rap's anger back to the charts.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16Following last year's riots, 28-year-old Plan B,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19singer, rapper, actor and film maker,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22released the uncompromising track ill Manors.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27It was immediately hailed as one of the great protest songs of our time
0:20:27 > 0:20:30and Plan B became the voice of what is known as broken Britain.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34# There's no such thing as broken Britain
0:20:34 > 0:20:36# We're just bloody broke in Britain
0:20:36 > 0:20:38# What needs fixing is the system
0:20:38 > 0:20:40# Not shop windows down in Brixton
0:20:40 > 0:20:42# Riots on the television
0:20:42 > 0:20:44# You can't put us all in prison. #
0:20:46 > 0:20:51What's interesting about Ben Drew aka Plan B is how he tells stories.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54He could make his urban tales of dealers,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56prostitutes and criminals seem glamorous.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58Instead, he helps us understand
0:20:58 > 0:21:01how people end up in these depressing situations.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05He makes people close and human rather than out there and alien.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Plan B followed his single with the release
0:21:11 > 0:21:14of his first full length film, also called ill Manors.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Written and directed by Ben, it follows a group
0:21:18 > 0:21:20of young people trapped in a cycle of crime and violence
0:21:20 > 0:21:22on the fringes of East London.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Later this month, he releases his third album,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31based on the film's soundtrack.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- Shall we talk about a couple of the songs on the album?- Yeah.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Thinking about ill Manors the track,
0:21:37 > 0:21:43it got a lot of attention, and one of the reasons it got the attention is because the kind of hook is
0:21:43 > 0:21:45"What you looking at, you little rich boy?"
0:21:45 > 0:21:48People are a bit like, "Whoa, that's confrontational."
0:21:48 > 0:21:51# Oi! I said oi!
0:21:51 > 0:21:54# What you looking at you little rich boy?
0:21:54 > 0:21:56# We're poor round here
0:21:56 > 0:21:58# Run home and lock your door
0:21:58 > 0:22:00# Don't come round here no more
0:22:00 > 0:22:02# You could get robbed for... #
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Obviously, I'm a rich boy now. You know, I got money.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10The way I wrote the hook was, this is what these kids think.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14So if these kids are all hoodies and chavs and scumbags,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16this is what they think of you.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And it's fine for the newspapers to ridicule these kids
0:22:20 > 0:22:23because they happen to come from a poorer background.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26So it should be fine to me to rap those lyrics in a rap song.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29If it gets under your skin, then good,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31maybe you know then how it feels for those kids.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35For me, it's the newspapers that's perpetuating this class war.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37# Keep on believing what you read in the papers
0:22:37 > 0:22:39# Council estate kids scum of the earth
0:22:39 > 0:22:40# Think you know how life on a council estate is
0:22:40 > 0:22:43# From everything you've ever read about it or heard. #
0:22:43 > 0:22:45It's coming up to like a year since the riots.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49What do you think that anniversary means?
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Who knows? Like, it could still happen again this year,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54it could happen at any time.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57I don't think enough has been done, really,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59to change people's attitudes.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07A lot of these kids, I don't think they are bad.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11I think they're just misled and I think they're acting out
0:23:11 > 0:23:14on stuff that has happened to them from their past.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17You've gotta sit them kids down and say,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20"Listen. All that stuff that happened to you, that is not fair,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23"but stuff you're doing now, you're responsible for it.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27"Those people that done that bad stuff to you all those years ago, they're not doing that any more."
0:23:27 > 0:23:29# You used to rap every day
0:23:29 > 0:23:31# Looking for the devil's pain
0:23:31 > 0:23:33# The young soul's dad went to jail
0:23:33 > 0:23:35# Listen when you hear them say. #
0:23:37 > 0:23:40If I hadn't been, become as successful as I did,
0:23:40 > 0:23:45I would still be looked down upon as some chav from a council estate,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48which I'm not, you know what I mean?
0:23:48 > 0:23:52So someone had to stand up for them kids.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56If that's what people, when people look at me,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00they assume I'm from a council estate
0:24:00 > 0:24:02and I'm white trash, then I guess that's what I am.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Given that you had such great success with Strickland Banks
0:24:12 > 0:24:14and if you think about soul music,
0:24:14 > 0:24:18it has got a history of kind of social change.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21If you think about Marvin Gaye, What's Going On, something like that,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24soul music can also be used in that way.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28You could have put those sentiments in a soul album.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32The thing is, with soul music, or the Strickland Banks music,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36unless you look for that story that's within it,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38it can just be a collection of songs.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42# She said I love you boy, I love you so
0:24:42 > 0:24:44# She said I love you baby
0:24:44 > 0:24:47# Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. #
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Plan B's breakthrough success came with his soul-infused second album,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54The Defamation Of Strickland Banks.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57The record reached number one in the charts,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00but it's a sound he's put on hold for his current crusade.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Nothing spells it out better than hip-hop.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07So with the ill Manors single, for instance,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09that got under people's skin
0:25:09 > 0:25:12because I used the vehicle of hip-hop
0:25:12 > 0:25:17to really kind of talk about the issue at hand.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Another artist with his unique take on British society
0:25:19 > 0:25:22is punk poet John Cooper Clarke,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24who makes a surprising cameo in ill Manors.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28I was very pleased to see John Cooper Clarke in ill Manors.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30I'm always happy to see that man.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32How come you brought him in?
0:25:32 > 0:25:34For me, he is a British rapper
0:25:34 > 0:25:39who was rapping long before a lot of other people.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41The bloody pies are bloody old
0:25:41 > 0:25:43The bloody chips are bloody cold
0:25:43 > 0:25:45The bloody beer is bloody flat
0:25:45 > 0:25:47The bloody flats have bloody rats
0:25:47 > 0:25:48The bloody clocks are bloody wrong
0:25:48 > 0:25:50The bloody days are bloody long
0:25:50 > 0:25:52It bloody gets you bloody down
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Evidently Chickentown.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57He's like so northern, innit, he's so him in the language
0:25:57 > 0:25:58that he's using.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01I've written a lot of Cockney-inspired kind of raps
0:26:01 > 0:26:03because of John Cooper Clarke.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07For me, it's like if you're a hip-hop artist in this country,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09you need to listen to that man.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Pity the fate of young fellows
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Too long abed without sleep
0:26:14 > 0:26:17With their complex romantic attachments
0:26:17 > 0:26:19I look on their sorrows and weep
0:26:20 > 0:26:23They don't get a moment's reflection
0:26:23 > 0:26:25There's always a crowd in their eye
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Pity the plight of young fellows
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Regard all their worries and cry.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32I'm not one of those artists,
0:26:32 > 0:26:37I don't think I'll ever release a pop rap record,
0:26:37 > 0:26:38where I'm still a rapper
0:26:38 > 0:26:43but I'm only rapping about your stereotypical kind of things.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48- Good times? - Good times, you know, love.
0:26:48 > 0:26:5120 inch rims, hos.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55All that stuff, you know what I mean?
0:26:55 > 0:26:58- Thanks very much for fitting us in. - Thank you, yeah. Thanks.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Next week on the Culture Show, actress Fiona Shaw
0:27:02 > 0:27:05talks poetry with Cerys Matthews.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Alastair Sooke and Akram Khan visit Tate Modern's new oil tanks.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11And I get into the Olympic spirit
0:27:11 > 0:27:14with my very own mobile movie marathon.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17But we play out from Britain's oldest surviving structure,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Stonehenge, transformed this week into a fire garden
0:27:21 > 0:27:24by outdoor alchemists, Compagnie Carrabosse.
0:27:24 > 0:27:25Good night.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd