:00:19. > :00:24.On the review show tonight: Spider-Man returns. Again,
:00:24. > :00:29.different face, same threads. right that was fun.
:00:29. > :00:36.A new and revealing novel from global traveller, Michael Palin.
:00:36. > :00:42.The News Room, a ripping yarn set surprisingly in a newsroom. The oil
:00:42. > :00:48.rig, deep water has exploded in flames, 50 miles off America.
:00:48. > :00:55.I'm 65, Britain's ageing population goes centre stage on BBC One. Plus,
:00:55. > :01:01.live music from Mara Carlyle. Tonight I'm joined by Maureen
:01:01. > :01:08.Lipman the journalist, John Sargeant and Slobodan Milosevic. It
:01:08. > :01:12.is a big year for heroes. We saw hulk to captain America, get
:01:12. > :01:17.together for Avengers Assemble. The dark night rises the final chapter
:01:17. > :01:23.of the Batman trilogy. While the faims come off the backs of the
:01:23. > :01:29.most successful block busters, this week's release, The Amazing Spider-
:01:29. > :01:34.Man, is attempting to start a new franchise by rebooting an old one.
:01:34. > :01:42.Spidey's back and on classic wise cracking form. You found my
:01:42. > :01:47.weakness, it is small knives. ten years since Sam turned into a
:01:47. > :01:52.Spider-Man trilogy. And Marc Webb it is a tough act to follow. With
:01:52. > :02:00.great power, comes great responsibility. This time, Andrew
:02:00. > :02:07.Garfield plays, park park park, an awkward science geeck which creates
:02:07. > :02:12.powers after being bitten by a genetically engineered spider. Here
:02:12. > :02:18.the Spider-Man reboots swings into action. Instead of mooning the girl,
:02:18. > :02:22.he is getting something going with the brainy classmate, Emma Stone.
:02:22. > :02:28.Troubled by the mysterious disappearance of his parents, he
:02:28. > :02:34.tracks down his father he is colleague, play and soon finds
:02:34. > :02:39.himself facing a giant lizard withvilleenous intentions. The film
:02:39. > :02:45.is packed with stunts, some are which done by Garfield himself. As
:02:45. > :02:52.ever, as much of the drama takes place in high school as on the
:02:52. > :02:59.streets of New York. In the post Twilight era it is no surprise the
:02:59. > :03:03.sweet and slight romance is replaced on an angst take on
:03:03. > :03:12.teenager passion. Director, Marc Webb weaves a tale
:03:12. > :03:17.of action and emotion to get a new audience. Is it more than a money-
:03:17. > :03:23.spinner. Did they need to remake or reboot this story? Creatively I
:03:23. > :03:29.would say no. Because Spider-Man was doing fine, the last movie made
:03:29. > :03:35.$9 Hunniford million. This is the reason why they did it was to save
:03:35. > :03:41.money. The next one was going to be budgeted at 3 Hunniford million m
:03:41. > :03:51.so they put 70 million Spider-Man movie, everyone would see it, so
:03:51. > :03:57.they were doing a low budget reboot. So it is a weird thing, it is a odd
:03:57. > :04:06.thing in superhero movies, they tried to go small, it didn't work,
:04:06. > :04:11.they knew they were competing with avengeers, you can't make it under
:04:11. > :04:18.3 money million. I'm the last person to see the movie, I loved it,
:04:18. > :04:22.it didn't look cheap to me. The last time I saw a Spider-Man, the
:04:22. > :04:27.glasses for 3D was red and three cardboard. Now you get your own,
:04:27. > :04:34.and I went to see it 2pm, it was just the most wonderful experience,
:04:34. > :04:44.the boy is great. Andrew Garfield is great, he's truthful, the scenes,
:04:44. > :04:49.it is not throwing CJ - CTI, you know what I mean, glasses on my
:04:49. > :04:56.mouth, it builds up slowly. And there's a real relationship with he
:04:56. > :05:01.and Emma Stone, which I believe is true in real life. And you've got
:05:01. > :05:06.Sally Field, long suffering, nobody does better than her, Martin Sheen
:05:06. > :05:10.there having a ball and it works. Were you engaged or entertained?
:05:10. > :05:14.wish I could have been, it started slowly and went on slowly for me. I
:05:14. > :05:19.was so keen to make it work, I remember going to these films with
:05:19. > :05:26.my boys, and thinking, I'm with them, and isn't it all marvellous,
:05:26. > :05:30.we're in this crazy world. I looked and thought no, it was in 3-D, two
:05:30. > :05:35.D in terms of the characters, in terms of what they were doing, and
:05:35. > :05:42.in terms of the story, with anecdote serum, you thought no,
:05:42. > :05:48.does it have to be, why can't there be jokes. There are. It didn't have
:05:48. > :05:54.me frightened or laughing. I was hoping, I get Vertigo on high
:05:54. > :05:59.buildings, I thought that would be great. You want it to be scary, I
:05:59. > :06:05.felt 12A, that's it, no more. I didn't have any sense of my
:06:05. > :06:13.goodness me, this is something. was terrified when the face turned
:06:13. > :06:18.into a handbag. My 13-year-old daughter loved it, I knew
:06:18. > :06:21.demographic was sewn up, you have the five-year-olds, but get the 14-
:06:21. > :06:27.year-old girls is brilliant. should have got children at ran
:06:27. > :06:34.damn and brought them in. Lizard was a let down. It is scary
:06:34. > :06:40.if you were a kid. Is that the aim, is that why Marc Webb's aim to
:06:40. > :06:50.teenagers and girls. If you're going to make a movie of teenagers
:06:50. > :06:56.getting off with each other, he's brilliant. He did it in spades.
:06:56. > :07:02.Alan serjeant, No relation. He did a beautiful job with the skrist.
:07:02. > :07:07.is interesting, you said it wasn't funny. When he discovers his pours,
:07:07. > :07:13.the bathroom, and the encounter on the subway, they seemed funny to
:07:13. > :07:17.me? He was subjective, I felt drained. All humour, I'm watching
:07:17. > :07:23.it, I have my glasses on, I'm doing my best to be keen and engaged,
:07:23. > :07:28.blank, the characters, I thought, yawn, yawn, no interest to me.
:07:28. > :07:34.Maybe it is one of those things, I should have picked change children
:07:34. > :07:39.at ran damn, but I would have been arrested. Of course they're
:07:39. > :07:45.planning a sequel, do you think there's a sign of ideas running out,
:07:45. > :07:52.that Marvel and CD comics are trying to find what to do They
:07:52. > :07:55.sauls have different things to say, it is a long time since I read a
:07:55. > :07:59.comic. I was captivated, because Andrew Garfield is so good as an
:07:59. > :08:03.actor, he let's you in slowly to his disbelief into what is
:08:03. > :08:07.happening to him. When he pulled the thing out of his neck, the long
:08:07. > :08:14.thread of silk, or whatever, it was truly exciting and strange and
:08:14. > :08:18.weird. I loved it. We have the high end actors and directors doing this
:08:18. > :08:24.stuff, it is brilliant. They will keep making these things as long as
:08:24. > :08:30.they keep making money, avengeers was great fun. This stuff used to
:08:30. > :08:35.be done by rubbish guise and now they're great. Thank you all. The
:08:35. > :08:40.American writer and producer, Aaron Sorkin is best known for the sosho
:08:40. > :08:45.technological issues, by which I know West Wing TV series and social
:08:45. > :08:50.network movie for which he won an Oscar, but Sports Night, he turned
:08:50. > :09:00.his gaze on the workplace, the world of television. So the new
:09:00. > :09:00.
:09:00. > :09:05.series, the news room follows suit. Is it in The News Room, we are
:09:05. > :09:12.taken behind the scenes of a news programme, called Newsnight. To xa
:09:12. > :09:14.how Americans get their news. Jeff Daniels is Will McAvoy, a
:09:14. > :09:19.authoritative anchorman who questions the received wisdom about
:09:19. > :09:25.America, and begins a crusade for impartiality and integrity. There
:09:25. > :09:32.is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we are
:09:32. > :09:36.the greatest the world, which are 227 in science, 178 in infant
:09:36. > :09:42.mortality, four in Labour force and four in exports, we lead the world
:09:42. > :09:49.in number of inkas rated citizens per kapt tita, the number of people
:09:49. > :09:56.who believe angels are real. It has a supporting cast, and as you'd
:09:56. > :10:02.expect, features of rapid pyre dialogue. It is time for done.
:10:03. > :10:09.road a donkey. I can't help you. Man who chartered Facebook in The
:10:09. > :10:16.Social Network, hasn't shied away here. Each episode takes a Crewe
:10:16. > :10:26.from a recogniseable news story. Breaking news tonight what could be
:10:26. > :10:26.
:10:26. > :10:30.the biggest disaster that hit the Gulf of Mexico... If The West Wing
:10:30. > :10:34.showed the view of how America ought to be gofpbd, here it is how
:10:34. > :10:39.the news should be presented. But are the people who make the news as
:10:39. > :10:44.fascinating as the people who are in the news.
:10:44. > :10:51.John, you spend a lot of time in newsrooms, was it convincing?
:10:51. > :10:55.fascinateed in newsroom, the main problem is that journalists are not
:10:55. > :10:59.terribly important. I should have the romantic view, as the Americans
:10:59. > :11:03.do, they're part of the American constitution, they're there,
:11:03. > :11:09.freedom of press, First Amendment and they take themselves seriously.
:11:09. > :11:13.We tend not to. Our coverage of newsrooms and journalism tends to
:11:13. > :11:18.be comedy, Yes, Minister, Drop The Dead Donkey, that's what we think,
:11:18. > :11:22.sort of gets us acos what we're trying to do. But it is a craft
:11:22. > :11:26.skill. You can replace a journalist, with another good journalist, you
:11:26. > :11:29.don't get the difference between good and bad journalists, but
:11:30. > :11:33.essentially, it is not someone who is deciding what to do, the
:11:33. > :11:40.Falklands War or something. We're covering the stories, we're not
:11:40. > :11:43.actually, the people who are being heroic, we're getting the stories
:11:43. > :11:47.back, sorting them out and presenting them to the public. The
:11:47. > :11:51.real drama is in the story, the drama is putting it over. The
:11:51. > :11:56.moment the reporters become too important, the moment they get in
:11:56. > :12:01.the way of the story, the audience think, hold on a moment, they think
:12:01. > :12:04.what matters. The good reporters, in fact don't. They go on trying to
:12:04. > :12:13.find out what happened and Y and they don't put themselves between
:12:13. > :12:17.the viewer and the story. And, in this series, bangs up the reporters
:12:17. > :12:23.and reporters are terribly important, no they're not.
:12:23. > :12:27.You follow that reading the fact American journalists tend to take
:12:27. > :12:35.themselves more seriously? Was that reflected? It was interesting
:12:35. > :12:39.because he referencesed Frank Capra, he has the approach towards
:12:39. > :12:44.politics and journalism, and he is reminding everybody how great they
:12:44. > :12:48.are. I like the aspect. His writing is a little annoying, but I found
:12:48. > :12:52.that sweet, after doing politics and making the presidency, he finds
:12:52. > :12:57.more despiseed which is journalists and making them feel good about
:12:57. > :13:02.themselves. I see a role in society in difficult times, but his writing,
:13:02. > :13:06.I find it irritating, because everyone speaks with the one voice.
:13:06. > :13:10.Did he make characters and plot and issues, sympathetic, do you care
:13:10. > :13:15.about them as a sequence of watching that programme? I'm afraid
:13:15. > :13:22.not. And that programme has every hallmark of a great show, I should
:13:22. > :13:25.have loved that show, and I don't know why. I don't think any writer
:13:25. > :13:30.has written bad about television, they tend to be angry, and that
:13:30. > :13:35.turns into humour, so you get something like network, the great
:13:35. > :13:39.film, where Howard Bale is the ankh kerman, he should be interesting.
:13:39. > :13:49.For some reason, in this it isn't. And the relationship between him
:13:49. > :13:52.
:13:52. > :13:58.and Emily as the girl who is called ma kensy, MC overkill is there. You
:13:58. > :14:01.have water water, wonderful actor in there, and he's crusty and
:14:01. > :14:07.eccentric, and everyone is missing all the time.
:14:07. > :14:12.But it is not, it doesn't work, it is irritating, why? The characters
:14:12. > :14:19.feel forced, don't they. Everybody is made up, stereotype thing t
:14:19. > :14:23.feels like a bad play, and claustrophobic. What about Emily
:14:23. > :14:30.mortgage Tim mer? Jiefplt she's a lovely actress, I like looking at
:14:30. > :14:34.her, and she's going to be all right. But she's not remotely like
:14:34. > :14:38.what she's got to be. The assumption you come back from the
:14:38. > :14:42.assignment and you then have an office life, for a real reporter,
:14:42. > :14:48.that's like cageing them. They really want to leave, and get out
:14:48. > :14:54.of the building and find the stories. Irk the conflict is such
:14:54. > :15:00.that they brought her back from the war and put her like respite with
:15:00. > :15:06.production, in The News Room with her exlover. That's not kind.
:15:06. > :15:10.so unrealistic, and she doesn't seem tough, she's stum bring oven.
:15:10. > :15:20.90 minutes to go, before the guest doesn't turn up, and she's having a
:15:20. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:32.discussion, whether Will is an ars. Slap stick, he occasionally did,
:15:32. > :15:38.the sarkaix irritate you? It makes you slap them all. The young girl
:15:38. > :15:43.in the office, how does she get a job in there. They were practising
:15:43. > :15:47.having a phone interview doing that to each other. You're thinking, if
:15:47. > :15:51.anyone did that to the office, would you say, hole on, who are the
:15:51. > :15:56.characters, you wouldn't want to employ them. It is old-fashioned,
:15:56. > :16:03.ever since The Sopranos, and Mad Men, and amazing box sets, it is
:16:03. > :16:07.weird to go back to the one hour elsewhere, from the 90s. Jo the
:16:07. > :16:12.technical guy in it, the Asian actor, and he's the only references
:16:12. > :16:21.there is to kind of, Twitter or Facebook, and that newsroom would
:16:21. > :16:26.be relying a lot on that, wouldn't it. Braefl, sore sore is taken a
:16:26. > :16:30.liberal view, he argues he tries to balance, will this repoll laterise,
:16:30. > :16:33.American politics and news reporting or does he attempt a
:16:33. > :16:37.balance by having a liberal Conservative as the main news
:16:38. > :16:42.anchor. What happens is he will be taken off the script writer,
:16:42. > :16:47.because they will realise they have a decent office drama, which they
:16:47. > :16:51.can fall back on, but not have too much of journalism. You get
:16:51. > :16:56.fantastic interactions and stories, and you do get a running drama of
:16:56. > :17:01.the real news story, but don't expect to say too much about
:17:01. > :17:08.democracy, and life and liberty and pursuit of had beenness.
:17:08. > :17:13.Has he given too much power, is it that Denis Poter syndrome, they're
:17:13. > :17:20.so successful, they hand everything to him and then he is this in
:17:20. > :17:24.character. I have to finish. The News Room starts on sky Atlantic on
:17:24. > :17:33.Tuesday, at 10pm. Michael Palin's novel, The Truth is second in 17
:17:33. > :17:39.years, but the heart is the mysterious activist, the commission
:17:39. > :17:45.to write the biography, falls in the writer of a journalist, Keith.
:17:45. > :17:49.He sat down and siped his coffee, usually after a night with Tess, he
:17:49. > :17:52.felt good, koofl, adjusted, whole. This morning, something was
:17:53. > :17:57.troubleling him and he couldn't put his finger on what it was. He
:17:57. > :18:02.watched through the window as a telephone engineer, protected by a
:18:02. > :18:07.screen of red and white fenceing, opened a terminal box and worked
:18:07. > :18:11.his way through the cables inside. He was observed about envy, this
:18:11. > :18:15.was a man at work, doing a job, tracing a problem, dealing with it,
:18:15. > :18:23.ticking it off a work sheet and moving on to the next one. His
:18:23. > :18:28.tasks were quantifiable, defineable, achievable, and if only writing
:18:28. > :18:34.could be that simple. We go to the Shetlands, India, Czech Republic
:18:34. > :18:37.and London. Did you have to do any research for the locations or are
:18:37. > :18:41.they things you encountered as a traveller and broadcaster? It was
:18:41. > :18:45.important for the writing progress of the book to go and see the
:18:45. > :18:54.places with a fresh eye. Shetland, I decided early on, that he would
:18:54. > :18:58.be writing the most boring book in the work, which is the history of a
:18:58. > :19:03.oil terminal. In Serbia, and constantly expanding a refinery,
:19:03. > :19:09.and the last thing was a sacred hill for people who lived this for
:19:09. > :19:15.2,000 years, they wanted to rip it off to mine. It was sieshes led
:19:15. > :19:20.initially or plot secondly, or did you have to get the plot before?
:19:20. > :19:26.was 2009, and I remember there was denial going on in the press, it
:19:27. > :19:31.was about the politicians expenses scandal and everyone was
:19:31. > :19:37.appropriately The Truth. I thought this was ridiculous. The Truth is
:19:37. > :19:41.coming out of this badly. Maybe I would write a book about The Truth.
:19:41. > :19:47.Do you feel the pressure, as someone who is a national treasure
:19:47. > :19:53.in comedy terms to be funny most of the time? In the first draft of the
:19:53. > :19:59.book, there was ten things he did, which I thought was comic. And the
:19:59. > :20:04.editor said, this is setting the book up as a comic book, so they'll
:20:04. > :20:09.expect it all the way through, and itel get in the way of what you
:20:09. > :20:15.want to say. I thought it was funny, in isolation T ass I looked at it,
:20:15. > :20:21.and reduced it, and it now works but there was a temptation to go
:20:21. > :20:31.for the comic vein. Does The Truth suggest other fiction ideas?
:20:31. > :20:34.
:20:34. > :20:41.like to write another novel fairly soon. It depends what people think
:20:41. > :20:46.about it. One gains confidence, from obviously public approval, it
:20:46. > :20:51.is important. If generally people think this is, not that interesting,
:20:51. > :20:57.I will probably leave it for a few more years. If on the other hand,
:20:57. > :21:02.they echo my feeling that it is a good, tight little story there, I
:21:02. > :21:09.enjoyed writing it, it reads well, I would love to write another as
:21:09. > :21:13.soon as possible. He's such an engaging personality. I wonder can
:21:13. > :21:17.he escape that in whver he does. Did this book of fiction, reveal
:21:17. > :21:23.anything other than about Micheal to you? Well, I'm quite surprised
:21:23. > :21:29.to hear, that he let them edit out the comedy, and that's Micheal, he
:21:29. > :21:35.will go along, presumably with an editor who tells him. I'm sorry,
:21:35. > :21:40.because more of Micheal would come through. I enjoyed the book, it is
:21:40. > :21:50.an easy read. He's had a good time writing it. And I think he is
:21:50. > :21:52.
:21:52. > :21:58.wanting to make a very serious point in this book. He starts off
:21:59. > :22:04.as a failure, he hasn't got a relationship with his kids, he has
:22:04. > :22:14.a polish wife which was his student. She wants to divorce him and marry
:22:14. > :22:16.
:22:16. > :22:20.a rich man. Somehow, we kind of lose him because he makes maverick,
:22:20. > :22:25.he does the right thing, the interesting thing is the novel
:22:25. > :22:29.turns around on itself and we see The Truth is perhaps not. That's
:22:29. > :22:35.rather quickly done. That whole change around, where
:22:35. > :22:40.suddenly The Truth is not what we think, that's done quickly and
:22:40. > :22:43.that's a shock. I enjoyed it the second time. How did you find it,
:22:43. > :22:48.particularly the travelling and relationship between fact and
:22:49. > :22:56.fiction? I did enjoy it. I followed his career since he was a student
:22:56. > :22:59.comic. He was very funny, whenever I look at him, I want to laugh, and
:22:59. > :23:03.the character called Keith, you think he's not going to be exciting,
:23:03. > :23:08.and think that's the important thing about it. I'm intrigueed by
:23:08. > :23:12.that, and the idea, that Micheal who is now travelled all the way
:23:12. > :23:16.around the world several times comes back with The Truth. The
:23:16. > :23:21.Truth is there aren't many heroes, if any, and people who do good
:23:21. > :23:25.things tend to have mixed motives. I could have told him that, before
:23:25. > :23:30.he set off with the journey. You are left with, isn't that a bit,
:23:30. > :23:37.why can't he either be funny or more serious and more profound. But
:23:37. > :23:40.that's him. As I say, someone, I've liked and followed for so long, it
:23:40. > :23:46.was fascinating. This is closer to the real Michael Palin, but
:23:46. > :23:50.anything he's done in public before, Monty Python and things, this is
:23:50. > :23:54.many ways, is an Englishman of a certain type, at this moment,
:23:54. > :23:57.talking about things, which we've all talked about, which is why
:23:57. > :24:01.can't you trust people more, and wasn't there a time when it was
:24:01. > :24:06.easier to get things done, and when you said I'd like to do this,
:24:06. > :24:13.because it is a good thing to do. So there's a melancholy there, and
:24:14. > :24:18.a feel to it. Would you believe the women he was trying to get involved
:24:18. > :24:22.with? I didn't believe in that, I did believe in the idea when you
:24:22. > :24:27.are in India, I worked there too, and the sense in which odd things
:24:27. > :24:34.seem to happen, that description, of the man in India, was brilliant
:24:34. > :24:40.t shows his skill as a writer. there's a sense ofer resolution, it
:24:40. > :24:45.is funny but not that funny, did you find strength in that? Is this
:24:45. > :24:50.a complex and culturally astute back? It is interesting, I read a
:24:50. > :24:55.review of it, in the paper, where somebody was saying it wasn't funny
:24:55. > :24:58.enough. What I love about Michael Palin is he is a complex guy. He's
:24:58. > :25:03.a man of so many talents. He is probably a guy that's tough on
:25:03. > :25:06.himself. I feel he is so good at everything, he feels he's not a
:25:06. > :25:11.novelist, or actor, or whatever, but he's excellent at everything he
:25:11. > :25:15.does. I went into the book, and really wanting to like it, because
:25:16. > :25:25.I like him so much, which is a great position for a writer to be
:25:26. > :25:26.
:25:26. > :25:31.in. It is a film as well, isn't it. You need Christopher Plumber's
:25:31. > :25:36.Melville and you're made. The Keith character, I feel he is so tough on
:25:36. > :25:43.himself, he cease himself like that, somebody who has lighter things,
:25:43. > :25:47.but capable of something brilliant. He never won an award before though.
:25:47. > :25:53.Interestingly, enough, earlier this week, just as we were going to
:25:53. > :25:57.interview Michael Palin news broke of the death of a comic writer,
:25:57. > :26:07.Eric Psychs, after talking to Michael Palin we spoke to himself
:26:07. > :26:12.braefl about Eric. He was an early hero of mine, when I was living in
:26:12. > :26:17.Sheffield. I loved his performing because it was very different from
:26:17. > :26:21.anybody else's. There was an element of lovely, reticence to his
:26:21. > :26:25.performance, he quietly did things. His name used to come up with a
:26:25. > :26:31.name of and a lot of programmes, like The Goon Show as a writer.
:26:31. > :26:34.When I was young, what I want to be was a writer. I would like at the
:26:34. > :26:38.credits. I remember seeing his name and he writes the material as well.
:26:38. > :26:44.He was very encourageing to me. So, extraordinarily enough, this man
:26:44. > :26:48.who inspired me when I was young, I was able later in my life, to say,
:26:48. > :26:58.Eric thanks you were the one who made me feel comedy writing and
:26:58. > :27:02.performing was something you could do. John, you knew Eric Sykes. Was
:27:02. > :27:09.he inspiring? He was tremendous. I hosted a show with Michael Palin
:27:09. > :27:14.and others as a tribute to Spike Milligan, and he was a father of
:27:14. > :27:18.comedy for us. We were in awe of him, from the people at the top, he
:27:19. > :27:23.could be just so calm and nice to everybody, genuinely so. Nice to my
:27:23. > :27:28.wife, nice to all the other people there. And no arrogance, nothing
:27:28. > :27:34.else. Then I thought, how can he do that, and he can do it, because
:27:34. > :27:38.when I was ten or 11, he was writing the Goon Show, because
:27:39. > :27:43.Spike couldn't always do it. You think, that is someone who has done
:27:43. > :27:49.it all. I remember seeing him in the Three Sisters, in the theatre,
:27:49. > :27:54.he was then, very deaf, hardly could see, ageed about 80,
:27:54. > :27:58.performing at every night on the London stage, and you thought,
:27:58. > :28:03.goodness me, what an amazing career. So, when I heard, I just,
:28:03. > :28:06.remembered earlier this year, I was doing a programme about Spike
:28:06. > :28:13.Milligan, for ITV and I was in his office, he couldn't be there,
:28:13. > :28:18.because he was in hospital. I felt dfs a pity, I was obviously upset
:28:18. > :28:23.when I heard he died. He could do it all, do you think he was
:28:23. > :28:28.underrated as an actor and writer? He probably was. I watched him
:28:28. > :28:34.doing a bit from the Plank, and his comedy timing was beautiful. You
:28:34. > :28:40.saw it there, he was loading a plank, into a van, and cyclist went
:28:40. > :28:44.by and he had a red cloth with him, and he went into the bull-fighting,
:28:44. > :28:50.it was genuinely funny, and underestimated, yes, because he was
:28:50. > :28:54.a quite man. Eddie said he was the only man who could do a double take
:28:54. > :28:58.with his feet. I love that. 12450 We're all living longer
:28:58. > :29:03.according to the latest research. By 2030, a quarter of the
:29:03. > :29:07.population will be over 65, a BBC One season, looking at ageing and
:29:07. > :29:12.attitudes to older people began this week, a group of celebrities
:29:12. > :29:17.went to find out what life is like for ordinary pensioners. Plucky
:29:17. > :29:24.opens, take up a challenge to get back to work in a town that never
:29:24. > :29:32.retired. June Brown faces hard- hitting truths in a hard society.
:29:32. > :29:37.Is 70 the new 50? Anyone can get old said Tkpwrouchyo Marks, all you
:29:37. > :29:43.have to do is live long enough. This is what the four celebrities
:29:43. > :29:50.find hard to face. I did this thing, I thought, one thing I'm not going
:29:50. > :30:00.to do is bloody choke up. I'm sorry. But their hosts have more to
:30:00. > :30:03.
:30:03. > :30:07.contend with. I love her so much. I'm useless. In The Town That Never
:30:07. > :30:10.Retired, nick and Margaret, no spring chickens themselves, take a
:30:11. > :30:14.practical approach. They decide to put Britain's
:30:15. > :30:18.pensioners back to work. exciteed, I'm really looking
:30:18. > :30:23.forward to getting going, you know, and the place, it couldn't be
:30:23. > :30:27.better. Although some of them are keen, not all the employers are so
:30:27. > :30:33.sure. I don't feel you're safe up there.
:30:33. > :30:36.Listen, I'll make the judgment, and I will risk assessment I'll make
:30:36. > :30:42.the judgment. Because, it is me that's doing T
:30:42. > :30:47.not you, if if I feel any danger, any insafety, we won't do it It is
:30:47. > :30:55.my site and I will make that final decision. As in all reality shows
:30:55. > :31:02.there, are trials and tribulations. To sage and ability. Sometimes when
:31:02. > :31:08.you get older, you think we don't need him, we can manage without him.
:31:08. > :31:14.You're cast aside. I fell I'm contributing here. For EastEnders
:31:14. > :31:18.actress, June brown, thinking about her what will happen to her is too
:31:18. > :31:23.much. You cannot contemplate what will happen you, I trust that I
:31:23. > :31:30.will die well. And seeing how a friend and former colleague, John
:31:30. > :31:38.is coping after a stroke, make her face hard truths. I want to ask you
:31:38. > :31:42.something, do you ever feel, that you are a burden to enda? Yeah.
:31:42. > :31:50.season aims to shine a light on attitudes to ageing, but does the
:31:50. > :32:00.show mix of the wealthy and healthy, with the elderly and ordinary,
:32:00. > :32:02.
:32:02. > :32:06.actually risk patronising the Mark, what about the reality show,
:32:06. > :32:11.TV format, this seems to have applied to a lot of programmes this
:32:11. > :32:17.series, is it effective or hind rans? This is the anti-Christ for
:32:17. > :32:23.me, this is TV without writers, it is a way of saving money. I know,
:32:23. > :32:27.it has had a good heart, but like reality TV what would be a 50
:32:27. > :32:33.minute Panorama, is now a six part series. There's interesting
:32:33. > :32:38.questions, but instead of. It being wrapped 7, it continues forever. It
:32:38. > :32:47.is better than I expect. When the discs came in, I was dreading it,
:32:47. > :32:51.but I thought it was good. You who do you feel the intrusion into
:32:51. > :32:55.celebrity lives Did they get reaction and issues that perhaps
:32:56. > :33:01.others wouldn't get to do? If you want to make a good documentary,
:33:01. > :33:08.there's a documentary to be made in this. None of these are it in my
:33:08. > :33:11.opinion. 7 up, going up for 56 years, you never see the
:33:11. > :33:15.interviewer, but you know everything about those people. This
:33:15. > :33:21.is what this documentary should be doing. If if you're ill and you're
:33:21. > :33:26.sick and poor, which most of the people they have picked are,
:33:26. > :33:32.they've picked the gristleiest of stories, the last thing you want to
:33:32. > :33:38.see is me coming into your room, asking how do you feel your wife is
:33:38. > :33:43.having to look after you and you can't go out. There is a Jim will
:33:43. > :33:47.fix it, where whereby you can we can get you a new house tomorrow or
:33:47. > :33:53.new flat or win at bingo. But is anybody going back in four weeks'
:33:53. > :33:57.time to check on these people, and in seven months' time, or is it
:33:57. > :34:01.just, fly them in, looks sympathetic, and you know, it could
:34:01. > :34:07.easily have been me. And it will be me in another programme, and it
:34:07. > :34:12.shouldn't be. What about Jean Brown, considering her own future?
:34:12. > :34:17.wasn't, just taking up Maureen's point, you come in as a celebrity,
:34:18. > :34:23.which is the main theme, and are you patronising, and some of the
:34:24. > :34:33.present eshes, are multi- millionaires, and they're spending
:34:33. > :34:36.four days with someone who is poor, isn't it a mismatch that it would
:34:36. > :34:41.seem grotesque. I thought John Simpson and Gloria Hunniford gave a
:34:41. > :34:48.lot of themselves. Gloria, because her own daughter died. John Simpson
:34:48. > :34:52.talking with, big emotion about his six-year-old son. Now I think that
:34:52. > :34:56.gave a balance to the programme. Embarrassing for them and difficult
:34:56. > :35:00.for them, but as a viewer, you thought, wait a moment, there is a
:35:00. > :35:05.contact going on, theres a deal where they reveal their own worries
:35:05. > :35:09.and concerns about getting old, and I thought, that this was a central
:35:09. > :35:15.point, that we've all got to face this. My immediate reaction to
:35:15. > :35:20.anything about old people is switch it off. I don't want to be old, it
:35:20. > :35:24.is straightforward, don't bother. want to go on working and living
:35:24. > :35:29.forever. What I thought it was good about this, is a sense, the great
:35:29. > :35:34.leveler is there, and we're all going to have to face this, I
:35:34. > :35:40.thought that was a kind of television: They've realised the
:35:40. > :35:49.people who watch television is over 60s, and this is great TV. This
:35:49. > :35:54.doesn't make it bad though They've realised and given up with young
:35:54. > :35:58.people. Nobody under 50, is watching television, everyone is
:35:58. > :36:03.watching box sets and YouTube. know that's not the case. For some
:36:03. > :36:10.people, if a group, where you call them a group, that's the problem,
:36:10. > :36:14.they're so varied, aren't they. mean the people who are ordinary.
:36:14. > :36:19.They're all from the same class. you think of the problem of old
:36:19. > :36:24.people, you think, wait a moment, we can't luch together millions of
:36:25. > :36:31.people and put them in a category, in truth you can't. Some people are
:36:31. > :36:34.absolutely brilliant. I remember Lord Dening as a judge, ageed 80,
:36:35. > :36:39.was giving the most amazing judgments. You could have found
:36:39. > :36:46.some pensioners who are getting on and enjoying their lives, rather
:36:46. > :36:52.than doing a Jim will fix it. Simpson is a pensioners technically.
:36:52. > :36:56.They were with people who are unable, and moments when the poor
:36:56. > :37:02.woman, ivy who Gloria Hunniford tried very much to help, she said,
:37:02. > :37:06.actually, being next to her, makes me feel dirty and unclean. She
:37:06. > :37:12.wasn't. Beautifully dressed, we Swan in, and the person they're
:37:12. > :37:17.interviewing is in a nightie. The story, the real story, is with the
:37:17. > :37:21.nurse who is going around to people trying to help. That's the story,
:37:21. > :37:26.and that's given 15 minutes or half an hour with each patient because
:37:26. > :37:29.the council has cut the money. other area, you're talking about
:37:29. > :37:33.young people not watching television. One of the thing is the
:37:33. > :37:37.gulf between young and old is massive. One in five young children
:37:37. > :37:40.don't have contact with grandparents. Then in The Town That
:37:40. > :37:46.Never Retired, we have the second programme, unemployed youth pited
:37:46. > :37:50.genks the pensioners, how was that? Did it in some ways, was that very
:37:50. > :37:56.skwueed, did it show that the young and old could coexist, work
:37:56. > :38:00.together, had similar problems, or did it skew the idea. It was a
:38:00. > :38:06.brilliant documentary in there, but this wasn't it. There was a great
:38:06. > :38:12.Panorama. I didn't think about the idea working at 71, and your bones
:38:12. > :38:19.are hurting, it was like a polly Toynbee thing, somebody wet getting
:38:19. > :38:22.into construction, in their 70s, but they cheapened in, The
:38:22. > :38:27.Apprentice. That didn't work, the problem with all those programmes,
:38:27. > :38:32.is the producers are King, they'll work out what the stories are, they
:38:32. > :38:42.will disguise the fact that people are affected by being on on
:38:42. > :38:42.
:38:42. > :38:48.television. They thought great I'm on tell very at last. The Town That
:38:48. > :38:51.Never Retired, start on Wednesday, at 9pm, and Jean Brown's
:38:51. > :38:57.documentary on Wednesday. The publishing din no, mamian of the
:38:57. > :39:04.year, occupying one, two and three positions on the best seller list,
:39:05. > :39:13.Kendra James' 50 Shades Of Grey series, has solid 20 million copies.
:39:13. > :39:17.James solid a million Kindle etigss. This book has hit the spot with
:39:17. > :39:27.millions of readers. But what does the success mean for the book
:39:27. > :39:33.business? With lashings of sex and light al-Assad, it proves there are
:39:33. > :39:43.plenty of readers with an appetite for these stories, asen e-book, you
:39:43. > :40:09.
:40:09. > :40:12.Whilesome dubbed it mummy porn and heaped scorn on the literary merits,
:40:12. > :40:17.the books, fan fiction inspired by mairsmairsmairs Twilight series,
:40:18. > :40:22.have something which distinguishes them from the bulk of the erotic
:40:22. > :40:27.fiction market. Given the profitability imitations spawned by
:40:27. > :40:34.the Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter and Twilight series, it is no doubt
:40:34. > :40:41.the industry is keen to replicate the success. Just this week, Mills
:40:41. > :40:49.& Boon announced exbooks, called 12 Shades of Surrender. Her three
:40:49. > :40:59.books made Kendra James a wealthy woman and proved reerdz' appetites
:40:59. > :41:03.
:41:03. > :41:07.Food for thought there. My thanks to tonight's guests, you can see a
:41:07. > :41:11.longer version with my conversation with Michael Palin on my website.
:41:11. > :41:18.We're looking forward to continueed discussion on Twitter. No show next
:41:18. > :41:23.week, but back in two weeks' times with highlights of the 2012
:41:23. > :41:33.festival and landscape of East London and how it is changing.
:41:33. > :41:39.
:41:39. > :41:45.We'll leave you with music called # And all this time
:41:45. > :41:55.# When I thought it was just The Devil and Me
:41:55. > :41:56.
:41:56. > :42:01.# But you, my love # Were there all this time
:42:01. > :42:11.# This time I thought I was alone # Thought there was something wrong
:42:11. > :42:14.
:42:14. > :42:23.# All this time # Who were you hiding from?
:42:23. > :42:27.# I needed you all along # All this time
:42:27. > :42:35.# Oh sweet thing # Sweet thing
:42:35. > :42:39.# Where have you been? # Mopbl I was, as well
:42:39. > :42:49.# Through several shades of hell # All this time
:42:49. > :43:04.
:43:04. > :43:10.# What were you scared I'd see in # How utterly lovely you can be
:43:11. > :43:19.# Oh sweet thing, sweet thing # Where have you been?
:43:19. > :43:23.# You only had to call # And I'd have run across the
:43:23. > :43:30.broken glass # Or fought back flames
:43:30. > :43:37.# Or behalf it takes # Just to be near you I was always