:00:26. > :00:34.This programme contains some strong I have stepped into the President's
:00:34. > :00:38.shoes this evening and who knew he wore kitten heels? A celebration of
:00:38. > :00:43.Yoko Ono's work at the Serpentine Gallery.
:00:43. > :00:47.Julie Walters remembers the Sixties outrageously in the Last Of The
:00:47. > :00:51.Haussmans at London's National Theatre.
:00:51. > :00:57.And in The Last Projectionist has the digital revolution canned the
:00:57. > :01:01.romance of cinema? All this and a light cappella from the key to a
:01:01. > :01:06.head. Hague to discuss all of this are
:01:07. > :01:12.novelist Alex Preston. Journalist Rosie Boycott and film critic and
:01:12. > :01:17.writer, Karen Krizanovich. Do not forget to tweet us. We enjoy
:01:18. > :01:22.reading them, well most of them. He may have accepted recently the
:01:22. > :01:28.order of the British Empire, but Armando Iannucci's latest comedy is
:01:28. > :01:34.set in the good old US of A, which kicked that out in 1793. After the
:01:34. > :01:37.transatlantic success of In The Loop, Veep centres on the all but
:01:37. > :01:45.redundant role of the vice- president in this latest satire
:01:45. > :01:53.from HBO. A screwball West Wing, Veep brings
:01:53. > :01:59.the atmosphere of The Thick Of It to the American establishment.
:01:59. > :02:07.you then? Glasses on for the intellectual look? Focused? I like
:02:07. > :02:13.your glasses. Glasses make me look weak. I have been a political geek
:02:13. > :02:18.and particularly about American politics. There was this massive
:02:18. > :02:25.biography of Lyndon Johnson and that gave me the idea. Lyndon
:02:25. > :02:29.Johnson was a very powerful figure. He then became Kennedy's vice-
:02:29. > :02:33.president and I found myself sitting in an empty room waiting
:02:33. > :02:38.for the telephone to go. There is that great thing about being so
:02:38. > :02:40.near and yet so far, thinking he was so far, and suddenly he becomes
:02:40. > :02:46.the most powerful person in the world.
:02:46. > :02:51.There has never been a female vice- president, but FIFA's Lady in
:02:51. > :02:55.Waiting is Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She is
:02:55. > :03:03.perennially hopeful of stepping into the President's shoes, but her
:03:03. > :03:09.ambitions are constantly frustrated. We have asked you to stand down,
:03:09. > :03:15.the President is fine. That is terrific news. People are saying,
:03:15. > :03:22.is it Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton? That is when who performs
:03:22. > :03:32.that role becomes important. Julia makes Zilina mayor, Zilina Meyer.
:03:32. > :03:33.
:03:33. > :03:38.Politics is about people. It is about people. The vice-president's
:03:38. > :03:43.advisers are a far cry from Malcolm Tucker, the aggressive spin doctor
:03:43. > :03:50.in The Thick Of It, and In The Loop. Bollocks, they have announced it
:03:50. > :03:55.already. You two, far cough. Stay here, I want to kill you. Malcolm
:03:55. > :04:02.Tucker can come in and Hector and poorly a subservient minister
:04:02. > :04:06.because that minister does not have that much influence. If someone
:04:06. > :04:11.like Malcolm came into the vice- president's office and started
:04:11. > :04:15.shouting and swearing, he would be removed by five Secret Service
:04:15. > :04:22.agents and arrested and rendered somewhere unimaginable. They have
:04:22. > :04:27.that respect for the office, if not for the present, the office.
:04:27. > :04:33.Scorn of the British establishment was at the heart of The Thick Of It.
:04:33. > :04:39.Across the Atlantic, does Veep have the same bike? Did the President
:04:39. > :04:44.called? Note. I know you are a big fan of The Thick Of It. It is that
:04:44. > :04:49.you straight away? I do not think it grabs me quite by the throat,
:04:49. > :04:55.but I really liked it. It is quite light and it does not tax you very
:04:55. > :04:59.much. But she is a very good actress and it has got a lot of
:04:59. > :05:06.good sub-plots and it is fast dialogue, it rips along and there
:05:06. > :05:11.are lots of neat, little sub-plots. There is a quarrel, let's get a dog,
:05:11. > :05:17.No the first lady does not want a dog. It gives you the sense of the
:05:17. > :05:22.stupidity of the politics. people wonder where it is going to
:05:22. > :05:30.go? This is what he has done throughout his career, he does the
:05:30. > :05:35.comedy of impotence. Alan Partridge of cause and the MP in in The Thick
:05:35. > :05:42.Of It. This is a humiliating office for a six -- successful politician
:05:42. > :05:47.to act. The first vice-president described it as the most
:05:47. > :05:53.insignificant of his contrived by man's imagination. This is like
:05:53. > :06:00.Alan Partridge on Radio Norwich. an American, what do you think of
:06:00. > :06:04.it? I loved it. And it seemed like a badge of comedy writers
:06:04. > :06:11.pretending to be politicians. But I loved this because of the reasons
:06:11. > :06:16.that you said it was not as good. It is light and fluffy and fun and
:06:16. > :06:23.Julia Louis-Dreyfus is amazing. you think that holds it back, from
:06:23. > :06:33.being a bit more gutsy? No, I do not. I do not know if it needs to
:06:33. > :06:33.
:06:33. > :06:39.be gutsy in that way. As it is really like a speed bag. I think
:06:39. > :06:46.that... If you are never going to get to be able to press that
:06:46. > :06:50.nuclear button, she keeps getting pulled back. What you show is the
:06:50. > :06:55.insanity of politics. Armando Iannucci has said it, the left and
:06:55. > :07:01.the right are merging together and this thing about being good to
:07:01. > :07:07.people. I think he gets the self serving as of politics. When she
:07:07. > :07:11.talks about the green jobs task force, it will put me on the map.
:07:11. > :07:15.There is nothing in there about wanting to be in politics to do
:07:15. > :07:23.anything good. The reason we buy all this is because that is what we
:07:23. > :07:28.believe and what we seek. Do you think there is a problem because of
:07:28. > :07:35.the Liberal Democrats? I thought it was probably a Republican
:07:35. > :07:39.presidents it. I do not know why. The expectations of the oil lobby
:07:39. > :07:44.and the female senator she runs up against who could not be a democrat.
:07:44. > :07:49.It would have been more interesting and would have been a clearer
:07:49. > :07:56.differentiation from the west wing if it had been clearly stated as a
:07:56. > :08:00.Republican incumbency. That is why everybody walks around with donkey
:08:00. > :08:04.or elephants stickers. There is a lot more bleed because you will be
:08:04. > :08:11.marginalised unless you work with these groups. What about the other
:08:11. > :08:16.characters? There is that guy from the White House who is always
:08:16. > :08:20.trying to trip her up. Yes, and what you see amongst them is raw
:08:21. > :08:28.competitiveness. The deals when they go down to the yoghurt shop to
:08:28. > :08:35.meet normals, which is a good expression, they meet the people in
:08:35. > :08:41.the pasty Shop. It all goes spectacularly wrong. You can see
:08:41. > :08:51.them all vying to tell the journalists, to give them the scoop.
:08:51. > :08:52.
:08:52. > :08:56.You can see it is building up. was In The Loop and she is
:08:56. > :09:01.brilliant in this. She is spiky and vulnerable at the same time, she is
:09:01. > :09:06.the press secretary, and I think she is honourable. It does not miss
:09:07. > :09:12.that acid Markham Tucker? There is nobody who is so compulsive to
:09:12. > :09:18.watch as Malcolm Tucker. I did find myself longing for eight Hopi from
:09:18. > :09:23.the west wing. I think it is an interesting comparison and it does
:09:23. > :09:29.do things interestingly that the West Wing does not. It offers work
:09:29. > :09:34.well, but there was an attempt at The Thick Of It before. Armando
:09:34. > :09:40.Iannucci plasters over this. He was the executive producer of The Thick
:09:40. > :09:45.Of It, USA. The pilots in 2007 was abysmal by all accounts. Here the
:09:45. > :09:51.he is much more hands-on and has come up with something special.
:09:51. > :09:56.he has got an OBE. And somehow an this week reading Alastair
:09:57. > :10:02.Campbell's diaries, and the wonderful bit about that lunatic,
:10:02. > :10:09.bonkers man next door and you could not get it better. Life imitates
:10:09. > :10:15.art. Armando works incredibly hard and we are about to have another
:10:15. > :10:19.Alan Partridge and another in The Thick Of It. The Alan Partridge
:10:19. > :10:24.will be based on the Leveson Inquiry. It is a wonderful time to
:10:24. > :10:30.be a satirist. Barack Obama begins on Monday at 10pm on Sky Atlantic.
:10:30. > :10:35.She has had songs written for her and about her and been blamed for
:10:36. > :10:41.the Beatles' split. But through it all Yoko owner continued to make
:10:41. > :10:46.avant-garde art. Now she has a show on at the Serpentine Gallery in
:10:46. > :10:51.London and it spans the past 50 years. -- Yoko Ono.
:10:51. > :10:57.Long before Yoko Ono met John Lennon she was at the forefront of
:10:57. > :11:01.conceptual art, challenging the established art world at its ideas
:11:01. > :11:05.about the relationship between the artwork and the viewer. The
:11:05. > :11:11.exhibition is called To The Light and many of the works played to the
:11:11. > :11:17.airiness and optimism the title suggests. In the past, she has been
:11:17. > :11:22.derided for her apparent naivety. Some of the early pieces shown here,
:11:22. > :11:28.and the performance work, in which she invited members of her audience
:11:28. > :11:33.to snip the clothes of her body, continued to resonate. I was
:11:33. > :11:39.thinking of expressing how women are treated, as well as how we can
:11:39. > :11:43.survive it by allowing people to do things that they want to do.
:11:43. > :11:49.original performance is shown alongside a second version from
:11:49. > :11:55.2003, and many of them are recent works and comments on her pass,
:11:55. > :11:59.which incorporate echoes of her life with John Lennon. The central
:11:59. > :12:04.to the exhibition is a perspex labyrinth of visitors are invited
:12:04. > :12:12.to walk through. Its transparency can be strangely misleading,
:12:12. > :12:18.perhaps like Yoko owner herself. Her current project is A smile. The
:12:18. > :12:25.earlier work has centred on a slow moving portrait of John's phase.
:12:25. > :12:31.thought of that as a portrait on the wall and I would see his face.
:12:31. > :12:35.One day you look and he just smiles. I thought that would be very
:12:35. > :12:40.interesting. In the new project everyone in the world is invited to
:12:40. > :12:44.up load pictures of themselves smiling. For you co-owner it is a
:12:44. > :12:50.statement of love, but does its simplicity play into the hands of
:12:50. > :12:55.her critics? Karen, do you think what is at the Serpentine finally
:12:55. > :13:00.proves she was and is a real artist? Does this bring her out of
:13:00. > :13:04.John Lennon's shadow? I do not think she will ever become out of
:13:05. > :13:10.his shadow. I think she is quite happy with that. I do not think she
:13:10. > :13:15.lives in an illusion and she was the start and he came along. She
:13:15. > :13:21.sees herself as an amalgam with him and his memory and that has brought
:13:21. > :13:29.her art to a larger audience. I am quite a fan, but I am not a lover
:13:29. > :13:34.of big, serious art. I do not find her art serious. What do you think
:13:34. > :13:39.about the trajectory? It looks back at different points in her life and
:13:39. > :13:46.different episodes she was trying to portray. Does it give the sense
:13:46. > :13:52.of her moving on a journey until now, she is 80? Yes, I think she is
:13:52. > :13:57.more this iconic goddess from the Sixties, this exotic person who
:13:57. > :14:07.fused together the art world and the music world. I think that is
:14:07. > :14:09.
:14:09. > :14:19.Did you like it? I found it biennial. I thought it was trite
:14:19. > :14:19.
:14:19. > :14:29.and obvious. The ready-mades the apple on a percent pecks plinth. It
:14:29. > :14:33.was being done ten years before Ono was born. The only member of the
:14:33. > :14:40.flux group who did anything interesting in the visual arts. I
:14:40. > :14:44.thought it was appalling. Were you in the same exhibition? I was. I
:14:44. > :14:48.was struck by it. She has been so part of life. All my life growing
:14:48. > :14:53.up. I really didn't know that much about her art until I went to look
:14:53. > :14:58.at this and actually then listening to her give a talk. I was very
:14:58. > :15:03.moved. That may be just because I was around then by the ladder that
:15:03. > :15:09.John Lennon went up and saw the "yes" on the ceiling. I wanted to
:15:09. > :15:13.climb? Health and safety. For God's sake. Later when she was being
:15:13. > :15:21.interviewed, Sean came over at the end and nuned her and said, "Mum,
:15:21. > :15:27.say this bit" after he climbed up the ladder and been blown aawie --
:15:27. > :15:31.away by this Japanese woman. He invited what she thought was a
:15:31. > :15:35.party, when she got there she was the only person. He said, "Would
:15:35. > :15:40.you build a light tower in my building" she said I'm only a
:15:40. > :15:45.conceptual artist, I can't do it. You interviewed her? She was the
:15:45. > :15:49.first interview I did when I was 19. I got this job on an under ground
:15:49. > :15:53.paper. Its with a bad week. Everyone was either drunk or
:15:53. > :15:58.falling apart. Someone gave me a tape recorder and said will you
:15:58. > :16:02.interview John and Yoko. I went. I never interviewed anyone. Most of
:16:02. > :16:08.the time I was very paralysed because I was very worried that the
:16:08. > :16:14.tape recorder was going to fail. I did get this interview. Such a cool
:16:14. > :16:20.story. Three weeks after it was published I got a letter from Mr
:16:20. > :16:25.and Mrs John Lennon from the QEII thanking me. Have you still have
:16:25. > :16:29.it? I was many broke and I sold it at Sotherby's for �850. The moral
:16:29. > :16:34.is, don't ever sell anything. What struck me about her this time, lots
:16:34. > :16:40.of things did, I never twiged to what a such feminist she was.
:16:40. > :16:45.cut piece was the thing that did it for me much I was upset watching.
:16:45. > :16:50.It obviously, the '60s one which is mesmerising. The 2003, her son had
:16:50. > :16:54.gone to France and said, please don't do this again, the
:16:54. > :16:57.vulnerability of that piece in the '60s. What it said. It was so
:16:57. > :17:02.unusual. Astonishing seeing them face each other as well. I think,
:17:02. > :17:07.to me, that was the only piece in the exhibition that worked. It
:17:07. > :17:11.engaged more fully with the problems thrown up by the myth of
:17:11. > :17:18.Yoko. You have these creepy members of the public approaching her with
:17:18. > :17:23.a pair of tailor sheers. They are quite big. She is tiny. It's
:17:23. > :17:28.totally unerotic. Seeing the blank stare of the 34-year-old in 1963,
:17:28. > :17:32.looking at the 70-year-old in 2003, it is a very, very moving moment.
:17:32. > :17:39.Also, the thing about that is, she might have done it all those years
:17:39. > :17:42.ago it is just as powerful seeing her do it in old age. She said
:17:42. > :17:48.there was a different interpretations of tsm when she did
:17:48. > :17:55.it in the '60s it was about women have to put up with. When she did
:17:55. > :18:00.it in London, which is not on the film. 0 blokes cut her clothes off
:18:00. > :18:05.quickly we Brits were the most aggressive. She did it in various
:18:05. > :18:09.countries. When she did it in 200314 was saying in this
:18:09. > :18:14.untrustworthy world we live, we must learn to trust. She changed
:18:14. > :18:19.and moved the Met for along, which I thought was interesting. In 2003,
:18:19. > :18:24.there was this idea that people were to be searched in their way in
:18:24. > :18:34.so they weren't carrying weapons. She said, no, it is about trust.
:18:34. > :18:34.
:18:34. > :18:39.What do you think about the Maze about the percent pect maze you
:18:39. > :18:43.walk into. I loved it Another artist helped me along a bit. I
:18:43. > :18:49.took a sheet of paper in so I could see where I was going. I cheated.
:18:49. > :18:52.The whole point of themaze. Is to mess you up. I hate to say, it
:18:52. > :18:56.metaphor for life am you walk, you don't know where you are going. You
:18:56. > :19:02.bump into things. Everybody can watch you. That was the fun of it.
:19:03. > :19:06.You were allowed to make mistakes until you got... Did you feel
:19:07. > :19:10.embarrassed? I was hurt several times walking through tsm I found
:19:10. > :19:16.it embarrassing. This idea you go on a confusing journey at the end
:19:16. > :19:25.there is a pool of water... It used to be a lavatory? It was much
:19:25. > :19:29.funnier and a nod to The Fountain. It has become obvious and trite and
:19:29. > :19:34.sixth-form. The wonderful portrait of John Lennon smiling so slowly.
:19:34. > :19:39.That was one thing. Also the validation of her in the
:19:39. > :19:42.partnership. Yes. I think that is one thing we are overlooking. It's
:19:43. > :19:46.easy to make fun of her. I don't know anybody who own as piece of
:19:46. > :19:53.her work, for example. I had something in my kitchen once. She
:19:53. > :19:56.is a feminist. She's independent artist. Also, she doesn't ignore
:19:56. > :20:01.this strong relationship. It is as if she is one of these women who
:20:01. > :20:06.managed to have it all. She hasn't been back to England since then..
:20:06. > :20:11.They said that when she and John got together they felt she was
:20:11. > :20:18.popular in her field and she was popular in his. They became the
:20:18. > :20:22.most unpopular couple. She got letters saying, what are you doing
:20:22. > :20:27.this with this weird white man. The fact that they, sort of, strayed
:20:27. > :20:36.together is amazing. For her to come backened be fated I suspect is
:20:36. > :20:39.unbelievibly wonderful for her. try and catch it.
:20:39. > :20:42.The show at the Serpentine Gallery until the 9th September.
:20:42. > :20:45.The legacy of the Summer of Love generation is the topic of The Last
:20:45. > :20:47.of the Haussmans which premiered this week at the National Theatre.
:20:47. > :20:50.Starring Julie Walters, best known for her eclectic roles from
:20:50. > :20:53.Educating Rita and Mo Mowlam to Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques, she
:20:53. > :21:02.returns to the stage to play Judy, an ageing hippy whose lifestyle
:21:02. > :21:08.choices have had a dramatic effect on her children. Julie Haussmans is
:21:08. > :21:12.surrounded by relics of bygone days. Her pursuit of free love and her
:21:12. > :21:18.helpy ideals have led to strained family relations. The play begins
:21:18. > :21:23.in the wake of a health scare as her two way ward children return
:21:23. > :21:30.home. Oh, I had to go to Plymouth to have a big chunk cut out of my
:21:30. > :21:36.leg. Guess what that meant? An Indian doctor. I told him all about
:21:36. > :21:40.Puna and the Ashram. He was beautiful, wasn't he, Libby?
:21:40. > :21:46.really don't know. When he put his hand on my thigh. Will you
:21:46. > :21:50.understand this, Nicky, I felt such a jolt go through me. I said, karma
:21:50. > :21:55.wakens me with his arrow. Which I think was rather smart. Don't you.
:21:55. > :22:02.He just went quiet. I thought the script was... I thought it was
:22:02. > :22:06.wonderful. I thought it was really funny. It reminded me of Checof. I
:22:06. > :22:12.thought it was moving and touching and worked on lots of different
:22:12. > :22:15.levels. Something I like. It had everything going for it. Nick and
:22:15. > :22:19.his sister Libby have developed very different personal problems
:22:19. > :22:24.through their upbringing at the hands of an unconventional mother.
:22:24. > :22:31.When the family home, which you niets them is threatened, they
:22:31. > :22:35.become more desperate. They are, savage to each other. They are very
:22:35. > :22:41.strong characters. They are at war all the time. I think all families,
:22:41. > :22:47.on whatever level, even if it's a tiny level, the smallest domestic
:22:47. > :22:53.level, all familys -- families contain the ingredients. With the
:22:53. > :22:59.Haussmans's it's at an explosive level. It's a welcome return for
:22:59. > :23:09.Julie Walters. Has she established herself here as a hippie, trippy
:23:09. > :23:10.
:23:10. > :23:14.hero wine? -- her wine. --heroine. Did this offer something new?
:23:14. > :23:19.I think it did. I thought it was strikingly good. I thought what it
:23:19. > :23:24.did, it had a fascinating premise. Not only this idea of tracing the
:23:24. > :23:34.emotional and the financial and economic repercussions of that baby
:23:34. > :23:42.
:23:42. > :23:44.boom generation and all the hippie guff they spouted... Hippie chuff
:23:44. > :23:50.they spouted? I thought it was touching and interesting. I read in
:23:50. > :23:54.a review. I thought it was spot on, Libby and Nicky, the two children
:23:54. > :23:59.are a much more accurate recipation of what the children of that, we
:23:59. > :24:05.will wear flowers in our hair generation will be like, rather
:24:05. > :24:10.than Saffy in Ab Fab. In this play is that nothing that Lucy did or
:24:10. > :24:15.achieved or stood formatered, or was it anything other than stupid?
:24:15. > :24:21.She didn't do anything. I think she... She's quite a cliche of a
:24:21. > :24:24.hippie. She's an OK cliche. I kind of liked her despite it. There are
:24:24. > :24:30.very, very few people who completely remain frozen in time
:24:30. > :24:35.like that. I enjoyed it hugely. I thought the plot got creeky around
:24:35. > :24:39.the doctor. He was in there... Comes to see them. I think it's
:24:39. > :24:48.fascinating that we are in the middle of this wrath of these plays
:24:48. > :24:53.like Love, Love Love were the baby boomer's incredibly -- incredible
:24:54. > :24:57.luck is stabbing the knife in the next generation. The symbol of the
:24:57. > :25:01.house. Property. We want it and we want to get it from you. You
:25:01. > :25:07.haven't had to work for. It there are lots of different levels. In
:25:07. > :25:11.Love, Love, Love the idea is that the mother worked and neglected the
:25:11. > :25:21.kids. In this the mother was hippie Dieppe and flegt neglected the kids
:25:21. > :25:27.
:25:27. > :25:35.but managed to get rich. Far for me to praise a Tory. What did you make
:25:35. > :25:38.of their relationship? It seemed as if, I thought there was a strange
:25:38. > :25:41.incestuous thing going on. It was like from Acorn Antiques it was
:25:41. > :25:45.forgotten and nothing happened. I thought he is gai because he has
:25:45. > :25:49.red in his hair much I didn't get. It I like the point you made about
:25:49. > :25:54.stabbing the future, taking the house away. I hadn't really seen
:25:54. > :25:57.that. I saw the press night. I didn't feel they had settled in to
:25:58. > :26:02.the script. I didn't feel they really gelled on it well. I thought
:26:02. > :26:06.the set was fantastic. I was wafpbg the set. For me, I really did feel
:26:06. > :26:14.they were ciphers of what they were supposed to be. Interesting. They
:26:14. > :26:19.seem to be playing individually and also Helen is a brilliant actress
:26:19. > :26:23.but it was anger all the time. thought she was good. I thought
:26:23. > :26:27.maybe the problem was the dynamic between them and the mother. Also,
:26:27. > :26:33.the character of Daniel, this young boy who comes swimming in their
:26:33. > :26:37.pool. At the end of the play, you realise that the play is about his
:26:37. > :26:42.sentimental education. About his... They wouldn't say what happened?
:26:42. > :26:45.won't give it away much you needed to know more of. That you needed to
:26:45. > :26:53.understand how important this wonderful house and its inhabitants
:26:53. > :26:55.were to this young man. If you look at Rock and Roll it looks at the
:26:55. > :27:01.political consequences and generational consequences of what
:27:01. > :27:08.happened in the '60s. It was a much more muscular play? Contingency was
:27:08. > :27:11.a much more muscular play and these weren't. Tom Stoppard wrote it
:27:11. > :27:15.about something that was contemporary to him. These plays
:27:15. > :27:20.are written by the generation is that suffering the angst of it.
:27:21. > :27:24.It's like us writing plays about being the children of Look Back in
:27:24. > :27:28.Anger. What we used to write about as young feminists about the fact
:27:28. > :27:34.that our mothers stayed at home. This new thing is fascinating for
:27:34. > :27:38.me to say that to see it coming through. I think, what is slightly
:27:38. > :27:41.sad is that nothing that the '60s achieved, I think there were a lot
:27:41. > :27:47.of things that were not political at all, huge cultural things
:27:47. > :27:57.happened. Women could work after that. You could be gay. And hang
:27:57. > :27:58.
:27:58. > :28:03.legacies are not preeshed in -- appreciated in this play or in Love,
:28:03. > :28:07.Love, love but seen as the detriment to the children.
:28:07. > :28:15.whole point is that Libby's daughter suffers now. Hanging over
:28:15. > :28:25.the house and the family is the shadow of the grandfather, Judy's,
:28:25. > :28:31.the mother's father, this play is about companion piece to Phillip
:28:31. > :28:35.Larkin's play. They say it's incred ibly difficult to be a parent. I
:28:35. > :28:39.heard that and thought, this is what it's about as well. It's
:28:39. > :28:47.really hard to be a parent. mentioned the set. The set is
:28:47. > :28:52.related to to the fact this could be in this neck of the woods, the
:28:52. > :28:58.idea this crumbling Art Deco house that is worth a fortune. The set
:28:58. > :29:03.was brilliant the way it revolved? Extraordinary. I thought little
:29:03. > :29:08.touches the fact they had the old car seat. Who had an old car seat
:29:08. > :29:16.for a long time. They don't fall to pieces any more. They did come out.
:29:16. > :29:20.The set brings you back to property, brings you back to inherit ans and
:29:20. > :29:26.check off. It's about how much a family sense of itself is linked to
:29:26. > :29:36.where they are and the property. When you are going to lose it how
:29:36. > :29:37.
:29:37. > :29:44.Julie Walters was clearly enjoying herself and relishing this role. It
:29:44. > :29:51.was amazing. You can see it kind of suits her. You can let it all hang
:29:51. > :29:56.out, and she does. I thought her timing was beautiful and she read
:29:56. > :30:01.the characters so well. Yes, absolutely. It could have gone too
:30:01. > :30:06.far in that direction of comedy, but it was very moving,
:30:06. > :30:10.particularly at the end, it was incredibly poignant, I was moved.
:30:10. > :30:17.The Last Of The Haussmans is on at the National Theatre. The romance
:30:17. > :30:21.of the local cinema is well-trodden territory Proms Cinema Paradiso com
:30:21. > :30:27.-- to the Purple Rose of Cairo. The Last Projectionist charged the
:30:27. > :30:30.history of the Electric Cinema in Birmingham.
:30:31. > :30:35.It takes a nostalgic look at the new technology which brought cinema
:30:35. > :30:40.to millions in the 20th century, space story told through the eyes
:30:40. > :30:46.and testimony of its first practitioners. We did a lot more
:30:46. > :30:50.above and beyond the call of duty. But we loved the job we were in.
:30:50. > :30:54.The Electric Cinema witnessed the technological changes and was
:30:54. > :30:59.battered by the fluctuating fortunes of the cinema industry.
:30:59. > :31:09.The standard bearers by the craft of 35 mm projection decried the
:31:09. > :31:09.
:31:09. > :31:16.loss of a unique skill. The Prince of avatar, they were about 98 reels.
:31:17. > :31:20.The cost was 60,000 US dollars. What happened when you finis to
:31:20. > :31:25.using that pen? We have still got hours at the moment, but at
:31:25. > :31:29.Bradford it has been scrapped. story of cinema technology is told
:31:30. > :31:36.alongside the evolution of the building Excel, which over 100
:31:36. > :31:40.years has been forced to adapt to changing tastes and markets,
:31:40. > :31:47.through the Torquay's of the early years too soft porn. Did they make
:31:47. > :31:57.much money? This place was doing �3,000 a week. Just on adult films?
:31:57. > :32:04.Yes. Now after a costly renovation, the Electric has moved into the
:32:04. > :32:10.21st century. This is a hard drive for a digital screen. Basically
:32:10. > :32:16.they come in this big, yellow box. As technology changes, cannot
:32:16. > :32:21.locally run, independent cinemas, match the infinitely resourced
:32:21. > :32:27.multiplexes, or is The Electric in Birmingham an exception to the role.
:32:27. > :32:34.This was an attempt to capture the ecology of the cinema, focusing on
:32:34. > :32:42.the projectionists. Did you find them engaging? You had me on the
:32:42. > :32:47.show because I am at X usherette. Yes, actually. It is very much like
:32:47. > :32:53.a family, that is what they are saying, all the small, independent
:32:53. > :32:59.cinemas. They are about this obsession with not so much the
:32:59. > :33:04.films themselves, but with the camera, the venue, the Architecture
:33:04. > :33:10.and about preserving this magical moment when a cinema had the event
:33:10. > :33:16.state as it no longer has. Did you find it absorbing? You have got
:33:16. > :33:21.films like the Purple Rose of Cairo, do is tell a different story?
:33:21. > :33:26.was small and I do not think it was hugely ambitious, but I enjoyed it.
:33:26. > :33:29.They could not have done it without digital. There are many ironies
:33:29. > :33:39.going on here. There is an interesting interplay between form
:33:39. > :33:40.
:33:40. > :33:45.and content. This is a labour of love. They did everything for this
:33:45. > :33:51.thing and they are making a tell about the labour of love. So and he
:33:51. > :33:55.earned the cinema. And he earns the Senate, but in the end I enjoyed
:33:55. > :33:59.the film and I remember going to the cinema in Worthing in my youth,
:33:59. > :34:06.which is a beautiful art-deco cinema, and there is something
:34:06. > :34:09.worth preserving. Of course there are ironies Enders. There is even a
:34:09. > :34:15.clear-sighted recognition that they are talking about a dying way of
:34:15. > :34:22.life and it is not bad that it is dying. Digital is better than 35 mm
:34:22. > :34:29.Tums. Did it hang together for you? It was totally boring, I am afraid.
:34:29. > :34:32.I really struggled to stay awake. A critic told me once that the killer
:34:32. > :34:38.about watching things you do not like is you have to stay until the
:34:38. > :34:43.end because it might get good. in your case you were reviewing it.
:34:43. > :34:49.I had to stay awake. It didn't give you any films, it did not have
:34:49. > :34:57.moustache or or any feeling. What about the model of the theatres?
:34:57. > :35:07.That was very nice, but that was 30 seconds. Let's have a look at it.
:35:07. > :35:08.
:35:08. > :35:15.How many seats are there? 2600. They are all modelled individually.
:35:15. > :35:21.The model is built from the original 1937 plans. It is the
:35:21. > :35:30.Odeon, New Street, Birmingham. When I first started on it, you just had
:35:30. > :35:35.the auditorium in mind, but as I got into it, it rolled on.
:35:35. > :35:41.Absolutely wonderful. He could have done with an editor. He could have
:35:41. > :35:46.done with a few films. I did not learn anything. To watch something
:35:47. > :35:52.for 82 minutes and feel you did not learnt anything, I would have loved
:35:52. > :35:57.to have learnt about how the news got there. I knew nothing about the
:35:57. > :36:04.pornography that was shown. Bertie did not tell you who was making it.
:36:04. > :36:09.A in order to make money. Or who was going to see it? They think I
:36:09. > :36:15.like was the old projectionist with the wonderful faces, like that
:36:15. > :36:20.dilemmas. They her extraordinary facial hair. These were a very
:36:20. > :36:26.British type of eccentric. They know more about the models and the
:36:26. > :36:32.machines than they do about women. It would have been nice to have
:36:32. > :36:38.brought things like avatar in. But the most interesting was at the
:36:38. > :36:42.last eight minutes when we got the tour of the British independent
:36:42. > :36:46.cinemas and fell unless who did not say very much, turned out to have
:36:46. > :36:53.the youngest minds with the most progressive thinking. People were
:36:53. > :36:58.making the distinction between Pathe and Movietone and the kind of
:36:58. > :37:02.committee they gave you and the projectionists had to run between
:37:02. > :37:07.two cinemas to swap their news bulletins because they only had
:37:07. > :37:17.half of the bulletins in each cinema. And they would be delivered
:37:17. > :37:18.
:37:18. > :37:23.a day later. The archive footage was great. And then having his Tory
:37:23. > :37:27.grandee adjust his monocle as he lectured on the benefits of cinema.
:37:27. > :37:33.Also the story of the British censor who closed his eyes during
:37:33. > :37:39.the scary bits of Texas chainsaw Massacre. As far as craft goes
:37:39. > :37:45.there are a few things. The music could have been better and there is
:37:45. > :37:50.a shot of a full Louw that I never want to see again. That was taken
:37:50. > :37:54.from the centre of yoga owner's maze. Our I thought the opening
:37:54. > :38:04.titles were Berlin and a promised so much, and then they went on too
:38:04. > :38:12.long. But it needed to be a film because it is now being shown.
:38:12. > :38:16.wanted to see some films end there. It cost them 80 ground to make it.
:38:16. > :38:20.The Last Projectionist is on general release today. The
:38:20. > :38:26.Edinburgh International Film Festival launched on Wednesday
:38:26. > :38:32.night with Killer Joe. The festival has come in for criticism for
:38:32. > :38:38.favouring geek over glamour, but with the new head at the helm,
:38:38. > :38:44.Chris Fujiwara, the buzz about the festival is growing. I see that
:38:45. > :38:49.Festival today as our version of the original documentary Festival,
:38:49. > :38:54.our version of a festival that is committed to an idea of art of
:38:54. > :39:00.cinema that is in touch with the real world. It is a truly
:39:00. > :39:06.international programme, we have films from 52 countries. We have a
:39:06. > :39:11.retrospective of the Japanese director and an American director
:39:11. > :39:16.of Italian descent. I see our programme as a way of affirming our
:39:16. > :39:20.support to the imaginative film of today and to creating a dialogue
:39:20. > :39:25.between the audience in Edinburgh and that some making world as a
:39:25. > :39:31.whole. The centre is the Michael Powell Award which is given every
:39:31. > :39:41.year to the best British film. This year, we are including documentary
:39:41. > :39:43.
:39:43. > :39:53.films. Killer Joe, with which we open, is a fantastic film by the
:39:53. > :39:54.
:39:54. > :40:00.director of the French Connection and the Exorcist. We are closing
:40:00. > :40:05.the festival with A brave, set in Scotland with a Scottish voice cast.
:40:05. > :40:11.We are very excited about it. It will be a massive events and it is
:40:11. > :40:16.positive for the festival. Careful what you wish for. What is the
:40:16. > :40:21.worst that could happen? Edinburgh's seems to be getting its
:40:21. > :40:27.atmosphere back. It has been a tough time. It competes against a
:40:27. > :40:32.lot. It is the longest, continuous film festival and what is important
:40:32. > :40:38.is the egalitarian nature of it for the artists and it is coming back.
:40:38. > :40:43.It runs until 11th July. We look forward to reading your tweets in
:40:43. > :40:51.the Green Room. Urge you to Rosie Boycott, Alex Preston and Karen
:40:51. > :40:55.Chris Samba ditch. Next week, we will be looking at killer Joe. We
:40:55. > :41:05.will also be investigating the Shakespeare season on the BBC. Here
:41:05. > :41:10.
:41:10. > :41:15.to play as out are The Futureheads. I was 19 when I came to town and
:41:15. > :41:21.they called it the summer of love. They were burning babies and they
:41:21. > :41:29.were burning flags. I took a job down on cauldron straight, fell in
:41:29. > :41:33.love with a laundry girl who was working next to make. She was fine
:41:33. > :41:41.like Abbey's win, so buying a breath of wind might have blown her
:41:41. > :41:51.awake. She was a lost child. She said, as long as there is no prize
:41:51. > :41:53.
:41:53. > :42:03.on lard, I will stay. I would not want it any other way. -- as long
:42:03. > :42:05.
:42:05. > :42:14.as there is no price on love. Like a fox caught in the headlights,
:42:14. > :42:21.there was animal in her eyes. She said, if you do not take me out of
:42:21. > :42:28.here, I will surely lose my mind. She was a rare thing, fine as
:42:28. > :42:35.Abbey's wing. So fine, a breath of wind might have blown her away. She
:42:35. > :42:45.was a lost child, she said, as long as there is no price on laugh, I
:42:45. > :42:56.
:42:56. > :43:02.will stay. I would not want it any We were camping on the Gower one
:43:02. > :43:11.time and the work was pretty good. We were drinking more in those days
:43:11. > :43:21.and the tempo reached a pitch. The last I heard she was sleeping rough
:43:21. > :43:28.down on the Derby beach. They say she even married once, a man named
:43:28. > :43:34.Romania Brown, but even a gypsy caravan was too much to hold her
:43:34. > :43:42.down. They say her flower has faded now, but maybe that is the price
:43:42. > :43:48.you pay. She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing. So fine a breath