0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains strong language
0:00:04 > 0:00:06To start this film, I'm taking you to where it started for me.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10The venue that I performed my first ever Edinburgh show at, in 2006.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13A venue that, nowadays, is this.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Since then, I've worked my way through the ranks,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19like so many other comedians.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Good evening, Edinburgh!
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Many of them feel they owe their careers to Edinburgh.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Whenever I'm near-tah the theatre, I...
0:00:28 > 0:00:30LAUGHTER
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Shut up!
0:00:32 > 0:00:34But the phenomenal rise of comedy
0:00:34 > 0:00:37is a small part of an extraordinary story.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39This year, the Edinburgh International Festival
0:00:39 > 0:00:42celebrates its 70th anniversary.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44It was conceived as a way to bring people together
0:00:44 > 0:00:47and lift their spirits in the aftermath of the Second World War.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Together with the Festival Fringe,
0:00:50 > 0:00:55it has evolved into an eclectic mix of creativity and experimentation,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59and it still feels as innovative and surprising as it did in 1947.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01I was 21.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04It was certainly, I'd say, one of the most important
0:01:04 > 0:01:06turning points in my career.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09So this fellow who's quite tall, and big blue eyes,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12came along and went, "Hullo," and I said, "Hello."
0:01:12 > 0:01:15It was Hugh Laurie. And we just instantly hit it off.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17- Hello, Hugh.- Hi.- Hi.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23It was everything that I had dreamed of as a child.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26It showed me the bigger picture.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30It showed me the world of entertainment.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33I'd never, never, at 17 years of age,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36had experienced an orchestra.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40But it was the world's top orchestra.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43And there was one night when, you know, nobody came,
0:01:43 > 0:01:44we just had no audience.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Anyway, somebody came up and said,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49"Would you like to do TV? Your own show?"
0:01:49 > 0:01:51That's what happened in Edinburgh.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55It was a dizzying dream, and it all happened because of Edinburgh.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57There's no doubt, I don't think.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07OPERATIC SINGING
0:02:08 > 0:02:14After the war in 1947, the arts were seen as a way to heal the nation,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and this spirit of optimism was going to play out here,
0:02:16 > 0:02:17in the city of Edinburgh.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22These streets, theatres, walls, over the last 70 years,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25have witnessed a miraculous coming together
0:02:25 > 0:02:27of artists, writers, musicians,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30and that strangest breed of all, comedians,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33in what was a triumph of idealism.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35But, like most young performers flocking up here,
0:02:35 > 0:02:39I never really thought about what lay behind it all, why it exists,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41why it was ever even thought of.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43What was the spirit of 1947?
0:02:45 > 0:02:47BELL CLANGS
0:02:47 > 0:02:50In that year, some of the world's greatest musicians and actors
0:02:50 > 0:02:52were making the difficult journey across war-torn Europe
0:02:52 > 0:02:53to perform at what would be
0:02:53 > 0:02:56the first ever Edinburgh International Festival.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01If you analyse the history of it,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05it was founded on the basis that the one language
0:03:05 > 0:03:07which we human beings have,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09which can express our capacity to love -
0:03:09 > 0:03:11the language of the arts.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come
0:03:13 > 0:03:16when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21- How old is God?- How old is God? God, how old is he?
0:03:21 > 0:03:22Oh, God, how is he?
0:03:24 > 0:03:28The Festival had been the idea of a remarkable man.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Rudolf Bing was an Austrian-born Jew who believed that art was the way
0:03:31 > 0:03:35to return to the light in dark, unsettled times.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40I started working on the first Festival in 1945,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44when the war hadn't quite ended.
0:03:44 > 0:03:45So the challenge was manifold,
0:03:45 > 0:03:51and it comprised getting artists who had never heard of Edinburgh,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55plus getting curtain material for hotel rooms,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and it was quite a formidable task.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02But he was attempting to do this at a time of hardship,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05and in a city that was known to be very conservative.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09It was just simply beyond one's belief.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14It wasn't in London, it wasn't in Paris, it wasn't in Berlin.
0:04:14 > 0:04:15Er...
0:04:15 > 0:04:17It was in...
0:04:18 > 0:04:22..Edinburgh. We didn't have an opera house.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24We didn't have a gallery of modern art.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27It was a mad idea in 1947.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Britain was still struggling after the war.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31People were grey with exhaustion,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33shops were empty, the food was awful,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36and to travel anywhere outside the UK was nearly impossible.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Must have been a hard sell for the people of Edinburgh,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42to tell them that they were going to put on a party and invite the world.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47WHISTLE BLASTS
0:04:48 > 0:04:50TRAIN WHISTLE TOOTS
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Food had to be brought into the city.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Flowers arrived by the truckload.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01A bigger problem was that there was nowhere for anyone to stay,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and the rumour that the Americans expected en-suite bathrooms,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06of which there were none.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09They even thought of chartering a cruise ship to berth in Leith,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12or a permanently parked sleeper train to house people.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17In the end, they just made a plea to the people of Edinburgh
0:05:17 > 0:05:19to find 10,000 beds, and they did.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Across the city, people opened their homes and enough beds were found.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Rudolf Bing's dream was becoming real -
0:05:29 > 0:05:33that this would be a "bond of reunion in a disintegrated world".
0:05:33 > 0:05:36OPERATIC SINGING
0:05:36 > 0:05:40After the war, the fact that the arts became so important
0:05:40 > 0:05:46is a real measure of what a civilised society we are.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52You can't underestimate how much art aids a healing process,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54because it's about communication, it's about...
0:05:56 > 0:06:01..understanding, it's about putting yourself in other people's shoes,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04and nothing does that like art.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09What a wonderful idea to call up on the arts.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11To summon the Muses as the immortals
0:06:11 > 0:06:14who would be most likely to heal the world
0:06:14 > 0:06:18after, you know, Ares and the war gods had ruined it.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23- NEWSREEL:- Edinburgh's aim is to be the Salzburg of the post-war world -
0:06:23 > 0:06:25the new world centre for all art lovers.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30In '47, it must have been pretty startling
0:06:30 > 0:06:33for people to meet people like themselves,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37with likeminded attitudes, who came from abroad.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39People who had travelled in the early '40s
0:06:39 > 0:06:42had been travelling to destroy Europe,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46not to meet it on equal terms.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52In 1947, there was a lot going on in people's hearts, and in Parliament.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55You know, the establishment of the National Health Service and...
0:06:56 > 0:06:59..artists at the service of the public.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Even today, the sight of a great orchestra playing at the Usher Hall
0:07:04 > 0:07:05is pretty impressive.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09In those years, it must have seemed incredible.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12WHISPERING: They're playing Haydn's Surprise Symphony
0:07:12 > 0:07:15for the opening concert, which they played in 1947.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Ssh.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21ORCHESTRA STARTS
0:07:27 > 0:07:30In '47, the great conductor Bruno Walter,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34who'd been exiled by the Nazis, was making his way from New York
0:07:34 > 0:07:37to be reunited with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
0:07:37 > 0:07:38for the first time.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42The festival put together what was first
0:07:42 > 0:07:44of its many bold collaborations.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48They had asked Walter to work with Kathleen Ferrier,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51a young English singer who had sung in munitions factories
0:07:51 > 0:07:53and military camps during the war,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55becoming as popular with the wider public
0:07:55 > 0:07:57as she was with the posh opera-goers.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03She was very well known. She was a down-to-earth Lancashire girl.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06She'd started off as a telephonist.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Everyone who'd met her said she was absolutely enchanting
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and terribly funny and down-to-earth.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15And she could make these very, very simple songs
0:08:15 > 0:08:17like Blow The Wind Southerly...
0:08:17 > 0:08:19You'd be in floods of tears.
0:08:19 > 0:08:25KATHLEEN FERRIER SINGS
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Walter was not sure that she could manage Mahler's music...
0:08:28 > 0:08:29until he heard her.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Bruno Walter just fell in love with her instantly,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37as absolutely everybody did.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42And I think one of the things that's most moving and most significant
0:08:42 > 0:08:47was the fact that an English singer was suddenly singing in German,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50the language of the enemy, the language of the Nazis,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52the language of hatred.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56And this was a very, very healing moment, I think, for people.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58And that's a very noble thing, I think,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01for an international festival to do.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Even the Royal Family were there, and the reviews were rave.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08"Last night's elegant audience, some in evening dress,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11"a few in kilts and several in arty corduroys,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14"forgot their elegance and applauded for about five minutes
0:09:14 > 0:09:18"with stamping of feet and cries for more."
0:09:18 > 0:09:19It was a brilliant success.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Bruno Walter said that there had been
0:09:21 > 0:09:25two great influences on his life - Gustav Mahler and Kathleen Ferrier.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30That's the real story of the Edinburgh Festival,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35the meetings of people who couldn't possibly have met anywhere else.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38The Festival was to become a place of drawing together
0:09:38 > 0:09:42different nationalities, classes and artistic disciplines.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44It would also bring the establishment
0:09:44 > 0:09:47and the anti-establishment face-to-face.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Even that first year at the Festival,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51those that weren't officially invited
0:09:51 > 0:09:55took things into their own hands and set up on the outskirts of the city.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58When a critic remarked that it was a pity they were on the FRINGE,
0:09:58 > 0:10:00a whole new phenomenon was born.
0:10:00 > 0:10:01Thank you.
0:10:03 > 0:10:04Over the following years,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07these two events would at times battle and compete.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10They would influence each other and bring new audiences,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13and fill up every corner of the city.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16# Baby, please come home... #
0:10:16 > 0:10:19AUDIENCE CLAPS ALONG
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Edinburgh was becoming a magnet for youth,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27a generation emerging from the war, determined to live life to the full
0:10:27 > 0:10:29and do their own thing.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31And as they flocked here for the arts,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33the setting added to the allure.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40The atmosphere of the city seeps into everything.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Edinburgh is not like the stage set,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45it's more like the lead character in the drama
0:10:45 > 0:10:48that plays out here every summer.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Edinburgh was a very, kind of...
0:10:51 > 0:10:53It seemed like a faraway...
0:10:54 > 0:10:58..almost fairyland that had a castle, you know.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59SHE LAUGHS
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But architecturally it is, of course, a dazzling place to spend...
0:11:02 > 0:11:03I mean just dazzling,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06because the division between old and new is so exciting,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08the levels going up and down the Grassmarket
0:11:08 > 0:11:10and then up through the gardens.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14It was a bit, like, oppressive
0:11:14 > 0:11:17because there is so much history in these old walls.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19I felt that there was...
0:11:20 > 0:11:22..a lot of old ghosts in the city.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28Old spirits that went through difficult, dark times.
0:11:28 > 0:11:29Medieval...
0:11:30 > 0:11:35The castle, the walls, the horror stories of the past.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38This really strange kind of, you know,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41magical kind of city in a way, with all these spires.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45I think anybody who's done at least two Edinburgh festivals
0:11:45 > 0:11:48will always have a very particular memory of Edinburgh the place.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52It's not incidental to the entire experience, I don't think.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54It's a kind of a metaphor for the city itself.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58There's all these surprising things down little lanes,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and underneath bridges and stuff like that,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03and I think that really...
0:12:04 > 0:12:07..helps with the festival, because it's always full...
0:12:07 > 0:12:09There's always more to discover.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14One of the highlights of the festival was Fonteyn.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17The press and the public loved her.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20- NEWSREEL:- Margot Fonteyn is the Firebird,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24fluttering and caught in the arms of her partner, Michael Somes.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Where ballet had been cool and remote,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32she was intense and full of emotion. Her power to tell a story
0:12:32 > 0:12:35made ballet more accessible than ever before.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Fonteyn had sort of penetrated the popular consciousness.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43She had a film-star status,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and she was our Margot, she was our ballerina.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50And alongside the International Festival and the Fringe,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52the Film Festival was also growing.
0:12:52 > 0:12:53- NEWSREEL:- ..Walter Wainger.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Sir Alexander King welcomes them to the Film Festival.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00The atmosphere of cross-pollination continued as the Film Festival drew
0:13:00 > 0:13:02more stars, directors and writers,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05adding to the artistic mix that Edinburgh was becoming.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07This is the hour when the autograph-hunters strike.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11So Edinburgh stretches out her hands to you.
0:13:11 > 0:13:12Edinburgh invites...
0:13:12 > 0:13:15Cinema newsreels were bringing culture to the masses,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18and the once-distant stars of ballet, opera and theatre
0:13:18 > 0:13:20were becoming household names.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23This was the beginning of popularising the arts,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25and led to the current mad diverse mix
0:13:25 > 0:13:27that is the Festival today.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29That's the one that grandfather couldn't stand.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Now, anything goes.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Performance once considered high art might be found anywhere,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38even in the girls' toilet.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40WOMEN SING: Flower Duet
0:13:44 > 0:13:48# Dome epais... #
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Hearing operatic voices in the acoustics of a small space
0:13:52 > 0:13:53is actually rather amazing.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Plus it's very handy if you need a wee halfway through.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04# Dome epais
0:14:04 > 0:14:09# Le jasmin
0:14:09 > 0:14:16# A la rose s'assemble... #
0:14:16 > 0:14:18SHE LAUGHS
0:14:20 > 0:14:24But, in 1957, opera stars were arts royalty,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26and the greatest of them all, Maria Callas,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30was coming to perform at Edinburgh for the first and only time.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32The festival organisers were terrified.
0:14:34 > 0:14:35She was the biggest star on earth,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and by that time she did have an enormous reputation
0:14:39 > 0:14:42for violent outbursts.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46And I think even by prima donna standards, you know,
0:14:46 > 0:14:51she was very, very defensive, she was a tigress.
0:14:51 > 0:14:52Callas now seemed reluctant to sing
0:14:52 > 0:14:55all five of her scheduled performances.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58She'd famously become obsessed with film star Audrey Hepburn,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02and had transformed herself into a mirror image of the film star
0:15:02 > 0:15:04by losing several stone.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06It was said this had weakened her voice.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13She was a figure of enormous glamour in the 1950s,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15of sort of the Victoria Beckham level.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Everybody was interested in her every move.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Callas was a huge hit with the festival audience,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23but she walked out on the last night,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25leaving hundreds of disappointed fans.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27And where did she go?
0:15:27 > 0:15:29A party in Venice, where she met a shipping tycoon
0:15:29 > 0:15:31called Aristotle Onassis.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36The status of opera and its stars, and the expense of staging it,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39would be a challenge to the festival over the years.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41But the Fringe would bring new approaches to the genre
0:15:41 > 0:15:43that made it more accessible.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48One of the most genre-busting was a show that combined operatic voices
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and TV's filthiest chat show.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:15:55 > 0:15:58# Jerry, Jerry... #
0:15:58 > 0:16:00# Put your fucking clothes on, you stupid bitch
0:16:00 > 0:16:01# Don't you touch me
0:16:01 > 0:16:03# Put your fucking clothes on, you stupid bitch
0:16:03 > 0:16:04# Or I'll kill you in your sleep
0:16:04 > 0:16:06# Put your fucking clothes on, you stupid bitch
0:16:06 > 0:16:08# Cocksucker! Talk to the ass... #
0:16:08 > 0:16:11The Fringe was, as ever, a place to take big chances.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And the first preview, we had 80 people. I mean, and that's...
0:16:15 > 0:16:19That is a small amount of people in a room that size.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21And I could just hear these two in front of me going,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25"Eh, it's a good idea, didn't quite do it, what a waste of an idea."
0:16:25 > 0:16:29And you know... "Oh!" But then the day after - packed out, 750.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31And that day was amazing.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33# I've been seeing... #
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Jerry Springer: The Opera transferred to
0:16:36 > 0:16:39London's National Theatre, as high-status as it gets.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41# ..someone else
0:16:41 > 0:16:44# What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fucking, fucking fuck?! #
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Now opera could be about anything, and performed anywhere.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52I think you can chart the course of Edinburgh from...
0:16:52 > 0:16:55from this Arts Festival, which was Arts with a capital A -
0:16:55 > 0:16:58of ballet and classical music and Shakespeare
0:16:58 > 0:17:02and other such theatre, which still exists and is still there -
0:17:02 > 0:17:05and it's little under-things, Fringe.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08This little Fringe of demotic, you know,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12the people's arts of slightly more vulgar...
0:17:13 > 0:17:15..so-called "low" as opposed to high art,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and you could watch how that just takes over.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21And low art becomes the main artistic discourse of the nation
0:17:21 > 0:17:23in the way that pop music has overtaken classical music,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25or jazz even.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26CLOCK CHIMES
0:17:26 > 0:17:29The Government was aware that the arts had a new importance,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32reminding people what they'd fought the war for -
0:17:32 > 0:17:34the idea of civilisation.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37The Old Vic had toured Welsh mining villages with this in mind,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41but no-one yet had quite worked out how to appeal to working people
0:17:41 > 0:17:45or the youth. But now young actors began pouring into Edinburgh
0:17:45 > 0:17:48as a place to explore new ideas.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Edinburgh was a magnet.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53It was saying, "Come to us, come to us,"
0:17:53 > 0:17:57because the English theatre was tremendously hidebound,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00and so Edinburgh was opening things up.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04When the opportunity came to start a play in Edinburgh,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07all of us thought, "How wonderful!
0:18:07 > 0:18:11"How courageous of Edinburgh to do this so soon after the war."
0:18:11 > 0:18:16I was 20, and I was about to play Juliet at the Assembly Rooms.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19And then I met a whole wonderful circle of poets,
0:18:19 > 0:18:21and a circle of young men.
0:18:21 > 0:18:27I just thought, "This is the kind of milieu that I want to be in."
0:18:27 > 0:18:29Pardon me, but, er... have you a flyswatter?
0:18:30 > 0:18:32I beg your pardon?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35The following year, Claire arrived back as a hot ticket
0:18:35 > 0:18:38from starring in Charlie Chaplin's Limelight,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42and now she was on the arm of the most sizzling male star of 1953.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47The Classics were extremely unpopular.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51So getting a young rising superstar
0:18:51 > 0:18:54to front an entire season,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56and with Claire Bloom,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00who'd just been in Limelight for Charlie Chaplin as, you know...
0:19:00 > 0:19:01was a genuine coup.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04And it did bring all kinds of people into that theatre
0:19:04 > 0:19:06that would never have come.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09- NEWSREEL:- This is the hour when the autograph-hunters strike,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12and I don't think Richard Burton and Claire Bloom will escape.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Ah, not the first time it's happened to them, evidently.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19They're on their way to play in Hamlet at the Assembly Hall.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23He was probably the last actor to be a genuine theatre star,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26where people queued up all the way around the Old Vic.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30He'd never been on television or in the movies at all, Burton.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33He was he was a star because of his theatre acting.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40To be or not to be, that is the question.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows
0:19:43 > 0:19:47of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51and by opposing...end them?
0:19:53 > 0:19:55To die...
0:19:55 > 0:19:56My image of Richard Burton
0:19:56 > 0:20:00is standing in front of me with Claire Bloom.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02He was 24, she was 21.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05They obviously were attracted to each other.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07He was very wonderful.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10I'd known Richard Burton for a long time.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Boy from Wales.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14And, erm...
0:20:14 > 0:20:17we were friends. Great friends.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Richard used to read to me wonderful poetry.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24They were very heady days for all of us.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27They were young, gorgeous,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29and had a more natural and relaxed acting style.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35There was the last vestiges of the grand manner.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38So the man was playing Claudius was still...
0:20:38 > 0:20:42"O let no noble eye profane a tear for me."
0:20:42 > 0:20:43There's the rub,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Burton was a different matter because he was Welsh.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54His first language had not been English anyway -
0:20:54 > 0:20:57till he was seven or eight he didn't even speak it.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02And he had a completely different delivery to everybody else.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05So he had this wonderful voice.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07He had this wonderful appearance.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09His "mmmmm".
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And he was... I learned very quickly...
0:21:13 > 0:21:19..the sex did it because the gods were absolutely jammed with girls.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23This was made even more exciting by the so-called thrust stage
0:21:23 > 0:21:27which brought Burton right into the midst of the audience.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30This hall was the HQ for the Church of Scotland
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and designed for their meetings.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Because the city had so few theatres,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36it had been requisitioned by the festival
0:21:36 > 0:21:40and its very particular shape was now creating a new form of staging.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Theatre in the round.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48But I love the idea of being close to the audience and, yes,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51I think it added to the excitement of that production
0:21:51 > 0:21:54that we were all so...
0:21:54 > 0:21:56close to the audience.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00You could see modern theatre groping its way to become something
0:22:00 > 0:22:01with these new people
0:22:01 > 0:22:05and that's the sort of thing I think that was the seed
0:22:05 > 0:22:08that led to the classics becoming as popular as they...
0:22:08 > 0:22:12You know, you can do any classic now.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16But this was the beginning of groping towards modernity, I think.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18AS RICHARD BURTON: To be or not to be.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21You want to go quite deep and only quite subtly Welsh.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24To sleep perchance to dream.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Points for effort.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30# La, la-la-la-la
0:22:30 > 0:22:34# La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la... #
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Now Shakespeare's done everywhere and in so many inventive ways.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41At this festival alone, you can have breakfast with Shakespeare,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44death by Shakespeare, or even go and see Shit-Faced Shakespeare,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48where one of the cast performs entirely shit-faced each night.
0:22:49 > 0:22:50I like the sound of that one.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55But if modernity was creeping into Edinburgh in the early '60s,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59it was still the old favourites that were getting top billing.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01# You could do such a lot with a wompom
0:23:01 > 0:23:04# You can use every part of it too... #
0:23:04 > 0:23:06CEILIDH MUSIC PLAYS
0:23:06 > 0:23:08- Let me hear you yeehaw! - ALL:- Yeehaw!
0:23:14 > 0:23:18They say that the '60s only really arrived halfway through the decade,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21with traditional country dancing a popular favourite,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25along with Flanders and Swann singing The Wompom song.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29But all of that was about to change, as the hippy era drifted in.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32It was a great divide.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35As polite Edinburgh society chuckled over comic songs,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37the young were plotting to blow things apart
0:23:37 > 0:23:38with the new avant-garde.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45The happening is somewhere between...
0:23:45 > 0:23:51theatre, performing arts, and, if you like, visual arts.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54It's, er... At its best, it's quite thrilling.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59During a long and fairly solemn speech by, I think,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02a Czechoslovakian novelist,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07a young woman, a naked young woman, was wheeled across the gallery
0:24:07 > 0:24:12and it created a massive uproar and this was the event of the festival,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14the great happening.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18I stood on the trolley with my bottom to the audience.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21And they... The audience were just looking in stunned silence,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24You know? What's Edinburgh come to now?
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Dear God, look at her bum.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28And that was called the happening.
0:24:28 > 0:24:35A happening being something that has no sense, no refuge, no, erm...
0:24:35 > 0:24:38history. It's just something that happens and that's...
0:24:38 > 0:24:40that's what was explained to me.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42At the time, I was...
0:24:42 > 0:24:48How old was I? I was 20 and I just thought it was a miraculous event
0:24:48 > 0:24:56that a, erm, rather lovely nude woman could be seen in public.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And when I came off, it...
0:25:00 > 0:25:04..it was like the place had blown up. People were just...
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Couldn't believe it. They were sort of, erm...
0:25:07 > 0:25:12I had a red plastic coat and I do remember several people saying,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14"She's over there. She's over there."
0:25:14 > 0:25:16And it was almost like being...
0:25:18 > 0:25:22..an animal trapped and I don't remember very clearly...
0:25:22 > 0:25:28Well, I don't remember at all the business of being arrested.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Anna Kesselaar was an 18-year-old single mother
0:25:31 > 0:25:33whose parents had both died.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35She had no idea of the anger and outrage
0:25:35 > 0:25:37that her appearance would provoke.
0:25:39 > 0:25:46Edinburgh itself was contained and difficult and unforgiving.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50It was a savage place to live in, to be honest,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52if you were on the wrong side of it.
0:25:52 > 0:25:58I do remember this awful man coming to...
0:25:58 > 0:26:01"Give me the baby, give me the baby."
0:26:01 > 0:26:03You know, really, really...
0:26:03 > 0:26:06I was not going to part with my baby.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Anna Kesselaar was acquitted at trial
0:26:08 > 0:26:10and retained custody of her child.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13But what was known as the Lady MacChatterley trial
0:26:13 > 0:26:14divided Edinburgh society.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19This was the moment when the Edinburgh Festival
0:26:19 > 0:26:21could have been non-acceptable.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27But it did test the idea of the Edinburgh Festival
0:26:27 > 0:26:29to the breaking point.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33I must have been to about 30 festivals for my sins.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38I first went in 1967 and you can see in front of me
0:26:38 > 0:26:40a pile of all the programmes...
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Extracts from all the programmes from everything.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45The festival in those days was very, very different,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48in the '60s and early '70s,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50because there was very, very little Fringe.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53It hardly impinged at all.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55And when you walked down Princes Street,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58all the shop windows had photographs in them
0:26:58 > 0:27:00of the great classical stars.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03It was all quite dignified and quite genteel.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09But in the back rooms and dusty church halls,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12the Fringe was quietly growing and growing.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16The festival has been defined by the geography of the city.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19The grand old buildings of the official festival at its heart,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22and then these winding alleyways.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26A maze leading to hundreds of small rooms, halls, churches, and, yes,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30even toilets, that each year people will move their productions into.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36From here, young people were taking up the mission
0:27:36 > 0:27:37to shock and challenge.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41It made Edinburgh the place to discover the new.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47And everyone is still out in search of it today.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50A container wedged into a small bit of available ground
0:27:50 > 0:27:54is one of hundreds of small events that might deliver the unexpected.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01- Beloved. - BELL RINGS
0:28:02 > 0:28:06Join with us and move among us.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13- ALL:- Join with us. Join with us. Join with us. Join with us.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15CREAKING
0:28:20 > 0:28:23- Join with us. - CREAKING
0:28:35 > 0:28:37And it all began back in the '60s,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40where Edinburgh had become a focus for the avant-garde
0:28:40 > 0:28:44and experimental, which was spilling out all over the city.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47This was at the time when the Fringe was threatening to steal the thunder
0:28:47 > 0:28:48of the main festival.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Pop culture was on the rise all over Britain
0:28:51 > 0:28:53and the International Festival decided to fight back.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56They did this by putting together a group of comedians
0:28:56 > 0:28:58that were funnier, bolder, riskier
0:28:58 > 0:29:00than anything the Fringe was producing.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03They called them Beyond The Fringe.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07The festival director pulled together some Oxbridge talent.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Jonathan Miller was working as a doctor
0:29:09 > 0:29:12and took two weeks off to perform at the festival.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15He suggested Peter Cook, another recent graduate.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17And they were joined by Alan Bennett
0:29:17 > 0:29:20and a jazz musician called Dudley Moore.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22And now, Dudley Moore continues his recital
0:29:22 > 0:29:26with a setting by Kurt Weill of the ballad of Gangster Joe
0:29:26 > 0:29:28by Bertolt Brecht.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30LAUGHTER
0:29:33 > 0:29:37HE SINGS IN MIMICKED GERMAN
0:29:37 > 0:29:41# Oh... #
0:29:41 > 0:29:45The group aimed their humour at the last bastions of the establishment -
0:29:45 > 0:29:48the army, the church, and even the royal family.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52It was one of those iconic moments in comedy history.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57There is no royal personage actually gracing the Royal box.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59Unless, of course, they're crouching.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01LAUGHTER
0:30:03 > 0:30:06It's hard to imagine now just how much this changed the rules.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09It wasn't just changing what we could laugh at,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11but it was the end of doffing your cap to authority
0:30:11 > 0:30:13and the beginning of our modern age.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16As the great critic of the time, Ken Tynan, said,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19"English comedy had taken its first decisive step
0:30:19 > 0:30:21"into the second half of the 20th century."
0:30:21 > 0:30:25- Perkins?- Sir.- I want you to lay down your life.- Yes, sir.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28We need a futile gesture at this stage.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33It will raise the whole turn of the war.
0:30:33 > 0:30:34- Get up in a crate, Perkins. - Yes, sir.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37- Pop over to Bremen.- Yes, sir. - Take a shufti.- Sir.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39- Don't come back.- Right you are.
0:30:42 > 0:30:43Goodbye, Perkins.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46- God, I wish I was going, too. - Goodbye, sir.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Or is it au revoir?
0:30:49 > 0:30:50No, Perkins.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Beyond The Fringe had killed a lot of sacred cows
0:30:58 > 0:31:01and that had happened, well, I think, three years before,
0:31:01 > 0:31:08so that was perhaps the great seminal sort of comedy production.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12The shock had worn off by the time we did our Edinburgh revue,
0:31:12 > 0:31:16which is why I think we concentrated on doing slightly more silly,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18surreal stuff to make people laugh.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23MUSIC: The Liberty Bell
0:31:26 > 0:31:31We stayed in the Masonic Lodge in Johnston Terrace.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35We were boys all on one floor, girls on the top floor
0:31:35 > 0:31:39and some strange winking eye in the ceiling, looking down
0:31:39 > 0:31:44and odd suits of Masonic gear in glass cases in the hallway,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47and us writing comedy material. It seemed perfect.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52So, Michael Palin stayed in this room in a sleeping bag on the floor.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55The Edinburgh Festival was a meeting point for various of the Pythons.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58John Cleese and Graham Chapman had toured
0:31:58 > 0:31:59and had success at the festival.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03And now Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin were in town,
0:32:03 > 0:32:04learning to be comedians.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:32:16 > 0:32:18I wish to register a complaint.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21APPLAUSE
0:32:21 > 0:32:24At the time...
0:32:24 > 0:32:27satire was the big thing, That Was The Week That Was.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30And yet, certainly Terry and myself
0:32:30 > 0:32:33were looking more for the sort of surreal,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35I suppose what would become Python, really.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Not depending entirely on the week's news or the day's news,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41but on strange characters and strange contrast
0:32:41 > 0:32:45and people coming together to do odd things.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48So there was a great deal of freedom at that Edinburgh Festival and
0:32:48 > 0:32:52we did develop, I think, as writers, probably more than performers.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54This was the point when TV star-maker
0:32:54 > 0:32:56David Frost was on the prowl
0:32:56 > 0:32:58and the start of the festival as a real hunting ground
0:32:58 > 0:33:00for future TV talent.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04I realised suddenly that everything leading up to this
0:33:04 > 0:33:06had been sort of schoolboy mucking around,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09undergraduate mucking around, but here, suddenly,
0:33:09 > 0:33:14there was a chance that someone might sort of see me and give me
0:33:14 > 0:33:16a job later on. I could do what I always wanted to do,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19my father would never let me, which was become an actor,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22and to do comedy.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25# You're
0:33:25 > 0:33:28# The cream
0:33:28 > 0:33:32- # In my coffee - APPLAUSE
0:33:32 > 0:33:35# You're the salt in my stew... #
0:33:35 > 0:33:37Edinburgh closed at 10pm.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Most people were in bed with their Ovaltine,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44but the festival decided to try out a late-night slot.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46Their mission was to challenge the status quo
0:33:46 > 0:33:49and remain truly international.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53And to bring in somebody like Dietrich
0:33:53 > 0:33:56was like suddenly, you know, parachuting in,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00I don't know, the Foo Fighters or something into the programme.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03And I think people, especially in Edinburgh,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05were very, very shocked by it,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08because she had quite a reputation, Dietrich.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12A crowd waits at the Turnhouse Airport to welcome Marlene Dietrich.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14I loved Edinburgh.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16I want to say this again and again and again.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18I loved Edinburgh.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Dietrich had obviously a very special reputation...
0:34:22 > 0:34:26to come back to Europe after the war, she had, you know,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30left Germany behind and sung for the American soldiers in the war.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38# Where have all the flowers gone?
0:34:38 > 0:34:41# Long time passing... #
0:34:41 > 0:34:43And to the Germans, she was a traitor
0:34:43 > 0:34:48and to the Europeans and the Allies, obviously, she was a hero.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53It must have been wonderful for her to be at this festival
0:34:53 > 0:34:58and to be, you know, telling her story to the British.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01# Where have all the soldiers gone? #
0:35:01 > 0:35:04She sent out a big message, anti-war.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07# Every one! When...
0:35:07 > 0:35:10# Will they ever learn? #
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Dietrich's version is so raw and edgy
0:35:15 > 0:35:18and full of pain and melancholy and remorse.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I mean, it's remarkable from that point of view
0:35:21 > 0:35:23and quite indelible.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26She certainly had an aura about her.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30I think her biggest achievement was her androgynous way
0:35:30 > 0:35:34of messing with the image of a woman.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37And so she put the suit on, she had a masculinity
0:35:37 > 0:35:41and a courage about herself that was ground-breaking at the time.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44You know, she wasn't entirely respectable
0:35:44 > 0:35:48and also the fact that it was a late-night show,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52in a city that basically closed down entirely at ten o'clock.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56The festival was also challenging the sexual politics of the time.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59Gallop a-pace, bright Phoebus, through the sky
0:35:59 > 0:36:01and dusky night in rusty iron car,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03between you both shorten the time, I pray,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05that I may see that much desired day,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07when we shall meet these rebels in the field.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09SHOUTING
0:36:09 > 0:36:11We were not altogether welcome.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16Because Edward II is, I think, the first play ever written
0:36:16 > 0:36:21in the English language about... with a gay character at its centre.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Of course, Ed was rather despised in Scotland because he was the man
0:36:24 > 0:36:28who Robert the Bruce beat at the Battle of Bannockburn.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33But that was not the theme that was offensive to the Church of Scotland.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37But the fact that two men in the process of telling the story kissed,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40showed their affection for each other,
0:36:40 > 0:36:41this was against the law.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45There was a councillor, John Kidd I think was his name,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50who reported the production to the local watch committee...
0:36:51 > 0:36:54..on the grounds that it was offensive,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57not just in the church premises but anywhere.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59And it was decided by the watch committee and a few policemen,
0:36:59 > 0:37:04I remember, arrived in their uniforms, sat in the front row.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08They showed no objection to it all and we continued and just guaranteed
0:37:08 > 0:37:11there wasn't a single ticket to be had and...
0:37:12 > 0:37:16..that could be another feather in Edinburgh Festival's cap.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25In 1968, as festival-goers sat listening to
0:37:25 > 0:37:27Benjamin Britten's War Requiem,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31the Soviet-led troops rolled into Czechoslovakia.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Nearby, the Citizens Theatre Company was performing
0:37:33 > 0:37:37The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44I was in the production of Arturo Ui and we performed in Edinburgh
0:37:44 > 0:37:48at the time of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52The theme of Ui is "I'm here to protect you from force and violence
0:37:52 > 0:37:56"with force and violence if necessary",
0:37:56 > 0:38:01and there was a line spoken by a Russian soldier from his tank,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04saying, "We're here to protect you."
0:38:04 > 0:38:08And it was decided to put that on at the end of our production.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10It was going on like on a ticker tape.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15There's always been a sense that Edinburgh represents
0:38:15 > 0:38:19a chance to really open up with comparatively few holds barred
0:38:19 > 0:38:22on the big issues of the time.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26The invasion of Czechoslovakia also happened as
0:38:26 > 0:38:28the Soviet State Orchestra played to the Festival,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30provoking angry criticism.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36But the Festival's original mission of 1947 was to use the arts
0:38:36 > 0:38:40to set aside differences, and they continued to invite performers,
0:38:40 > 0:38:41even if defying public opinion.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47These visits to the West allowed crucial new relationships -
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten became close friends
0:38:50 > 0:38:52and influenced each other's work.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54And there were also dissident artists
0:38:54 > 0:38:57not able to make these official visits.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Ricky Demarco made over 15 trips behind the Iron Curtain
0:39:01 > 0:39:02to bring artists to Edinburgh
0:39:02 > 0:39:05whose work we would otherwise not have seen.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12The Cold War was a reality and
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Europe was suffering from the obscenity of it,
0:39:16 > 0:39:17the nonsense of it.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21I just felt compelled to care.
0:39:21 > 0:39:22It was a prison.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28The Edinburgh Festival was very important because it allowed them
0:39:28 > 0:39:30to be welcome here.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36They brought with them highly experimental avant-garde work,
0:39:36 > 0:39:38much of which was performed at the Traverse,
0:39:38 > 0:39:41which has been called Britain's first-ever fringe theatre.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51I think it's undeniable that the Festival did show us things
0:39:51 > 0:39:54we otherwise would not have seen.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58The thing that touches me about that era in the '70s
0:39:58 > 0:40:01was our belief in theatre.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07This is Dead Class, performed by a Polish theatre company
0:40:07 > 0:40:09led by Tadeusz Kantor.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13One of the most exciting shows ever seen on the Fringe.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18The Polish theatre that occurred... that was brought over in '76,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21it was so stylised, they were like automata.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25And being automata was part of the point they were making,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29and you really had to just not decide you knew what was going on.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31You had to agree to be mystified.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34THEY CHANT IN POLISH
0:40:40 > 0:40:42And they put us through it.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44You know, we'd sit there in the audience
0:40:44 > 0:40:46while they ran around and spat at us.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49And I would say, "Why don't we spit back?"
0:40:52 > 0:40:55And this was as avant-garde as it got.
0:40:55 > 0:41:00And you went in and you had to take most of your clothes off
0:41:00 > 0:41:03and put them in a box.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05And about halfway through this performance,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09which was conducted in Polish and was complete gibberish,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12they wheeled in this sort of chicken coop
0:41:12 > 0:41:15in which a naked lady was sitting,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18and she was sort of making chicken noises.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21And then they opened the door of the chicken coop
0:41:21 > 0:41:26and I was pushed into the chicken coop with this lady,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29who asked me in very heavily-accented English
0:41:29 > 0:41:32whether I wanted to make love to her.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36And I said, in my best schoolboy, prim way,
0:41:36 > 0:41:37"No, I don't think so."
0:41:41 > 0:41:44As the Fringe spread out its tendrils across the city,
0:41:44 > 0:41:46more and more space opened up.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Last year, this was just basement storage.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53Now it's been transformed into Guantanamo Bay, the holiday camp.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57Hello, welcome, come on in.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59Find yourselves a lovely deck chair to sit in.
0:41:59 > 0:42:00Make yourselves comfortable.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05And as you're doing so, put your bags down,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07take a moment to take off your shoes and socks.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09You have your own private beach to enjoy,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13so get your toes into the sand, wiggle them around.
0:42:13 > 0:42:14Do you believe it?
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Immersive experiences are now just part of the theatre landscape.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Being sat with your feet in the sand, cocktail in hand,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25being exposed to enhanced interrogation techniques.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30VOICEOVER: Edinburgh is now established as the place where
0:42:30 > 0:42:33difficult political issues can be tackled in experimental ways.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35It doesn't seem odd at all to be sat in a basement
0:42:35 > 0:42:38at 1.30 in the afternoon, playing an interactive game show
0:42:38 > 0:42:42in which one of the cast members gets water boarded.
0:42:42 > 0:42:43One more drink!
0:42:43 > 0:42:46So if you could please pour an entire bottle down
0:42:46 > 0:42:48into the funnel into the jerry can.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52This year is apparently one of the most political Fringes ever,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56with a huge number of powerful and provocative productions
0:42:56 > 0:42:58going on all over town.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01MAN SPLUTTERS AND GASPS
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Got to feel for this guy.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06And for the production that are in this venue next.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11- NEWSREADER:- 6,000 Upper Clyde shipbuilding employees
0:43:11 > 0:43:13are threatened with redundancy and...
0:43:13 > 0:43:14Back in the '70s,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17the issue of the day was the Clyde shipyard closures.
0:43:19 > 0:43:20It was all about political theatre,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23but how did you get the working man to turn up?
0:43:23 > 0:43:26A group of young actors and musicians decided to form a co-op,
0:43:26 > 0:43:28as you did in the 1970s.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32They staged a parody of the Upper Clyde shipyard work-in.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34It was set in an old welly-boot factory
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and staged here by the old covered market.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41It did two things that the Festival was hoping to achieve -
0:43:41 > 0:43:43enticing a new audience to the theatre
0:43:43 > 0:43:46and introducing a comic genius.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51# If it wasnae for your wellies where would you be?
0:43:51 > 0:43:55# You'd be in the hospital or infirmary... #
0:43:55 > 0:43:57They're legendary now.
0:43:57 > 0:44:02Because the Waverley Market, it had a glass roof, and for some reason
0:44:02 > 0:44:06we had to put the time earlier, and then nobody realised or noticed
0:44:06 > 0:44:09in September, seven o'clock, it's still very light,
0:44:09 > 0:44:14so simple lighting effects were just hopeless.
0:44:14 > 0:44:15So, Billy looked up and he said,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17"Well, I'll just go on until it gets dark."
0:44:17 > 0:44:21We watched that with our mouths open.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26We watched possibly, I think, maybe the funniest stand-up I had seen.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29And comedy at the Fringe was getting a more political message.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31And I wear finger picks, do you see that?
0:44:31 > 0:44:33Do you know why that is?
0:44:33 > 0:44:35It's because I used to work in the shipyards.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Really. And the reason I wear finger picks is because of the shipyards
0:44:40 > 0:44:41was these wee timekeepers,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44and they used to come clattering along
0:44:44 > 0:44:46with the sandwiches flying into the air,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48trying to get in in time.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Imagine running into a shipyard, you know?
0:44:51 > 0:44:53Trying to get in. My God!
0:44:53 > 0:44:56And he'd wait till you were three yards from it and go...
0:44:56 > 0:44:57"Chhh!"
0:44:57 > 0:44:59Argh!
0:44:59 > 0:45:02It's time we had shows for ordinary punters in Edinburgh
0:45:02 > 0:45:05to come and see. And then they charged us 1,800 quid for the...
0:45:05 > 0:45:08It's an annual cry here, "Let's get the working class in."
0:45:08 > 0:45:11They talk about them as if they were gnus or giraffes or something.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13And they did get people in.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15By using comedy in entertainment,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18the Fringe was creating political theatre for everyone.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20The London headlines.
0:45:20 > 0:45:25The fact that the Edinburgh Festival gave spaces for young people
0:45:25 > 0:45:30to be involved in this big explosion of artistic endeavour
0:45:30 > 0:45:34was huge. Really important.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39And cut through a lot of the snobbery and pomposity
0:45:39 > 0:45:41surrounding theatre.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46Because theatre in its earliest forms wasn't for the rich.
0:45:46 > 0:45:51It was for everybody, especially for the poor, you know.
0:45:51 > 0:45:57Storytelling in societies where most people were illiterate,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59storytelling became the way that they learned about themselves
0:45:59 > 0:46:02and their past, and that was performance.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04But class was becoming an issue.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08Not just an issue, but a theme for the next generation of comedians.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14I do think that if you look at the composition of a theatre company,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16you will find the answer.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19We have with us the creme de la creme, I think,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22of the various university acting groups in Cambridge -
0:46:22 > 0:46:26the Marlowe Society, the Footlights, well-known in their own right.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28# I once loved a rhinoceros
0:46:28 > 0:46:31# Preposterous as that may sound
0:46:31 > 0:46:34# Sweet little, neat little noceros
0:46:34 > 0:46:37# All the joy of the love we've found... #
0:46:37 > 0:46:38But this was about to change
0:46:38 > 0:46:42and Edinburgh was about to see a new tide sweeping in.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47Some time before we went to Edinburgh,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51the BBC showed a programme called Boom Boom.... Out Go The Lights.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53And it was an astonishing...
0:46:54 > 0:46:58..revelation, an expose of this new form of comedy.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00Don't wind me up, John, all right?
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Yeah. Legs do break, my son, they do break.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Basically, people were saying what punk did three or four years ago
0:47:08 > 0:47:10to glam rock and disco,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14this comedy is doing to variety and typical comedy.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18It's the new, young explosion. It's irreverent, it's...
0:47:18 > 0:47:20What are you, theatre?
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Whenever I'm near-tah the theatre, I...
0:47:25 > 0:47:27LAUGHTER
0:47:27 > 0:47:28Shut up!
0:47:31 > 0:47:34And Hugh and I in my rooms at Queen's, my college in Cambridge,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37I had a television and we were looking at it and we were thinking,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40"Well, it's just all over. We are from another era."
0:47:40 > 0:47:42We're sketch comedy. You know, we are...
0:47:42 > 0:47:44HE KNOCKS
0:47:44 > 0:47:46"Ah, Perkins, come in. Sit down."
0:47:46 > 0:47:49You know, I mean, it's just, really, so dated.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51It goes back to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and before that
0:47:51 > 0:47:54to Jonathan Miller. And it's, you know...
0:47:54 > 0:47:56bits of Pythons, obviously.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58But it's all basically, "Ah, Perkins, come in."
0:47:58 > 0:48:01Or, "Hello, I'd like to buy something completely ridiculous,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03"please, that you won't obviously have in this shop."
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Last week, if you remember, we were concentrating largely on the body.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Well, tonight, it's the turn of the voice
0:48:09 > 0:48:12and we'll be doing some vocal work.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Well, here's our space. Where's our actor?
0:48:16 > 0:48:21Well, we're very lucky to have with us in the studio this evening Hugh.
0:48:21 > 0:48:22- Hello, Hugh.- Hi.- Hi.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27We were students, we didn't know what we were going to do.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30None of us had a job lined up. Only Emma Thompson had an agent.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Hugh always claimed he wanted to go into the Hong Kong police force
0:48:34 > 0:48:36because he had read they were corrupt and he fancied himself
0:48:36 > 0:48:38as some sort of a Serpico figure.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43I think he just fancied the idea of himself in ironed white shorts.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46But I thought I'd go into teaching.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51The show won the Perrier Award
0:48:51 > 0:48:53and offers for television and film soon followed.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59It was a dizzying dream and it all happened because of Edinburgh.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01There's no doubt, I don't think.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03Oh, I hated all them Oxbridge people.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Despised, loathed.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Couldn't stand them. Wanted them to be, you know,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13eradicated from the face of the earth.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17Going into the Fringe Club bar, which was the place everybody went
0:49:17 > 0:49:20during the day and after shows in the evening...
0:49:20 > 0:49:21- HE MUMBLES:- And you were just like this,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24talked like this all the time, just in case anybody heard me
0:49:24 > 0:49:27and would go, "Oh! Oh! I bet you're at Cambridge, aren't you?"
0:49:27 > 0:49:30I'd go, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be at Cambridge!
0:49:30 > 0:49:31"It's not my fault.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35I was angry with the audience for making me perform in front of them.
0:49:36 > 0:49:37I was angry with, you know...
0:49:39 > 0:49:42..the left for being so shit.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45I was angry with the right for being so evil.
0:49:45 > 0:49:50I was angry with people for buying Habitat furniture.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55I was in the Cambridge Footlights and there was a real backlash
0:49:55 > 0:49:57against Oxbridge comedy. And in all honesty,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00this is probably the first time I've ever mentioned that I did that
0:50:00 > 0:50:05professionally because it was a massive negative.
0:50:05 > 0:50:06I remember that there was...
0:50:06 > 0:50:10I think The Oxford Revue one year, all the alternative comics
0:50:10 > 0:50:12just turned up just to heckle them offstage.
0:50:12 > 0:50:13The fact, I bombed on the first night
0:50:13 > 0:50:16is so painful, especially when you're, you know,
0:50:16 > 0:50:18you're young and you're ambitious.
0:50:18 > 0:50:19And...
0:50:19 > 0:50:24So just kind of impelled by that, I took the whole act and I was just
0:50:24 > 0:50:27so angry that I kind of blew it apart, really.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29A one, two, a one, two, three, four...
0:50:29 > 0:50:31Hello, John. Got a new motor?
0:50:31 > 0:50:34And I just started swearing kind of at random,
0:50:34 > 0:50:39and that's really the night that my performance style
0:50:39 > 0:50:42finally kind of achieved its apotheosis.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44I was a hit then.
0:50:44 > 0:50:49A new act had hit town - stand-up alternative comedy.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52What started out as a couple of comedians became an explosion
0:50:52 > 0:50:55that would transform Edinburgh over the coming decades.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57APPLAUSE
0:50:57 > 0:51:01I'd just done Girls On Top and they had, you know, a time-out tent.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06And they wanted me to talk about Girls On Top but it was two o'clock
0:51:06 > 0:51:09in the morning and Michael Grade and I were still not on.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12So now at about one o'clock they had a Zulu band.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14I mean, a full, full...
0:51:14 > 0:51:17And everybody's on their chairs doing Zulu and then these two people
0:51:17 > 0:51:20are supposed to go out after that to follow that act.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23So Michael and I got drunk underneath the tent.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25We were just drinking from the bottle
0:51:25 > 0:51:27and by the time I was called out I said,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30"I would like to introduce my next guest, Michael Grade."
0:51:30 > 0:51:32He comes out... Michael Grade ran Channel 4.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36I do not remember what I did with Michael Grade
0:51:36 > 0:51:39but that night I got a 12-show series.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42To this day I do not... People go, "You and Michael Grade!"
0:51:42 > 0:51:45and I go, "Yeah..." I don't know what we did.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48I think it was something about wearing a horse's head
0:51:48 > 0:51:50but I can go no further.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54One major impact the Festival was having on British culture
0:51:54 > 0:51:57was forcing comedians to create a new show every year.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Anyone go running? Exactly.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05Why would you go running if you're not being chased?
0:52:05 > 0:52:10I think the Edinburgh Fringe is the thing that has most led to a culture
0:52:10 > 0:52:16where comedians in this country turn over new shows year on year.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18I think it drives them.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21How that goes in August in Edinburgh
0:52:21 > 0:52:25sets the tone for the next two years of my life.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28I'm going to start by moving the microphone stand because you won't
0:52:28 > 0:52:31be able to see me otherwise, will you?
0:52:31 > 0:52:34All the comics that have "made it" that I know of
0:52:34 > 0:52:37have all done shows in Edinburgh.
0:52:37 > 0:52:38I always pictured that Marc Almond,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42he didn't have much money so he got his dad to play keyboards.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44The pressure to create new material,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47and with a show that is an hour long with a beginning, middle and end,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49has played a huge part in making Britain
0:52:49 > 0:52:52this incredibly fertile place for new writing.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Starsky And Hutch is my favourite show.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57Then they re-run in last year. Turns out, pile of old cack.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59KEYBOARD PLAYS
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Edinburgh is a great place to reinvent yourself because
0:53:02 > 0:53:05the whole industry's there and you're laying your stall out,
0:53:05 > 0:53:06saying, "This is what I've got this year."
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I don't want to show off but I'm actually quite charitable.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Yes. A couple of years ago I actually bought one of those
0:53:13 > 0:53:16anti-bullying charity wristbands.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18I say bought - I stole it off a fat ginger kid.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Risky joke to do in Scotland, that one.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26VOICEOVER: This guy's never going to make it.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28It produced Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Clive Anderson, Griff Rhys Jones,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33Sacha Baron Cohen, David Mitchell.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36There's just been an extraordinary wealth of people from there.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38And then when you look at the stand-up circuit,
0:53:38 > 0:53:44literally the great names have nearly all been there at some point.
0:53:44 > 0:53:50It's definitely a teething ground for the world's entertainment
0:53:50 > 0:53:54and without it, your TV screens would be a lot poorer.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Some people see comedy as a monster,
0:54:03 > 0:54:04swallowing up the rest of the Fringe,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08but it does seem to have brought more and more people here each year
0:54:08 > 0:54:10desperate to experience something new.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13The festival continues to support hundreds of new acts
0:54:13 > 0:54:15and even new genres.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17I feel like I'm being followed.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Of course, now it seems so professional -
0:54:24 > 0:54:29television and the internet, and the stakes are so high for fame,
0:54:29 > 0:54:31but that's one corner of it.
0:54:31 > 0:54:37If you actually visit it and you talk to families of young people
0:54:37 > 0:54:39who are going up to Edinburgh this year,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42they're not going there in order to try and get spotted for Channel 4
0:54:42 > 0:54:47or something, they have this show they want to do and it is...
0:54:47 > 0:54:53It's done in a bright hope of entertaining,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56alarming, beguiling, seducing,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59delighting, shocking, all the things that art can do.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04The most exciting time was going up there as a complete unknown
0:55:04 > 0:55:09with four other unknowns and a little team putting on this show
0:55:09 > 0:55:13which really, really caught people's imagination.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15# Edinburgh Festival
0:55:15 > 0:55:17# It's the one that's best of all
0:55:17 > 0:55:22# If you're an actor rest and call your agent... #
0:55:22 > 0:55:25And Scotland was also producing its own big hits,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and the locals were now pouring in.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30The festival's early aims at getting a broader audience into theatres
0:55:30 > 0:55:32had been achieved.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35The festival has a certain...
0:55:36 > 0:55:39..function for Scottish people as well.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42It's this thing where our country is...
0:55:42 > 0:55:44The spotlight is on it,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48of the world. And it's this month where we...
0:55:48 > 0:55:50The city may be a bit different to how we know it
0:55:50 > 0:55:51for the rest of the time,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54but it's definitely this place where all eyes are on us and
0:55:54 > 0:55:59the welcome we give, the landscape that we present to people is very,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02very important to how Scotland in general is seen.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06The National Theatre Of Scotland's Black Watch, about their own
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Scottish regiment in the Iraq War, seemed to pull together
0:56:08 > 0:56:11everything the Festival had been aiming towards since the War.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14It didn't really seem like a big fucking deal at the time, eh?
0:56:14 > 0:56:16BANGING
0:56:18 > 0:56:20The energy, the humour,
0:56:20 > 0:56:24the political fierceness and theatre that was genuinely for the people.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28..Uniform 3362.
0:56:28 > 0:56:29P4.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Mother Alpha 5502...
0:56:33 > 0:56:35What began as paternal at a time when the government
0:56:35 > 0:56:38felt like they knew what was good for the nation
0:56:38 > 0:56:41has developed into something incredibly diverse
0:56:41 > 0:56:44that offers us almost anything we can think of.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47I think what's better now is there's this sense that
0:56:47 > 0:56:50it's a huge bran tub, Edinburgh.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53For a whole month you can just put your hand in
0:56:53 > 0:56:55and pull out anything you like.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58And people take chances on things in a very good way.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02I think they're less selective about what they go and hear.
0:57:05 > 0:57:11Even in 1947, there were people who came uninvited to create
0:57:11 > 0:57:15the first Festival because that's what moves art on.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18It's people who go against the status quo
0:57:18 > 0:57:22and want to explore human thought, human ideas,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26human emotion, and that's what creates this iceberg
0:57:26 > 0:57:32that's constantly moving, and I feel that the festival is that.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36When you remember the festival was started to kind of...
0:57:38 > 0:57:41..give people some cultural
0:57:41 > 0:57:46sense of community and celebration after the Second World War...
0:57:47 > 0:57:49..it serves that purpose every year and it brings people...
0:57:49 > 0:57:52I think the most important thing, it certainly did for me,
0:57:52 > 0:57:58it exposed me to so many people and things from different cultures.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00You know, a kind of smorgasbord,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04an intense smorgasbord of difference.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08I think... Do you know?
0:58:08 > 0:58:11One of the things that Brits are shocking at
0:58:11 > 0:58:14is whenever we have a huge success, we downplay it.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17You go anywhere in the world, the Edinburgh Festival has...
0:58:17 > 0:58:19Just everybody's in awe of it.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21And it has...
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Incalculable artistic riches have come out of it.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27I mean, one of the reasons why Britain punches above its weight
0:58:27 > 0:58:34on the global screen and TV stage is because of Edinburgh.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37I don't think people realise what a treasure they have here.