0:00:02 > 0:00:06Tonight, we salute the unsung heroes of television, the enablers, interpreters,
0:00:06 > 0:00:11confidantes and companions who act as sidekicks to the stars.
0:00:11 > 0:00:17I don't know of any actor or any performer who would admit to being a sidekick.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22We look at the art of the assistant, from the great detectives...
0:00:22 > 0:00:25His function is to humanise a sort of genius.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29- ..to the modern cop show.- I thinks he's Gene Hunt's bitch, basically.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34We plot the companion's course from crime fiction to science fiction...
0:00:34 > 0:00:37He's an alien. He can behave in any way he likes.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39..to children's television...
0:00:39 > 0:00:4250 years of sticking your hand up a teddy bear's bum.
0:00:42 > 0:00:43..and light entertainment.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47I would have been the principal boy, Larry, the dame, for sure.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50It's a world full of difficult talent...
0:00:50 > 0:00:53His great thing was to always get the better of humans.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55..and dysfunctional relationships.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Manuel is Basil's sidekick. They need each other, in a strange way.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02These are the Sidekick Stories.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Sidekicks have always been with us.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14- Every hero needs somebody to talk to. - I beg you to tell me about it.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19Iolaus, who's Hercules' sidekick, who's the wiry, clever one,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22or Patroclus, who is Achilles' sidekick.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24I wish you'd tell me what you're talking about.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27When you look at English literature,
0:01:27 > 0:01:31there in Shakespeare you find Falstaff, the ultimate sidekick,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34a kind of exuberant character who can say and do things
0:01:34 > 0:01:37that the main characters might not quite allow themselves to do.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41In King Lear, the Fool is the ultimate sidekick as well.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45And when you look at cartoons, when you look at television shows, when you look at films,
0:01:45 > 0:01:51across the whole breadth of culture, the sidekick is one of the funniest and most essential elements.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55- Can you just go anywhere you like in that TARDIS?- Yes, within reason.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00A good TV sidekick is someone who's kind of stupid and kind of not,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02they're stupid in that they keep having to ask questions,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05but they're smart enough to ask the question in the first place.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10- Why don't you go somewhere safer? - Because, my dear Sarah, I have a job to do.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13One that involves the whole future of your species.
0:02:13 > 0:02:20Nobody can be Hercules, nobody can be Sherlock Holmes, but we can be Sancho Panza or Dr Watson.
0:02:27 > 0:02:35A study in sidekicks has to start with Sherlock Holmes and the curious case of the archetypal assistant.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Dr Watson's very important in this story because in the books
0:02:39 > 0:02:42he's the person through whose eyes we see Holmes.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47He's there to guide us through the world of Holmes' thinking,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51to be the person who is there to be impressed by what Holmes does.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Well, how did you know about the carriage in which the murderer and his victim arrived, for example?
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Child's play. The marks made by the carriage wheels
0:02:59 > 0:03:03and by the horse's hooves in the driveway told me all I needed to know.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05He's like a narrative device. He's sort of spinning around
0:03:05 > 0:03:11the main character like a wee camera, constantly showing new sides of Sherlock Holmes.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16And you see that to brilliant effect, perhaps better than anywhere
0:03:16 > 0:03:21outside of Don Quixote and his famous sidekick, Sancho Panza.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24- And his age?- Well, I deduced that from his footprints.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29- Any man who can take strides of 4½ feet could hardly be an old man.- Wonderful.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34In the TV versions, he's a sort of fat bloke who doesn't know anything and goes...
0:03:34 > 0:03:36How on earth do you know that?
0:03:36 > 0:03:40Oh, how can you possibly know that? What is the meaning of all this? What is happening?
0:03:40 > 0:03:44Watson is the archetype for the sidekick in that he asks questions
0:03:44 > 0:03:49- and he doesn't really get it. - What in heaven's name is that?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56But there's more to Watson than sometimes makes the screen.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00He's been a soldier, he's been to a Afghanistan, he's a husband,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02he's been in general practice,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05in lots of ways, actually, he has a much stronger sense
0:04:05 > 0:04:08of what life in the world is like than Holmes.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13And to think that we heard his screams and yet could not...
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Watson, look here!
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Watson isn't stupid. I think very often, especially in Hollywood,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22he's been played as bumbling.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24It's a poor trick.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29You know, make Watson stupid because it would seem that then Holmes is even more intelligent.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31That's not the right thing to do.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34I think the Jeremy Brett series got it better,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37where you had a Watson then who was quite thoughtful, who was clever.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40He just wasn't a genius like Holmes.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44So how do you play the world's most famous sidekick?
0:04:44 > 0:04:46I remember when I started,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49thinking, "How many different ways can I act listening?"
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Because that's the function.
0:04:51 > 0:04:58Very often, the director will focus on Holmes, and then he's got to come to you to react.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And a lot of the time, that's silence.
0:05:01 > 0:05:07'So you have to be a bit careful that you are not pulling the same face.' Of course.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12I do think they are, to some extent, two halves of the same person.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16And I think that's why they are drawn to each other.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20Watson has qualities that maybe Holmes doesn't show.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25And I think his function is literally to humanise a sort of genius.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Watson humanises Holmes absolutely.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Holmes, particularly in his Jeremy Brett incarnation, is way out there.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35HE LAUGHS
0:05:35 > 0:05:38There's an episode, The Musgrave Ritual, I think,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43where Holmes comes down to dinner at this rather grand house, a castle,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and he's out of his head on cocaine.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50And Hardwick's Watson is just embarrassed by it.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53And so he acts as a sort of anchor, I think.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59He's the person who shows us what the consequences of Holmes' strangeness are.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04But Holmes' one friend is also the author's alter ego.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09In all the depictions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Dr Watson is the one who looks like Arthur Conan Doyle.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18The occasional times they've done Sherlock Holmes stories without Watson, it's not really worked.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Even Doyle admitted this. He had Holmes narrate a couple of stories,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25and said, "You know, it just doesn't work. You need Watson.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27"You need good old Watson."
0:06:27 > 0:06:32And you realise that Watson is the person who all this is for.
0:06:32 > 0:06:38For all their adventures together, they left their greatest mystery unsolved.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44There is something about that idea of two Edwardian gentlemen sharing a flat and eating kedgeree together
0:06:44 > 0:06:49that does suggest that this relationship is of a slightly different order.
0:06:49 > 0:06:56I think it's interesting to explore the possibilities of the homoerotic nature of Watson and Holmes.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59I think there may well be some elements of that,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01but I don't think it was what Arthur Conan Doyle was trying to do.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:07:04 > 0:07:10Whatever the truth, there's a bit of Holmes and Watson in every sleuth and sidekick who followed.
0:07:10 > 0:07:17There are definite parallels between Morse and Holmes, both the main detectives and the sidekicks.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19I mean, they were both intellectual,
0:07:19 > 0:07:25both very driven, both fascinated by the complexities of their work.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28And, of course, there's the music as well, Holmes with his violin
0:07:28 > 0:07:32- and Morse with his Mozart and his Wagner.- I liked that.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34It was good.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36Who was it?
0:07:36 > 0:07:38That, Lewis, was Maria Callas.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Was it from Cats?
0:07:41 > 0:07:44No, it most certainly was not.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48The relationship between Inspector Morse and Lewis is incredibly important.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Morse, grumpy old man, but a genius,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57aided and abetted by Lewis, the archetypal plodding copper.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59You still don't see anything up there?
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Only a balustrade.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Get a body over that, do you think?
0:08:04 > 0:08:08- Oh.- Yes, Lewis - "Oh."
0:08:08 > 0:08:13Lewis is, almost literally, he is just Dr Watson transformed, isn't he?
0:08:13 > 0:08:20Because that show is a police procedural rather than a private eye show,
0:08:20 > 0:08:27the dynamic is different, in that Lewis works for Morse so Morse can bully him a bit more.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29Come on, come on, let me do it.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34But Lewis would boldly go where most sidekicks fear to tread,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38by becoming the star of his own series.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43The character that goes from sidekick to lead to getting his own sidekick, that's a great development.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45I mean, he's the sidekick's sidekick.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48They must look up at him in awe, all the others.
0:08:48 > 0:08:54The Watsons of this world may just look at Lewis and think, "God, he did it. There's hope for all of us."
0:08:54 > 0:09:01I'm not quite convinced, because if you've spent all these years being the not quite smart enough sidekick,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04how do you suddenly acquire the extra brain cells?
0:09:07 > 0:09:10But the great British sidekick usually knew his place.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13He was there to serve his master.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21The top men, Holmes, Wimsey, Morse,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25were supermen, as far as brains were concerned, of solving crimes,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27they really were supermen,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30far superior to anybody in the street.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33And all these sidekicks
0:09:33 > 0:09:38were able to make their superiors' knowledge
0:09:38 > 0:09:42understandable to the audience.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Lafontaine was right, eh, Bunter?
0:09:46 > 0:09:51- Bunter? - Bunter, who is Lord Peter Wimsey's sidekick, he's actually his butler.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53And this is a tradition as well.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Devilled kidneys, my lord?
0:09:55 > 0:10:00Jeeves in the PG Wodehouse stories is the great valet sidekick.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05And the other avatar of this mode is Alfred in the Batman stories,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09who is at once a father and a sidekick.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13And maybe it's a relationship that isn't possible to depict any more
0:10:13 > 0:10:15because people just don't have butlers.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Excuse me, my lord, but having seen this morning's copy of the Times,
0:10:19 > 0:10:24- I had no doubt your Lordship would wish to return to Riddlesdale at once.- Riddlesdale?
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Captain Cathcart has been found shot dead.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31He had the ability to spot things and point them out.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34"Police suspect foul play."
0:10:34 > 0:10:40He wasn't just the servant, he could also make suggestions, and did.
0:10:40 > 0:10:46You could send him off on any errand and make absolutely certain it was done properly.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Bunter had brains, brawn and could make a mean breakfast.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52And, crucially, he'd never cross the boss.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56I mean, they were both born and bred into their own particular class.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02Bunter never overstepped the mark, never called him Peter or anything like that.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05All right, constable, Peter Wimsey.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07I'll look after the lady.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10This is something about the British class system embodied here.
0:11:10 > 0:11:17And I think really what it does, it crystallises the idea that these are unequal relationships.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20The relationship between Holmes and Watson is unequal
0:11:20 > 0:11:25in many ways, the relationship between Wimsey and Bunter is unequal.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And the script of the British class system is written into it.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Bunter!
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Bad night, my lord?
0:11:34 > 0:11:40Characters like Bunter, Jeeves and Alfred would be very difficult to sell in a modern way.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45Maybe somebody who's a female Bridget Jones type executive
0:11:45 > 0:11:48with a super smart PA, probably a younger gay man
0:11:48 > 0:11:56who would solve all her problems, maybe that's a development of the Jeeves, the butler character
0:11:56 > 0:12:00that does still have currency in modern fiction.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Right, let's fire up the Quattro.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11And when it all kicks off, the sidekick has a vital function, to supplement the machismo of the lead.
0:12:11 > 0:12:17Where Watson had his service revolver, Gene Hunt's sidekicks go toe-to-toe with the bad guys.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21This is the police! You're surrounded.
0:12:25 > 0:12:31I do a lot of the action stuff in this series, a lot of the running about and the diving and the rolls
0:12:31 > 0:12:36and be shot at and all that sort of thing, so in this case, the sidekicks are used for that,
0:12:36 > 0:12:43and then Gene can come out and just finish them off with one shot and look cool.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Although I think, deep down, Gene has a love for Chris.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51He obviously has because Chris is quite useless.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Chris, give us the gun.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Oh, shit, I must have left it in the car.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02To have him on the team, he must be there for a reason, even if it's just to laugh at.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04But that's one of the best reasons of all.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09The sidekick doesn't just provide the muscle, he also provides the laughs.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14The comedy relief sidekick is sort of important and it's interesting
0:13:14 > 0:13:18how almost all sidekicks are allowed to be funnier than heroes.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22- Go on then, say it. - Do you want a hand, mate?
0:13:22 > 0:13:24The only exception I can think of is Bertie Wooster,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28who's the funny character and Jeeves is the clever character.
0:13:28 > 0:13:35But all the way back to Shakespeare's fools, you had the character who comes on and does the jokes.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Miss James, Miss James!
0:13:37 > 0:13:44Sometimes people think you're a bit stupid because you play stupid all the time, you know,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48and you can get treated a bit as if you are a bit of a numpty at times,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52but that's part of the game and obviously you're playing your character well.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57- Drama's full of lovable foul-ups. - Oh, Rigsby!
0:13:57 > 0:14:02But the natural home of the stupid sidekick is the sitcom.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06I think modern television understanding of the sidekick
0:14:06 > 0:14:13is much more like the very ancient pantomimic, Commedia dell'arte way of understanding the sidekick
0:14:13 > 0:14:20as being a complete lunatic, a nutcase, a mad person, the village idiot, you know, the fool.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26Baldrick was a great example of that, somebody who was so absurd and so comically slappable
0:14:26 > 0:14:33that every time he appeared with his ridiculous suggestions, the audience just roared.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38I think the character of Baldrick is one of those archetypes
0:14:38 > 0:14:43that have been around as long as storytelling has been around.
0:14:43 > 0:14:49People in the streets will say to me, "Is Baldrick really that thick or is he just pretending?"
0:14:49 > 0:14:54The awful answer is that I'm so stupid I don't know.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59The use of the idiot sidekick is something that comes again and again in comedy.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Look at the Vicar Of Dibley with Alice.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05In Father Ted, you know...
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Father Ted isn't the sharpest, but Father Dougal is incredibly stupid.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16And if you look at Blackadder, you can look at Baldric as very much the sidekick to Blackadder.
0:15:16 > 0:15:23But also, the others, the Prince, the Queen, all play foil to Blackadder's funny guy.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Blackadder was certainly an ensemble piece.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29We were all thinking, "How do be serve this show best?"
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Rowan serves it by being at its apex,
0:15:33 > 0:15:39Hugh Laurie is here, Stephen Fry is there, I'm down there somewhere, but still serving the totality.
0:15:39 > 0:15:40That's your job, that's what you do.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44It doesn't feel like being a sidekick, it just feels like doing a job.
0:15:46 > 0:15:52But even within the ensemble piece, a supporting character can become an iconic comic hero.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54- Manuel.- Si.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57- The bottle?- Yes.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59- Where is it?- Que?- Donde est...
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Oh, I take it. I take it, I take it.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Come here. You're a waste of space.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09The audiences tend to feel sympathy for Manuel.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12They think, "Oh, poor Manuel, he's always in trouble."
0:16:12 > 0:16:14I think Manuel himself is a very happy man.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19I think he probably has qualities that I'd enjoy having.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23I would imagine he'd make a wonderful husband and father.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27He'd love it, eight children, beautiful, if he ever had them.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31But he's not married, and I hope one day he does get married.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35He's loyal, I'm sure he'd give you the shirt off his back for generosity.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38And he'd be faithful to the death to that family.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42He thinks they're great, it's the best hotel in the world, and he's one of the greatest waiters in the world.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48In modern comedies, on television, in film, where there is a sidekick,
0:16:48 > 0:16:54that's actually drawing on a really old tradition, in the British novel especially.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59The very earliest novels, the kind of novels that were written by people like Henry Fielding
0:16:59 > 0:17:06or Daniel Defoe, you know, had sidekicks as their central characters.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09They come together in a little comedy like Fawlty Towers.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13You think you're just watching a madcap, absurd adventure going on
0:17:13 > 0:17:20in a hotel in Torquay, but actually it's connected to some brilliant long tradition of the sidekick.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23It's one of its best manifestations, I think.
0:17:23 > 0:17:31Andrew Sachs's Manuel has got to be one of the greatest comic creations since the Sixties.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36He's a creation absolutely and completely in his own right.
0:17:36 > 0:17:43And in a sense the secret of Manuel is the fact that he is so much in his own world,
0:17:43 > 0:17:50and Andrew, being such a skilful actor, has created this world that nobody can impinge on.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52No, No. This is Table 1.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54It's Wednesday.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59Room seven is Table 5. No, please, here. Come here.
0:17:59 > 0:18:05Fawlty Towers was tightly scripted, but the little we know of Manuel's background comes from Sachs himself.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10There wasn't a sort of Stanislavsky feeling of, "What was his mother like?
0:18:10 > 0:18:13"Where did he come from?" and all that. Not even that he came from Barcelona.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17I invented that somewhere along the line. Things were invented all the time.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20- Yes?- Before I go...
0:18:20 > 0:18:22What is it?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- It's my birthday.- Yes, I know.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29I want to thank you for beautiful present.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32And for your much kindness to me since I come here.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36- Not at all, my pleasure. - On my birthday, Manuel's birthday,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38he gives me an umbrella, I think.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42And he's busy in the office of the hotel.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Since coming here from Spain, leaving my mother...
0:18:45 > 0:18:48'I knock on the door, he bangs it shut again, something like that.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52"Behind this door, when he's doing something,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55"I pull out a bit of paper, and I've written a little thank you letter.
0:18:55 > 0:19:02It's hardly heard by the audience - "Senor, thank you very, very much for my birthday present, is very nice..."
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Since coming here from Spain, leaving my five brothers...
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Give it to me. Thank you.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11I invented all this, it was just ad-libbed.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13So it kind of stayed.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17So that's a bit of background created by Sachs.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21The sidekick relationship with the main guy
0:19:21 > 0:19:25is usually one that's completely dysfunctional, but based on love.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29I mean, why doesn't he just fire Manuel?
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Of course, he wouldn't, because something of his absurdity,
0:19:32 > 0:19:37something of his whole life, is dependent on this dysfunctional relationship.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Since I come here from Spain, leaving my five mothers...
0:19:41 > 0:19:43'They need each other in a strange way.'
0:19:43 > 0:19:47When Basil gets angry with him or hits him or whatever,
0:19:47 > 0:19:53it's confirmation that he's noticed and needed, and loved, perhaps.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01But not all sidekicks play dumb.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05You can be socially and intellectually superior to the lead.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07The great thing about Sergeant Wilson,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Jimmy Perry, who wrote it, said, is that, instead of having the boss,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Captain Mainwaring, being a toff,
0:20:12 > 0:20:18and the subservient sidekick being lower-middle class, they reversed it.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Don't sit in my chair when I'm not here, Wilson.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Sorry, sir, I was just writing out a notice, that's all.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Sergeant Wilson is a Jeeves-type sidekick.
0:20:29 > 0:20:36He's a sidekick who's cleverer, wiser... "Do you think that wise, sir?" is his catchphrase.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38He's the sensible one.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41But, somehow, Captain Mainwaring actually has the authority.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45- I am an officer.- Yes, quite, sir. - You're supposed to be an NCO.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47- Yes, of course, yes.- Right. Very well, remember...
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Captain Mainwaring is a bit of an oik, whereas Wilson is a toff,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56and it really creates this great tension in the relationship.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59It's one of the great strokes of genius in comedy.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03This is the notice I was writing out, do you understand?
0:21:03 > 0:21:06"Do not lean back in this chair".
0:21:07 > 0:21:12It's that tension between the main act and the assistant that drives the narrative.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14Now, come on, TARDIS. We are getting out of here.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Well, I might just have something to say about that, spaceman!
0:21:18 > 0:21:25Whether you look at very high culture, looking at Greek drama, or arguably very low culture,
0:21:25 > 0:21:30the relationship between Tintin and Snowy, it's essentially the same relationship.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35The sidekick has existed all the way through cultural history, in almost every form you can think of.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41The sidekick had a TV life that went beyond comedy and drama into light entertainment.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45Here, the assistant gave us not just exposition, but glamour.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48And, sometimes, even romance.
0:21:48 > 0:21:54Traditionally, if you look at game shows, you did have a host, and then some sort of glamorous assistant.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58The patronising attitude of TV makers was that the women would watch with the kids anyway
0:21:58 > 0:22:01on a Saturday night show because it would be entertaining
0:22:01 > 0:22:06and you didn't need much to keep the women interested, but you had to have some eye candy for the men.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Oh, you must do a twirl. I love it.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11With the Generation Game, that assistant is completely different.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13They become a sidekick proper.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Anthea Redfern becomes an important and integral part of the show.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Now, the nylon stockings, they still drive me mad, they really do.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25When Bruce and Anthea left, there were fears for the future of the show.
0:22:25 > 0:22:31Salvation came with one of the most original pieces of casting in LE history.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Please meet Miss Isla St Clair.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35APPLAUSE
0:22:40 > 0:22:44They phoned up and said they wanted me to do it.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46I was completely speechless, taken aback.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50I still thought they must have got it wrong, because I thought,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53"I'm so far away from what they had before. Why would they want me?"
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Then, when I met Larry, I realised.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Bruce Forsyth's shtick involved the gentle humiliation of the guests on the Generation Game.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06- You need those.- Does she need those?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Larry Grayson never did that.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Isla St Clair, I think, as a resort, took a slightly more authoritative role, in that you could imagine
0:23:14 > 0:23:17she was Larry's carer, as well as anything else.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20That she might help Larry sit down or find his right glasses,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24or make sure he'd taken his pills before he went on.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28- What's the next game? - Well, game number three...
0:23:28 > 0:23:34In defying one stereotype, Isla helped create a new one - the hyper-competent sidekick.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37I wasn't just presenting the car or the washing machine,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41they were using me to introduce the games and I was more proactive.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Not hugely, but enough to make that difference.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46You see, you always know everything, you do. She does.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48She's always bossing me all the time, you know.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52I think I was there to kind of bring a semblance of order.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Under Larry and Isla, the show became more successful than ever,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01despite the apparent lack of any sexual chemistry.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06When they chose a woman who had more about her, who hadn't come down the beauty queen role,
0:24:06 > 0:24:13for her not to be challenging, she had to be partnered with a man who was not sexually available to her,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17so there wasn't a sexual element possible in their relationship.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Shut your mouths.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25I'll do anything, if you ask me properly, but if you start shouting, I'll not do a thing. Tell him.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27That's right, he won't do it, I know, I've tried.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31- Please, Airman Grayson, do it, please?- Yeah, alright.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34And don't forget to write.
0:24:38 > 0:24:45It was an inspired piece of casting, if not quite as original as first it seemed.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50I would have been the principal boy, Larry, the dame, for sure, that's exactly how it was.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52She seems like a nice girl, doesn't she?
0:24:52 > 0:24:56But nowhere is the relationship as important or mysterious
0:24:56 > 0:24:59as that between the magician and his assistant.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03The whole bond between main character and sidekick
0:25:03 > 0:25:07is based on the notion they know things the audience don't know.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10And that's taking to a brilliant extreme
0:25:10 > 0:25:15with the magician and his assistant, because she knows the secret of the trick,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18and she's helping him create the illusion.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21So, that illusion that they're creating together
0:25:21 > 0:25:25suggests an incredible bond, an almost sexual bond.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29It was really strange how I got the job as Paul's magic assistant,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Paul Daniels, my husband.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40I'd been a classical ballet dancer for the Iranian National Ballet.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45It was the time of the revolution, when the Ayatollah created trouble,
0:25:45 > 0:25:51and we were all imprisoned in one apartment block where they thought we were safe.
0:25:51 > 0:25:57So before I started rehearsals with him, I had no idea who Paul Daniels was, or what he did.
0:25:59 > 0:26:05Paul was TV's top magician, and, safely back home, Debbie landed a part in his show.
0:26:05 > 0:26:12When I first worked with Paul, it was a matter of just carrying a prop on a tray or something.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16We've got a lady wearing a nightie. Sorry! I thought you were ready for bed, love!
0:26:16 > 0:26:22So, it didn't really require any skill, except to stand straight and keep smiling.
0:26:22 > 0:26:28And we have a knot here so that Debbie won't get hung when it's pulled very tight.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31The prop carrier was quickly promoted.
0:26:31 > 0:26:37Paul was soon tying her up, probing her with uranium rods, and, of course, sawing her in half.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40This is the sidekick taken to its furthest extreme.
0:26:40 > 0:26:47"I trust you so much, Mr Authority Guy, that I'll let you chuck knives at me, and I know that I'll be OK.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50"But I'll still be there to serve you in the following performance."
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Tonight, my assistant gets inside the barrel.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58They are, together, in charge of this illusion in this performance,
0:26:58 > 0:27:03so the sidekick does have authority, but it's a silent authority.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06She could never speak about it, it's mysterious.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09# Put a little magic # Put a little magic
0:27:09 > 0:27:12# Put a little magic in your life. #
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Quite a lot of the time, you're there as a distraction.
0:27:15 > 0:27:21You can't walk on stage in your jeans and scruffy hair and no make-up.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26- If you don't look good, you're not going to distract them. - Thank you, Debbie. Lovely frock.
0:27:26 > 0:27:33I think magician's assistants also give us what Dr Watson gives us - a way into the world of magic.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Quite often the assistant's job is to look amazed.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41A magician can do an ordinary trick, and the assistant can sell it.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45What you're there to do is to make it look as good as possible.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50I can actually make Paul's applause grow, or kill it.
0:27:50 > 0:27:57- Would you like the good news or the bad news first?- The good news. - Well, the good news is...
0:27:57 > 0:28:02- But then a funny thing happened - the assistant became a kind of co-star.- What's the bad news?
0:28:02 > 0:28:05They want me to take over the show.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10I think I was quite aware of becoming a bit more
0:28:10 > 0:28:13than just being a magic assistant in the background.
0:28:13 > 0:28:19Ladies and gentlemen, now that I'm taking over the show, it's going to be called The Debbie McGee Show.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21APPLAUSE
0:28:24 > 0:28:31Behind the scenes, something magical was happening, as Paul swept Debbie off her feet.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34So, what did first attract her?
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Our partnership grew along with the show, I think.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43It was just an instant, as they say, chemistry thing.
0:28:43 > 0:28:49- But when the magician married the assistant, another funny thing happened.- Hello there.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53People were more interested in the marriage than the magic.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Debbie McGee is a fascinating character.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58I suppose like the power behind the throne, in some respects.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01And she also allows Paul Daniels to be nasty
0:29:01 > 0:29:04when you see them interviewed together.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08She's the nice one, he's the grumpy, curmudgeonly, Scrooge-like one.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12You're so bitter. Why did you suddenly get so angry about that?
0:29:12 > 0:29:16The only time I come across people being...
0:29:16 > 0:29:20patronising towards me or cynicism is from journalists.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23It actually upsets some journalists, you know.
0:29:23 > 0:29:30I know you're a journalist, and it upsets them that we're happy together, and I think, "Get a life."
0:29:30 > 0:29:33We had a good time with Louis, but the media have tried to imply
0:29:33 > 0:29:39that "you married the boss", or "you only got the job because you were his girlfriend".
0:29:39 > 0:29:41I tend to just rise above it.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44# Put a little magic Put a little magic... #
0:29:44 > 0:29:48But it wasn't just light entertainment shows that relied on the talented assistant.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52And it wasn't just women in the supporting role.
0:29:52 > 0:29:58# Break or bust? Cake or crust? Yeah, That's Life! #
0:29:58 > 0:30:02If you look at That's Life, to make a consumer show work,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05on paper it's quite dry and boring, so you can jazz it up.
0:30:05 > 0:30:11- Having sidekicks help you.- From the Kent Messenger, the commissioner said the wife was a neurotic woman,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14with one leg in this world and the other in a world of her own.
0:30:14 > 0:30:21- Between those two legs, she doesn't know quite where she is. - # Yeah, that's life. #
0:30:25 > 0:30:27I never thought of them as co-presenters.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32I thought of them as reporters, crucial to the success of the show.
0:30:32 > 0:30:33Absolutely vital.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39They're support to the main lead, and they fulfil the same criteria that sidekicks do in drama.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41They're there to make the person like good,
0:30:41 > 0:30:46they're there to explain, sometimes to impart information and make sure the show runs smoothly.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Because what we were creating on screen was a sort of family.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54There was boring old mum sitting there!
0:30:54 > 0:30:56And the kids.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01The co-presenters came from all walks of life.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04- Hello.- 'We never advertised...' - Good evening.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09People wrote to us, people phoned us, people's agents got in touch with us.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14Doc Cox. Now what was Doc Cox's doctorate in, I wonder?
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Did he study perhaps alongside Dr Fox in the same institution?
0:31:18 > 0:31:22# There's tart of the house and there's ouzo with tit... #
0:31:22 > 0:31:29Adrian Mills was an actor, wasn't he? He'd wrestled a giant snake semi-nude in Doctor Who.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33I was working as a part-time debt collector at Earl's Court.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36I'd been an actor for 10 years, you know what an acting life is like,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38you're never quite sure when the next job is coming.
0:31:39 > 0:31:46I remember phoning my parents and I said, "I'm the new presenter on BBC One's That's Life."!
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Complete silence, and my mum said, "Does that mean we've got to watch it now?"
0:31:51 > 0:31:55The reporters weren't just the voice of the public - on occasions, they were the public.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00That's Life was one of the first shows to hold open auditions and let the viewers decide.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04I was living in Edinburgh at the time working as a caravan salesman,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08and I jumped on the sleeper train down to London on the Monday night.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11The auditions were on Wednesday morning. I wanted to get there early
0:32:11 > 0:32:14because they said they were only going to see 2,000 people.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17- What made you do it? - It's That's Life, Esther.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20You don't get a chance like this twice in a lifetime.
0:32:20 > 0:32:21So, you've just got to go for it.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24SHE IMITATES KATE BUSH
0:32:25 > 0:32:28The wannabe presenters were put through their paces.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31Who had what it takes to be a That's Life presenter?
0:32:31 > 0:32:38Shows like the X Factor, Pop Idol, and a lot of the reality shows now have become competitions.
0:32:38 > 0:32:44But I don't doubt for a second that when you look back at what happened in the That's Life auditions,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47this was the model that they actually based it on.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51And the winner is Mr Kevin Devine.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55I really felt like I was going to start crying.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57It was just phenomenal.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01I was no longer the caravan salesman that had left Edinburgh that day,
0:33:01 > 0:33:06I was going to be a presenter on a prime-time TV show on Sunday night,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09on a show that was an institution.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14Once ensconced, their role was clearly defined.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17We were there to support Esther, because she was the ringmaster,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20if you like, and we had all these great stories to tell.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22..Then it peed on the living room floor and left.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Our role was very much to be the voice and the spokesperson
0:33:26 > 0:33:28for the 10,000 letters a week that used to come in.
0:33:28 > 0:33:34- IMITATES A CHINESE ACCENT: - But we would thend it to him for thmall pwithe, thirty perthent...
0:33:34 > 0:33:37thirty perthent dithcount,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39a vewy thpecial pwithe.
0:33:39 > 0:33:45They have different slants, they bring their own personality into it, you can split up the storylines.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50- The gentleman said... - Just to take the E to K...- ..Round to the Post Office. Fine, I know.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53You can have them answering back, you can have them playing roles.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55It's the only way, sir, you think about it.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57They were fantastic communicators.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Behaving almost like actors to bring the story to life.
0:34:00 > 0:34:06So, I think the mechanics of That's Life make it absolutely vital to have people like that.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10The reporters were part of the show's trademark mix
0:34:10 > 0:34:14of veg, vox pops, and hard-hitting consumer journalism.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19Life is light and shade, it was there to entertain as well as inform.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23I was sent to interview the contestants for the HMV dog,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25and I remember thinking, "Try to sing to them, that's what I'll do."
0:34:25 > 0:34:27And they went berserk and they attacked me.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30# You ain't nothing but a hound dog... #
0:34:30 > 0:34:32BARKING
0:34:32 > 0:34:33Ah!
0:34:33 > 0:34:36'Occasionally, there'd be something I'd think, "I don't want to do that."
0:34:36 > 0:34:39I wasn't a great fan of Get Britain Singing, leaping out at Joe public
0:34:39 > 0:34:42and getting them to sing along used to fill me with dread.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Hello, Sir!
0:34:44 > 0:34:46Can you do the Twist?
0:34:49 > 0:34:54The amount of snobbery from some of the grey suits at the BBC about That's Life was extraordinary.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58It was seen to be well below what they were normally pitching at,
0:34:58 > 0:35:00but, to be perfectly frank, to hell with them.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03It actually was about the people that were writing in.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06It was about the millions of people that were watching, and enjoying, the programme.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11There would be more than 20 co-presenters in the history of That's Life, but only one star.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Oh, yeah. You were always going to play second fiddle on That's Life.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Esther Rantzen was the star of the show.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22It was Esther as this very powerful woman.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26I think for a lot of men that's quite an enticing fantasy.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32You can imagine her in one of those Emmanuel wicker chairs,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35with all of those men giving her manicures and things like that.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40There was a sense that she was kind of the matriarch of this bunch of slightly submissive men.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44I was taking the lead role as a woman, and my reporters were men.
0:35:44 > 0:35:50That made some male television critics uncomfortable.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52They were pretty much castrated,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55they had their nuts in a jar on the desk in front of them
0:35:55 > 0:35:57because that's the role of the show.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01Actually, I think what that revealed was sexism.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04I never felt emasculated working for Esther Rantzen. I can honestly say that.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08"Autocuties", "Esther's nancies", whatever you wanted to call us,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10to be honest, it didn't matter.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14We knew we were doing a good job, we enjoyed it, and it was really appreciated by the public.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18That's Life bowed out after 21 seasons,
0:36:18 > 0:36:23but if playing opposite a woman could be hard, how much tougher to play second fiddle to a puppet?
