0:00:03 > 0:00:08Tintin is the world's most successful comic book character.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11The young Belgian reporter who travels the world
0:00:11 > 0:00:16and has amazing adventures has sold over 250 million books
0:00:16 > 0:00:20and been translated into 80 languages.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27I'm Frank Gardner, and my day job is BBC security correspondent,
0:00:27 > 0:00:31but I'm also an avid fan of Tintin.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Growing up, these stories captured my imagination,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39inspired me to travel the globe, and to have adventures of my own.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47And now I want to fulfil a personal ambition,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50to discover Tintin's long-lost first adventure
0:00:50 > 0:00:54and trace the origins of the character that inspired me.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01For a children's book, Tintin's first ever adventure is a surprisingly political story
0:01:01 > 0:01:05and I'll be following Tintin's route to the land of the Soviets,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07from Brussels...
0:01:08 > 0:01:12..to Berlin...
0:01:12 > 0:01:16and on to Moscow to find out what really shaped my childhood hero
0:01:16 > 0:01:20on my very own Tintin adventure.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I can't claim to have read all the Tintin books,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41but the ones that I did read when I was growing up
0:01:41 > 0:01:43were a real inspiration to me,
0:01:43 > 0:01:48because here was Tintin, this young, go-getting investigative journalist, this reporter,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51who seemed to be getting himself into dodgy places,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56but always travelling, always on the move, always in the middle of some adventure.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01That sense of movement, of high-speed excitement,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05is a signature characteristic of every Tintin adventure,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and I notice it can be traced right back to the black and white images
0:02:08 > 0:02:12that sped off the pages of the very first story.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Herge loved to make his cartoons feel real
0:02:15 > 0:02:18by including things people would recognise.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20One of Tintin's first high-speed chases
0:02:20 > 0:02:25is in the most exciting vehicle of the late twenties, the Amilcar.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31I've tracked down the model for the car Tintin uses,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34and, 80 years on, it's lost none of its appeal.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40It's owned today by Terry McGrath.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Ah, there it is! What a beauty.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48- Look at this.- Amilcar CGSS model.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52- And this is exactly the model that Tintin was in? - It seems so from the drawings, yes.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54- Oh, this is brilliant. - Made in Paris.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00Wow. Well, I remember in the Tintin when he goes to Russia,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04and he buys one of these in Berlin, actually,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06he gets it as a reward, and the salesman says to him,
0:03:06 > 0:03:12this thing will do 150k tops. No problem at all on the flat, so about 90mph.
0:03:12 > 0:03:13About 90mph this will do, yes.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15- So, he was quite accurate then? - Yes.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18- Wow. Well, I can't wait to... Can I get in and...- Indeed.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22I'm not going to try and drive it, you're going to do the driving.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24I'm being cheeky, can I wear the goggles?
0:03:24 > 0:03:26- Vintage goggles, they are. - Oh, yes!
0:03:26 > 0:03:29- Is that OK?- Yes, great.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31I'm ready for my close-up.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33ENGINE STARTS
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Three, two, one, go!
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Right from the outset, Herge was filling his stories
0:03:45 > 0:03:48with the most thrilling, glamorous machines of his day.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51This car is 83 years old?
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Indeed it is, yes, and still races.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Great stuff.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Do you know, I've got to say, for me, this is just the essence
0:04:05 > 0:04:08of the whole Tintin adventure thing, you know?
0:04:08 > 0:04:11In my mind, we're racing across Eastern Europe
0:04:11 > 0:04:14and who knows what mischief and mistakes he's going to make
0:04:14 > 0:04:17and what mess he's going to get himself into.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19But right now, he's got the wind in his hair
0:04:19 > 0:04:21and he's burning across Europe in this,
0:04:21 > 0:04:26and that, to me, is the whole essence of the Tintin adventure.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Wow! It really goes, doesn't it?
0:04:37 > 0:04:41The first Tintin adventure, The Land Of The Soviets,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44is filled with what would become Tintin trademarks,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47like high-speed chases and irrepressible villains,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50but it's clearly a work in progress.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52In the first pages,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55our hero looks very different to the character we know today.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59He's simplistic and almost unrecognisable.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02But none of that mattered to Tintin's first audience.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Originally published in weekly instalments
0:05:06 > 0:05:08in the Belgium newspaper Le Petit Vingtieme,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12the comic strip was a huge success from the outset.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18I want to find out why these unassuming sketches
0:05:18 > 0:05:20were such an instant hit.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Michael Farr was a friend of Herge's.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28He's a writer and a leading Tintin expert.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30He was the pioneer.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34It was Herge who was developing in Europe the idea of the strip cartoon
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and what we now know as the bande dessinee,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40the strip cartoon, stems from his developments.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43What is the legacy of that book?
0:05:43 > 0:05:45What has it given us, apart from the fact that it spawned
0:05:45 > 0:05:48all the future Tintin books that followed?
0:05:48 > 0:05:53I think it's a pioneering work of art and literature, believe it or not.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56I mean, he's known as an artist, but, goodness, what a storyteller.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01It's the work of a debutant, but one with tremendous talent.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06It is a seminal work in the history of the strip cartoon in Europe.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10If you go to any convention now of strip cartoonists,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Herge is a god to them, and this is a very important work
0:06:13 > 0:06:18because it's the beginnings of what, to them, is a very great artist's oeuvre.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Although his stories really captured my early imagination,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29this first book is the one I didn't know at all when I was growing up,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31and for a very good reason.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33Shortly after its first publication,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36it vanished completely for over 40 years.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Its author, the perfectionist Herge, was unhappy with the book.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44He felt it was rushed and poorly thought through.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46And yet this is the book that gave rise
0:06:46 > 0:06:49to a multi-million pound comic strip empire,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51and far from being a book to hide away,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56I think this could be the most important Tintin book of all.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04To really understand what the book tells us about the origins of this cartoon hero
0:07:04 > 0:07:08I need to get to Brussels - the starting point for every Tintin adventure.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Since I was injured on assignment in 2004,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15travelling the world is not as easy as it was,
0:07:15 > 0:07:17but there is always a way.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22I'm going to be using this thing called a hand bike,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26which basically converts my wheelchair into a trike.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33And this is going to allow me hopefully
0:07:33 > 0:07:37to skate across all these cobbles
0:07:37 > 0:07:40in places like Brussels and Moscow.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49One to Brussels, please.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Following in the footsteps of Tintin.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07On this journey, this book will be my guide.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10In the story, Tintin is a young Belgian reporter
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and he's sent by his editor to Russia
0:08:13 > 0:08:17to find out what life is like under the new Bolshevik regime there in the 1920s.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21So he travels overland to Moscow via Brussels and Berlin,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25and almost from the outset, he's trailed by the Russian secret police.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Ultimately, Tintin and his dog Snowy are successful
0:08:35 > 0:08:38in uncovering the supposed secrets of the Bolsheviks
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and how they're stealing the food of the Soviet people,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44rigging elections and murdering opponents.
0:08:53 > 0:08:59So this is the story that introduced the world to one of the most famous double acts in literature -
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Tintin and his faithful dog, Snowy.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06And while Tintin is this rather serious-minded action hero,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Snowy is quick-witted, he's mischievous,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12he drinks champagne, he puffs away on cigars.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23And over the next 50 years and 24 volumes, the two become inseparable.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47This is Brussels - the very home of Tintin and Herge
0:09:47 > 0:09:51and it doesn't take long to find Belgium's most famous son.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58This is a panel here from the third story, Tintin In America.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01And although the actual book was later published in colour,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04this is how the original drawing looked.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06You can't help noticing the incredible sense of speed,
0:10:06 > 0:10:08and movement and drama
0:10:08 > 0:10:11that's generated by just these simple lines,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13drawn by a young artist 80 years ago.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Brussels is a natural jumping-off point
0:10:29 > 0:10:32for journeys anywhere in Europe, Russia and beyond.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37This square in Brussels has got a bit of significance for me
0:10:37 > 0:10:41because, of course, this is the home of Tintin,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44but it's also where I set off in my late teens and early 20s.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47On all my European trips, I'd set out from here.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50We hitchhiked, myself and a mate, to Zagreb in Croatia
0:10:50 > 0:10:52and got from here down to Istanbul,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56so it always feels like the beginning of a journey in Brussels.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58Quite an exciting place for me.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18The first stop for me on my journey has got to be the Herge Museum -
0:11:18 > 0:11:23a £13 million tribute to Belgium's most famous comic book hero.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28It's the place where much of the original artwork is held.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36I've come to meet Yves Fevrier,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39the multimedia director of the Herge Museum.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47I realise that for Tintin fans this is pretty much hallowed ground -
0:11:47 > 0:11:50the Herge Museum outside Brussels.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54I've come here to see one of the original manuscripts
0:11:54 > 0:11:58and I think there's chance that you're going to let me see it, is that right?
0:11:58 > 0:11:59Yes, you are quite lucky
0:11:59 > 0:12:05because there are not many people who will be really like you,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10more or less touching a few originals, you know.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14This original page from Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets
0:12:14 > 0:12:15is so valuable,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18it has to be brought out of a bank vault.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Wow.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32This is drawn by hand, by Herge, in 1929?
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Yes, it's really like a Mona Lisa here in the museum
0:12:36 > 0:12:39because it's really a very symbolic page also.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45This manuscript must be pretty valuable. What are we talking?
0:12:45 > 0:12:49One painting in colour, the cover of Tintin In America
0:12:49 > 0:12:52reached, if I remember correctly,
0:12:52 > 0:12:56the price of 300,000 euros, something like that, if I remember correctly.
0:12:56 > 0:12:57So it's a big value.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00So if I ran away with this now, on my bike...
0:13:00 > 0:13:02- You are a rich man. - I'd be a rich man.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06And you will be chased by the police, you know!
0:13:06 > 0:13:07Just like in Tintin, yeah!
0:13:19 > 0:13:21George Remi was just 21
0:13:21 > 0:13:25when he created Tintin under the pen name, Herge.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30I think it amazing that Herge was entirely self taught as an artist.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34What's even more remarkable is that the inventor of the globe-trotting Tintin
0:13:34 > 0:13:40had only ever left Belgium on brief camping trips with the Boy Scouts.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47Though Herge's adventures are set in the most exotic locations,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50I can now see that Tintin is inextricably Belgian.
0:13:50 > 0:13:56The first book reveals that he was clearly a product of Belgium in the 1920s.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01The Russian Revolution had taken place
0:14:01 > 0:14:0412 years before the first page of Tintin came into being.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Belgium lived in the shadow of the new and vast Soviet empire.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Stories abounded of Soviet oppression
0:14:12 > 0:14:15and fear of communism was endemic.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Tintin was actually commissioned by Herge's boss, Abbe Norbert Wallez.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Wallez was not only a newspaper editor -
0:14:25 > 0:14:28he was also a Catholic priest and a fascist,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31having a signed portrait of Mussolini on his office wall.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Wallez set Herge a brief to create a cartoon character
0:14:36 > 0:14:41to expose Russia as the evil empire to the children of Belgium.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43To help him with his research,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47he gave Herge a piece of anti-Bolshevik propaganda.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49This was a key influence -
0:14:49 > 0:14:53the book called Moscou Sans Voiles, Moscow Unveiled,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55by a former Belgian console
0:14:55 > 0:14:58who lived in the USSR called Joseph Douillet.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02And this guy was passionately anti-communist,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04passionately anti-Russian -
0:15:04 > 0:15:07he loathed everything from caviar to commissars.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10And he goes to a rigged village election
0:15:10 > 0:15:15in which he describes verbatim how the villagers are being presented
0:15:15 > 0:15:18with three lists of candidates and one of them is communist
0:15:18 > 0:15:21and everybody who opposes that raise your hands,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24and according to him, they had revolvers pointed at them.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Well, that is exactly the scene that we see here in Herge's book,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets - even the words match,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35"trois listes sont en presence - l'une est celle du parti communiste".
0:15:35 > 0:15:39"Three lists are in front of you - one is that of the communist party."
0:15:39 > 0:15:41And that's exactly what we see here.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51When it came to images, Herge was no less fastidious
0:15:51 > 0:15:53in his approach to detail.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58In later works, we know that he based his drawings closely
0:15:58 > 0:16:00on photographs of real locations.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05But as Herge never actually visited Russia
0:16:05 > 0:16:07and precious few photographs existed,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10it's always been assumed that the first book
0:16:10 > 0:16:14was entirely drawn from his imagination, until recently.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20The French photojournalist Robert Sexe was amongst the first
0:16:20 > 0:16:23to bring Russia to the West, with a series of reports
0:16:23 > 0:16:26and photographs documenting the real Russia.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Sexe travelled the length of Russia on his motorbike
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and his pictures caused a sensation.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45I've come to meet Belgian writer Jean-Paul Schulz,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50who's been researching the links between Sexe and Herge.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24Tintin's first adventure appeared in 1929 - just four years after
0:18:24 > 0:18:29Robert Sexe's own well-publicised motorbike journey across Russia.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32In the '20s, Belgian papers were widely reporting
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Sexe's journeys around the world.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38After Russia, he travelled to the Congo and America.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42And I can't help noticing that those are the precise locations
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Herge chooses for the first three Tintin books.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48There are many theories about who Herge based Tintin on,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53but clearly there is a case at least that it was Robert Sexe.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Herge's work is almost everywhere in Brussels,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01images now famous the world over.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06To have one character that resonated was one thing,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10but to build a whole cast was something else again.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Beyond Tintin and Snowy,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Herge produced a world of colourful characters.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Most memorably Professor Calculus, the eccentric professor,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26the Thompson Twins, Herge's hapless detectives,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29and of course Captain Haddock,
0:19:29 > 0:19:34the sea captain famous for his never-ending string of expletives.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38But it wasn't until the 1950s that Herge's creations
0:19:38 > 0:19:42started to find an audience beyond Belgium.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and a colleague, Michael Turner,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48believed that British children would love the books too.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53In the 1950s, they persuaded a publishing company to take a chance on Tintin.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58The publisher's only condition - that Leslie and Michael
0:19:58 > 0:20:02translated the books without pay and in their own time.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05They spent four hours on each page, making sure the meaning
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and the humour worked.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13Before setting out on my travels, I managed to catch up with Leslie,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15where she now lives in Buckinghamshire.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Leslie, it's fantastic to meet you
0:20:20 > 0:20:24because you are the person behind all the English translations
0:20:24 > 0:20:29of all the Tintins, you and Michael, the other half of your team.
0:20:29 > 0:20:36There's an inscription here from Herge himself dated 1977, saying,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40"To Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, who did so much for my little son."
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Which is fantastic - and presumably he drew this himself?
0:20:43 > 0:20:45He was a very sensitive character
0:20:45 > 0:20:48and had a lovely sense of humour,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53which Michael Turner and I sort of...were on the same level.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56You've very diligently kept notes here
0:20:56 > 0:20:58which you've kindly shared with us
0:20:58 > 0:21:02and it must have been extraordinarily difficult
0:21:02 > 0:21:05to translate some of the jargon in this...
0:21:05 > 0:21:06I mean, Captain Haddock
0:21:06 > 0:21:10with his "billions of blue blistering barnacles" - was that your expression?
0:21:10 > 0:21:11Yes!
0:21:11 > 0:21:15But we had to start the Captain with a fresh vocabulary,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19it wasn't going to work, you couldn't translate it as such.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23And we had a free hand - Herge agreed as to what we were going to do,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26because some of the jokes that were funny in French
0:21:26 > 0:21:29wouldn't mean anything in English.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Just looking here, Leslie, at the second page of phrases
0:21:33 > 0:21:36that you've translated from the French,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39but with your own made-up translation, I suppose.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43They're fantastic, these are virtually all attributable to Captain Haddock,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47squawking popinjay, fancy-dress freebooter,
0:21:47 > 0:21:48black beetles, pyrographs,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52gogglers, ignoramus, goosecap, pickled herring, sycophant,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55thug, dizzards, road-hog, steam-roller,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57wretch and boasting nitwit.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Are these all your creations, these phrases, you and Michael?
0:22:00 > 0:22:02Well, they were Michael and me.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04The thing was, that the Captain was very colourful
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and he needed to be extremely colourful in the English edition,
0:22:08 > 0:22:09so we made him so.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Meanwhile, back in Brussels, I'm concentrating
0:22:26 > 0:22:29on Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34This pretty ugly building behind me here
0:22:34 > 0:22:37is the modern version of Brussels' Gare Du Nord railway station,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40the station from which Tintin set off on his great journey
0:22:40 > 0:22:42in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets.
0:22:49 > 0:22:55'Tintin leaps in and out of cars, trains and planes without a second's thought.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58'So I must admit, I sometimes envy him.'
0:23:03 > 0:23:07This is a slightly more complicated journey than Tintin would have had to take.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Because I'm in a wheelchair, I've got to be escorted
0:23:10 > 0:23:12by the station officials simply to get underground
0:23:12 > 0:23:15to get onto the train to leave Brussels.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24I can't help thinking that it's ironic I'm in Brussels,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26the home of European Legislation
0:23:26 > 0:23:29and yet there isn't
0:23:29 > 0:23:33proper wheelchair access to the station platforms.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43It stinks of pee down here.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46This is a lift-cum-toilet, isn't it?
0:23:48 > 0:23:51'Finally, I emerge from the catacombs 'and make it onto the platform.'
0:24:01 > 0:24:06I should just say that all of this is so I can get onto this train in a wheelchair,
0:24:06 > 0:24:08It's a double-decker train -
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I've never been on a double-decker train - this is very exciting.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22So I'm now setting off from Brussels in the train, exactly the way
0:24:22 > 0:24:25that Tintin would have done back in 1929,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28when this was the very first frame,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31the very opening of his very first Tintin book from this station.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34TRAIN WHISTLE TOOTS
0:24:34 > 0:24:39No sooner has Tintin settled into his rail journey to Berlin,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42than an unkempt Bolshevik baddie tries to blow him to pieces.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49I'm hoping that I'll have an easier time with the man
0:24:49 > 0:24:53- I've- arranged to meet - collector and Tintin enthusiast Simon Doyle.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56Ah, Simon you made it, great.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00- Good morning, Frank. - Good morning, have a seat. - Thank you very much.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03I suppose given that we're on a train in Belgium,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05it's only fair to ask
0:25:05 > 0:25:09why do you think we see so many trains in this book?
0:25:09 > 0:25:12I mean, it's really a part of Herge's outlook, isn't it?
0:25:12 > 0:25:17I think the mistake that we make now is to regard these as period pieces.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19You've got to remember at the time,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22that this was very up-to-the-minute gadgetry,
0:25:22 > 0:25:23it was the James Bond approach.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Any chance to put technology in, Herge includes -
0:25:26 > 0:25:29so you've got fast cars, motorboats,
0:25:29 > 0:25:35planes - anything that can be made to look fast and modern is there.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39So I'm sure that children seeing this every Thursday in the newspaper
0:25:39 > 0:25:44were very, very impressed at how modern, how adventurous Tintin was.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48I mean looking at this, the end of the first double page here -
0:25:48 > 0:25:52somebody has blown Tintin up in his railway carriage
0:25:52 > 0:25:56and he's left with a sort of shattered remnants and yet
0:25:56 > 0:25:59he seems to be completely unharmed - his clothes are a bit tattered.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04Did the readership not mind that these were totally unrealistic scenarios?
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Oh no, I think it was probably of the time,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10the serial in silent cinema, for example,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14was famous for having the impossible cliffhanging ending one week
0:26:14 > 0:26:16which then went onto the next week
0:26:16 > 0:26:20and through some remarkable reverse, some other incidents had happened.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22So in this case, Tintin is blown to pieces
0:26:22 > 0:26:26at the end of the first week - we have little bits of Tintin flying round about,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28but luckily, when you get to week two,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31the readership will have seen that his sleeve has been blown off
0:26:31 > 0:26:35and he seems to have survived the complete destruction of the train
0:26:35 > 0:26:38and the loss of every single other passenger that is on board.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Yes, as the policeman says - "Where are your fellow passengers, "what have you done with them?
0:26:42 > 0:26:45"Where is the rest of the railway carriage?
0:26:45 > 0:26:47"Where are the seats? Why did the alarms go off?
0:26:47 > 0:26:49"No lies, off to the police station."
0:26:49 > 0:26:51He's been fitted up for this one, hasn't he?
0:26:51 > 0:26:54He certainly has. It's quite remarkable,
0:26:54 > 0:26:56but I think part of the fun of it for the reader
0:26:56 > 0:26:59will have been exactly that - how IS he going to get out of it?
0:27:01 > 0:27:03And just like In The Land Of The Soviets,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05my journey continues to Berlin.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09I need to get there to pay homage to a scene
0:27:09 > 0:27:11that literally shapes our hero.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Herge has Tintin stop in Berlin, not just because it's on his route
0:27:23 > 0:27:27but because it's the capital city of the Roaring '20s.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32It's fast and fun and is the location of choice for anyone
0:27:32 > 0:27:35wanting to add a touch of a glamour to a story.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39This is where Herge plunged his character
0:27:39 > 0:27:43into an action scene that would change the way he looked forever.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Tintin is endlessly pursued by people out to get him.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51It culminates in a daring escape in a Mercedes car,
0:27:51 > 0:27:54the "it" car of the day.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02I wanted to track down the exact model that Herge used in his chase scene,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07and I may have found the only man in Europe who has one in his extraordinary collection -
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Mercedes enthusiast Herr Jorg Netzer.
0:28:31 > 0:28:32Oh, my God.
0:28:34 > 0:28:35This is incredible,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40this is an almost unique collection of original Mercedes Benz,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43mostly as you can see from the 1920s and '30s,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45but they've even got some...
0:28:45 > 0:28:51This one is an original Benz from 1897, amazing.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56This is like a treasure trove of antique car gems.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01'But what I'm really hoping to find is the car that Tintin used
0:29:01 > 0:29:03'for his fast chase through Berlin.'
0:29:07 > 0:29:12Wow. This is the one, according to Herr Netzer, the chief mechanic here.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16This is pretty much the exact car that Tintin stole
0:29:16 > 0:29:21from the Berlin police in 1929 and roared off towards Moscow in.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26And it's a 1928 Mercedes Benz, K Class Open Tourer.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30And as you can see, it's a beautiful piece of work
0:29:30 > 0:29:32and I'm hoping that I can persuade him
0:29:32 > 0:29:36to let us take it out on the streets of Berlin.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45There is a curious reason why this Mercedes was so hard to track down.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47It was literally a victim of its own success.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Being the fastest, smartest car around at the time,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55it got adopted by the Nazis. As a result, after the war,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58that association meant that most were destroyed.
0:30:01 > 0:30:02Afternoon!
0:30:06 > 0:30:09But it was here in the front seat of his Mercedes Benz
0:30:09 > 0:30:15that Herge's prototype Tintin started to look like the character we know today.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21What I'm actually doing now, is... re-enacting a pretty seminal moment
0:30:21 > 0:30:26in the whole Tintin story, because this is how Tintin got his quiff.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29In the first eight pages of the story,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Tintin has smooth combed hair.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34But when he jumps from a tree
0:30:34 > 0:30:36into this Mercedes Benz and races away,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39the wind causes this famous transformation
0:30:39 > 0:30:41which never leaves him.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Hence this trademark quiff that Tintin had,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48which I'm going to try very hard not to cultivate.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02There is one more place in Berlin that features in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets
0:31:02 > 0:31:06and I'm hoping that Herr Netzer will get me in there.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10Hanger two it says, that way, let's try this.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21We're now at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23which is obviously steeped in history,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26it's where the Zeppelins took off from,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28it's where parades used to be held under the Kaiser
0:31:28 > 0:31:32and for Tintin, this is where the Berlin police took off from
0:31:32 > 0:31:37to pursue him as he escaped towards Russia in a stolen car like this.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Tintin and Snowy come under an aerial bombardment
0:31:43 > 0:31:45by the German police.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49And I'm hoping to get onto the now-abandoned airfield
0:31:49 > 0:31:51that launched that attack.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53That's where we need to be.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06SPEAKS GERMAN
0:32:11 > 0:32:14We're just trying to negotiate access to get onto the runway.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17- No chance.- No chance?- No chance.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21- What, it's terribly secret, because there's nothing there?- Yes.
0:32:21 > 0:32:27We have to fill up a form and we have no form and...
0:32:27 > 0:32:29- He can't give us a form?- No.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34I thought that sort of bureaucracy kind of went out with the end of East Germany?
0:32:34 > 0:32:36Yes, that's really Germany!
0:32:36 > 0:32:40Well, I was thinking of EAST Germany actually, but OK, all right.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43What does he think we might do on a runway
0:32:43 > 0:32:46where there are no planes taking off?
0:32:46 > 0:32:48We're flying off with the car.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Oh, that we might fly with the car, yeah - there is a big risk of that,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55you're right, actually. Sort of Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang!
0:32:55 > 0:32:58- Yeah, I know - it flies, it flies. It WILL take off.- Stop the films.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02It's a shame we didn't get to see the runway,
0:33:02 > 0:33:07but like all the best Tintin stories, I never really expected everything to go to plan.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Tintin makes his way from Berlin to Russia
0:33:12 > 0:33:15by crashing his car into a train.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18But...the BBC health and safety policy wouldn't really allow me
0:33:18 > 0:33:22to do that, so I've opted to go by air instead.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28I last visited Moscow 24 years ago and I can't wait to get back.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31I want to get to the places the book features
0:33:31 > 0:33:36and explore the real-life inspirations behind Tintin's adventures in Soviet Russia.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46I'm chuffed to be back in Russia.
0:33:46 > 0:33:5080 years after Tintin's first outing, it still feels like an adventure.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02Today of course, most of it looks nothing like the grim Soviet capital
0:34:02 > 0:34:06I visited in winter and this affluent modern city
0:34:06 > 0:34:11is completely different to the one encountered by Tintin in the 1920s.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21He found a population in despair queuing up for bread.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31It's at this point in the book that the story becomes overtly political.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Tales of Russian food shortages in the 1920s were eagerly reported
0:34:57 > 0:35:00in the Belgian press, quick to point to the failings
0:35:00 > 0:35:04of a revolutionary system so feared by its readership.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Uniquely, Herge brought these dark stories to young people
0:35:11 > 0:35:15through a cartoon strip, only softening stories of starving children
0:35:15 > 0:35:18by having Snowy come to the rescue.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29Well, seeing the Kremlin walls here for the first time in 24 years
0:35:29 > 0:35:32reminds me of one of those things that you do when you're young and dumb.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Cos when I came here in the winter of 1987,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38it was an incredibly harsh winter and together with a couple of mates
0:35:38 > 0:35:43we ran around this, the whole walls of the Kremlin just in T-shirts,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47in about minus 28 and the Kremlin guards looked at us
0:35:47 > 0:35:52and they just thought we were mad, it was... Yeah - we were pretty mad.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Oh wow! Do you know, I never thought I'd be wheeling across the cobbles
0:36:01 > 0:36:06of Red Square in the heart of Moscow in a wheelchair with an adapted hand bike,
0:36:06 > 0:36:08but this is very much in the spirit of Tintin
0:36:08 > 0:36:13because he was always improvising and looking for new ways to get to places.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15He used a trolley across a railway line,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17he carved a wooden propeller for a plane,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21so I feel that this hand bike attachment I've got here in Moscow's Red Square
0:36:21 > 0:36:23is very much in the spirit of Tintin.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Herge was fascinated by innovation - he loved things that were new
0:36:32 > 0:36:37or newsworthy - he often referenced them in his weekly strip cartoons.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42One of the most unusual appears in Land Of The Soviets.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47It's an artistic reference to a Russian picture that was creating a stir at the time.
0:36:47 > 0:36:53This is Moscow's Museum of Modern Art, the Tretyakov State Gallery.
0:37:00 > 0:37:07Well, in front of me here is something that was absolutely groundbreaking in Russian art.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09This is Malevich's Black Square.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Hardly the most original title,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14but it was completely revolutionary for its time.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16He painted this in 1915.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20And amazingly, the young Herge, when he was starting out
0:37:20 > 0:37:24on his Tintin series, he actually used this as a device.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27He's being pursued, they're firing after him, he goes into a room,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32kills the lights, they're shouting kill him and the last square
0:37:32 > 0:37:36is completely black, just like Malevich's Black Square.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42This is Herge the young artist, combining a cliffhanger ending
0:37:42 > 0:37:47with a reference to the very latest from the artistic avant-garde movement.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54This is just one of the artistic influences that Herge used
0:37:54 > 0:37:56from around the world,
0:37:56 > 0:37:57and you can imagine
0:37:57 > 0:38:00the suspense that he would have left his readers in.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03They would have got to the end of that week's issue
0:38:03 > 0:38:05in the magazine and it's just a black square -
0:38:05 > 0:38:07they don't know if Tintin is alive or dead.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12Well, of course he survives, even more intent than ever
0:38:12 > 0:38:15on uncovering the lies of the Bolshevik regime.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23Land Of The Soviets was published 12 years after the October Revolution.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28Lenin was dead and Joseph Stalin was beginning to exert his rule over the country with an iron fist.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Socialists from around the world travelled to Russia to see
0:38:36 > 0:38:40for themselves the first revolution in which the state took control
0:38:40 > 0:38:45of everything from agriculture to industry to the provision of power.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Now, ever since I first saw the book, I've been fascinated
0:38:55 > 0:38:57by one sequence in particular.
0:38:59 > 0:39:06It's where Herge tells the story of a visit made by English trade unionists to Russian industry.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Herge depicts the visitors being supposedly duped
0:39:20 > 0:39:23into believing their host's propaganda.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Well, this is the power station that provides the heating for Central Moscow.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39And it's one that was visited by a British trade union delegation
0:39:39 > 0:39:44in the 1920s, exactly as depicted in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets
0:39:44 > 0:39:47and there's Lenin with a typical slogan from the time,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50saying, "we will arrive at the victory of communist labour".
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Trade union leaders were understandably eager to take tours
0:40:03 > 0:40:08of factories and power stations to see what a collective labour movement could achieve.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18But Herge makes sure that Tintin investigates further.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Tintin is not taken in by what Herge sees as the charade
0:40:31 > 0:40:32of Bolshevik industry.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Hello, Irina, it's Frank from the BBC.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53- Yes, Frank. - Hi, can you open the door, please?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01I met up with Irina Karazuba,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04who's an expert on this period of Russian history.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08So...there's this scene here, Irina,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10where to me looking at this,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13this depiction of this British delegation of trade unionists
0:41:13 > 0:41:15with pipes and flat caps,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17and it looks completely absurd,
0:41:17 > 0:41:21they look like a character out of Jeeves and Wooster or something,
0:41:21 > 0:41:23I mean - it looks a bit fantastical.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26You know, there were really very close contacts
0:41:26 > 0:41:30between the British leaders of trade union movement
0:41:30 > 0:41:33and leaders of the Labourist Party.
0:41:33 > 0:41:39A couple of times during the mid-'20s, delegations of British trade union leaders came here
0:41:39 > 0:41:44and they took part in Soviet trade union congresses
0:41:44 > 0:41:47and then published certain documents
0:41:47 > 0:41:51and they created a special committee for Anglo/Russian unity.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55The aim of the Soviet side is quite obvious -
0:41:55 > 0:41:59they were trying to penetrate in the world trade movement and then
0:41:59 > 0:42:04to use it as a force for making the world proletariat revolution.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10The aim of those gentlemen... in my opinion,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14they saw in the Soviet Union what they wanted to see, you know?
0:42:14 > 0:42:19They were dreaming of a country where social justice will take its place,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24where the ordinary people will flourish and so on and so forth.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29And to some extent they see what was specially prepared for them.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33The details of Tintin adventures in Russia are quite fantastic,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37yes, but the spirit of the country
0:42:37 > 0:42:40of very ruthlessly oppressing its own citizens -
0:42:40 > 0:42:43who cannot even be called citizens,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47who are more like slaves - the spirit is true.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Tintin's opposition to the Bolsheviks
0:42:51 > 0:42:53makes him public enemy number one
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and he quickly finds himself in jail -
0:42:55 > 0:42:59a fate shared by many who denounced the Soviet state.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Herge was drawing on reports appearing in the Belgian press that
0:43:06 > 0:43:11under Stalin's rule, many dissidents were killed or simply disappeared.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Something that the Soviet Union was keen to cover up at the time.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25I think Herge and his editor
0:43:25 > 0:43:28would definitely have approved of this sign
0:43:28 > 0:43:31because it refers to 1920s Russia as the "years of terror" in which
0:43:31 > 0:43:36it says over 40,000 people were shot on groundless political charges.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Well, it's exactly that kind of brutality that Herge
0:43:40 > 0:43:43was describing in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53In the 1920s, kulaks - middle class country farmers -
0:43:53 > 0:43:55were described by Lenin
0:43:55 > 0:43:58as bloodsuckers, vampires and plunderers of the people.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02Stories abounded that these independent farmers
0:44:02 > 0:44:05had their grain and property robbed by a state
0:44:05 > 0:44:09at odds with land ownership and personal wealth.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17Herge has Tintin investigate.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35I'm travelling out to the countryside now,
0:44:35 > 0:44:36to meet a third-generation kulak
0:44:36 > 0:44:42to ask what HE made of the way the story was portrayed in Herge's cartoon strip.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45OK, well I've been told that this is the station
0:44:45 > 0:44:49to get to this little village of Dmitrov out in the country,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52so I have no idea how I'm going to get on the train
0:44:52 > 0:44:55with this contraption, but let's give it a try.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Right, well I've found out which platform it is...
0:45:36 > 0:45:39I've got to say I'm really impressed with Russian railways.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41It's been so much easier to get me
0:45:41 > 0:45:45and my wheelchair and the bike on board this train than it was in Brussels,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47far easier than in Britain,
0:45:47 > 0:45:52so I hope you're taking note here, Southwest Trains and Virgin and all the rest of you.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06I've always loved long train journeys,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09especially ones that cross national boundaries.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13One of the best ones I took was from Egypt down to Khartoum in Sudan,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and that was entirely on the roof of the train for 36 hours.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20Another one was just sitting on a rucksack with a girl, who is now my wife,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24going round Sri Lanka in an open doorway going slowly past villages.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27So heading out here to a Russian village,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29it's great, because I know that in theory,
0:46:29 > 0:46:34I could go all the way to Siberia and the Pacific coast if I wanted.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44It was the Soviet Union's rural communities that suffered
0:46:44 > 0:46:48most heavily under Stalin's management of agriculture.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52"Comrades, we are short of wheat!
0:46:52 > 0:46:56"The little we have is needed for our foreign propaganda.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59"The only solution is to organise an expedition against the kulaks
0:46:59 > 0:47:02"and force them at gunpoint to give up their corn."
0:47:06 > 0:47:10I've come to the village of Dmitrov to meet Vladimir Evseev.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12He's a modern-day Kulak, who owns
0:47:12 > 0:47:1520 hectares of land on which he's growing potatoes,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17carrots and other vegetables,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20but I seem to have arrived in the middle of an argument.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Well, just like Tintin,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46as a reporter, I'm keen to find out what's going on.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51Hello.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55You had a bit of trouble there, what was all that about?
0:47:55 > 0:48:00Well, in Soviet time I didn't even know what the bribe means.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05Now I know it perfectly, how much and where to give some money.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Vladimir tells me he's been asked to pay bribes to the police
0:48:10 > 0:48:13to allow him to sell his vegetables from his own field
0:48:13 > 0:48:17by the side of the road, but he's refusing to do so.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Have you ever had to pay a bribe before?
0:48:20 > 0:48:25Of course! Every Russian pays bribes. To the road police,
0:48:25 > 0:48:28to the administration, to the...
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Every Russian, if anyone says he's not paying anything,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36it means he lives in a house for crazy people.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Vladimir's family have worked the land here for almost a century.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47His grandparents were amongst those who were robbed
0:48:47 > 0:48:51and displaced by the state in the 1920s.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets has never been published in Russia,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01but I'm interested to find out what Vladimir thinks of Herge's portrayal
0:49:01 > 0:49:04of this period of Soviet history.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Now, in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets,
0:49:08 > 0:49:13the Belgian author Herge depicts the kulaks as being innocent good guys
0:49:13 > 0:49:17and the Bolsheviks as taking... stealing their grain.
0:49:17 > 0:49:18Is that accurate?
0:49:18 > 0:49:20Yeah, yeah - quite exact.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23There was a programme to destroy all these strong guys -
0:49:23 > 0:49:25it was a state programme.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27So it was a political programme?
0:49:27 > 0:49:30- Yes, that was.- Not just economic?
0:49:30 > 0:49:31Yeah, that was a policy.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Tintin helps the Kulaks hide their grain from the Bolsheviks,
0:49:41 > 0:49:46but in reality, there was very little the Kulaks could do to defend themselves.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55Vladimir's own grandfather protested and like many other kulaks,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57was sent to the now infamous Gulag labour camps.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Though his family survived, countless others were killed.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07The food they once grew was siphoned off to large cities, or used for export.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Thousands of people in rural areas starved to death.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17There was a time when whole regions were dying from hunger.
0:50:17 > 0:50:23We can probably see it maybe somewhere in Africa nowadays,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27where the people are starving and die from hunger or from thirst, right?
0:50:27 > 0:50:32But at that time it was real, as real as we sit here and discuss it.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Do you feel that this is a broadly-accurate description
0:50:35 > 0:50:39of the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia in the 1920s?
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Is there anything that is inaccurate in it?
0:50:41 > 0:50:44This is the evidence of one man, right,
0:50:44 > 0:50:49so it can't be accurate in all... You know, in all little things.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54But the majority of it, I think, is true.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Many political prisoners from the labour camp that once stood
0:51:04 > 0:51:07at Dmitrov were forced to dig this canal.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12It's 80 miles long and connects Moscow to the sea
0:51:12 > 0:51:13and the world beyond.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Well, Tintin of course had one of his escapades on a speedboat -
0:51:22 > 0:51:24perhaps a little different from this.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26He was being pursued
0:51:26 > 0:51:30by the Bolshevik police. It had a machine gun on the back.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Well, we have neither,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36though we are on a typical example of new money here in Russia.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41There is so much money going around in Moscow and an example of it
0:51:41 > 0:51:44is our man here, Deema - this is his boat, he's the skipper as well.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Let's see how fast this can go - Deema...?
0:51:52 > 0:51:56This canal was part of Stalin's plan to strengthen and expand the Workers' Republic.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Ironically, in post-Soviet Russia today, it's become a playground
0:52:03 > 0:52:07for the rich and it's still the fastest route back to the city.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Though Moscow is almost unrecognisable from Tintin's time,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19remnants of the Soviet era are still to be found.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26This is Lubyanka Square
0:52:26 > 0:52:29and this big yellow building up here is the old KGB building,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33now the headquarters of Russian Intelligence, and it's also
0:52:33 > 0:52:37what used to be the base for the OGPU - the predecessors of the KGB,
0:52:37 > 0:52:42whose agents Tintin keeps encountering trying to do dark and evil deeds.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48At every turn, the OGPU tried to silence Tintin and stop him
0:52:48 > 0:52:51revealing the truth about Bolshevik Russia.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58Being here, I can't help wondering how Tintin might have coped in a modern-day Russia
0:52:58 > 0:53:03and I know a man who should have a pretty good idea.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Daniel Sandford is a BBC Moscow correspondent,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08a modern-day foreign reporter.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10Hello, Frank. Welcome to Russia.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12- I've caught you working. - I do, occasionally.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15I think what I'm curious to know from you is,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19what's it like being a foreign correspondent in Russia now?
0:53:19 > 0:53:24Although Russia has changed, it hasn't changed very much -
0:53:24 > 0:53:27so it's a difficult place to do business,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31it's even a difficult place to get into as a journalist still.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34In a way, although the Cold War has been over for...
0:53:34 > 0:53:39theoretically for 20 years, it does feel as if some of the kind of 007 traits,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42some of even the things going back as far as Tintin
0:53:42 > 0:53:47of people snooping and spying on foreigners, it still happens.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51The FSB has got over 200,000 officers,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53it is an enormous organisation,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56it's expanded vastly in the last ten years.
0:53:56 > 0:54:01We have to assume that occasionally people are watching us,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03listening to our phone conversations,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07searching our flats without our knowledge, or perhaps deliberately
0:54:07 > 0:54:10searching our flats and cars so we know they've been searched.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13So when you go out on a story, are you being tailed,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15are you being watched?
0:54:15 > 0:54:17I think that would be unlikely.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20One of the things of course is that you don't know,
0:54:20 > 0:54:24but there are examples of journalists who the security services
0:54:24 > 0:54:27have made them very aware that they're being watched.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32It hasn't happened for a long time to a foreign correspondent,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35but, you know, journalists also do get very badly beaten and killed.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40It's never quite clear to what extent the state is responsible for that
0:54:40 > 0:54:44or whether it's kind of organised crime,
0:54:44 > 0:54:49people involved in terrorism and other kind of power groups.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Herge - always a fan of weaving reality into his stories -
0:54:54 > 0:54:58now has his masterstroke - he draws on a breaking story
0:54:58 > 0:55:03and includes it in his weekly serialisation.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08In January 1930, just one month before Tintin's capture was published,
0:55:08 > 0:55:09General Koutiepoff -
0:55:09 > 0:55:12a Russia exile - had been abducted in Paris
0:55:12 > 0:55:15by the Russian Secret Service - this really did happen.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20They believed he was behind a plot to overthrow the Bolshevik regime.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25The story was big news in the European press
0:55:25 > 0:55:30and Herge applied some of the details to his Tintin adventure.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35But he also produces this fake letter which gets printed
0:55:35 > 0:55:39in his newspaper, Le Petit Vingtieme, as an April Fools joke,
0:55:39 > 0:55:42and it supposedly comes from the Russian Secret Police -
0:55:42 > 0:55:43and it reads in French,
0:55:43 > 0:55:47"Take care - the eye of Red Moscow is watching you.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51"Don't forget the fate reserved for General Koutiepoff.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55"So make a choice - the end of this campaign by Tintin or death."
0:55:55 > 0:55:56Signed...
0:55:56 > 0:56:01the President of the GPU, the OGPU, the Russian Secret Police.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06But unlike the unfortunate General Koutiepoff,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09who died during his abduction, Tintin escapes.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12He gets his kidnapper arrested and receives a reward
0:56:12 > 0:56:16for supposedly saving Europe from Bolshevik oppression.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26In later life, Herge reflected on Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29He said it remained the only Tintin book not to be revised
0:56:29 > 0:56:31and put into colour because it was flawed,
0:56:31 > 0:56:36suffering from an over-dependence on one-sided news reports
0:56:36 > 0:56:39and a deeply anti-Bolshevik view of Soviet Russia.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Herge's next book certainly had its flaws,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45leading to accusations of racism.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49But he vowed from then on to thoroughly research the countries he sends Tintin off to,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52properly mapping out his adventures in advance,
0:56:52 > 0:56:57rather than just writing each episode hurriedly on the day of publication.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04Well, it's the end of the Land Of The Soviets and of course
0:57:04 > 0:57:08it's been a bit of an adventure for me too, although I don't think
0:57:08 > 0:57:12I was actually pursued by Russian secret agents like Tintin was.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21The thing is that back in the 1920s and '30s, very few journalists
0:57:21 > 0:57:24were going to Russia to report on the atrocities taking place
0:57:24 > 0:57:27under the Bolshevik regime there.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30And yet here you've got this fictional journalist, Tintin,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32essentially telling a story for children.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36I find that extraordinary, because I can't think of many examples
0:57:36 > 0:57:41of children's literature that tackle such adult themes.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Throughout the adventure, Tintin, like his creator,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50is finding his feet.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54By the time we reach the final frame, both are ready
0:57:54 > 0:57:57for a stream of adventures that would fill the next half century.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02As Tintin and Snowy make their way home, Snowy remarks,
0:58:02 > 0:58:06"Goodbye, danger - our daredevil days are over. Thank goodness!"
0:58:06 > 0:58:10But of course THIS was just the beginning.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:37 > 0:58:39E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk