0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33When I'm writing, I think that, without it sounding too...
0:00:33 > 0:00:34erm...
0:00:34 > 0:00:36borderline ill,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39I think it is conversations that I hear in my head.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42I very rarely...
0:00:42 > 0:00:44And I can't get it down quick enough.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47And it's very much about rhythm, I think.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50I can look, I don't know what I'm doing as I'm doing it
0:00:50 > 0:00:53but I look back and I can see if something's got a rhythm or not,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56got a conversational rhythm.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I've got cancer, by the way.
0:01:21 > 0:01:22What are you talking about?
0:01:23 > 0:01:26- What? - I've got cancer.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30That's why Daniel wanted you to see me.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Is that true?
0:01:32 > 0:01:33No, it isn't.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37I just wondered what it would take to get you to turn round.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40You are a sicko, you always were.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17I grew up in the suburbs.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19I grew up in a suburb of Manchester called Stockport
0:02:19 > 0:02:24and I grew up in a suburb of Stockport called Hazel Grove
0:02:24 > 0:02:27and I think there's something about growing up in the suburbs
0:02:27 > 0:02:31which is you always imagine that life's going on elsewhere.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33You always imagine something fantastic is happening
0:02:33 > 0:02:35in the city that you're a satellite of
0:02:35 > 0:02:37and maybe that's why you start making stuff up,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41maybe that is just to make life more interesting
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and that might be one of the reasons I became a writer.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49Another reason might just be that my dad was a screen printer
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and he often had offcuts of paper because of the size of the jobs
0:02:52 > 0:02:56they did so he'd bring home sheets and sheets of paper that long.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58And there's not a lot you can do with paper like that other
0:02:58 > 0:03:01than start writing on it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10First off, I always use pen and paper to start with.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15I can't type, I can't put it onto a computer straightaway,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18there's something, you know, it's how I grew up,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21it's how I first wrote and that's just habit, you know?
0:03:21 > 0:03:23You know, there are younger eyes than me that will just put it
0:03:23 > 0:03:27straight onto a computer or type it up or whatever
0:03:27 > 0:03:32and then the absolute starting point for me
0:03:32 > 0:03:36is getting the shape of the thing down,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40getting the structure down but it will often start by just
0:03:40 > 0:03:45writing anything that's going to come out of a character's mouth that
0:03:45 > 0:03:50may not find its way into the final script and often... usually doesn't.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Just get the characters talking, just give them some life
0:03:55 > 0:03:57and get them talking to each other in my head
0:03:57 > 0:04:01so I know their voices and the temptation then,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04there are some writers who can do this, I can't do this,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07the temptation then is to let the characters run away with you
0:04:07 > 0:04:09and take you where they will.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12And I can't do that.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16I need the rather tedious structure, you know,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20I need the IKEA plans to make the wardrobe
0:04:20 > 0:04:26and I need to get down just a first, a second, a third act
0:04:26 > 0:04:32and it's almost literally a case of getting a piece of paper and...
0:04:32 > 0:04:34act one...
0:04:34 > 0:04:35act two...
0:04:37 > 0:04:39..act three...
0:04:40 > 0:04:44..and the first thing I'll write is probably first scene,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47the scene there that takes me into act two,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51some sort of midpoint here and then a scene here that takes me
0:04:51 > 0:04:54into act three and they're not even scenes at this stage,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57they're just thoughts almost.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59With Eric and Ernie, it might be,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I knew that I wanted Eric playing on the beach
0:05:02 > 0:05:07juxtaposed with Ernie already on the showbiz circuit.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10I didn't know what the scene was, didn't know how I was going to do it
0:05:10 > 0:05:13but I knew that was a point and I thought...
0:05:15 > 0:05:17..form a double act around there...
0:05:20 > 0:05:25..I think probably sack Sadie around here...
0:05:29 > 0:05:31..BBC come calling round here...
0:05:32 > 0:05:37..and that final act is about their journey to become
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Morecambe and Wise that we know while keeping an eye on Sadie
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and her marriage and her emotional journey as well.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47And, you know, it's as crude as that.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Just so I know what's going to go where,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52I just... it's like a security blanket, really.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28You got a cigarette, darling?
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Er, yep.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40- How about a light?- Yeah.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43There we go.
0:06:59 > 0:07:00What's her name again?
0:07:00 > 0:07:03I don't know, I call her the five of spades.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05- Morecambe and Wise! - We're on!
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Hello, music lovers!
0:07:11 > 0:07:14So there's a scene where Eric and Ernie
0:07:14 > 0:07:17are finally letting Sadie go, as it were,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19and it's going to come as a shock to her
0:07:19 > 0:07:21and obviously it's a big turning point in the whole plot
0:07:21 > 0:07:27and so I want it to have a kind of a real understatement whilst
0:07:27 > 0:07:33also kind of really pulling the heartstrings so erm...
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Eric: "Be patient. Keep them closed, keep them closed."
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Sadie: "I don't like surprises."
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Eric: "Eh, come on, that's no way to talk about your only child.
0:07:41 > 0:07:42"You can open them now."
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Ham and eggs? What the heck's this in aid of?
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I found Ernie's wallet and managed to open it with a crowbar.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52- We've landed a tour.- Number two circuit. £25 a week.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54£25 a week? When do we start?
0:07:54 > 0:07:57We didn't mean you. We meant us.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03And that's Eric and then Ernie steps in to smooth things over.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05You've done your bit, Mrs B.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07You can go home, put your feet up and here's your ticket.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10Ernie, give the lady her ticket.
0:08:10 > 0:08:11First class.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17First class.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28And what was key here is that Sadie would talk about anything
0:08:28 > 0:08:31but what she wants to say which is "You've broken my heart."
0:08:31 > 0:08:34People don't say you've broken my heart, they say... mums say,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37"And watch you tip the stage door manager, he'll see that your laundry
0:08:37 > 0:08:39"gets done and I'm not there to do it and always trust your
0:08:39 > 0:08:42"own material. You know better than any other beggar what works
0:08:42 > 0:08:45- "and what doesn't..." - You take care of him.
0:08:45 > 0:08:46And you...
0:08:46 > 0:08:49- you take care of him.- OK.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55Don't let him get his hands on the money.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01And then the director did a wonderful sequence where
0:09:01 > 0:09:02Eric and Ernie are on the platform
0:09:02 > 0:09:06and they almost go into a double act and she's choking back the tears.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10- And finally...- Well, thanks, Mum. Thanks for everything you've done.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Yes, don't forget to work hard, take a leaf out of Ernie's book,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14push, push, push.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16And she won't let him in, she won't let him in.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19- Don't go all sentimental on me, Mum.- Eh?
0:09:19 > 0:09:22You're never too big to clout even if I do need a ladder to reach you.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25'Again he gives her another chance to open up and she won't open up.'
0:09:25 > 0:09:28- People are looking. - Yeah, well...
0:09:28 > 0:09:30people always will look when you've got that kind of a face.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Make a soft gag there and then as the train pulls away,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37then as the train pulls away, we don't have any words.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40I just know that's Sadie's going to break down in private,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42she's earned that moment and, you know,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Victoria playing Sadie just absolutely nailed it
0:09:47 > 0:09:50and it's all the more moving
0:09:50 > 0:09:55because we've had that two pages of her denying there's any problem.
0:10:13 > 0:10:14From There To Here came about
0:10:14 > 0:10:17through three different sets of ideas, really.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22One was the collapse of the banks in 2008,
0:10:22 > 0:10:27the other was the fall of the Labour government in 2010
0:10:27 > 0:10:31and then the bomb in Manchester in 1996
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and how that kind of relaunched a rebuilding of a different kind of
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Manchester but those were all ideas, they're not a story
0:10:38 > 0:10:43so it was a case of what's the story?
0:10:43 > 0:10:46And the story, you know, it starts like most of my stuff,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51it starts with a man in a family, a son, a father, a brother.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55He's trying to get a reconciliation together.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59My dad died in a pub cellar trying to move barrels that the draymen
0:10:59 > 0:11:02- had left in the wrong place.- Oh, Grandad was an alcoholic with a pub.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I don't think the barrels had too much to do with it.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Yeah, I know but I lost him age 54, he went, just like that.
0:11:08 > 0:11:0954.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13He annoyed the living daylights out of me
0:11:13 > 0:11:16- but I missed the aggravation every day.- What? And your point is?
0:11:16 > 0:11:21The point is that when I'm not around to annoy you any more...
0:11:23 > 0:11:24..then you'll miss me.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28It's good.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31But don't expect a call from Thought For The Day any time soon, eh?
0:11:31 > 0:11:32Erm, I don't...
0:11:34 > 0:11:36I don't tend to suffer from writer's block in the classic, you know,
0:11:36 > 0:11:41staring at a blank page and really not knowing what I'm going to do but
0:11:41 > 0:11:44I do, you know, I get moments at which I think
0:11:44 > 0:11:47I don't know what this script is about any more and I don't and...
0:11:47 > 0:11:50I don't know where I'm going to go next with it and that sort of thing,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53so if that's writer's block then yes, I do get it.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57And I think there's a number of tricks I've developed over the years
0:11:57 > 0:12:01and one I came, I used to teach special needs
0:12:01 > 0:12:05and one of the tricks is that, it's just doing little timed bursts
0:12:05 > 0:12:08so rather than think I've got eight hours to fill with writing and
0:12:08 > 0:12:11I'm not doing anything, I'll set the alarm for five minutes
0:12:11 > 0:12:14and I'll just say, "Right, I'm going to write for five minutes.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15"It don't matter what I'm writing."
0:12:15 > 0:12:18And then the alarm will go off and I have to stop,
0:12:18 > 0:12:19I force myself to stop
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and I'll read a paper or I'll read a book or I'll do something else,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23I'll play a bit of music for ten minutes
0:12:23 > 0:12:27and then slowly shift the balance so I'm writing for ten minutes
0:12:27 > 0:12:30and so on and that kind of thing but the big thing for me,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34the two things that free it up are music, you know,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39I'll just go on my iTunes and just play some random music and lyrics,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43I love lyrics, I love good lyrics, I love I Am Kloot which we use in
0:12:43 > 0:12:47From There To Here, you know, I love Jarvis Cocker and Smiths and so on.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52Just something to make you, kick you on a bit and aspire to
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and the other thing is, you know, I'll just read.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59I'll read interviews with other writers, I'll read scripts,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01I'll read novels, I'll real poetry,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05anything just to give you a bit of...
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Just to take you out of yourself and the other thing, to be honest,
0:13:07 > 0:13:13is because I come from where I come from and
0:13:13 > 0:13:16because I've done normal jobs,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18in the end I just give myself a slap and say get on with it,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21you know, you're not working in a bacon factory.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24I've done things that are harder than this
0:13:24 > 0:13:27and I kind of feel, well, you should be ashamed of yourself for
0:13:27 > 0:13:32indulging this and I think that's the kind of thing with most, I think
0:13:32 > 0:13:36television writers have it in particular that you don't want to...
0:13:37 > 0:13:40You want, you take yourself seriously
0:13:40 > 0:13:43but you don't want to catch yourself taking yourself too seriously
0:13:43 > 0:13:48as an artist which is why this process is quite tough for me
0:13:48 > 0:13:52because partly because there's a voice in my head that's my
0:13:52 > 0:13:5517-year-old voice watching me do this and say,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59"Oh, look at that wanker. Who does he think he is?"
0:13:59 > 0:14:06And, you know, that's partly because the other writers taking to
0:14:06 > 0:14:08Facebook right now saying, "Who's that wanker?
0:14:08 > 0:14:14"Who does he think he is?" So all of these things contribute
0:14:14 > 0:14:17towards freeing up what we might call writer's block.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Bell comes forward for Manchester City.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Onto Francis Lee and Lee's suddenly making something out of nothing.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Turns the ball to the area... Denis Law!
0:14:25 > 0:14:27If you're born in Manchester,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32you're either born a red or you're born a blue and that's it and
0:14:32 > 0:14:36it's your birthright, and I'm a red and all my family are reds
0:14:36 > 0:14:42and the thing about drama and football you often think because
0:14:42 > 0:14:44you're a football fan you could write something about football
0:14:44 > 0:14:47but it's very hard because football is dramatic enough
0:14:47 > 0:14:49and has its own narrative
0:14:49 > 0:14:53and the live action sequences always never look authentic.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Denis Law has scored for Manchester City. Oh, what an irony.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Denis Law, once the king of Old Trafford
0:15:02 > 0:15:06back heels the ball into the back of United's net
0:15:06 > 0:15:10and that surely must have killed Manchester United...
0:15:10 > 0:15:14I had one gag to do with birth and football and Denis Law,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17that was my first line written and I knew everything else to build to
0:15:17 > 0:15:21that gag and that's when the midwife is seeing the baby being born
0:15:21 > 0:15:24and Chris Eccleston has already seen that Denis Law has
0:15:24 > 0:15:28scored for City so you have these crossed wires where
0:15:28 > 0:15:32he's telling his wife, who's in labour, about Denis' goal.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35You'll never guess who scored the bloody goal. Denis Law!
0:15:35 > 0:15:38He's a goal scorer, that's what he lives for. It's instinct!
0:15:38 > 0:15:40- Not yet, love, don't push yet. - How could he do it?
0:15:40 > 0:15:42He shouldn't have done that.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44And the midwife says, "The head, the head!"
0:15:44 > 0:15:46- The head, the head! - No, it was a back heel.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50- Stepney never got near it. - I can see the baby's head.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53So if I lived to be 100,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56I'll never land a more satisfying gag than that.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And I'm ashamed that I was one of the Stretford Enders who
0:16:01 > 0:16:04ran on the pitch to try and get the match abandoned and the
0:16:04 > 0:16:08score nullified and I have to say the achievement of running on
0:16:08 > 0:16:10that pitch in platform heels
0:16:10 > 0:16:14and the athletic prowess required to evade people and slap Jim Holton
0:16:14 > 0:16:19on the back was worthy of an Olympic medal that I never received.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Action.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46Welcome to the real world.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58So I went from writing very bad poetry to writing very bad novels
0:16:58 > 0:17:02and then marginally better but still bad radio plays
0:17:02 > 0:17:06and after 12 years of rejection slips,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10I finally wrote an OK script and so there were now two people who
0:17:10 > 0:17:13thought I was a writer, me and the person who'd read that script.
0:17:18 > 0:17:24In 1976, punk happened and everything changed really.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Just the sheer energy at places like Electric Circus and at Rafters
0:17:29 > 0:17:34was quite a contrast to Camel's Snow Goose suite
0:17:34 > 0:17:35at the Free Trade Hall for instance
0:17:35 > 0:17:38and all the bands that emerged there, all the DIY bands
0:17:38 > 0:17:40and The Drones, The Worst,
0:17:40 > 0:17:45the criminally, criminally underrated Manicured Noise,
0:17:45 > 0:17:50Certain Ratio and I remember we'd go to Ardwick Apollo to see an official
0:17:50 > 0:17:55gig and then rush across to Rafters to catch someone like The Rezillos.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59And I'd spent all my, the 1970s wishing I hadn't missed out
0:17:59 > 0:18:02on the 1960s but once punk happened,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04you thought, "Ah, that's here, that's now, that's us,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06"that's what we've got."
0:18:11 > 0:18:13# I want a new world, I want it with you
0:18:13 > 0:18:18# Want your new love, to see me through... #
0:18:18 > 0:18:21We knew it was going to be a good night if John Cooper Clarke
0:18:21 > 0:18:25was on or if The Fall were on or if Buzzcocks were on and
0:18:25 > 0:18:28I still love Buzzcocks to this day,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33I think what they had was energy but what they brought to it was melody.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36And great lyrics and I think Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38great lyricist
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and they also had a lot to do with the rebirth of Manchester
0:18:41 > 0:18:44because they were the first band who self-financed on their own label,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46a single and that changed everything
0:18:46 > 0:18:51and it made people think they could do a bit of their own stuff as well.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53# You spurn my natural emotions
0:18:53 > 0:18:57# You make me feel I'm dirt and I'm hurt
0:19:01 > 0:19:04# And if I start a commotion... #
0:19:04 > 0:19:07My version of doing something was an unfortunate afternoon
0:19:07 > 0:19:11trying to sell my own poetry on Stockport market
0:19:11 > 0:19:14which only became a punk experience when somebody threatened me
0:19:14 > 0:19:16with a beating unless I moved on.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Thankfully nobody bought them so nobody can now bring them out and
0:19:21 > 0:19:23try to flog them on eBay.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26Otherwise I'd have to be the highest bidder.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Usually get lost in this place.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46'I got my first professional commission in 1991
0:19:46 > 0:19:48'so that's 23 years this year
0:19:48 > 0:19:51'and I still feel that every commission I have
0:19:51 > 0:19:52'is going to be the last.'
0:19:52 > 0:19:57It's not a secure business and, you know, I was a teacher and I left
0:19:57 > 0:20:00what was a secure job to do this.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06And you know, it's just a case of...
0:20:08 > 0:20:12..sort of getting on with it, owning your ideas and finding a way...
0:20:14 > 0:20:17..I suppose finding a way to put those insecurities
0:20:17 > 0:20:18on the page, really.
0:20:27 > 0:20:28So.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34So.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Still alive then.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Unless we died in the night and went to heaven.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43For a writer to get in the edit in the first place is, you know,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45it takes a bit of doing in your career.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48New writers don't get that privilege.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50'To be honest with you, good directors
0:20:50 > 0:20:52'and good editors want the writer in there, even if it's only to'
0:20:52 > 0:20:56kind of nail what it was you intended to do with the narrative.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01The thing that I find trickiest, I suppose, is knowing when,
0:21:01 > 0:21:03it's stepping back from your own taste.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Because the editor has a skill, you know, the director has a skill,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12the producer has a skill, the music people have a skill
0:21:12 > 0:21:17so it's knowing what's working for the story as opposed to,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20you know, what would be working for me if it was just a vanity project
0:21:20 > 0:21:21and, you know, if I had my way,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24they'd just have the words very loud
0:21:24 > 0:21:28and maybe a drum roll and a cymbal on jokes.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33And over the years,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36you learn how to do that and you also learn to deal with,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39you know, even the pace of a scene's going to change, the pace of
0:21:39 > 0:21:40the actor's will change, you know,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43what the actor's comfortable with in doing the line,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46that's there contribution, they're part of this,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48they're a major part of it,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51in some cases, you know, they're more important than the writer
0:21:51 > 0:21:56so it's finding the rhythm and it's finding the rhythm collectively.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58Yeah, he's in here.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12How long you been here?
0:22:12 > 0:22:13I don't know.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17The starting point for Flesh And Blood was
0:22:17 > 0:22:21after I left university I taught children and young adults
0:22:21 > 0:22:26with learning disabilities for the best part of 14 years
0:22:26 > 0:22:29and it seemed to me...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I wanted to write about that world
0:22:31 > 0:22:34but didn't know what I had to say about that world and it was only
0:22:34 > 0:22:40when I'd left that world a few years later that I could look at it afresh
0:22:40 > 0:22:42and I wanted to write about parenthood
0:22:42 > 0:22:47and I wanted to write again about family
0:22:47 > 0:22:52and how you construct yourself and it occurred to me that the
0:22:52 > 0:22:55sexuality of people with learning disabilities remains quite
0:22:55 > 0:23:00a taboo subject and especially so in the early '80s
0:23:00 > 0:23:05when I was working there and so I contrived the story where
0:23:05 > 0:23:08a man who was adopted found out that his birth parents...
0:23:10 > 0:23:13..were two people with learning disabilities
0:23:13 > 0:23:16and he'd been adopted immediately
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and so in trying to find his birth parents he finds out this thing
0:23:19 > 0:23:22about himself, the character is Joe Broughton
0:23:22 > 0:23:24who's played brilliantly by Christopher Eccleston.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37Hiya.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39Janet, this is Joe.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44Hello, Janet.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50- Do you know how I've got a little baby?- Yeah.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Well, I was like that once.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54- Yeah.- And, erm...
0:23:54 > 0:23:55You're, well...
0:24:00 > 0:24:01You're my dad.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09I just wanted to say it out loud.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14- You didn't understand a word of that, did you?- No.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26I like coming here because you can unwind, it's very nice.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Very nice views, it's always pretty empty
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and the main reason though is I've got a dog to walk.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34She's over there somewhere
0:24:34 > 0:24:37and I've got cholesterol you can plaster the walls with.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42My uncle Ron told me that whisky burnt the fur off your arteries.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Turned out not to be true so I got a dog and do long walks now instead.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51It's going...I never really have any ideas here.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55I don't find this kind of landscape that inspiring, to be honest.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58I find it's beautiful and I love being here, it's a bonus
0:24:58 > 0:25:01but I've always walked... wherever I've lived, I've always walked
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and it's just the kind of the pace, you can unravel plot and put plot
0:25:05 > 0:25:08back together but, you know, I don't think I'm going to be writing
0:25:08 > 0:25:12an Ode To A Nightingale any day now.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15And I just, I love this part of the park because you get this,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18I don't know if you see it, you get this massive sweep,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21this vista right up there and right on the top there,
0:25:21 > 0:25:26from the top you can see the Royal Ballet School in that direction
0:25:26 > 0:25:27and Wembley Stadium over there.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Two great high and low cultural icons.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37And I'm not a great, you know, this is as countryside as I can go.
0:25:37 > 0:25:38You can hear the traffic over there,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42I like to be within the sound of traffic, I get a bit insecure
0:25:42 > 0:25:46if all I can hear is birds, it becomes too Deliverance for me.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49So yeah, no, this suits me.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Just going to grab the dog from under here.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01In Occupation...
0:26:01 > 0:26:04you know, I didn't want an explosion that,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08we didn't want an explosion at the start that looked like it had been
0:26:08 > 0:26:12taken from Black Hawk Down because the British experience in Basra
0:26:12 > 0:26:14was very different to the American experience in Baghdad
0:26:14 > 0:26:17and I was trying to point up those contradictions and that comes
0:26:17 > 0:26:19in itself from research, you know?
0:26:19 > 0:26:22I asked a soldier what it was like when he first got out at the back
0:26:22 > 0:26:26of a tank in Basra and he said it was like waiting for the night bus
0:26:26 > 0:26:31in a very rough area and I thought that's brilliant and he also said,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34"For God's sake, don't have us getting out in the heat of battle.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37"It would be suicide, nobody does that. You always go down the
0:26:37 > 0:26:39"side street and the first thing you see are goats and
0:26:39 > 0:26:42"the second thing you see are children."
0:26:44 > 0:26:45Oh, bollocks.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Whoa, whoa. All right, all right. Stop giving them stuff, Pat.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56- I'm trying.- How do you say hello? - Salaam.- Saddam?- Salaam! - Show me that.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Give it me here. Look, look, look! Go, go!
0:26:59 > 0:27:02The target's a block down. Come on. Move!
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Could get tasty, lads, so keep your eyes open.
0:27:07 > 0:27:08Spike, Danny, corner.
0:27:16 > 0:27:17Dead end.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21- Shit. It's the wrong block.- Whoa!
0:27:25 > 0:27:28The lads in the Falklands, you and me in the Balkans,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31did we really deep down have a fucking clue why we were there?
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Right and if we did, did we really actually care?
0:27:35 > 0:27:39But this way, this way I know what I'm doing there.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41I'm there to make money so someone else can make money
0:27:41 > 0:27:45and that's what makes the world go round and if you can think of a
0:27:45 > 0:27:50better way then perhaps you can tell me because I can't think of one and
0:27:50 > 0:27:52I don't know if that makes me a better person
0:27:52 > 0:27:54or a worse person than you.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58But at least now, now I know what I'm risking my life for.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05What happened to you?
0:28:09 > 0:28:11I went to Iraq.
0:28:12 > 0:28:18In an age where every tweet, every e-mail, every Facebook entry,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21every news bulletin doesn't explain the story,
0:28:21 > 0:28:25it distorts the story, it twists the story, it gives the story an angle.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27The way I look at it,
0:28:27 > 0:28:32the irony is that drama might now be the only truth we have.
0:28:35 > 0:28:36The end.