3:37:45 > 3:37:52.
3:37:58 > 3:38:02Hello, welcome to The Culture Show. We're here at the Olympic Park,
3:38:02 > 3:38:05where all the action is about to kick off. So, on your marks...
3:38:05 > 3:38:09Tonight, we're talking Blur, Batman, puppets and prostheses.
3:38:11 > 3:38:13Coming up: As the Dark Knight rises,
3:38:13 > 3:38:16I meet brilliant Batman director Christopher Nolan,
3:38:16 > 3:38:18Blur talk to Miranda Sawyer,
3:38:18 > 3:38:21Mat Fraser contemplates being superhuman
3:38:21 > 3:38:25and Michael Smith ponders the peculiar world of puppets.
3:38:27 > 3:38:32First up, Blur were THE Britpop band until the last party ended
3:38:32 > 3:38:34and they wandered off to write operas
3:38:34 > 3:38:36and make cheese and such like.
3:38:36 > 3:38:40Well, now these friends reunited are scoring the sound of summer 2012.
3:38:40 > 3:38:45They've just released two new songs and are about to play the biggest gig of their career
3:38:45 > 3:38:49as part of the closing ceremony for the Olympics. Here's Miranda Sawyer.
3:38:49 > 3:38:54Hello. We're Blur. I'm Damon, I'm the singer.
3:38:54 > 3:38:56I am Graham. I play guitar.
3:38:56 > 3:39:00I've got a big, big, big bass guitar and I'm called Alex.
3:39:00 > 3:39:02I'm called Dave and I play the drums.
3:39:04 > 3:39:07# There's no other way
3:39:07 > 3:39:09# There's no other way... #
3:39:09 > 3:39:13Blur first started making music in the era of vinyl and tapes.
3:39:13 > 3:39:18They came of age during a time of CDs and now, just last month,
3:39:18 > 3:39:23they became the first ever band to preview two new tracks via Twitter.
3:39:23 > 3:39:26After splits, reconciliations and everything else,
3:39:26 > 3:39:312012 is shaping up to be another landmark year for the band.
3:39:31 > 3:39:34But is this a new beginning or just the beginning of the end?
3:39:34 > 3:39:40# There were blue skies in my city today... #
3:39:40 > 3:39:44Under The Westway is Blur's personal response to London 2012
3:39:44 > 3:39:48and is a stark contrast to Muse's official Olympic song.
3:39:48 > 3:39:50# It's a race
3:39:51 > 3:39:54# And I'm going to win
3:39:54 > 3:39:57# Yes, I'm going to win
3:39:57 > 3:39:59Or this anthemic composition from Elbow.
3:39:59 > 3:40:02STRING ARRANGEMENT
3:40:02 > 3:40:04You're part of the Cultural Olympiad.
3:40:04 > 3:40:08There are other music elements to the Olympics.
3:40:08 > 3:40:11Muse have written a song and Elbow have written a theme.
3:40:11 > 3:40:18I think what's fantastic, is that sort of cultural, you know,
3:40:18 > 3:40:23critical mass that's been realised, where everyone's doing something.
3:40:23 > 3:40:25You can capture a moment with a song, but I think
3:40:25 > 3:40:29if it's written specifically for it, that's very difficult.
3:40:29 > 3:40:32That is why with Under The Westway I didn't write...
3:40:32 > 3:40:36I wrote something that, you know, that has a life outside.
3:40:36 > 3:40:41Muse won't be playing that song in a few years' time, will they? Not necessarily.
3:40:41 > 3:40:45- Not necessarily, no. - But I mean, we'll still be playing Under The Westway.
3:40:45 > 3:40:48# ..still picking up shortwave
3:40:48 > 3:40:51# Somewhere they're out in space
3:40:51 > 3:40:54# It depends how you're wired
3:40:54 > 3:40:58# When the night's on fire
3:40:58 > 3:41:00# Under the Westway... #
3:41:04 > 3:41:07The Westway is the kind of kick-off point for the single
3:41:07 > 3:41:10but it is mentioned in a couple of your other songs as well.
3:41:10 > 3:41:13I have always loved it, and living underneath it,
3:41:13 > 3:41:19in the sense of having to go past it every day, it is a part of my life.
3:41:19 > 3:41:22I love it when I get on it, you know, and you just fly over,
3:41:22 > 3:41:26and then you're in a totally different part of London.
3:41:26 > 3:41:31It's a metaphor for home, really, and something that is constant.
3:41:31 > 3:41:35# ..am I lost out at sea
3:41:35 > 3:41:40# Till the tide wash me
3:41:40 > 3:41:43# Up off the Westway? #
3:41:49 > 3:41:53You all do different things and then you come together,
3:41:53 > 3:41:56- to work together, to perform.- Yeah.
3:41:56 > 3:41:59Does that make it more freeing, the fact you only do that occasionally?
3:41:59 > 3:42:04- Yeah.- So it is more fun to record in that way.
3:42:04 > 3:42:07It's part of who we are, not entirely who we are.
3:42:07 > 3:42:11Over the years there have been quite a few walkabouts
3:42:11 > 3:42:14and we collect like little bees. We come in with our bags of pollen
3:42:14 > 3:42:18and we have all got new things, I suppose, to bring to it.
3:42:18 > 3:42:23Their other new track, The Puritan, with its scuzzy guitars and jabbing synths,
3:42:23 > 3:42:26will delight the hardcore Blur fan.
3:42:26 > 3:42:28# Are we institutionalised
3:42:28 > 3:42:30# By the demands of today?
3:42:32 > 3:42:36# In our regalia, are we OK? #
3:42:36 > 3:42:40Next week, the band will release their definitive box set.
3:42:40 > 3:42:44Called 21, to mark the number of years since they started,
3:42:44 > 3:42:46it features not only all seven studio albums
3:42:46 > 3:42:50but five-and-a-half hours of unreleased material and early recordings.
3:42:52 > 3:42:57It's credit to Graham, really, because he's been much more adept at keeping hold of stuff.
3:42:57 > 3:43:00Did you have a big box of tapes to go through?
3:43:00 > 3:43:04Yes, loads that have sat in a box for years and years from rehearsals.
3:43:04 > 3:43:09I used to tape them, to take them home so I could know the song.
3:43:09 > 3:43:12You collected them into this beautiful present for Blur fans,
3:43:12 > 3:43:14it's a big present.
3:43:14 > 3:43:18But there is a sense when you get given a big present like that,
3:43:18 > 3:43:19it is like the end of something.
3:43:19 > 3:43:22Is that how you feel or not?
3:43:22 > 3:43:24I don't think any of us...
3:43:24 > 3:43:27I mean, we just take it, you know, as it comes, really.
3:43:27 > 3:43:33There was such a lot. Maybe it was time for a recap and maybe it was...
3:43:33 > 3:43:36I just wanted to get those cassettes put onto a CD.
3:43:36 > 3:43:40- That was the real motivation?! - So I could listen to them, so it was a bit easier.
3:43:40 > 3:43:43This summer the band will take centre stage at Hyde Park,
3:43:43 > 3:43:46for a concert celebrating the end of the Olympics,
3:43:46 > 3:43:51headlining a bill that includes seminal British pop acts The Specials and New Order.
3:43:52 > 3:43:56The last time Blur played the park was in 2009.
3:43:56 > 3:43:59Alex has said that 2009, in Hyde Park...
3:43:59 > 3:44:02- Alex has said a lot of things, remember.- Yes, I do know that.
3:44:02 > 3:44:06He said the 2009 gigs at Hyde Park were the best you've ever played,
3:44:06 > 3:44:10so are you looking forward to topping that?
3:44:10 > 3:44:14Topping? It's not really about topping. It's a different decade.
3:44:15 > 3:44:17It's a different world.
3:44:17 > 3:44:19# Come on, come on, come on
3:44:19 > 3:44:23# Love's the greatest thing
3:44:23 > 3:44:25# That we have
3:44:25 > 3:44:28# I'm waiting for that feeling... #
3:44:28 > 3:44:31I hope they are equally resonant now
3:44:31 > 3:44:34and maybe something else will emerge that is unexpected.
3:44:34 > 3:44:40But I'm not trying to recreate that, we're trying to do something new,
3:44:40 > 3:44:42a new thing.
3:44:42 > 3:44:46The nice thing is we've all got lives, you know?
3:44:46 > 3:44:49So we treasure these moments that we spend together...
3:44:49 > 3:44:51GRAHAM LAUGHS
3:44:51 > 3:44:52Shall we weep?
3:44:52 > 3:44:54OK, can we all weep at the end?
3:45:08 > 3:45:12Blur perform live on Radio 2 and 6 Music on July 31st
3:45:12 > 3:45:15and that Hyde Park gig is on August 12th.
3:45:15 > 3:45:18Next, in this Olympic and Paralympic year,
3:45:18 > 3:45:23we've got wall-to-wall men and women striving to achieve their very best.
3:45:23 > 3:45:25A new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection
3:45:25 > 3:45:28examines our obsession with self-enhancement,
3:45:28 > 3:45:31from post-syphilitic silver noses to cyborgs.
3:45:31 > 3:45:35Mat Fraser questions our desire to be superhuman.
3:45:37 > 3:45:41Over the last 15 years I have done a fair amount of live artwork,
3:45:41 > 3:45:44and one of the most celebrated I did was a striptease,
3:45:44 > 3:45:47that obviously involved me taking my clothes off,
3:45:47 > 3:45:50but it involves me taking off...these.
3:45:54 > 3:45:58The concept was I'm stripping out of my perceived normality, to...
3:46:01 > 3:46:03..celebrate my beautiful freakishness,
3:46:03 > 3:46:07and apparently it was considered quite confrontational in its day.
3:46:14 > 3:46:18I've just been commissioned to make another performance piece.
3:46:18 > 3:46:21My brief, is to respond to reputations of disability,
3:46:21 > 3:46:24at various museum exhibitions,
3:46:24 > 3:46:28the first of which is the Wellcome Collection.
3:46:28 > 3:46:32Entitled Superhuman, the exhibition explores the extraordinary way
3:46:32 > 3:46:36people have tried to improve, adapt and augment their bodies
3:46:36 > 3:46:38for practical and artistic purposes.
3:46:40 > 3:46:43So this is Matthew Barney's work with Aimee Mullins,
3:46:43 > 3:46:49who is the famous double amputee ex-Paralympian and model.
3:46:49 > 3:46:54Those are amazing. I wonder if she can stand on them.
3:46:54 > 3:46:58There is a picture of her here with cheetah legs on. That's great.
3:47:00 > 3:47:04Knowing that she's a double amputee and those are prosthetics
3:47:04 > 3:47:08that have gone beyond function and into artistic and poetic design,
3:47:08 > 3:47:09I like that a lot.
3:47:12 > 3:47:17I don't think prosthetics have ever been considered as artistic objects
3:47:17 > 3:47:19or things you can make into art.
3:47:19 > 3:47:21It's always been about function.
3:47:23 > 3:47:26Wow. That's beautiful.
3:47:28 > 3:47:31Ah-ha. My people.
3:47:33 > 3:47:35This is so weird for me,
3:47:35 > 3:47:38because I actually know these people as adults now.
3:47:38 > 3:47:44Thalidomide was a morning sickness pill, marketed as a general sedative, a painkiller,
3:47:44 > 3:47:49but most profoundly it was marketed as the cure for morning sickness,
3:47:49 > 3:47:54and my mother took it three times in one week and this was the result.
3:47:54 > 3:47:56It was a massive, big pharmaceutical disaster
3:47:56 > 3:48:02and there was a mass panic, and a need to make it OK.
3:48:02 > 3:48:07It is a little bit weird for me, seeing these prostheses as exhibits
3:48:07 > 3:48:10but I think it's the best use for them.
3:48:10 > 3:48:14I didn't have to wear any. I remember I went into a room one day
3:48:14 > 3:48:18and they said, "Do you want to try one of these arms on?"
3:48:18 > 3:48:20I thought, "Why would I want do that?"
3:48:20 > 3:48:22I put them on - I was seven or eight -
3:48:22 > 3:48:25they felt uncomfortable and I didn't like them.
3:48:25 > 3:48:29"Mummy, I don't want to wear them." "That's fine, you don't have to." And that was the end of it.
3:48:31 > 3:48:38'It's hard for me to explain what it was like to use artificial arms and legs.
3:48:38 > 3:48:44'It was like in some dreams, where you know you're there
3:48:44 > 3:48:48'but you can't touch anything. I could touch it but it wasn't me,
3:48:48 > 3:48:52'it was like somebody else was touching it and I was merely an observer.'
3:48:52 > 3:48:54Wow.
3:48:54 > 3:48:57'Being on legs, it was like being in suspended animation.'
3:48:57 > 3:49:02'Poor old Terry. But, you know, that's what they thought.'
3:49:02 > 3:49:05Yeah. Lucky me that I didn't have to do that.
3:49:08 > 3:49:12For me, this is human adaptation, this is adapting and surviving.
3:49:12 > 3:49:17You've got no arms but you need a cup of tea, so you use your feet.
3:49:20 > 3:49:23"Syphilis could cause the destruction of the nose,
3:49:23 > 3:49:28"giving rise to the formation of no-nose clubs in the 18th century.
3:49:28 > 3:49:33"This painted silver nose was worn by a woman who'd lost her own to the disease."
3:49:33 > 3:49:34How weird!
3:49:36 > 3:49:39It's the Olympic thing,
3:49:39 > 3:49:42the technological enhancement of the sports person.
3:49:42 > 3:49:49The classic cheetah leg that Oscar Pistorius, famously, has taken to such enhancement
3:49:49 > 3:49:52that he's Olympian as well as Paralympian.
3:49:52 > 3:49:55Oh, and it says here, "The efficiency and speed of these legs
3:49:55 > 3:49:59"has led to claims they create an advantage over able-bodied runners."
3:49:59 > 3:50:04Will there ever become a point where the runner who's desperate to win at any cost
3:50:04 > 3:50:09will have their legs amputated so they can wear these and win the race?
3:50:09 > 3:50:13This is a lovely little exhibit, this is the famous i-LIMB,
3:50:13 > 3:50:17which is the most advanced prosthetic hand in the world.
3:50:17 > 3:50:21When we were little, as thalidomide kids, we used to think about the...
3:50:21 > 3:50:24MAKES ROBOTIC BUZZING
3:50:24 > 3:50:27..kind of working, and that's the actual thing.
3:50:27 > 3:50:30Finally, invented.
3:50:30 > 3:50:33Yeah, 2011. So last year.
3:50:33 > 3:50:35Would I use an i-LIMB? I don't know.
3:50:35 > 3:50:41They'd have to be better than they are even now, but I could be tempted in the future.
3:50:41 > 3:50:45One of these people isn't real. One of these people is a robot.
3:50:47 > 3:50:50It is impossible to tell which one.
3:50:53 > 3:50:54Amazing.
3:50:56 > 3:50:59That's one of the nice things about this exhibition -
3:50:59 > 3:51:03the historical stuff has come true in some cases.
3:51:03 > 3:51:07That makes you think when you look at, "That wouldn't be possible,"
3:51:07 > 3:51:10well, maybe in 25 years' time it will be possible.
3:51:12 > 3:51:17Where we have repeatedly seen the most amazing predictions for human advancement
3:51:17 > 3:51:23has been in the world of science fiction, and especially with comic book characters.
3:51:23 > 3:51:26Many comic book heroes seem to anticipate trans-humanism,
3:51:26 > 3:51:29the application of technology to humans to enhance their ability.
3:51:29 > 3:51:31Becoming more than human -
3:51:31 > 3:51:34Superhuman, the title of the exhibition.
3:51:34 > 3:51:37I really like the X-Men because they're mutants.
3:51:37 > 3:51:41They're shunned for their weird freakish abilities
3:51:41 > 3:51:46but using their enhanced realities can help society and the human race.
3:51:46 > 3:51:49They're heroes, shunned for being different.
3:51:49 > 3:51:52I like to romanticise them perhaps.
3:51:54 > 3:51:58Quite how I'm going to save the world with my hands, I'm not quite sure,
3:51:58 > 3:52:00but one day, you never know.
3:52:04 > 3:52:06I've made lots of performance pieces
3:52:06 > 3:52:08around the nature of being a freak.
3:52:11 > 3:52:15But maybe for this new commission, I'll concentrate more on the idea
3:52:15 > 3:52:19of adaptation and even enhancement, especially by disabled people.
3:52:21 > 3:52:24I'll need to contemplate more what I've seen today,
3:52:24 > 3:52:27but this has been a great starting point.
3:52:27 > 3:52:31It's made me think I'd like to research individuals, alive or historical,
3:52:31 > 3:52:34who've transcended their human condition to become,
3:52:34 > 3:52:38well, for want of a better word, superhuman.
3:52:41 > 3:52:44Superhuman is at the Wellcome Collection in London
3:52:44 > 3:52:45until October 16th.
3:52:45 > 3:52:49For my money, Christopher Nolan is one of the most exciting
3:52:49 > 3:52:52and innovative film-makers working today.
3:52:52 > 3:52:56The Dark Knight Rises is the final instalment of his Batman trilogy.
3:52:56 > 3:52:57I met up with him
3:52:57 > 3:53:00to talk caped crusaders and intelligent blockbusters.
3:53:04 > 3:53:05The following interview
3:53:05 > 3:53:09was recorded prior to the tragic events in Colorado last Friday.
3:53:31 > 3:53:34Christopher Nolan's brooding vision of Batman
3:53:34 > 3:53:37as an embodiment of Bruce Wayne's fractured psyche
3:53:37 > 3:53:40has set the Hollywood gold standard for comic-book adaptations.
3:53:43 > 3:53:45Nolan takes the discipline and ethics
3:53:45 > 3:53:47of art-house independent movie-making
3:53:47 > 3:53:51and applies them to major Hollywood blockbusters.
3:53:51 > 3:53:54He's living proof that you don't have to appeal to the lowest
3:53:54 > 3:53:55common denominator to be profitable.
3:53:55 > 3:53:58Welcome to the Culture Show.
3:53:58 > 3:54:01It seems to me that the most significant thing that you've done with your films
3:54:01 > 3:54:04is to demonstrate that whether you're working with a small budget
3:54:04 > 3:54:06or a large budget,
3:54:06 > 3:54:08you treat the audience intelligently.
3:54:08 > 3:54:14Do you treat all those movies from Memento to Dark Knight Rises
3:54:14 > 3:54:17essentially as part of the same process?
3:54:17 > 3:54:18Very much so.
3:54:18 > 3:54:25For me, the only sincerity in film-making is to make a film
3:54:25 > 3:54:31that you would want to go and see yourself, and not treat the audience as anything separate from you.
3:54:31 > 3:54:34Our expectations when we go to see a film are different
3:54:34 > 3:54:36in different genres and at different budget levels.
3:54:36 > 3:54:41That doesn't mean that we're dumber when we go and see a bigger film.
3:54:41 > 3:54:45But we do have different expectations. It's a different register of language, in a sense.
3:54:50 > 3:54:52You see only one end to your journey.
3:54:52 > 3:54:57Sometimes, a man rises from the darkness.
3:54:57 > 3:55:02In the Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale is back as Bruce Wayne,
3:55:02 > 3:55:04forced to bring Batman out of retirement
3:55:04 > 3:55:07when Gotham comes under threat.
3:55:07 > 3:55:10Tom Hardy plays his nemesis, Bane, whose avowed mission
3:55:10 > 3:55:13is to raze the city to the ground to cleanse it of sin.
3:55:13 > 3:55:15I was very aware of the size of Dark Knight Rises
3:55:15 > 3:55:20and, as we got to the end of the film, I heaved a sigh of relief
3:55:20 > 3:55:22and the sigh of relief was, he's done it.
3:55:22 > 3:55:26He's got through this massive trilogy and he hasn't let us down.
3:55:26 > 3:55:29Does any part of you now feel like, OK, now I'd like to go and make
3:55:29 > 3:55:33a 1 million movie in which there isn't any possibility
3:55:33 > 3:55:37of letting anyone down because there's no pressure?
3:55:37 > 3:55:42You know, it's funny, there is massive pressure on a smaller film as well.
3:55:42 > 3:55:47Pretty much every film I've ever worked on at every scale has had
3:55:47 > 3:55:50massive stakes to it, one way or another.
3:55:50 > 3:55:53I think, for me, I don't think very well in terms of scale.
3:55:53 > 3:55:57It's all about, is there a story, a set of characters that interest me?
3:55:57 > 3:56:00I think the process has been really
3:56:00 > 3:56:03the same process on every film I've done.
3:56:03 > 3:56:05I mean, Batman Begins...
3:56:05 > 3:56:08Wally and I, from a photographic point of view -
3:56:08 > 3:56:10Wally Pfister, my DP -
3:56:10 > 3:56:13he had to be extremely precise.
3:56:13 > 3:56:15It was the first time we'd done a large scale film
3:56:15 > 3:56:20and it needed have a certain look to present Batman, the way he looked, in a particular way.
3:56:20 > 3:56:25And I enjoyed it, but after seven months of it, of saying to Gary Oldman,
3:56:25 > 3:56:28"No, you can't look that way, you've got to stay that way,"
3:56:28 > 3:56:30we really wanted to loosen things up.
3:56:30 > 3:56:32On The Prestige, we threw marks out of the window,
3:56:32 > 3:56:34we did everything with a hand-held camera.
3:56:34 > 3:56:39When we came back for the Dark Knight, we just brought that methodology with us.
3:56:39 > 3:56:41I found on larger-scale films
3:56:41 > 3:56:44that you can be as spontaneous as you want be, really.
3:56:44 > 3:56:47If you can find a way to construct,
3:56:47 > 3:56:51or put together a structure that you can work within in a flexible way
3:56:51 > 3:56:54and actors respond really well to that and do their best work that way as well.
3:56:57 > 3:57:01Christopher Nolan broke onto the scene with the head scrambling thriller Memento,
3:57:01 > 3:57:04picking up an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.
3:57:04 > 3:57:08He continued to challenge audiences with his intricate tale
3:57:08 > 3:57:11of rival magicians in The Prestige.
3:57:11 > 3:57:15And then, with the complex brain-teaser Inception,
3:57:15 > 3:57:19which won four Oscars and was nominated for a further four, including best picture.
3:57:21 > 3:57:23Memory is a key thread throughout your films.
3:57:23 > 3:57:28Do you think there is something about the medium of cinema
3:57:28 > 3:57:30that particularly lends itself to dealing with stories
3:57:30 > 3:57:33which deal with memory, which deal with dream states,
3:57:33 > 3:57:35with going inside the psyche?
3:57:37 > 3:57:43I think, the way in which your mind has to be active
3:57:43 > 3:57:47in putting together shots of the sequence
3:57:47 > 3:57:53dictates there's a very strong relationship between memory and films.
3:57:53 > 3:57:56We played around with that most obviously in Memento
3:57:56 > 3:57:59and it was an interesting thing to spend time really thinking about,
3:57:59 > 3:58:03but the relationship between the way your eyes see,
3:58:03 > 3:58:06the way your memory processes things,
3:58:06 > 3:58:11and then the linear strip of film running through the projector,
3:58:11 > 3:58:15showing you one shot after another, and your mind is having to construct
3:58:15 > 3:58:19a three-dimensional reality, an idea of what room the characters are in,
3:58:19 > 3:58:22putting that together, it's a pretty fascinating puzzle.
3:58:24 > 3:58:28- My mother warned me about getting into cars with strange men. - This isn't a car.
3:58:28 > 3:58:31I sometimes get frustrated with studio executives and critics
3:58:31 > 3:58:37who watch films and make notes as they go because that's not how movies work.
3:58:37 > 3:58:41The audience gets to the end and then you take about five minutes
3:58:41 > 3:58:43to decide, "What was all that?"
3:58:43 > 3:58:46And your brain looks at everything in a different way and then you decide.
3:58:46 > 3:58:48That's why endings are so important,
3:58:48 > 3:58:50and that's why you really have to get to the end of a movie
3:58:50 > 3:58:53before you know what it is.
3:58:54 > 3:58:56Next up tonight, it's 350 years
3:58:56 > 3:59:00since Punch first whacked Judy over the head,
3:59:00 > 3:59:02but in our age of CGI and Photoshop,
3:59:02 > 3:59:06it seems mannequins and marionettes are going stronger than ever.
3:59:06 > 3:59:09This year they're popping up all over the Cultural Olympiad.
3:59:09 > 3:59:12Here's Michael Smith on why puppets are back in a big way.
3:59:16 > 3:59:21There's something about puppets that gives me the creeps.
3:59:21 > 3:59:25But there's also something enchanting about them.
3:59:27 > 3:59:30Your brain tells you they're inanimate wooden objects.
3:59:31 > 3:59:35But a deeper gut feeling tells you there's a spooky,
3:59:35 > 3:59:38mysterious spark of life animating them.
3:59:39 > 3:59:43Something elemental seems to be going on with these little critters.
3:59:45 > 3:59:49Recently, puppets have been making a bit of a comeback.
3:59:52 > 3:59:54In June, an eight metre-high puppet
3:59:54 > 3:59:56of the mythical Greek giant Prometheus
3:59:56 > 4:00:00strutted his stuff in front of the Queen's house in Greenwich.
4:00:03 > 4:00:06Not to be outdone, at the end of this month,
4:00:06 > 4:00:09an even larger puppet of Lady Godiva
4:00:09 > 4:00:14will trot off from her native Coventry down the A5 to the Olympics,
4:00:14 > 4:00:17powered by 100 cyclists.
4:00:17 > 4:00:20But unlike the legendary naked lady, this Godiva
4:00:20 > 4:00:25will have feet as big as sofas and a golden dress by Zandra Rhodes.
4:00:28 > 4:00:32That's the basic problem with these politically correct puppets.
4:00:32 > 4:00:33They might be ginormous,
4:00:33 > 4:00:36but they're pygmies in the most crucial respect.
4:00:36 > 4:00:38The basic spark of life's
4:00:38 > 4:00:41been airbrushed out of them by the good taste committee.
4:00:41 > 4:00:44Because the real power of all the best puppets
4:00:44 > 4:00:47lies in the fact they don't just break the physical laws we're bound by,
4:00:47 > 4:00:49but the moral laws as well.
4:00:49 > 4:00:54Puppets are transgressive, puppets are carnivalesque,
4:00:54 > 4:00:57puppets get to do all the naughty stuff that we can't.
4:00:57 > 4:01:00Who's a naughty boy then?!
4:01:00 > 4:01:04Oh! That's the way to do it! Get out of it.
4:01:04 > 4:01:07Just look at Britain's most famous puppets.
4:01:07 > 4:01:10# Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside! #
4:01:10 > 4:01:13How come characters as dodgy as Punch and Judy
4:01:13 > 4:01:16have ended up entertaining children for 350 years?
4:01:20 > 4:01:24Hackney photographer Tom Hunter has been documenting professional
4:01:24 > 4:01:27Punch and Judy performers across the country.
4:01:27 > 4:01:30- The puppeteers are called professors, aren't they?- That's right.
4:01:30 > 4:01:32Why do you want to photograph the professors?
4:01:32 > 4:01:34They're just incredible characters.
4:01:34 > 4:01:36I think it comes from this amazing tradition
4:01:36 > 4:01:38of the travelling showman, really.
4:01:38 > 4:01:42They're totally self-contained, they make their own sets,
4:01:42 > 4:01:43they make their own theatres.
4:01:43 > 4:01:46Lots of them make their own puppets.
4:01:46 > 4:01:50Can you put your finger on what exactly the appeal is of Punch?
4:01:50 > 4:01:53Yeah, I think it's the anarchy, the anarchy and chaos
4:01:53 > 4:01:56that is created by Mr Punch in this little world.
4:01:56 > 4:01:59The slapstick, the humour,
4:01:59 > 4:02:01the villainous attitude to it all.
4:02:01 > 4:02:06It's a bit like Carry On with Sid James and Barbara Windsor as well.
4:02:06 > 4:02:09The wildness, the complete abandoness of it.
4:02:09 > 4:02:12You just get lost in it. All your emotions are there.
4:02:12 > 4:02:15You're screaming, you're cheering, you're booing.
4:02:15 > 4:02:20When I used to go to the punk concerts when I was 14, 15.
4:02:20 > 4:02:24you just let yourself go completely mad, jumping and spitting.
4:02:24 > 4:02:27You can do that. You don't spit any more, thank God,
4:02:27 > 4:02:29but the kids go wild, they're jumping up and down.
4:02:29 > 4:02:33They get into a frenzy and let themselves go, which is great.
4:02:33 > 4:02:35It's really nice. Let it out.
4:02:35 > 4:02:39And then come home and be well behaved and eat their tea properly.
4:02:42 > 4:02:45Puppets embody one of the most primitive
4:02:45 > 4:02:48imaginative instincts of the human race.
4:02:48 > 4:02:51They come from the same place as myths and fairy stories
4:02:51 > 4:02:55and I think they appeal to a much more primal sense of magic
4:02:55 > 4:02:57than most of us imagine when we're watching them.
4:02:59 > 4:03:01A contemporary puppet performance
4:03:01 > 4:03:05that taps into these dark and primordial origins is Crow -
4:03:05 > 4:03:08a theatre adaptation of Ted Hughes's' poems.
4:03:10 > 4:03:14The production features several crow incarnations,
4:03:14 > 4:03:17from a giant bird with a 12 foot wingspan to a life-size crow.
4:03:19 > 4:03:23Behind the adaptation is the Handspring Puppet Company.
4:03:23 > 4:03:27They've been pushing the boundaries of modern puppetry for 30 years
4:03:27 > 4:03:30and made the puppets for the 2007 hit play War Horse.
4:03:32 > 4:03:38I went along to meet their artistic director Mervyn Millar.
4:03:38 > 4:03:42There seems to have been a bit of a renaissance in puppetry recently. Why do think that is?
4:03:42 > 4:03:46I think, to a large extent, coming from shows that people have
4:03:46 > 4:03:50made recently, have changed the way people perceive puppets.
4:03:50 > 4:03:53I don't know another show before War Horse
4:03:53 > 4:03:57where there's a puppet as a central character in a big show like that.
4:03:57 > 4:04:01I think that's opened a lot of people's eyes to what
4:04:01 > 4:04:04the puppet can do emotionally in terms of connecting with people.
4:04:04 > 4:04:06What can puppets do that actors can't?
4:04:06 > 4:04:11Well, I think they demand that you imagine something very essential.
4:04:11 > 4:04:14They invite you to relate to what it is to be alive,
4:04:14 > 4:04:17because you're looking at this thing and you know it's not alive.
4:04:17 > 4:04:22You know that you want it to be alive and every now and then you
4:04:22 > 4:04:26believe it's alive. You don't believe it's alive all the time.
4:04:26 > 4:04:29Sometimes you zoom out and go,
4:04:29 > 4:04:31"What an intricate piece of artistry that is."
4:04:31 > 4:04:35How would you go about turning a crow into a puppet?
4:04:35 > 4:04:39You start with anatomical study and you start by drawing and looking
4:04:39 > 4:04:43and observing and watching videos and watching real animals.
4:04:43 > 4:04:47One of our designers has made something that's far more complex
4:04:47 > 4:04:52than anything I've ever seen in a puppet before for this head.
4:04:52 > 4:04:56It really does everything almost that a real bird's head can do.
4:05:00 > 4:05:04Puppets give shape to a deep and shadowy part of the brain.
4:05:04 > 4:05:08A repressed and often unacceptable part of us
4:05:08 > 4:05:12that needs to surface somehow, breathing its strange life
4:05:12 > 4:05:15into puppets by a collective act of imagining.
4:05:15 > 4:05:19Conjured up as if by magic.
4:05:22 > 4:05:25You can see Prometheus Awakes in Stockton on August 2nd
4:05:25 > 4:05:30and Lady Godiva begins her journey from Coventry to London at the end of this month.
4:05:30 > 4:05:35We're on a short break while the Olympics take over, but The Culture Show is back on August 15th
4:05:35 > 4:05:39with all the best of the fest in Edinburgh. Finally tonight,
4:05:39 > 4:05:44Rio Occupation London sees 30 artists taking over the capital's streets,
4:05:44 > 4:05:48stages and squares for 30 days as part of London 2012.
4:05:48 > 4:05:52Here's a flavour of the Brazilian invasion. Goodnight.
4:05:53 > 4:05:56UPBEAT BRAZILIAN MUSIC
4:06:31 > 4:06:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd