0:00:11 > 0:00:16A life is made up of a great amount of small incidents.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18And a small amount of great ones.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26An autobiography must therefore,
0:00:26 > 0:00:28unless it is to become tedious,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30be extremely selective...
0:00:37 > 0:00:39..discarding all inconsequential incidents
0:00:46 > 0:00:50..and concentrating upon those that have remained vivid in the memory.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02I went flying with the RAF in the Second World War.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Gloster Gladiators cooperate with the ground forces.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14I flew straight to the point
0:01:14 > 0:01:16where 80 Squadron should have been.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27It wasn't there.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Below me there was nothing but empty desert, and rugged desert at that,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34full of large stones and boulders and gullies.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39It was nearly dark now, I had to get down somehow.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49I chose a piece of ground that seemed to be as boulder-free as any.
0:01:51 > 0:01:52My wheels touched down,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55I throttled back and prayed for a bit of luck.
0:02:01 > 0:02:02I didn't get it.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07I was unconscious for some moments,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09but I must have recovered my senses very quickly,
0:02:09 > 0:02:10because I can remember...
0:02:10 > 0:02:13LOUD WHOOSH
0:02:13 > 0:02:17..a mighty whoosh as the petrol tank exploded.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Roald is on his way to his first day of active service flying for the RAF
0:02:25 > 0:02:28against the Italians, in the desert of northern Libya.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32He hadn't got to the base where he was supposed to be.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36He hit a boulder. The whole thing burst into flames.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39He pulled himself out,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43and then lay on the ground while the plane was burning and while these
0:02:43 > 0:02:46extraordinary guns started to go off.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51The crash was so bad the plane was completely totalled, he nearly...
0:02:51 > 0:02:53I mean, he nearly died.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56I think he was very, very lucky to come out of that alive.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59My face hurt most.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02I slowly put a hand up to feel it.
0:03:03 > 0:03:04It was very sticky.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08My nose didn't seem to be there.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14In the hospital in Alexandria, he lived in this world for six weeks,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I think, of total darkness, of uncertainty about where he was,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20about what was going on.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24The blindness must have been very frightening.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27You're in hospital, and all you can hear are voices.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30And then when the bandages come off, you know,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32"Am I going to be able to see?" You know.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43Blindness, not to mention life itself, was no longer too important.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48The only way was to accept all the dangers and the consequences
0:03:48 > 0:03:50as calmly as possible.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58The crash clearly was incredibly important, because it became
0:03:58 > 0:04:01the subject of his first piece of published work.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05But I think it also may well have changed his personality.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10He thought, and often said, that, um...
0:04:10 > 0:04:14he felt something had changed in him as a result of this crash.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18They were the head injuries that made him into a writer.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He exaggerated the crash quite a bit.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26You know, this was a drama.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30This was something fantastic to write about!
0:04:33 > 0:04:36These extraordinary ideas, how do they develop?
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Where do they come from?
0:04:38 > 0:04:41They always, of course, start with some tiny germ.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Somewhere.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45And you rattle it around, and...
0:04:47 > 0:04:48..hope for the best, and build up a story.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51I don't know, it's got to start with something.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05When I was seven my mother decided I should go to a proper boys' school.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09It was called Llandaff Cathedral School,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11and it stood right under the shadow of the cathedral.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18The sweet shop at Llandaff was the very centre of our lives.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23To us it was what a bar is to a drunk, or a church to a bishop -
0:05:23 > 0:05:26without it, there would have been little to live for.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32But it had one terrible drawback, this sweet shop.
0:05:34 > 0:05:35The woman who owned it
0:05:35 > 0:05:37was a horror.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41I've forgotten, for the moment, what the horrible woman in the shop was,
0:05:41 > 0:05:42- but...- Mrs Pratchett.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Oh, she was Mrs Pratchett, that's right, yes.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53She never welcomed us when we went in.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56And the only times she spoke were when she said things like...
0:05:57 > 0:05:59"I'm watching you,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02"so keep your thieving fingers off them chocolates."
0:06:05 > 0:06:07I think it was in school cap days.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14It's very nice, because it's a sort of early version of a lot of things
0:06:14 > 0:06:16that happen in the books later.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18You know, these ingenuities.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23Some kind of suitable revenge goes on, which is...which is very nice.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29My four friends and I had come across a loose floorboard
0:06:29 > 0:06:30at the back of the classroom.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36One day, we lifted it up and found a dead mouse.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39It was an exciting discovery.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42"Hold on a tick," I said,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46"why don't we slip it into one of Mrs Pratchett's jars of sweets?
0:06:47 > 0:06:52"Then, when she puts her dirty hand in to grab a handful,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54"she'll grab a stinky dead mouse instead."
0:06:57 > 0:07:00When you're old enough to...
0:07:00 > 0:07:03..and experienced enough to be a competent writer,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07by then, you've become pompous and...
0:07:09 > 0:07:13..adult, grown-up and...you've lost all your jokiness.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15You don't have any...
0:07:15 > 0:07:19And so, unless you are a kind of
0:07:19 > 0:07:22undeveloped...adult,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26and you still have an enormous amount of childishness in you,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29and you giggle at funny stories and jokes and things,
0:07:29 > 0:07:30I don't think you can do it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36The five of us left school and headed for the sweet shop.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40We were tremendously jazzed up.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45We felt like a gang of desperadoes setting out to rob a train.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52We were the victors now, and Mrs Pratchett was the victim.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58She stood behind the counter, and her small, malignant pig eyes
0:07:58 > 0:08:00watched us suspiciously.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07When I saw Mrs Pratchett turn her head away for a couple of seconds,
0:08:07 > 0:08:12I lifted the heavy glass lid of the gobstopper jar,
0:08:14 > 0:08:15and dropped the mouse in.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Well, I think Roald thought they'd got away with it.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24But, in fact, of course, he hadn't.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26The consequences, of course...
0:08:28 > 0:08:29..hit hard.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34We didn't speak as we made our way down the long corridor into
0:08:34 > 0:08:36the headmaster's dreaded study.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40He raised the cane high above his shoulder,
0:08:40 > 0:08:41and as he brought it down...
0:08:43 > 0:08:44..it made a loud swishing sound.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46SWISH-CRACK!
0:08:46 > 0:08:53And there was a crack like a pistol shot as it struck Thwaite's bottom.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57"Harder! Harder!" shrieked a voice from over in the corner.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04We looked around, and there was the loathsome figure of Mrs Pratchett.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06GRUFF VOICE: "Lay into him!"
0:09:06 > 0:09:07SWISH-CRACK!
0:09:07 > 0:09:08SWISH-CRACK!
0:09:08 > 0:09:09SWISH-CRACK!
0:09:09 > 0:09:12You could hear your fellow...
0:09:14 > 0:09:16..friends being caned.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18And you knew you were next.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I mean, that's pretty tough.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25I think it affected him a lot.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30And, of course, it went through a lot of his children's literature.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Vicious people are much more interesting than nice, good people.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38There's nothing more boring than a totally good person.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44They've got to have quirks and bad habits and things like that.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47You can have a nice one as well, chucked in there,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50but if you had a book full of nothing but nice people,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52it would be awfully boring.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54"It's like a war!" Matilda said.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57"You're darn right, it's like a war," Hortensia cried,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59"and the casualties are terrific.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04"We are the Crusaders, the gallant army fighting for our lives
0:10:04 > 0:10:07"with hardly any weapons at all.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10"And the Trunchbull
0:10:10 > 0:10:13"is the Prince of Darkness.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15"The foul serpent.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20"The fiery dragon with all the weapons at her command."
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Mrs Trunchbull in the movie is very, very like
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Mrs Trunchbull in the book.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28She's larger than life,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32a grotesque adult who absolutely hates children and finds them
0:10:32 > 0:10:35the most revolting things in the world.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39Her way of punishing them is rather different, however, to the norm.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44She likes to whirl them around her head and throw them out the window.
0:10:44 > 0:10:45CHILDREN GASP
0:10:45 > 0:10:46Aaaaargh!
0:10:46 > 0:10:48I never liked authority.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51I've never got on very well in institutions.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Always...er, difficult.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57But it's wrong, of course, to be like that,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01because you couldn't run schools and institutions like that
0:11:01 > 0:11:04if everyone was like that.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07There shouldn't be too many rebels around.
0:11:07 > 0:11:08There shouldn't be.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10But you are one?
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Well, I... Yes, but you get much mellower as you get older, you know.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I'm still a rebel in some respects, yes.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22Very much so. I don't like conformists, people who conform.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33At school, every boy in our house used to be given, each term,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38a plain brown cardboard box with 12 chocolate bars in it.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40And every...
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Each of these, except for the one, which was the control bar,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46and was always a coffee creme bar,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48they were new inventions from
0:11:48 > 0:11:51a famous chocolate manufacturer,
0:11:51 > 0:11:52and we were meant to taste them.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54We were given them free, and we tasted them,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56there was a bit of paper in there
0:11:56 > 0:11:58and we marked them all from 0 to 10.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59I realised then, you see,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04that this vast chocolate factory had in it a room,
0:12:04 > 0:12:10a secret room, where fully grown men and women spent their entire time
0:12:10 > 0:12:14trying to think up and invent new chocolate bars for children.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19And I've never been in one or seen one
0:12:19 > 0:12:22or met anyone who's worked in one, but they clearly must exist,
0:12:22 > 0:12:23mustn't they?
0:12:27 > 0:12:30- ARCHIVE:- Every big industry has its backroom boys,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33where research and science take over.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43The fascination of chocolates became immense when he was at Repton.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45That was the seed,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48the cocoa bean, that was planted for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57Willy Wonka was partially my father.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02I think he based most of his adult heroes
0:13:02 > 0:13:03on parts of himself.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Parts of his dreams of glory.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Parts and characteristics of himself that he liked in himself.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23The inspiration that I've had from Willy Wonka,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27it's just the idea that there should be no limits to your creativity.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Let free rein happen, and...
0:13:34 > 0:13:36just try introducing all sorts of
0:13:36 > 0:13:38wild and wacky ingredients,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40and see what happens.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45- Mmm!- It's nice?- Yeah, really good.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49- That's certainly got the crunchy cricket.- Yes.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Did you know that he's invented chocolate ice cream so that it
0:13:54 > 0:13:58stays cold for hours and hours without being in the refrigerator?
0:14:00 > 0:14:03"That's impossible," said little Charlie, staring at his grandfather.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07"Of course it's impossible," said Grandpa Joe.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09"It's completely absurd."
0:14:11 > 0:14:14"But Mr Willy Wonka has done it."
0:14:15 > 0:14:19Somehow, he conjured up,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23time after time, these magical stories,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26and I think he did believe...
0:14:27 > 0:14:32..that you have to believe in magic.
0:14:34 > 0:14:35Roald wrote the screenplay
0:14:35 > 0:14:37for the movie of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39and had very high hopes for it,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42but he was very disappointed when they came to shoot it.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45He thought Wonka was more mercurial and more weird,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48and he had Spike Milligan in mind, and, in fact,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51insisted that the producers do a screen test with him.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54And Spike Milligan even shaved his beard.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58They didn't like him, so it ended up with Gene Wilder.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01He thought Gene Wilder just wasn't eccentric enough.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03He was too soft.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity,
0:15:12 > 0:15:164% evaporation and 2% butterscotch ripple.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19That's 105%.
0:15:19 > 0:15:20Any good?
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Yes.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Everything that happened in his life coloured what he wrote.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Everything.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36When you finished school, you were very anxious
0:15:36 > 0:15:40to get a job that would bring you to exotic places in the world.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41- Yes.- Why was that?
0:15:41 > 0:15:49Well, I think... If you think of the time, which was 1933, or '4,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52there were virtually no aeroplanes flying you anywhere.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54There weren't any. No commercial airline.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56FOG HORN BLARES
0:15:56 > 0:16:00It's impossible for young people today to understand the excitement
0:16:00 > 0:16:05of getting on a boat and travelling solidly for three or four weeks
0:16:05 > 0:16:08and finishing up in Africa among the coconut palms.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14He joined Shell, he was a trainee oil executive of some description,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17but he'd only joined Shell so that he could get to go to Africa.
0:16:17 > 0:16:18That's where he wanted to go.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24To me it was all wonderful, beautiful and exciting.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28And so it remained for the rest of my time in Tanganyika.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Oh, I loved it all.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36There were no furled umbrellas, no bowler hats, no sombre grey suits.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39And I never once had to go on a train or a bus.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Finding himself in Africa must have been a revelation,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48an incentive as well, I'm sure.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Of course, he could not know at that stage that he was going to be
0:16:51 > 0:16:55the writer he was, but I'm sure that that sort of stuff silts down
0:16:55 > 0:16:58in the consciousness and comes out later.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05- Now, these black mambas are real- BLEEP.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Not only are they one of the few snakes that will attack without
0:17:09 > 0:17:12provocation, but if they bite you, you stand a jolly good chance
0:17:12 > 0:17:14of kicking the bucket in a few hours.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20The black mamba is extraordinary, and I'm not sure if I know how to...
0:17:20 > 0:17:24to draw a black mamba, but they're
0:17:24 > 0:17:25pretty hefty and serious.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31One morning, I was shaving myself in the bathroom,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33and I was gazing out into the garden.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39I was watching Salimu, as he methodically raked the front drive.
0:17:44 > 0:17:45And then I saw the snake.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50It was six feet long and thick as my arm.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55It had seen Salimu and was gliding fast, straight towards him.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58I yelled in Swahili, "Salimu!
0:17:58 > 0:18:00"Beware, huge snake, behind you."
0:18:01 > 0:18:03It would reach him in another five seconds.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06I lent out of the window, and held my breath.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11He waited until the very last moment,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14when the mamba was not more than five feet away, and then...
0:18:15 > 0:18:17..he brought the rake down hard,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20right on the middle of the mamba's back.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24I rushed down the stairs, absolutely naked,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26grabbing a golf club as I went.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28I shouted to Salimu, "What shall I do?"
0:18:30 > 0:18:33"Stand away, Bwana! Leave it to me."
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The boy hit it accurately, and very hard, on the head.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Salimu let out a great sigh, and passed a hand over his forehead.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47"Oh, thank you, Bwana, thank you very much."
0:18:49 > 0:18:53The first book I did was The Enormous Crocodile,
0:18:53 > 0:18:54which, I suppose...
0:18:55 > 0:18:58I mean, when I got it, it was the first book I'd done, you know,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00and I was just sort of amazed to look at it,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04but, of course, he had that background in Africa,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09so that if it was, you know, this great, greasy river that he was in.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12That, to him, was a real river.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16It says he had hundreds of teeth, I think.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21So I sort of came to do it with hundreds...
0:19:22 > 0:19:24I mean, I started off drawing real crocodiles,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26but real crocodiles are not like this at all.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27They don't have teeth like that.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Real crocodiles have sort of wobbly mouths like that,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32and they have a tooth here and there, you know,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35sort of thing. But this has...
0:19:35 > 0:19:36And of course, what it is...
0:19:38 > 0:19:40..you know, it's specially for eating children.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43CHANTING AND SINGING
0:19:43 > 0:19:49"Soon," he thought, "one of them is going to sit on my head,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52"and I'll give a jerk, and a snap.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57"And after that, it will be - yum, yum, yum!"
0:19:57 > 0:19:58SQUAWK
0:19:58 > 0:20:00At that moment there was a flash of brown.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03It was Muggle-Wump, the monkey.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05"Run!" Muggle-Wump shouted to the children.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07"All of you, run, run, run!
0:20:07 > 0:20:13"That's not a seesaw! It's the enormous crocodile,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15"and he wants to eat you up."
0:20:17 > 0:20:18I'm quite prepared to have them
0:20:18 > 0:20:21killed in the most grisly possible way,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25like having little boys from Eton pulled out of the windows
0:20:25 > 0:20:30and eaten by giants, bones crunched up and everything.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33That's fine as long as there is a whopping great laugh
0:20:33 > 0:20:34at the same time.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Will you warn your controller that this looks like yet another attack?
0:20:49 > 0:20:51SIREN WAILS
0:20:51 > 0:20:55VOICE OVER RADIO - INDISTINCT
0:20:57 > 0:21:01At exactly ten o'clock, I was strapped into my Hurricane,
0:21:01 > 0:21:02ready for takeoff.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Well, six months after his crash, he found himself in one of these,
0:21:07 > 0:21:08a Mk I Hurricane,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11with only two hours flying experience in this,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13flying to Greece.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Two days after he got there, he found himself flying in combat
0:21:17 > 0:21:19for the first time.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22I took off and climbed to 5,000 feet.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26I cruised around, admiring the blue sea and the great mountains.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32I'm just beginning to think to myself that this was a very nice way
0:21:32 > 0:21:35to fight a war, when the static erupted.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36STATIC BUZZES
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Bandits over shipping at Chalcis.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51I cleared the top of the mountain range with 500 feet to spare,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53and as I went over,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57I saw a solitary goat, brown and white, wandering on the bare rock.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59GOAT BLEATS
0:22:01 > 0:22:03"Hello, goat," I said aloud,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07"I bet you don't know the Germans are going to have you for supper
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"before you're much older."
0:22:09 > 0:22:12To which, as I realised as soon as I'd said it,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15the goat might very well have answered,
0:22:15 > 0:22:16"And the same to you, my boy,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19"you're no better off than I am!"
0:22:23 > 0:22:27Suddenly, I spotted the bombers.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29They were Junkers, 88s.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I counted six of them.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36All six rear gunners began shooting at me.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Quickly, I turned the firing button from "safe" to "fire".
0:22:50 > 0:22:54The odds for the British pilots in Greece at that time were terrible.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58There were about 15, they had about 15 planes when Dahl arrived,
0:22:58 > 0:22:59they had 14 before.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03And there were over 1,000 German planes, you know,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06and so they were totally onto a loser.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15It's a very nice aeroplane to fly.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18It handles really well.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20They say it's a very good gun platform,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24but I wouldn't want to get shot at in one.
0:23:24 > 0:23:25I think he's a very brave man.
0:23:27 > 0:23:28Only seven hours on type,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31to then go into combat with it would be very scary.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37The Hurricane gave a shudder
0:23:37 > 0:23:40as the eight Brownings in the wings all opened up together,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44and a second later, I saw a huge piece of his metal engine cowling,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47the size of a dinner tray,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49go flying up into the air.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Dear Mama, thanks for your telegrams.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57We had great fun in Greece
0:23:57 > 0:24:01although I must admit I was pleased to get away safely.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04I arrived at the house here looking like a tramp, with nothing but
0:24:04 > 0:24:06my flying suit and a pair of khaki shorts.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Incidentally, I got three German aircraft confirmed,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12and two unconfirmed.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Lots of love to all, Roald.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20We know they...
0:24:20 > 0:24:23They flew alone and they came back,
0:24:23 > 0:24:25or in many cases, didn't come back.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28So that was extraordinarily, um...
0:24:31 > 0:24:33That was old-fashioned heroism, really, I think.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47The guilt that he was a survivor lay with him,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51and in his ideas book, you can still see the names of the pilots
0:24:51 > 0:24:54who flew there, which he's obviously written down much later,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and put an X against the ones who died.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Timber Woods, Oofy Still.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05I mean, there were probably only two or three of the 30-odd pilots
0:25:05 > 0:25:08in that squadron, around that time, who survived.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Those years...
0:25:14 > 0:25:16..must have been terrifying.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20And again, the losing of your friends, you know,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22you come back and they're dead.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25They've gone. They've been shot down.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27And, again, it comes back to his books,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32when you think of the children who lose their parents.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36You know, and the lives that they have to cope with,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41after the loss of a father or mother, or a great friend.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45And he learnt to cope with that.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Did you like being a pilot when you were in the war?
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Um, only the training part, really.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00It's not much fun to fly an aeroplane and be shot at
0:26:00 > 0:26:02at the same time.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05So the answer, really, the honest answer, is no.
0:26:11 > 0:26:12In fact, you started to write
0:26:12 > 0:26:16when you were assistant air attache in Washington.
0:26:16 > 0:26:17How, in fact, did it come about?
0:26:17 > 0:26:21To be quite honest, I had no thought of writing at all,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24right up to the age of, what, 20...something.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29And I was wounded, a bit, in the war,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and sent to Washington.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36And it was early days and, erm...
0:26:37 > 0:26:41I was sitting in my rather grand office in the British Embassy,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45wondering what to do, and there was a knock on the door,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48and I said, "Come in."
0:26:48 > 0:26:52And a tiny little man came in, with thick glasses,
0:26:52 > 0:26:53and said, "Excuse me, are you busy?"
0:26:53 > 0:26:55And I said, "Not in the least, no.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59"Do come in." And I thought he was going to ask for a job.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04And he said, "My name's Forester.
0:27:04 > 0:27:05"CS Forester."
0:27:05 > 0:27:09I said, "Get on," you know, "You can't be that."
0:27:09 > 0:27:10- One of my heroes.- Really?
0:27:10 > 0:27:13A great...one of the great writers at that time,
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Captain Hornblower and everything else.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17The only pleasure I seem to get from life these days
0:27:17 > 0:27:20is when you come home from one of your confounded adventures.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22He said, "Now, you've been in the war.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26"America's only just coming in. You've been in action.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31"I'll take you out to dinner..." Lunch, it was.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34"..tell me your most exciting exploit,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36"and I'll write it up in the Saturday Evening Post
0:27:36 > 0:27:39"and we'll get the British a bit of publicity."
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Roald would be there,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46looking very young and handsome at the time.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48Of course, in uniform.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55So we went out to lunch and...
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I remember we had roast duck.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01And he was trying to take notes and eat this bloody duck
0:28:01 > 0:28:04at the same time, you know, and he couldn't do it.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07And I said, "Well, why don't I scribble it down for you
0:28:07 > 0:28:09"this evening in sort of a rough way,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12"and then you can put it right when I send it to you?"
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And he said, "Ooh, that would be super."
0:28:15 > 0:28:17"Would you do that?" And I said, "Of course I will."
0:28:17 > 0:28:20So we finished our duck, and I went home that evening
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and I wrote the thing out and sent it to him.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27And I got a letter back, about a week later,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31saying, "I asked for notes, not a finished story.
0:28:31 > 0:28:32"I didn't touch it."
0:28:32 > 0:28:35The Saturday Evening Post had bought it at once for 1,000,
0:28:35 > 0:28:36the agent takes 10%.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40- Here's my cheque for 900 bucks, you see.- Amazing stuff. Superb.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43I thought, my God, it can't be as easy as all that!
0:28:43 > 0:28:46If they hadn't had such a good lunch,
0:28:46 > 0:28:48and had so much in common to talk about...
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Who knows? He might never have been a writer.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53I don't know.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57But that was definitely a turning point.
0:28:59 > 0:29:00Down once more,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02squirting lorries all along
0:29:02 > 0:29:04and watching the bullets making little flashes
0:29:04 > 0:29:07where they hit the metal, and throwing up little spurts of sand
0:29:07 > 0:29:09where they missed.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Time to be going now, up and home.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Hell's bells! What was that?
0:29:19 > 0:29:22It felt like she was hit somewhere.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30Flying high, high above the Earth,
0:29:30 > 0:29:32gave him the feeling that he could write.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34It gave him something to write about,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and that whole world of pilots,
0:29:37 > 0:29:38the sky, the air...
0:29:40 > 0:29:43The sort of sense of magic and escape,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45and almost entering a different world,
0:29:45 > 0:29:47like, a world of his imagination,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50would all figure very strongly in those first stories he wrote.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I was met by Walt's number-one artist,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07and taken to the Beverly Hills Hotel.
0:30:08 > 0:30:09And after a bath and a shave
0:30:09 > 0:30:12was driven up to the studio and ushered up to Walt's room.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19The room itself is very magnificent, with sofa, armchairs
0:30:19 > 0:30:21and a grand piano.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25Almost the first story that he wrote
0:30:25 > 0:30:28after Shot Down Over Libya was called Gremlin Law.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32And this was a story about these little creatures, the gremlins,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35they were what the pilots and the engineers blamed
0:30:35 > 0:30:38for unexplained mechanical failures.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Walt wanted to make a film of The Gremlins.
0:30:42 > 0:30:49I think, suddenly being next to Walt Disney in a studio SO famous...
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Ah! I mean... Fantastic.
0:30:54 > 0:30:55Just fantastic.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58He would give me all his best artists to work with,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and anything else I wanted.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03"Oh, and by the way, I've put a car at your disposal
0:31:03 > 0:31:05"for the whole time you're here."
0:31:09 > 0:31:10I said, "Thank you very much,"
0:31:10 > 0:31:13and followed him down to an enormous room where half a dozen
0:31:13 > 0:31:16of his best artists were waiting with pencils poised
0:31:16 > 0:31:20to be told what a gremlin looked like.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Let me see.
0:31:24 > 0:31:25What do I think they look like?
0:31:27 > 0:31:28I always like people who have...
0:31:30 > 0:31:31..little horns...
0:31:34 > 0:31:39'Terrifying odds, terrifying situations, and you had to be...
0:31:40 > 0:31:42'..cool about it, you know.'
0:31:42 > 0:31:44What happened if somebody was killed? They "bought it",
0:31:44 > 0:31:47I think was the expression at the time.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50Really, gremlins were a piece of fiction, if you like,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54they were a piece of mythology that could move that off,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58so you could talk about it but not have to talk about it with quite
0:31:58 > 0:32:04the drama or seriousness that it would actually have, I think.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07ENGINE ROARS
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Every pilot knows what a gremlin is,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14and every one of them talks about gremlins every day.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23These little tykes with horns and a long tail,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26who walk about on the wings of our aircraft,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28boring holes in the fuselage.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31SHRILL DRILLING
0:32:31 > 0:32:32TINKING
0:32:32 > 0:32:35And urinating in your fuse box.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Well, the film got quite a long way into production,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40but the urgency to make the film fell away,
0:32:40 > 0:32:41from Disney's point of view,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43and, in fact, it never got finished.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48Disney published a book based on the drawings and illustrations that had
0:32:48 > 0:32:52inspired the animators, with Roald's original story.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00And so, with the help of the gremlins,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03a pilot was able to return to his flying.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09But he was only one of many hundreds who have come to know and understand
0:33:09 > 0:33:13the truth about these little people,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16who have learned to love them,
0:33:16 > 0:33:18to fear them,
0:33:18 > 0:33:20and respect them.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22He is, indeed, an unhappy man
0:33:22 > 0:33:25who goes up into the sky to fight saying,
0:33:25 > 0:33:29"I do not believe in gremlins."
0:33:32 > 0:33:35MUSIC: James Bond Theme
0:33:40 > 0:33:43My first little book I wrote was called The Gremlins,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46which was bought by Walt Disney.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52And Eleanor Roosevelt read it to her grandchildren,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56and loved this book. And so I got invited to the White House.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01And we got to know each other a bit, you know,
0:34:01 > 0:34:03and I would go for weekends.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07FDR had...his country place was called Hyde Park, a vast place.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09And we used to go there.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11I got to know him.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17I was only a young chap of 26 in an RAF uniform,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19and I had no business around there, really.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21Didn't I read that you were a spy?
0:34:21 > 0:34:23HE LAUGHS
0:34:23 > 0:34:25No, that's an ugly word.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27Spy!
0:34:27 > 0:34:31No, I did. I worked for British...SIS, yes,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34the last half of the war, when I was injured and couldn't fly.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36Sure I did. Yeah.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46We were going to have a picnic lunch in the garden with Franklin.
0:34:47 > 0:34:53At one o'clock, an old Ford car came bouncing over the grass,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56driving furiously, with two other cars,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00full of the toughest looking thugs I've ever seen, in hot pursuit.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03The President was driving the old Ford,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06which is especially built so that the throttle and the clutch,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09and everything else, can be operated with his hands.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14In it was also Crown Princess Martha of Norway.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19The President was relaxing, and seemed to be enjoying himself.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27What he was doing was working in that very grey area
0:35:27 > 0:35:31where British interests and American interests did not mesh,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34and making sure that the British knew what was going on
0:35:34 > 0:35:36behind the scenes in America.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40- ARCHIVE:- Winston Churchill has crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic
0:35:40 > 0:35:44to confer on strategy and to plan future offence, not defence.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46When Roald discovered that the Americans
0:35:46 > 0:35:50were planning to destroy British civil aviation after the war,
0:35:50 > 0:35:51that definitely got to Churchill,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55who was... Roald was quite proud of the fact that Churchill was
0:35:55 > 0:35:58incandescent with rage when he read it.
0:35:58 > 0:36:05My job was to try to help Winston Churchill to get on with FDR.
0:36:05 > 0:36:11And tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind in America, you know.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14I was really not spying against the Americans,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17I was trying to create amity.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25So we move in very high circles.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29So bloody high that sometimes it's difficult to see the ground.
0:36:34 > 0:36:41There was this tall, good-looking RAF English guy.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44And the Americans, of course, love the English.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47So he had a ball.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50But, also, he was fascinated by the politics.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54He was definitely finding out information
0:36:54 > 0:36:56for the British government.
0:36:57 > 0:36:58That was exciting.
0:37:00 > 0:37:01So he was...
0:37:03 > 0:37:05He was the perfect spy, I think.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07MUSIC: James Bond Theme
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Roald met Ian Fleming when the two of them
0:37:10 > 0:37:13were working in intelligence in New York
0:37:13 > 0:37:19and thought he was good fun, he was naughty, he was dangerous,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21he had a bit of edge to him.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Roald had no idea that he would later go on to write
0:37:24 > 0:37:26all the James Bond books.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Then in London they saw each other from time to time,
0:37:29 > 0:37:30and it was no surprise,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33when it came to writing a screenplay of You Only Live Twice,
0:37:33 > 0:37:35that the producers turned to Roald
0:37:35 > 0:37:37rather than someone else to write it.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40MUSIC: You Only Live Twice theme
0:37:49 > 0:37:52- ARCHIVE:- Did you have a certain number of things that you had to do?
0:37:52 > 0:37:55For example, Bond normally goes through three women in a film,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57doesn't he? How many women does he go through?
0:37:57 > 0:37:59I don't know what you mean by going through them.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Well, he disposes of them, they get killed,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03they sacrifice themselves, you know?
0:38:03 > 0:38:05- Yes.- Are you up to ration?
0:38:05 > 0:38:10There's no question that you must stick to that sort of formula,
0:38:10 > 0:38:11I think.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14I asked that when I went in, first.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17They said, "Oh, yes."
0:38:18 > 0:38:20I said, "He wants a woman, doesn't he?
0:38:20 > 0:38:24"To chase around and fall in love with,"
0:38:24 > 0:38:27and they said, "Well, three would be better."
0:38:27 > 0:38:31MUSIC: You Only Live Twice theme
0:38:37 > 0:38:39- Action!- I'm a spy.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41I know that.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52He had a pretty devastating effect on women.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56I remember speaking to one person and she just said he was
0:38:56 > 0:38:58the most attractive man in Washington.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03He was 6'6" tall, he had these matinee idol looks,
0:39:03 > 0:39:04he was in uniform.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07He was, you know, a serving officer.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12These famous actresses, these beautiful models,
0:39:12 > 0:39:17these wealthy, influential beauties, they wanted to sleep with him.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20He was perfectly happy to do that.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33I remember a twinkle in his eye about Ginger Rogers.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38I drove out to have dinner with Ginger Rogers.
0:39:40 > 0:39:41Very nice girl.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49But then it's also interesting that he gives it up.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52- FILM NARRATOR:- The kind of woman who could enslave any man.
0:39:52 > 0:39:53Except one.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Patricia Neal was a very celebrated stage actress at that point.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01She'd been in successful movies like The Fountainhead,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03and The Day The Earth Stood Still.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07They're the kind of things that are,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09you know, a bit weird, a bit offbeat.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Gort. Klaatu...barada...nikto.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19The two of them fell into a very easy relationship.
0:40:19 > 0:40:20They decided to get married, I think,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23because they felt they would make beautiful children.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27They were both, sort of, eager for marriage and it seemed a good bet.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30During this part of his life he started writing short stories, and
0:40:30 > 0:40:33is now an acknowledged master of the craft.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Collections of his stories like Kiss Kiss
0:40:35 > 0:40:39and Someone Like You have become bestsellers all over the world.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42How do you arrive at these plots?
0:40:42 > 0:40:45I mean, what gives you the idea for a short story?
0:40:45 > 0:40:49- Obviously, the spark has got to come from something you see...- Yes.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52..somewhere, or something you hear. It's got to.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56She carried the meat into the kitchen, placed it in a pan,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59turned the oven on high and shoved it inside.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03Then she washed her hands, ran upstairs to the bedroom.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07She sat down before the mirror, tidied her hair,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09touched up her lips and face.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13She tried to smile.
0:41:16 > 0:41:17It came out rather peculiar.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24It made very good television,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27which lots of people got to know in the 1970s
0:41:27 > 0:41:30as Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36I ought to warn you, if you haven't read any of my stories, that you may
0:41:36 > 0:41:38be a little disturbed by some of the things that happen in them.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42He'd spot a, sort of, psychological situation
0:41:42 > 0:41:46and then insert a pretty convoluted plot, say,
0:41:46 > 0:41:51like a woman murders her husband with, you know,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55with a frozen leg of lamb and then serves...then cooks the leg of lamb
0:41:55 > 0:41:57and serves it to the police officers, for lunch,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59who are looking for the murder weapon.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01It's just a matter of looking.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Find the weapon, find the man.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05Hello, hello, who's putting in for promotion, eh?
0:42:05 > 0:42:08So many of them are...
0:42:11 > 0:42:13..husbands treating their wives badly.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15I mean, I find that rather interesting,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19because he's so often accused of not liking women, you know,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22which was quite the reverse!
0:42:22 > 0:42:26When I walked into his house for the first time,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28it was filled with women.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32He had daughters, stepdaughters, you know, a wife.
0:42:32 > 0:42:33He had sisters.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35They were... It was this one man,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39almost like a lion surrounded by a pack of lionesses.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42He preferred the company of women to the company of men,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44funnily enough.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47And I think he got on with them better than he got on with men.
0:42:52 > 0:42:53Cos your own story itself is
0:42:53 > 0:42:55stranger than fiction, isn't it?
0:42:55 > 0:42:57I mean, it really is a remarkable story.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59I mean, one minute you're a successful writer,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03you're married to a beautiful film star, Patricia Neal,
0:43:03 > 0:43:05and then a series of accidents, a chain of tragedies,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07that are absolutely extraordinary...
0:43:07 > 0:43:10Let's talk about Theo, your boy.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12What were the sequence of events leading to that?
0:43:12 > 0:43:16When he was a baby, his nurse pushed his pram into a taxi in New York,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20and he got severe head injuries, which developed into hydrocephalus.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23It's too much cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and you get pressure in there.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Your brain suffers damage unless you are very swift and quick
0:43:29 > 0:43:32to relieve the pressure, and then you have to...
0:43:32 > 0:43:37This was 16 years ago, and they did have a shunt,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40or a tube with a valve in it,
0:43:40 > 0:43:44where you could take...drain the fluid out of the ventricle and down
0:43:44 > 0:43:48and put it in the place you hoped it would be all right in.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53But they weren't very competent, the shunts they had in those days.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56He had to keep going back and having new operations.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59He had five. Because the shunts kept blocking, and I said, "Well, I mean,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02"bugger this, we must be able to make a better shunt than this."
0:44:02 > 0:44:08And so I thought of a lovely man who
0:44:08 > 0:44:13I knew was an inventor, who I'd been flying model aeroplanes with.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Stanley Wade, his name was, in Wickham.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20Well, who was Stanley Wade, then?
0:44:20 > 0:44:22He was a very skilled engineer
0:44:22 > 0:44:25who was very interested in model aircraft.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30And what I'd admired so much about him was that, instead of buying
0:44:30 > 0:44:34these tiny model aeroplane engines, he made them all himself.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37He turned them in his workshop.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39I said, "How about you doing this?"
0:44:39 > 0:44:42He's an eccentric fellow, with nothing much to do, and he said,
0:44:42 > 0:44:43"Yes, all right."
0:44:43 > 0:44:44So the actual thing he used in
0:44:44 > 0:44:46a brain would be very much smaller?
0:44:46 > 0:44:47Yes.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49And the tolerances that he was working to were probably
0:44:49 > 0:44:52plus or minus 1/1,000th of an inch.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55And if you don't have good tolerances like that
0:44:55 > 0:44:56in something like a valve,
0:44:56 > 0:44:57it's just not going to work.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01We had the enormous advantage of the head of neurosurgery
0:45:01 > 0:45:03at Great Ormond Street,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07Kenneth Till, was a tremendous co-operator in this, you see.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10And he told me exactly what was wanted, and I told Stanley,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12and Stanley slaved away over his thing and we...
0:45:12 > 0:45:16He, you know, he really did it, not me.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19ENGINE HUMS
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Who was going to think like that?
0:45:26 > 0:45:32And what doctor would actually listen to him and think,
0:45:32 > 0:45:34"Well, that's quite a good idea, let's have a go"?
0:45:34 > 0:45:37You know... That, to me...
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Well, he never gave up.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46He really believed that Theo could...
0:45:48 > 0:45:52..have a normal childhood and become...
0:45:53 > 0:45:55...a good person,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57which, indeed, Theo is.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03It saves the lives of thousands of kids all over the world.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05He made sure it was never sold for profit.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10That's just the kind of way he looked at a difficult situation.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13"Well, what, practically, can one do to think one's way out of it?"
0:46:15 > 0:46:19Sadly, Theo's accident was just the beginning, you know,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22two years after that, his eldest daughter died
0:46:22 > 0:46:25from meningitis following measles.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30Eventually he picked himself up,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34only to have, three years later, another disaster,
0:46:34 > 0:46:38which was that Pat suddenly struck down by the most terrible stroke,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41while making a movie in LA.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47When she woke up from consciousness, she could neither speak nor,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49of course, read or write or walk,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53having a good deal of paralysis down the right side.
0:46:53 > 0:47:00I was out for two and a half weeks, I think.
0:47:00 > 0:47:06And the first thing I remember is singing songs.
0:47:06 > 0:47:12And I was in the hospital, I think, a month altogether.
0:47:13 > 0:47:21And then Roald, my husband, took me out one night.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26And then I started trying to get well.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28But I'm not well.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32I must spend a year and hope to get well at that time.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35My mother was three months pregnant with me
0:47:35 > 0:47:37when she had three massive strokes.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39She had just won
0:47:39 > 0:47:41the Oscar for Best Actress
0:47:41 > 0:47:45for Hud with Paul Newman, so she was at the top of her career.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48She could not walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't read,
0:47:48 > 0:47:50she couldn't write.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52He was determined that he was going to get his wife back.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56And so he flew everybody back to...the whole family back
0:47:56 > 0:48:01to England, and he got everybody in the village in Great Missenden,
0:48:01 > 0:48:07all his friends and volunteers, teaching her how to move her hands,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10how to walk, and really, Mum and I learned
0:48:10 > 0:48:14how to walk and talk together.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18And what about words, as well? She obviously had a vocabulary,
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- a retained memory? - She didn't have any, no.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23When she started to pick up words, she made them up.
0:48:23 > 0:48:24She, she used to...
0:48:24 > 0:48:26When she used to say, wanted to say...
0:48:26 > 0:48:29I made a whole list of them once and I don't know where they are.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31She used to want to say, "You drive me crazy,"
0:48:31 > 0:48:34she used to say, "You jake my diagles."
0:48:34 > 0:48:37Which is a splendid phrase, you know.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39I had all my words mixed up.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41I said words that didn't exist.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46She used to call a dry martini a red screwdriver.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Now I talk properly, I hope!
0:48:49 > 0:48:51I think Dad thought, "Wow," you know, "There is,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55"there's a whole other vocabulary here that hasn't been explored,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58"but I could have a little bit of fun with," which he did,
0:48:58 > 0:49:00in the Big Friendly Giant.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03"I is not a very know-all giant, myself.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08"But it seems to me that you is an absolutely know-nothing human bean.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11"Your brain's full of rotten wool."
0:49:13 > 0:49:15"You mean cotton wool?" Sophie said.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18"What I mean and what I say
0:49:18 > 0:49:23"is two different things," the BFG announced, rather grandly.
0:49:25 > 0:49:26Please don't eat me!
0:49:26 > 0:49:32You think because I'm a giant that I'm a man-gobbling canniable?
0:49:32 > 0:49:34HE LAUGHS
0:49:34 > 0:49:35Aar.
0:49:42 > 0:49:43That's a good onion, isn't it?
0:49:45 > 0:49:47I grew 100 of these this year.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53We've just dug them up, and they're drying out now.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58I wouldn't live anywhere else except in the country.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00Here. I've never lived in the city.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06And, of course, if you live in the country,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10your work is bound to be influenced by it.
0:50:10 > 0:50:11I suppose the most...
0:50:13 > 0:50:15The one that was most dependent,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18purely on this countryside around here,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20is Danny, The Champion Of The World.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27Except for the swift fluttering of its wings, the hawk remained
0:50:27 > 0:50:30absolutely motionless in the sky.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35It seemed to be suspended by some invisible thread,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38like a toy bird hanging from the ceiling.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44Then, suddenly, it folded its wings
0:50:44 > 0:50:47and plummeted towards the earth at an incredible speed.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53Oh, this was a sight that always thrilled me.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Dad knew every little nook and cranny of our village.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01He knew every rabbit hole.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03He knew every mole hole.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07He knew... He knew everything about it and he loved it.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09He had great admiration for all of it.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12My father learned about the countryside because he had
0:51:12 > 0:51:14a great friend that he met in the '40s
0:51:14 > 0:51:17when he first moved to our village in Great Missenden,
0:51:17 > 0:51:18called Claude Taylor.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24Claude taught me everything.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28His knowledge of the habits of wild animals,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32be they rats or pheasants or hares, was very great.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38And he was happiest when he was out in the woods, in the dead of night.
0:51:38 > 0:51:45I think Claude gave him a lot of inspiration
0:51:45 > 0:51:50for Danny, Champion Of The World,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54Fantastic Mr Fox...
0:51:54 > 0:51:57He liked the way they cheated,
0:51:57 > 0:52:02the way they outdid the wealthy farmers...
0:52:04 > 0:52:11..who probably treated them quite badly, and they had devious ways of
0:52:11 > 0:52:13feeding their family.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17I think the idea of poaching pheasants by feeding them raisins
0:52:17 > 0:52:21with mashed up sleeping pills inside them was undoubtedly Roald's idea.
0:52:21 > 0:52:27He did it with Claude Taylor, but it's a totally, totally Dahl idea.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30BIRD SQUAWKS
0:52:30 > 0:52:32This is ideal for pheasants.
0:52:32 > 0:52:33This is just where they like.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36There's a nice bit of thick cover there for them to go into,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39out of sight of predators, and some nice open spaces for them.
0:52:42 > 0:52:43Is this Roald? Or Claude?
0:52:43 > 0:52:45This is Roald.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47I can't remember what Claude looks like.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50- Do you know what he looks like?- I think he was more... He was butcher,
0:52:50 > 0:52:52- I think he was quite a big man.- Yes.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57But it's lovely to draw these things in the dark.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01What is very nice and very atmospheric is to do that torchlight
0:53:01 > 0:53:03in the middle of the darkness.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05Here's a little...
0:53:06 > 0:53:08..little drugged pheasant.
0:53:09 > 0:53:10Not quite flying.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14This is a typical tree that they'd roost in.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17And the poachers know that, probably better than we do.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20GULPING
0:53:21 > 0:53:24They gobble the raisins,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28then feel sleepy,
0:53:28 > 0:53:29then go up to roost.
0:53:31 > 0:53:36And then the little buggers sleep so hard that they fall off their bough,
0:53:36 > 0:53:37and we catch 'em on the way down.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45I look at it this way, if anyone poached me,
0:53:45 > 0:53:46that's how I'd like it to be done.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53He and Claude got up to these tricks in the early 1950s,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56and then you see it, more than 20 years later,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59it comes out in Danny, The Champion Of The World.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03One of the things he liked about the movie version of that was that
0:54:03 > 0:54:09it caught the...the delight in simple pleasures of the countryside.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13And it has a very cosy, simple, warm heart to it.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18What do you think we should do with them, Danny?
0:54:22 > 0:54:24Let them go.
0:54:25 > 0:54:26Well said, lad.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31I just have that feeling that in some ways, in the children's books,
0:54:31 > 0:54:36or in some places in the children's books, he was able to express
0:54:36 > 0:54:40feelings that he wouldn't have expressed coldly, as in...
0:54:40 > 0:54:44just like that, I think. So you come to it innocently,
0:54:44 > 0:54:48in a children's book and, in a way,
0:54:48 > 0:54:54I think it gave him a bigger gamut of emotional feelings
0:54:54 > 0:54:55than he might have done anyway.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08Dear Mama, we are planning a gigantic fire balloon,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12to be 18 feet high and 12 feet wide.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16It should lift at least one boy.
0:55:20 > 0:55:25Huge sheets of tissue paper cut into sections,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and then you glued them together,
0:55:27 > 0:55:34you'd paste...with glue, and then at the end,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37he had a little round tin with methylated spirit...
0:55:37 > 0:55:39Cotton wool soaked in methylated spirit, and that was tied on,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41you know, like a parachute.
0:55:41 > 0:55:47And then that was lit and it filled the tissue paper balloon.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54We did it from our garden, and there are fields all around.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58And we would just watch in awe every single time.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00We would say, "Look at it! Look at it!
0:56:00 > 0:56:02"Look at it go! Do you think it's going to go left?
0:56:02 > 0:56:05"Do you think it's going to go right? Will it go backwards?
0:56:05 > 0:56:07"Which way do you think it's going to go?"
0:56:07 > 0:56:09And then the light would go further and further
0:56:09 > 0:56:11and further away until it would fade away.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17Both a man, a father and a mother,
0:56:17 > 0:56:19should be sparky with their children,
0:56:19 > 0:56:23and invent things and go places with them, you know, and...
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Make bows and arrows or balloons, I don't know what.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30But you have to do things with your children.
0:56:36 > 0:56:37On looking back,
0:56:37 > 0:56:44I think he knew his life was not going to be very much longer.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48The Minpins, it was his swansong, I think.
0:56:48 > 0:56:55The thought of being able to get on the back of a bird and fly, what...
0:56:56 > 0:57:02..what... Nothing more wonderful could a child wish for, than that.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06There was a brightness like sunlight below them.
0:57:07 > 0:57:14And little Billy could see a vast lake of water, gloriously blue,
0:57:14 > 0:57:16and on the surface of the lake,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20thousands of swans were swimming slowly about.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26The pure white of the swans against the blue of the water
0:57:26 > 0:57:28was very beautiful.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37It was...it was surprising to me,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40when he wasn't there any longer.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44Because he seemed kind of battered,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47but as though he would go on and on.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50So it was something of a shock when...
0:57:50 > 0:57:52when he wasn't there any longer.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55But, at the same time, I think he's still there.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59I mean, he's very present for everybody, really, I think.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06There's a wonderful quote at the end of The Minpins,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09one of Dad's stories, and it says,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12"If you don't believe in magic, you will never find it."
0:58:14 > 0:58:18His spirit was so large and so big, um...
0:58:20 > 0:58:21It might sound a bit mad,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24but because he taught us to believe in magic,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27I feel like, in some magical way, he's always with me.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29SHE LAUGHS