0:36:23 > 0:36:28- It's in children's TV where the sidekicks truly tested. - What have you got there?
0:36:28 > 0:36:34Well, it's a new mini-telly, Mr Nixon, specially built for small-minded viewers.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Even the transistors have got transistors.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41People that work with puppets have a different skill set.
0:36:41 > 0:36:48They're much closer to a double act with the live human playing the straight man to the funny puppet,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52and none more so than in Basil Brush.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Wey-hey!
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Basil started in the Sixties as sidekick to magician David Nixon,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01but quickly became the star of his own show.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Though he always preferred working with an assistant.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07Basil is a comedian who needs a straight guy.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12He needs his gimp to humiliate and control and bamboozle.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16And he needs somebody to turn the pages when they read the story at the end,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18which is something he'd be incapable of doing.
0:37:18 > 0:37:26Basil employed a series of Misters to do his bidding, including Mr Derek, Mr Howard and Mr Roy.
0:37:26 > 0:37:32As brilliant as he was, he needed feeding, because he was a gagster doing the punch lines.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35His main thing was interacting with humans and putting them down,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38and always getting on top of them.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42We'll have none of that!
0:37:42 > 0:37:43I'm sorry.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I got carried away.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48But was this another relationship founded on class?
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Ooh!
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Basil is posh. Basil is literally from the hunting classes.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Roy North is something different.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02He's regional. He might have been the first person from Hull ever allowed on TV.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08As a five-year-old growing up in Hull, I was sensitive,
0:38:08 > 0:38:13very sensitive, that Roy North was somehow my representative on stage.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17What are you dressed like that for? You do look a right Charlie!
0:38:17 > 0:38:21- I'm a jester!- A right Charlie jester!
0:38:21 > 0:38:27Other puppets, even though they're a bit naughty, generally they're controlled by their puppet-master,
0:38:27 > 0:38:33whereas Basil Brush is there just to insult his handlers, who treat him in this kind of wary manner
0:38:33 > 0:38:37because they know that their wages depend on his anarchistic activities.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Outside, on the five-acre lunch... launching pad...
0:38:40 > 0:38:45- Lidge...lodge, yes.- If you had a funny accent or a dodgy eyebrow,
0:38:45 > 0:38:49he'd always pick on that and put you down.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51You got it wrong, didn't you?
0:38:51 > 0:38:59- Come along.- I'd try and keep him in check, but his great thing was to always get the better of humans.
0:38:59 > 0:39:00That was his whole drive, you know.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Basil Brush is a fox who wears hunting gear.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07There's an element of self-hatred, I think, in that character.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Puppets aren't really real, are they? I mean, not really, really, really real.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14I mean, they're not real fellas like you and me, are they?
0:39:14 > 0:39:17He always used to to say he hated puppets, did Basil. Because he felt above it.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21He didn't think he was a puppet, he thought he was a fella, actually.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25People like Sooty, he used to say, "I hate puppets, can't stand puppets."
0:39:27 > 0:39:34Basil's great rival had been going since the Fifties, and was already an established star.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Sooty, it's gone!
0:39:36 > 0:39:40But, Sooty's sidekick wasn't just part of the act, he was part of the family.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43And, in theory, the assistant had the upper hand.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47With Sooty, there's a sense of this being a family of some kind,
0:39:47 > 0:39:52because you've obviously got the Corbetts, who are the originators of Sooty.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54Harry Corbett, who first did the act.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57Oh, not a water pistol.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02He was an older figure, and you sensed that these puppets were running rings round him.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05They were like naughty children he couldn't quite control.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08My father just loved that character so much.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13He loved Sooty, and he put his heart and his life into that programme.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16We were going on holiday when I was seven or eight years old.
0:40:16 > 0:40:22We all piled into the car and we were going a long drive down to Dartmouth from Yorkshire.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27My father got about three miles down the road and suddenly the car stopped,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31and Harry said, "I can't go without him!"
0:40:31 > 0:40:34My mother said, "Without whom?" The boys are in the back. And he said, "I can't go without Sooty."
0:40:34 > 0:40:38So he actually turned the car round, went back, drove home,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42and got Sooty and put him in the boot, and so Sooty went on holiday.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Sooty was getting troublesome, and pulling Peter's ear.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48It was a strange childhood, in many ways, because...
0:40:48 > 0:40:51so far back as I can remember, my father was always famous.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56The downside was that, when you go to school, having a father who does that for a living,
0:40:56 > 0:41:00it automatically leads to name-calling and potential bullying.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04So that's when you develop this, "How do you get through that?"
0:41:04 > 0:41:07So I became the funny guy in the class.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09I don't think he's going to come out.
0:41:09 > 0:41:16And so Peter took the stage name Matthew and took over the family business.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18It could so easily have gone wrong.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21The audience, the viewing public might have gone, "It's not the same."
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Luckily, the audiences were sympathetic, probably because I was a Corbett.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27Where are we?
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Sooty, we've made it, this is the big one. This is the big chat show.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Is that Michael Parkinson?
0:41:34 > 0:41:41I love and respect the character, but it's different, mine was much more a business approach,
0:41:41 > 0:41:46whereas my father just did it from the heart.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51All those years on the road took their toll,
0:41:51 > 0:41:57and Peter and Sooty decided to go their separate ways, and Peter returned to his first love - music.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04# The handbags and the gladrags your poor old grandad had to... #
0:42:04 > 0:42:0625 years for my father, 25 years for me.
0:42:06 > 0:42:12We both served the same amount of time, 50 years of sticking your hand up a teddy bear's bum.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Good old granddad.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19We could have let it stay in the family,
0:42:19 > 0:42:25but the chances of it working for me were slim, the chances of it working again are almost infinitesimal.
0:42:25 > 0:42:31Sooty continues to entertain children to this day, but Peter has no regrets.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34The audiences may be smaller, but they're all his.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37It was never me that they were coming to see.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41It was actually a one metre square of mohair material.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43He was the star of the show.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51Playing sidekick to a puppet, you still get some recognition.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55But how do you become a star when they can't even see your face?
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Robots tend to be sidekicks in science fiction.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04You don't really want robots to be heroes.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07We're not quite at the idea where we can surrender humanity.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11The reason you always need a computer-generated sidekick in space
0:43:11 > 0:43:17is exactly the same reason that a cowboy needed the horse and the dog on the range.
0:43:17 > 0:43:24It was to combat loneliness, to have an interlocutor in circumstances where you are absolutely alone.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26So, if you're...
0:43:26 > 0:43:33Roy Rogers or Buck Rogers, you need this little gizmo
0:43:33 > 0:43:37that can talk to you, that can interpret you, and can comfort you.
0:43:39 > 0:43:45The art of the show-stealing cyber-sidekick was demonstrated in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf.
0:43:45 > 0:43:51The ship's service mechanoid, Kryten, was played by a rubber-faced Robert Llewellyn.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58In a sense, it's more like puppetry, working with that mask
0:43:58 > 0:44:00because any subtle movements...
0:44:00 > 0:44:03If I had the mask on and I went like this...
0:44:03 > 0:44:06you wouldn't see it. Or that. But if I go...
0:44:07 > 0:44:10..like that, then it shows. So you're kind of working away,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13and unfortunately that was my greatest skill.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17I had tried to do some serious film acting and various directors
0:44:17 > 0:44:21basically tore their hair out and tried to beat me up because I couldn't do...
0:44:21 > 0:44:25if I had to portray someone being sad, I'd go...
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Which isn't what they want. So it was ideal to cover me in rubber.
0:44:31 > 0:44:37Of course. 'It was a kind of long journey to find a way of portraying that character that wasn't...
0:44:37 > 0:44:40'either a cliched kind of killer machine Terminator,'
0:44:40 > 0:44:46but was also not an English butler, which is in a way what the C3PO character was,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50the attentive butler who's terribly worried about protocol.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54- OK, What's this?- It's an apple? - No, no, no, what is it?
0:44:54 > 0:44:58It's no good, sir, I just can't lie, I'm programmed always to tell the truth.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02The answer lay in Crichton's desire to be human.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06There was something about his lack of humanity that just...
0:45:06 > 0:45:11but his longing to be human, he admired human beings and their failings enormously
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and there was something about that that clicked with me.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Don't you think I'd love to be deceitful, unpleasant and offensive?
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Those are the human qualities I admire the most. I just can't do it.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23I've not done enough psychoanalysis as to why that is the case,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27- but I did find it absolutely fascinating.- Come-on, what is it?
0:45:27 > 0:45:29It's a...it's a...it's a...
0:45:29 > 0:45:32- small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden.- Yes!
0:45:32 > 0:45:35You did it, you did it. What's this?
0:45:35 > 0:45:41The character helped make the show a success, but the actor got none of the recognition.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46No one ever looked at me or said, "Are you that bloke from that thing?" Obviously.
0:45:46 > 0:45:52If they had recognised me when I had a head like a battered 1950s fridge, it would be slightly alarming.
0:45:53 > 0:45:59But Crichton wasn't the first robot on British TV to be all too human.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04In the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we've got Marvin, the Paranoid Android,
0:46:04 > 0:46:05a manic depressive robot.
0:46:05 > 0:46:11Life! Don't talk to me about life.
0:46:11 > 0:46:17He's the sort of sidekick you'd want to turn off because he's going to bring you down at every chance
0:46:17 > 0:46:20because he's got such a pessimistic, miserable view on life.
0:46:20 > 0:46:26Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they tell me to take you up to the bridge.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31I mean, he's got a great brain, but actually he is depressed
0:46:31 > 0:46:34for a good reason.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38That he's not taken for his full value.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Call that job satisfaction, cos I don't.
0:46:42 > 0:46:49He was suited for greater things really and he made it known that he wasn't very happy about it.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53In fact, he was a very unhappy robot.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58Here again the actor could bring something of himself to his non-human character.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03My life took me to it. I was a natural for this part.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08Sometimes they would say, "You're getting a bit cheerful now."
0:47:08 > 0:47:11- HE LAUGHS - But that didn't happen very often.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15That sunset, the two suns,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19it was like mountains of fire boiling into space.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21I've seen it.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23It's rubbish.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26It was an enjoyable miserable part.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30# 10 billion logic functions maybe more
0:47:30 > 0:47:33# They make me pick the paper off the floor... #
0:47:34 > 0:47:39Marvin's misery struck a chord with early Eighties viewers.
0:47:39 > 0:47:45Why people enjoy it I don't know, but people began, for some reason, to love that character.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48# Solitary solenoid
0:47:48 > 0:47:50# Terminally paranoid Marvin... #
0:47:50 > 0:47:54I think there must be a lot of people who are under-used,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57who understand
0:47:57 > 0:48:00the plight that poor Marvin is in.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05So, playing a robot can bring cult status and artistic satisfaction.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Ooh!
0:48:07 > 0:48:12If I was going to do some acting, that was the role that I was born to do.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14A sidekick.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18I would have said my character was a star.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22But when it comes to TV sidekicks, one man is light-years ahead.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29Doctor Who can boast the most assistants in the history of British television.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Or companions. Or helpers.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35All right, team... Oh, I hate people that say "team"!
0:48:35 > 0:48:37Um...gang.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39Um...comrades.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43One of the things about the Doctor is that he goes through life
0:48:43 > 0:48:45picking people up and moving on.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48That's never really examined in the show.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54If we look at Doctor Who, we are not too far away from the world of Sherlock Holmes again.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58Sherlock Holmes is a genius that could've come from another planet,
0:48:58 > 0:49:00he's so far ahead of the rest of the pack,
0:49:00 > 0:49:06what we have with Doctor Who is a character that is from another planet, a Time Lord, someone alien.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11I think it's useful to have human companions with him for the viewers,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14for the young viewers, it gives them someone to identify with.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19The Doctor's had more than 35 companions.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24But their role has changed dramatically since the early days.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27When Doctor Who started it was founded around its companions.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32The companions are not just the people through whom we view the story, they are the story.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36They are the people who have in fact been kidnapped by the Doctor,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39and whisked off into time and space.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42There must be some explanation.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47In the beginning of Doctor Who there are at three companions, and the Doctor at the heart of the story.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51Our sympathies are much more with the companions than the Doctor.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56The first Doctor, played by William Hartnell, isn't always a very sympathetic figure.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01In fact, there's a scene from the very first story, they are trapped in a Palaeolithic forest,
0:50:01 > 0:50:08they've escaped cavemen, and they're carrying a wounded caveman, but he's clearly holding them back.
0:50:08 > 0:50:14The Doctor picks up a stone and it looks for a moment like he's going to kill this caveman.
0:50:14 > 0:50:20- And the senior companion, played by William Russell, restrains him. - What are you doing?
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Well, I...I was going to get him to draw our way back to the TARDIS.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31Now that is a scene that very soon will become impossible.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35And so the companion defaulted to the damsel in distress.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38The girl sidekick generally has to go, "Oh, my God, a big monster,"
0:50:38 > 0:50:40because Doctor Who is not going to go, "Look, a big monster."
0:50:40 > 0:50:42He's met them all. Doctor Who is not that impressed,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46whereas the girl sidekick has to be scared and also show the audience, who are children,
0:50:46 > 0:50:51that a scary thing is happening because with the BBC props, they might just go, "What's that?"
0:50:56 > 0:51:00A succession of actors were brought in to look good and act scared.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05But in 1973, the arrival of a new companion seemed more like a change.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08I'm a journalist. Sarah Jane Smith.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10You realise this is a very dangerous place to be in?
0:51:10 > 0:51:12I can't help that, I'm stuck now.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15She's the first one who knows about feminism.
0:51:15 > 0:51:21And she can stand up to John Pertwee's rather authoritarian and rather patronising Doctor.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23You can make yourself useful.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25We need somebody around here to make the coffee.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29If you think I'm going to spend my time making cups of coffee for you...
0:51:29 > 0:51:36I was given a very particular, but quite a short little list of what she was. She was a modern woman,
0:51:36 > 0:51:41she was feisty, she was a woman who had her own mind.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44She's given a scene where she goes to this alien planet
0:51:44 > 0:51:48and gets to lecture the Queen of Pelodon on Women's Lib.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51It would be different if I was a man.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54But I'm only a girl.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59Now, just a minute, there's nothing only about being a girl, your Majesty.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03But being a strong woman in a Time Lord's world wasn't easy.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08They all did exactly the same thing that girls in Bond films did, they came on at the beginning
0:52:08 > 0:52:13and said, "I'm not going to be like all the others, I'm going to be proactive, I'm not going to scream,"
0:52:13 > 0:52:19and then, gradually, as the scripts kept coming in, it defaulted back to, "Eek, a monster."
0:52:19 > 0:52:25The Doctor, like James Bond, is so powerful a character that you can't really take that away from him.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Come on, we've got about a minute to get out of here! Quick, run!
0:52:29 > 0:52:33Pertwee's Doctor was a Doctor who loved to have smaller people to rescue.
0:52:33 > 0:52:40When you're running along a corridor escaping, John actually liked his assistant to be quite vulnerable.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46There was a lot of tension between Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Tom Baker deeply disapproved of her character.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Partly because of her violence - she was often...she killed people.
0:52:52 > 0:52:59He kept saying, "All we need for a companion is a talking cabbage who can sit on my shoulder."
0:52:59 > 0:53:01I'm going to materialise and take a reading.
0:53:01 > 0:53:06- Where are we? - But arguably the most popular sidekick wasn't a woman at all.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09- Pluto?- Pluto?- Yes, Pluto.
0:53:09 > 0:53:16The ninth planet was, until the discovery of Cassius, believed to be the outermost body in the system.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Tell your tin pet to shut up.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21- K9, you can tell me later. - Affirmative.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24They wanted me to have a voice that sounded as if it had come through
0:53:24 > 0:53:27a tiny little transistor speaker,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31and yet was the repository of all knowledge at an instant.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Check, Master.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37- What?- Machine mind computes mate in six moves.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39Rubbish!
0:53:39 > 0:53:43He is the faithful servant, but he's the faithful servant
0:53:43 > 0:53:47who thinks he knows quite as much as the Doctor, if not more.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51- Your move, Master.- I know it's my move. Don't flash your eyes at me.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Not only did K9 become a celebrity.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56Hello, nice doggy.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Negative, negative, do not approach. I have offensive capability.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04He even did a Lewis 25 years before Lewis himself.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09- Affirmative.- K9 was so successful, especially with kids, he actually got his own spin-off show.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17I think the title sequence of K9 and company
0:54:17 > 0:54:21is one of the most joyful things ever to be broadcast on television.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Oh, don't! I don't want to talk about that. I don't.
0:54:25 > 0:54:31You've got Elizabeth Sladen drinking white wine in the winter outside a pub in November.
0:54:33 > 0:54:39Then there's a picture of K9 sitting on top of a dry-stone wall!
0:54:39 > 0:54:41How did that happen?
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Somebody booted him up the arse, I don't know.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48It's supposed to be dynamic, like the Bionic Woman or something like that.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52And it's got this theme tune where K9 barks his own name.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58All I had to do was get to a microphone and go, "K9.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00"K9.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02"K9."
0:55:08 > 0:55:12I left drama school as a classical actor.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16You don't actually expect to be playing a tin dog at my age, but there you are.
0:55:16 > 0:55:22- You are the weakest link. - Affirmative, mistress. Goodbye.
0:55:24 > 0:55:30K9 would even pop up in the new series of Doctor Who, but this was a very different world.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32A world of one-off companions,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37action hero companions, and everywhere you looked, strong, mouthy women.
0:55:37 > 0:55:43I think when the series returns under Russell T Davies, something incredibly strange happens.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47At first sight, Billie Piper seems a baffling choice of companion.
0:55:47 > 0:55:52But the character, Rose Tyler, and the way it was written
0:55:52 > 0:55:55and her performance meant that she became the central character.
0:55:58 > 0:56:05In the older show, their job was to get into trouble that the Doctor would have to get them out of.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Now, in the revived show, quite often they are fulfilling
0:56:09 > 0:56:14the Sancho Panza function, of keeping the hero in check,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16of keeping him human, keeping him grounded.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Don't you think I've done enough?
0:56:19 > 0:56:22History's back in place and everyone dies.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25You've got to go back!
0:56:25 > 0:56:27Doctor, I'm telling you, take this thing back!
0:56:27 > 0:56:30This is a different kind of Doctor.
0:56:30 > 0:56:37The Doctor in the new series is this casualty of something called the Time War. He's the last Time Lord.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39He's a scarred and slightly dangerous man.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42That sort of demonstrates that he needs this Earthling
0:56:42 > 0:56:49to give him a moral grounding that he might not necessarily have if he was travelling off on his own.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51You were right.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53Sometimes I need someone.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01Alongside the new companions, we also saw the return of an old one.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06Hi, nice to meet you, you can tell you're getting older, your assistants are getting younger.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10- I'm not his assistant. - No? Get you, Tiger.
0:57:10 > 0:57:17Like an old girlfriend, they split up, the Doctor dumped her and years later they meet up again.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21I was there, with the Doctor again, but he was different.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24You could have come back.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27- I couldn't.- Why not?
0:57:27 > 0:57:32Sarah Jane's return raised questions about the whole purpose of the companion in Doctor Who. And beyond.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36- How many of us have there been travelling with you?- Does it matter?
0:57:36 > 0:57:39It does, if I'm the latest in a long line.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41As opposed to what?
0:57:41 > 0:57:46I thought you and me were... I obviously got it wrong.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49I've been to the year 5 billion, right, but this,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53this is really seeing the future, you just leave us behind.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57But maybe we shouldn't complain how the boss treats the assistant.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00He's an alien, he can behave in any way he likes.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03It's always been an unequal relationship.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08As in life, some people see themselves as absolutely the main event.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11And there's these little satellites going round them.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16But when you start to inspect the satellites, you see that actually a lot of the drama is there.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21It's there in this stage drama, it's there in the TV sitcom, it's there in the early British novel.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25There will always be a perfectly reflecting little mirror
0:58:25 > 0:58:29accompanying these great heroes and characters.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd