Part Two - War and Peace

0:00:02 > 0:00:11This programme contains some strong language.

0:00:20 > 0:00:23SHE SCREAMS

0:00:23 > 0:00:25Oh, my knee. You bashed it.

0:00:28 > 0:00:32Reference plan for studio workshops at the NT.

0:00:35 > 0:00:37'I find it very irksome

0:00:37 > 0:00:42'if I have to attend to the ordinary things in life

0:00:42 > 0:00:43'because truthfully,

0:00:43 > 0:00:45'from about seven or eight on, I have been

0:00:45 > 0:00:49'allowed to follow my own bent my own obsessions.

0:00:49 > 0:00:53'Although my mother would say, "Do help with the washing up."

0:00:53 > 0:00:56'If it was at the expense of something I was reading,

0:00:56 > 0:00:59'I was allowed not to help with the washing up.

0:00:59 > 0:01:01'And that is a pattern that, I must confess,

0:01:01 > 0:01:03'has gone right through my life '

0:01:25 > 0:01:27LAURENCE OLIVIER: Fare thee well at once:

0:01:27 > 0:01:31The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,

0:01:31 > 0:01:35And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

0:01:35 > 0:01:37Adieu,

0:01:37 > 0:01:39adieu...

0:01:41 > 0:01:42..adieu...

0:01:44 > 0:01:46..remember me...

0:01:51 > 0:01:55'Forming a company, helping it along. Serving it,'

0:01:55 > 0:01:58leading it, if you like. Not necessarily so.

0:01:58 > 0:02:01That's the most exciting thing I think a man can do.

0:02:04 > 0:02:07Laurence Olivier, the greatest actor of his time

0:02:07 > 0:02:12stepped down as the director of the National Theatre in 1973

0:02:12 > 0:02:16In just ten years he had created a hugely successful

0:02:16 > 0:02:19company from its temporary home at the Old Vic.

0:02:21 > 0:02:26TOM STOPPARD: The National Theatre, in the last decade or so,

0:02:26 > 0:02:28has had a terrific run.

0:02:28 > 0:02:32One felt that it was the centre of gravity for London theatre.

0:02:32 > 0:02:35But that didn't come from nowhere.

0:02:35 > 0:02:40These energy waves have to come in from birth.

0:02:40 > 0:02:44And sometimes they subside and then they amplify again.

0:02:44 > 0:02:51But I think that there's a continuity to the theatre which

0:02:51 > 0:02:53was created...

0:02:53 > 0:02:56in that famous hut.

0:02:56 > 0:02:57FANFARE PLAYS

0:03:01 > 0:03:06TREVOR NUNN: In my early days running the RSC,

0:03:06 > 0:03:09I was asked to have meetings,

0:03:09 > 0:03:13scheduling meetings with Laurence Olivier.

0:03:13 > 0:03:18On one occasion it was during a three-day week -

0:03:18 > 0:03:22power cuts - and therefore I arrived at the Nissen hut

0:03:22 > 0:03:25and it was lit just with oil lamps.

0:03:25 > 0:03:28And I went in, and there he was sitting in a corner of the room

0:03:28 > 0:03:31and I said, "This feels like wartime."

0:03:31 > 0:03:36And he looked up and he said, "Theatre is a fucking war, baby "

0:03:47 > 0:03:51Laurence Olivier was succeeded as director by the dynamic

0:03:51 > 0:03:55and publicity-conscious impresario Peter Hall,

0:03:55 > 0:03:59who led the National from 1973 to 1988.

0:04:01 > 0:04:05Since then, there have been just three other directors.

0:04:05 > 0:04:09Richard Eyre, who championed work by new writers in the 1990s.

0:04:09 > 0:04:14Trevor Nunn, who widened the audience by staging lavish musicals

0:04:14 > 0:04:15and popular plays.

0:04:15 > 0:04:17And Nicholas Hytner,

0:04:17 > 0:04:21who has taken the National to new heights of success

0:04:21 > 0:04:24with shows like War Horse and One Man, Two Guvnors.

0:04:28 > 0:04:31RICHARD EYRE: It's wonderful to sit in the director's office

0:04:31 > 0:04:35and be able to look down river to the Houses of Parliament,

0:04:35 > 0:04:37to look across to Somerset House

0:04:37 > 0:04:42and also poke your head around the corner and see St Paul's.

0:04:42 > 0:04:49It's impossible, I think, to be in that office and not feel that

0:04:49 > 0:04:54you have a responsibility to reflect the feeling of the nation.

0:04:54 > 0:05:00And that's the job. That's what the theatre exists to do.

0:05:03 > 0:05:05Stepping into the shoes of

0:05:05 > 0:05:07Laurence Olivier was a difficult prospect.

0:05:07 > 0:05:11And Peter Hall had to prove that he was capable of leading

0:05:11 > 0:05:13the National into a new era.

0:05:13 > 0:05:15I've got to do it now.

0:05:15 > 0:05:16Good luck.

0:05:18 > 0:05:20NICHOLAS HYTNER: Peter is the single most

0:05:20 > 0:05:24influential figure in the British subsidised theatre.

0:05:24 > 0:05:26He founded the RSC.

0:05:26 > 0:05:30And he brought

0:05:30 > 0:05:35a new way of looking at those texts that is still

0:05:35 > 0:05:37the blueprint.

0:05:37 > 0:05:45But more than that, he bullied the establishment into a settlement

0:05:45 > 0:05:49with the subsidised theatre which has been the bedrock ever since

0:05:49 > 0:05:52He's a very, very strong man.

0:05:52 > 0:05:57And if I...could claim any responsibility for putting

0:05:57 > 0:05:58the theatre up...

0:06:00 > 0:06:03..he can claim for getting people into it.

0:06:05 > 0:06:08The theatre consists of three intimate theatres.

0:06:08 > 0:06:13That one is the Olivier, the highest, which is the open stage.

0:06:13 > 0:06:18That one, which is the Lyttelton, which is the proscenium theatre

0:06:18 > 0:06:23And then round the corner is the Cottesloe Theatre, which is

0:06:23 > 0:06:25the small, intimate theatre.

0:06:27 > 0:06:29But architect Denys Lasdun's new building

0:06:29 > 0:06:32stubbornly refused to be finished,

0:06:32 > 0:06:35and Peter Hall was forced to cancel several of his first productions.

0:06:37 > 0:06:38Who's within there?

0:06:40 > 0:06:46Bajaseth been fed today? Aye, my lord.

0:06:46 > 0:06:51Bring him forth. And let us know if the town be ransacked.

0:06:53 > 0:06:55The builders really gave us

0:06:55 > 0:06:58a run around because the building was constantly not finished.

0:06:58 > 0:07:02So we went on rehearsing plays that couldn't come and open.

0:07:04 > 0:07:07'As we speak, it's still impossible to hang a light or even

0:07:07 > 0:07:09'a piece of black masking'

0:07:09 > 0:07:13so we're not sure we're going to open on September 1st.

0:07:13 > 0:07:15MUSIC: "Age of Aquarius" 5th Dimension

0:07:18 > 0:07:20# Aquarius. #

0:07:22 > 0:07:26Good evening and welcome to a new series of Aquarius.

0:07:28 > 0:07:33Soon after he was made director Peter Hall also became the face of

0:07:33 > 0:07:37the fashionable art series Aquarius at London Weekend Television.

0:07:38 > 0:07:41He ignored any objections that this would distract him

0:07:41 > 0:07:43from the task of running the National Theatre.

0:07:45 > 0:07:49Hall used one of his budgets to make a film about the classical

0:07:49 > 0:07:51Greek amphitheatre at Epidaurus

0:07:51 > 0:07:55And he took along the architect of the National Theatre, Denys Lasdun.

0:07:57 > 0:07:59It looks very simple.

0:07:59 > 0:08:02Well, it is outwardly very simple

0:08:02 > 0:08:08but underlying that simplicity is a very, very subtle, skilful geometry,

0:08:08 > 0:08:13which is worked out in great detail by a superb architect called

0:08:13 > 0:08:14Polykleitos.

0:08:16 > 0:08:20Epidaurus had been the model for the new Olivier Theatre.

0:08:20 > 0:08:21And their aim

0:08:21 > 0:08:23was nothing less than to create a kind of

0:08:23 > 0:08:26new Athens on the South Bank of the Thames.

0:08:29 > 0:08:32JONATHAN MILLER: That sort of pretentious ambition

0:08:32 > 0:08:34is vulgar in the sense that it's got

0:08:34 > 0:08:37nothing whatever to do with the nature of theatrical art.

0:08:37 > 0:08:39Once you're in

0:08:39 > 0:08:42a large, impressive place, for one thing it's too big,

0:08:42 > 0:08:43you're not close to

0:08:43 > 0:08:45what goes on

0:08:45 > 0:08:48and you're endlessly looking at the building.

0:08:49 > 0:08:53I think Peter Hall talked about "centres of excellence".

0:08:53 > 0:08:56I think once you start thinking of somewhere as a centre of excellence

0:08:56 > 0:09:00you're really revelling in your own importance.

0:09:00 > 0:09:02MUSIC: "Le Nozze Di Figaro" Mozart

0:09:03 > 0:09:05Peter Hall's lifestyle

0:09:05 > 0:09:10and gift for self promotion didn't go down well with his critics.

0:09:10 > 0:09:14He divided his time between a stylish modern house in Oxfordshire

0:09:14 > 0:09:18and a penthouse apartment in the fashionable new Barbican

0:09:18 > 0:09:20development in the City,

0:09:20 > 0:09:24from which he could survey his new domain at the National

0:09:29 > 0:09:32FILM VOICE`OVER: 'The riverside of London has been embellished by

0:09:32 > 0:09:36'the National Theatre or else it's been blighted.

0:09:36 > 0:09:39'The new, ?16 million concrete palace of the arts is nothing

0:09:39 > 0:09:40'if not controversial.

0:09:40 > 0:09:44'It's taken seven years in the building and only now,

0:09:44 > 0:09:47'after eight postponed opening nights, has it been possible to open

0:09:47 > 0:09:50'the principal auditorium in the complex.'

0:09:50 > 0:09:52FANFARE PLAYS

0:09:58 > 0:10:01I have much pleasure in declaring

0:10:01 > 0:10:03the National Theatre open.

0:10:04 > 0:10:06APPLAUSE

0:10:09 > 0:10:11Laurence Olivier had hoped to lead

0:10:11 > 0:10:14the National into Denys Lasdun's new building.

0:10:14 > 0:10:17But he had retired by the time it finally opened.

0:10:20 > 0:10:22This was the first and last time he set foot

0:10:22 > 0:10:25on the stage of the theatre that is named after him.

0:10:30 > 0:10:37It is an outsized pearl of British understatement to say that

0:10:37 > 0:10:44I am happy to welcome you...at this moment...in this place.

0:10:46 > 0:10:49MICHAEL BLAKEMORE: It was almost hilariously uncomfortable -

0:10:49 > 0:10:51the event.

0:10:51 > 0:10:53Larry was asked to make a speech.

0:10:53 > 0:10:56And very typically he came along to the theatre before the cleaners

0:10:56 > 0:10:59were in, about two mornings in succession,

0:10:59 > 0:11:01and rehearsed his speech.

0:11:01 > 0:11:04He did not have a gift for writing speeches.

0:11:04 > 0:11:06Particularly in the presence of royalty.

0:11:06 > 0:11:10They were incredibly over-written and flowery.

0:11:10 > 0:11:12And frequently very obsequious

0:11:13 > 0:11:15I thank...

0:11:15 > 0:11:17all those colleagues...

0:11:17 > 0:11:20from every branch of the theatrical profession...

0:11:22 > 0:11:25..who have leant their rich talents

0:11:25 > 0:11:30and their selfless devotion to the creation of a standard of work

0:11:30 > 0:11:32which could...

0:11:32 > 0:11:36justify the provision of these. .

0:11:36 > 0:11:39temples to their art.

0:11:41 > 0:11:45After much discussion about what the royal party might see,

0:11:45 > 0:11:47the National chose an obscure Venetian farce.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52There was a performance of Il Campiello.

0:11:52 > 0:11:54Not a very good Italian play.

0:11:54 > 0:11:57It really was a dud.

0:11:57 > 0:11:59Nobody's fault, it was just a dud.

0:11:59 > 0:12:01TROMBONE PLAYS

0:12:02 > 0:12:04What a beautiful day.

0:12:04 > 0:12:09I'd like to get out but my horrible old uncle won't come with me.

0:12:09 > 0:12:13BILL BRYDEN: It was not my proudest moment.

0:12:13 > 0:12:18We had a wonderful time rehearsing it and it was a lovely little gem

0:12:18 > 0:12:22but to give it all that weight

0:12:22 > 0:12:26There was like a hostility in the audience.

0:12:26 > 0:12:29People didn't look at the stage they looked at the Queen to see

0:12:29 > 0:12:30if she was enjoying it.

0:12:33 > 0:12:36The fact that this building is now here

0:12:36 > 0:12:41and has been dreamt of and longed of for 150 years is a guarantee

0:12:41 > 0:12:45that in the future...the British people will always take

0:12:45 > 0:12:49the theatre seriously because this building is here.

0:12:52 > 0:12:55We're going to have a look at the production box for Jumpers

0:12:55 > 0:12:56by Tom Stoppard.

0:12:56 > 0:12:59Which played on the occasion of the Royal Opening

0:12:59 > 0:13:02in the Lyttelton Theatre.

0:13:02 > 0:13:06TOM STOPPARD: Jumpers was performed the night that

0:13:06 > 0:13:09the Queen opened the new National Theatre.

0:13:09 > 0:13:15Jumpers was in the Lyttelton House attended by Princess Margaret

0:13:15 > 0:13:18and the Queen was in the Olivier watching the Goldoni.

0:13:24 > 0:13:29Jumpers begins with eight acrobats and a lady who sings

0:13:29 > 0:13:33and a lady on the trapeze. It was a meat and two veg play

0:13:33 > 0:13:37It wasn't, as it were, sardines on toast. There was a lot going on.

0:13:39 > 0:13:43She actually was slightly displeased by the architecture

0:13:43 > 0:13:47of the building because the balustrade was slightly too high

0:13:47 > 0:13:50in the front row of the dress circle.

0:13:50 > 0:13:52Too high for comfort.

0:13:55 > 0:13:59Ordinary people, or the audience, were expecting a theatre.

0:13:59 > 0:14:03The red plush front curtain and, of course,

0:14:03 > 0:14:07what they got was a place that looked like a car park.

0:14:07 > 0:14:11I mean, that's what it looked like. So it had a pretty rocky ride.

0:14:15 > 0:14:19With its three separate stages the Olivier, the Lyttelton

0:14:19 > 0:14:24and the Cottesloe, and a staff of over 700 from the workshops

0:14:24 > 0:14:26the stage crews and the administration,

0:14:26 > 0:14:30the new National Theatre was a massive undertaking

0:14:30 > 0:14:32unrivalled by anything in Europe or America.

0:14:35 > 0:14:38PETER HALL: When you think that this theatre, as a building,

0:14:38 > 0:14:42probably the most extraordinary thing that's happened since the war.

0:14:43 > 0:14:47And are we pleased? Not particularly. Are we proud? Not particularly

0:14:47 > 0:14:49Do we think we should have it?

0:14:49 > 0:14:53Not really. We'd be better to use the money for other purposes.

0:14:54 > 0:14:59I ought to warn you that I was particularly fond of Arabella.

0:14:59 > 0:15:02Her father was my tutor. I used to stay at their house.

0:15:02 > 0:15:05I knew her father well, he took a great interest in me

0:15:05 > 0:15:07Arabella Hinscot was a girl of the most refined

0:15:07 > 0:15:11and organised sensibilities.

0:15:11 > 0:15:12I agree.

0:15:12 > 0:15:17Are you trying to tell me you had an affair with Arabella

0:15:17 > 0:15:21A form of an affair. She had no wish for full consummation.

0:15:21 > 0:15:24She was content with her particular predilection,

0:15:24 > 0:15:25consuming the male member.

0:15:28 > 0:15:32At this moment, you are on the stage nightly in a Pinter play

0:15:32 > 0:15:34called No Man's Land. Yes.

0:15:34 > 0:15:37Having watched it and been shuttered...

0:15:37 > 0:15:39At the National Theatre.

0:15:39 > 0:15:40At the National...

0:15:40 > 0:15:43This is very important. One of the reasons that I'm here

0:15:43 > 0:15:46is because they were very keen for me to do this programme

0:15:46 > 0:15:49because they said I could advertise the National Theatre.

0:15:49 > 0:15:53I'm a member of the crew, the team of the National Theatre

0:15:53 > 0:15:56and, of course, you're not supposed to advertise these things

0:15:56 > 0:15:59but since we're all shareholders in the National Theatre,

0:15:59 > 0:16:03the more I advertise it the cheaper it will be for you all.

0:16:03 > 0:16:07So every now and again, if you don't mind, I'm going to try to take

0:16:07 > 0:16:11the opportunity to mention the National Theatre.

0:16:11 > 0:16:14MUSIC: "God Save The Queen" The Sex Pistols

0:16:14 > 0:16:17Within months of opening, the new building ran into trouble.

0:16:17 > 0:16:21The stage crews refused to consider new manning levels.

0:16:21 > 0:16:24And when a plumber installing two washbasins

0:16:24 > 0:16:28was sacked for incompetence, they called a strike which threatened to

0:16:28 > 0:16:29shut down the entire theatre.

0:16:29 > 0:16:31# God save the Queen

0:16:33 > 0:16:35# The fascist regime. #

0:16:35 > 0:16:37All the time the management have been very,

0:16:37 > 0:16:39very stubborn in their approach to negotiations.

0:16:39 > 0:16:42They would never give any ground.

0:16:42 > 0:16:44And threatened that if we did strike like this, it would

0:16:44 > 0:16:46mean the closure of the building.

0:16:48 > 0:16:51The strikes at the National coincided with a nationwide

0:16:51 > 0:16:53wave of industrial action,

0:16:53 > 0:16:56which eventually brought down the Labour Government.

0:16:59 > 0:17:03We had a really terrible time with the unions, I mean awful.

0:17:04 > 0:17:08Their refusal to help Michael Redgrave, who was half-dead,

0:17:08 > 0:17:15down the side of the building from the taxi to the stage door

0:17:15 > 0:17:18I mean, that nearly killed Michael Redgrave, quite seriously.

0:17:18 > 0:17:22And it was regarded as OK in some quarters

0:17:22 > 0:17:23and I don't like those quarters

0:17:26 > 0:17:28Among Peter Hall's most important

0:17:28 > 0:17:32and committed allies was Britain's leading playwright, Harold Pinter.

0:17:32 > 0:17:36HAROLD PINTER: It's one of the things I admire about him very much,

0:17:36 > 0:17:38he sticks to his guns.

0:17:38 > 0:17:41And he was certainly sticking to them in that period.

0:17:41 > 0:17:43He wouldn't allow anything to get him

0:17:43 > 0:17:45down and there was a hell of a lot to get him down.

0:17:45 > 0:17:47We had a number of strikes during that time.

0:17:47 > 0:17:49And he overcame these strikes.

0:17:49 > 0:17:54But you had to be very, very tough and have a hell of a lot of fibre.

0:17:54 > 0:17:57Going to have a look at Betrayal by Harold Pinter.

0:17:57 > 0:17:59Directed by Peter Hall.

0:18:01 > 0:18:03He's had other women.

0:18:03 > 0:18:05For years.

0:18:05 > 0:18:06No!

0:18:07 > 0:18:09Good lord.

0:18:09 > 0:18:11LAUGHTER

0:18:13 > 0:18:14We betrayed him for years.

0:18:16 > 0:18:17'And he betrayed me for years.

0:18:19 > 0:18:20'Well, I never knew that.

0:18:21 > 0:18:23'Nor did I.'

0:18:23 > 0:18:25PHOTOGRAPHERS: This way, please

0:18:25 > 0:18:29MICHAEL GAMBON: On the first night it was cancelled.

0:18:29 > 0:18:33And we went there. Antonia and Harold and the actors,

0:18:33 > 0:18:35we went around to a cafe

0:18:35 > 0:18:36and we were all talking

0:18:36 > 0:18:39and I started sympathising with the crew.

0:18:39 > 0:18:44How I felt maybe they had a point. He said, "You bastard."

0:18:46 > 0:18:52This is the set on the Olivier stage for the play Strife.

0:18:54 > 0:18:57I'm very sad, very worried.

0:18:59 > 0:19:02Because this theatre is not breathing, it's not playing.

0:19:04 > 0:19:06It's not alive tonight. We're going to close.

0:19:08 > 0:19:10It's a very dangerous thing to happen.

0:19:11 > 0:19:14Because in this new, young theatre...

0:19:15 > 0:19:18..poor thing could die if it went on like this.

0:19:20 > 0:19:23CHRISTOPHER MORAHAN: I was doing a production of a play

0:19:23 > 0:19:25called Strife at that particular time.

0:19:25 > 0:19:30By Galsworthy which was about an industrial dispute in South Wales.

0:19:32 > 0:19:37GAVIN CLARKE: The play is set in 1909 in a Welsh village in a tin mine.

0:19:37 > 0:19:41And it preaches a humane approach to industrial relations

0:19:41 > 0:19:42based on compromise.

0:19:44 > 0:19:47Most of us had a belief in trades unionism

0:19:47 > 0:19:50and I belonged to trades unions for many years.

0:19:50 > 0:19:52And we became a besieged building.

0:19:52 > 0:19:56And we had to go through picket lines everyday which was

0:19:56 > 0:19:57heart-breaking, really.

0:19:59 > 0:20:03PETER HALL: One group was bent on making the revolution,

0:20:03 > 0:20:04in the purest Trotskyite terms

0:20:04 > 0:20:08And another group bent on earning as much money as possible

0:20:08 > 0:20:10while no-one was looking.

0:20:10 > 0:20:15And of course, it was a new building, new rates of pay, guvnor!

0:20:15 > 0:20:19And I had to therefore learn about industrial

0:20:19 > 0:20:21relations on a sort of crash course.

0:20:23 > 0:20:26And I suppose on my tombstone will be,

0:20:26 > 0:20:30"He sacked 65 men from the National Theatre and survived.

0:20:30 > 0:20:35I'm not proud of that and I hate the fact that it was so.

0:20:35 > 0:20:38EXPLOSION AND CHEERS

0:20:42 > 0:20:44Despite the strikes,

0:20:44 > 0:20:48the National had continued to put on highly successful productions

0:20:48 > 0:20:52of everything from modern plays to Shakespeare and the classics

0:20:56 > 0:20:59But even after the dispute was finally resolved in 1979,

0:20:59 > 0:21:05Peter Hall found himself constantly under attack by a hostile press

0:21:05 > 0:21:07which hated the building,

0:21:07 > 0:21:09and much of the British theatre who thought that the National

0:21:09 > 0:21:13was gobbling up too many scarce resources.

0:21:14 > 0:21:16DAVID HARE: The problem Peter was having

0:21:16 > 0:21:20was that he was genuinely embattled, he was dealing with

0:21:20 > 0:21:24a hostile press, he was dealing with a hostile government,

0:21:24 > 0:21:28he was dealing with massive building problems, he was dealing with

0:21:28 > 0:21:32certain flaws in the design of the building itself,

0:21:32 > 0:21:35which were integral and really major.

0:21:35 > 0:21:38Every day was a fight and a struggle.

0:21:44 > 0:21:47'..which you see on our right.

0:21:47 > 0:21:49This is the new National Theatre.

0:21:49 > 0:21:53'The building will shortly be voted one of the ugliest looking

0:21:53 > 0:21:58'buildings in London, known on the river as the "concrete monstrosity".'

0:21:58 > 0:22:01There's a moment that Peter himself describes in his diaries

0:22:01 > 0:22:06was that he went out from an embattled day on to the open

0:22:06 > 0:22:10deck of the theatre and a tourist boat went by and he could hear

0:22:10 > 0:22:15the man on the microphone say, "That is the new National Theatre.

0:22:15 > 0:22:19"It's run by a pig called Peter Hall."

0:22:19 > 0:22:21And he said, at that moment, he did think,

0:22:21 > 0:22:25"Maybe the price I'm paying for this is a little too high.

0:22:28 > 0:22:31Dimly the music sounded from the salon above.

0:22:31 > 0:22:35Dimly the stars shone on the empty street.

0:22:36 > 0:22:39I was suddenly frightened.

0:22:39 > 0:22:44It seemed to me that... I had heard a voice of God

0:22:44 > 0:22:48and that it issued from a creature whose voice I had also heard.

0:22:50 > 0:22:54And it was the voice of an obscene child.

0:22:54 > 0:22:58'Mrs Thatcher comes out, dressed in the most brilliant blue.'

0:22:58 > 0:23:01We're just reserving judgment. Are you still cautiously optimistic?

0:23:01 > 0:23:05Yes, yes. You are cautiously optimistic? Yes.

0:23:05 > 0:23:10When you look at the material for Amadeus, Peter Shaffer's play,

0:23:10 > 0:23:13it's directed by Peter Hall,

0:23:13 > 0:23:16and starred Paul Scofield, as Salieri,

0:23:16 > 0:23:19and Simon Callow as the young Mozart.

0:23:23 > 0:23:26'I'm going to pounce-wounce. I'm going to scrunch-munch, I'm going

0:23:26 > 0:23:28'to chew-poo, my little mouse-wouse.

0:23:28 > 0:23:30'I'm got to tear her to pieces

0:23:30 > 0:23:31'with my paws-claws. No!

0:23:31 > 0:23:35'Paws-claws, paws-claws. Paws-claws! Argh!'

0:23:40 > 0:23:44Peter Shaffer's Mozart is a genius whose prodigous creativity

0:23:44 > 0:23:48is combined with a childish and often obscene personality.

0:23:48 > 0:23:53His arch rival, the court composer Salieri, played by Paul Scofield,

0:23:53 > 0:23:55is so offended by his vulgarity

0:23:55 > 0:24:00and so consumed by jealousy that he sets out to destroy him

0:24:00 > 0:24:03PETER SHAFFER: Mozart wrote with such ease,

0:24:03 > 0:24:07as if he were transcribing something.

0:24:07 > 0:24:10Hearing it all in his head.

0:24:10 > 0:24:11And usually,

0:24:11 > 0:24:17drinking wine and talking to his wife at the same time.

0:24:17 > 0:24:25That is an amazing instance of divine inspiration

0:24:26 > 0:24:29I begin as I shall end, with Mozart.

0:24:29 > 0:24:33Mozart, as a passion, goes pack to my childhood

0:24:33 > 0:24:36and it was there that I first met Figaro.

0:24:36 > 0:24:39Figaro is an abiding passion.

0:24:39 > 0:24:43I did it very happily recently at Glyndebourne.

0:24:46 > 0:24:50Of course, Mozart had an extraordinary sense of drama

0:24:50 > 0:24:53I think he's the greatest dramatist, apart from Shakespeare.

0:24:53 > 0:24:58Mozart, his sense of timing and his sense of contrast is amazing.

0:25:00 > 0:25:03Peter Hall directed numerous productions

0:25:03 > 0:25:07at Glyndebourne Opera, where he later became the artistic director.

0:25:07 > 0:25:11He spent large amounts of time in its comfortable rural

0:25:11 > 0:25:15upper-class world, far from the trouble and strife

0:25:15 > 0:25:17of running the National Theatre

0:25:19 > 0:25:25Margaret Thatcher never went to the theatre, but she did for this.

0:25:25 > 0:25:32And she sat there looking as grim as stone and, at the end, she said,

0:25:32 > 0:25:35"This is disgraceful.

0:25:35 > 0:25:40"It's not worthy of the National. It's dreadful,

0:25:40 > 0:25:47"vulgar and I'm sure that the writer of that wonderful music was not

0:25:47 > 0:25:50"a bit like this."

0:25:50 > 0:25:54Peter said, "There are many letters

0:25:54 > 0:26:01"which prove, in fact, that he was as vulgar as this.

0:26:01 > 0:26:04And she turned and said,

0:26:04 > 0:26:11"I thought I said that he was not a bit like that!"

0:26:13 > 0:26:15RECORDING OF PLAY: 'Kill the leader first.

0:26:15 > 0:26:16'Can you tell which one's the leader? Stop!

0:26:16 > 0:26:19'What weapons have we got? My knife. Where?

0:26:19 > 0:26:21'You had it to cut the Irishman's throat. Yes.

0:26:21 > 0:26:24'One knife, under my clothes. Don't look at it.

0:26:24 > 0:26:26'Stand up.'

0:26:30 > 0:26:34It's a play about invasion and about

0:26:34 > 0:26:41culture shock, when one superiorly equipped and more powerful nation

0:26:41 > 0:26:44invades a small one and doesn't see what it's doing

0:26:44 > 0:26:50doesn't see that it's walking through people and over people's lives

0:26:50 > 0:26:54Howard Brenton's The Romans In Britain drew a parallel between

0:26:54 > 0:26:56the Roman occupation of Celtic Britain

0:26:56 > 0:26:59and the British presence in Northern Ireland.

0:27:00 > 0:27:03'Your blood will run down my throat and I will drink you,

0:27:03 > 0:27:05'get pissed on you, vomit on you, drink more of you!

0:27:05 > 0:27:09'You'll be blood in my bowel! You will feed me

0:27:09 > 0:27:10'my hate.'

0:27:10 > 0:27:14In the second act, there are scenes in Northern Ireland

0:27:14 > 0:27:17because I was trying to write about imperialism.

0:27:17 > 0:27:20There was also a brutal scene in the first act,

0:27:20 > 0:27:23which caused all that trouble really.

0:27:23 > 0:27:25Roman soldiers are out of hand

0:27:25 > 0:27:30and they attempt to rape a young Celt warrior

0:27:30 > 0:27:34and then kill him and his companions.

0:27:35 > 0:27:39'The National Theatre, say the critics of this play,

0:27:39 > 0:27:42'is not just another theatre, but the National Theatre.

0:27:42 > 0:27:45'As such, say the critics, it should have known better.

0:27:45 > 0:27:47'It's called The Romans In Britain.

0:27:47 > 0:27:50'On stage, it shows homosexuality, naked men and male rape.'

0:27:52 > 0:27:55If the Sexual Offences Act is there,

0:27:55 > 0:27:59why in heaven's name should people involved in the theatre

0:27:59 > 0:28:01be in some way immune from it?

0:28:03 > 0:28:06Shortly after the play opened, Mrs Mary Whitehouse,

0:28:06 > 0:28:10the self-appointed guardian of the nation's moral wellbeing, brought

0:28:10 > 0:28:15a private prosecution against the National for gross indecency.

0:28:15 > 0:28:18The case at the Old Bailey against the National Theatre production

0:28:18 > 0:28:22of The Romans In Britain has ended with each side claiming victory

0:28:22 > 0:28:26Mrs Mary Whitehouse, who brought the prosecution privately,

0:28:26 > 0:28:29agreed that her counsel shouldn't proceed with it

0:28:29 > 0:28:32and the defence case wasn't heard.

0:28:32 > 0:28:35It was clearly established in court today,

0:28:35 > 0:28:40what happens on the stage can now come under the law.

0:28:40 > 0:28:44I can only say that Mrs Whitehouse and I have different legal advisors.

0:28:44 > 0:28:46It isn't a case of you differing me in opinion.

0:28:46 > 0:28:48I am telling you what the fact of the matter there is

0:28:48 > 0:28:52And before we go off, I want to say something else.

0:28:52 > 0:28:54This is the National Theatre.

0:28:54 > 0:28:58It is your theatre, it is my theatre, it is all our theatre.

0:28:58 > 0:29:00And what he's said

0:29:00 > 0:29:03and done at the National Theatre is done in our name.

0:29:03 > 0:29:08What happens in the National Theatre is seen all over the world,

0:29:08 > 0:29:11as these are Britain's standards, this is what Britain does,

0:29:11 > 0:29:13this is what Britain's about.

0:29:13 > 0:29:17It was in that context that I initiated it in the first place

0:29:17 > 0:29:21because I happen to care about our National Theatre

0:29:21 > 0:29:23and I care about our nation.

0:29:23 > 0:29:25ARGH!

0:29:25 > 0:29:27GROANING AND WAILING CONTINUES

0:29:27 > 0:29:30Ooh. Ah. Huh. Hm.

0:29:34 > 0:29:37Well, I'll be buggered if I go out there tonight, I can tell you!

0:29:41 > 0:29:46'It was his mother, this man dared to kill. There are two parties present.

0:29:46 > 0:29:48'I must hear them both.'

0:29:48 > 0:29:51He won't let us swear ours nor swear his own oath.

0:29:51 > 0:29:56It's not justice you want, but the mere outward show.

0:29:57 > 0:30:00There is a disturbance factor in the theatre, which is

0:30:00 > 0:30:05why it always merits the attention of censors and do-gooders.

0:30:05 > 0:30:08What is important to the theatre at this moment, is it will help

0:30:08 > 0:30:11the debate of our society with itself.

0:30:11 > 0:30:13I mean, that's why the Oresteia is very important to me.

0:30:13 > 0:30:14An old Greek play,

0:30:14 > 0:30:18but it's about the responsibilities and the nature of democracy.

0:30:18 > 0:30:22And is democracy something liberal and boring and flat

0:30:22 > 0:30:25and flabby, as the trendy view tends to be on the left at the moment

0:30:25 > 0:30:29or is it something in the centre of what human values are about

0:30:29 > 0:30:32and why men have fought and died for centuries and centuries?

0:30:32 > 0:30:34I believe it is.

0:30:34 > 0:30:39# Luck, be a lady tonight

0:30:39 > 0:30:43# Luck, if you've ever been a lady to begin with

0:30:43 > 0:30:47# Luck, be a lady tonight

0:30:47 > 0:30:51# Luck, let a gentleman see

0:30:51 > 0:30:54# How nice a dame you can be

0:30:54 > 0:30:57# I know the way you've treated other guys you've been with

0:30:57 > 0:31:00# Luck, be a lady with me. #

0:31:00 > 0:31:02At that time,

0:31:02 > 0:31:05the National Theatre didn't do musicals.

0:31:05 > 0:31:07It was considered wholly improper.

0:31:07 > 0:31:12I think that maybe you should be looking away from, er...

0:31:12 > 0:31:15Yes, yes, I should, yes. Yeah.

0:31:15 > 0:31:18'When I did Guys and Dolls, I was in my late 30s.

0:31:18 > 0:31:20'And...

0:31:20 > 0:31:24'I had always been in love with American culture.

0:31:24 > 0:31:27'I didn't grow up seeing Shakespeare,

0:31:27 > 0:31:30'I didn't grow up steeped in English literature.

0:31:30 > 0:31:35'I was absolutely saturated in American culture.

0:31:35 > 0:31:40# ..Good old reliable me... #

0:31:40 > 0:31:42Guys and Dolls was the first Broadway musical

0:31:42 > 0:31:43to be done at the National

0:31:43 > 0:31:46and wouldn't have looked out of place in the commercial West End.

0:31:46 > 0:31:50It was a huge critical and financial success

0:31:50 > 0:31:54and opened up previously-uncharted territory.

0:31:56 > 0:32:00Guys and Dolls was an expression of love,

0:32:00 > 0:32:03of what I felt for...

0:32:03 > 0:32:07..my teenage years, came out in that production.

0:32:09 > 0:32:11# And I said to myself, "Sit down

0:32:11 > 0:32:13# "Sit down, you're rocking the boat"

0:32:13 > 0:32:16# I said to myself, "Sit down

0:32:16 > 0:32:18# "Sit down, you're rocking the boat..." #

0:32:18 > 0:32:20Britain's victory in the Falklands

0:32:20 > 0:32:23consolidated Margaret Thatcher's authority.

0:32:23 > 0:32:26And she preceded to pursue her vision of a society

0:32:26 > 0:32:28based on free-market policies

0:32:28 > 0:32:30and the importance of the individual.

0:32:30 > 0:32:33Mustn't think the world owes you a living or owes you happiness

0:32:33 > 0:32:35because it doesn't.

0:32:35 > 0:32:37That's all in her. Yes.

0:32:37 > 0:32:39'I like running things.

0:32:40 > 0:32:42'I like creating environments.

0:32:42 > 0:32:45'It is a kind of fix for me, to run this place.'

0:32:48 > 0:32:51Peter had a very, very heavy schedule.

0:32:51 > 0:32:53He would actually take

0:32:53 > 0:32:56an early-morning meeting on a Monday morning

0:32:56 > 0:32:59and then fly for a week's rehearsal in New York.

0:32:59 > 0:33:02He thrived, actually, on the challenge.

0:33:02 > 0:33:04MUSIC: "Smooth Operator" Sade

0:33:04 > 0:33:06Why does Peter have three secretaries?

0:33:06 > 0:33:09He has his own secretary, his National Theatre secretary

0:33:09 > 0:33:12he has a private secretary who he employs himself,

0:33:12 > 0:33:14who is really a private personal assistant

0:33:14 > 0:33:20who looks after his opera work and his non-NT interests.

0:33:20 > 0:33:22I think people say he does too much,

0:33:22 > 0:33:24but I would say that there's too much to do.

0:33:29 > 0:33:3150% of the cost of running the National

0:33:31 > 0:33:35was paid for by an Arts Council subsidy.

0:33:35 > 0:33:39In the 1980s, Peter Hall was forced to defend

0:33:39 > 0:33:41what some saw as lavish public funding

0:33:41 > 0:33:43in the face of a Conservative Government

0:33:43 > 0:33:47which was ideologically opposed to subsidised theatre

0:33:47 > 0:33:50and determined to cut its arts budget.

0:33:52 > 0:33:58It cost ?17 million, I think, to build these theatres

0:33:58 > 0:34:00and this whole marvellous complex here. Now,

0:34:00 > 0:34:06how do you justify that kind of expenditure of taxpayers' money?

0:34:06 > 0:34:10Theatre, opera, music, is usually subsidised

0:34:10 > 0:34:12and historically has been subsidised by somebody -

0:34:12 > 0:34:15by the church, by the state, by the king.

0:34:15 > 0:34:19It's been very rarely COMMERCIAL, in the ordinary sense of the word.

0:34:19 > 0:34:22And if we actually believe that theatre,

0:34:22 > 0:34:25as part of our heritage, needs to be kept,

0:34:25 > 0:34:28you're going to have to pay for it, as you have to pay for education

0:34:28 > 0:34:31or for library books or for any social amenity.

0:34:31 > 0:34:34It's very good for people to be worried

0:34:34 > 0:34:35and at the end of their tether

0:34:35 > 0:34:37It sharpens them up.

0:34:37 > 0:34:39The minute the ground feels firm underneath,

0:34:39 > 0:34:42your body dulls, grows flabby.

0:34:42 > 0:34:45Flabby?! Goes out of shape.

0:34:47 > 0:34:49This is the first play

0:34:49 > 0:34:53with people who have lived under Margaret Thatcher

0:34:53 > 0:34:55to be presented in the Olivier Theatre.

0:34:55 > 0:34:57And so to us, to Howard and me

0:34:57 > 0:35:00it's an extraordinarily important occasion.

0:35:02 > 0:35:06Margaret Thatcher knew that people who worked in the British theatre

0:35:06 > 0:35:08were not natural admirers of her revolution.

0:35:08 > 0:35:10And there was a degree of hostility

0:35:10 > 0:35:13which was stoked up, of course by the Murdoch press,

0:35:13 > 0:35:18which was also ideologically VERY OPPOSED to the idea

0:35:18 > 0:35:21of there being what they called "a state theatre".

0:35:21 > 0:35:24We felt that there was something horrible

0:35:24 > 0:35:26happening to the press in the mid '80s.

0:35:26 > 0:35:31It was a loss of independence and, er...

0:35:31 > 0:35:34the moving in of powerful press barons.

0:35:34 > 0:35:38They were hard-edged businessmen

0:35:38 > 0:35:42who had a hard-edged view on the world,

0:35:42 > 0:35:45which chimed with the Thatcher Government.

0:35:45 > 0:35:49What on earth is all this stuff about THE TRUTH?!

0:35:49 > 0:35:54Truth?! Why? When everywhere you go, people tell lies!

0:35:54 > 0:35:56In pubs, to each other,

0:35:56 > 0:35:58to their husbands, to their wives,

0:35:58 > 0:36:00to the children, to the dying!

0:36:00 > 0:36:02And thank God they do!

0:36:02 > 0:36:05No-one tells the truth.

0:36:06 > 0:36:08Anthony Hopkins' bravura performance

0:36:08 > 0:36:12as the white South African, Lambert La Roux,

0:36:12 > 0:36:15was quite obviously based on another controversial newspaper proprietor

0:36:15 > 0:36:19from a different part of the colonies.

0:36:19 > 0:36:20# It seems like

0:36:20 > 0:36:22# It's illegal

0:36:22 > 0:36:25# To fight for the union any more

0:36:25 > 0:36:28# Which side are you on, boys?

0:36:28 > 0:36:30# Which side are you on? #

0:36:30 > 0:36:33That bloody place is always putting on plays attacking me!

0:36:33 > 0:36:36They set the Comedy of Errors in Number Ten Downing Street.

0:36:36 > 0:36:39Prime Minister... No, don't deny it, Humphrey!

0:36:39 > 0:36:40I know who they were getting at

0:36:40 > 0:36:44And there was a whole play attacking my nuclear policy - a farce.

0:36:44 > 0:36:45The policy?

0:36:45 > 0:36:46No, Humphrey, the play.

0:36:47 > 0:36:50Why do they do it? Well, it's very healthy, Prime Minister.

0:36:50 > 0:36:52Healthy? Yes.

0:36:52 > 0:36:55Practically nobody goes to political plays.

0:36:55 > 0:36:57And half those that do don't understand them.

0:36:57 > 0:37:00And half those that understand them don't agree with them.

0:37:00 > 0:37:01The seven who are left

0:37:01 > 0:37:03would have voted against the Government anyway.

0:37:06 > 0:37:10Now, Lords, Sir Peter Hall has led the attack on the Arts Council

0:37:10 > 0:37:13on this Government and myself.

0:37:13 > 0:37:16It is, of course, his right to do so.

0:37:16 > 0:37:18Nevertheless, I don't feel that

0:37:18 > 0:37:21he is the best qualified person

0:37:21 > 0:37:24With ?6.7 million annually,

0:37:24 > 0:37:28the National Theatre remains the best-funded theatre.

0:37:28 > 0:37:30I know many directors up and down the land

0:37:30 > 0:37:33who would like to have their budget

0:37:33 > 0:37:37and Sir Peter's terms and conditions of employment.

0:37:37 > 0:37:39# Lully, lullay

0:37:39 > 0:37:43# Thou little tiny child

0:37:43 > 0:37:45# Bye-bye, lully,

0:37:45 > 0:37:47# Lullay. #

0:37:47 > 0:37:49I bring thee but a ball.

0:37:49 > 0:37:52Have him play wi' you all and go to the tennis.

0:37:52 > 0:37:54LAUGHTER

0:37:54 > 0:37:59The smallest of the National's three theatres was the Cottesloe.

0:37:59 > 0:38:02It specialised in experimental productions,

0:38:02 > 0:38:05like the all-day staging of The Mysteries,

0:38:05 > 0:38:09which were adapted from medieval mystery plays

0:38:09 > 0:38:11and staged in a promenade style

0:38:11 > 0:38:14which involved the entire audience in the performance.

0:38:15 > 0:38:18The people who had created these plays,

0:38:18 > 0:38:21they weren't religious,

0:38:21 > 0:38:24so much as celebrating in the community

0:38:24 > 0:38:28and celebrating a common faith

0:38:28 > 0:38:32And I think that came through

0:38:32 > 0:38:34from the work to the audience.

0:38:34 > 0:38:40And I think it was a celebration of the faith of the common man

0:38:40 > 0:38:43If doomsday'd come much later,

0:38:43 > 0:38:46we'd have had to build our hell grimmer...

0:38:46 > 0:38:48Grander! Greater!

0:38:48 > 0:38:51LAUGHTER

0:38:57 > 0:39:02Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.

0:39:02 > 0:39:06We warned the Arts Council in 19 2

0:39:06 > 0:39:09that if our reward for good housekeeping

0:39:09 > 0:39:13was going to be year after year of grant increase

0:39:13 > 0:39:17which was less than half of inflation,

0:39:17 > 0:39:20there would be a day of reckoning.

0:39:20 > 0:39:22Today, the crunch has come.

0:39:24 > 0:39:27The quickest way to cut costs

0:39:27 > 0:39:31is, tragically, to go dark in the Cottesloe.

0:39:31 > 0:39:35There will inevitably be job losses among actors

0:39:35 > 0:39:37and staff right the way through the building.

0:39:39 > 0:39:42I think it is a manoeuvre

0:39:42 > 0:39:44on the part of the Government

0:39:44 > 0:39:49to prove that the arts are not important.

0:39:49 > 0:39:54You come to this theatre and it's still not expensive.

0:39:55 > 0:39:57That is what the argument is about,

0:39:57 > 0:39:59is to keep it affordable

0:39:59 > 0:40:03so we don't create an elitist theatre

0:40:03 > 0:40:06that the people cannot afford.

0:40:07 > 0:40:10Don't they still love her at all?

0:40:12 > 0:40:14'Jack.

0:40:14 > 0:40:18'Before you leave, have a look out there in the front drive.

0:40:18 > 0:40:22'You'll see a black Porsche. 944S Coupe.

0:40:22 > 0:40:28'Brand-new registration, personalised number plate, that I love.

0:40:28 > 0:40:32'Just outside Chichester, I have a small sailing boat which I'd

0:40:32 > 0:40:36'willingly lay down my life for Anita.'

0:40:37 > 0:40:41'Who needs all that, Jack? I don t.'

0:40:41 > 0:40:45It's a play about an honest man in a world of complete corruption,

0:40:45 > 0:40:48and he slowly becomes corrupted

0:40:48 > 0:40:50What Peter called a modern morality play.

0:40:50 > 0:40:52I'm an enormous fan of Marks Spencer.

0:40:52 > 0:40:56This is a Marks Spencer coat it's superb...

0:40:56 > 0:40:59There was no agreed moral code under Thatcher

0:40:59 > 0:41:02because it's each man for his own, really.

0:41:02 > 0:41:04That was the feeling - anyone can make it

0:41:04 > 0:41:08and if you're treading over somebody else to get there, to hell with it.

0:41:11 > 0:41:14I think it probably reflected that time.

0:41:14 > 0:41:18Peter said in a few hundred years' time,

0:41:18 > 0:41:22if they want to know what society was like, they needn't look no further

0:41:22 > 0:41:25than my plays to reflect perhaps

0:41:25 > 0:41:29the general feeling of the Middle England people.

0:41:29 > 0:41:33I'm not political in the way that David Hare is political, I'm social.

0:41:39 > 0:41:43Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.

0:41:44 > 0:41:47I will employ thee back again.

0:41:48 > 0:41:53I find thee...most fit for business.

0:41:53 > 0:41:56In spite of the ever more complex battles

0:41:56 > 0:41:58being fought out on its stages

0:41:58 > 0:42:01the National always honoured its obligation to

0:42:01 > 0:42:03put on Shakespeare and the classics,

0:42:03 > 0:42:08and productions such as Peter Hall's Antony And Cleopatra could still

0:42:08 > 0:42:13attract stellar casting in the form of Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench.

0:42:13 > 0:42:16Peter is sublime at directing,

0:42:16 > 0:42:18and there is he and John Barton

0:42:18 > 0:42:22and Trevor Nunn who can teach you how to speak the verse.

0:42:22 > 0:42:25When we did Antony And Cleopatra,

0:42:25 > 0:42:30he was actually beating out the line - "Our royal lady's dead.

0:42:30 > 0:42:33"Dead, dead." - so that we would...

0:42:33 > 0:42:35And it took us ages to do.

0:42:35 > 0:42:41And so, at the end of the morning, we got to, "Our royal lady's dead,"

0:42:41 > 0:42:45and there was a pause and Peter said, "Thank, Christ!"

0:42:46 > 0:42:50And I had a plan to do here Cymbeline, Pericles and A Winter's Tale...

0:42:50 > 0:42:53'In a way, one wants to catch the tempo

0:42:53 > 0:42:56'so that we can ride on that,'

0:42:56 > 0:43:01you know? And so when I want you to go, "Uhh! Now what?"

0:43:01 > 0:43:03it should be... Yeah, yeah.

0:43:03 > 0:43:09In 1988, at the age of 57 and after 15 years as director

0:43:09 > 0:43:13Peter Hall decided that it was time to leave the National.

0:43:13 > 0:43:17He had transformed it from the tight, actor-led company

0:43:17 > 0:43:22under Laurence Olivier into a theatre of international importance.

0:43:23 > 0:43:29In 2011, at the age of 80, he returned to the National to

0:43:29 > 0:43:33direct Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, starring his daughter, Rebecca

0:43:36 > 0:43:41I think Peter Hall is the only person who could have taken

0:43:41 > 0:43:46the National Theatre from the kind of operation that it

0:43:46 > 0:43:51was at the Old Vic into the new National Theatre building.

0:43:51 > 0:43:56It needed somebody who was an extraordinary impresario

0:43:56 > 0:43:59who had a producerial instinct

0:43:59 > 0:44:02Peter was a fantastically hard act to follow.

0:44:05 > 0:44:09Peter Hall had already chosen a successor who had been

0:44:09 > 0:44:11waiting in the wings for some time.

0:44:17 > 0:44:22The politics were quite comic.

0:44:22 > 0:44:23It was the days

0:44:23 > 0:44:29when things were fixed in quiet corners at the Savoy Hotel.

0:44:31 > 0:44:34Richard Eyre had been the prince-in-waiting

0:44:34 > 0:44:37for a very long time. I think he found it quite trying.

0:44:37 > 0:44:40In other words, it was perfectly clear from the moment

0:44:40 > 0:44:42he did Guys And Dolls in the early '80s,

0:44:42 > 0:44:44Richard was the right person to take over from Peter,

0:44:44 > 0:44:47and Peter was always on the point of going and then he was saying,

0:44:47 > 0:44:50"I think I'll do another Shakespeare play and then I'll do

0:44:50 > 0:44:51"a cycle of this and that,"

0:44:51 > 0:44:54and I think Richard had become very impatient.

0:44:54 > 0:44:57Richard Eyre was now better known for his film and television work,

0:44:57 > 0:45:00on programmes such as Play For Today at the BBC.

0:45:00 > 0:45:04At the time, the board of the National Theatre was

0:45:04 > 0:45:08appointed by the Government. The Prime Minister had a say

0:45:08 > 0:45:13in the appointment of the director of the National Theatre.

0:45:13 > 0:45:15I know that there was a certain

0:45:15 > 0:45:19amount of doubt about my suitability, which was

0:45:19 > 0:45:22exacerbated by the fact that, in 1986,

0:45:22 > 0:45:25I directed a film called Tumbledown which

0:45:25 > 0:45:27was about the Falklands War,

0:45:27 > 0:45:30which was attacked viciously in Parliament

0:45:30 > 0:45:35and so I was sort of branded as "public pinko pacifist".

0:45:35 > 0:45:37Isn't this fun?!

0:45:37 > 0:45:40GUNSHOTS

0:45:40 > 0:45:45Now, this morning, a new era begins on the Southbank Centre in London.

0:45:45 > 0:45:49Today is the day that Richard Eyre officially takes over

0:45:49 > 0:45:52from Sir Peter Hall as an artistic director of the National Theatre.

0:45:52 > 0:45:55It's preposterous of me to stand up in public

0:45:55 > 0:46:00and pretend to have the same public profile as Peter Hall.

0:46:00 > 0:46:05I share his belief that we have to campaign in every way possible

0:46:05 > 0:46:09to gain more public money, but my tactics will be very different

0:46:09 > 0:46:12You're not going to be as pugnacious?

0:46:12 > 0:46:16I may be as pugnacious in private but I think it's most unlikely

0:46:16 > 0:46:18I should be as pugnacious in public.

0:46:20 > 0:46:22Good evening.

0:46:22 > 0:46:27The Dutch pictures that you'll see here only form really a minute part

0:46:27 > 0:46:28of the whole Royal Collection,

0:46:28 > 0:46:31which contains something like 4,500...

0:46:31 > 0:46:35Richard Eyre kicked off with a controversy in the form

0:46:35 > 0:46:38of a new play by Alan Bennett about Sir Anthony Blunt,

0:46:38 > 0:46:41the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures,

0:46:41 > 0:46:45who had recently been unmasked as a Soviet spy.

0:46:45 > 0:46:49I was persuaded by Guy Burgess that I could best serve

0:46:49 > 0:46:54the cause of anti-Fascism by joining him in his work for the Russians.

0:46:54 > 0:46:57'It will be painful.

0:46:57 > 0:47:00'You will be the object of scrutiny, explanations sought after,

0:47:00 > 0:47:03'your history examined.

0:47:03 > 0:47:07'You will be named, attributed.

0:47:07 > 0:47:10As a fake, I shall, of course,

0:47:10 > 0:47:13excite more interest than the genuine article.

0:47:13 > 0:47:16The thing nowadays I find quite difficult to take is just this

0:47:16 > 0:47:21received idea that treason is the worst possible crime in the world.

0:47:21 > 0:47:25I can't think that it is. The world's too small a place now for that

0:47:27 > 0:47:29Bennett's play was controversial not only

0:47:29 > 0:47:32because it mocked the British Establishment,

0:47:32 > 0:47:35but because it put the Queen on stage for the first time,

0:47:35 > 0:47:38much to the horror of some of the members

0:47:38 > 0:47:40of the National Theatre's board

0:47:40 > 0:47:45The board was nervous that the portrayal of the Queen

0:47:45 > 0:47:48on stage would be offensive.

0:47:48 > 0:47:50They felt it was too subversive they tried to stop it,

0:47:50 > 0:47:52Richard made it a resignation issue,

0:47:52 > 0:47:55the board backed down and since then, I think the board has never tried

0:47:55 > 0:47:59to influence repertoire ever again, and that's exactly how it should be.

0:48:00 > 0:48:04The play was later filmed for television

0:48:04 > 0:48:07with James Fox and Prunella Scales.

0:48:07 > 0:48:11I still think the word "fake" is inappropriate, ma'am.

0:48:12 > 0:48:15If something is not what it claims to be, what is it?

0:48:18 > 0:48:19An enigma?

0:48:20 > 0:48:24That is, I think, the sophisticated answer.

0:48:25 > 0:48:28My father always like going to the theatre very much.

0:48:28 > 0:48:29I liked going with him

0:48:29 > 0:48:31but I wasn't a particular theatregoer,

0:48:31 > 0:48:34in the sense that I went and saw everything, no.

0:48:36 > 0:48:40In 1988, the Government appointed Winston Churchill's daughter,

0:48:40 > 0:48:44Mary Soames, as the new chairman of the National Theatre.

0:48:46 > 0:48:50My appointment was regarded with deep suspicion by the theatre.

0:48:50 > 0:48:56I think the worry was that I'd been sent there by a Tory Government

0:48:56 > 0:49:00to chase out the pinkos on the Left Bank.

0:49:00 > 0:49:02One of the first thing she said to me was, "Richard,

0:49:02 > 0:49:04"if I take this on, you're going to have to help me

0:49:04 > 0:49:07"because I know absolutely nothing about theatre,"

0:49:07 > 0:49:10which was confirmed a few days later by,

0:49:10 > 0:49:15there was a lunch, Mary sent me her place card, wrote on it,

0:49:15 > 0:49:17pushed it across the table,

0:49:17 > 0:49:20and it said, "Who is Ian McKellen?"

0:49:20 > 0:49:26Put in place by Mrs Thatcher, Prime Minister, perhaps impressed

0:49:26 > 0:49:31that she could give Winston Churchill's daughter a job...

0:49:31 > 0:49:34but perhaps thought that Mary Soames would keep an eye

0:49:34 > 0:49:38on the National Theatre and not let it run out of hand

0:49:38 > 0:49:41But, of course, what happened is that Mary Soames,

0:49:41 > 0:49:45being a sociable person, loves a good laugh and a drink and

0:49:45 > 0:49:50the occasional cigar, fell into the lap of all these friendly people!

0:49:52 > 0:49:57I decided that Richard Eyre was the most wonderful director that

0:49:57 > 0:50:02ever could be, but there were plenty of things for me to attend to on

0:50:02 > 0:50:06what I believe was old fashionedly known as the distaff side,

0:50:06 > 0:50:12known as getting marks off the carpet and various other domestic things.

0:50:14 > 0:50:18Mary Soames was also perfectly equipped

0:50:18 > 0:50:20to form new relationships between the National

0:50:20 > 0:50:25and some of the forces which it had been suspicious of in the past

0:50:25 > 0:50:30Sponsorship, you see, then, was a slightly dirty word

0:50:30 > 0:50:33and, consequently, they hadn't cultivated it at all.

0:50:35 > 0:50:39I did start giving a chairman's dinner.

0:50:39 > 0:50:44And I used to prevail upon Ian McKellen or whoever.

0:50:44 > 0:50:50I said, "Do be angelic and come to the dinner. It would help so much."

0:50:55 > 0:50:59Although the National was no longer a repertory company,

0:50:59 > 0:51:02there was a community of actors that worked there,

0:51:02 > 0:51:06often in plays by writers who had fallen out of fashion.

0:51:07 > 0:51:12One thing I don't have is the charm of the defeated.

0:51:12 > 0:51:17My hat is still in the ring and I am determined to win.

0:51:19 > 0:51:24What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? I wish I knew.

0:51:25 > 0:51:28Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can.

0:51:30 > 0:51:33No-one at the time, would you believe this, was doing Tennessee Williams.

0:51:33 > 0:51:37They just regarded him as a camp old fruit,

0:51:37 > 0:51:41and there was a sort of slightly

0:51:41 > 0:51:43'culturally homophobic attitude towards

0:51:43 > 0:51:47'that kind of overripe writing

0:51:47 > 0:51:52'and to get back to the British audience a play of that stature

0:51:52 > 0:51:57'of that quality, with that cast, I was thrilled.

0:51:58 > 0:52:00I've dropped my crutch.

0:52:00 > 0:52:02Lean on me. No, just give me my crutch.

0:52:02 > 0:52:05Lean on my shoulder. I don't want to lean on your shoulder!

0:52:05 > 0:52:07I want my crutch!

0:52:11 > 0:52:14This is the 1989 production of Hamlet in the Olivier Theatre.

0:52:16 > 0:52:19This is the rehearsal room with Richard Eyre on the left,

0:52:19 > 0:52:25Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Hamlet, and Judi Dench, who played Gertrude.

0:52:28 > 0:52:32Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned.

0:52:33 > 0:52:39Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell.

0:52:39 > 0:52:42Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

0:52:42 > 0:52:45thou comest in such a questionable shape

0:52:45 > 0:52:47that I will speak to thee!

0:52:47 > 0:52:51I'll call thee Hamlet!

0:52:51 > 0:52:52King!

0:52:53 > 0:52:56Father!

0:52:57 > 0:53:01I never quite know, when people say, "Have a breakdown,

0:53:01 > 0:53:03how much that entails,

0:53:03 > 0:53:07but all I remember him saying was that he just saw his father.

0:53:07 > 0:53:12And it just completely overtook him, overcame him.

0:53:14 > 0:53:17And he...he couldn't go on.

0:53:19 > 0:53:23In September 1989, Daniel Day-Lewis walked out of

0:53:23 > 0:53:26Richard Eyre's production of Hamlet

0:53:26 > 0:53:29in the middle of a performance and never returned.

0:53:29 > 0:53:34Dan withdrew, essentially had a breakdown,

0:53:34 > 0:53:40and I decided to cast Ian Charleson, who was dying,

0:53:40 > 0:53:44and he was magnificent and heartbreaking.

0:53:47 > 0:53:51When Ian Charleson learnt that Daniel Day-Lewis was doing Hamlet,

0:53:51 > 0:53:54I remember, on the phone with him, he said, "That's my fat chance,

0:53:54 > 0:53:58because he'd already been diagnosed, then, with HIV,

0:53:58 > 0:54:01and he said, "I've always wanted to play Hamlet,

0:54:01 > 0:54:04"and that's it over. I can't do it any longer."

0:54:04 > 0:54:08And then, when Daniel left, Richard Eyre had this chance.

0:54:08 > 0:54:12'It's the biggest threat to public health this century,

0:54:12 > 0:54:15'invariably fatal

0:54:15 > 0:54:18'and, some say, God's gift to bigots.'

0:54:20 > 0:54:23Ian had AIDS, quite advanced AIDS,

0:54:23 > 0:54:26and it had damaged his beautiful face.

0:54:27 > 0:54:30But not his voice, and nor his spirit, somehow.

0:54:30 > 0:54:35And his energy levels, he kept in reserve

0:54:35 > 0:54:37to play Hamlet on the Olivier stage.

0:54:40 > 0:54:45A performance which, more than any other Hamlet...

0:54:47 > 0:54:49..was about death,

0:54:49 > 0:54:52because the actor playing the part knew he was dying.

0:54:54 > 0:54:57And when he said "let be"...

0:54:59 > 0:55:02..you didn't have to know how ill...

0:55:02 > 0:55:05Ian Charleson was to be affected by that.

0:55:11 > 0:55:15It's this perpetual absence.

0:55:17 > 0:55:20It's not being here. It's that

0:55:20 > 0:55:23I mean, let's be honest.

0:55:23 > 0:55:25It's just beginning to get some of us down,

0:55:25 > 0:55:27you know?

0:55:28 > 0:55:30Is that unreasonable?

0:55:32 > 0:55:37There are an awful lot of people round here in a very bad way

0:55:37 > 0:55:41and they NEED something besides silence.

0:55:42 > 0:55:44God.

0:55:46 > 0:55:51David Hare's Racing Demon is about a group of English clergymen working

0:55:51 > 0:55:55in the inner city and struggling with the enormity of their task

0:55:55 > 0:56:01David Hare had visited a Synod and reported back

0:56:01 > 0:56:05that he was very, very interested in the Church of England

0:56:05 > 0:56:08as an exemplary English institution,

0:56:08 > 0:56:10and he thought it was a wonderful metaphor

0:56:10 > 0:56:13for talking about English institutions.

0:56:15 > 0:56:20Racing Demon became the first in a trilogy of plays about the Church,

0:56:20 > 0:56:25the law and politics, that Richard Eyre commissioned and directed

0:56:25 > 0:56:28The thinking behind the trilogy was that

0:56:28 > 0:56:32a group of right-wing intellectuals had taken hold in Downing Street.

0:56:32 > 0:56:35They had a lot of really stupid ideas, like monetarism

0:56:35 > 0:56:39and this theory of welfare dependency,

0:56:39 > 0:56:41these theories of the underclass,

0:56:41 > 0:56:43but it had effects on society

0:56:43 > 0:56:46and it led to divisions in society.

0:56:46 > 0:56:50And so, my heroes and heroines in the trilogy became the people

0:56:50 > 0:56:53whose job was to bandage the wounds.

0:56:53 > 0:56:55They were the people on the front line.

0:56:55 > 0:57:01I said, "David, this is what the National Theatre was invented for,

0:57:01 > 0:57:06"was to present these plays about the Church, the law and politics "

0:57:10 > 0:57:13'We have, in this country, I say,'

0:57:13 > 0:57:16one party whose whole interest

0:57:16 > 0:57:21is in giving still more to those who already have!

0:57:22 > 0:57:25To those that have, shall more be given.

0:57:27 > 0:57:34'I can never get over the intellectual disgrace of that idea!'

0:57:34 > 0:57:36APPLAUSE

0:57:36 > 0:57:39The third play in the trilogy was based on

0:57:39 > 0:57:43the Labour Party's disastrous election campaign in 1992,

0:57:43 > 0:57:47which resulted in five more years of Conservative rule.

0:57:49 > 0:57:53Richard Eyre made the bold decision to stage all three plays

0:57:53 > 0:57:56in the trilogy in the Olivier Theatre on the same day

0:57:56 > 0:58:01I think that he was absolutely determined to make his mark

0:58:01 > 0:58:03through contemporary writing.

0:58:03 > 0:58:07Peter Hall, Harold Pinter, Nick Hytner, Alan Bennett,

0:58:07 > 0:58:11always, in great theatres, you have a great partnership

0:58:11 > 0:58:16between a writer who is doing and saying

0:58:16 > 0:58:19exactly what that artistic director wishes to see

0:58:19 > 0:58:21expressed at that time,

0:58:21 > 0:58:25and when Richard was there, I was in that partnership with Richard.

0:58:27 > 0:58:29I want to show you the world.

0:58:29 > 0:58:31I do not want to see the world

0:58:31 > 0:58:34From what I've seen of it so far, it has very little to recommend it.

0:58:34 > 0:58:38Everybody's doing things, getting somewhere.

0:58:38 > 0:58:41Oh, you mean the rat race? HE GUFFAWS

0:58:41 > 0:58:44In December 1990, the youthful Nicholas Hytner came to

0:58:44 > 0:58:47direct the National's Christmas show.

0:58:47 > 0:58:51He had already made a name for himself directing opera

0:58:51 > 0:58:54and had recently opened a smash-hit musical, Miss Saigon,

0:58:54 > 0:58:56in the West End.

0:58:57 > 0:59:03I suggested to Richard Eyre, that I'd like to do a big family show.

0:59:03 > 0:59:05I suggested The Wind In The Willows.

0:59:05 > 0:59:09He said that he'd been trying to persuade Alan Bennett to write

0:59:09 > 0:59:11a play about Kenneth Grahame.

0:59:11 > 0:59:14What was a surprise was that Alan said yes with such alacrity.

0:59:14 > 0:59:17He'd not written a new play for quite a while.

0:59:17 > 0:59:21I think he was stuck, so it was a good opportunity for him

0:59:21 > 0:59:23to get back into the theatre.

0:59:23 > 0:59:27The Wind In The Willows marked the beginning of a collaboration

0:59:27 > 0:59:30between Hytner and Bennett which was to become one of

0:59:30 > 0:59:33the most successful in the National's history.

0:59:33 > 0:59:35It's not the same, is it?

0:59:37 > 0:59:39What not the same?

0:59:39 > 0:59:40Without Toad.

0:59:40 > 0:59:45My first play with Nick was in 1990

0:59:45 > 0:59:48with the adaptation of The Wind In The Willows,

0:59:48 > 0:59:52and it does seem to me, when you're doing a play,

0:59:52 > 0:59:57they absolutely bend everything to accommodate you.

0:59:57 > 1:00:00You're never made to feel you're just passing through,

1:00:00 > 1:00:05that you're the playwright who's here for the next two months, or whatever.

1:00:07 > 1:00:12The new play work with Richard got more and more successful.

1:00:12 > 1:00:15One of them, I'm happy to say,

1:00:15 > 1:00:19was a play called Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard.

1:00:19 > 1:00:21Tell me more about sexual congress.

1:00:21 > 1:00:25There's nothing more to be said about sexual congress.

1:00:25 > 1:00:27Is it the same as love?

1:00:27 > 1:00:30Oh, no - it's much nicer than that!

1:00:30 > 1:00:32LAUGHTER

1:00:32 > 1:00:37Tom, who I'd had a lot to do with before, came to me and said,

1:00:37 > 1:00:40"I want you to do it at the National."

1:00:40 > 1:00:45I'd left the RSC by then, but I had that decision to take, of,

1:00:45 > 1:00:49do I go over the river and do a piece of work there?

1:00:50 > 1:00:54And in my history, that was a very important stepping stone.

1:01:00 > 1:01:04Trevor Nunn was Peter Hall's assistant and his successor

1:01:04 > 1:01:08at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was known for his rigorous

1:01:08 > 1:01:12and highly intellectual approach to Shakespeare.

1:01:12 > 1:01:13I think we'd all agree on...

1:01:13 > 1:01:18the fundamentally importance in Shakespeare of the text

1:01:18 > 1:01:21and the fact that every production has got to grow from the text.

1:01:26 > 1:01:30In the 1980s, he pioneered a new theatrical form -

1:01:30 > 1:01:32the literary musical.

1:01:32 > 1:01:35First with TS Eliot's poems about cats

1:01:35 > 1:01:40and then with an adaptation of a well-known but little-read novel

1:01:40 > 1:01:43by Victor Hugo, which became a worldwide hit,

1:01:43 > 1:01:45bankrolled the RSC for over a decade,

1:01:45 > 1:01:49and made Nunn himself a large private fortune.

1:01:53 > 1:01:57Far more English people do know the story of Les Miserables

1:01:57 > 1:02:00and they think they do.

1:02:00 > 1:02:03A great deal of Hollywood production is based on that wonderful tale

1:02:03 > 1:02:08of Les Miserables - a man who is fundamentally innocent,

1:02:08 > 1:02:13who is pursued for the whole of his life by the forces of the law.

1:02:13 > 1:02:16# Do you hear the people sing

1:02:16 > 1:02:19# Singing a song of angry men

1:02:19 > 1:02:23# It is the music of a people who will not be... #

1:02:23 > 1:02:25By the middle of the 1990s,

1:02:25 > 1:02:29Richard Eyre's tenure at the National was coming to an end

1:02:29 > 1:02:32and he was beginning to look around for a successor.

1:02:32 > 1:02:36I think it is the best job in the world.

1:02:36 > 1:02:41You are running this organisation in which everybody

1:02:41 > 1:02:46believes that they are working to the same end,

1:02:46 > 1:02:50which is to put plays on in three auditoriums,

1:02:50 > 1:02:5252 weeks of the year.

1:02:56 > 1:03:00Surprisingly, none of the eligible younger directors of the time

1:03:00 > 1:03:02seemed to be interested in taking on

1:03:02 > 1:03:06the most important job in the British theatre.

1:03:06 > 1:03:10I canvassed all possible candidates.

1:03:10 > 1:03:14Nick Hytner was one who, at the time, said, "No, no, no,

1:03:14 > 1:03:16"I couldn't, I couldn't."

1:03:17 > 1:03:21Various members of the board were set

1:03:21 > 1:03:24the task of meeting various people

1:03:24 > 1:03:29in the potential director position.

1:03:29 > 1:03:32I'd known Trevor for a long time

1:03:32 > 1:03:34and we had lunch somewhere.

1:03:34 > 1:03:39I was approached quite clandestinely by a colleague

1:03:39 > 1:03:45and, gradually, the approaches got more serious, involving the idea of,

1:03:45 > 1:03:47you know, "You really owe it,"

1:03:47 > 1:03:51and, um, "You need to pay something back."

1:03:51 > 1:03:56# Oh, what a beautiful morning

1:03:56 > 1:03:59# Oh, what a beautiful day... #

1:03:59 > 1:04:03When I met representatives of the board,

1:04:03 > 1:04:07it became clear that what they really needed

1:04:07 > 1:04:12was the absolute opposite of a new broom or a young Turk,

1:04:12 > 1:04:17that they wanted a period of consolidation and therefore,

1:04:17 > 1:04:23I knew that what was expected of me was to maintain and to continue.

1:04:23 > 1:04:27The new man in the top job in British theatre is 56.

1:04:27 > 1:04:30The National overlooked highly regarded younger directors

1:04:30 > 1:04:32to opt for a safe pair of hands

1:04:32 > 1:04:35He likes classical and experimental plays

1:04:35 > 1:04:37and popular theatre. His aim..

1:04:37 > 1:04:40To bring all of those ingredients under one roof

1:04:40 > 1:04:43and, by the end of my tenure, to be able to claim that more people

1:04:43 > 1:04:46who had never been to the National Theatre before

1:04:46 > 1:04:49have now entered its doors and enjoyed it.

1:04:49 > 1:04:55# The breeze is so busy, it don't miss a tree

1:04:55 > 1:05:00# And an old weeping willow... #

1:05:00 > 1:05:03When I worked with Trevor at the Royal Shakespeare Company,

1:05:03 > 1:05:05what was extraordinary about him

1:05:05 > 1:05:08was that he had developed an approach to theatre which was populist.

1:05:08 > 1:05:15He really wanted to get a new audience in and his key to that

1:05:15 > 1:05:20was his falling in love with American musicals.

1:05:20 > 1:05:24He suddenly saw the huge energy and quality to American musicals

1:05:24 > 1:05:28that made him go, "This will reach a new audience "

1:05:28 > 1:05:30Some people hated that idea

1:05:30 > 1:05:34because they thought this was populist and lowbrow

1:05:34 > 1:05:36and he plugged on, thinking "I don't care.

1:05:36 > 1:05:39"I'm going to try and get a new audience in."

1:05:39 > 1:05:43The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

1:05:43 > 1:05:47Were going to look at My Fair Lady - Trevor Nunn's production.

1:05:47 > 1:05:51It played in the Lyttelton in 20 1 and transferred to the West End

1:05:51 > 1:05:56# The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. #

1:05:56 > 1:06:01By George, she's got it. By George, she's got it!

1:06:01 > 1:06:04Now once again, where does it rain?

1:06:04 > 1:06:08# On the plain, on the plain

1:06:08 > 1:06:12And where's that soggy plain?

1:06:12 > 1:06:15# In Spain, in Spain. #

1:06:15 > 1:06:21I don't want to overemphasise it in the sense that, yes, we did do several musical works

1:06:21 > 1:06:24but, at the same time, during my period,

1:06:24 > 1:06:26we did 35 new plays,

1:06:26 > 1:06:30we did countless revivals of classic cameras, both English and European.

1:06:30 > 1:06:33So it was just one of the things that was going on.

1:06:37 > 1:06:44I was absolutely clear that what was necessary was new blood,

1:06:44 > 1:06:51new ways of thinking, so I got Mick back directing a couple of things

1:06:51 > 1:06:55and then, Nick became the key candidate.

1:07:00 > 1:07:02People ask me...

1:07:02 > 1:07:09do the English people want a national theatre?

1:07:09 > 1:07:11Well, of course they don't.

1:07:11 > 1:07:13They never want anything.

1:07:16 > 1:07:20Nowadays, I think more people than not like the sight

1:07:20 > 1:07:23of the National Theatre as they walk over Waterloo Bridge. I love it.

1:07:23 > 1:07:25I absolutely love it. It makes my heart lift.

1:07:25 > 1:07:29It's a kind of sculptural masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.

1:07:29 > 1:07:32But I'm prepared to accept that s not a universally held view.

1:07:39 > 1:07:43Of all times in our history, we need a heartening thing.

1:07:43 > 1:07:47The most beautiful building you can imagine...

1:07:47 > 1:07:50in the ideal spot on the River Thames in the heart

1:07:50 > 1:07:52of our capital city, I think

1:07:52 > 1:07:54will give a great feeling of pride

1:07:54 > 1:07:57to all the inhabitants of these islands.

1:07:58 > 1:08:00I find it very moving, really.

1:08:00 > 1:08:03The thought that 50 years ago,

1:08:03 > 1:08:06people were trying to imagine what the best possible circumstances

1:08:06 > 1:08:09for making theatre might be, and then building it.

1:08:09 > 1:08:14That the National should have arrived with such a simple ambition

1:08:14 > 1:08:18to be the best. People said, "Oh, yes, let's have the best one.

1:08:18 > 1:08:21"While we're at it, let's have three theatres and let's make it

1:08:21 > 1:08:24"possible that we can make everything under the same roof except shoes.

1:08:24 > 1:08:27"We'll allow that shoes should be made elsewhere.

1:08:30 > 1:08:31# Cocksuckers! #

1:08:31 > 1:08:33LAUGHTER

1:08:33 > 1:08:36# I hope there's some fighting

1:08:36 > 1:08:37# Possibly some fighting

1:08:37 > 1:08:40# You stupid asshole. #

1:08:40 > 1:08:45In 2003, Nick Hytner took over as director of the National

1:08:45 > 1:08:48with a season of plays that was both provocative and populist.

1:08:48 > 1:08:51# Asshole! #

1:08:51 > 1:08:53I worked at the National Theatre

1:08:53 > 1:08:56as a general assistant in the director's office

1:08:56 > 1:08:59at the beginning of Nick Hytner's tenure here.

1:08:59 > 1:09:02The big thing that felt defining was the putting on

1:09:02 > 1:09:05of Jerry Springer, The Opera.

1:09:05 > 1:09:09He brought a show that was done at the Edinburgh Festival

1:09:09 > 1:09:12that had a ridiculous amount of swearing in it.

1:09:12 > 1:09:15# And give or take a few million

1:09:15 > 1:09:18# Bigger than the fucking Pope. #

1:09:18 > 1:09:23Jokes about Jesus, jokes about people shitting themselves.

1:09:23 > 1:09:27It was coarse and hilarious and brilliant and moving.

1:09:31 > 1:09:37I thought everything that is outrageous and sharp and funny

1:09:37 > 1:09:39and subversive about this show

1:09:39 > 1:09:43will kind of implode at the National Theatre,

1:09:43 > 1:09:47and it took me seeing it at Edinburgh to realise, no, wait a minute.

1:09:47 > 1:09:49That audience would come to the National.

1:09:49 > 1:09:51It was a kind of key moment for me.

1:09:51 > 1:09:55I can get anybody I like here. Just make sure they know about it.

1:09:55 > 1:09:56They'll come.

1:09:58 > 1:10:02Ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to resort to violence

1:10:02 > 1:10:04This is Hackney, and this street

1:10:04 > 1:10:08is what the media have dubbed Murder Mile

1:10:08 > 1:10:12due to the high incidences of gun crimes and shootings.

1:10:12 > 1:10:16It's the world that I've chosen to set my play in, Elmina's Kitchen.

1:10:18 > 1:10:23Want to keep on selling your little plantain burgers? Good luck to you.

1:10:23 > 1:10:24May you always be happy.

1:10:24 > 1:10:27Me, I'm the man. Go on.

1:10:27 > 1:10:29You'd like that, wouldn't you?

1:10:29 > 1:10:31You'd like me to punch your lights out

1:10:31 > 1:10:33so you could walk street and say,

1:10:33 > 1:10:38"See, told you my dad weren't no punk." Why would I say that?

1:10:38 > 1:10:40You are a punk. Don't you push me.

1:10:41 > 1:10:44It was a lilywhite institution

1:10:44 > 1:10:47And it was an upper middle-class institution

1:10:47 > 1:10:49and probably being

1:10:49 > 1:10:53upper-middle-class was more daunting than it being lilywhite.

1:10:53 > 1:10:55I came in and I think

1:10:55 > 1:10:57I was the third show in of his reign, as it were.

1:10:57 > 1:11:01I think my impression of the National was it was

1:11:01 > 1:11:05the equivalent of walking into Buckingham Palace.

1:11:05 > 1:11:09It's just this huge thing, this bastion of culture, that you

1:11:09 > 1:11:14almost have to kind of have a degree in before we can step over the threshold.

1:11:14 > 1:11:16It's almost an alien land.

1:11:23 > 1:11:26Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,

1:11:26 > 1:11:29or close the wall up with our English dead.

1:11:29 > 1:11:32In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man

1:11:32 > 1:11:34as modest stillness and humility.

1:11:34 > 1:11:37But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

1:11:37 > 1:11:40then imitate the action of the tiger.

1:11:40 > 1:11:44The thing I really remember is opening Nick Hytner's mail

1:11:44 > 1:11:48and getting lots of hate letters regarding his casting

1:11:48 > 1:11:49of a black Henry V.

1:11:49 > 1:11:52There were letters that I was reading to him,

1:11:52 > 1:11:56saying, you do realise, don't you, that Henry V was not black

1:11:56 > 1:11:58and that, in fact, by staging this,

1:11:58 > 1:12:00you are offering an insult to England

1:12:00 > 1:12:02and to the monarchy for your pathetic artistic reasons,

1:12:02 > 1:12:05trying to grab headlines.

1:12:05 > 1:12:08You fought the battle, you won the battle...

1:12:08 > 1:12:10Playing Henry V at that time,

1:12:10 > 1:12:15the poignancy of the play suddenly really came through.

1:12:15 > 1:12:19Especially when at some point during the run,

1:12:19 > 1:12:22a general used the St Crispin's Day speech

1:12:22 > 1:12:25to galvanise the troops before

1:12:25 > 1:12:29they went on some certain exercise and that was all over the press

1:12:29 > 1:12:32"Real Henry V takes place."

1:12:32 > 1:12:36For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother,

1:12:36 > 1:12:38be he ne'er so base

1:12:38 > 1:12:42and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed

1:12:42 > 1:12:45they were not here and hold their manhoods cheap

1:12:45 > 1:12:50whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!

1:12:52 > 1:12:57We'll get through this all right. Don't you worry. Charge!

1:13:00 > 1:13:03The National's family show in 2 07

1:13:03 > 1:13:05created a theatrical experience

1:13:05 > 1:13:10that was quite unlike anything that had been seen before.

1:13:11 > 1:13:15War Horse seemed pretty experimental at the time.

1:13:15 > 1:13:18A book narrated in the first person by a horse

1:13:18 > 1:13:20about his experience

1:13:20 > 1:13:24behind the trenches in the First World War on both sides.

1:13:24 > 1:13:29A puppet horse, doesn't speak - that feels like something that you only do

1:13:29 > 1:13:32if you've got people on the team who are really

1:13:32 > 1:13:37passionate about it and really driving it and that's why we did it.

1:13:37 > 1:13:39And it completely took us by surprise.

1:13:40 > 1:13:43Steptoe! Steptoe! What is it, Toby?

1:13:43 > 1:13:48I saw something moving in no man s land. It's not a man, sir. It looks

1:13:48 > 1:13:51more like a horse or a cow to me. A cow? Or a horse?

1:13:51 > 1:13:54The first early previews in the Olivier,

1:13:54 > 1:13:57we thought it was going to be an absolute disaster.

1:13:57 > 1:14:01I was distraught about it. I thought it was just terrible

1:14:01 > 1:14:04But they pulled it together. They really did.

1:14:09 > 1:14:13The inspired combination of a South African puppet company

1:14:13 > 1:14:18and a best-selling children's novel proved to be a winning formula

1:14:18 > 1:14:21that gave the National its biggest hit since Amadeus

1:14:21 > 1:14:24and became a cash cow at precisely the moment

1:14:24 > 1:14:28that the global economy was going into meltdown.

1:14:30 > 1:14:36War Horse has been enormously important to the recent years of the National Theatre

1:14:36 > 1:14:39and came along at precisely the moment

1:14:39 > 1:14:41when public funding started declining.

1:14:41 > 1:14:47Its earnings have made up for the cuts in the Arts Council's grant.

1:14:47 > 1:14:53And now, as War Horse will see its life play out,

1:14:53 > 1:14:54there are other productions

1:14:54 > 1:14:57like the Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time

1:14:57 > 1:14:59and One Man, Two Guvnors that can join it

1:14:59 > 1:15:01to bear the burden of propping up

1:15:01 > 1:15:03the National Theatre's finances

1:15:03 > 1:15:05Gold!

1:15:05 > 1:15:10'Do you believe, finally, that the National Theatre will ever be

1:15:10 > 1:15:13'a paying proposition, that it will ever be in the black?'

1:15:13 > 1:15:17Oh, no, of course not. Why should we think it will? If you've got. .

1:15:17 > 1:15:18That's not wrong.

1:15:18 > 1:15:21If you compare it with any other comparable

1:15:21 > 1:15:24theatre organisation in the world, it's terrific value for money.

1:15:24 > 1:15:27The Germans cannot believe

1:15:27 > 1:15:31that we earn a pound for every pound subsidy that we get.

1:15:31 > 1:15:33SHOUTING AND SQUEALING

1:15:35 > 1:15:39I think the focus now has to be on how do we cope

1:15:39 > 1:15:42with the less that we're going to get.

1:15:42 > 1:15:45We can earn a lot of money out of War Horse

1:15:45 > 1:15:49we can work hard to try and find more War Horses.

1:15:49 > 1:15:53We're also going to have to go out and really make our conversation

1:15:53 > 1:15:57even more productive than it is with philanthropists.

1:15:57 > 1:16:03Accept my labour and long live Your Lordship. I thank you.

1:16:03 > 1:16:05You shall hear from me anon. Go not away.

1:16:05 > 1:16:07What have you there, my friend

1:16:07 > 1:16:10'Would you argue for it to be given priority, for example,'

1:16:10 > 1:16:13over hospitals and schools? I wouldn't argue that anything

1:16:13 > 1:16:16should be given priority over hospitals or schools or houses

1:16:16 > 1:16:19But let me point out that in Germany, it would be given priority

1:16:19 > 1:16:21over all those three things.

1:16:23 > 1:16:26Although just 20% of the National's running costs

1:16:26 > 1:16:28are now paid for by the government,

1:16:28 > 1:16:32Nick Hytner still managed to slash seat prices

1:16:32 > 1:16:36with a combination of cheaper productions and sponsorship.

1:16:37 > 1:16:40The Travelex programme I thought was inspired.

1:16:40 > 1:16:47I didn't recognise the audience when I came early on in Nick's reign.

1:16:47 > 1:16:49But I don't think anybody did.

1:16:49 > 1:16:52She has no choice. We go to Argentina.

1:16:52 > 1:16:54What if she refuses to accept a bargain made

1:16:54 > 1:16:57before she was even created? Come on, use your brain!

1:16:58 > 1:17:02'It has found not only a new audience but a new company.

1:17:02 > 1:17:06I mean, the stars are now his stars.

1:17:08 > 1:17:11O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

1:17:16 > 1:17:20Is it not monstrous that this player here...?

1:17:20 > 1:17:24'I can't remember the last time I went to see a play'

1:17:24 > 1:17:28at the National Theatre when the audience wasn't full.

1:17:28 > 1:17:33I'm not saying that's the only criterion, but it is one of them.

1:17:33 > 1:17:35It's a popular place,

1:17:35 > 1:17:38it's the highest standard of production in London.

1:17:38 > 1:17:39Possibly the world.

1:17:39 > 1:17:44Goodness knows people come to London to see what's on here.

1:17:50 > 1:17:53'I don't think there's a better theatre centre

1:17:53 > 1:17:56'anywhere in the world than this one. Everything that anyone wants'

1:17:56 > 1:18:00in putting on a play from the first idea to the last performance,

1:18:00 > 1:18:01is housed under one roof.

1:18:01 > 1:18:05It should be open seven days a week and it should be open all day.

1:18:07 > 1:18:09There are wonderful terraces and foyers.

1:18:09 > 1:18:12There are places for exhibitions, for happenings.

1:18:14 > 1:18:19It's like going to Shakespeare's Globe through the market.

1:18:19 > 1:18:24It's all part of one living community.

1:18:24 > 1:18:28It's not for nothing that all this is happening today,

1:18:28 > 1:18:33and what Nick Hytner has developed, all the work in the foyers,

1:18:33 > 1:18:37all that life around the estate which again

1:18:37 > 1:18:41gives a new vitality and attracts a new audience.

1:18:43 > 1:18:46SHE SINGS

1:18:49 > 1:18:52This is one of the long dressing rooms.

1:18:52 > 1:18:54It's where six people share one

1:19:03 > 1:19:07I was told you were ill! I was told YOU were ill!

1:19:07 > 1:19:09Are you? Perhaps. Are you?

1:19:09 > 1:19:11And so we begin, as old friends do,

1:19:11 > 1:19:14comparing our respective degrees of decrepitude.

1:19:14 > 1:19:16They say I have a weak heart, whatever that means.

1:19:16 > 1:19:18Oh, I have a bad heart too.

1:19:18 > 1:19:20Sometimes I can't lift my arm to conduct.

1:19:20 > 1:19:22Oh, well, I can do that. Can't conduct, of course.

1:19:29 > 1:19:32The Habit Of Art is an imaginary encounter

1:19:32 > 1:19:35between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten.

1:19:35 > 1:19:40Nick Hytner's collaboration with Bennett is now in its 24th year

1:19:40 > 1:19:41and Bennett himself

1:19:41 > 1:19:44has become closely identified with the National.

1:19:46 > 1:19:50'Alan and I have done five plays together and two movies.

1:19:50 > 1:19:52'I think Alan is secretly'

1:19:52 > 1:19:56a much more subversive playwright than he's often thought to be.

1:19:56 > 1:20:00His project is always to invite the audience to be complicit

1:20:00 > 1:20:04with the most unexpected, quite often disreputable,

1:20:04 > 1:20:07in all conventional ways unattractive, kind of people.

1:20:08 > 1:20:13Decay is a kind of progress. Dotty! I don't care.

1:20:13 > 1:20:16"I don't care." "Decay is a kind of progress.

1:20:16 > 1:20:19"Dotty!" Is it, "I don't care WHAT you say."?

1:20:19 > 1:20:23'I automatically come to Nick with a script.

1:20:23 > 1:20:25'I don't think of it as collaboration, really,

1:20:25 > 1:20:27'though it is collaboration, but I think of it as'

1:20:27 > 1:20:31slightly more like somebody showing off their homework.

1:20:31 > 1:20:35I go to Nick and he suggests various things

1:20:35 > 1:20:39I then take them away and some I use and some I don't

1:20:39 > 1:20:43'You want to be reassured that it's not just very dull, that's all.'

1:20:44 > 1:20:46I'll take you down to the drum now.

1:20:49 > 1:20:50What's the drum?

1:20:50 > 1:20:53It goes under the Olivier stage Turns.

1:20:53 > 1:20:56It was amazing when, there was one show on,

1:20:56 > 1:20:59I remember bringing my daughters here many years ago,

1:20:59 > 1:21:02when they were younger, to see Wind In The Willows.

1:21:02 > 1:21:03This is the drum.

1:21:04 > 1:21:08The National's drum revolve is a huge hydraulic machine

1:21:08 > 1:21:12five storeys high that can lift whole sets onto the stage,

1:21:12 > 1:21:15and is the only one of its kind in the world.

1:21:15 > 1:21:20I guess we're about 40 feet underneath the stage for the Olivier.

1:21:20 > 1:21:23And this is a big kind of gasometer structure

1:21:23 > 1:21:26which was part of the original design

1:21:26 > 1:21:30about how you move scenery on a big thrust stage.

1:21:30 > 1:21:34And it was one-off and it was built in a field in Essex,

1:21:34 > 1:21:40and for the first...15 years of the life of the National, probably,

1:21:40 > 1:21:42it didn't work.

1:21:42 > 1:21:45Since when the National Theatre has regularly lavished

1:21:45 > 1:21:48quite a bit of love on this machinery.

1:21:50 > 1:21:53I'll show you one of the rehearsal rooms.

1:21:57 > 1:22:00This is one of them, this is rehearsal room two.

1:22:00 > 1:22:03We've got one exactly the same on the other side.

1:22:03 > 1:22:05SINGING

1:22:09 > 1:22:12The National has had some unexpected recent hits

1:22:12 > 1:22:16with more experimental and contemporary work.

1:22:16 > 1:22:21'When I saw it first in the rehearsal room I knew immediately,

1:22:21 > 1:22:24'as did everybody who was watching it in rehearsal,'

1:22:24 > 1:22:26that it was one of the best things this theatre has ever done, ever.

1:22:26 > 1:22:32# ..17 hanging baskets in this back garden

1:22:32 > 1:22:35# Believe it or not... #

1:22:35 > 1:22:37London Road is set on the street

1:22:37 > 1:22:41where Steven Wright, the Ipswich murderer,

1:22:41 > 1:22:44and many of his victims lived and worked in 2006.

1:22:46 > 1:22:49MUFFLED CONVERSATION

1:22:51 > 1:22:55'The fact that it was so current was a very tricky thing.'

1:22:55 > 1:22:58I mean, a musical about the Ipswich murders

1:22:58 > 1:23:01is an appallingly crass idea on the face of it.

1:23:01 > 1:23:04And of course everybody was questioning all the way through

1:23:04 > 1:23:07whether or not this was a really terrible thing.

1:23:07 > 1:23:09And in the end it's not about the girls

1:23:09 > 1:23:11and it's not about Steven Wright,

1:23:11 > 1:23:13it is about a community of English people

1:23:13 > 1:23:16dealing with a very, very contemporary trauma.

1:23:16 > 1:23:21# Begonias and petunias and... #

1:23:21 > 1:23:23Rufus Norris has directed everything

1:23:23 > 1:23:27from classics in the Olivier to musicals in the West End.

1:23:27 > 1:23:31'I love the combination of story and music,

1:23:31 > 1:23:34'that part of a performance or a story or a narrative

1:23:34 > 1:23:36'that can totally bypass the intellect

1:23:36 > 1:23:39'and get you on the level of the gut.'

1:23:39 > 1:23:42That's what raises the hairs on the back of my neck,

1:23:42 > 1:23:43gets my tear ducts flowing.

1:23:43 > 1:23:48And that's why I go to the theatre, is to be moved.

1:23:54 > 1:23:57'This is the first play that I've had at the National.

1:23:57 > 1:24:00'I have written plays before for the Royal Court.

1:24:00 > 1:24:03'You feel part of a much greater thing.

1:24:03 > 1:24:05'You feel that your show'

1:24:05 > 1:24:07is one of many shows that are on at the time

1:24:07 > 1:24:12and for me I quite like that because it's protecting in some way.

1:24:12 > 1:24:14You don't feel like the theatre's going to

1:24:14 > 1:24:18make or not make their budget on the basis of what your show does.

1:24:18 > 1:24:21And you're also surrounded by artists all the time,

1:24:21 > 1:24:22coming and going from other shows,

1:24:22 > 1:24:26which makes you feel part of something, which as a writer

1:24:26 > 1:24:30which is a fairly lonely profession, has a lot of value.

1:24:32 > 1:24:34Have you seen the polls? Yes, I have seen the polls, Walter.

1:24:34 > 1:24:37We're in the lead in the polls Only just, nowt in it.

1:24:37 > 1:24:40In dark times the electorate sticks with the devil it knows

1:24:40 > 1:24:43They're only dark because you can't keep the lights on.

1:24:43 > 1:24:46Surely the most basic test for the government

1:24:46 > 1:24:48is you keep the blinking lights on, Jack.

1:24:50 > 1:24:54The unlikely subject of James Graham's This House

1:24:54 > 1:24:59is Parliament during the Labour government of 1974 to '7 -

1:24:59 > 1:25:05a period which was traumatic for Britain and for the National itself.

1:25:05 > 1:25:08'For me politics was never something

1:25:08 > 1:25:10'that was really alienating or strange.

1:25:10 > 1:25:14'I think if you're going to lock people in a room for two hours

1:25:14 > 1:25:16and talk to them, then I feel it has to be important,

1:25:16 > 1:25:20and I feel like you've got to leave having talked about stuff

1:25:20 > 1:25:23and having really engaged with things that are important

1:25:23 > 1:25:25and political issues do that.

1:25:27 > 1:25:30I think the default position of younger writers is that maybe

1:25:30 > 1:25:35we don't have the right or the tools to write these big political plays

1:25:35 > 1:25:39and that we should just write small plays about our own stuff

1:25:39 > 1:25:41and I've just never believed that's true.

1:25:41 > 1:25:45Jack, I just want to talk about this. There's nothing I can do

1:25:45 > 1:25:47Would you hold on a second? Christ...

1:25:47 > 1:25:495431 next.

1:25:49 > 1:25:505443 next.

1:25:50 > 1:25:54In the last four years, the National has started to broadcast

1:25:54 > 1:25:59its productions live into cinemas in Britain and around the world

1:25:59 > 1:26:02Walter Harrison! I think we've got you, haven't we?

1:26:02 > 1:26:04More than two million people

1:26:04 > 1:26:07have now seen a National Theatre Live performance,

1:26:07 > 1:26:11and it is vastly extending the range and size of the National's audience.

1:26:13 > 1:26:16This is an area that people are obviously going to be

1:26:16 > 1:26:19moving into and I think we've got to be pretty careful about this.

1:26:19 > 1:26:22Most British independent movies open and close in a weekend

1:26:22 > 1:26:25and are lucky if they take a couple of hundred thousand.

1:26:25 > 1:26:28?2 million in British cinemas, that's a big opening.

1:26:28 > 1:26:30Great. Thanks.

1:26:30 > 1:26:31Any questions for Nick?

1:26:31 > 1:26:36By the autumn, I suspect I will be,

1:26:36 > 1:26:40I'll be making my last report about what's coming up in the future

1:26:48 > 1:26:52Nick Hytner will be leaving the National in 2015

1:26:52 > 1:26:56after perhaps the most successful directorship in its history,

1:26:56 > 1:26:59in which the building and the theatre

1:26:59 > 1:27:03have begun to fulfil the dream that was shared by so many for so long

1:27:03 > 1:27:07and which at times seemed elusive and even in jeopardy.

1:27:09 > 1:27:12Do you know why the seats are purple? Why?

1:27:12 > 1:27:15Because it was Laurence Olivier s favourite colour.

1:27:23 > 1:27:26What changes would you look for in our own company?

1:27:26 > 1:27:30I'd like better conditions, first of all.

1:27:30 > 1:27:33Such as? A better theatre.

1:27:33 > 1:27:37In order to increase activities

1:27:37 > 1:27:40So that eventually, perhaps,

1:27:40 > 1:27:45the art of the actor may finally be regarded

1:27:45 > 1:27:48as an important part of the life of the people.

1:27:50 > 1:27:52We'll head off back to the stage door now.

1:27:55 > 1:27:57Don't call me a cock-up, you cock-up!

1:27:59 > 1:28:00LAUGHTER

1:28:00 > 1:28:02You slapped me!

1:28:02 > 1:28:02Yes, I did, and I'm glad I did

1:28:02 > 1:28:04'When Harley Granville-Barker and George Bernard Shaw

1:28:07 > 1:28:10'said the British genius is for theatre,

1:28:10 > 1:28:13'that's what the British do, that's the thing they do best

1:28:13 > 1:28:15'and that need to be incorporated

1:28:15 > 1:28:18'in a way which resists commercial pressures.

1:28:18 > 1:28:22'And the story of that, through many, many people's hard work'

1:28:22 > 1:28:27and commitment, happening, is one of the few British success stories.

1:28:33 > 1:28:36Sit down, have a cup of tea now

1:28:36 > 1:28:39Turn all the lights off, all the way up round the building.

1:28:39 > 1:28:41It'll be in pitch darkness.

1:28:41 > 1:28:44Then the others will go round the plant rooms and stuff

1:28:44 > 1:28:48and turn all the lights off in the plant rooms, check everything is OK.

1:28:48 > 1:28:51And car park patrols.

1:28:51 > 1:28:55They more or less cover every inch of the building overnight,

1:28:55 > 1:28:57make sure everything is off,

1:28:57 > 1:29:00power down for five hours till housekeeping come in.

1:29:07 > 1:29:11'The board of National Theatre has decided who is going to be

1:29:11 > 1:29:16'the director of the National Theatre as of March of 2015.

1:29:16 > 1:29:18'Their decision, I am happy to say,

1:29:18 > 1:29:21'is one that is completely delightful to me.

1:29:21 > 1:29:24'The next director, Rufus Norris '

1:29:24 > 1:29:25APPLAUSE

1:29:31 > 1:29:33CHEERING

1:29:40 > 1:29:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd