4:09:38 > 4:09:45.
4:09:50 > 4:09:52Action! Music!
4:09:52 > 4:09:54ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYS
4:09:54 > 4:09:59This programme contains some strong language
4:10:07 > 4:10:10STRIDENT MUSIC PLAYS
4:10:20 > 4:10:23EXPLOSIONS
4:10:32 > 4:10:34HE LAUGHS
4:10:41 > 4:10:45The film director Ken Russell, who died last year at the age of 84,
4:10:45 > 4:10:49was certainly the most colourful character in British cinema
4:10:49 > 4:10:51and one of the most controversial.
4:10:51 > 4:10:53Ken was an original
4:10:53 > 4:10:57with an ability to infuriate and enchant in equal measure.
4:11:00 > 4:11:03He cut his teeth making arts documentaries for the BBC...
4:11:05 > 4:11:09..before finding international success on the big screen.
4:11:09 > 4:11:11- Goodbye, little boy!- Bye.
4:11:13 > 4:11:15Impudent hag.
4:11:15 > 4:11:19This is the Troubadour cafe in Earls Court.
4:11:19 > 4:11:22In the late '50s and '60s, it was a Russell bolt hole,
4:11:22 > 4:11:24a place to plot and scheme.
4:11:24 > 4:11:27The Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell who came here
4:11:27 > 4:11:31was perhaps the most breathtakingly flamboyant director
4:11:31 > 4:11:33that Britain would ever produce.
4:11:35 > 4:11:38I am the saviour of the British film industry.
4:11:42 > 4:11:44A genius.
4:11:44 > 4:11:45Unique.
4:11:45 > 4:11:47Are they ready, Tony?
4:11:47 > 4:11:49- Yes, they're all ready. - Stand by, then.
4:11:54 > 4:11:59I thought he was brilliant. I thought he was inspired.
4:11:59 > 4:12:00I thought he was crazy,
4:12:00 > 4:12:02and, for me, he was just wonderful.
4:12:05 > 4:12:09His television work was brilliant and regarded as groundbreaking and revolutionary
4:12:09 > 4:12:13and demonstrated just what an extraordinary art form television could be.
4:12:31 > 4:12:34In the early '70s, Ken Russell was unstoppable...
4:12:36 > 4:12:39..the first and only British film director
4:12:39 > 4:12:43to have three hit movies showing simultaneously in London's West End.
4:12:47 > 4:12:49This intensely creative period
4:12:49 > 4:12:52kicked off with The Music Lovers in 1970.
4:12:53 > 4:12:56Russell's ninth film, about a classical composer,
4:12:56 > 4:13:01explored the life of Tchaikovsky with characteristic visual panache.
4:13:12 > 4:13:17The next year, The Devils, his most incendiary work,
4:13:17 > 4:13:20provoked national outrage, fuelling his reputation for controversy
4:13:20 > 4:13:24with its combination of sex and religion.
4:13:29 > 4:13:32Completing the hat trick was The Boy Friend,
4:13:32 > 4:13:35starring '60s fashion icon Twiggy,
4:13:35 > 4:13:39Russell's tribute to the MGM musicals of his youth.
4:13:43 > 4:13:47All this came on the back of his breakthrough film, Women In Love.
4:13:48 > 4:13:52His 1969 adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel
4:13:52 > 4:13:55earned two Academy Award nominations
4:13:55 > 4:13:59and a Best Actress Oscar for leading lady Glenda Jackson.
4:13:59 > 4:14:01And who is Gudrun?
4:14:01 > 4:14:06Well, in a Norse myth, Gudrun was a sinner who murdered her husband.
4:14:06 > 4:14:07Will you live up to that?
4:14:07 > 4:14:09Which would you prefer me to live up to, Mr Crich,
4:14:09 > 4:14:12the sinner or the murderer?
4:14:12 > 4:14:13'He came onto the set,'
4:14:13 > 4:14:16and it was like a great big klieg light had gone on.
4:14:16 > 4:14:21That was that energy, that powerful energy.
4:14:21 > 4:14:24And he expected everybody else to be in the same state.
4:14:24 > 4:14:26He would shoot and he would shoot,
4:14:26 > 4:14:29and you only knew he'd got it when he'd say, "OK, I've got it."
4:14:29 > 4:14:32There was never any kind of, "Oh, that was marvellous",
4:14:32 > 4:14:35or, "That was terrible", or nothing like that, ever.
4:14:35 > 4:14:37Well, you see, we know hardly anyone here.
4:14:37 > 4:14:41- We're almost complete strangers.- Oh.
4:14:41 > 4:14:44Oh, I'll see to it that you're set up with...a few acquaintances.
4:14:47 > 4:14:50Oh, you know what I mean. Can't we go over there and explore?
4:14:50 > 4:14:53But Russell would employ his own shorthand
4:14:53 > 4:14:56when it came to directing actors.
4:14:56 > 4:15:01It was Ken who told me about his method of directing Oliver Reed,
4:15:01 > 4:15:03which was the "one to ten" method.
4:15:03 > 4:15:08So it would be, "Do you want a five, a six, a ten? A two?"
4:15:08 > 4:15:11You handle it, though, pretty well.
4:15:12 > 4:15:16- "Pretty well"?- Yes. We both row like water spiders.
4:15:16 > 4:15:18'"Give me a five.'
4:15:18 > 4:15:21"No, bring it down, actually. Four's better."
4:15:21 > 4:15:22And you'd get what he meant!
4:15:22 > 4:15:25And he never gave you a note. I mean, he would say,
4:15:25 > 4:15:28"Oh, it's all a bit too hmmm... It needs a bit more rrrrragh!"
4:15:32 > 4:15:34It may be over between us.
4:15:37 > 4:15:38But it's not finished.
4:15:40 > 4:15:44The director's approach to this very literary exploration of love and sex
4:15:44 > 4:15:47would always prioritise the visual.
4:15:48 > 4:15:51I still remember that kiss in Women In Love,
4:15:51 > 4:15:54where the camera's sort of inside the two faces,
4:15:54 > 4:15:56and it's seared into my brain.
4:15:56 > 4:15:58I thought, "This is a guy using camera and imagery
4:15:58 > 4:16:00"in a way that nobody else is doing."
4:16:04 > 4:16:08It was as if the world had turned sideways, and slowly these faces came together
4:16:08 > 4:16:11in a way that I had never seen before.
4:16:20 > 4:16:23It was like a new element had been added
4:16:23 > 4:16:25to the vocabulary of cinema in one shot.
4:16:25 > 4:16:29And that is why Ken is a hero!
4:16:34 > 4:16:39The great thing about Ken Russell's films is that you look at them
4:16:39 > 4:16:41and you think, "God, how on earth did he achieve that?"
4:16:41 > 4:16:43The most famous, of course,
4:16:43 > 4:16:48is the sequence between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed,
4:16:48 > 4:16:50when they wrestle naked.
4:16:51 > 4:16:54Women In Love is set in the 1920s,
4:16:54 > 4:16:57but Russell exploits the newly permissive '60s
4:16:57 > 4:17:00to see what he can get away with.
4:17:01 > 4:17:03They're furious with each other,
4:17:03 > 4:17:08because they're jealous about each other's relationship with a woman.
4:17:08 > 4:17:11The sequence has a homoerotic feeling,
4:17:11 > 4:17:13it has that sense of jealousy.
4:17:13 > 4:17:14And it's beautifully lit.
4:17:14 > 4:17:17It's almost lit just with the fire that's there.
4:17:19 > 4:17:21Ken wasn't one of these people
4:17:21 > 4:17:23that observed the scene from a theatrical perspective.
4:17:23 > 4:17:27He very definitely, very cinematically organised the scene,
4:17:27 > 4:17:30and that is a brilliant example of it.
4:17:35 > 4:17:37Was it...
4:17:37 > 4:17:38too much for you?
4:17:38 > 4:17:40No.
4:17:42 > 4:17:46MARK KERMODE: Even when he was doing adaptations of novels, DH Lawrence,
4:17:46 > 4:17:49it seemed that he was thinking, first and foremost, visually.
4:17:49 > 4:17:52He was somebody who thought with his eyes,
4:17:52 > 4:17:55and that goes right back to the fact that he was a stills photographer.
4:18:03 > 4:18:07Russell's career behind the camera begins in the early '50s
4:18:07 > 4:18:10as a freelance photographer.
4:18:13 > 4:18:18Many of the images from that time were believed lost.
4:18:18 > 4:18:20But a chance discovery at a photo agency
4:18:20 > 4:18:23reunited the director with his early work.
4:18:26 > 4:18:30The only Russell we'd heard of in this area was THE Ken Russell,
4:18:30 > 4:18:33so I telephoned him and I said,
4:18:33 > 4:18:36"Well, I think I've got a lot of photographs
4:18:36 > 4:18:38"taken by you in the 1950s,
4:18:38 > 4:18:40"of the pogo-stick people in Hyde Park,
4:18:40 > 4:18:43"people on penny-farthing bicycles,"
4:18:43 > 4:18:46and suddenly I heard this immense cry of delight
4:18:46 > 4:18:47as he shouted out to his wife,
4:18:47 > 4:18:53"Lizey, Lizey, this guy's got all my old photographs! This is fantastic!"
4:18:53 > 4:18:56I particularly love this image.
4:18:56 > 4:18:58It was taken on the bomb sites
4:18:58 > 4:19:05that were a complete feature of 1950s Britain, London in particular.
4:19:05 > 4:19:07He did a series on the teddy girls,
4:19:07 > 4:19:10which no-one else has really captured in the same way.
4:19:10 > 4:19:12"They were pretty scary," he said.
4:19:12 > 4:19:16When he saw it, he said, "Oh, that's a good one."
4:19:16 > 4:19:20This is a ballerina friend of his in the '50s, Frances Pidgeon.
4:19:20 > 4:19:23He was doing 101 uses of a hip bath.
4:19:26 > 4:19:28In the series called Hyde Park Criminals,
4:19:28 > 4:19:32Russell parades his fondness for poking fun at authority.
4:19:32 > 4:19:36Ken took the bylaws of Hyde Park and what you weren't allowed to do.
4:19:36 > 4:19:39You weren't allowed to break or sort china,
4:19:39 > 4:19:42so here he has someone with a hammer walloping a teapot.
4:19:42 > 4:19:44And you also weren't allowed to dance.
4:19:44 > 4:19:48This is the couple that ran the Troubadour cafe, actually.
4:19:48 > 4:19:51When you look at his stills photography,
4:19:51 > 4:19:54what you see is the birth of the compositional art,
4:19:54 > 4:19:57and there's one beautiful photograph
4:19:57 > 4:19:58of a policeman on a pogo stick
4:19:58 > 4:19:59chasing a robber.
4:19:59 > 4:20:01You look at that, and the key to that,
4:20:01 > 4:20:05beyond the comic, beyond the strange, beyond the surreal,
4:20:05 > 4:20:08is the compositional perfection of it.
4:20:08 > 4:20:12Ken Russell's love affair with images began in his childhood.
4:20:12 > 4:20:15In 1989, he lampooned his early life
4:20:15 > 4:20:18in this South Bank Show documentary,
4:20:18 > 4:20:20casting his toddler son as his older self.
4:20:20 > 4:20:25I was born in Southampton on July 3rd 1927
4:20:25 > 4:20:28and christened Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell.
4:20:28 > 4:20:32Russell's parents didn't have the happiest of marriages,
4:20:32 > 4:20:36and the young Ken found refuge in movies.
4:20:36 > 4:20:40But it was classical music which would transform his life.
4:20:40 > 4:20:43When he first heard classical music, he was overwhelmed by it.
4:20:43 > 4:20:46He tells a story about hearing it on the radio,
4:20:46 > 4:20:49getting on his bicycle, going down to the record shop,
4:20:49 > 4:20:50saying, "I need this music."
4:20:50 > 4:20:52They gave him it, he took it back home,
4:20:52 > 4:20:56he put it on the gramophone player in his house in Southampton
4:20:56 > 4:20:57and, according to Ken,
4:20:57 > 4:21:00he threw off all his clothes and danced naked around the room.
4:21:00 > 4:21:03And I said, "Well, why?" He said, "Well, why wouldn't you?"
4:21:03 > 4:21:05What he remembered most about his background
4:21:05 > 4:21:08was going to the pictures, getting a projector,
4:21:08 > 4:21:10his own projector, when he was fairly young,
4:21:10 > 4:21:14taking films on loan, spooling them through and putting records on
4:21:14 > 4:21:17so that the music went with these silent films.
4:21:17 > 4:21:19That's where it started.
4:21:19 > 4:21:22As Ken was entering his 30s,
4:21:22 > 4:21:25the BBC was pioneering a new age of television.
4:21:25 > 4:21:29Monitor was its first regular arts programme.
4:21:30 > 4:21:34And it was here that Russell the aspiring film director
4:21:34 > 4:21:35set his sights.
4:21:36 > 4:21:38Monitor was a brilliant arts programme.
4:21:38 > 4:21:43BBC Two and BBC One and ITV were the only three channels,
4:21:43 > 4:21:47and I would literally make sure I planned my entire week
4:21:47 > 4:21:52around going to see, every week, whatever Monitor showed.
4:21:54 > 4:21:57Good evening, the return of Monitor.
4:21:57 > 4:22:02Monitor was run by the legendary broadcaster, Huw Wheldon.
4:22:02 > 4:22:06He was the British film school and I wanted a teacher.
4:22:06 > 4:22:10And he taught film, though he knew nothing about film,
4:22:10 > 4:22:13in a way that I don't think anyone else in the world could do it,
4:22:13 > 4:22:19except maybe Eisenstein or Orson Welles.
4:22:19 > 4:22:22Russell, the stills photographer,
4:22:22 > 4:22:26was now experimenting with amateur films.
4:22:26 > 4:22:30And it was his 1958 short, Amelia And The Angel,
4:22:30 > 4:22:33which would open the door to the BBC.
4:22:33 > 4:22:37Amelia and the Angel was about a girl whose wings break.
4:22:41 > 4:22:44A miracle puts it back together again.
4:22:44 > 4:22:47It was a charming film but Huw latched onto that.
4:22:47 > 4:22:50Huw knew he wanted somebody with a poetic view of life
4:22:50 > 4:22:52and that is why he brought Ken in.
4:22:52 > 4:22:56Ken seems to come almost out of thin air.
4:22:56 > 4:23:01He had been a ballet dancer in Sweden, he had been in the Navy.
4:23:01 > 4:23:05He'd had some sort of breakdown. He'd been a photographer.
4:23:05 > 4:23:09And when Huw was looking for the next film director, Huw picked Ken.
4:23:09 > 4:23:11It was a very strange choice.
4:23:14 > 4:23:16For Ken to come into this environment,
4:23:16 > 4:23:20quite a lot of university Oxbridge-educated people,
4:23:20 > 4:23:22he was a bit of an outsider, wasn't he?
4:23:22 > 4:23:26Ken always argued that we were toffs because we had degrees
4:23:26 > 4:23:28and he had a degree in life.
4:23:28 > 4:23:31He was already 32 when he joined.
4:23:31 > 4:23:37Most of my verse is about London and Cornwall.
4:23:38 > 4:23:43His first assignment was a short film on the poetry of John Betjeman.
4:23:43 > 4:23:48Russell was thinking and looking differently right from the start.
4:23:48 > 4:23:50It may seem quite conventional
4:23:50 > 4:23:54but it was absolutely new to have a poet
4:23:54 > 4:23:57on camera speaking his poems or taking you to the places
4:23:57 > 4:24:00which had inspired him, a railway station in a city,
4:24:00 > 4:24:02a public tennis court.
4:24:02 > 4:24:06Oh! Would I were her racket press'd With hard excitement to her breast
4:24:06 > 4:24:12And swished into the sunlit air Arm-high above her tousled hair
4:24:12 > 4:24:15And banged against the bounding ball "Oh! Plung!"
4:24:15 > 4:24:18My tauten'd strings would call, "Oh! Plung!
4:24:18 > 4:24:22"My darling, break my strings For you I will do brilliant things."
4:24:24 > 4:24:27We hadn't done poetry like that on television before.
4:24:27 > 4:24:30He had a vision, pictures in his head.
4:24:30 > 4:24:33Most of us have scripts in our head. We had words.
4:24:33 > 4:24:37Ken came with scripts which were pictures and with soundtracks
4:24:37 > 4:24:40because he loved music. He brought so much music to me
4:24:40 > 4:24:44and I warmed to him enormously because that was my background too.
4:24:44 > 4:24:47Our programme tonight consists of one single film
4:24:47 > 4:24:51that we made about four young artists.
4:24:52 > 4:24:56Ken Russell was tuned in to the emerging ideas of the '60s,
4:24:56 > 4:24:59approaching documentary making with a singular eye.
4:24:59 > 4:25:04In Pop Goes The Easel, the lives and inspirations of four young artists
4:25:04 > 4:25:08are filtered through the director's imagination.
4:25:12 > 4:25:16Reimagining the lives of great artists would become
4:25:16 > 4:25:18Ken Russell's trademark.
4:25:23 > 4:25:28In 1962, he pushed Wheldon to allow him to go one step further
4:25:28 > 4:25:32and use actors to portray the life of the composer Edward Elgar.
4:25:32 > 4:25:34The result was sensational.
4:25:36 > 4:25:39Elgar was born in 1857 in the shadow of the hills
4:25:39 > 4:25:42which would influence his music all through his life.
4:25:42 > 4:25:45There was little enough in his circumstances to suggest
4:25:45 > 4:25:50the future Sir Edward Elgar, master of the King's music.
4:25:50 > 4:25:54Nobody, nobody used an actor as a composer before Ken did.
4:25:54 > 4:25:57Nobody dared to do it or thought of doing it, it was contrary
4:25:57 > 4:26:01to BBC practice, probably something in the Charter that forbids it!
4:26:01 > 4:26:04It was so out of line
4:26:04 > 4:26:09it could only have come from someone who was a complete outsider.
4:26:09 > 4:26:13He grew up in Worcester, a stuffy enough place in those days,
4:26:13 > 4:26:17a place for the rich and well-to-do and the Elgars were neither.
4:26:17 > 4:26:20Huw Wheldon said it's a rags-to-riches story,
4:26:20 > 4:26:24it's good in that respect but that's nothing new,
4:26:24 > 4:26:29a rags-to-riches story. He said, "What else is central to his life?"
4:26:29 > 4:26:36I said, "Well, he said that he walks the Malvern Hills
4:26:36 > 4:26:41"and the wind on the Malvern Hills, the trees on the Malvern,
4:26:41 > 4:26:44"the aspect of it was the essence of his music."
4:26:44 > 4:26:48So, in a sense, Malvern Hills are the backbone to his musical life.
4:26:48 > 4:26:52He said, that's the story! The Malvern Hills are the star.
4:27:04 > 4:27:07He put in an actor and put him on a bike
4:27:07 > 4:27:10and suddenly you saw Elgar the young man full of doubts
4:27:10 > 4:27:14and uncertainties, full of hesitations about how
4:27:14 > 4:27:19he might, in some way or other, find his place as a maker of music.
4:27:24 > 4:27:31I personally love it because it was shot in my back garden.
4:27:31 > 4:27:35We needed to watch Elgar with his friends, young men
4:27:35 > 4:27:38serenading their girlfriends and we shot it from my kitchen window
4:27:38 > 4:27:42looking down in Hammersmith Grove, a few yards from Lime Grove.
4:27:42 > 4:27:46To be 18 years of age and watch Elgar for the first time,
4:27:46 > 4:27:49images of that that stick in your brain for ever.
4:27:49 > 4:27:52And I think as a young British filmmaker
4:27:52 > 4:27:56we were not inspired, really, by what was happening in the cinema,
4:27:56 > 4:27:59so it was extraordinary that the very best things happening on film
4:27:59 > 4:28:02were on television at that moment.
4:28:02 > 4:28:04He arranged it so that through the window
4:28:04 > 4:28:08he could see Worcester Cathedral and the Malvern Hills beyond.
4:28:08 > 4:28:14There he lay for hour after hour, listening to recordings of his music
4:28:14 > 4:28:18and, according to his own account, drifting through his memories
4:28:18 > 4:28:20in search of those moments and people
4:28:20 > 4:28:24and places that had brought him happiness and fulfilment.
4:28:33 > 4:28:36If one's looking for Ken in one of his characters
4:28:36 > 4:28:39it would be the young Elgar.
4:28:39 > 4:28:42Lower-middle-class, Catholic,
4:28:42 > 4:28:45talented and misunderstood.
4:28:45 > 4:28:50That comes through so strongly in that bio-documentary that you feel,
4:28:50 > 4:28:54yeah, this is the young Ken Russell talking about himself.
4:29:02 > 4:29:05Was Huw his mentor or the person...?
4:29:05 > 4:29:07What was the relationship with Huw, do you think?
4:29:07 > 4:29:11I think Ken found the perfect mentor,
4:29:11 > 4:29:14somebody that knew about narrative drive and wouldn't hesitate
4:29:14 > 4:29:17to tell him what to do and cherished him.
4:29:17 > 4:29:18They worked together very well.
4:29:18 > 4:29:23There was sometimes blood on the walls in the cutting rooms but they were close.
4:29:23 > 4:29:26It was a good relationship for both of them.
4:29:32 > 4:29:36He made the Debussy film, which is when he discovered Oliver Reed
4:29:36 > 4:29:40and put this fantastic brooding presence onto the screen.
4:29:45 > 4:29:48And the script for that was not by Ken himself
4:29:48 > 4:29:50but by a young person called Melvyn Bragg.
4:29:50 > 4:29:54He wasn't a great guy to work for, bad-tempered
4:29:54 > 4:29:58and he kept forgetting things and saying you'd forgotten things!
4:29:58 > 4:30:01He looked like a young Friar Tuck.
4:30:01 > 4:30:04He was sort of almost a precious bauble inside Monitor.
4:30:04 > 4:30:08He said very little, he drank very little,
4:30:08 > 4:30:13the only thing he really talked about passionately was music.
4:30:13 > 4:30:16He was always about music. Or films, of course.
4:30:16 > 4:30:20Oliver Reed plays the troubled Frenchman with a complicated private life.
4:30:21 > 4:30:26But it was Claude Debussy's music which was Russell's real obsession.
4:30:35 > 4:30:38We talked about which sequences we would do,
4:30:38 > 4:30:41all the blocking out was to music.
4:30:41 > 4:30:43What are we going to do about La Mer?
4:30:43 > 4:30:45And then there's this piece of music,
4:30:45 > 4:30:49what will we do about Apres Midi? What about that?
4:30:49 > 4:30:53The structure of it was to do with the bits of music he wanted to film.
4:30:53 > 4:30:57The Debussy film follows a director
4:30:57 > 4:31:01and his cast as they make a biography of the composer.
4:31:01 > 4:31:04- That's Debussy, over there.- Oh, aye.
4:31:07 > 4:31:10This scene is when Debussy is in his early 20s,
4:31:10 > 4:31:12long before he came to England.
4:31:14 > 4:31:18This film-within-a-film device allows Russell to explore
4:31:18 > 4:31:20the conflicts within Debussy.
4:31:23 > 4:31:29- What's that?- It's Debussy.- Does anybody want to shake to Debussy?
4:31:33 > 4:31:37This is supposed to be a party. We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves, aren't we?
4:31:37 > 4:31:41Ken Russell changed the way we look at the makers of music.
4:31:41 > 4:31:45Before Ken, there was this idea of the great composer,
4:31:45 > 4:31:50who was a cardinal figure, who received the divine sound
4:31:50 > 4:31:52from some celestial height
4:31:52 > 4:31:55and presented it in some mysterious way to the world.
4:31:55 > 4:32:00Then along came Ken, and in his very particular way,
4:32:00 > 4:32:03he showed them as the human beings they were.
4:32:03 > 4:32:08It was along this road, Fenby, that I contemplated all my finest works.
4:32:21 > 4:32:24The Delius film is a drama of a man who is dying of syphilis
4:32:24 > 4:32:30and who can't write or even read and he wants to get his music in his head out.
4:32:30 > 4:32:33He uses a young man called Eric Fenby to do this for him.
4:32:33 > 4:32:39Ken grasps the visual and the dramatic side of it.
4:32:39 > 4:32:43I think it's Ken's most satisfying work in many ways.
4:32:43 > 4:32:47Now then, Fenby, where were we from yesterday? Cellos and basses.
4:32:47 > 4:32:50Yes, I think it should be an A, cellos and basses.
4:32:50 > 4:32:54Good, get your violins a C sharp.
4:32:54 > 4:32:56Yes, play it.
4:32:56 > 4:33:00- Yes, and the violas, what have you got?- I've nothing.
4:33:00 > 4:33:02Better get a B flat there.
4:33:03 > 4:33:08Yes, yes, play it like that! A little excitement.
4:33:08 > 4:33:13Delius blew me away, again this very delicate relationship between
4:33:13 > 4:33:16his amanuensis and I thought, isn't that fantastic?
4:33:16 > 4:33:18The music was at the heart of everything.
4:33:18 > 4:33:21So, I think he let the music lead him.
4:33:23 > 4:33:28As Delius is carried to the top of a mountain to see his last sunset,
4:33:28 > 4:33:32Russell eloquently underscores the scene with the composer's
4:33:32 > 4:33:34Song Of The High Hills.
4:33:39 > 4:33:44He was in his filmmaking using music in a sense as the fountain,
4:33:44 > 4:33:47the spring, from which it all came.
4:33:50 > 4:33:55He came with musical concepts which he turned into celluloid
4:33:55 > 4:33:56and soundtrack.
4:33:56 > 4:34:00And then suddenly they all drifted away
4:34:00 > 4:34:04and there was the most glorious sunset.
4:34:19 > 4:34:21Ken was a disrupter.
4:34:21 > 4:34:22And he loved those disruptive moments
4:34:22 > 4:34:27and that's what happens in the Delius film when Percy Grainger bursts in.
4:34:27 > 4:34:31He is Australian, he is weird. He is widely energetic.
4:34:31 > 4:34:33He is sadomasochistic.
4:34:33 > 4:34:35He has appalling personal practices.
4:34:35 > 4:34:41Ken knows this and he's coming into the life of this invalid...
4:34:41 > 4:34:44elderly composer and, obviously, he's going to take the roof off.
4:34:44 > 4:34:50- Who is it?- That was Percy Grainger. Sometimes he's a fool!
4:34:50 > 4:34:54'Whether Grainger did that or not, it's absolutely Ken, isn't it?'
4:34:54 > 4:34:58All of a sudden, in the middle of this film, which was going
4:34:58 > 4:35:03its own sweet, melancholy, thoughtful way, there was this little "Phweugh!" went out.
4:35:03 > 4:35:04A little firework went off.
4:35:04 > 4:35:07Have you brought your arrangement for The Song Of The High Hills?
4:35:07 > 4:35:11- Yes, I've brought it.- Well, you can play it to me tonight,
4:35:11 > 4:35:12if we ever get back.
4:35:12 > 4:35:15Ha-ha-ha-ha!
4:35:15 > 4:35:18Russell's BBC films brought classical music
4:35:18 > 4:35:19to a wider audience...
4:35:22 > 4:35:27..and helped resurrect the reputations of Elgar and Delius.
4:35:29 > 4:35:33But in 1970, his next film would damage its subject
4:35:33 > 4:35:38and outrage even his most ardent fans.
4:35:38 > 4:35:41Omnibus now presents a new film by Ken Russell,
4:35:41 > 4:35:43Dance Of The Seven Veils.
4:35:43 > 4:35:46It's been described as a harsh and, at times, violent caricature
4:35:46 > 4:35:49of the life of the composer, Richard Strauss.
4:35:49 > 4:35:53This is a personal interpretation by Ken Russell of certain real
4:35:53 > 4:35:56and many imaginary events in the composer's life.
4:35:56 > 4:36:00'He took great liberties with the historical truth.
4:36:00 > 4:36:03'In some cases, he went unacceptably over the top,
4:36:03 > 4:36:05'portraying him, if not exactly as a Nazi,'
4:36:05 > 4:36:08then as a very close collaborator with the Nazi regime,
4:36:08 > 4:36:11was...pretty much outrageous.
4:36:11 > 4:36:15Poor old Richard Strauss, he did go on working in Nazi Germany,
4:36:15 > 4:36:17but he wasn't a Nazi.
4:36:17 > 4:36:20He didn't jump up and conduct on their behest,
4:36:20 > 4:36:22like certain other musicians did.
4:36:22 > 4:36:23Heil, Hitler!
4:36:23 > 4:36:27The Dance Of The Seven Veils so incensed the Strauss family
4:36:27 > 4:36:29that they withdrew future rights from the BBC
4:36:29 > 4:36:33to the composer's music, in an attempt to kill off the film.
4:36:33 > 4:36:35That's better.
4:36:35 > 4:36:41KEN: I can still show the film, but not with Richard Strauss' music.
4:36:41 > 4:36:46so I have shown clips of the film, with Johann Strauss' music. What's in a name?
4:36:46 > 4:36:48Johann, Richard.
4:36:50 > 4:36:52And I'm a bit of a devil.
4:36:55 > 4:36:59It was like throwing petrol on top of a fire, with Ken.
4:36:59 > 4:37:02His work more and more incendiary because of it.
4:37:02 > 4:37:08I think that, although Ken always said the criticism didn't affect him, I think it did.
4:37:11 > 4:37:14By the fag end of the Swinging '60s,
4:37:14 > 4:37:16it was becoming increasingly obvious
4:37:16 > 4:37:18that Russell's future lay with feature films.
4:37:18 > 4:37:23The debacle of The Dance Of The Seven Veils would be the last Omnibus
4:37:23 > 4:37:24he would direct for the BBC.
4:37:24 > 4:37:29The next time Ken appeared on the programme, he would be the subject.
4:37:29 > 4:37:35As he huddled here at the Troubador with his unofficial leading man, Oliver Reed,
4:37:35 > 4:37:38there was an undeniable air of expectancy
4:37:38 > 4:37:41about what Ken would do next.
4:37:41 > 4:37:44- Confess! Confess!- OK.
4:37:44 > 4:37:47Then he'll go away, like that. Ready? Go.
4:37:47 > 4:37:50Confess! Confess!
4:37:50 > 4:37:51That's it! Perfect.
4:37:51 > 4:37:53'The Devils was a full-frontal assault
4:37:53 > 4:37:56'on the Roman Catholic Church. It involved'
4:37:56 > 4:38:01discussing the essential madness that lies at the heart
4:38:01 > 4:38:07of a single-sex community which is gripped by a spiritual idea.
4:38:07 > 4:38:14It was a huge challenge and Ken did it full frontal
4:38:14 > 4:38:16and no holds barred.
4:38:16 > 4:38:20And did it, in a sense, to invite a hysterical reaction,
4:38:20 > 4:38:25which would then confirm the work that he had made.
4:38:25 > 4:38:29If Russell had proven himself unafraid of controversy,
4:38:29 > 4:38:33the Devils would test his mettle to the full.
4:38:33 > 4:38:36On the surface, a historical film dealing with
4:38:36 > 4:38:42the scapegoating of a priest, against a background of sexual hysteria in 17th-century France,
4:38:42 > 4:38:47Russell viewed his adaptation of Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun
4:38:47 > 4:38:50as a deeply serious work.
4:38:50 > 4:38:53KEN: The film, basically, is about politics
4:38:53 > 4:38:57and the collision between the individual and the state
4:38:57 > 4:39:00and who survives.
4:39:00 > 4:39:03And throughout history, it has always been the state that survives
4:39:03 > 4:39:05and the individual's gone under.
4:39:05 > 4:39:09Every time there is a so-called nationalist revival,
4:39:09 > 4:39:10it means one thing -
4:39:10 > 4:39:16somebody is trying to seize control of the entire country.
4:39:17 > 4:39:21The significance of our walls is that we are self governing!
4:39:21 > 4:39:22CHEERING
4:39:22 > 4:39:27Richelieu, he deceives the King!
4:39:27 > 4:39:30What Ken Russell saw it as was a story about brainwashing,
4:39:30 > 4:39:33a story about hysteria, a story about false idols,
4:39:33 > 4:39:37and this, again, is a theme that recurs throughout his work.
4:39:37 > 4:39:38What is this place?
4:39:38 > 4:39:42The Convent of St Ursula - a place you have defiled.
4:39:42 > 4:39:44Do what must be done.
4:39:51 > 4:39:53God forgive them.
4:39:53 > 4:39:58'I thought it was Oliver Reed's greatest performance. It's an extraordinary performance.'
4:39:58 > 4:40:02In a sense, he put Ollie in the middle of this madness,
4:40:02 > 4:40:06Ken Russell madness - all the great and bad, everything about it -
4:40:06 > 4:40:09and Ollie was just this thing that carried you right through it,
4:40:09 > 4:40:13with dignity and I thought, "They're a good team, those two."
4:40:13 > 4:40:19For the love of Jesus Christ, if you wish to destroy me, then destroy me.
4:40:19 > 4:40:25Accuse me of exposing political chicanery and evils of the state and I would plead guilty.
4:40:25 > 4:40:28But what man can face the arraignments of the idiocy of youth?
4:40:29 > 4:40:33The Devils topped the UK box office, but only after the censors
4:40:33 > 4:40:38had shorn the film of its most shocking moments.
4:40:38 > 4:40:41'The BBFC, famously, when they first saw a cut of it,'
4:40:41 > 4:40:44did consider banning it outright.
4:40:44 > 4:40:48I love The Devils. I think it's pivotal in his work.
4:40:48 > 4:40:50It was a film that upset the most people.
4:40:50 > 4:40:54It is so courageous, so brave,
4:40:54 > 4:40:58so fearless. It's everything that Ken was at that moment in time.
4:40:58 > 4:41:03It's at the height of his powers and probably the height of his excess.
4:41:03 > 4:41:05You are also guilty of treason!
4:41:05 > 4:41:08You are unrepentant heretics!
4:41:08 > 4:41:12His films kept being successful. Even when they were outrageous, they kept being successful.
4:41:12 > 4:41:15So, he was the main man.
4:41:15 > 4:41:20He said to me, "I don't care if they love my films or hate them, as long as they don't go off
4:41:20 > 4:41:22"and make a cup of tea in the middle of one!"
4:41:22 > 4:41:25Britain's most successful, and notorious, director
4:41:25 > 4:41:30was about to shock the public yet again -
4:41:30 > 4:41:32by making a feelgood musical.
4:41:32 > 4:41:38KEN: 'I never want to do another violent film ever again, which is why I'm doing The Boy Friend next,
4:41:38 > 4:41:42'with Twiggy. Pure escapism. Just fun.'
4:41:42 > 4:41:43The rest worked well.
4:41:43 > 4:41:46KEN: 'Of all the people I've worked with,'
4:41:46 > 4:41:52she comes nearer than anything to perfection in someone I've ever met.
4:41:52 > 4:41:53Action!
4:41:53 > 4:41:55One, two, three, four...
4:41:55 > 4:41:57Music!
4:41:57 > 4:41:58SCREAMING
4:41:58 > 4:42:00'It's a very different Ken Russell film,'
4:42:00 > 4:42:03so that's... It's quite a sweet film, actually.
4:42:11 > 4:42:14# I don't claim that I am psychic... #
4:42:14 > 4:42:18Russell's homage to the Busby Berkeley musicals of his childhood,
4:42:18 > 4:42:21stars Twiggy as the stage hand who becomes the leading lady.
4:42:21 > 4:42:23# ..my dear... #
4:42:23 > 4:42:28It was so fun, and was so joyous and I thought, "Ah, wonderful."
4:42:33 > 4:42:37Visually, I love it when Christopher Gable and I are dancing
4:42:37 > 4:42:40on the huge record. That was quite scary, actually,
4:42:40 > 4:42:43because when you got on it,
4:42:43 > 4:42:47it was going quite fast and when you started to dance, you kind of
4:42:47 > 4:42:52felt yourself being pulled backwards. It was quite weird and I had this
4:42:52 > 4:42:57beautiful white, floaty chiffon dress. It's just very beautiful.
4:42:59 > 4:43:01The visuals are everything to him.
4:43:01 > 4:43:06He would spend hours polishing a floor before a shot.
4:43:06 > 4:43:12Look at the floors in The Boy Friend. He'd have made the best housecleaner in the world!
4:43:12 > 4:43:14HE LAUGHS
4:43:21 > 4:43:25The Boy Friend, you see, is probably the only family film he's ever made.
4:43:25 > 4:43:29And it's quite a joyous film. It's full of music, which he loved.
4:43:29 > 4:43:31I think he found it great fun to do.
4:43:33 > 4:43:35Ken would come on and pirouette round the set,
4:43:35 > 4:43:39but really good pirouettes, he was brilliant, cos he trained as a ballet dancer!
4:43:39 > 4:43:42# That certain thing called
4:43:42 > 4:43:48# The Boy Friend. #
4:43:48 > 4:43:50APPLAUSE
4:43:50 > 4:43:53One of the things that Ken Russell did was, he wasn't necessarily
4:43:53 > 4:43:56looking for actors, he was looking for people who embodied the thing that he wanted,
4:43:56 > 4:43:58so that's one reason he worked well with rock stars.
4:44:00 > 4:44:04The Boyfriend earned Twiggy two Golden Globe awards,
4:44:04 > 4:44:08but Russell's most commercially successful film ever
4:44:08 > 4:44:11came about through an unlikely collaboration.
4:44:12 > 4:44:15# Ever since I was a young boy I've played the silver ball
4:44:15 > 4:44:19# From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all
4:44:19 > 4:44:22# But I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall
4:44:22 > 4:44:28# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball! #
4:44:28 > 4:44:29'We were all huge Ken Russell fans,'
4:44:29 > 4:44:33as most people of our generation were from his TV work.
4:44:33 > 4:44:36It was like, "Wow! Ken Russell and Tommy could really work."
4:44:36 > 4:44:41# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball! #
4:44:43 > 4:44:46'I didn't think any more of it until I got the word down the pipe
4:44:46 > 4:44:52'that he wanted me to play Tommy. I'd never done any acting. I said to him, "Are you sure I can do this?"
4:44:52 > 4:44:56And he said, "Yeah, course you can. You know how to sing it.
4:44:56 > 4:45:00"You DO sing it. You'll be a perfect Tommy."
4:45:00 > 4:45:04Pete Townshend's rock opera about the deaf, dumb and blind boy
4:45:04 > 4:45:08who becomes a cult figure provided the perfect vehicle
4:45:08 > 4:45:11for Ken Russell's vivid imagination.
4:45:12 > 4:45:16My first morning on the set with Ken was in a bath of what started to be
4:45:16 > 4:45:18very tepid, yellow water.
4:45:18 > 4:45:20# ..on the bath... #
4:45:20 > 4:45:26And Paul Nicholas, playing Cousin Kevin, was ducking me under this water for, like, three hours,
4:45:26 > 4:45:29by which time the water was freezing cold!
4:45:29 > 4:45:31And I thought, "Well, this is interesting."
4:45:31 > 4:45:36'Then the next scene, I'm laid on an ironing board,
4:45:36 > 4:45:39'being ironed and they are putting smoke in to replicate the steam
4:45:39 > 4:45:43'and Ken's going, "More smoke, more smoke,"
4:45:43 > 4:45:48while Paul Nicholas runs up and down my back with an iron
4:45:48 > 4:45:51and keeps smacking me in the head!
4:45:51 > 4:45:56So that was my first day's filming with Ken, basically.
4:45:56 > 4:45:59After that, he was dragging me around by my hair and I thought,
4:45:59 > 4:46:03"This is not quite what I thought filming was going to be."
4:46:05 > 4:46:09It was a testament to his international reputation
4:46:09 > 4:46:12that Russell was able to cast Hollywood actors Jack Nicholson
4:46:12 > 4:46:17and Ann-Margret alongside his regular collaborator, Oliver Reed.
4:46:17 > 4:46:21# His eyes react to light The dials detect it
4:46:21 > 4:46:26# He hears but cannot answer to your call... #
4:46:26 > 4:46:29The reason that the stellar cast were willing to work with him
4:46:29 > 4:46:34was not only because it's The Who and is going to be a huge rock hit,
4:46:34 > 4:46:38but because Ken Russell is actually probably more of a pull than The Who are.
4:46:38 > 4:46:41He is the rock star of film-makers, at that point.
4:46:41 > 4:46:44He was just part of that world. It was all around him.
4:46:44 > 4:46:48He seemed to dance with that world, he loved pop stars.
4:46:48 > 4:46:50He loved the whole thing, and I think that's...
4:46:50 > 4:46:56He may be the best British film director representing the '60s,
4:46:56 > 4:46:59but he never made it take place in the '60s.
4:46:59 > 4:47:02He made it take place in other centuries, other places.
4:47:02 > 4:47:03# I'm free!
4:47:05 > 4:47:09# Ooh, I'm free! #
4:47:09 > 4:47:12The fascinating thing with Tommy is that, in many ways,
4:47:12 > 4:47:16it kind of lays the template for what we think of as the modern rock video.
4:47:16 > 4:47:20When you watch it now, it does sometimes look like a collection of rock videos put end to end.
4:47:27 > 4:47:32Tommy was definitely the forerunner of MTV, there's no doubt about that.
4:47:32 > 4:47:36The way he cut Tommy together, it's direct early MTV,
4:47:36 > 4:47:39you know, eight years before MTV happened.
4:47:39 > 4:47:43Unfazed by the rigours of filming Tommy,
4:47:43 > 4:47:48Daltrey teamed up again with Russell for a decidedly camp and rocky take
4:47:48 > 4:47:51on the life of 19th century composer, Franz Liszt.
4:47:51 > 4:47:55It was a long way from Huw Wheldon and Monitor.
4:47:58 > 4:48:01He sets the scene with a metronome.
4:48:01 > 4:48:04Then it goes to Franz Liszt, with a breast in each hand,
4:48:04 > 4:48:08caressing a nipple, in time with the metronome.
4:48:10 > 4:48:13The thing with Lisztomania is, it establishes at the very beginning
4:48:13 > 4:48:16this is not a boring, historical romp.
4:48:20 > 4:48:25Lisztomania is playing to the audience that saw Tommy.
4:48:25 > 4:48:26Imagine that, right.
4:48:26 > 4:48:29Yeah, you just saw Tommy, here's a film about Liszt. Off you go!
4:48:29 > 4:48:32Franz Liszt! Franz Liszt!
4:48:32 > 4:48:33Franz Liszt! Franz Liszt!
4:48:33 > 4:48:35Franz Liszt! Franz Liszt!
4:48:35 > 4:48:39Well, he portrayed Franz Liszt as the first rock star, which is an actual fact.
4:48:39 > 4:48:43He was worshiped as Elton John and Elvis were worshiped, you know,
4:48:43 > 4:48:46as The Who were worshiped in the early days.
4:48:46 > 4:48:51He would ride around Vienna and St Petersburg
4:48:51 > 4:48:55and huge crowds of people would turn out to see him
4:48:55 > 4:48:57and women would lay at his feet.
4:48:58 > 4:49:01With no-one to rein in his excesses,
4:49:01 > 4:49:05Russell indulged his fertile imagination to the full.
4:49:05 > 4:49:08The eight-foot penis in Lisztomania, with the six chorus girls.
4:49:08 > 4:49:11HE LAUGHS
4:49:11 > 4:49:14I did have my doubts.
4:49:17 > 4:49:20It's almost like Russell is pastiching himself,
4:49:20 > 4:49:23don't make the mistake of thinking he didn't know that.
4:49:23 > 4:49:27Lisztomania, to some extent, was a kind of turning point
4:49:27 > 4:49:32because Lisztomania was, I think, the point at which some people lost patience with what they perceived
4:49:32 > 4:49:35to be Ken's, you know, extravagance.
4:49:35 > 4:49:41In 1980, Ken travelled to Hollywood to work inside the studio system for the first time.
4:49:43 > 4:49:46Made for Warner Brothers and starring William Hurt,
4:49:46 > 4:49:50the hallucinogenic Altered States would be his first sci-fi movie.
4:49:52 > 4:49:55Altered States is a Hollywood movie with somebody else's script,
4:49:55 > 4:49:59but it's more contained and it's not Ken all over the place.
4:49:59 > 4:50:02The fireworks have been pulled back into something really tight,
4:50:02 > 4:50:05really extraordinary, great performances,
4:50:05 > 4:50:09and the effects were just perfect, I thought.
4:50:10 > 4:50:12SCREAMING
4:50:15 > 4:50:18There's a very important sequence in Altered States,
4:50:18 > 4:50:23in which the William Hurt character goes into this long rambling speech about what he's searching for.
4:50:23 > 4:50:26He says, I'm searching for the original self, the true self.
4:50:26 > 4:50:31I think that that true self, that original self, that first self,
4:50:31 > 4:50:36is a real, mensurate, quantifiable thing, tangible and incarnate.
4:50:38 > 4:50:41And I'm going to find the fucker.
4:50:41 > 4:50:45And that was pretty much what Russell was doing all the way through his work.
4:50:45 > 4:50:49He was looking for that real, tangible, living human soul.
4:50:50 > 4:50:54FIREWORKS EXPLODE
4:50:59 > 4:51:04But at the point when Russell needed a sure-fire hit,
4:51:04 > 4:51:06the film failed to deliver.
4:51:06 > 4:51:11Worse still, the director and the Hollywood studio couldn't work together.
4:51:13 > 4:51:19I think he was too impish for Hollywood, he just loved causing trouble.
4:51:19 > 4:51:25I understand that because you go to Hollywood and it's like you're in Babylon.
4:51:25 > 4:51:31This is the enemy out there, this is everything we've learned to hate.
4:51:31 > 4:51:35There's two ways of approaching it, you either genuflect,
4:51:35 > 4:51:38make a career, or you cause trouble.
4:51:38 > 4:51:40I'm sure he caused trouble.
4:51:42 > 4:51:48Back in Britain, the indefatigable Russell decided to embrace the music video,
4:51:48 > 4:51:53making lucrative promos for his old Tommy star, Elton John.
4:51:53 > 4:51:55Let's have a rehearsal, then.
4:51:55 > 4:51:57Here we go... And, playback!
4:52:02 > 4:52:05It's so enjoyable.
4:52:05 > 4:52:07Music and movement and pictures
4:52:07 > 4:52:11and the whole scene.
4:52:11 > 4:52:17The thing about it, nowadays you get far more freedom in music videos than features
4:52:17 > 4:52:20because the concept is usually left to the director.
4:52:20 > 4:52:25# Poor Nikita is the other side... #
4:52:25 > 4:52:30They want imagination and in cinema, they want less and less of it
4:52:30 > 4:52:35and more and more talkies and less and less pictures and exuberance.
4:52:35 > 4:52:39When I met Ken in the mid-80s, he'd already crashed and burned.
4:52:39 > 4:52:41He couldn't get funding for feature films.
4:52:41 > 4:52:44He couldn't get the BBC or ITV to back his documentaries.
4:52:44 > 4:52:48So he'd gone out looking for work as a director of opera,
4:52:48 > 4:52:51and he was directing an opera at the Vienna State Opera.
4:52:51 > 4:52:54It was absolutely hilarious and excruciating.
4:52:54 > 4:53:00The cast kept dropping out, the conductor dropped out, every day was another crisis.
4:53:00 > 4:53:03I used to go into the Opera House and meet the interim director,
4:53:03 > 4:53:06who would greet me with these tears in his eyes, and saying,
4:53:06 > 4:53:09"What is he doing to my Opera House?"
4:53:15 > 4:53:18Ken declared, to anybody who would listen,
4:53:18 > 4:53:21"I don't speak a word of German or read a note of music,"
4:53:21 > 4:53:23just the sort of thing they want to hear in Vienna.
4:53:25 > 4:53:30At one point he asked the Faust to urinate in the font.
4:53:32 > 4:53:37The singer was Italian, he was Catholic, he was outraged, he walked out.
4:53:39 > 4:53:43And through it all, there shone a certain integrity
4:53:43 > 4:53:49of Ken doing it his way, without reference to any tradition
4:53:49 > 4:53:52or anything other that putting on what he thought was a good show,
4:53:52 > 4:53:57which would reflect the essence of Faust as composed by Gouneau.
4:54:03 > 4:54:07And when the audience booed him on the opening night,
4:54:07 > 4:54:10Ken turned round at them and presented his buttocks.
4:54:13 > 4:54:17Now, 25 years later, I keep hearing from people in Vienna,
4:54:17 > 4:54:21about the legendary Faust that Ken Russell staged.
4:54:25 > 4:54:27The latter end of his career,
4:54:27 > 4:54:31the work became a parody of his earlier work.
4:54:31 > 4:54:35He himself became this eccentric, larger than life figure.
4:54:35 > 4:54:40When Russell did get money for feature films in the '80s
4:54:40 > 4:54:42he makes no concessions to good taste
4:54:42 > 4:54:46and seems increasingly to relish the camp and the kitsch.
4:54:46 > 4:54:48Yes, I'm home!
4:54:48 > 4:54:52When he sent me the script, I must confess
4:54:52 > 4:54:55I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be funny or serious,
4:54:55 > 4:54:57and it was so outlandish.
4:55:02 > 4:55:06I met him and remember saying, "Ken, is this supposed to be a comedy?"
4:55:06 > 4:55:10He laughed and said, "Of course it's a bloody comedy, what did you think it was?"
4:55:16 > 4:55:22I was dressed as the high priestess, the Layer of the White Worm, the worm-snake woman,
4:55:22 > 4:55:26with full blue body make-up, a skull cap and fangs
4:55:26 > 4:55:30and literally thinking, "I shall never work again!"
4:55:31 > 4:55:36And Ken with a megaphone going, "More rape! More pillage!"
4:55:36 > 4:55:40And Wagner blaring out of two speakers on the set.
4:55:40 > 4:55:42And I just thought, "This is so Ken Russell."
4:55:43 > 4:55:48A scene with a boy scout and a bath, I seem to remember, which was very, very funny.
4:55:48 > 4:55:53Wherever there's death, there's a rebirth.
4:55:53 > 4:55:56And to our God, ever mightier...
4:55:56 > 4:55:57DOORBELL RINGS
4:55:57 > 4:55:59Shit!
4:55:59 > 4:56:03And just as I'm getting down to business with the boy scout and the bath,
4:56:03 > 4:56:04the doorbell rings and it's Hugh Grant.
4:56:04 > 4:56:05SHE LAUGHS
4:56:08 > 4:56:11Good evening, what can I do for you?
4:56:11 > 4:56:12Forgive me for dropping in like this,
4:56:12 > 4:56:15but, er, you're not in the book.
4:56:15 > 4:56:18The British media were just completely confused.
4:56:18 > 4:56:22You know, venal and this is dreadful, rubbish, crap stuff.
4:56:22 > 4:56:26The great joy of Ken Russell's career is that he never thought,
4:56:26 > 4:56:29"Oh, I know, let's rein it in a little bit.
4:56:29 > 4:56:33"Let's take our foot off a bit." When he was confronted with that sort of thing
4:56:33 > 4:56:37his answer to put his foot on the pedal and go pell mell the other way.
4:56:37 > 4:56:40That's why he ended up making movies in his garage.
4:56:42 > 4:56:48Ken Russell entered the new millennium and his 70s, showing no signs of slowing down.
4:56:49 > 4:56:54Only now, his movies, shot largely on video, were smaller
4:56:54 > 4:56:57and his studio was his back garden.
4:56:57 > 4:57:01Honestly, Alan, I mean, anybody who delivered the post, would say,
4:57:01 > 4:57:05"Can you come back tomorrow because I'm doing a film about such and such."
4:57:05 > 4:57:08He'd turn up and he'd say, "Would you mind putting those clothes on?
4:57:08 > 4:57:11"Just a second, can you... can you say these lines?"
4:57:11 > 4:57:13And he'd just keep making films.
4:57:13 > 4:57:16He carried on because actually saying, "Action and cut,"
4:57:16 > 4:57:18was something he couldn't live without.
4:57:20 > 4:57:24My image of Ken in his later life, is one of a happy man.
4:57:24 > 4:57:27Although he wasn't in the big world any more,
4:57:27 > 4:57:30he had, after all, made a very big mark in the world of cinema.
4:57:32 > 4:57:34# Oh, you gave to me
4:57:34 > 4:57:37# Now I'll give to you
4:57:37 > 4:57:40# No words can you say
4:57:40 > 4:57:42# How I feel... #
4:57:42 > 4:57:44I heard from him literally four weeks before he died.
4:57:44 > 4:57:49He called me up and asked me to play the Mad Hatter, in Alice in Wonderland.
4:57:49 > 4:57:51Of course, how could I say no?
4:57:55 > 4:58:00His enthusiasm for the project was absolutely infectious.
4:58:00 > 4:58:04It was just a few words. It was still bubbly Ken.
4:58:04 > 4:58:08Ken was like a big, naughty schoolboy,
4:58:08 > 4:58:12playing with his toys and breaking the rules and getting away with it.
4:58:12 > 4:58:14I loved that about him.
4:58:19 > 4:58:23He wasn't frightened of anything. He would just go for it.
4:58:23 > 4:58:28Forget about the bits that didn't work, it was the bits that did that was extraordinary.
4:58:28 > 4:58:29Nobody was even close to it.
4:59:08 > 4:59:10Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
4:59:10 > 4:59:12E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk