Sidekick Stories


Sidekick Stories

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Transcript


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Tonight, we salute the unsung heroes of television, the enablers, interpreters,

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confidantes and companions who act as sidekicks to the stars.

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I don't know of any actor or any performer who would admit to being a sidekick.

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We look at the art of the assistant, from the great detectives...

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His function is to humanise a sort of genius.

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-..to the modern cop show.

-I thinks he's Gene Hunt's bitch, basically.

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We plot the companion's course from crime fiction to science fiction...

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He's an alien. He can behave in any way he likes.

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..to children's television...

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50 years of sticking your hand up a teddy bear's bum.

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..and light entertainment.

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I would have been the principal boy, Larry, the dame, for sure.

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It's a world full of difficult talent...

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His great thing was to always get the better of humans.

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..and dysfunctional relationships.

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Manuel is Basil's sidekick. They need each other, in a strange way.

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These are the Sidekick Stories.

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Sidekicks have always been with us.

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-Every hero needs somebody to talk to.

-I beg you to tell me about it.

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Iolaus, who's Hercules' sidekick, who's the wiry, clever one,

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or Patroclus, who is Achilles' sidekick.

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I wish you'd tell me what you're talking about.

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When you look at English literature,

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there in Shakespeare you find Falstaff, the ultimate sidekick,

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a kind of exuberant character who can say and do things

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that the main characters might not quite allow themselves to do.

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In King Lear, the Fool is the ultimate sidekick as well.

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And when you look at cartoons, when you look at television shows, when you look at films,

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across the whole breadth of culture, the sidekick is one of the funniest and most essential elements.

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-Can you just go anywhere you like in that TARDIS?

-Yes, within reason.

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A good TV sidekick is someone who's kind of stupid and kind of not,

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they're stupid in that they keep having to ask questions,

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but they're smart enough to ask the question in the first place.

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-Why don't you go somewhere safer?

-Because, my dear Sarah, I have a job to do.

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One that involves the whole future of your species.

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Nobody can be Hercules, nobody can be Sherlock Holmes, but we can be Sancho Panza or Dr Watson.

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A study in sidekicks has to start with Sherlock Holmes and the curious case of the archetypal assistant.

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Dr Watson's very important in this story because in the books

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he's the person through whose eyes we see Holmes.

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He's there to guide us through the world of Holmes' thinking,

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to be the person who is there to be impressed by what Holmes does.

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Well, how did you know about the carriage in which the murderer and his victim arrived, for example?

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Child's play. The marks made by the carriage wheels

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and by the horse's hooves in the driveway told me all I needed to know.

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He's like a narrative device. He's sort of spinning around

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the main character like a wee camera, constantly showing new sides of Sherlock Holmes.

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And you see that to brilliant effect, perhaps better than anywhere

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outside of Don Quixote and his famous sidekick, Sancho Panza.

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-And his age?

-Well, I deduced that from his footprints.

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-Any man who can take strides of 4½ feet could hardly be an old man.

-Wonderful.

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In the TV versions, he's a sort of fat bloke who doesn't know anything and goes...

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How on earth do you know that?

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Oh, how can you possibly know that? What is the meaning of all this? What is happening?

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Watson is the archetype for the sidekick in that he asks questions

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-and he doesn't really get it.

-What in heaven's name is that?

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But there's more to Watson than sometimes makes the screen.

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He's been a soldier, he's been to a Afghanistan, he's a husband,

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he's been in general practice,

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in lots of ways, actually, he has a much stronger sense

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of what life in the world is like than Holmes.

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And to think that we heard his screams and yet could not...

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Watson, look here!

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Watson isn't stupid. I think very often, especially in Hollywood,

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he's been played as bumbling.

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It's a poor trick.

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You know, make Watson stupid because it would seem that then Holmes is even more intelligent.

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That's not the right thing to do.

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I think the Jeremy Brett series got it better,

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where you had a Watson then who was quite thoughtful, who was clever.

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He just wasn't a genius like Holmes.

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So how do you play the world's most famous sidekick?

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I remember when I started,

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thinking, "How many different ways can I act listening?"

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Because that's the function.

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Very often, the director will focus on Holmes, and then he's got to come to you to react.

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And a lot of the time, that's silence.

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'So you have to be a bit careful that you are not pulling the same face.' Of course.

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I do think they are, to some extent, two halves of the same person.

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And I think that's why they are drawn to each other.

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Watson has qualities that maybe Holmes doesn't show.

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And I think his function is literally to humanise a sort of genius.

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Watson humanises Holmes absolutely.

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Holmes, particularly in his Jeremy Brett incarnation, is way out there.

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HE LAUGHS

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There's an episode, The Musgrave Ritual, I think,

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where Holmes comes down to dinner at this rather grand house, a castle,

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and he's out of his head on cocaine.

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And Hardwick's Watson is just embarrassed by it.

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And so he acts as a sort of anchor, I think.

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He's the person who shows us what the consequences of Holmes' strangeness are.

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But Holmes' one friend is also the author's alter ego.

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In all the depictions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson,

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Dr Watson is the one who looks like Arthur Conan Doyle.

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The occasional times they've done Sherlock Holmes stories without Watson, it's not really worked.

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Even Doyle admitted this. He had Holmes narrate a couple of stories,

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and said, "You know, it just doesn't work. You need Watson.

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"You need good old Watson."

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And you realise that Watson is the person who all this is for.

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For all their adventures together, they left their greatest mystery unsolved.

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There is something about that idea of two Edwardian gentlemen sharing a flat and eating kedgeree together

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that does suggest that this relationship is of a slightly different order.

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I think it's interesting to explore the possibilities of the homoerotic nature of Watson and Holmes.

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I think there may well be some elements of that,

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but I don't think it was what Arthur Conan Doyle was trying to do.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

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Whatever the truth, there's a bit of Holmes and Watson in every sleuth and sidekick who followed.

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There are definite parallels between Morse and Holmes, both the main detectives and the sidekicks.

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I mean, they were both intellectual,

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both very driven, both fascinated by the complexities of their work.

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And, of course, there's the music as well, Holmes with his violin

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-and Morse with his Mozart and his Wagner.

-I liked that.

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It was good.

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Who was it?

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That, Lewis, was Maria Callas.

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Was it from Cats?

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No, it most certainly was not.

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The relationship between Inspector Morse and Lewis is incredibly important.

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Morse, grumpy old man, but a genius,

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aided and abetted by Lewis, the archetypal plodding copper.

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You still don't see anything up there?

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Only a balustrade.

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Get a body over that, do you think?

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-Oh.

-Yes, Lewis - "Oh."

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Lewis is, almost literally, he is just Dr Watson transformed, isn't he?

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Because that show is a police procedural rather than a private eye show,

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the dynamic is different, in that Lewis works for Morse so Morse can bully him a bit more.

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Come on, come on, let me do it.

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But Lewis would boldly go where most sidekicks fear to tread,

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by becoming the star of his own series.

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The character that goes from sidekick to lead to getting his own sidekick, that's a great development.

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I mean, he's the sidekick's sidekick.

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They must look up at him in awe, all the others.

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The Watsons of this world may just look at Lewis and think, "God, he did it. There's hope for all of us."

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I'm not quite convinced, because if you've spent all these years being the not quite smart enough sidekick,

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how do you suddenly acquire the extra brain cells?

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But the great British sidekick usually knew his place.

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He was there to serve his master.

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The top men, Holmes, Wimsey, Morse,

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were supermen, as far as brains were concerned, of solving crimes,

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they really were supermen,

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far superior to anybody in the street.

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And all these sidekicks

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were able to make their superiors' knowledge

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understandable to the audience.

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Lafontaine was right, eh, Bunter?

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-Bunter?

-Bunter, who is Lord Peter Wimsey's sidekick, he's actually his butler.

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And this is a tradition as well.

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Devilled kidneys, my lord?

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Jeeves in the PG Wodehouse stories is the great valet sidekick.

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And the other avatar of this mode is Alfred in the Batman stories,

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who is at once a father and a sidekick.

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And maybe it's a relationship that isn't possible to depict any more

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because people just don't have butlers.

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Excuse me, my lord, but having seen this morning's copy of the Times,

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-I had no doubt your Lordship would wish to return to Riddlesdale at once.

-Riddlesdale?

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Captain Cathcart has been found shot dead.

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He had the ability to spot things and point them out.

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"Police suspect foul play."

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He wasn't just the servant, he could also make suggestions, and did.

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You could send him off on any errand and make absolutely certain it was done properly.

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Bunter had brains, brawn and could make a mean breakfast.

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And, crucially, he'd never cross the boss.

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I mean, they were both born and bred into their own particular class.

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Bunter never overstepped the mark, never called him Peter or anything like that.

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All right, constable, Peter Wimsey.

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I'll look after the lady.

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This is something about the British class system embodied here.

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And I think really what it does, it crystallises the idea that these are unequal relationships.

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The relationship between Holmes and Watson is unequal

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in many ways, the relationship between Wimsey and Bunter is unequal.

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And the script of the British class system is written into it.

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Bunter!

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Bad night, my lord?

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Characters like Bunter, Jeeves and Alfred would be very difficult to sell in a modern way.

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Maybe somebody who's a female Bridget Jones type executive

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with a super smart PA, probably a younger gay man

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who would solve all her problems, maybe that's a development of the Jeeves, the butler character

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that does still have currency in modern fiction.

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Right, let's fire up the Quattro.

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And when it all kicks off, the sidekick has a vital function, to supplement the machismo of the lead.

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Where Watson had his service revolver, Gene Hunt's sidekicks go toe-to-toe with the bad guys.

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This is the police! You're surrounded.

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I do a lot of the action stuff in this series, a lot of the running about and the diving and the rolls

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and be shot at and all that sort of thing, so in this case, the sidekicks are used for that,

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and then Gene can come out and just finish them off with one shot and look cool.

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Although I think, deep down, Gene has a love for Chris.

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He obviously has because Chris is quite useless.

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Chris, give us the gun.

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Oh, shit, I must have left it in the car.

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To have him on the team, he must be there for a reason, even if it's just to laugh at.

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But that's one of the best reasons of all.

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The sidekick doesn't just provide the muscle, he also provides the laughs.

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The comedy relief sidekick is sort of important and it's interesting

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how almost all sidekicks are allowed to be funnier than heroes.

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-Go on then, say it.

-Do you want a hand, mate?

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The only exception I can think of is Bertie Wooster,

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who's the funny character and Jeeves is the clever character.

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But all the way back to Shakespeare's fools, you had the character who comes on and does the jokes.

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Miss James, Miss James!

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Sometimes people think you're a bit stupid because you play stupid all the time, you know,

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and you can get treated a bit as if you are a bit of a numpty at times,

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but that's part of the game and obviously you're playing your character well.

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-Drama's full of lovable foul-ups.

-Oh, Rigsby!

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But the natural home of the stupid sidekick is the sitcom.

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I think modern television understanding of the sidekick

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is much more like the very ancient pantomimic, Commedia dell'arte way of understanding the sidekick

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as being a complete lunatic, a nutcase, a mad person, the village idiot, you know, the fool.

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Baldrick was a great example of that, somebody who was so absurd and so comically slappable

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that every time he appeared with his ridiculous suggestions, the audience just roared.

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I think the character of Baldrick is one of those archetypes

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that have been around as long as storytelling has been around.

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People in the streets will say to me, "Is Baldrick really that thick or is he just pretending?"

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The awful answer is that I'm so stupid I don't know.

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The use of the idiot sidekick is something that comes again and again in comedy.

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Look at the Vicar Of Dibley with Alice.

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In Father Ted, you know...

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Father Ted isn't the sharpest, but Father Dougal is incredibly stupid.

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And if you look at Blackadder, you can look at Baldric as very much the sidekick to Blackadder.

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But also, the others, the Prince, the Queen, all play foil to Blackadder's funny guy.

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Blackadder was certainly an ensemble piece.

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We were all thinking, "How do be serve this show best?"

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Rowan serves it by being at its apex,

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Hugh Laurie is here, Stephen Fry is there, I'm down there somewhere, but still serving the totality.

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That's your job, that's what you do.

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It doesn't feel like being a sidekick, it just feels like doing a job.

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But even within the ensemble piece, a supporting character can become an iconic comic hero.

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-Manuel.

-Si.

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-The bottle?

-Yes.

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-Where is it?

-Que?

-Donde est...

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Oh, I take it. I take it, I take it.

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Come here. You're a waste of space.

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The audiences tend to feel sympathy for Manuel.

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They think, "Oh, poor Manuel, he's always in trouble."

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I think Manuel himself is a very happy man.

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I think he probably has qualities that I'd enjoy having.

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I would imagine he'd make a wonderful husband and father.

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He'd love it, eight children, beautiful, if he ever had them.

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But he's not married, and I hope one day he does get married.

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He's loyal, I'm sure he'd give you the shirt off his back for generosity.

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And he'd be faithful to the death to that family.

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He thinks they're great, it's the best hotel in the world, and he's one of the greatest waiters in the world.

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In modern comedies, on television, in film, where there is a sidekick,

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that's actually drawing on a really old tradition, in the British novel especially.

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The very earliest novels, the kind of novels that were written by people like Henry Fielding

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or Daniel Defoe, you know, had sidekicks as their central characters.

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They come together in a little comedy like Fawlty Towers.

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You think you're just watching a madcap, absurd adventure going on

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in a hotel in Torquay, but actually it's connected to some brilliant long tradition of the sidekick.

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It's one of its best manifestations, I think.

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Andrew Sachs's Manuel has got to be one of the greatest comic creations since the Sixties.

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He's a creation absolutely and completely in his own right.

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And in a sense the secret of Manuel is the fact that he is so much in his own world,

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and Andrew, being such a skilful actor, has created this world that nobody can impinge on.

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No, No. This is Table 1.

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It's Wednesday.

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Room seven is Table 5. No, please, here. Come here.

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Fawlty Towers was tightly scripted, but the little we know of Manuel's background comes from Sachs himself.

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There wasn't a sort of Stanislavsky feeling of, "What was his mother like?

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"Where did he come from?" and all that. Not even that he came from Barcelona.

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I invented that somewhere along the line. Things were invented all the time.

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-Yes?

-Before I go...

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What is it?

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-It's my birthday.

-Yes, I know.

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I want to thank you for beautiful present.

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And for your much kindness to me since I come here.

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-Not at all, my pleasure.

-On my birthday, Manuel's birthday,

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he gives me an umbrella, I think.

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And he's busy in the office of the hotel.

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Since coming here from Spain, leaving my mother...

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'I knock on the door, he bangs it shut again, something like that.

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"Behind this door, when he's doing something,

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"I pull out a bit of paper, and I've written a little thank you letter.

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It's hardly heard by the audience - "Senor, thank you very, very much for my birthday present, is very nice..."

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Since coming here from Spain, leaving my five brothers...

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Give it to me. Thank you.

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I invented all this, it was just ad-libbed.

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So it kind of stayed.

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So that's a bit of background created by Sachs.

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The sidekick relationship with the main guy

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is usually one that's completely dysfunctional, but based on love.

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I mean, why doesn't he just fire Manuel?

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Of course, he wouldn't, because something of his absurdity,

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something of his whole life, is dependent on this dysfunctional relationship.

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Since I come here from Spain, leaving my five mothers...

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'They need each other in a strange way.'

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When Basil gets angry with him or hits him or whatever,

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it's confirmation that he's noticed and needed, and loved, perhaps.

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But not all sidekicks play dumb.

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You can be socially and intellectually superior to the lead.

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The great thing about Sergeant Wilson,

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Jimmy Perry, who wrote it, said, is that, instead of having the boss,

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Captain Mainwaring, being a toff,

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and the subservient sidekick being lower-middle class, they reversed it.

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Don't sit in my chair when I'm not here, Wilson.

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Sorry, sir, I was just writing out a notice, that's all.

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Sergeant Wilson is a Jeeves-type sidekick.

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He's a sidekick who's cleverer, wiser... "Do you think that wise, sir?" is his catchphrase.

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He's the sensible one.

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But, somehow, Captain Mainwaring actually has the authority.

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-I am an officer.

-Yes, quite, sir.

-You're supposed to be an NCO.

0:20:410:20:45

-Yes, of course, yes.

-Right. Very well, remember...

0:20:450:20:47

Captain Mainwaring is a bit of an oik, whereas Wilson is a toff,

0:20:500:20:52

and it really creates this great tension in the relationship.

0:20:520:20:56

It's one of the great strokes of genius in comedy.

0:20:560:20:59

This is the notice I was writing out, do you understand?

0:20:590:21:03

"Do not lean back in this chair".

0:21:030:21:06

It's that tension between the main act and the assistant that drives the narrative.

0:21:070:21:12

Now, come on, TARDIS. We are getting out of here.

0:21:120:21:14

Well, I might just have something to say about that, spaceman!

0:21:140:21:18

Whether you look at very high culture, looking at Greek drama, or arguably very low culture,

0:21:180:21:25

the relationship between Tintin and Snowy, it's essentially the same relationship.

0:21:250:21:30

The sidekick has existed all the way through cultural history, in almost every form you can think of.

0:21:300:21:35

The sidekick had a TV life that went beyond comedy and drama into light entertainment.

0:21:350:21:41

Here, the assistant gave us not just exposition, but glamour.

0:21:410:21:45

And, sometimes, even romance.

0:21:450:21:48

Traditionally, if you look at game shows, you did have a host, and then some sort of glamorous assistant.

0:21:480:21:54

The patronising attitude of TV makers was that the women would watch with the kids anyway

0:21:540:21:58

on a Saturday night show because it would be entertaining

0:21:580:22:01

and you didn't need much to keep the women interested, but you had to have some eye candy for the men.

0:22:010:22:06

Oh, you must do a twirl. I love it.

0:22:060:22:09

With the Generation Game, that assistant is completely different.

0:22:090:22:11

They become a sidekick proper.

0:22:110:22:13

Anthea Redfern becomes an important and integral part of the show.

0:22:130:22:17

Now, the nylon stockings, they still drive me mad, they really do.

0:22:170:22:21

When Bruce and Anthea left, there were fears for the future of the show.

0:22:210:22:25

Salvation came with one of the most original pieces of casting in LE history.

0:22:250:22:31

Please meet Miss Isla St Clair.

0:22:310:22:33

APPLAUSE

0:22:330:22:35

They phoned up and said they wanted me to do it.

0:22:400:22:44

I was completely speechless, taken aback.

0:22:440:22:46

I still thought they must have got it wrong, because I thought,

0:22:460:22:50

"I'm so far away from what they had before. Why would they want me?"

0:22:500:22:53

Then, when I met Larry, I realised.

0:22:560:22:58

Bruce Forsyth's shtick involved the gentle humiliation of the guests on the Generation Game.

0:22:580:23:03

-You need those.

-Does she need those?

0:23:030:23:06

Larry Grayson never did that.

0:23:060:23:08

Isla St Clair, I think, as a resort, took a slightly more authoritative role, in that you could imagine

0:23:080:23:14

she was Larry's carer, as well as anything else.

0:23:140:23:17

That she might help Larry sit down or find his right glasses,

0:23:170:23:20

or make sure he'd taken his pills before he went on.

0:23:200:23:24

-What's the next game?

-Well, game number three...

0:23:240:23:28

In defying one stereotype, Isla helped create a new one - the hyper-competent sidekick.

0:23:280:23:34

I wasn't just presenting the car or the washing machine,

0:23:340:23:37

they were using me to introduce the games and I was more proactive.

0:23:370:23:41

Not hugely, but enough to make that difference.

0:23:410:23:43

You see, you always know everything, you do. She does.

0:23:430:23:46

She's always bossing me all the time, you know.

0:23:460:23:48

I think I was there to kind of bring a semblance of order.

0:23:480:23:52

Under Larry and Isla, the show became more successful than ever,

0:23:550:23:58

despite the apparent lack of any sexual chemistry.

0:23:580:24:01

When they chose a woman who had more about her, who hadn't come down the beauty queen role,

0:24:010:24:06

for her not to be challenging, she had to be partnered with a man who was not sexually available to her,

0:24:060:24:13

so there wasn't a sexual element possible in their relationship.

0:24:130:24:17

Shut your mouths.

0:24:170:24:20

I'll do anything, if you ask me properly, but if you start shouting, I'll not do a thing. Tell him.

0:24:200:24:25

That's right, he won't do it, I know, I've tried.

0:24:250:24:27

-Please, Airman Grayson, do it, please?

-Yeah, alright.

0:24:270:24:31

And don't forget to write.

0:24:310:24:34

It was an inspired piece of casting, if not quite as original as first it seemed.

0:24:380:24:45

I would have been the principal boy, Larry, the dame, for sure, that's exactly how it was.

0:24:450:24:50

She seems like a nice girl, doesn't she?

0:24:500:24:52

But nowhere is the relationship as important or mysterious

0:24:520:24:56

as that between the magician and his assistant.

0:24:560:24:59

The whole bond between main character and sidekick

0:24:590:25:03

is based on the notion they know things the audience don't know.

0:25:030:25:07

And that's taking to a brilliant extreme

0:25:070:25:10

with the magician and his assistant, because she knows the secret of the trick,

0:25:100:25:15

and she's helping him create the illusion.

0:25:150:25:18

So, that illusion that they're creating together

0:25:180:25:21

suggests an incredible bond, an almost sexual bond.

0:25:210:25:25

It was really strange how I got the job as Paul's magic assistant,

0:25:250:25:29

Paul Daniels, my husband.

0:25:290:25:31

I'd been a classical ballet dancer for the Iranian National Ballet.

0:25:360:25:40

It was the time of the revolution, when the Ayatollah created trouble,

0:25:400:25:45

and we were all imprisoned in one apartment block where they thought we were safe.

0:25:450:25:51

So before I started rehearsals with him, I had no idea who Paul Daniels was, or what he did.

0:25:510:25:57

Paul was TV's top magician, and, safely back home, Debbie landed a part in his show.

0:25:590:26:05

When I first worked with Paul, it was a matter of just carrying a prop on a tray or something.

0:26:050:26:12

We've got a lady wearing a nightie. Sorry! I thought you were ready for bed, love!

0:26:120:26:16

So, it didn't really require any skill, except to stand straight and keep smiling.

0:26:160:26:22

And we have a knot here so that Debbie won't get hung when it's pulled very tight.

0:26:220:26:28

The prop carrier was quickly promoted.

0:26:280:26:31

Paul was soon tying her up, probing her with uranium rods, and, of course, sawing her in half.

0:26:310:26:37

This is the sidekick taken to its furthest extreme.

0:26:370:26:40

"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.

0:26:400:26:47

"But I'll still be there to serve you in the following performance."

0:26:470:26:50

Tonight, my assistant gets inside the barrel.

0:26:500:26:53

They are, together, in charge of this illusion in this performance,

0:26:530:26:58

so the sidekick does have authority, but it's a silent authority.

0:26:580:27:03

She could never speak about it, it's mysterious.

0:27:030:27:06

# Put a little magic # Put a little magic

0:27:060:27:09

# Put a little magic in your life. #

0:27:090:27:12

Quite a lot of the time, you're there as a distraction.

0:27:120:27:15

You can't walk on stage in your jeans and scruffy hair and no make-up.

0:27:150:27:21

-If you don't look good, you're not going to distract them.

-Thank you, Debbie. Lovely frock.

0:27:210:27:26

I think magician's assistants also give us what Dr Watson gives us - a way into the world of magic.

0:27:260:27:33

Quite often the assistant's job is to look amazed.

0:27:330:27:36

A magician can do an ordinary trick, and the assistant can sell it.

0:27:360:27:41

What you're there to do is to make it look as good as possible.

0:27:410:27:45

I can actually make Paul's applause grow, or kill it.

0:27:450:27:50

-Would you like the good news or the bad news first?

-The good news.

-Well, the good news is...

0:27:500:27:57

-But then a funny thing happened - the assistant became a kind of co-star.

-What's the bad news?

0:27:570:28:02

They want me to take over the show.

0:28:020:28:05

I think I was quite aware of becoming a bit more

0:28:050:28:10

than just being a magic assistant in the background.

0:28:100:28:13

Ladies and gentlemen, now that I'm taking over the show, it's going to be called The Debbie McGee Show.

0:28:130:28:19

APPLAUSE

0:28:190:28:21

Behind the scenes, something magical was happening, as Paul swept Debbie off her feet.

0:28:240:28:31

So, what did first attract her?

0:28:310:28:34

Our partnership grew along with the show, I think.

0:28:340:28:38

It was just an instant, as they say, chemistry thing.

0:28:380:28:43

-But when the magician married the assistant, another funny thing happened.

-Hello there.

0:28:430:28:49

People were more interested in the marriage than the magic.

0:28:490:28:53

Debbie McGee is a fascinating character.

0:28:530:28:55

I suppose like the power behind the throne, in some respects.

0:28:550:28:58

And she also allows Paul Daniels to be nasty

0:28:580:29:01

when you see them interviewed together.

0:29:010:29:04

She's the nice one, he's the grumpy, curmudgeonly, Scrooge-like one.

0:29:040:29:08

You're so bitter. Why did you suddenly get so angry about that?

0:29:080:29:12

The only time I come across people being...

0:29:120:29:16

patronising towards me or cynicism is from journalists.

0:29:160:29:20

It actually upsets some journalists, you know.

0:29:200:29:23

I know you're a journalist, and it upsets them that we're happy together, and I think, "Get a life."

0:29:230:29:30

We had a good time with Louis, but the media have tried to imply

0:29:300:29:33

that "you married the boss", or "you only got the job because you were his girlfriend".

0:29:330:29:39

I tend to just rise above it.

0:29:390:29:41

# Put a little magic Put a little magic... #

0:29:410:29:44

But it wasn't just light entertainment shows that relied on the talented assistant.

0:29:440:29:48

And it wasn't just women in the supporting role.

0:29:480:29:52

# Break or bust? Cake or crust? Yeah, That's Life! #

0:29:520:29:58

If you look at That's Life, to make a consumer show work,

0:29:580:30:02

on paper it's quite dry and boring, so you can jazz it up.

0:30:020:30:05

-Having sidekicks help you.

-From the Kent Messenger, the commissioner said the wife was a neurotic woman,

0:30:050:30:11

with one leg in this world and the other in a world of her own.

0:30:110:30:14

-Between those two legs, she doesn't know quite where she is.

-# Yeah, that's life. #

0:30:140:30:21

I never thought of them as co-presenters.

0:30:250:30:27

I thought of them as reporters, crucial to the success of the show.

0:30:270:30:32

Absolutely vital.

0:30:320:30:33

They're support to the main lead, and they fulfil the same criteria that sidekicks do in drama.

0:30:330:30:39

They're there to make the person like good,

0:30:390:30:41

they're there to explain, sometimes to impart information and make sure the show runs smoothly.

0:30:410:30:46

Because what we were creating on screen was a sort of family.

0:30:460:30:50

There was boring old mum sitting there!

0:30:500:30:54

And the kids.

0:30:540:30:56

The co-presenters came from all walks of life.

0:30:580:31:01

-Hello.

-'We never advertised...'

-Good evening.

0:31:010:31:04

People wrote to us, people phoned us, people's agents got in touch with us.

0:31:040:31:09

Doc Cox. Now what was Doc Cox's doctorate in, I wonder?

0:31:090:31:14

Did he study perhaps alongside Dr Fox in the same institution?

0:31:140:31:18

# There's tart of the house and there's ouzo with tit... #

0:31:180:31:22

Adrian Mills was an actor, wasn't he? He'd wrestled a giant snake semi-nude in Doctor Who.

0:31:220:31:29

I was working as a part-time debt collector at Earl's Court.

0:31:290:31:33

I'd been an actor for 10 years, you know what an acting life is like,

0:31:330:31:36

you're never quite sure when the next job is coming.

0:31:360:31:38

I remember phoning my parents and I said, "I'm the new presenter on BBC One's That's Life."!

0:31:390:31:46

Complete silence, and my mum said, "Does that mean we've got to watch it now?"

0:31:460:31:49

The reporters weren't just the voice of the public - on occasions, they were the public.

0:31:510:31:55

That's Life was one of the first shows to hold open auditions and let the viewers decide.

0:31:550:32:00

I was living in Edinburgh at the time working as a caravan salesman,

0:32:000:32:04

and I jumped on the sleeper train down to London on the Monday night.

0:32:040:32:08

The auditions were on Wednesday morning. I wanted to get there early

0:32:080:32:11

because they said they were only going to see 2,000 people.

0:32:110:32:14

-What made you do it?

-It's That's Life, Esther.

0:32:140:32:17

You don't get a chance like this twice in a lifetime.

0:32:170:32:20

So, you've just got to go for it.

0:32:200:32:21

SHE IMITATES KATE BUSH

0:32:210:32:24

The wannabe presenters were put through their paces.

0:32:250:32:28

Who had what it takes to be a That's Life presenter?

0:32:280:32:31

Shows like the X Factor, Pop Idol, and a lot of the reality shows now have become competitions.

0:32:310:32:38

But I don't doubt for a second that when you look back at what happened in the That's Life auditions,

0:32:380:32:44

this was the model that they actually based it on.

0:32:440:32:47

And the winner is Mr Kevin Devine.

0:32:470:32:51

I really felt like I was going to start crying.

0:32:510:32:55

It was just phenomenal.

0:32:550:32:57

I was no longer the caravan salesman that had left Edinburgh that day,

0:32:570:33:01

I was going to be a presenter on a prime-time TV show on Sunday night,

0:33:010:33:06

on a show that was an institution.

0:33:060:33:09

Once ensconced, their role was clearly defined.

0:33:090:33:14

We were there to support Esther, because she was the ringmaster,

0:33:140:33:17

if you like, and we had all these great stories to tell.

0:33:170:33:20

..Then it peed on the living room floor and left.

0:33:200:33:22

Our role was very much to be the voice and the spokesperson

0:33:220:33:26

for the 10,000 letters a week that used to come in.

0:33:260:33:28

-IMITATES A CHINESE ACCENT:

-But we would thend it to him for thmall pwithe, thirty perthent...

0:33:280:33:34

thirty perthent dithcount,

0:33:340:33:37

a vewy thpecial pwithe.

0:33:370:33:39

They have different slants, they bring their own personality into it, you can split up the storylines.

0:33:390:33:45

-The gentleman said...

-Just to take the E to K...

-..Round to the Post Office. Fine, I know.

0:33:450:33:50

You can have them answering back, you can have them playing roles.

0:33:500:33:53

It's the only way, sir, you think about it.

0:33:530:33:55

They were fantastic communicators.

0:33:550:33:57

Behaving almost like actors to bring the story to life.

0:33:570:34:00

So, I think the mechanics of That's Life make it absolutely vital to have people like that.

0:34:000:34:06

The reporters were part of the show's trademark mix

0:34:060:34:10

of veg, vox pops, and hard-hitting consumer journalism.

0:34:100:34:14

Life is light and shade, it was there to entertain as well as inform.

0:34:140:34:19

I was sent to interview the contestants for the HMV dog,

0:34:190:34:23

and I remember thinking, "Try to sing to them, that's what I'll do."

0:34:230:34:25

And they went berserk and they attacked me.

0:34:250:34:27

# You ain't nothing but a hound dog... #

0:34:270:34:30

BARKING

0:34:300:34:32

Ah!

0:34:320:34:33

'Occasionally, there'd be something I'd think, "I don't want to do that."

0:34:330:34:36

I wasn't a great fan of Get Britain Singing, leaping out at Joe public

0:34:360:34:39

and getting them to sing along used to fill me with dread.

0:34:390:34:42

Hello, Sir!

0:34:420:34:44

Can you do the Twist?

0:34:440:34:46

The amount of snobbery from some of the grey suits at the BBC about That's Life was extraordinary.

0:34:490:34:54

It was seen to be well below what they were normally pitching at,

0:34:540:34:58

but, to be perfectly frank, to hell with them.

0:34:580:35:00

It actually was about the people that were writing in.

0:35:000:35:03

It was about the millions of people that were watching, and enjoying, the programme.

0:35:030:35:06

There would be more than 20 co-presenters in the history of That's Life, but only one star.

0:35:060:35:11

Oh, yeah. You were always going to play second fiddle on That's Life.

0:35:110:35:15

Esther Rantzen was the star of the show.

0:35:150:35:19

It was Esther as this very powerful woman.

0:35:190:35:22

I think for a lot of men that's quite an enticing fantasy.

0:35:220:35:26

You can imagine her in one of those Emmanuel wicker chairs,

0:35:290:35:32

with all of those men giving her manicures and things like that.

0:35:320:35:35

There was a sense that she was kind of the matriarch of this bunch of slightly submissive men.

0:35:350:35:40

I was taking the lead role as a woman, and my reporters were men.

0:35:400:35:44

That made some male television critics uncomfortable.

0:35:440:35:50

They were pretty much castrated,

0:35:500:35:52

they had their nuts in a jar on the desk in front of them

0:35:520:35:55

because that's the role of the show.

0:35:550:35:57

Actually, I think what that revealed was sexism.

0:35:570:36:01

I never felt emasculated working for Esther Rantzen. I can honestly say that.

0:36:010:36:04

"Autocuties", "Esther's nancies", whatever you wanted to call us,

0:36:040:36:08

to be honest, it didn't matter.

0:36:080:36:10

We knew we were doing a good job, we enjoyed it, and it was really appreciated by the public.

0:36:100:36:14

That's Life bowed out after 21 seasons,

0:36:140:36:18

but if playing opposite a woman could be hard, how much tougher to play second fiddle to a puppet?

0:36:180:36:23

-It's in children's TV where the sidekicks truly tested.

-What have you got there?

0:36:230:36:28

Well, it's a new mini-telly, Mr Nixon, specially built for small-minded viewers.

0:36:280:36:34

Even the transistors have got transistors.

0:36:340:36:38

People that work with puppets have a different skill set.

0:36:380:36:41

They're much closer to a double act with the live human playing the straight man to the funny puppet,

0:36:410:36:48

and none more so than in Basil Brush.

0:36:480:36:52

Wey-hey!

0:36:520:36:54

Basil started in the Sixties as sidekick to magician David Nixon,

0:36:550:36:58

but quickly became the star of his own show.

0:36:580:37:01

Though he always preferred working with an assistant.

0:37:010:37:04

Basil is a comedian who needs a straight guy.

0:37:040:37:07

He needs his gimp to humiliate and control and bamboozle.

0:37:070:37:12

And he needs somebody to turn the pages when they read the story at the end,

0:37:120:37:16

which is something he'd be incapable of doing.

0:37:160:37:18

Basil employed a series of Misters to do his bidding, including Mr Derek, Mr Howard and Mr Roy.

0:37:180:37:26

As brilliant as he was, he needed feeding, because he was a gagster doing the punch lines.

0:37:260:37:32

His main thing was interacting with humans and putting them down,

0:37:320:37:35

and always getting on top of them.

0:37:350:37:38

We'll have none of that!

0:37:390:37:42

I'm sorry.

0:37:420:37:43

I got carried away.

0:37:430:37:45

But was this another relationship founded on class?

0:37:450:37:48

Ooh!

0:37:480:37:50

Basil is posh. Basil is literally from the hunting classes.

0:37:510:37:55

Roy North is something different.

0:37:550:37:58

He's regional. He might have been the first person from Hull ever allowed on TV.

0:37:580:38:02

As a five-year-old growing up in Hull, I was sensitive,

0:38:050:38:08

very sensitive, that Roy North was somehow my representative on stage.

0:38:080:38:13

What are you dressed like that for? You do look a right Charlie!

0:38:130:38:17

-I'm a jester!

-A right Charlie jester!

0:38:170:38:21

Other puppets, even though they're a bit naughty, generally they're controlled by their puppet-master,

0:38:210:38:27

whereas Basil Brush is there just to insult his handlers, who treat him in this kind of wary manner

0:38:270:38:33

because they know that their wages depend on his anarchistic activities.

0:38:330:38:37

Outside, on the five-acre lunch... launching pad...

0:38:370:38:40

-Lidge...lodge, yes.

-If you had a funny accent or a dodgy eyebrow,

0:38:400:38:45

he'd always pick on that and put you down.

0:38:450:38:49

You got it wrong, didn't you?

0:38:490:38:51

-Come along.

-I'd try and keep him in check, but his great thing was to always get the better of humans.

0:38:510:38:59

That was his whole drive, you know.

0:38:590:39:00

Basil Brush is a fox who wears hunting gear.

0:39:000:39:03

There's an element of self-hatred, I think, in that character.

0:39:030:39:07

Puppets aren't really real, are they? I mean, not really, really, really real.

0:39:070:39:11

I mean, they're not real fellas like you and me, are they?

0:39:110:39:14

He always used to to say he hated puppets, did Basil. Because he felt above it.

0:39:140:39:17

He didn't think he was a puppet, he thought he was a fella, actually.

0:39:170:39:21

People like Sooty, he used to say, "I hate puppets, can't stand puppets."

0:39:210:39:25

Basil's great rival had been going since the Fifties, and was already an established star.

0:39:270:39:34

Sooty, it's gone!

0:39:340:39:36

But, Sooty's sidekick wasn't just part of the act, he was part of the family.

0:39:360:39:40

And, in theory, the assistant had the upper hand.

0:39:400:39:43

With Sooty, there's a sense of this being a family of some kind,

0:39:430:39:47

because you've obviously got the Corbetts, who are the originators of Sooty.

0:39:470:39:52

Harry Corbett, who first did the act.

0:39:520:39:54

Oh, not a water pistol.

0:39:540:39:57

He was an older figure, and you sensed that these puppets were running rings round him.

0:39:570:40:02

They were like naughty children he couldn't quite control.

0:40:020:40:05

My father just loved that character so much.

0:40:050:40:08

He loved Sooty, and he put his heart and his life into that programme.

0:40:080:40:13

We were going on holiday when I was seven or eight years old.

0:40:130:40:16

We all piled into the car and we were going a long drive down to Dartmouth from Yorkshire.

0:40:160:40:22

My father got about three miles down the road and suddenly the car stopped,

0:40:220:40:27

and Harry said, "I can't go without him!"

0:40:270:40:31

My mother said, "Without whom?" The boys are in the back. And he said, "I can't go without Sooty."

0:40:310:40:34

So he actually turned the car round, went back, drove home,

0:40:340:40:38

and got Sooty and put him in the boot, and so Sooty went on holiday.

0:40:380:40:42

Sooty was getting troublesome, and pulling Peter's ear.

0:40:420:40:45

It was a strange childhood, in many ways, because...

0:40:450:40:48

so far back as I can remember, my father was always famous.

0:40:480:40:51

The downside was that, when you go to school, having a father who does that for a living,

0:40:510:40:56

it automatically leads to name-calling and potential bullying.

0:40:560:41:00

So that's when you develop this, "How do you get through that?"

0:41:000:41:04

So I became the funny guy in the class.

0:41:040:41:07

I don't think he's going to come out.

0:41:070:41:09

And so Peter took the stage name Matthew and took over the family business.

0:41:090:41:16

It could so easily have gone wrong.

0:41:160:41:18

The audience, the viewing public might have gone, "It's not the same."

0:41:180:41:21

Luckily, the audiences were sympathetic, probably because I was a Corbett.

0:41:210:41:25

Where are we?

0:41:250:41:27

Sooty, we've made it, this is the big one. This is the big chat show.

0:41:270:41:31

Is that Michael Parkinson?

0:41:310:41:34

I love and respect the character, but it's different, mine was much more a business approach,

0:41:340:41:41

whereas my father just did it from the heart.

0:41:410:41:46

All those years on the road took their toll,

0:41:470:41:51

and Peter and Sooty decided to go their separate ways, and Peter returned to his first love - music.

0:41:510:41:57

# The handbags and the gladrags your poor old grandad had to... #

0:41:590:42:04

25 years for my father, 25 years for me.

0:42:040:42:06

We both served the same amount of time, 50 years of sticking your hand up a teddy bear's bum.

0:42:060:42:12

Good old granddad.

0:42:130:42:16

We could have let it stay in the family,

0:42:160:42:19

but the chances of it working for me were slim, the chances of it working again are almost infinitesimal.

0:42:190:42:25

Sooty continues to entertain children to this day, but Peter has no regrets.

0:42:250:42:31

The audiences may be smaller, but they're all his.

0:42:310:42:34

It was never me that they were coming to see.

0:42:340:42:37

It was actually a one metre square of mohair material.

0:42:370:42:41

He was the star of the show.

0:42:410:42:43

Playing sidekick to a puppet, you still get some recognition.

0:42:470:42:51

But how do you become a star when they can't even see your face?

0:42:510:42:55

Robots tend to be sidekicks in science fiction.

0:42:580:43:01

You don't really want robots to be heroes.

0:43:010:43:04

We're not quite at the idea where we can surrender humanity.

0:43:040:43:07

The reason you always need a computer-generated sidekick in space

0:43:070:43:11

is exactly the same reason that a cowboy needed the horse and the dog on the range.

0:43:110:43:17

It was to combat loneliness, to have an interlocutor in circumstances where you are absolutely alone.

0:43:170:43:24

So, if you're...

0:43:240:43:26

Roy Rogers or Buck Rogers, you need this little gizmo

0:43:260:43:33

that can talk to you, that can interpret you, and can comfort you.

0:43:330:43:37

The art of the show-stealing cyber-sidekick was demonstrated in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf.

0:43:390:43:45

The ship's service mechanoid, Kryten, was played by a rubber-faced Robert Llewellyn.

0:43:450:43:51

In a sense, it's more like puppetry, working with that mask

0:43:550:43:58

because any subtle movements...

0:43:580:44:00

If I had the mask on and I went like this...

0:44:000:44:03

you wouldn't see it. Or that. But if I go...

0:44:030:44:06

..like that, then it shows. So you're kind of working away,

0:44:070:44:10

and unfortunately that was my greatest skill.

0:44:100:44:13

I had tried to do some serious film acting and various directors

0:44:130:44:17

basically tore their hair out and tried to beat me up because I couldn't do...

0:44:170:44:21

if I had to portray someone being sad, I'd go...

0:44:210:44:25

Which isn't what they want. So it was ideal to cover me in rubber.

0:44:250:44:28

Of course. 'It was a kind of long journey to find a way of portraying that character that wasn't...

0:44:310:44:37

'either a cliched kind of killer machine Terminator,'

0:44:370:44:40

but was also not an English butler, which is in a way what the C3PO character was,

0:44:400:44:46

the attentive butler who's terribly worried about protocol.

0:44:460:44:50

-OK, What's this?

-It's an apple?

-No, no, no, what is it?

0:44:500:44:54

It's no good, sir, I just can't lie, I'm programmed always to tell the truth.

0:44:540:44:58

The answer lay in Crichton's desire to be human.

0:44:580:45:02

There was something about his lack of humanity that just...

0:45:020:45:06

but his longing to be human, he admired human beings and their failings enormously

0:45:060:45:11

and there was something about that that clicked with me.

0:45:110:45:14

Don't you think I'd love to be deceitful, unpleasant and offensive?

0:45:140:45:17

Those are the human qualities I admire the most. I just can't do it.

0:45:170:45:21

I've not done enough psychoanalysis as to why that is the case,

0:45:210:45:23

-but I did find it absolutely fascinating.

-Come-on, what is it?

0:45:230:45:27

It's a...it's a...it's a...

0:45:270:45:29

-small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden.

-Yes!

0:45:290:45:32

You did it, you did it. What's this?

0:45:320:45:35

The character helped make the show a success, but the actor got none of the recognition.

0:45:350:45:41

No one ever looked at me or said, "Are you that bloke from that thing?" Obviously.

0:45:410:45:46

If they had recognised me when I had a head like a battered 1950s fridge, it would be slightly alarming.

0:45:460:45:52

But Crichton wasn't the first robot on British TV to be all too human.

0:45:530:45:59

In the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we've got Marvin, the Paranoid Android,

0:45:590:46:04

a manic depressive robot.

0:46:040:46:05

Life! Don't talk to me about life.

0:46:050:46:11

He's the sort of sidekick you'd want to turn off because he's going to bring you down at every chance

0:46:110:46:17

because he's got such a pessimistic, miserable view on life.

0:46:170:46:20

Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they tell me to take you up to the bridge.

0:46:200:46:26

I mean, he's got a great brain, but actually he is depressed

0:46:260:46:31

for a good reason.

0:46:310:46:34

That he's not taken for his full value.

0:46:340:46:38

Call that job satisfaction, cos I don't.

0:46:380:46:42

He was suited for greater things really and he made it known that he wasn't very happy about it.

0:46:420:46:49

In fact, he was a very unhappy robot.

0:46:490:46:53

Here again the actor could bring something of himself to his non-human character.

0:46:530:46:58

My life took me to it. I was a natural for this part.

0:46:580:47:03

Sometimes they would say, "You're getting a bit cheerful now."

0:47:030:47:08

-HE LAUGHS

-But that didn't happen very often.

0:47:080:47:11

That sunset, the two suns,

0:47:110:47:15

it was like mountains of fire boiling into space.

0:47:150:47:19

I've seen it.

0:47:190:47:21

It's rubbish.

0:47:210:47:23

It was an enjoyable miserable part.

0:47:230:47:26

# 10 billion logic functions maybe more

0:47:260:47:30

# They make me pick the paper off the floor... #

0:47:300:47:33

Marvin's misery struck a chord with early Eighties viewers.

0:47:340:47:39

Why people enjoy it I don't know, but people began, for some reason, to love that character.

0:47:390:47:45

# Solitary solenoid

0:47:450:47:48

# Terminally paranoid Marvin... #

0:47:480:47:50

I think there must be a lot of people who are under-used,

0:47:500:47:54

who understand

0:47:540:47:57

the plight that poor Marvin is in.

0:47:570:48:00

So, playing a robot can bring cult status and artistic satisfaction.

0:48:000:48:05

Ooh!

0:48:050:48:07

If I was going to do some acting, that was the role that I was born to do.

0:48:070:48:12

A sidekick.

0:48:120:48:14

I would have said my character was a star.

0:48:140:48:18

But when it comes to TV sidekicks, one man is light-years ahead.

0:48:180:48:22

Doctor Who can boast the most assistants in the history of British television.

0:48:240:48:29

Or companions. Or helpers.

0:48:290:48:31

All right, team... Oh, I hate people that say "team"!

0:48:310:48:35

Um...gang.

0:48:350:48:37

Um...comrades.

0:48:370:48:39

One of the things about the Doctor is that he goes through life

0:48:390:48:43

picking people up and moving on.

0:48:430:48:45

That's never really examined in the show.

0:48:450:48:48

If we look at Doctor Who, we are not too far away from the world of Sherlock Holmes again.

0:48:500:48:54

Sherlock Holmes is a genius that could've come from another planet,

0:48:540:48:58

he's so far ahead of the rest of the pack,

0:48:580:49:00

what we have with Doctor Who is a character that is from another planet, a Time Lord, someone alien.

0:49:000:49:06

I think it's useful to have human companions with him for the viewers,

0:49:060:49:11

for the young viewers, it gives them someone to identify with.

0:49:110:49:14

The Doctor's had more than 35 companions.

0:49:160:49:19

But their role has changed dramatically since the early days.

0:49:190:49:24

When Doctor Who started it was founded around its companions.

0:49:240:49:27

The companions are not just the people through whom we view the story, they are the story.

0:49:270:49:32

They are the people who have in fact been kidnapped by the Doctor,

0:49:320:49:36

and whisked off into time and space.

0:49:360:49:39

There must be some explanation.

0:49:390:49:42

In the beginning of Doctor Who there are at three companions, and the Doctor at the heart of the story.

0:49:420:49:47

Our sympathies are much more with the companions than the Doctor.

0:49:470:49:51

The first Doctor, played by William Hartnell, isn't always a very sympathetic figure.

0:49:510:49:56

In fact, there's a scene from the very first story, they are trapped in a Palaeolithic forest,

0:49:560:50:01

they've escaped cavemen, and they're carrying a wounded caveman, but he's clearly holding them back.

0:50:010:50:08

The Doctor picks up a stone and it looks for a moment like he's going to kill this caveman.

0:50:080:50:14

-And the senior companion, played by William Russell, restrains him.

-What are you doing?

0:50:140:50:20

Well, I...I was going to get him to draw our way back to the TARDIS.

0:50:200:50:24

Now that is a scene that very soon will become impossible.

0:50:260:50:31

And so the companion defaulted to the damsel in distress.

0:50:310:50:35

The girl sidekick generally has to go, "Oh, my God, a big monster,"

0:50:350:50:38

because Doctor Who is not going to go, "Look, a big monster."

0:50:380:50:40

He's met them all. Doctor Who is not that impressed,

0:50:400:50:42

whereas the girl sidekick has to be scared and also show the audience, who are children,

0:50:420:50:46

that a scary thing is happening because with the BBC props, they might just go, "What's that?"

0:50:460:50:51

A succession of actors were brought in to look good and act scared.

0:50:560:51:00

But in 1973, the arrival of a new companion seemed more like a change.

0:51:000:51:05

I'm a journalist. Sarah Jane Smith.

0:51:050:51:08

You realise this is a very dangerous place to be in?

0:51:080:51:10

I can't help that, I'm stuck now.

0:51:100:51:12

She's the first one who knows about feminism.

0:51:120:51:15

And she can stand up to John Pertwee's rather authoritarian and rather patronising Doctor.

0:51:150:51:21

You can make yourself useful.

0:51:210:51:23

We need somebody around here to make the coffee.

0:51:230:51:25

If you think I'm going to spend my time making cups of coffee for you...

0:51:250:51:29

I was given a very particular, but quite a short little list of what she was. She was a modern woman,

0:51:290:51:36

she was feisty, she was a woman who had her own mind.

0:51:360:51:41

She's given a scene where she goes to this alien planet

0:51:410:51:44

and gets to lecture the Queen of Pelodon on Women's Lib.

0:51:440:51:48

It would be different if I was a man.

0:51:480:51:51

But I'm only a girl.

0:51:510:51:54

Now, just a minute, there's nothing only about being a girl, your Majesty.

0:51:540:51:59

But being a strong woman in a Time Lord's world wasn't easy.

0:51:590:52:03

They all did exactly the same thing that girls in Bond films did, they came on at the beginning

0:52:030:52:08

and said, "I'm not going to be like all the others, I'm going to be proactive, I'm not going to scream,"

0:52:080:52:13

and then, gradually, as the scripts kept coming in, it defaulted back to, "Eek, a monster."

0:52:130:52:19

The Doctor, like James Bond, is so powerful a character that you can't really take that away from him.

0:52:190:52:25

Come on, we've got about a minute to get out of here! Quick, run!

0:52:250:52:29

Pertwee's Doctor was a Doctor who loved to have smaller people to rescue.

0:52:290:52:33

When you're running along a corridor escaping, John actually liked his assistant to be quite vulnerable.

0:52:330:52:40

There was a lot of tension between Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.

0:52:420:52:46

Tom Baker deeply disapproved of her character.

0:52:460:52:49

Partly because of her violence - she was often...she killed people.

0:52:490:52:52

He kept saying, "All we need for a companion is a talking cabbage who can sit on my shoulder."

0:52:520:52:59

I'm going to materialise and take a reading.

0:52:590:53:01

-Where are we?

-But arguably the most popular sidekick wasn't a woman at all.

0:53:010:53:06

-Pluto?

-Pluto?

-Yes, Pluto.

0:53:060:53:09

The ninth planet was, until the discovery of Cassius, believed to be the outermost body in the system.

0:53:090:53:16

Tell your tin pet to shut up.

0:53:160:53:18

-K9, you can tell me later.

-Affirmative.

0:53:180:53:21

They wanted me to have a voice that sounded as if it had come through

0:53:210:53:24

a tiny little transistor speaker,

0:53:240:53:27

and yet was the repository of all knowledge at an instant.

0:53:270:53:31

Check, Master.

0:53:310:53:34

-What?

-Machine mind computes mate in six moves.

0:53:340:53:37

Rubbish!

0:53:370:53:39

He is the faithful servant, but he's the faithful servant

0:53:390:53:43

who thinks he knows quite as much as the Doctor, if not more.

0:53:430:53:47

-Your move, Master.

-I know it's my move. Don't flash your eyes at me.

0:53:470:53:51

Not only did K9 become a celebrity.

0:53:510:53:54

Hello, nice doggy.

0:53:540:53:56

Negative, negative, do not approach. I have offensive capability.

0:53:560:54:00

He even did a Lewis 25 years before Lewis himself.

0:54:000:54:04

-Affirmative.

-K9 was so successful, especially with kids, he actually got his own spin-off show.

0:54:040:54:09

I think the title sequence of K9 and company

0:54:150:54:17

is one of the most joyful things ever to be broadcast on television.

0:54:170:54:21

Oh, don't! I don't want to talk about that. I don't.

0:54:220:54:25

You've got Elizabeth Sladen drinking white wine in the winter outside a pub in November.

0:54:250:54:31

Then there's a picture of K9 sitting on top of a dry-stone wall!

0:54:330:54:39

How did that happen?

0:54:390:54:41

Somebody booted him up the arse, I don't know.

0:54:410:54:44

It's supposed to be dynamic, like the Bionic Woman or something like that.

0:54:440:54:48

And it's got this theme tune where K9 barks his own name.

0:54:480:54:52

All I had to do was get to a microphone and go, "K9.

0:54:540:54:58

"K9.

0:54:580:55:00

"K9."

0:55:000:55:02

I left drama school as a classical actor.

0:55:080:55:12

You don't actually expect to be playing a tin dog at my age, but there you are.

0:55:120:55:16

-You are the weakest link.

-Affirmative, mistress. Goodbye.

0:55:160:55:22

K9 would even pop up in the new series of Doctor Who, but this was a very different world.

0:55:240:55:30

A world of one-off companions,

0:55:300:55:32

action hero companions, and everywhere you looked, strong, mouthy women.

0:55:320:55:37

I think when the series returns under Russell T Davies, something incredibly strange happens.

0:55:370:55:43

At first sight, Billie Piper seems a baffling choice of companion.

0:55:430:55:47

But the character, Rose Tyler, and the way it was written

0:55:470:55:52

and her performance meant that she became the central character.

0:55:520:55:55

In the older show, their job was to get into trouble that the Doctor would have to get them out of.

0:55:580:56:05

Now, in the revived show, quite often they are fulfilling

0:56:050:56:09

the Sancho Panza function, of keeping the hero in check,

0:56:090:56:14

of keeping him human, keeping him grounded.

0:56:140:56:16

Don't you think I've done enough?

0:56:160:56:19

History's back in place and everyone dies.

0:56:190:56:22

You've got to go back!

0:56:220:56:25

Doctor, I'm telling you, take this thing back!

0:56:250:56:27

This is a different kind of Doctor.

0:56:270:56:30

The Doctor in the new series is this casualty of something called the Time War. He's the last Time Lord.

0:56:300:56:37

He's a scarred and slightly dangerous man.

0:56:370:56:39

That sort of demonstrates that he needs this Earthling

0:56:390:56:42

to give him a moral grounding that he might not necessarily have if he was travelling off on his own.

0:56:420:56:49

You were right.

0:56:490:56:51

Sometimes I need someone.

0:56:510:56:53

Alongside the new companions, we also saw the return of an old one.

0:56:560:57:01

Hi, nice to meet you, you can tell you're getting older, your assistants are getting younger.

0:57:010:57:06

-I'm not his assistant.

-No? Get you, Tiger.

0:57:060:57:10

Like an old girlfriend, they split up, the Doctor dumped her and years later they meet up again.

0:57:100:57:17

I was there, with the Doctor again, but he was different.

0:57:170:57:21

You could have come back.

0:57:210:57:24

-I couldn't.

-Why not?

0:57:240:57:27

Sarah Jane's return raised questions about the whole purpose of the companion in Doctor Who. And beyond.

0:57:270:57:32

-How many of us have there been travelling with you?

-Does it matter?

0:57:320:57:36

It does, if I'm the latest in a long line.

0:57:360:57:39

As opposed to what?

0:57:390:57:41

I thought you and me were... I obviously got it wrong.

0:57:410:57:46

I've been to the year 5 billion, right, but this,

0:57:460:57:49

this is really seeing the future, you just leave us behind.

0:57:490:57:53

But maybe we shouldn't complain how the boss treats the assistant.

0:57:530:57:57

He's an alien, he can behave in any way he likes.

0:57:570:58:00

It's always been an unequal relationship.

0:58:000:58:03

As in life, some people see themselves as absolutely the main event.

0:58:030:58:08

And there's these little satellites going round them.

0:58:080:58:11

But when you start to inspect the satellites, you see that actually a lot of the drama is there.

0:58:110:58:16

It's there in this stage drama, it's there in the TV sitcom, it's there in the early British novel.

0:58:160:58:21

There will always be a perfectly reflecting little mirror

0:58:210:58:25

accompanying these great heroes and characters.

0:58:250:58:29

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:350:58:38

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