0:00:09 > 0:00:11Good evening.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15London, England, a busy, modern city.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19I want to ask you, if I may, tonight, to join me in an experiment.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22An experiment to turn back time,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25to suspend belief in the here and now,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27and journey into the past.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Come with me now, to a London before two wars,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34when the city was very different to the one we live in now.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36And this house you see behind me
0:00:36 > 0:00:39was the London home of one of the most powerful men of this century.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41- We're filming! - LAUGHTER
0:00:41 > 0:00:43After the success of Monty Python,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Michael Palin and Terry Jones decided to embark
0:00:46 > 0:00:48on a radical, new comedy series.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Set in the heyday of empire,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Ripping Yarns was a series of nine glorious comedy dramas,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00broadcast between 1976 and 1979.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Well played, boy, well played!
0:01:09 > 0:01:11It featured schoolboys,
0:01:11 > 0:01:13soldiers, explorers...
0:01:13 > 0:01:18We only left Paddington at 4.30, and I've already lost three men.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19..spies...
0:01:20 > 0:01:24..and a whole host of mad colonial characters...
0:01:24 > 0:01:25Excellent.
0:01:25 > 0:01:26..from a long-lost era.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Set her free, Mrs Angell.
0:01:28 > 0:01:29LAUGHTER
0:01:29 > 0:01:31She is free, dear.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33There's been no slavery in this country for donkey's years.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37We've used a lot of very conventional establishment attitudes
0:01:37 > 0:01:39but undermined them.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42- Sir.- Morrison, I think you know what to do.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44A way you could deal with it was with humour.
0:01:46 > 0:01:47SINGLE GUNSHOT
0:01:47 > 0:01:48THUD
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Ripping Yarns took its inspiration from the boys' books and magazines
0:01:51 > 0:01:55that were popular up until the Second World War.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59I think we were celebrating the British Empire,
0:01:59 > 0:02:03and the Boy's Own stories, really. I think they were celebrating that.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07Before the days of video games and cartoons,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09these stories fuelled the imaginations
0:02:09 > 0:02:12of generations of young people.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14They were tales full of empire, adventure,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17British pluck, danger, derring-do.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21And these colossal, larger-than-life heroes.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23These are the real ripping yarns.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Until relatively recently, being a boy meant certain things.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47You explored the outdoors.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51I used to cycle all over the place, without anybody worrying.
0:02:51 > 0:02:58We were in the forest, in the woodlands, we knew every tree.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00We went wild. We'd be out all day.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06'Nowadays, I think people are so worried about letting their children
0:03:06 > 0:03:09'go off and do something on their own.'
0:03:09 > 0:03:11You had hobbies.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15I've got some very good stamps, actually, in my...
0:03:17 > 0:03:19I used to get lots of stamps on approval.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Then, I realised, if I didn't write back within a week, I'd bought them.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26So my father had to take me to one side and say,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31stamp collecting can lead you into dangerous, dangerous ways,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33rack and ruin.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37St Kitts and Nevis. Natal.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Falkland Islands, unmarked.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43You were expected to be resilient.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47After the war, there was very little around.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49And life was pretty grim.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54I think that was very much the ethos to deal with the difficult times,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58to make yourself a man, harden yourself up.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01You respected the establishment, and you were proud to be British.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06It was inculcated into us
0:04:06 > 0:04:11at primary school that we were right at the heart of this empire.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14We were told it was the biggest empire ever.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19So, when they sat down to write what would become Ripping Yarns,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Palin and Jones looked back to their childhoods.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Compared to the groovy '70s,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26the world they grew up in,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30so steeped in old-fashioned pluck and Victorian values,
0:04:30 > 0:04:31seemed ripe for mockery.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37It was my brother who suggested we do stories from Boy's Own Paper.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43All this stuff that I'd giggled at, at the back of the class in school,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45these heroic attitudes.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Actually, you can see it all from a different perspective.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51There's quite a lot in it which was ridiculous, absurd,
0:04:51 > 0:04:53which humour could deal with.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05- CLASS SINGS: - # My school, my school... #
0:05:05 > 0:05:09The first of the Ripping Yarns was Tomkinson's Schooldays.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10Sorry, Grayson.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12You can call me School Bully.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15You miserable little tick.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I went to a public school, and I remember
0:05:19 > 0:05:23I was given a book before I went there.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25My father said, "This is a book about the school, old boy."
0:05:25 > 0:05:27It was called The Bending of a Twig. ALEXANDER LAUGHS
0:05:27 > 0:05:29And it was all about some boy,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33some young lad of initiative and individuality,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36who had been sent to the school.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39And then, gradually, been worn down
0:05:39 > 0:05:42to become the useful member of society he was to be later on.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44It was called The Bending of a Twig.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46It was all really about what the schools were about,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49which was getting people and giving them discipline.
0:05:49 > 0:05:50CANE THWACKS
0:05:50 > 0:05:54'Everything about the place seemed designed to crush the soul,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58'and break down any reserve of pride I ever had.'
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Thank you, Foster.
0:06:02 > 0:06:03Next, please.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06'Beating the headmaster was just one of those ghastly...'
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Changing their nature, very slightly.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Well, turning them into, sort of, conformists.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16- Useful cogs.- Yeah, yeah, exactly.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24I think Tomkinson's Schooldays came out of Mike being horrified
0:06:24 > 0:06:28when his parents sent him to boarding school.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32I think there's a lot of bile in that, you know.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And I think that's what it came from.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The cruelty of it.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Oh, Lord, we give thee humble and hearty thanks for this,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44thy gift of discipline.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Knowing that it is only through the constraints of others
0:06:47 > 0:06:48that we come to know ourselves.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51And only through true misery can we find true contentment.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53LAUGHTER
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Tomkinson's Schooldays pokes fun at the school story.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00These tales, usually set in boys' public schools,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03were popularised by the legendary Boy's Own Paper,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07but appeared in hundreds of other books and magazines too.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Whether written in 1910 or 1950,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13the school story never strayed far from a tried-and-tested formula.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20The school story has only a few ingredients.
0:07:20 > 0:07:21Public school.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22Group of chums.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26And an arch enemy, usually an evil headmaster,
0:07:26 > 0:07:27or possibly a school bully.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30There were always a few scrapes and, quite often,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32a bit of healthy sporting rivalry.
0:07:32 > 0:07:33And that's pretty much it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35These ingredients remain unchanged
0:07:35 > 0:07:38for decade after decade after decade,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42as comforting and reassuring as a mug of hot cocoa.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47It's hard to convey just how popular these stories were.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49They appeared weekly in The Boy's Own Paper,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54and in scores of copycat magazines, like Magnet, Gem and Chums.
0:07:56 > 0:08:02We need to understand what a central part of youth culture they were.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10We have one survey from St Pancras in the 1930s
0:08:10 > 0:08:17which found that 86% of boys were reading at least one magazine a week
0:08:17 > 0:08:21and an astonishing 15% said that they were reading
0:08:21 > 0:08:23six boys' weeklies every week.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27Typically, stories were serialised first in the boys' weeklies,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31and later published in book form, thus launching a writer's career.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35One bestselling writer, almost totally forgotten today,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38was Talbot Baines Reed, known as Tibbie.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42He wrote the wildly popular Fifth Form At St Dominic's.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44I say wildly popular, this sold over a quarter of a million copies
0:08:44 > 0:08:47in 1907 alone. Absolutely fantastic book.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50I'm going to read you a little bit from chapter four.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52' "Well bowled, Sir, shouted Master Paul,"
0:08:52 > 0:08:55'as a very swift ball from Ricketts
0:08:55 > 0:08:58'took Bullinger's middle stump clean out of the ground.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00' "Rattling well bowled, I say." '
0:09:00 > 0:09:02You see, to us, that sounds very comical.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04This is a dashed bad show, I must say.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06But you have to remember, at the time,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09this kind of language of the school stories was widely copied.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11That's it, good egg, good egg.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Much like American slang might be picked up, like "toodley"
0:09:15 > 0:09:17by children watching cartoons today.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24There were "bounders of the remove" and "rotters of the fourth".
0:09:24 > 0:09:26Boys "swanked" and "gassed",
0:09:26 > 0:09:28and said things like, "I say", "ripping" and...
0:09:28 > 0:09:30Oh, my hat!
0:09:30 > 0:09:31This was a private language,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34that set children apart from the boring world of adults.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43The most prolific writer of school stories was Charles Hamilton,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46also known as Frank Richards, Clifford Owen, Owen Conquest,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48and several other pseudonyms.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Charles, Frank, Martin, whatever you want to call him,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00is estimated to have written 100 million words in his lifetime.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02He began a lengthy career in 1908
0:10:02 > 0:10:07with a story written for the Magnet magazine, later published as a book.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Richards' character, Billy Bunter, the Fat Owl of the Remove,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14is probably the most famous of all his creations.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15Look out, here comes Quelch.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18We look at someone like Charles Hamilton, Frank Richards,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22and look at how much he is writing. It is absolutely extraordinary.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24- Bunter!- Argh!
0:10:24 > 0:10:26We're talking about, over his lifetime,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29the equivalent of 1,000 full-length novels.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33He's said to have invented somewhere between 50 and 100 different schools
0:10:33 > 0:10:35using his various pseudonyms.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38He's got these whole school stories, churning out thousands of words,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40perhaps 70,000 words a week.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44He is absolutely extraordinary. How can that not be pap?
0:10:45 > 0:10:49'How I long to be able to hop like the second-year boys.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52'And not to have to ask permission to breathe out after 10.30.'
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Much of the magic of the school story came from its depiction
0:10:55 > 0:10:58of arcane rules and rituals.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00'There was also the compulsory fight with the grizzly bear
0:11:00 > 0:11:02'which all new boys had to go through.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:07You have this idea that the boy arrives on day one
0:11:07 > 0:11:10and has to be broken, frankly.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Whether it's the bullying or the fagging,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17or being made to stand on a table and sing a solo,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19all that kind of thing is all about eradicating
0:11:19 > 0:11:21what the boy was like before.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Just get rid of all of that, begin again,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and you can be made, remade in the image of the school.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Physical hardship and the occasional flogging
0:11:36 > 0:11:38were all part of the fabric of school life.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Corporal punishment wasn't just regarded as
0:11:45 > 0:11:47a necessary evil in schools,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49but as an actual benefit to the boys.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51It was character forming.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54No pupil could hope to gain the respect of his peers
0:11:54 > 0:11:57until he had been given six of the best.
0:11:57 > 0:11:58Hello, Mumsy.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- What he needs is a damned good thrashing.- Clive, please.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04He needs the skin taken off his back
0:12:04 > 0:12:09with a triple-thonged, bamboo-backed leather strip.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12That's what he needs.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15'And there was St Tadger's Day when, by an old tradition,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17'boys who had been at the school for less than two years,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20'were allowed to be nailed to the walls by senior pupils.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30I dare say, there was no nailing to the walls going on?
0:12:30 > 0:12:31No nailing to the walls, but
0:12:31 > 0:12:33they only stopped just short of that. THEY LAUGH
0:12:33 > 0:12:37But what I liked in Tomkinson's Schooldays was that
0:12:37 > 0:12:39you could do it with a twist,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42so it wasn't that the boys were nailed to the walls,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46- it was that the boys were ALLOWED to be nailed to the walls.- Yes.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49That was a privilege. That was good, you got on in school.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51PHONE RINGS
0:12:52 > 0:12:54School bully.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Casting a dark shadow over the proceedings was the school bully.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00'He had twice won the Public Schools Bullying Cup.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03'And, last year, beat the extraordinarily vicious
0:13:03 > 0:13:07'Ackroyd of Charterhouse at a kick-in of fags at the Hurlingham Club.'
0:13:07 > 0:13:10In those days, people would say bullying was part of school,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14"You'll find that, old boy, you'll have to deal with it."
0:13:14 > 0:13:15Thank you, thank you, bully.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19In Tomkinson, parents sent their children to that school
0:13:19 > 0:13:23to be bullied by him, because he had won the Public Schools Bullying Cup.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25So that was an observation, really, on where we were
0:13:25 > 0:13:28with the kind of social attitudes at the time.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41BICYCLE BELL
0:13:41 > 0:13:44SPORTS TEAMS SHOUT
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Of course, many a school story centres around
0:13:58 > 0:14:00some kind of sporting contest.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Encouraging fair play and hard, physical combat
0:14:04 > 0:14:07was seen as a vital part of education.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Oh!
0:14:12 > 0:14:13CRASH
0:14:13 > 0:14:14He won!
0:14:14 > 0:14:17He's bloody won!
0:14:17 > 0:14:18HE WHIMPERS
0:14:21 > 0:14:23HE SHOUTS WITH JOY
0:14:27 > 0:14:30The very first issue of The Boy's Own Paper in 1879
0:14:30 > 0:14:34kicked off with a story called My First Football Match.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37For the next 90-odd years,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41the paper ran articles on almost every sport you can think of.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46From the obvious ones - cricket, rugby and hockey -
0:14:46 > 0:14:51to the more obscure, like Harrow Footer and the Eton Wall Game.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56'Both sides push and shove, and heave and tug.'
0:15:02 > 0:15:06There was this tremendous emphasis on physical education and on games.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09That's why there's so much about rugby and cricket
0:15:09 > 0:15:12because these are believed to be healthy.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15And in the correspondence column of the Boy's Own Paper,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18you get so many requests about, "How can I get stronger?
0:15:18 > 0:15:21"How can I grow to be a taller boy?
0:15:21 > 0:15:23"How can I become more muscular?"
0:15:23 > 0:15:26And so on, so there's a terrific concern there about manliness -
0:15:26 > 0:15:28how can we become more manly?
0:15:30 > 0:15:31After 12 and a half miles,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35I saw Venner of 5A fall and die of exhaustion.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41And after 17 miles,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44he was joined by Apsley, Critworth PE, Spitwell,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Emerson and Zappa Major.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51This interest in sport was all part of a more general
0:15:51 > 0:15:53pre-occupation with the physical.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59I'm going to read you this fantastic little thing, Gorilla Hunters by
0:15:59 > 0:16:02RM Ballantyne, and there's a passage here that sums it up pretty well.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07He says, "Boys ought to practise leaping off heights into deep water.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10"They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream on a narrow,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12"unsafe plank for fear of a ducking.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15"They ought never to decline to climb a tree to pull fruit,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18"merely because there is a possibility of their falling off
0:16:18 > 0:16:20"and breaking their necks.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23"I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter
0:16:23 > 0:16:25"all kinds of risks in order to prepare them to meet
0:16:25 > 0:16:27"and grapple with the risks
0:16:27 > 0:16:29"and dangers incident to man's career with cool,
0:16:29 > 0:16:30"cautious self-possession -
0:16:30 > 0:16:33"a self-possession founded on experimental knowledge
0:16:33 > 0:16:36"of the character and powers of their own spirits and muscles."
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Of course, risk-taking these days in the 21st century
0:16:41 > 0:16:44is something that is thought to be avoided at all costs.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49It's a big part of the Boy's Own literature as well, actually,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52the necessity of risk and embracing risk,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57- facing up to it and not avoiding it. - Yeah, it was definitely part of it.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00You should learn these things, and you learn the hard way.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02I mean discomfort was very important
0:17:02 > 0:17:05because life is going to be uncomfortable.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08- What are those, Uncle Jack? - Oh, they're buboes, lad.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10A touch of bubonic plague I picked up at the weekend.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Gosh, weren't you scared?
0:17:12 > 0:17:15A bit of bubonic plague? I should say not.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17As long as you get a rabid dog to lick the poison out.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21- Do you want to see the rats? - Oh, rather.- Go on, then.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Oh, that's rather good.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27'Alongside school stories and sport,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29'one of the big features of the Boy's Own Paper
0:17:29 > 0:17:31'was the hobbies pages.'
0:17:33 > 0:17:35What is that, Tomkinson?
0:17:37 > 0:17:39It's a model icebreaker, sir.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41It's a bit big for a model, isn't it?
0:17:41 > 0:17:43It's a full-scale model, sir.
0:17:45 > 0:17:51The Boy's Own Paper had a very high kind of interactive quality to it.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56You could turn to the pages of how to make things, do-it-yourself,
0:17:56 > 0:18:02and in these, you could make a toy yacht, a toy fire engine, furniture.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05They have to make their own patterns, diagrams,
0:18:05 > 0:18:10cut things out, heat wood, bend it, do all kinds of things with
0:18:10 > 0:18:14apparatus that we would have no idea how to use today.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Hobbies were very important,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20they were part of the established sort of way of growing up.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24My father had been a great collector of birds' eggs which,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26of course, now you wouldn't be allowed to take...
0:18:26 > 0:18:29- No, absolutely not. - ..these little birds' eggs.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34I went for the more predictable things. I was a trainspotter.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37I also collected cheese labels.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Dad was a keen collector of stamps, so he got me going.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53I collected only stamps in the British Empire.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56There was no room for dullards on the hobbies pages.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58They provided a stern test for the boy reader.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03One of the things that I love about the Boy's Own Paper
0:19:03 > 0:19:07is the way that it assumes that boys are really competent
0:19:07 > 0:19:12and can be trusted with all kinds of equipment in ways that health
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and safety in schools today would find absolutely shocking.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18When they're preserving insects, for instance,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21they're told from the very beginning that the chemist might not
0:19:21 > 0:19:25sell you this because it's a dangerous poison and if he does
0:19:25 > 0:19:27sell it to you, you have to be careful about how you store it
0:19:27 > 0:19:29and make sure that nobody else can get it.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40The Boy's Own Paper's hobbies pages had a particular
0:19:40 > 0:19:42focus on science,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44although there was nothing dry or classroom-y
0:19:44 > 0:19:47in the way they wrote about it.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50They cleverly wrapped up scientific concepts in articles
0:19:50 > 0:19:51about popular hobbies
0:19:51 > 0:19:54so you would learn about fluid dynamics in an article
0:19:54 > 0:19:58about boat-building, or about zoology in an article about collecting insects
0:19:58 > 0:20:02and, of course, it was all done with such breathless enthusiasm
0:20:02 > 0:20:04that no boy could fail to be captivated.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Now, I've come here to the Royal Institution in London to conduct
0:20:08 > 0:20:12an experiment that was first written up in the Boy's Own Paper in the 1880s.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29- So, what do you make of my spiders? - I think they're fantastic.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31'I'm joined by Dr Peter Wothers,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33'from Cambridge University no less,
0:20:33 > 0:20:37'to have a go at making exploding spiders.'
0:20:37 > 0:20:40We're sort of following a recipe from a Boy's Own Paper
0:20:40 > 0:20:41from the 1880s.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44This is written by a chemist, John Scoffern.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46And it's sold as a jape.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Basically, you make your spider here and he even says,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52"You can stick it by means of a gum to the wall," and then
0:20:52 > 0:20:54when your maiden aunt comes in and thinks there's
0:20:54 > 0:20:56a spider on the wall, she reaches for her parasol,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00gives it a prod and the result is very funny.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Now, we need the chemical part which is trying to make these things
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- explode.- What is the compound we're going to be putting in there?
0:21:07 > 0:21:10So, it's something called nitrogen triiodide, which is
0:21:10 > 0:21:13an incredibly sensitive explosive.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15I mean, in fact, it can't be used as an explosive
0:21:15 > 0:21:18because you can't move it once it's been made.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22So, how are you going to do that? What's the process?
0:21:22 > 0:21:25So, I'm going to go away and make it and prepare it wet,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29but as soon as it's dried, it's pretty unstable stuff.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Now, what's extraordinary, and I think laudable,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35is that in a Boy's Own Paper, they're being entrusted with
0:21:35 > 0:21:41the recipe for making this extremely unstable compound.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43I mean, would you ever get this happening now?
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Would any child be allowed to put this together themselves now?
0:21:47 > 0:21:51I can't see today's chemistry sets telling you exactly how to
0:21:51 > 0:21:52make this sort of compound.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56We can't show you how the compound is made -
0:21:56 > 0:21:59it's apparently too dangerous -
0:21:59 > 0:22:02so you're going to have to look at a picture of spiders now.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05And another picture.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10And another. Good, aren't they?
0:22:12 > 0:22:13You see, in the 1880s,
0:22:13 > 0:22:17they didn't really bother with health and safety.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Once Peter returns with the explosive compound,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22it's time to load up our spiders.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25- Careful not to drop any little bits. - Right.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27Is that a good quantity in there, do you think,
0:22:27 > 0:22:28or should we do a bit more?
0:22:28 > 0:22:31Let's have a little bit more, just don't knock the other ones.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33And I wouldn't scrape too hard.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35PETER LAUGHS
0:22:35 > 0:22:37That's a nervous laugh, isn't it?
0:22:37 > 0:22:40It's a "I've seen this before" laugh.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43OK, good. Right.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58So, Peter, we've both been issued with a standard issue
0:22:58 > 0:23:02maiden aunt's parasol with which to prod the spiders.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05- So, shall I attack the first one? - Yeah, attack the first one.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09OK, let's give it a prod, then.
0:23:09 > 0:23:10Oh!
0:23:10 > 0:23:15THEY LAUGH
0:23:15 > 0:23:16Yeah, that worked.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20- I tell you what, it's upset this one here but these...- Here's a leg.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Oh, there we are, a little memento for me. Yeah.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30You need a bit of a... Oh!
0:23:30 > 0:23:32I wasn't doing it hard enough.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36You're getting good at it now.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43And if the boy reader made a mistake -
0:23:43 > 0:23:45he couldn't get his spiders to explode,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48or he had some other burning question,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50he would send a letter to the editors of the paper,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52asking for help.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55They'd never publish the letters, so you'd just get the reply
0:23:55 > 0:23:57so you had to kind of try
0:23:57 > 0:24:01and work out what the query might have been and this is from
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Boy's Own Paper, it must have been about sort of just before the war.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08First War, that is, and there's just a couple here cos they're
0:24:08 > 0:24:12so wonderful. "Fred L..." They'd always identify the writer.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16"Fred L, one, by all means remove your moustache
0:24:16 > 0:24:18"if you're only five feet high.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22"It may not help your growth, but there's no harm in trying it."
0:24:22 > 0:24:24What are we doing here?
0:24:24 > 0:24:28"At any rate, you're sure of a little fresh air when you let it grow."
0:24:28 > 0:24:31And then, "Two, it makes no difference
0:24:31 > 0:24:33- "if you do not overtire yourself." - That's it.
0:24:33 > 0:24:34So, they're just wonderful
0:24:34 > 0:24:38and there's a last one here which is just, again, a lovely non-sequitur.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It's called Swallow and it has one -
0:24:41 > 0:24:44"The birds must have been included in the catalogue in error.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47"They're certainly not British..." It was always a very admonitory term.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50"..and have never been recognised as such."
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And then, "Two, have a cold bath every morning.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56"Wash yourself all over, head and all."
0:24:56 > 0:24:59What's that got to do with swallows? But, anyway.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The idea of the cold bath, so beloved by the Boy's Own Paper,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08was first popularised by its no-nonsense correspondent
0:25:08 > 0:25:09Dr Gordon Stables.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15A former Arctic explorer, naval surgeon, and fanatical caravanner,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Stables had some very trenchant opinions.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25He was a health nut - advocating fresh air,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28lifting dumb-bells, never smoking...
0:25:30 > 0:25:33..and, of course, endless cold bathing.
0:25:33 > 0:25:34Take a cold tub, sir.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37This is what Stables would recommend to all his readers
0:25:37 > 0:25:38on a very regular basis.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42In fact, a cold bath was his remedy for any kind of affliction,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44whether psychological or physical.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47In fact, he even advised working boys to rise at five,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50scrub themselves down in a cold tub so they could get dressed,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53comb their hair and be at work for six.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Ah! That is...
0:25:56 > 0:25:57Ah!
0:25:59 > 0:26:00OK, here goes.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05ALEXANDER GASPS
0:26:07 > 0:26:08Nee!
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Ah!
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Jeez-ha-ha!
0:26:15 > 0:26:19I can feel my character building before your very eyes.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21I think that's probably enough of that.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25Time to get dressed, comb my hair and I can be at work by six.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32The cold tub was something he advised as a remedy
0:26:32 > 0:26:36for another sort of problem that worried many of his teenage readers.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Stables speaks of nervousness and certain debilitating habits
0:26:45 > 0:26:50learnt at school that led to trouble that can never be shaken off.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53He was referring, of course, to the menace of self-abuse.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57The correspondence pages of the Boy's Own Paper are filled
0:26:57 > 0:27:00with dire warnings of what might happen to boys who gave in to
0:27:00 > 0:27:02these dangerous and unnatural urges.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14"Those habits lead thousands to misery and illness,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17"and often to death or insanity.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18"You will ruin your constitution
0:27:18 > 0:27:22"and earn for yourself a miserable manhood.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25"Such habits often end in lunacy and suicide.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29"Don't trust to quacks or men who send out pamphlets and advertise.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35"Banish madness from your mind and leave the dog alone."
0:27:36 > 0:27:40To our modern ears, these letters make for pure comedy,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42but at the time, this was serious stuff.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The whole of British society was worried.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47I will not have the trappings of whoremongery
0:27:47 > 0:27:51- and free-loveism under this roof. - No, don't touch it.- Turn away, woman.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Unless it arouses you to unseemly lubricity.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56This is the devil's work!
0:27:57 > 0:28:00People tried all sorts of weird and wonderful means
0:28:00 > 0:28:02to prevent themselves becoming aroused.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07- These are called Jugum penises and...- They're called what?
0:28:07 > 0:28:08SHE LAUGHS
0:28:08 > 0:28:11- The great name of Jugum penises. - Jugum?
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Jugum, and they were designed to prevent what the Victorians
0:28:14 > 0:28:18called "spermatorrhoea", a slightly deadly term that essentially
0:28:18 > 0:28:21means the unnecessary loss of semen.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24I suppose they felt there was a finite supply.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26Well, it was held in very high regard
0:28:26 > 0:28:30and what they thought was this unnecessary loss would make you ill,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33so spermatorrhoea caused a very wide range
0:28:33 > 0:28:36of debilitating diseases, both physical and mental.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40And how does this work? Let's just get down to the nitty-gritty.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43It's got a kind of bicycle clip.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46It would've been worn at night and the idea being that,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49should the sleeper become unnaturally aroused,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52shall we say, the pain would wake you up
0:28:52 > 0:28:55because you would engage with these teeth round the edge.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Right, OK.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00There were a number of different contraptions all along similar
0:29:00 > 0:29:04lines, through to whole body suits that you could wear to
0:29:04 > 0:29:08bed at night, we think, that had flaps at various strategic
0:29:08 > 0:29:11points that could be closed or opened, accordingly.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13What are you making, mother?
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Something that will cover the entire human body, dear.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18You say there was a school of thought,
0:29:18 > 0:29:20it becomes almost more than that,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24it becomes almost the rule that you must, at all costs, avoid.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27So, this was really taken up, not just within medical circles,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30but by moralists, educators...
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The word we come across again and again is self-pollution.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35- Self-pollution.- Self-pollution.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40So, here we've got, representing the last stage of mental
0:29:40 > 0:29:43and bodily exhaustion from onanism or self-pollution.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45I mean, surely, that just passes though.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47That's only for a couple of days...and then he's
0:29:47 > 0:29:49back on his feet again.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51I mean, it could kill you, the effects could be...
0:29:51 > 0:29:54But this is just, I mean, this is nonsense, isn't it?
0:29:54 > 0:29:57How extraordinary. Or is it? Are you here to tell me otherwise?
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Well, no, I think it sort of fuelled this anxiety and it snowballed
0:30:01 > 0:30:04so everybody was terrified of the effects that this might have.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Over the years, the tone of the letters pages mellowed a little.
0:30:09 > 0:30:10In the '30s,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14personal issues were dealt with in a column called The Padre's Talk,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17and in the '40s, by Between Ourselves.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20But the advice remained much the same.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23- May I touch you, Captain?- No!
0:30:23 > 0:30:26It's bad enough with a girl, but you're a...you're a man.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Sexual thoughts were to be avoided.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Part of what the Ripping Yarns were were the things that were
0:30:31 > 0:30:33unexpressed, you know.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35There was a certain level of repression,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38a certain level of real sexual hang-ups, that we
0:30:38 > 0:30:41just touched on because you weren't allowed to touch on them
0:30:41 > 0:30:45so even just referring to them made them funny.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49Well, Mr Russell, since you are a man,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52maybe it'll be all right for me to...
0:30:52 > 0:30:54rub something on them.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00Keeping boys' energies focused on innocent and improving pursuits
0:31:00 > 0:31:02was one of the aims of the boys' weeklies.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07In the Boy's Own Paper, much was made of the importance of bracing
0:31:07 > 0:31:13outdoor activities, such as natural history, gardening and hiking.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17They wanted to produce a kind of wholesome image of boyhood
0:31:17 > 0:31:20that was exciting as well.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23They wanted the boys to go out, to exercise, to play games,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26to get involved in sport, to climb trees with jack-knifes,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31to take risks, to be what we now think of as proper boys.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35This focus on the great outdoors
0:31:35 > 0:31:38had grown out of turn-of-the-century concerns
0:31:38 > 0:31:40about the malign influence of cities.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Many people believed the country was going to the dogs,
0:31:55 > 0:32:00locked into a toxic cycle of physical and moral degeneration.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03After decades of industrialisation, the cities were growing
0:32:03 > 0:32:08and, along with them, a huge urban underclass - poorly fed,
0:32:08 > 0:32:13unfit and, it was believed, steeped in crime and immorality.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15There was a kind of question in society, you know,
0:32:15 > 0:32:20had the grit of the modern boy become somehow diminished?
0:32:20 > 0:32:25Hello, you, boy, in the corner there. You ought to be a Boy Scout.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28You're a fine-looking fella and I know you would make a jolly,
0:32:28 > 0:32:30good backwoodsman by the look of you.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31You're ugly enough, anyway.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Robert Baden-Powell, a columnist for the Boy's Own Paper,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38founded the Scout Movement in 1908 with
0:32:38 > 0:32:42the explicit intention of improving the calibre of the modern boy.
0:32:44 > 0:32:50Baden-Powell hoped that by creating a youth movement
0:32:50 > 0:32:55built around the countryside, about camping and wood craft,
0:32:55 > 0:33:00that this would counteract the evil effects of the city
0:33:00 > 0:33:03and improve the health of the nation's youth.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13As well as encouraging their readers to get outdoors,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17the boys' weeklies provided plenty of manly role models
0:33:17 > 0:33:18to inspire them.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24The strong, intrepid, outdoorsy hero is a recurring figure in boys'
0:33:24 > 0:33:28fiction and, of course, nobody was more celebrated than the explorer.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Whether he was conquering the Arctic wastes or fighting his way
0:33:31 > 0:33:34through the Amazon, the explorer's every move was minutely
0:33:34 > 0:33:36charted by boys' books and magazines.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39So, what's your expedition looking for?
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Well, we're looking to see if there's a channel, a river
0:33:42 > 0:33:47passage, linking the Ganges with the Brahmaputra River through Bhutan.
0:33:47 > 0:33:48But this is Maidenhead.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57The figure of the explorer loomed large in popular culture
0:33:57 > 0:33:59until well into the 20th century.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06I wanted to be an explorer from very early on,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09I mean, nine or ten years old, that's what I wanted to do.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14And I read stories of great explorers,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16especially people who disappeared.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19I don't know why I was fascinated by people who were never seen again.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22There were stories like Fawcett, Colonel Fawcett.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26He went to the Amazon and was never seen again.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28As someone said, "Dead, believed eaten."
0:34:29 > 0:34:33In 1953, I was ten years old, and that's when Everest was climbed.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35Someone had gotten to the top of the highest mountain.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38They'd found the source of the Amazon and the Nile
0:34:38 > 0:34:42and that sort of thing, so there was very little left.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47But the idea of exploration appealed to me greatly and I think it was not
0:34:47 > 0:34:51just because they were brave men
0:34:51 > 0:34:54but they were going to places that no-one had ever seen before.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59The Boy's Own Paper published stirring tales like
0:34:59 > 0:35:03In the Power Of The Pygmies and Nearly Eaten
0:35:03 > 0:35:04in which a professor escapes
0:35:04 > 0:35:08from a horde of voodoo-worshipping cannibals in Haiti.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Explorer novels like King Solomon's Mines
0:35:15 > 0:35:19were a fixture on every boy's bookshelf.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Tales like these, usually set in remote outposts of the Empire,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30provided readers with a heady mix of exoticism and danger.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The polar explorer, Rear Admiral Sir Vincent Smythe-Obelson.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Applause! Applause!
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Polar exploration was a recurring theme for the Boy's Own Paper.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50It printed no less than 17 articles on Scott of the Antarctic,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53particularly the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition which took
0:35:53 > 0:35:55the lives of Scott and his comrades.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Scott and Oates, in particular,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02were really raised as the pre-eminent heroes in Britain
0:36:02 > 0:36:04on the eve of the First World War
0:36:04 > 0:36:09and the Boy's Own Paper played a significant part in that process.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16They actually published a special plate of Captain Oates with
0:36:16 > 0:36:20a line saying, "This plate of Captain Oates should find
0:36:20 > 0:36:25"an honoured place in the den of every BOP reader."
0:36:29 > 0:36:32And not all these explorer heroes were grown men.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34In the 1920s,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38we were introduced to James Marr, the 18-year-old boy scout
0:36:38 > 0:36:41who accompanied Ernest Shackleton on a trip to the Antarctic.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50The story of the expedition written by Marr himself was serialised
0:36:50 > 0:36:55in Chums magazine and then later published as a book in 1923.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58It must have been the most incredible adventure for this
0:36:58 > 0:37:02young 18-year-old scout, but I imagine no picnic.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06He was working as a normal member of the crew, working day and night.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Judging by the way he's writing it,
0:37:08 > 0:37:10he's certainly in the teeth of it all,
0:37:10 > 0:37:11he's getting the full experience.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Listen to this, "Wednesday, 28th December, 1921.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17"The gale had increased to hurricane violence.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20"It was a grand sight to watch those foam-decked mountains of water
0:37:20 > 0:37:23"bear down upon us." I bet it was.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26"The ship rose on top of them like a cork
0:37:26 > 0:37:28"and then down the other side." Woo-hoo!
0:37:29 > 0:37:32That's tough, that's really tough.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34And remember, as I say, he's 18 years old.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37I suppose if anyone questioned the sense of sending an 18-year-old
0:37:37 > 0:37:40scout off on a trip like this, I suppose here's your answer.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43He's getting a fantastic education sort of borne out
0:37:43 > 0:37:45through his even-handed prose.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47Unless, of course, maybe he was actually just writing,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51"O-M-G, I was bricking it last night in those high seas,"
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and maybe it just got back to base and somebody just put a red line
0:37:53 > 0:37:56through it and wrote it in a slightly more Boy's Own style.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57But I doubt it.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01It's explorers like these -
0:38:01 > 0:38:04cool to the last and indifferent to danger -
0:38:04 > 0:38:08that Palin and Jones' affectionately sent up in the fifth Yarn.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12In 1927, Captain Walter Snetterton,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14least loved of all English explorers,
0:38:14 > 0:38:19decided to go across the Andes by frog.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25We are the expedition from England. I'm Captain Snetterton.
0:38:25 > 0:38:26Wonderful characters.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Pervious to anything.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Mr Gregory, those frogs have been in training for months.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36They're mentally and physically at their peak, a delay could be fatal.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39The thing about Snetterton was, actually, that he
0:38:39 > 0:38:44represents a certain type of traveller and explorer, of which
0:38:44 > 0:38:48there are many around still who want to make it difficult for themselves.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51I shall stay here until this frog expedition has achieved
0:38:51 > 0:38:53everything it set out to achieve.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Everyone wants to be the first to do something to do something really,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59really difficult which is actually, in a way, quite admirable.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01I think there's something very British
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and something rather good about the British kind of...
0:39:04 > 0:39:05Well, we could call it...
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Some would call it silliness, others would say it's independence
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and testing yourself,
0:39:11 > 0:39:17so he was just really that kind of explorer who'd chosen to do the most
0:39:17 > 0:39:21difficult thing which was to actually ride across the Andes on a frog.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26The glory days of British exploration may be over,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29but there are still a few explorers out there.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36I've come to Dorset to meet
0:39:36 > 0:39:40the founder of Operation Raleigh, John Blashford Snell.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44In his time, he's fought bandits, searched for meteorites in Bolivia,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47and taken a grand piano through the South American jungle.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Careful with the frogs!
0:39:57 > 0:40:01- Ah, Alexander, I presume.- Good morning. How very good to meet you.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Wow!
0:40:06 > 0:40:10How many expeditions have you been on? Do you keep a tally?
0:40:10 > 0:40:12I don't keep a tally,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16- but somebody told me the other day it's over 100 now.- Over 100.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Do you have a particular favourite expedition?
0:40:18 > 0:40:21The most dramatic one, without a doubt,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25was the Blue Nile in 1968 where we literally had to fight our way
0:40:25 > 0:40:29out from bandits and so on and there were crocodile attacks
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and that type of thing.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34You are very much in the tradition of the Great British explorer.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39- Do you see yourself in that? - Not really, no! A nutcase, I think!
0:40:39 > 0:40:45No, I suppose going back to the days of Stanley and Livingstone,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50they were a little bit eccentric, probably, by modern standards.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53'John's inspiration was General Gordon
0:40:53 > 0:40:57'and the great Victorian explorers Stanley and Livingstone.'
0:40:57 > 0:41:01These are some great heroes that I had as a young man,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04who featured in the Boy's Own Paper and so on.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07- I remember my grandmother used to read it to me.- Really?
0:41:07 > 0:41:11And there were lots of things I learned from it.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14I can remember in particular with Boy's Own Paper,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16- they taught you about making things. - Yes.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20I remember making a crystal radio with the instructions that
0:41:20 > 0:41:23- were given.- You found the bits and pieces you needed?
0:41:23 > 0:41:27Yeah, you made them and you can buy a few bits, but you didn't need much.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29The other thing was photography.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32I developed an early interest in photography and my mother,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36as a result of that, gave me my first camera and there it is.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39With that, I took all my first pictures.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Then, of course, everyone had to have a knife.
0:41:42 > 0:41:43Nowadays, that would be frowned on.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48And my first knife was given to me by my mother again.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51This was a very old sheath knife, as a Boy Scout.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53- Yeah.- And Scouts were very much part of...
0:41:53 > 0:41:57My father had been a Scoutmaster and my mother had been a Guide Mistress.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01A friend of mine had one of these on the Blue Nile in 2005
0:42:01 > 0:42:05when his inflatable boat was attacked by a crocodile.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08And so that was very useful in defence.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10'During the Second World War,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14'the young John made his own contribution to the war effort.'
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Tell me about your Home Guard.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Well, where I was brought up, in Herefordshire, of course,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24we were very concerned with making sure the Hun didn't overrun
0:42:24 > 0:42:28Herefordshire and so we recruited a gang of choirboys
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and choirgirls and armed them to the teeth.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Of course, Boy's Own Paper had taught us all how to make bows
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and arrows, and we had spears, and we would go off everywhere,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42looking for any signs of the Hun and we were...
0:42:42 > 0:42:47The ARP, as they were called, used to encourage us to look for spies.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50I imagine the ARP were rather glad.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Well, our job was to... If the Germans had invaded,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57our job was to carry messages on our bicycles
0:42:57 > 0:43:01and we had a little pouch and you were told that you had to take
0:43:01 > 0:43:04this message from A to B if all the telephones stopped working.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06Luckily, it didn't get to that state.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09It was rather frustrating at the end of the war
0:43:09 > 0:43:11when the Germans hadn't invaded!
0:43:16 > 0:43:20'The Boy's Own paper was more than mere entertainment.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23'It taught real practical life lessons
0:43:23 > 0:43:24'to boys like the young John.'
0:43:28 > 0:43:33Such was Victoria's empire, a way of life, a state of mind,
0:43:33 > 0:43:37and whatever one thought of it, a mighty powerful,
0:43:37 > 0:43:43impressive structure, millions upon millions, all together,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46under the flag upon which the sun never sets.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51But while Boy's Own tales inspired and improved
0:43:51 > 0:43:55generations of readers, there was a more troubling aspect to them.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Set in far flung parts of the empire, many stories featured exotic
0:44:00 > 0:44:05foreign people who were rarely seen in a very flattering light,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07compared to the British.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09What's the matter with them?
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Ah, yes. Um... I'm not quite sure, actually.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16One of the tricks,
0:44:16 > 0:44:21if you like, of the stories is that fair play is endlessly
0:44:21 > 0:44:26repeated as an English quality, or a British quality,
0:44:26 > 0:44:31so it is characteristic of the portrayal of foreigners in
0:44:31 > 0:44:34the boys' weeklies that they are duplicitous, that they
0:44:34 > 0:44:39are scheming, that they are liars, and this is endlessly
0:44:39 > 0:44:44contrasted with the upstanding proper English gentleman.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49The papers had story after story featuring plucky
0:44:49 > 0:44:52British Empire gents bestowing wisdom
0:44:52 > 0:44:55and benevolence on grateful native populations.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00There is something just a little bit maddening about this constant
0:45:00 > 0:45:03hectoring tone that you get in some of the writing.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06By no means all of it, but just a tone that suggests that
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Britain knows best and the rest of the world should jolly well
0:45:09 > 0:45:11be grateful for her civilising influence.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Oh, cor. I thought you were one of the nig-nogs, sir.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17I wish you wouldn't call them nig-nogs, Sergeant Major.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20They're rational human beings with an indigenous culture
0:45:20 > 0:45:22- as worthy of respect as our own. - Yes, sir.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Of course, we have to put such attitudes into their historical context,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30which is very different to our own, but even at the time,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34some of the magazines were accused of aggressive imperialism.
0:45:35 > 0:45:36For all their racism,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40the boys' weeklies are at least quite even-handed
0:45:40 > 0:45:42in their treatment of foreigners,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45because they disparage all of them.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50So an endless cast of foreigners appear.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55George Orwell is pretty withering in this brilliant essay
0:45:55 > 0:45:58he writes on boys' weeklies. He complains that,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01"Foreigners are comics who are put there for us to laugh at.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03"They're classified in much the same way as insects."
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Then he goes on to list the characteristics
0:46:06 > 0:46:09you will invariably find in boys' weeklies. "Frenchman - excitable.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11"Wears beard, gesticulates wildly.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15"Spaniard, Mexican, etc - sinister, treacherous.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19"Arab, Afghan, etc - sinister, treacherous.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24"Chinese - sinister, treacherous. Wears pigtail.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28"Italian - excitable. Grinds barrel organ or carries stiletto."
0:46:28 > 0:46:30These snooty, patronising,
0:46:30 > 0:46:32even racist attitudes,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35are key to the comedy in Ripping Yarns.
0:46:38 > 0:46:39Nice shot, father.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41APPLAUSE
0:46:41 > 0:46:43Making people laugh is a way of dealing with
0:46:43 > 0:46:48a lot of attitudes that we find difficult, and that, I think, is
0:46:48 > 0:46:53what sort of pushed us into making them the kind of stories they are.
0:46:59 > 0:47:00In many Boy's Own stories
0:47:00 > 0:47:05lay a deep-rooted suspicion that Johnny Foreigner was up to no good.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08This anxiety reached fever pitch in the early 20th century.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10GUNSHOT
0:47:10 > 0:47:11The Pathans.
0:47:12 > 0:47:13Dave and Edna?
0:47:13 > 0:47:14No!
0:47:14 > 0:47:16The violent but proud tribe of hill people
0:47:16 > 0:47:18who threaten our very existence.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22- I must go and be kind to them. - Don't be silly, dear.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24The servants have orders to come and tell us
0:47:24 > 0:47:26if there's a Pathan uprising.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28LAUGHTER
0:47:28 > 0:47:31From the 1890s onwards, there was a growing worry about the threat
0:47:31 > 0:47:36of invasion - from France, from Russia, even from the planet Mars,
0:47:36 > 0:47:41and these paranoias played out on the pages of boys' literature.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44This wonderful magazine, Chums, here, in 1908,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46features a story called The Perils Of The Motherland,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51a story of war in 1911 - set in the near future - and sees Britain
0:47:51 > 0:47:55invaded by Russia. Look at the front cover, here. You can see
0:47:55 > 0:47:57the plucky workers of Cradley Heath in the Midlands
0:47:57 > 0:48:01fighting off the Russians with staves and hammers,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04the Russians, meanwhile, with their rifles and bayonets.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07There are these bricks hurling through the air.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09You've got to admire those plucky Brits,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12some of them just in shirtsleeves.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17We have a highly trained force waiting to move into England.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21- 600 vicars, 1,000 shepherds. - Two divisions of cockneys.
0:48:21 > 0:48:2744 drudges, a dozen eccentrics, 850 private nannies.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29'There were lots of stories about spies.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31'Almost the best example of this'
0:48:31 > 0:48:35are the stories about Billy Bunter and Greyfriars School,
0:48:35 > 0:48:41and a lot of those stories, published by The Magnet, around 1910,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44are about the peculiar behaviour of people
0:48:44 > 0:48:48who are walking along the coast, and they are seen flashing lights,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51or they are speaking in funny languages.
0:48:54 > 0:48:55It appears in all the papers.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58It appears in the newspapers, it appears in public speeches and so on.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01There was tremendous anxiety.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06And born out of this pre-war paranoia was a new genre of fiction,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09the espionage thriller, where one or two resourceful Brits
0:49:09 > 0:49:14single-handedly saved the nation from a shadowy foreign threat.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16LAUGHTER
0:49:16 > 0:49:19- MAN WHISPERS:- My God, the Kaiser!
0:49:20 > 0:49:24You see it in everything, from Erskine Childers' 1903 novel
0:49:24 > 0:49:25Riddle Of The Sands...
0:49:25 > 0:49:29100,000 German troops towed across the North Sea in barges
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and landing on the flats of the Wash on the undefended
0:49:32 > 0:49:36east coast of England with a whole grand fleet in support,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39and a total element of surprise. Perfect.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43..to John Buchan's classic, The 39 Steps...
0:49:44 > 0:49:45..the wildly popular
0:49:45 > 0:49:47Bulldog Drummond stories...
0:49:48 > 0:49:50..and Ian Fleming's James Bond.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56And let's not forget Winfrey's Last Case.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59In the last four months, I've brought the Balkan wars to end,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02averted a revolution in Russia for the second year running,
0:50:02 > 0:50:04started a civil war in Persia,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07annexed two new colonies...
0:50:07 > 0:50:10I've been saving this country every year since 1898 and I need a holiday.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Winfrey is one of those people who, you know,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16was very common in comics and literature then.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Someone who'd just solve all the problems of the world just like that,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22was so incredibly competent and good and efficient.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Well done, Gerald! You've saved us again.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27'And what I quite liked about that is that you've got
0:50:27 > 0:50:29'all the top brass of the Army, you know,'
0:50:29 > 0:50:32huge amounts of money spent on an army and an air force,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35a navy and all that, and yet he just comes in and says,
0:50:35 > 0:50:36"You're all wrong. I can do this."
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Surely there won't be a war now. I've, er, caught them all for you.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Oh, there will, Gerald.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44And it'll be a proper one, thanks to you.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47And if this one's successful, they'll want to do a follow-up.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00And when war broke out in July 1914,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03it started a wave of war stories that would dominate
0:51:03 > 0:51:05boys' literature through the next war and beyond.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Famously, or infamously, these magazines have thought,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15and rightly thought, I think, to be very jingoistic,
0:51:15 > 0:51:17very martial in their attitude to war
0:51:17 > 0:51:21and the idea that boys would find war exciting, that they would see
0:51:21 > 0:51:25it as an opportunity for adventure and to go off and be boys together.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30Across the North Sea steamed the British fleet,
0:51:30 > 0:51:34and off the coast of Jutland, they met.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41There were inspirational tales of true life heroes,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45like 16-year-old Jack Cornwell, fatally wounded
0:51:45 > 0:51:49in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and posthumously awarded a VC.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00There were informational articles about uniforms, weapons,
0:52:00 > 0:52:01historical battles...
0:52:09 > 0:52:12..but, of course, it's impossible to tell a story like this
0:52:12 > 0:52:16without referring to the greatest fictional war hero of them all.
0:52:16 > 0:52:17Biggles.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Biggles was an air ace in two world wars, a charter pilot,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25even an airborne detective.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29At his peak, he was the most popular juvenile fiction hero in the world.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35I read Biggles when I was 12, actually.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39- Captain WE Johns wrote Biggles. - That's right.- Yes.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Very impressed with the "Captain" bit.
0:52:41 > 0:52:47But I read, also... I read escape stories from prisoner of war camps.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52They were then coming out and people were writing their memoirs.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57They were quite nasty stories, some of them, you know.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Bamboo And Bushido - I remember that, which was all about...
0:53:00 > 0:53:04- What happened in Bamboo And Bushido? - It's about the Japanese and how
0:53:04 > 0:53:07beastly they were, and the tortures of people in prison camps.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11So, actually, weirdly, at quite a young age, I was exposed to
0:53:11 > 0:53:15some awful behaviour, but they were very gripping stories.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17- GERMAN ACCENTS:- What about the Red Cross?!
0:53:17 > 0:53:19To hell with the Red Cross!
0:53:21 > 0:53:26Listen, what's the use of having a war where nobody does anything bad to each other?
0:53:29 > 0:53:32But it was the Germans who were the number-one enemy
0:53:32 > 0:53:34for generations of boys.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39It was perfectly OK to be critical of the Germans,
0:53:39 > 0:53:43or to portray the Germans as they had been portrayed in the war,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46by our cartoonists and our publicity and all that,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50as all being, you know, snarling and dangerous.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Nowadays, we call that racist, but there was no racism then.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56That had been identified.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58We just fought a war, two wars, against the Germans -
0:53:58 > 0:54:01you know, they deserved all they got, sort of thing.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Now, of course, the Germans are seen, quite rightly,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06- as very reasonable, decent... - Of course.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09..democrats and all that sort of thing, but at that time,
0:54:09 > 0:54:12it was something you could use, and you could use it in comedy.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18Although the comedy in Stalag Luft was more about obsessive escaping,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21because I'd read so many escape stories.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29- HE WHISPERS:- Ginger!
0:54:29 > 0:54:32Ginger! The escape's on!
0:54:32 > 0:54:36- What? - It's on, tonight. Let's go.- No, no.
0:54:36 > 0:54:37I don't want to go.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39Gin... It's the escape!
0:54:39 > 0:54:42'Just the idea that the boys all want to have a night's sleep,'
0:54:42 > 0:54:45and someone comes round and says, "We're going to escape tonight."
0:54:45 > 0:54:46"Oh, no, please - I'm half asleep!"
0:54:46 > 0:54:48- HW WHISPERS:- Carter!
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Oh, piss off.
0:54:51 > 0:54:52Major Errol Phipps was a legend
0:54:52 > 0:54:55among prisoners in the First World War.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58He had attempted over 560 escapes,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01200 of them before he left England.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04On arrival in Germany, he escaped regularly - every day,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07and twice a day at weekends.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09And in the end, of course, they all escape apart from him.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11Apart from him. Even the Germans escape and leave him,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14and just as he's about to escape, the war ends.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17CHEERING, BELLS TOLLING
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Major Phipps became the only man
0:55:23 > 0:55:26never to escape from Stalag Luft 112B.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34He returned home a broken man,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36and died three months later.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44He was buried here in Totnes Churchyard,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47but his body was found two years later,
0:55:47 > 0:55:48over by the fence.
0:55:59 > 0:56:04For the Boy's Own Paper and many other boys' weeklies, the war meant
0:56:04 > 0:56:08paper shortages, an increase in price and a decline in quality.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14I took it myself in the 1940s, and I remember reading it in 1940...
0:56:14 > 0:56:18And it was a compact little magazine. I'll tell you what it was like.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20It was a bit like a glossy diary.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24It was 64 pages, but I looked at a copy only the other day,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26and of those 64 pages,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30most of them were black-and-white photographs of a sport, of football,
0:56:30 > 0:56:36of pop singers, and there were only about 10, 12 pages of fiction.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40It was all... It had become a - decent - general magazine.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44It was no longer the Boy's Own Paper that it had been founded to be.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51By the '60s, the paper was losing both readers and advertisers,
0:56:51 > 0:56:54and was facing competition from television.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00The magazine finally closed its doors in 1967.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09The most famous boys' magazine of all has gone for good,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13and Ripping Yarns evokes an era that many people no longer recognise.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Guard, fire!
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Not above their heads!
0:57:19 > 0:57:22But a few remnants of that world may still remain.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28MUSIC: "Land Of Hope And Glory"
0:57:28 > 0:57:30# Land of hope... #
0:57:30 > 0:57:34'I don't think the world has changed completely from the old...
0:57:34 > 0:57:38'the days of the public schools and all that sort of thing.'
0:57:38 > 0:57:40Down you go, belly on the floor!
0:57:40 > 0:57:44'I mean, near where I live in London, they have military fitness
0:57:44 > 0:57:47'classes, where young bankers and lawyers come along to be shouted at
0:57:47 > 0:57:49'in very cold weather, and made to run up and down hills.'
0:57:49 > 0:57:52One, two, three! Come on!
0:57:52 > 0:57:55- And they love it.- And they love it! - They're disappointed if they're...
0:57:55 > 0:57:57The old cold-shower regime is still there.
0:58:38 > 0:58:40How was that? Felt good?
0:58:40 > 0:58:41Once again, love.
0:58:41 > 0:58:42What?
0:58:42 > 0:58:44Not quite right.