0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:12From the most basic elements - a voice, an audience, words -
0:00:12 > 0:00:13alchemy can take place.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22Cry - God for Harry! England and St George!
0:00:22 > 0:00:27A speech can rally an army, fight for justice...
0:00:27 > 0:00:30I hate wars, but I like fighting.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34..honour a loved one, define a cause...
0:00:34 > 0:00:39Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
0:00:44 > 0:00:46It is like watching a nation
0:00:46 > 0:00:51busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53..appeal to a nation...
0:00:53 > 0:00:57You righted the doubters, and you scattered the gloomsters.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01Spit it out! Come on!
0:01:01 > 0:01:03You are ferocious in battle.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Remember to be magnanimous in victory.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08..and inspire a country.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10We shall never surrender.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Speech-making is the art of persuasion.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Well-honed rhetoric appeals not just to the mind,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26but to the heart and to something deeper down as well in the guts.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30I want to dissect what it takes to make a great speech,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33to understand its anatomy, what gives it its life force and vigour,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36or in some cases, what kills it dead.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42And to wonder whether delivery and argument and rhythm and cadence
0:01:42 > 0:01:43can all combine together
0:01:43 > 0:01:47to make what we might think of as the perfect speech.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00I want to start by stripping away the flesh of speech-making
0:02:00 > 0:02:05and examining the bare bones, the words.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12One of Britain's best known orators was Winston Churchill,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15whose emotive wartime speeches
0:02:15 > 0:02:17proved to be masterpieces of inspiration.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21..And with the British Empire around us,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25we shall fight on, unconquerable,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29until the curse of Hitler is lifted
0:02:29 > 0:02:31from the brows of men.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35..Turning the tide of the world war
0:02:35 > 0:02:38by their prowess and by their devotion.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed
0:02:43 > 0:02:44by so many
0:02:44 > 0:02:46to so few.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Churchill was fascinated by the art of rhetoric,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and honed his skills throughout his career,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55but it wasn't until the horror of World War II
0:02:55 > 0:02:58that his poetic battle cries found their place -
0:02:58 > 0:03:00strengthening the nation's resolve.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03We shall fight with growing confidence
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and growing strength in the air,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23we shall fight in the hills - we shall never surrender.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Churchill used to talk about his speeches
0:03:26 > 0:03:29and the way he wrote them as psalms,
0:03:29 > 0:03:34and you can hear as he goes through it, the line endings.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38I even think you can pick out rhymes and half rhymes,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43so it goes, "beach," "street,"
0:03:43 > 0:03:48"believe," "see," "fleet,"
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and the pauses get longer and longer and longer.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53The drama is cranked up.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00As a poet, I have to admire his use of compressed language,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03his deployment of metaphor, powerful imagery,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05repetition and rhythm.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Neither the sudden shock of battle
0:04:09 > 0:04:13nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion
0:04:13 > 0:04:15will wear us down.
0:04:15 > 0:04:22Give us the tools and we will finish the job!
0:04:25 > 0:04:28Churchill's speeches might sound natural and from the heart.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31The reason that they're so compelling
0:04:31 > 0:04:34is that he's using every trick in the book.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36There are lots of different rhetorical techniques,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39some of them with fancy-sounding Greek names,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43but the most important principal is you structure your argument clearly.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49With that in mind, I've just come for a little refresher course.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54I just wanted to take a couple of turns with you
0:04:54 > 0:04:56on the ideas carousel, yeah?
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Think of ways we can turn your team into a little cluster of excellence.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04In a case of real life imitating art, actor Vincent Franklin,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08who plays the blue-sky-thinking guru Stewart Pearson
0:05:08 > 0:05:11in the political satire The Thick of It,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14is also a professional speech coach.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Let's imagineer a narrative.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19So most of my time is spent being Stewart Pearson,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21and holding that up in front of them
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and going, "It makes you look a bit of a twat!"
0:05:24 > 0:05:26So, let's say that I came to you,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29because I wanted you to help me write a speech, how would that work?
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I would ask these questions - what do you want people to know,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34what do you want them to feel, and what do you want them do,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37because it's not a presentation, it's a speech,
0:05:37 > 0:05:38and that's a really big difference.
0:05:38 > 0:05:39I can present the facts,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43but a speech has to be something that motivates you to do something.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Do you do the nuts and bolts stuff, you know,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47right down to choosing the words?
0:05:47 > 0:05:49I talk a lot about the ladder abstraction.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Cos at the top of that ladder of abstraction is the big idea,
0:05:55 > 0:05:56so it...you know, in Blair's case...
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Education, education, and education.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03It's really important you have a big thing you believe in and a big idea,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06but it's very abstract, so I would then help them come down that ladder.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11What, into, sort of, finer detail?
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Into detail, into real things,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15so if at the top there's education,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18and in the middle is, therefore, investing in schools,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22at the bottom is making sure that class sizes are only 30 people in it.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24- Really good speeches move up and down that.- Mm.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30That idea applies to poetry as well, where you're often trying to get
0:06:30 > 0:06:33the universal and the particular to work at the same time.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Poetry paints pictures in my head, and good speeches do that too,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39and if I don't go away remembering that image or that idea,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42that opened up a bigger idea,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45it doesn't resonate with me, doesn't stick.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48You know, Churchill says, "We will fight them on the beaches,"
0:06:48 > 0:06:52he doesn't say there will be skirmishes in coastal regions -
0:06:52 > 0:06:55do you know what I mean? I see a beach, and I see fighting.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Vincent has lots of new jargon for speech-writing,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02but the principals of rhetoric
0:07:02 > 0:07:07were first identified by the philosopher Aristotle, in ancient Greece.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Knowledge is porridge.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Oh. Jesus, Stewart, that doesn't even fucking rhyme!
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Probably worth mentioning Aristotle and the Greeks,
0:07:20 > 0:07:27cos they would talk about first of all logos, ethos and pathos,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30and so logos is making sure it's logical,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and it's really important because you need to make sure your speech has a structure to it,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37and an argument that is logic so that A follows B follows C.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39I really like the phrase, "and because of that."
0:07:39 > 0:07:43I use that a lot with people, which is, "I want to make the world better, and because of that I'm doing this."
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Rather than saying, "I'm doing this, because I want to make the world better," which is backwards.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51One nation. We're going to make it happen.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53And today, I'm going to tell you how.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58Ethos is about the belief in the person, is about trust,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00do I really believe this person,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02are they talking and presenting themselves
0:08:02 > 0:08:05in a way that means I kind of buy into them.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07I ask you to accept one thing.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Pathos is about the emotion, and that's really important.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18I'm talking about how I feel about these things,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20and why they matter to me,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23as opposed to just being logical and being impressive,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25it's about dealing with those emotions.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear
0:08:31 > 0:08:34is fear itself.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36There, that's what Aristotle would give us,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39and if you could do all of those, you're on a winner.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Logic, trust and emotion
0:08:46 > 0:08:48were the basis of one of the most impressive
0:08:48 > 0:08:50modern motivational speeches,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55ranging from lofty ideas to searing pragmatism.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58HUW EDWARDS: Baghdad tonight, under heavy bombardment,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00on the day the war started.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Tonight, British servicemen and women
0:09:03 > 0:09:05are engaged from air, land and sea.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Their mission - to remove Saddam Hussein from power
0:09:09 > 0:09:12and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
0:09:17 > 0:09:23We are going in to Iraq to liberate and not to conquer.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27We will not fly our flags in their country.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33There are some who are alive at this moment
0:09:33 > 0:09:36who will not be alive shortly.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Those of them who do not wish to go on that journey,
0:09:39 > 0:09:40we will not send them.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Wipe them out if that's what they choose.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53If you are ferocious in battle,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55remember to be magnanimous in victory.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58This is the dramatised version
0:09:58 > 0:10:00of Colonel Tim Collins' rousing speech
0:10:00 > 0:10:05made to his troops, the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08on the eve of war, March 2003.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14It was almost as if nature had conspired for this moment
0:10:14 > 0:10:17because it was an overcast, very grey day.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19As I looked north towards Iraq,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21already you could see the black plumes of smoke
0:10:21 > 0:10:25and the bright orange flames where they'd started blowing up oil wells,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28so you had this almost Hollywood-esque setting
0:10:28 > 0:10:31for the epic that was about to happen.
0:10:32 > 0:10:39Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden...
0:10:40 > 0:10:46..of the Great Flood. It is the birthplace of Abraham.
0:10:46 > 0:10:47You tread...
0:10:50 > 0:10:53You tread lightly there.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56There's a line about being "ferocious in battle"
0:10:56 > 0:10:59but "magnanimous in victory,"
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and there seems to be a whole velvet glove, iron fist thing
0:11:03 > 0:11:05going on throughout the whole speech.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Were you conscious of that at all?
0:11:07 > 0:11:11I wanted them to understand that this is only stuff you might have
0:11:11 > 0:11:15seen in the movies, but it's not like the movies, this is real.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19"You'll see things that no man could pay to see.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22"You'll have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous
0:11:22 > 0:11:25"and upright people than the Iraqis.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27"You'll be embarrassed by their hospitality,
0:11:27 > 0:11:28"even though they have nothing.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31"Don't treat them as refugees in their own country."
0:11:31 > 0:11:36If there are casualties of war, then remember that when they got up
0:11:36 > 0:11:41this morning and got dressed, they did not plan to die this day.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46So allow them dignity in death.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Bury them with due reverence, and properly mark their graves.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53How important is morale that comes from a speech like that?
0:11:53 > 0:11:57I suddenly realised that for many of them
0:11:57 > 0:11:59it was probably going to be the end of their young lives.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02I wanted them to understand what was happening
0:12:02 > 0:12:04and why it was happening so they could cope with that context.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Some of them hadn't even seen their granny dead.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12I was speaking to them both as my men, I was speaking to them as my children.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14I wanted them to understand what they could do
0:12:14 > 0:12:17and I wanted to make clear what I wouldn't accept.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23"It's a big step to take another human life,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25"and it's not to be done lightly.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29"I know of men who have taken life needlessly in conflicts,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33"and I can assure you, they live with the mark of Cain upon them."
0:12:33 > 0:12:36At times, it seems to have echoes of the church sermon.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Have you got sermons ringing in your ears?
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Being brought up in Presbyterian Ireland,
0:12:41 > 0:12:42that's how vicars talk to you,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and that's how you expect that to come across.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Let's bring everybody home safely...
0:12:50 > 0:12:54..and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Our business now is north.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Good luck.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Are yours the words that are needed to carry them over that threshold
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and into battle?
0:13:19 > 0:13:22You urge them to choose to go forward by creating
0:13:22 > 0:13:25the realisation that the shame of stepping back is far worse
0:13:25 > 0:13:28than what could ever happen to you by going forward.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32So rather than a bullet in the back, it's a word in the ear.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35And a careful reminder you are a volunteer and an Irishman,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and there's only one way to go, and that's that way.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46Tim Collins' speech used Aristotle's key points of oratory -
0:13:46 > 0:13:51logos, explaining to his men what would happen to them in battle,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54ethos, appealing to them as comrades and colleagues
0:13:54 > 0:13:59and friends, trying to get them on side and gain their trust,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02and then the thing that interests me most as a poet,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06pathos, symbols, the use of imagery,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09trying to elicit an emotional response,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13a call to bravery, and patriotism and decency.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20But of course getting the right words and structuring a speech
0:14:20 > 0:14:23isn't that easy.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25What seems like a good idea on paper
0:14:25 > 0:14:28can strike a bum note when said out loud.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34And a speech can fall completely flat.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Your vote will be a vote for action plus words.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47"Unaccustomed as I am" might be a tired old phrase,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50but for most people, it happens to be true.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53For a lot of men, the only speech they'll give in their life
0:14:53 > 0:14:55is a best man's speech.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59It's a huge honour, but a great responsibility,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and for a lot of people, a terrifying prospect.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Um...where was I?
0:15:05 > 0:15:07LAUGHTER
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Fornication...
0:15:12 > 0:15:16For an occasion...such as this...
0:15:16 > 0:15:20A little bit of Dutch courage can help, but one too many
0:15:20 > 0:15:25and the words start to dry up and suddenly, you're dying on your feet.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29You can't deny it's been an emotional day today.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Even the cake is in "tiers."
0:15:32 > 0:15:34LAUGHTER
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Though, at least whatever you do say, will probably be forgotten
0:15:42 > 0:15:44in a haze of champagne bubbles,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48unlike those under the savage glare of media scrutiny,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51unable to escape ridicule.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56The quiet man is here to stay and he's turning up the volume.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Our enemies are innovated and resourceful. And so are we.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country
0:16:07 > 0:16:09and our people, and neither do we.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Politicians live or die by what comes out of their mouths,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17and they need their oratorical skills just to survive.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22The aim is to campaign in poetry, and govern in prose.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27But in reality, it's just one buzzword after another.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29I promise I'm not making this up.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Speaking like human beings! We must never lose that.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Aspiration, opportunity.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37These are words.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Words that are so basic, and yet so powerful,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44so modest, and yet so hard to believe.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47These are not dirty, elitist words.
0:16:47 > 0:16:48Trust me.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50Nothing funny about that.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55Generation Y is starting to become, generation why do we bother?
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Victorian politicians,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01like Gladstone and Disraeli, were great orators.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04They learnt the art of public speaking from Shakespeare and the Bible
0:17:04 > 0:17:08and rigorously practiced classical skills of rhetoric.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Today's politicians use many of the same tricks.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15There's praeteritio - saying you won't talk about something,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19but in not doing so, shouting it from the rooftops...
0:17:19 > 0:17:24We gather to affirm the greatness of our nation.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Not because of the height of our skyscrapers
0:17:26 > 0:17:29or the power of our military or the size of our economy.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Using the rule of three...
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
0:17:38 > 0:17:43Or anaphora - where you repeat phrases for effect...
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Let both sides explore what problems unite us.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Let both sides seek to invoke
0:17:51 > 0:17:55the wonders of science instead of its terrors.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth
0:18:00 > 0:18:03the command of Isaiah -
0:18:03 > 0:18:09to undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Or, you can employ the services of a professional,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15for whom rhetoric is their bread and butter.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Maybe I'm naive, but I still feel a little bit cheated
0:18:22 > 0:18:27when I think that some of the big beasts of politics
0:18:27 > 0:18:31who speak so passionately about ideas and policy
0:18:31 > 0:18:35actually have all their words provided for them by a pro!
0:18:36 > 0:18:37If I could press a button
0:18:37 > 0:18:41and genuinely solve the unemployment problem,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44do you think that I would not press that button this instant?
0:18:44 > 0:18:47Phil, what would you say are the key ingredients of a speech?
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Well, think you've got to have a strong argument.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53You'll never have a good speech that isn't something you can summarise
0:18:53 > 0:18:54in one sentence.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Everybody thinks that's a terrible thing,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59the soundbite. I think it's a good discipline.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01The demands of modern media,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04when you're not published verbatim in the Times the following morning,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07require you to think hard about what it is you're trying to say.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12To those waiting with baited breath for that favourite media catchphrase
0:19:12 > 0:19:14the U-turn,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17I have only one thing to say.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19You turn if you want to.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21LAUGHTER
0:19:24 > 0:19:28The lady's not for turning.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31You were a speech writer for Tony Blair for a couple of years,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33and you've written a lot of political speeches.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35What's the process there?
0:19:35 > 0:19:39We would do most of the work on the morning of the speech,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42and to say it was informal was an understatement.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45He'd be sitting there at his table, usually in his boxer shorts,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49writing longhand with a fountain pen on blank pieces of paper.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53He would write the beginning of the speech, the opening, and the end.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57I'd write the body in the middle that sort of got him from A to B,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00the bit that supported his political argument.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03I'd find he was cutting and pasting the speech together,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06I mean actual cutting and pasting, with scissors and glue!
0:20:06 > 0:20:10He would cut things out of what I'd written, and draw arrows on them
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and asterixes and "A," and then he'd hand me this thing,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16like a sort of exhibit from Vision On,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and I'd take it downstairs and we'd try and make sense of it.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23The best line I ever wrote in the sense of the one that made
0:20:23 > 0:20:27the most headlines was his very last conference speech.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Blair had already announced that he was leaving and we knew
0:20:29 > 0:20:32it would be the last time he spoke to the Labour party conference.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34The day before he spoke,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Cherie Blair had completely overshadowed Gordon Brown's speech
0:20:37 > 0:20:41by saying something a little bit disobliging about the Chancellor.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44She denied she'd said it, but everybody thought she had.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46We knew coming in to the speech, we had to find some way
0:20:46 > 0:20:49of referring to this without it becoming the story.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Something I don't say often enough,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54thank you to my family.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Um...
0:20:56 > 0:20:59It suddenly occurred to me that this was a northern music hall gag
0:20:59 > 0:21:03because we had all the components. We had his wife, the guy next door.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I thought there's got to be something Les Dawson/Arthur Askey about this.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11To Cherie. I mean...
0:21:11 > 0:21:12APPLAUSE
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Well, at least I don't have to worry about her running off
0:21:21 > 0:21:22with the bloke next door!
0:21:22 > 0:21:24LAUGHTER
0:21:24 > 0:21:27All the next day, all the headlines,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29and all the news shows and all the papers
0:21:29 > 0:21:32were about this joke - "Blair shows how brilliant he is
0:21:32 > 0:21:36"with a fantastic joke that diffuses political problems."
0:21:36 > 0:21:40Do you ever get jealous, you know, somebody gives a speech,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44it goes down very well, they go home in their golden chariot,
0:21:44 > 0:21:46and you're going home on the bus thinking,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48"Actually, they were my words"?
0:21:48 > 0:21:52You have to have the humility to realise that you're not
0:21:52 > 0:21:54the prime minister, and you're a scriptwriter.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56And somebody else is the actor,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58is going to take whatever glory is on offer,
0:21:58 > 0:21:59but they're also going to take
0:21:59 > 0:22:01most of the criticism if it goes wrong.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I've spent a long time trying to work very hard
0:22:04 > 0:22:06on the National Health Service...
0:22:06 > 0:22:07SLOW CLAPPING
0:22:07 > 0:22:08Thank you very much.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14..to try and make sure...
0:22:14 > 0:22:18You make the process sound like the writing of a play or a drama.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19Is that what it feels like?
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Always when I'm working with someone,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24trying to think of a persona for them.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26What do I imagine them being?
0:22:26 > 0:22:28It's like a sort of parlour game for speech writers,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31and the obvious thing for Tony Blair to be
0:22:31 > 0:22:33in the latter part of his premiership
0:22:33 > 0:22:35was to go back to being more the lawyer,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38to making forensic arguments that weighted the evidence
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and then concluded very firmly and decisively
0:22:41 > 0:22:43that somebody was either guilty or innocent.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Iraq is a potentially wealthy country,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49but in 1979, the year before Saddam came to power, was richer than
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Portugal, Malaysia.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Today, it is impoverished. 60% of its population depended on food aid,
0:22:55 > 0:22:57thousands of children die needlessly
0:22:57 > 0:22:59every year from lack of food and medicine.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Four million people out of a population of just over 20 million
0:23:03 > 0:23:04living in exile.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10Do you think politicians stand or fall by the speeches that they give?
0:23:10 > 0:23:13I think it's still the case, strangely enough,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16that the political speech can make and break a political career.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19The obvious example at the moment is Barack Obama,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23who I think beat Hillary Clinton because he spoke so beautifully.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24I get it.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28I realise that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30I don't fit the typical pedigree,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38He could read the telephone book and make it sound emotional.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42It's fabulous because he sings, the way he slides down consonants
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and hits certain words. He's got a great, great voice.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Tonight, we've proved once more that the true strength of our nation
0:23:49 > 0:23:53comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56but from the enduring power of our ideals - democracy,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05Obama got to the presidency on a tide of elevated rhetoric.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I think you also see the limits of rhetoric in Obama,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11because actually it doesn't do you much good when you get there.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14In the end, you need to have something to do, not just something to say.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17The greatest speeches are when those two things come together.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27if you seek prosperity
0:24:27 > 0:24:29for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,
0:24:29 > 0:24:34if you seek liberalisation, come here to this gate.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Mr Gorbachev, open this gate.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Tear down this wall.
0:24:43 > 0:24:44CHEERING
0:24:59 > 0:25:03With an expectant crowd waiting to hear your speech,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06and those last minutes waiting to take the platform,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09it all comes down to just you.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17This is the platform room at Westminster Central Hall,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20a green room, effectively, and like most green rooms,
0:25:20 > 0:25:21it's not very glamorous.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24It's really a glorified storeroom,
0:25:24 > 0:25:32but 2,300 bums on seats out there, all waiting, and ready to listen,
0:25:32 > 0:25:37and the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Churchill
0:25:37 > 0:25:41have all waited in this room, pacing up and down,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44maybe going through their little rituals
0:25:44 > 0:25:46before going out onto stage,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50maybe had a little bit of an energy burst, a drink of water,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54maybe gone through the speech for the final time.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58You can imagine Churchill perhaps having a final puff on his cigar
0:25:58 > 0:26:01or Gandhi, a little bit of meditation
0:26:01 > 0:26:03or adjusting his loincloth.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Now, one of the ancient techniques, apparently,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09for giving a good speech and Enoch Powell used to do this,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11was not to go for a pee beforehand,
0:26:11 > 0:26:12even if you were desperate,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15cos a full bladder apparently brings about
0:26:15 > 0:26:18that extra little bit of urgency,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23so I'm going to go out there and see how it feels.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Whatever you go out there to say must come from the heart.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33All technique but no emotion just sounds hollow.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38To fight for what you believe in, you need passion and purpose.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44A great speech cannot succeed in a vacuum.
0:26:45 > 0:26:53For a speech to work, society must be ready and willing to listen.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied...
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Throughout history, great figures have dared to speak out
0:27:00 > 0:27:03on behalf of those without a voice.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07And their speeches have had the power to shape public consciousness...
0:27:07 > 0:27:11I regard myself as a soldier, a soldier of peace.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16..even change society, change culture, change laws.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Democracy and freedom for all!
0:27:23 > 0:27:28For much of the 20th century, women struggled to make themselves heard.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33I haven't come here today to say, let's hear it for the women,
0:27:33 > 0:27:38I'm here to say, let the women be heard.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left
0:27:43 > 0:27:47the field of battle in order to explain what civil war is like
0:27:47 > 0:27:51when civil war is waged by women.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56Emmeline Pankhurst uses the emotive words "soldier," "battle,"
0:27:56 > 0:27:59"war" in her rallying speech in 1913
0:27:59 > 0:28:02to embody the suffrage movement's gruelling campaign.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05It also reflects her own courageous conviction
0:28:05 > 0:28:08to speak out at any cost.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12When you hear a speech, you hear the passion
0:28:12 > 0:28:15and the emotion of the person who's speaking.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18You get a sense of urgency that
0:28:18 > 0:28:22perhaps you may not get through the written word alone.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Now, I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29we have brought the government of England to this position,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32that it has to face this alternative:
0:28:32 > 0:28:36either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42Emmeline Pankhurst was an incredibly moving, powerful speaker.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47Her speeches galvanized hundreds of thousands of women.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51It gave them a sense that they had a right to vote, and that
0:28:51 > 0:28:56their dignity as women was something they should work for and fight for.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00After a long and bitter struggle for equality,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02and the death of Emily Davidson,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05the suffragettes' impassioned speeches had their effect.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Women over 30 got the vote in 1918.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14By 1928, this was extended to all women over the age of 21.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Words and ideas are very, very powerful.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23You can kill a person, but you can't easily kill an idea.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27So therefore the articulation of ideas though words
0:29:27 > 0:29:30is a very powerful means of communication.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35But, often at a price.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38Putting yourself in the firing line takes guts,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42especially if it's the only way to get heard.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47..to show that the British government...
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Human rights activist Peter Tatchell
0:29:51 > 0:29:54believes words are the best defence against oppression,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57even if standing up and speaking puts him in danger.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01When I am doing a speech, the first consideration for me
0:30:01 > 0:30:03is the message I want to get across.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05What do I believe in?
0:30:05 > 0:30:07What do I want to impart?
0:30:07 > 0:30:10When confronting tyrants and torturers,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14I think it is not very effective to simply denounce them.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17What I always try and do is pose a question
0:30:17 > 0:30:18to put them on the spot.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Hi, Nick - isn't it about time you apologised to the British people
0:30:21 > 0:30:25for your party's long history of anti-Semitism, homophobia
0:30:25 > 0:30:27and attacks on the Muslim community?
0:30:27 > 0:30:29This is the BNP in action.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Why don't you apologise, you gutless coward?
0:30:32 > 0:30:36You attack the vulnerable and you won't even face an accuser.
0:30:36 > 0:30:42I think a good speech often has an element of provocation,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45controversy and even confrontation,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49because that is the way you challenge orthodoxy.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52That's the way you get people to sit up and take notice.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Emotive words can change the course of history
0:31:03 > 0:31:07and those speeches are to be applauded and celebrated.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10But powerful language in the wrong mouths
0:31:10 > 0:31:12can be extremely dangerous.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18In 1968, a Tory MP claimed to a journalist,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21"I'm going to make a speech at the weekend
0:31:21 > 0:31:23"and it's going to go up, 'fizz!', like a rocket.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25"But whereas all rockets fall to the earth,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28"this one is going to stay up."
0:31:28 > 0:31:30His speech did make an impact,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32but it cost him his career -
0:31:32 > 0:31:36the day after, Ted Heath sacked him from the Shadow Cabinet.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39I was sitting with my mum
0:31:39 > 0:31:41and we heard it on the news.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43We knew when we heard it
0:31:43 > 0:31:47that it was going to make life unpleasant.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49We have got enough immigrants into this country
0:31:49 > 0:31:50and we don't want no more!
0:31:50 > 0:31:55In this country, in 15 or 20 years' time
0:31:55 > 0:32:00the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Enoch Powell's controversial speech,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08made to a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham, 1968
0:32:08 > 0:32:11railed against the Race Relations bill.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15It almost passes belief
0:32:15 > 0:32:18that at this moment,
0:32:18 > 0:32:2320 to 30 additional immigrant children
0:32:23 > 0:32:29are arriving from overseas in Wolverhampton alone every week.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Powell prophesied that mass migration
0:32:33 > 0:32:36would lead to segregation and communal violence,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40but it was his incendiary language that dominated the headlines.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45I've seen clips of this speech before,
0:32:45 > 0:32:46and I've read excerpts from it,
0:32:46 > 0:32:50but I've never actually sat down and watched it and taken it in.
0:32:51 > 0:32:57If anything, it's more powerful, ie, more chilling.
0:32:57 > 0:33:04We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation
0:33:04 > 0:33:12to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16who are, for the most part, the material of the future growth
0:33:16 > 0:33:20of the immigrant-descended population.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23It is like watching a nation
0:33:23 > 0:33:29busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33The day after the speech, someone came by in a car
0:33:33 > 0:33:35and shouted "Nigger, go home!"
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Of course I had experienced racism before,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40but never in such an overt way,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45never in such a blatant way and with such a sense of permission.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47That was the great evil of the speech.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50It gave people permission to show
0:33:50 > 0:33:53that they didn't want black people in their towns, in their cities,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56in their lives, in this country at all.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00This is why to enact legislation
0:34:00 > 0:34:03of the kind before parliament at this moment
0:34:03 > 0:34:06is to risk throwing a match onto gunpowder.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09I always thought Enoch Powell, in his delivery,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13would be upper-class, clipped English,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15but there's a Midlands twang in there.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19He's coming across, in a way, as something of a man of the people.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23He's got this crumpled bit of paper in his hand.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27It's almost as if he's saying, "I am the last sane voice here."
0:34:27 > 0:34:34I can already hear the chorus of execration.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37How dare I say such a horrible thing?
0:34:39 > 0:34:44How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings
0:34:44 > 0:34:47by repeating such a conversation?
0:34:49 > 0:34:56The answer is that I do not have the right not to do so.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Britain - keep it white, as it should be.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07The speech split the nation.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Thousands took to the streets in support of Enoch Powell,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16even petitioning for him to be reinstated
0:35:16 > 0:35:17to the Shadow Cabinet.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Now that these things have been discussed publicly
0:35:19 > 0:35:21in this inflammatory way,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23people who do hold these extreme views
0:35:23 > 0:35:27think it's respectable to come out and say them
0:35:27 > 0:35:30and I'm afraid it's also become respectable for some people
0:35:30 > 0:35:33to govern their behaviour by these thoughts.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Thousands more, shocked and disgusted
0:35:36 > 0:35:39by the speech's blatant racism, protested.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Get out!
0:35:42 > 0:35:45The core of Powell's message was bigoted and inflammatory,
0:35:45 > 0:35:50but it was the words and imagery he chose that were truly incendiary.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53In his speech, he refers to a letter from a pensioner
0:35:53 > 0:35:55in his constituency, Wolverhampton.
0:35:58 > 0:35:59"Windows are broken.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02"She finds excreta pushed through her letter box.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06"When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13"They cannot speak English, but one word they know.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15"'Racialist,' they chant."
0:36:16 > 0:36:20For me, it was personally deeply offensive
0:36:20 > 0:36:23because, of course, I identified with...
0:36:23 > 0:36:25How did he describe them?
0:36:25 > 0:36:27"Charming, wide-eyed, grinning piccaninnies."
0:36:27 > 0:36:33Enoch Powell was not a man who ever used words loosely,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37and the speech is a masterpiece in its way.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41The black man will have the whip hand over the white man.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45I'm shocked at how offensive it actually is.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49How dare I say such a horrible thing?
0:36:49 > 0:36:52The language, the vocabulary,
0:36:52 > 0:36:57the word "Negro", that we would never hear or use any more.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00And then at the end of the speech, there's that line.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04"As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding -
0:37:04 > 0:37:07"like the Roman, I seem to see
0:37:07 > 0:37:10"'the River Tiber foaming with much blood.'"
0:37:10 > 0:37:12These words are so evocative,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16the speech itself has been renamed "Rivers of Blood."
0:37:16 > 0:37:19What I find really uncomfortable, and embarrassing,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21is that he rounds on a metaphor.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24He uses poetry to make his main point -
0:37:24 > 0:37:27or his misuses poetry.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30This metaphor, rivers of blood.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32And as a poet, that...
0:37:33 > 0:37:35Yeah, it offends me.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37The rivers of blood.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It's the funeral pyre,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42it's the black man with the whip hand.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47That is why the speech endures as utterly repellent -
0:37:47 > 0:37:49because it was designed to be.
0:37:53 > 0:37:54There are occasions, though,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57when an unplanned, impromptu speech
0:37:57 > 0:37:58can be just as effective.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03In 2011, on this street,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07a woman felt so appalled by what she saw going on around her
0:38:07 > 0:38:09that she felt compelled to speak out.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Unlike Enoch Powell's carefully crafted speech,
0:38:18 > 0:38:20with its meticulously chosen words,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24this was two minutes of unbridled spontaneity -
0:38:24 > 0:38:26a passionate, unstoppable outpouring,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28straight from the spleen.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36It was like something out of a Mad Max movie -
0:38:36 > 0:38:37absolute mayhem.
0:38:37 > 0:38:38Things on fire,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40cars, bikes, all sorts.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41Bins upside down.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50That night, for someone reason, people lost all their senses.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52I didn't understand what they were doing,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55and they sure as hell didn't know what they were doing.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Did you know you were going to start shouting?
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Were these things that had been brewing up for a long time
0:39:01 > 0:39:03and then suddenly found an occasion to come out?
0:39:03 > 0:39:05I could feel the rage building in me.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08There was no-one trying to calm things down.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09I just knew...
0:39:10 > 0:39:13I suppose I just had to say something.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15As I'm getting closer, I'm getting more annoyed.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18So I got a bit verbal as I hit the corner there.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20I'm like, "For God's sake, why are you burning cars?
0:39:20 > 0:39:23"These are your neighbours' cars - it doesn't make sense!"
0:39:23 > 0:39:24You understand?
0:39:24 > 0:39:26The shop up there,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28she's working hard to make her business work
0:39:28 > 0:39:31and you lot want to go and burn it up - for what?
0:39:31 > 0:39:32Just to say that you're warring
0:39:32 > 0:39:34and you're bad, man?
0:39:34 > 0:39:37This is about a fucking man that got shot in Tottenham,
0:39:37 > 0:39:40this isn't about having fun on the road and busting up the place.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Get it real, black people! Get real.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45What I like about what you were saying was just the passion,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47the raw passion and the energy.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49It was the way that you were saying it,
0:39:49 > 0:39:50the force of it.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54I had no control over my mouth at that point -
0:39:54 > 0:39:55it just all came out.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Do it for a cause - if we're fighting for a cause,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01let's fight for a fucking cause.
0:40:01 > 0:40:02You lot piss me the fuck off!
0:40:02 > 0:40:05I'm ashamed to be a Hackney person.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Because we're not all gathering together and fighting for a cause.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10We're running down Footlocker and thieving shoes.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Dirty thieves!
0:40:13 > 0:40:17I've been to jail. I know what the outcomes are.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22I know what kind of obstacles will be facing you
0:40:22 > 0:40:24when you come out of jail.
0:40:24 > 0:40:25I wanted them to know that.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Pauline's had no idea that her spur of the moment speech
0:40:29 > 0:40:33was being captured on camera and shared on YouTube -
0:40:33 > 0:40:34just 12 hours later,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37over 2 million people around the world
0:40:37 > 0:40:38had heard what she had to say.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Do you think your speech did make a difference?
0:40:43 > 0:40:45I think to some degree it did.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47People said to me it was kind of at that point
0:40:47 > 0:40:50when people started coming out with their brooms -
0:40:50 > 0:40:54everyone started standing up for their communities a bit more.
0:40:54 > 0:40:56You were the voice of decency
0:40:56 > 0:40:59in amongst a lot of chaos for a moment.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02The voice of decency with a few indecent words!
0:41:02 > 0:41:04THEY LAUGH
0:41:05 > 0:41:09Pauline's speech genuinely rolled out of her mouth,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11instant and spontaneous.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14But for most, a good speech needs application,
0:41:14 > 0:41:18time, effort and careful thought to be a success.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22All great orators completely understand
0:41:22 > 0:41:25the importance of engaging with an audience.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28This goes beyond ransacking the thesaurus for the right word,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30or structuring the argument -
0:41:30 > 0:41:33this is about when and how and where.
0:41:35 > 0:41:36First, you need to think about...
0:41:36 > 0:41:38Preparation -
0:41:38 > 0:41:40it's almost impossible to put too much stress
0:41:40 > 0:41:43on this subject of preparation,
0:41:43 > 0:41:46because lack of preparation usually means confusion.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Then you need to decide on a location.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55From Jesus' Sermon on the Mount...
0:41:57 > 0:42:00..to the first ever TV broadcast from Number Ten,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04you have to find the right platform that suits your speech
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and appeals to your audience.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08Oh, there you are.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13You can see what it's like - the camera's hot, probing eye,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16these monstrous machines and their attendants.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18A kind of 20th century torture chamber,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20that's what it is.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23But I must try and forget all this paraphernalia
0:42:23 > 0:42:27and imagine that you are sitting here in the room with me.
0:42:34 > 0:42:35Hello?
0:42:35 > 0:42:38'And finally, with all speeches,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40'wherever you decide to expound your ideas from,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43'if you don't deliver it with a sense of drama,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46'if you don't project,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48'you might as well be talking to yourself.'
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Ha-he-hi-ho-hu!
0:42:53 > 0:42:56A-E-I-O-U.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01When asked to name the three most important elements of oratory,
0:43:01 > 0:43:03the Ancient Greek scholar, Demosthenes,
0:43:03 > 0:43:08is said to have replied, "Delivery, delivery, delivery."
0:43:08 > 0:43:12In other words, success or failure will ultimately depend
0:43:12 > 0:43:15on how you deliver the argument.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
0:43:23 > 0:43:27To get a few tips on how to deliver a speech with conviction,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32I am with an expert - Shakespearian actor Charles Dance.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34And what have kings that privates have not too,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37save ceremony, save general ceremony?
0:43:37 > 0:43:39And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
0:43:39 > 0:43:41What kind of god art thou,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45that suffer'st more of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
0:43:45 > 0:43:47What are thy rents? What are thy comings in?
0:43:47 > 0:43:50O, ceremony, show me but thy worth!
0:43:50 > 0:43:54Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56creating awe and fear in other men,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58wherein thou art less happy, being feared,
0:43:58 > 0:44:00than they in fearing?
0:44:00 > 0:44:03What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05but poisoned flattery?
0:44:05 > 0:44:09O, be sick, great greatness, and bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
0:44:10 > 0:44:12And it goes on.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14If somebody came to you as a complete beginner,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17looking for advice about how to give a speech,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20is there a crude list of dos and don'ts
0:44:20 > 0:44:21that you could give them?
0:44:21 > 0:44:23It's a great mistake
0:44:23 > 0:44:28to actually try to hit particular things in a speech, you know.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32I mean, you'd give words that were there for a purpose
0:44:32 > 0:44:35the emphasis they deserve, but not to colour them,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37because if you're saying things like
0:44:37 > 0:44:40"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more",
0:44:40 > 0:44:42or "Close the wall up with their English dead",
0:44:42 > 0:44:44you don't need to colour any of those things.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48You don't need to hit "dead" or "once more unto the BREACH",
0:44:48 > 0:44:49or anything like that.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53You just deliver that energy. Great thing, energy.
0:44:53 > 0:44:54If you haven't got it,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58then go and do ten press-ups in the wings before you come on.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01It's a bit like a pressure cooker -
0:45:01 > 0:45:05the energy's in there and the lid is screwed down tight.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07You let it out at the pace you want to let it out.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10You don't - "whoomph!" - let it all go immediately.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13But you have to keep that energy level running, all the time.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17- What about pauses and silences? - They're there for a purpose.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20They're there just to give the audience a little breather
0:45:20 > 0:45:23and perhaps think about what's been said
0:45:23 > 0:45:25and prepare them for what's about to be said.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Don't speak at the same pace right the way through,
0:45:28 > 0:45:30just find a point where you can hurry through
0:45:30 > 0:45:31to the next point you want to make,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33then when you get to that point, make it.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37And then a little pause, for a dramatic impetus or whatever,
0:45:37 > 0:45:39and then carry on again.
0:45:39 > 0:45:45So it's changes of pace. It's energy. It's confidence. Diction as well.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Um...because, you know,
0:45:48 > 0:45:50you want people to hear what you're saying
0:45:50 > 0:45:53and so hit those consonants, hit those diphthongs,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55make those vowels nice, open and wide.
0:45:55 > 0:45:56- Clarity, isn't it?- Clarity.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Is it a good idea to try and use this space?
0:46:00 > 0:46:02It's no good, coming onto the stage
0:46:02 > 0:46:04and being kind of shy and retiring and, you know,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06"I don't really want to be here tonight
0:46:06 > 0:46:09"and I'll kind of stand over here in the corner, or something."
0:46:09 > 0:46:11No - you just have to have that confidence thing
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and come out and plant your feet and there you are.
0:46:14 > 0:46:15What about volume?
0:46:15 > 0:46:18Looking out there, that is an enormous cavity,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20a huge space to fill.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23It's pitch, more than volume,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26and making sure that what's coming out of your mouth
0:46:26 > 0:46:29is backed up with breath and it's in the front of your mouth
0:46:29 > 0:46:30and you're lifting it.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34It's an old, old actor said to me, one night...
0:46:35 > 0:46:36I was pretty down,
0:46:36 > 0:46:39maybe I'd had shit reviews or something, you know,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41and it was a struggle.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46And he said, "Lift up your head and lift up your heart", he said.
0:46:46 > 0:46:51And it's true - once you lift it up and don't get all kind of down here,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54because all those people can see is the top of your head,
0:46:54 > 0:46:59you really have got to say "hello" to those people.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Great delivery comes in many guises.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10Someone well-versed in the skills of rhetoric
0:47:10 > 0:47:12can have fun with speech making -
0:47:12 > 0:47:16cleverly appearing to be bumbling and irreverent,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18yet giving a resounding performance.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Speaking as a spectator,
0:47:22 > 0:47:27you produced such paroxysms of tears and joy
0:47:27 > 0:47:29on the sofas of Britain
0:47:29 > 0:47:31that you probably not only inspired a generation,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34but helped to create one as well
0:47:34 > 0:47:37and propelled...I can get away with that.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42And you did rack up more medals than France, didn't you?
0:47:42 > 0:47:43- AUDIENCE:- Yes!- Yes!
0:47:43 > 0:47:47And more medals than Germany, and more medals than Australia,
0:47:47 > 0:47:52more medals, ladies and gentlemen, more medals, my friends, per head
0:47:52 > 0:47:54than virtually any country on Earth.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59Boris Johnson cleverly tapped into a nation's collective euphoria
0:47:59 > 0:48:01after the 2012 Olympics.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17Here, in September 1997, one man went much further,
0:48:17 > 0:48:22capturing a tragic mood that had gripped the British public.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26He decided to boldly speak out and to hell with the consequences.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Great oratory can always send a shiver down the spine,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36but a speech only becomes great
0:48:36 > 0:48:40when it chimes with the times into which it is delivered
0:48:40 > 0:48:43and that was certainly true of Earl Spencer's speech
0:48:43 > 0:48:46when he gave the oration here in Westminster Abbey
0:48:46 > 0:48:48at his sister's funeral.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50I stand before you today,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53the representative of a family in grief,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55in a country in mourning,
0:48:55 > 0:48:57before a world in shock.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01The duty, I felt, was to speak for somebody
0:49:01 > 0:49:05who I love very much who had died and therefore hadn't got a voice.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07One thing that really struck me at the time,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10as I watched you making that speech,
0:49:10 > 0:49:15was how you'd managed to balance the private things
0:49:15 > 0:49:17with those public concerns as well.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20Immediately after Diana's death,
0:49:20 > 0:49:24we started getting hundreds of letters here from the public,
0:49:24 > 0:49:28sort of cries from the heart from them, really.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30I knew various things were troubling them
0:49:30 > 0:49:33about how Diana would be remembered,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37so I did listen to that voice from the public
0:49:37 > 0:49:39that was fairly consistent.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43For all the status, the glamour, the applause,
0:49:43 > 0:49:48Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51almost childlike in her desire to do good for others.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55Due to the shocking circumstances of Diana's death,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59naturally there was speculation over what her brother, Earl Spencer,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01was going to say.
0:50:01 > 0:50:02And a day before the funeral,
0:50:02 > 0:50:05he attended a rehearsal at the abbey.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09I was conscious of people in the abbey
0:50:09 > 0:50:13who were obviously very interested in what I was going to say.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16They said they wanted it for level. I didn't believe them.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20I just felt it was such a personal speech, actually,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23so I pretended I had left the speech behind,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26and read from a hymnbook.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29I literally read one word, and they went, "That's fine."
0:50:29 > 0:50:32LAUGHING: So...I was probably right.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35There is no doubt that she was looking
0:50:35 > 0:50:38for a new direction in her life at this time.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40She talked endlessly of getting away from England,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43mainly because of the treatment that she received
0:50:43 > 0:50:45at the hands of the newspapers.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions
0:50:48 > 0:50:50were sneered at by the media,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf
0:50:53 > 0:50:54to bring her down.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57My own - and only - explanation
0:50:57 > 0:51:00is that genuine goodness is threatening
0:51:00 > 0:51:02to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08It is a point to remember that, of all the ironies about Diana,
0:51:08 > 0:51:10perhaps the greatest is this -
0:51:10 > 0:51:14a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting
0:51:14 > 0:51:18was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21I suddenly sensed that this wasn't going to plan.
0:51:21 > 0:51:22That this was...
0:51:24 > 0:51:26He...was breaking the rules
0:51:26 > 0:51:31and this wasn't...this wasn't an ordinary funeral.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34There was bitterness and rancour,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38and he was opposite the royal family and they were the targets.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Indeed, behind him were the press, who were also his targets.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46I had the, um...the certainty of knowing that
0:51:46 > 0:51:50I was saying what Diana would have wanted to be said.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53If that came off as in any way confrontational elsewhere,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55that was really a by-product.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58It wasn't an intention in its own right.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01And that's...that's just honestly the truth.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03I wasn't looking for a fight.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05I was just saying things as I saw them.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07On behalf of your mother and sisters,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10I pledge that we, your blood family,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way
0:52:14 > 0:52:17in which you were steering these two exceptional young men.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21That moment, when you suddenly realise you've been...ambushed,
0:52:21 > 0:52:23as it were, you've been taken out of your comfort zone
0:52:23 > 0:52:25and something else is happening.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28The real guts of his attack on the royal family and the press
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and his defence of Diana was in tune with what people felt.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34I would like to end by thanking God
0:52:34 > 0:52:37for the small mercies He has shown us at this dreadful time,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant
0:52:40 > 0:52:43and when she had joy in her private life.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46It was much harder than I had realised
0:52:46 > 0:52:49to speak across the coffin of my sister
0:52:49 > 0:52:52looking at her young sons, you know - that was terrible.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman
0:52:55 > 0:52:58I am so proud to be able to call my sister -
0:52:58 > 0:53:00the unique, the complex,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana,
0:53:03 > 0:53:06whose beauty, both internal and external,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09will never be extinguished from our minds.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13As he reached the climactic criticisms
0:53:13 > 0:53:17and the defence of Diana as a sort of saintly figure,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19the first thing I heard
0:53:19 > 0:53:23was what sounded like a very distant shower of rain.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31The rain seemed to be coming closer,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34and then it seemed to be at the very doors of the abbey
0:53:34 > 0:53:35and I realised it was applause.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44Well, you don't applaud at funerals - it is not done.
0:53:44 > 0:53:45There was a sort of hiatus
0:53:45 > 0:53:47when the clapping was continuing outside
0:53:47 > 0:53:49and then it came into the abbey.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52A moving tribute from Charles, Earl Spencer.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00And spontaneous applause breaks out in Westminster Abbey.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03That was spine-tingling stuff.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11I mean, that was a real emotional moment,
0:54:11 > 0:54:16where, effectively, Spencer had leapt over us all,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18spoke over all our heads
0:54:18 > 0:54:20and brought the people outside in with the speech.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24He turned the emotions of the people into the official narrative,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26and I thought that was an extraordinary moment.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35He spoke from the heart.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38He voiced all our opinions, all our views
0:54:38 > 0:54:40and I'm sure, you know,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43I think a lot of people really respected him for it.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46He said a lot of things that we all felt,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50but not very many people dared to say them
0:54:50 > 0:54:51in the circumstances in which he said them.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57I do think the press have backed off much more than they would've done,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59not necessarily because of my speech
0:54:59 > 0:55:01but because of the way their mother died.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07But maybe the speech just pushed it back under their noses,
0:55:07 > 0:55:09"This is what you did and you won't do it again."
0:55:09 > 0:55:12I think the press would not, now...
0:55:14 > 0:55:17..hound anybody as they hounded Princess Diana,
0:55:17 > 0:55:18but equally, nobody in the royal family
0:55:18 > 0:55:20would manipulate the press as Diana did.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23No regrets?
0:55:23 > 0:55:25I have never regretted it for a second,
0:55:25 > 0:55:26on any level at all.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31Delighted to have got through it, and...
0:55:32 > 0:55:34..pleased that I didn't compromise.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41We've seen how the right words, a strong argument,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43powerful delivery charged with emotion,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45can inspire action.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Great oratory can even change the mindset of a nation.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56And for me, they all come together in this spectacular speech.
0:55:57 > 0:55:58I have a dream...
0:56:00 > 0:56:02..that one day, on the red hills of Georgia...
0:56:04 > 0:56:09..the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
0:56:09 > 0:56:14will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
0:56:14 > 0:56:15I have a dream...
0:56:16 > 0:56:22I just never get tired of listening to that speech,
0:56:22 > 0:56:24and watching it.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26Every time, it sends shivers up and down my spine.
0:56:28 > 0:56:29With this faith,
0:56:29 > 0:56:34we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation
0:56:34 > 0:56:37into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
0:56:37 > 0:56:38With this faith,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42we will be able to work together, to pray together,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45to struggle together, to go to jail together,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47to stand up for freedom together...
0:56:47 > 0:56:49There's something of the gospel in here,
0:56:49 > 0:56:51there's something of the litany,
0:56:51 > 0:56:52it's evangelical.
0:56:53 > 0:56:59..that my four little children will one day live in a nation
0:56:59 > 0:57:02where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04but by the content of their character.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06I have a dream today.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10The way that phrase is both a suffix and prefix
0:57:10 > 0:57:12to some of those sentences.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16I have a dream that one day...
0:57:17 > 0:57:21There's these little pauses where you're invited to have your dream.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26One day, right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls
0:57:26 > 0:57:30will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls
0:57:30 > 0:57:31as sisters and brothers.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33I have a dream today.
0:57:36 > 0:57:37The Greek philosopher Longinus
0:57:37 > 0:57:42said that "the effect of elevated language upon an audience
0:57:42 > 0:57:45"is not persuasion but transport."
0:57:45 > 0:57:49And for me, that transportation has got to come in the form of metaphor
0:57:49 > 0:57:51and rhythm and intensity.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55In other words, it's got to be something poetic.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00..when we allow freedom to ring,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07from every state and every city,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10we will be able to speed up that day
0:58:10 > 0:58:13when all of God's children, black men and white men,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,
0:58:17 > 0:58:18will be able to join hands
0:58:18 > 0:58:22and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
0:58:22 > 0:58:24"Free at last! Free at last!
0:58:24 > 0:58:27"Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
0:58:52 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd